AEW’s second PPV event was last night and it was another solid showing for the new promotion. The fact that this was a free event made it even better. There weren’t many shocking things that happened last night, but there was a lot of entertainment value. Speaking from an airtime standpoint, I think it was about perfect. It wasn’t too long of a show, which is something I wish WWE would do more often.

- Men’s Triple Threat Tag Team Match

Best Friends vs. SoCal Uncensored vs. Private Party

I didn’t get to see the first few minutes of this match, but the back end of the match was great. The intent with this match was to get people to tune into the main portion of the show and it successfully did the job. I really didn’t know who to pick in this match, but Best Friends emerged as victors in the contest. I didn’t know anything about Private Party, but what I saw from them in this one was encouraging. I’m interested to see how this tag team tournament unfolds within the next few months, but it was a fun match and Best Friends get a first round bye into the tourney.

GRADE: 8.9/10

- Women’s Singles Match

Allie vs. Leva Bates

This match was supposed to be Kylie Rae and Leva Bates, but we were treated to the AEW debut of Allie. The match was perfectly fine and pretty entertaining. I haven’t seen either of these two ladies in the ring, but from what I have heard they were both decent and I wasn’t disappointed. The first couple of minutes were a little sluggish, but it wasn’t terribly slow. It had a solid finish and Allie secured a win before her big match against Brandi Rhodes at Fight for the Fallen. The women that I have seen compete in AEW thus far have tons of star potential and that was one thing that concerned me from the start.

GRADE: 8.3/10

- Men’s Hardcore Match

Michael Nakazawa vs. Alex Jebailey

This match was odd to say the least, but not necessarily in a bad way. Wrestling purists probably loathed this match, but I thought it was entertaining. This hardcore match had a lot of gaming props and it was pretty neat. Alex Jebailey is the director of CEO Gaming, but I wasn’t really sure who he was going into this contest. It was a fun match, but not one that was particularly impressive. I saw people saying on Twitter that this was possibly one of the worst kickoff shows in wrestling history and I strongly disagree. This gave Nakazawa a chance to show off his eccentric personality and he should have some interesting bouts moving forward.

GRADE: 7.9/10

- Men’s Singles Match

Christopher Daniels vs. Cima

Cima and The Fallen Angel put on a solid main show starter. This wasn’t a very memorable match, but it did the trick. It is crazy to see Christopher Daniels still competing at the level he is at age 49. There are very few that can still compete like he can at his age and this matchup with Cima was almost a perfect pairing. It was the leaders of Strong Hearts and SoCal Uncensored and Cima pulled out the win here. It made sense, but this was a match that could’ve went either way.

GRADE: 8.5/10

- Women’s Triple Threat Match

Nyla Rose vs. Riho vs. Yuka Sakazaki

This match was a lot better than I expected. We saw all of these competitors compete at Double or Nothing, but only a couple were against each other. I figured this was going to be the best shot for them to showcase Nyla Rose and they did just that, even though Rose didn’t get the win. Riho secured the victory with a rollup pin. There were a lot of dangerous spots in this match and it was quite impressive to see. I don’t know what this match means moving forward for these wrestlers, but it was a solid match.

GRADE: 9.1/10

- Men’s Fatal 4-Way Match

Hangman Page vs. Jimmy Havoc vs. Jungle Boy vs. MJF

The goal in this contest was to get Jungle Boy over and it showed. I expected this match to be Match of the Night caliber, but I wasn’t very impressed personally. I thought it was slightly underwhelming, but I did have pretty high expectations about it. Not to say it was bad, it wasn’t, but I felt there could’ve been more done in the match. This victory for Page was to help him gain momentum going into All Out in August and that was totally understandable. Each competitor had a chance to shine, but like I said earlier, the majority of the focus was on Jungle Boy.

GRADE: 8.2/10

- Men’s Singles Match

Cody vs. Darby Allin (Time Limit Draw)

This match was very exciting, but the time limit draw was kind of a downer. Also, this match was the most controversial of the night because of the unprotected head shot with a chair that Cody took from Shawn Spears after the match. With all of the concern surrounding head injuries in the last 10 years, this was a shock and it upset many fans. The match was great though. Darby Allin was impressive and Cody’s charisma is off the charts at the moment. It was a great pairing and I’m interested to see where Allin is in the next few months.

GRADE: 8.8/10

- Six-Man Tag Team Match

The Elite vs. Lucha Bros and Laredo Kid

These two teams clearly had some history and the match was fine, but I expected a little more honestly. I figured that The Elite was going to win, but I knew the Lucha Bros were going to put it all on the line. This match was more about putting on an entertaining show rather than a great match and that was perfectly fine. It was a great match, but not match of the night like I figured it would be.

GRADE: 9.2/10

- Men’s Single Match: Non-Sanctioned *Match of the Night*

Jon Moxley vs. Joey Janela

I knew once I saw that this match was going to be No-DQ it was going to be pretty wild. We haven’t seen this kind of match from a big-name wrestling promotion in a very long time. Moxley was the obvious favorite here, but I think the match was geared more towards getting Bad Boy Janela over more. I was impressed with Janela and Moxley seems to be right at home in AEW. I thought we would get to see Moxley with his new IWGP United States Championship, but he didn’t have it with him. Going back to the match, I haven’t seen barbed wire and thumbtacks used in a match in a long time and there was an abundance of each in this contest. Janela even jumped off a ladder into some tables. I’m not a huge hardcore wrestling fan, but this match couldn’t have gone much better.

GRADE: 9.5/10

Yacs

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