AAW Killers Among Us 2017

GARZA JR. vs. ACH - 5/10

Garza Jr. has a lot of charisma. He'll be quite the big deal in five years if stays with AAA or CMLL. I really don't like it when one guy hits a big move and then the other guy just hits his finish and wins, and that's what happened here. I also wasn't crazy about the chair being set up in the ring but technically on one tried to hit anyone with it so I guess you could let it slide.

BESTIES IN THE WORLD SEGMENT - Great! Marty Derosa is interviewing Mat Fitchett about his big match later tonight against Zack Sabre Jr. Davey Vega shows up, upset that Mat is doing an interview without him and not wearing his Besties in the World gear. He tells Mat that the Besties in the World is the best thing that ever happened to him. Mat asks Davey for his support tonight but Davey tells him "you're good enough to be my partner, but you're not good enough to beat Zack Sabre Jr." and storms off. There's trouble brewing.

JEFF COBB vs. EDDIE KINGSTON - 4.75/10

The story of the match was Kingston's various neck injuries making him a huge underdog, and once Cobb started throwing him around it felt like he really had no chance of winning whatsoever, and maybe even like he should just retire before he becomes crippled. His selling was that good. Still, Eddie being Eddie, he never gave up, and it paid off when he managed to hit Cobb with a quick flurry of finishers for the win.

JOHN MORRISON PROMO - Good.

CHUCK TAYLOR vs. DAVEY VEGA vs. PACO vs. JAKE CRIST (w/JT Davidson) - 4.5/10

Short, but all action.

MARTY DEROSA INTERVIEWS TREVOR LEE - Lee was fine, but he's been a lot better in the past.

ZACK SABRE JR. vs. MAT FITCHETT - 6.75/10

They did a very good job of taking Fitchett, who is usually a heel, and making him into an underdog you could really get behind. He really felt like he was fighting for something major tonight. Zack picked up the win, as expected, but Fitchett was definitely elevated by this match.

JEFF COBB PROMO - Very good. He's tired of waiting for things to come to him, and he is going to start "taking."

LOW KI vs. ABYSS (w/JT Davidson) - 6.25/10

I guess there are no DQs in this match, because we had blatant interference as well as thumbtack use. The match was good for the time it got, and the suit and gloves just give Low Ki an extra something that makes him seem cooler than he has, possibly ever in his career.

WOLF, REED, & MIGUEL PROMO - Miguel is getting pretty good on the mic. Wolf is improving as well. Reed didn't say much.

AAW HERITAGE TITLE MATCH:
Penta el 0M(c) vs. Trevor Lee - 4.5/10

The match started off with Penta doing his cero miedo thing… so Trevor just punched him right in the face. I laughed my ass off. Trevor stomped him a bit, Penta made his comeback, they do a few big moves for nearfall, and then Penta gets the pin. I guess disappointingly short title matches is just his gimmick in this company. Penta offered a handshake, and Trevor responded by slapping him in the face and running away. I predict that this will turn out to be an extremely unhealthy choice for Trevor in the long run.

ACH PROMO - AWESOME! ACH explains his recent cheating- something that seemed very out of character for him- by "coming out of the closet" to us: When the cameras aren't around "I'm an asshole. God created me this way." And that's how he is going to be from now on. This has got to be the happiest heel turn I've ever seen. Watch this promo.

MYRON REED, TREY MIGUEL, & STEPHEN WOLF vs. DJZ, ZACHARY WENTZ, & DEZMOND XAVIER - 6.5/10

This was a REALLY FUN spotfest. If you like dives, this match is for you.

SAMI CALLIHAN PROMO - PROMO OF THE YEAR CANDIDATE. Sami wants his OI4K compatriots to stay in the back for his title defense so he can prove to everyone, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he is better than Michael Elgin.

BRIAN CAGE vs. JOHN MORRISON - 6.75/10

A fun power vs. athleticism match, with JoMo also working the head and neck. Speaking of heads and necks, JoMo barely avoided falling right on his own twice. The first one was almost eerily reminiscent of Al Snow and Sabu.

