Kudos to the AEW ring crew for getting that new mat ready in time for the next bout.
AEW Women's Champion Britt Baker vs. Thunder Rosa is up next. Jamie Hayter and Rebel ran interference for Baker. Rosa wiped out Rebel with a dive that knocked her off the apron to the floor. They went back and forth early with Baker getting the advantage with dirty tactics. Rosa mounted a comeback but was cut off with a scary Pendulum suplex that looked insanely dangerous. Rosa had Britt tapping but Rebel had distracted the referee. Britt stomped her onto the title belt but Rosa kicked up. Rosa took out Hayter but ate a curb stomp. I heard from a few readers down on Rosa not getting the belt here. We'll see if there's another chapter in the feud or not.
Jon Moxley vs. Bryan Danielson started with a "We want violence" chant. You sick little bastards in Orlando. Big reactions for each for their entrances, especially Moxley in the crowd. This was pretty intense stuff early on with lots of strikes and kicks but the knucklelock was just as intense.
Some pretty hard headbutts. Well, so much for retiring blood...
Bryan takes over with an inverted superplex and a series of elbows to the face and shoulders. He grabbed Moxley with a Dragon Sleeper. They exchanged submssions, which was fun as it was the only match on the show that focused on that. Bryan locked on The LeBell Lock but Moxley made it to the ropes. They battered each other with kicks and strikes. Bryan scored a two count with a flying knee to the face.
Bryan had Moxley locked in a triangle choke and battered away at him with elbows but Moxley used his body to turn over and trapped Bryan underneath, pinning him.
Danielson, shocked at the embarassment of the loss, attacked Moxley and they brawled until WILLIAM REGAL walked out. Yes, they called him William Regal. The place went BALLISTIC. He slaps each of them and gets them to shake hands. Well, that's a hell of a twist.
Sting & Darby & Sammy vs. Andrade & Isaiah & Matt Hardy was next and man Darby wanted to kill himself the way he was just throwing all caution to the wind. Like, no sense of protecting himself at all. I respect that but he scares me to death. This was a wild all over brawl from the bell. They brawled to a corner of the arena. Butcher and Blade attacked. Butcher ragdolled Darby into the barricades. Sammy hit the most insane Spanish Fly of all time off a piece of the staging oin Kassidy, smashing themselves through two tables below.
Several tables were piled up with the idea of putting Darby or Sting through. Sting fought Hardy off and then dove off the second level of the arena putting Andrade through THREE SETS OF TABLES. This was absolutely insane and amazing. Darby wiped out Hardy with an inverted DDT through a chair and then hit, almost a coffin drop for the pin.
This was all chaos and would think this shifts Hardy from this role towards a Hardy Boyz reunion.
We closed out with Adam Page retaining against Adam Cole in a very good main event. I respect that the AEW title should close the show but this may have been the exception to the rule as I don't think anything emotionally cracked the nut like Punk vs. MJF did. However, this was a hell of a match with the crowd almost stealing the thunder from the talent with the chanting early on. The crowd was almost pro-Cole at the start to the point of ridiculousness. The story of the match that Hangman really had to dig deep in order to get the victory here and I think Cole's performance and the story of the match did more for Cole coming out of this than the Orange Cassidy feud did for him. Page was superkicked in the face while mid-air executing a moonsault. There was a lot of drama here with Page teasing he was going to the dark side by tying Cole up with the belt and nailing the superkicks while he was trapped. The Kryptonite Krunch off the apron through a table was sick and there were some damn good near falls.After the pin, Page took an unconscious Cole's hand and shook it as the announcers noted they had both been in ROH early in their careers.
There was a hell of a lot of great stuff on this show with 6-7 matches I'd say were well worth going out of the way to watch. WWE has the PG area covered. AEW is trying to be PG-13 to hard R in their style and it certainly makes things a lot different. They take a lot of chances and swing for the fences and this was a night where they really shined for it.
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