SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Housekeeping
• In addition to Mark Henry last week, Jake Hager and Arn Anderson have also departed AEW following the expiration of their contracts. Here’s wishing Jake and Double A (and his glock) all the best.
• “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard is officially replacing Chris Jericho as color commentator on Rampage. To that, I say, thank goodness. The less Jericho on my TV the better.
It’s Forbidden Door season again. While I genuinely love the idea of an international talent showcase, Forbidden Door has always been a weird time of year. It does seem like with each year the integration of international talent into AEW storylines improves, but there’s no perfect way to insert talent you only have access to for a limited time into ongoing stories.
On the positive side, more promotions, notably CMLL and Stardom, are involved in this year’s show mostly due to the lack of depth on the New Japan roster with so much of their top talent now being AEW guys. CMLL was introduced in the weeks leading up to Revolution, especially Hechicero, who had that standout match with Bryan Danielson on Collision. If you still haven’t watched that match, by the way, go find it. It’s well worth the time.
Stardom has had a presence both at the ROH PPV in April and with Mina Shirakawa’s story with Toni Storm and Mariah May. The next few weeks are going to be interesting. The PPV’s main event is maybe the biggest main event of the year thus far, which isn’t something I expected to say going into last week.
Tonight also marks the return to TV of one Maxwell Jacob Friedman. That should bring some eyeballs in. Rush called out MJF last week, but I assume that’s a quick TV match and he’ll have bigger fish to fry at the PPV. In memory of one of my history professors from years ago who recently passed away after cheating death twice (RIP Dr. Lindemann), I’ll simply close with his favorite expression: Prost!
Elite Hostile Takeover
Latest Developments
The Bucks celebrated their win in Anarchy in the Arena by gifting Kazuchika Okada a beautiful new Lamborghini and attempting to gift Jack Perry with the TNT Title, stripped from Adam Copeland after his leg injury, before being stopped by the returning Christopher Daniels. The Fallen Angel is now the interim EVP, speaking for Tony Khan, and announced a ladder match (as I predicted) to crown a new TNT Champion at Forbidden Door with qualifying matches taking place over the next few weeks. So far, only Konosuke Takeshita has qualified.
Analysis
Okada’s going to have the nicest car collection in wrestling by the end of the year. Seriously, though, I liked a lot of this. The Bucks stripping Copeland of the title rather than allowing him to relinquish it was a nice touch that made them look like bigger jerks. Attempting to award Jack Perry the TNT Title was exactly what I expected them to do.
Christopher Daniels return solved two problems. It cleared the questions about whether his firing would stick upon Tony Khan’s return and it gave Tony an official spokesperson to go back and forth with the Bucks since Tony can’t promo. (Tony appearing backstage on Collision undercut this, so they need to be better about that).
My biggest issue is that this storyline felt isolated within this segment. I don’t want the Elite overwhelming the show, but if the idea is reshaping AEW in their image, they need to have their hands in one or two other things.
Grade: B
Swerve Strickland vs. Will Ospreay
Latest Developments
In surprise twist, Will Ospreay won the Casino Gauntlet match which also featured Lio Rush and Shota Umino from NJPW and Hechicero and Mistico from CMLL. Swerve came down to the ring to go face-to-face with his new challenger. On Collision, Ospreay successfully defended the International title against Kyle O’Reilly. Roderick Strong revealed that he was supposed to be the next person out before Ospreay won the match and demanded a shot at Swerve after defeating a very game Lio Rush. Strong’s demand was granted by Tony Khan. Collision closed with a slick Swerve video package addressing both Ospreay and Strong.
Analysis
Ospreay winning was legitimately a surprise given that normally the challenger at Forbidden Door is an outside talent. The match was a lot of fun. I continue to enjoy the concept, but it should be six months before they pull it out again. No reason to overuse it. His match with KOR on Collision was very good. It was one of those matches where sometimes you just have to stop and appreciate really good pro wrestling by really good professional wrestlers. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth your time to go watch it.
As far as Swerve’s defense against Strong tonight, the match should be an Eliminator match. I appreciate the connective tissue of Strong being the next entrant if Ospreay hadn’t won, but he should not be getting a world title match.
When it comes to Swerve vs Ospreay, it’s impossible to say with 100 percent certainty who’s going to win and I love that. I tend to think it’s unlikely that Ospreay wins. The wildcard at this point is whether and how The Bucks attempt to influence this match given their issues with Swerve.
Grade: A
RELATED PWTORCH YOU TUBE VIDEO: What was Tony Khan thinking giving Ospreay title shot at Forbidden Door?
Toni Storm vs. Mina Shirkawa
Latest Developments
Toni challenged Mina to a match at Forbidden Door via video aired during the Stardom show at Korakuen Hall in Japan over the weekend.