TREVOR LEE PROMO - Good. He wants "one more chance" to face Penta el 0M for the AAW Heritage Championship.

reDRagon vs. WAR MACHINE - 8.25/10

This appearance should pretty much confirm all reports that War Machine are free agents now. They had a great big guys vs. small guys match, with War Machine showing off their power while reDRagon were usually fighting from underneath and had to use their kicks to try to chop the big trees down. Awesome match. It's not getting talking about much because of Okada (and, to a lesser extent, Omega, and to a slightly lesser extent than that, Sabre Jr. and Ospreay), but in the relatively few appearances he has had this year, Kyle O'Reilly has put together quite the impressive body of work so far this year. That PWG show from June with reDRagon vs. the Zack Sabre Jr. & Marty Scurll can't come out fast enough.

WENTZ & XAVIER PROMO - Good promo. They're getting a tag title shot soon.

AAW HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH:
Sami Callihan(c) vs. Michael Elgin - 9/10

They had an epic video package that aired before this match that now has me even more hyped up for it than I was before. Elgin is not affected by any of Sami's early attempts at mind games, and even turned it around on Sami by basically letting by giving Sami a free shot, absorbing it, then another one, and then just flooring Sami with one of his own. (The difference between this and an Ishii match is that this made sense within the structure of the match rather than just doing it every match to get your spots in, and Elgin did at least turn his head when contact was made so it really felt like he was absorbing the blow and not allowing himself to be outwardly affected by it rather than just not selling it at all in any way).

Sami eventually took over by targeting Elgin's knee, and even used a chair on it. Apparently these matches are all at the referee's discretion, but this seems WAY too far to not call a DQ. I know it's a main event title match, but come on. Maybe they should institute a "titles can change hands on a DQ" rule or just make all title matches No DQs, because this seems kind of bullsh*tty to me.

They continued on from there with Sami working over Elgin's knee and Elgin working over Sami's back. This really had the feeling that both men were willing to take absolutely anything the other could dish out and still keep fighting (and the roll-up finish but an interesting cap on that). They did this not just by taking the hard slams and vicious strikes that the other threw and still motoring on, but with other, smaller things. My favorite of these was Elgin nailing Sami with a bicycle kick, then clutching at his injured knee, which his bicycle kick did no favors to… but then Elgin just went and did the bicycle kick again (and when right back to tending to his knee) because the pain he knew this would cause his knee was nothing compared to the glory of winning the title, so he was willing to aggravate his own injury for the chance to put Sami down once and for all.

OI4K did show at an important moment and did distract Elgin when he could have followed up on Sami. Sami, though, shouted for them to go to the back, and almost seemed to be offering himself up to Elgin for Elgin to finish him, as if he felt he deserved to lose- or at least that Elgin deserved to be able to follow up as he would have done if he didn't have to deal with the unwanted distraction (although another possible interpretation of Sami spitting in Elgin's face and shouting "END IT!" could be that he was telling Elgin "hit me as hard as you can… but I'll still fight threw it, proving that you're not able to put me away- which would play into the mind games component in the beginning for the match), but Sami absorbed Elgin's spinning backfist and countered an attempted Elgin Bomb into a roll-up for the win. This match was awesome. Elgin is another guy who is having an excellent year under the radar. Sami probably is, too, but I haven't seen enough of his stuff outside of AAW to judge his overall body of work.

EDDIE KINGSTON PROMO - AMAZING! And also slightly disturbing. That's two Promo of the Year Candidates on the same show. I'm marking down the date of AAW's next show right now, because I cannot wait to see what happens during the David Starr vs. Eddie Kingston match.

PENTA EL 0M PROMO - AWESOME! Trevor Lee is in deep, deep sh*t.

SAMI CALLIHAN PROMO - That f*cking bastard! The distraction was part of his plan all along, and I fell for it. This was another great promo, but not close to his earlier promo. Keith Lee is up next for Sami, and Sami says he's going to break Keith's leg.

Final Thoughts
This was a pretty awesome show from AAW. The undercard was fun and easy to sit through, the top two matches both delivered in big ways, and we not only some AWESOME promos (including TWO Promo of the Year Candidates), but some interesting storyline happenings as well. You should definitely check this show out.