BRM Reviews AEW Revolution 2023 (great)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews AEW Revolution 2023 (great)

Post by Big Red Machine » Mar 6th, '23, 01:12

AEW Revolution 2023 (3/5/2023)- San Francisco, CA


ZERO HOUR:
There was an annoying thing with RJ City and Danhausen.

MARK BRISCOE & LUCHA BROS. (w/Alex Abrahantes) vs. THE VARSITY ATHLETE & ARI DAIVARI (w/Mark Sterling)- 7.25/10
Moves happened. The babyfaces won.

RJ CITY INTERVIEWS SOME MEMBERS OF THE JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY- embarrassing
It was Matt Menard being weird and lots screaming going on.

RJ CITY INTERVIEWS TONI STORM- bad
This RJ City asshole is so obnoxious that I don’t understand how he has possibly reached this age without being murdered. I’m done with this pre-show unless they’re going to show me another match.

MAIN SHOW:
SINGLES MATCH WITH THE JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY BARRED FROM RINGSIDE: Chris Jericho vs. Ricky Starks- 7.5/10
Jericho worked over Starks injured ribs. I liked this until the finish, which saw Sammy Guevara came down to ringside… and there was no DQ or anything. Well then what does “banned from ringside” mean if you can come down to ringside and there are no consequences?
Action Andretti came out of the crowd to attack him, but Aubrey Edwards was still distracted. This was done to set up Jericho hitting Starks with a baseball bat right in his injured ribs… and then Starks blocked the very next move Jericho attempted (a Judas Effect). Starks then hit a flurry of offense ending in a Rochambeau for the win.

FINAL BURIAL MATCH: Christian Cage vs. “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry- 8.25/10
They brought the necessary hatred for a blow-off and made great use of the accoutrements. Jungle Boy got the win. The casket fell into the grave right after Jungle Boy slammed the lid shut. I can see this annoying some people, but I was actually fine with it. I can buy that the supports gave out.

AEW WORLD TRIOS TITLE MATCH: The Elite(c) (w/Michael Nakazawa & Brandon Cutler) vs. House of Black (w/Julia Hart)- 7/10
Don Callis was on commentary for this match. They did lots of kicks and flips and head-drops until the House of Black finally won. These belts are irrelevant, they told me no story, and the build-up to this match did nothing to make me care which side would win.

AEW WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jamie Hayter(c) (w/Britt Baker) vs. Ruby Soho vs. Saraya (w/Toni Storm)- 6.75/10
They had a fine three-way. Hayter won, rolling Ruby Soho up.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Stupid
Toni Storm attacked Hayter. Ruby made the save, throwing both Storm and Saraya out of the ring and emphatically declaring “You don’t run this place! This is our home, bitches!” Then she raised Hayter’s hand… and hit her with No Future. She hit her other finisher on Dr. Baker, then Saraya gave her a can of spray-paint and she marked the babyfaces with Ls. This was a Russo-Swerve, pure and simple. And, of course, despite these women having declared war on all of the AEW home-grown women, no of the many other women in this company who fit that bill came out to save Baker and Hayter.

TEXAS DEATHMATCH: Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley- 9.5/10
This time around, a Texas Deathmatch means “you can only win by submission of knockout.” I think TNA was calling that “Magnus’ Rules” at one point.
The story of this match was Page proving that he could hang with Moxley in a match like this. Moxley dominated most of it, with Page surviving every sick thing Moxley did to him (including smashing his hands with bricks and stabbing him with a fork) and firing back. Finally Page managed to cross the line into that crazy Jon Moxley headspace and hung Moxley over the ropes with a chain, and Moxley had to tap out. I really like that Moxley tapped out at the end rather than being knocked out. Him having to actively surrender the match allows this feud to feel like it is really finished.

AEW TNT TITLE MATCH: Samoa Joe(c) vs. Wardlow- 6.75/10
This was a very good brawl. Wardlow won by choking Joe out with the Coquina Clutch after Joe had attempted a Powerbomb Symphony. He then had a stare-down with Will Hobbs, who will get a title shot on Wednesday.

AEW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Gunn Club(c) vs. Orange Cassidy & Danhausen vs. the Acclaimed (w/Billy Gunn) vs. Triple J (Jay Lethal & Jeff Jarrett) (w/Sonjay Dutt & Satnam Singh)- 6.75/10
They did lots of stuff. This didn’t feel like a PPV match at all. After allowing all sort of interference because it is technically a no DQs match, Aubrey Edwards decided that a guitar was not allowed, and took it away from a babyface to set up a nearfall for the heels. It was one of those spots that pisses me off because someone clearly thought “hey, wouldn’t this be an awesome false finish?” and no one realized that it made no sense with six other spots they were doing. And, of course, it set up a spot where Aubrey argued with Jeff Jarrett and got to shove him back after he shoved her, because we need to make sure we work in a spot to get the f*cking referee cheered. The Gunns retained their titles, pinning Dorkhausen.

RENEE PAQUETTE INTERVIEWS GUNN CLUB- fine
FTR returned to brawl with them.

60-MINUTE IRONMAN MATCH FOR THE AEW WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: MJF(c) vs. Bryan Danielson- 9.25/10
Lots of great stuff here, with multiple body-parts being worked by both guys. Lots of blood as well. Taz and Excalibur were also particularly great. Just about the only things I didn’t like was the refereeing allowing MJF to get away with using tables, NJPW- style count-out, and the restart. With the restart, my issue is that it makes no sense that Tony would insist on a restart here, but not in Page vs. Danielson. Any argument that Tony couldn’t allow the fans who bought the PPV to get “screwed” out of a finish should apply equally to the fans who bought live tickets, and while the Page vs. Danielson match wasn’t on PPV, there certainly was a live crowd there.
The post-restart segment was tremendous, though, and it was only there that I began to believe that Danielson actually had a chance to win. MJF eventually won after cheating, which bugs me only because I know that it won’t be followed up on. And speaking of things that bugged me, at the sixty-minute mark, they had medics rush into the ring and give people oxygen... but when the match ended after six more minutes of exertion, there was no one rushing out to help anyone.



This was a great show from AEW, thought with a lot more peaks and valleys than the usual AEW PPV. This was almost like a WWE PPV, with some stuff on there that just made you groan or didn’t feel PPV-quality or felt stale. The two main matches definitely delivered, though, and that will go a long way towards making any PPV feel worth your money.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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