Analysis
Mina has been appearing on AEW TV for weeks now. I wouldn’t say Toni’s jealous of her relationship with Mariah May, but there’s certainly tension. Toni wants to prove that she’s the better mentor for Mariah. The trick here is for Mariah to not explicitly attack Mina. In order for Mariah’s eventual turn on Toni to have impact, she needs to remain a face for right now so that will be something to watch. As an aside, Mariah faces Saraya tonight in what I hope is the finale of this rather pointless subplot.
Grade: N/A
Mercedes Moné vs. Stephanie Vaquer
Latest Developments
After dispatching of Skye Blue in her first AEW TV match, Moné was challenged by a debuting Vaquer who is both the CMLL and New Japan Strong women’s champions.
Analysis
This is a brand-new feud so I’m withholding judgment at this point. I’ll just say casting Mercedes as a face is certainly a choice. To be fair, she is a walking contradiction. She promos like a heel but wrestles like a babyface, so it’s difficult to book her. Once we get out of Forbidden Door season, it’ll be interesting to see how she’s slotted.
Also important to note that Mercedes holds a win over Vaquer last year in the New Japan women’s title tournament. Expect that to get brought up. It makes the outcome a little less predictable too.
Grade: N/A
Kris Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale
Latest Developments
Statlander cut a promo on Dynamite explaining that she was sick of being in Willow’s shadow and sick of being everyone’s protector. She followed that up with another promo on Collision mocking Willow and saying her focus was destroying anyone in her path.
Analysis
Not having Willow around at all for the entire week was a big miss in my book. Stat’s first promos as a heel do show promise, though. She’s much less awkward and her size gives her the credibility to back up her threats. I hope Willow is back this week to respond to her best friend’s betrayal.
Grade: B
Thunder Rosa vs. Deonna Purrazzo
Latest Developments
No Deonna this week, but Rosa won a quick match over Mexican indie star Reigna Dorada. She then cut a now trademark straight-to-the-camera promo indicating she’s not finished with Deonna.
Analysis
Not much to this one this week. Rosa’s match with Dorada was too short to really mean anything, although she did hit a wicked Dominator on her. It definitely seemed like this feud was going to continue based on the way Deonna won at Double or Nothing and I wouldn’t be surprised if these two meet in the women’s Owen Hart tournament.
Grade: B
Chris Jericho vs. Hook
Latest Developments
Chris Jericho hosted the first edition of his new talk show segment TV Time. He welcomed Bryan Keith who explained his reasoning for joining The Learning Tree. Hook started to interrupt before Samoa Joe interceded and advised him against it.
Analysis
TV Time was actively bad television. It was awful. Frankly, it’s painful to watch what Jericho has become. He’d like to think he’s Bret Michaels of “Poison,” who’s still touring and sounding like he did 35 years ago. Instead, he’s more like David Coverdale of Whitesnake who can’t hit the high note on the band’s signature song “Here I Go Again.”
This whole Learning Tree gimmick reeks of desperation. Jericho is desperate to stay on TV instead of just taking a break. Now Bryan Keith has been dragged into this. If this was less cartoonish, Jericho was a serious heel, and he was paying the bounty hunter for his services, that would be one thing. Instead, poor Bryan Keith is being ensnared in this debacle.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of this is that Jericho has attached himself to the FTW Title because he can’t wrestle a real match anymore, so instead of going away he’s going to use the cover FTW rules matches provide. It’s basically the wrestling equivalent of Milli Vanilli. He’s wrestle-syncing his way through matches which feels like an anathema to the ethos of AEW.
The only remotely good thing that is peeking its head out of this dumpster fire is the Hook/Joe relationship. Hook can learn a lot from someone like Samoa Joe and it’s a nice subtle callback to when Taz mentored Joe in TNA back in the day. Hopefully they detach themselves from this story (or perhaps detach Jericho from them) quickly and Joe can guide Hook to bigger and better things.
Grade: C+
Orange Cassidy vs. Trent Baretta
Latest Developments
To the surprise of absolutely nobody, OC turned down the contract offer from Don Callis. Trent attacked him from behind, leaving him bloodied before accepting Callis’s offer himself.
Analysis
Why is this feud still a thing? Orange Cassidy beat Trent twice. Trent is the heel, so there doesn’t feel like there’s a reason to have another match just to get him a win. Also, he’s not exactly a huge get for the Family regardless of what bill of goods Callis attempts to sell people the next time he’s getting drowned out on a mic. This feels like a four match feud that OC is bound to win. They’re going to have find a way to make it interesting though because Trent seems more like a sore loser than credible threat.
Grade: B-
OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET: Christian Cage on the musician who told him “Go F— Yourself” after the Adam Copeland angle, signing with AEW and which wrestler told him to reach out to Tony Khan, his AEW contract status
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