Bryan Danielson vs Alan Angels
Hangman Adam Page joins the commentary team for the match as Jim Ross recovers from radiation therapy. Get well soon J.R!
The match is basically Bryan in control for the majority of it, continuing with his more aggressive in-ring style. Every now and then Angels would get a little hope spot thrown in, and then towards the end he is able to hit a standing Spanish Fly on Bryan which looked cool.
Bryan eventually hits the running knee but doesn’t go for the pin. He then stomps the head of Angles but it’s still not enough to satisfy Bryan, so he puts him in the kneebar while doing the bicep pose as he wins with the submission.
It was everything it needed to be. Angles gets a little offense in and shows his potential, but the main purpose is to make Bryan look dominant heading in as the challenger to the World Title.
Post-match, Bryan cuts a promo where he says that the kneebar to Angels resulted in him suffering an MCL injury. He runs down Atlanta and says that next week in Long Island he will continue his destruction of the Dark Order.
Bryan also brings up Adam Page’s name and it’s made official that they will be competing against at Winter is Coming. Bryan mentions how he will take the World Title in the home of the Dallas Cowboys and once again calls Page ‘coward shit.’
Page is ready for a fight but if he attacks Bryan then the match will be cancelled so instead John Silver comes out and goes after Bryan but Danielson retreats. The two will compete against each other on Dynamite next week in what should be an excellent match.
CM Punk vs Lee Moriarty
MJF comes out for commentary. I thought Punk and Moriarty had a good match, although at times I got distracted as I was focusing on MJF’s commentary where he had some hilarious and cutting lines towards Punk.
The story of the match that MJF told was that Punk is past his prime in the ring because he struggles to beat opponents like Moriarty and QT, and that if it was MJF in the ring the match would be over in under a minute.
Punk and Moriarty show a lot of respect to each other in the ring, and it’s played up as a young wrestler stepping into the ring with a man who heavily influenced him. Punk gave Moriarty a lot in the match and Moriarty looked good throughout it.
The ending came when Punk delivered a huge roundhouse kick to the head of Lee, which MJF said he would’ve ducked it, and shortly after Punk is able to put Lee to sleep with the GTS.
MJF cuts a promo on Punk after the match. He mentions how Punk is trying to get into Britt Baker’s pants and claims that he is better than Piper in Portland, Bret in Canada and Punk in Chicago.
Things take a dark turn though when MJF makes the cardinal sin of threatening to kill a dog on live television, more specifically he is going to put Punk’s dog Larry to sleep. Punk has enough and charges towards MJF but Wardlow comes out between them. Referees come out two keep them all separated as we are teased with a Punk showdown with Wardlow.
Sting & Darby Allin vs Gunn Club
You would think that a match where two of the competitors have a combined age of 120 wouldn’t be that good, but this match worked. Sting & Darby have a formula, where you aren’t going to get match of the night or anything like that, but it’s a fun ten minutes and a trip down nostalgia lane if you’re a Sting fan.
And being in Atlanta there were many Sting fans. The match layout is simple, Gunn Club get the heat on Darby, and it builds up to Darby hot tagging Sting who comes in and cleans house.
But what stands out in these matches is how hard everyone works and because of that it never feels like it’s a novelty match, and instead it becomes a special attraction. Sting worked his ass off, Billy Gunn is in great shape for his age, and if you see the suicide dive from Darby onto Billy then you know Darby is going all out.
There was a big near fall moment when Billy hit the Fame Asser on Sting and Colton got a two count. The ending comes when Darby hits a stunner on Colton which leads into Sting hitting the Scorpion Death Drop on Colton for the win and in doing so giving Colton his first loss in AEW.
Fun match and everyone looked good. I’m curious to see where Sting & Darby go next. I don’t know if it would be too ambitious, but could a Sting & Darby going after the World Tag Team Titles could be something to consider down the line?
Also, Tony Schiavone was awesome with his vintage ‘it’s Stiiiing!’ line and putting over the importance of Sting being back in Atlanta.
Kris Statlander vs Ruby Soho
This wasn’t as good as the Thunder Rosa and Jamie Hayter match, but I still enjoyed parts of it, and I think overall the TBS Title Tournament has been a success in giving us mostly good match quality, telling multiple stories in the women’s division and allowing the characters more time to show their personalities.
There were some nice moves including Soho using the flatliner on Statlander, and Kris slamming down Soho with a nice looking Blue Thunder Bomb.
The key moment in the match was when Soho hit Statlander with poisonrana, but she only got the two count which had Soho looking surprised. Statlander looks to the end the match with the Big Bang Theory, but Soho is able to counter it into a roll up for the pinfall victory and to advance into the semi-final round against Nyla Rose.
Speaking of the Native Beast, as the match ended and Statlander was walking up the ramp, she is confronted by Vickie Guerrero. It’s all a distraction as Nyla hits the ring and beats down Ruby Soho. Statlander runs back down and chases of Rose as they build to the semi final match and set up a potential tag team match with Ruby teaming with Kris after their acknowledgment of respect towards each other.
Other Matches & Segments
- Wardlow dominated AC Adams with four straight powerbombs. Simple, effective and they teased friction between Wardlow and Shawn Spears.
- Taz had some weird segment about the Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal and about the chances of Team Taz winning. Lio Rush comes out and cuts a fired-up promo. Dante Martin comes out and continues to show his allegiance to Team Taz.
- Britt Baker segment backstage. She continues the build towards her match with Riho for the Women’s Title. They tease some more dissension between Baker and Hayter.
- Orange Cassidy has a confrontation with Adam Cole and The Young Bucks. Orange does his Orange schtick, only to be beat down by all three. Sometimes the Orange Cassidy gimmick works well, here not so much.
- Chris Jericho says that it wasn’t about helping Eddie Kingston on Rampage, but instead getting back at Daniel Garcia and 2.0. Garcia and 2.0 arrive and attack Chris Jericho including hitting him with a brutal chair shot.
Cody Rhodes vs Andrade El Idolo
One of the criticisms to come out of this match was if this feud warranted a street fight. They did the angle last week where Andrade used the DDT on Cody on the exposed concrete.
In a bygone era that would’ve been a heavy-duty angle that would keep Cody on the sidelines for weeks until he comes back and has a violent, bloody brawl with his nemesis, but in modern wrestling it doesn’t seem that heinous and when it was only shown briefly on television then it didn’t really add much heat to the feud.
With that being said it seemed like the audience were hot for the main event, and many of the Atlanta crowd showed support for Cody. Both men worked extremely hard, and it resulted in a chaotic, hardcore fight that went all over the place including them fighting in the crowd.
There was a scary moment where it appeared that Arn Anderson slipped on the stage, but he seemed to be well and continued on brawling with Jose the Assistant.
They used steel chairs, sledgehammers, a golden shovel which Cody used on a jacked looking Jose without a shirt, a laptop and more. Tables were broken, Cody’s back looked like his skin was peeling off although it would be confirmed to be some kind of fire retardant for the closing spot of the match.
Both men know how to put on an engaging match and tell a compelling story in the ring, so even though the feud itself hasn’t been all that great, the match here was a good street fight.
The ending came when Cody and Andrade were fighting on the top turnbuckle with a table below them. A masked women appears, and it’s revealed to be the returning Brandi Rhodes. She pours lighter fluid on the table and the lights it on fire to the fans delight. Cody hits a reverse suplex to Andrade and it’s Cody that takes most of the burning table damage, still it’s enough for him to get the win.
Final Thoughts
It was still an easy watch with some good matches, although overall as an episode it wasn’t as good as previous ones. Next week is a big show in Long Island and then after that is Winter is Coming so I expect big shows with those two.