Venue: Eerie Insurance Arena, Eerie, Penns.

*****

• Promos from all the tourney competitors – CJ Perry cut part of Andrade’s and called him ‘the Idol’ so he corrected her in Spanish. Weird
• Garcia got a nice pop and cut a nice promo about putting Andrade in his place
• Danielson, with his eyepatch and eerie lighting, said he didn’t want the Eddie Kingston who felt sorry for himself, he wants the ROH champ, the guy who put his titles on the line, because if he isn’t that guy – ‘you’re gonna get hurt’
• Eddie said he didn’t have time to talk, he has to get ready since he does not want to go down 0-2, he respects Danielson…’sort of’ and vowed to ‘bust you up’

Nigel had a ‘save the clams’ tee as Schiavone ran through the rules and Kelly handled the standings in both leagues.

Claudio Castagnoli vs Brody King (Blue League)

Backstory: Match 2

Claudio posed near the ‘triple crown’ on his way to the ring.  Wish they’d left belts out of it.

Immediately they smashed together then got to sluggin’, seems a tiny crowd – it’s dark and quiet.  Chops and lariats from Claudio had no impact, Brody’s knocked the Swiss back but they came back to smash together then hit the ropes and crashed to the mat after simultaneous lariats.

Ending up on opposite sides, they raced to meet again with the lariats, still no separating them, this is two bulls smashing together so far.  Until a big boot from Brody knocked down the Swiss.

Claudio hit back – his boot didn’t take the big man down but a scoop slam did, lariat out and over, Brody landing outside then uppercutted against the barricade before rebounding as the lariats continued.  Back to rights and knees to the gut, Claudio was sent over into the first row on the hard cam side.  Which was half empty.

Ads.  Yeah, physical.

Claudio working over the arm as we returned before stumbling into a body slam and senton splash, ending up down in the corner, the barks began; Claudio raced out of the corner to cut Brody off with uppercuts.  A lot of them.  Brody face-down in the ropes till reversing a whip, Claudio shot to the back, trip, Big Swing coming, Brody kicked him off, the Swiss rebounded off the ropes to hit a stomp for two.

Brody came back with chops, elbows but ran into a pop-up uppercut for a very near fall, crowd enjoyed all of that.  Big Swing attempt part deux, got about eight rotations in, down into the sharpshooter, middle of the ring.  Claudio captured the arm nearest the ropes, King fought him off and reached them.

Avoided a charge in the corner, German out, barks, cannonball, cover didn’t even get one.  Claudio slipped out of a crucifix, DVD, Brody kicked out at barely one.  TiA from the crowd, very entertaining opener.  Claudio was back body dropped but landed on his feet, tried a springboard, Brody smashed him with a forearm as he landed, piledriver, kickout 2.5.

Hauled the Swiss up, smashed him down with a lariat, 1, 2, 3.

Kelly wondered whether King’s cast had made the difference with that clothesline.

Much as I enjoy Brody’s work, there are others I’d have put in here to bag two wins from two.

But this was really fun.  Got a bit fed up with chop… chop… chop… lately so this was refreshing: two big dudes whacking each other with lariats, impossible to separate until the cast came into play.  Nice start to the show.

Winner: Brody King

To a Jon Moxley promo post-match Wednesday which was supposed to have been superb:

Sat on stairs backstage, tears in his eyes.

Entering the tournament was a bad idea, he’s banged up, maybe the last four years have caught up with him.  His head, neck and back hurt, his fingers tingle, he lives in pain on a day-to-day basis, doctors are prescribing him all kindsa medication, he’s sick and tired of bein sick and tired, sick and tired of his body failing him, sick and tired of being depressed, sick and tired of being pissed off.

So he’s going to do the only thing he knows – fight his way out of it, with everything he has, this is what AEW was built on, two of the best in the world going at it, taking the people with them, ‘the audience that loves wrestling as much as we do’.  ‘That’s what AEW is about’.

There’s no-one in the tournament that can put him through anything worse than he’s gone through and is going through.  If there is, ‘take your shot’.

This guy is just amazing.  He doesn’t do stupid dances, he doesn’t have catchphrases, he connects because he’s honest and himself.

Abadon vs Kiera Hogan

Backstory: NONE

Cannot believe they’re putting this on national tv.  Abadon makes any show seem cringey, had a bad match with Shida last time and neither of these two are remotely over.

Abadon missed a stomp in the corner, Kiera kicked her leg out, butt splash against the ropes, superkick, running dropkick in the corner, two count.  But got up to run into a Bossman slam.  Abadon then shrieked.  ‘Weird, whacky stuff,’ Schiavone said.  About covers it.

She hit a cutter in from the apron for two of her own.  Then licked Hogan on the face.  Missed a wild kick, Hogan hit a pair of kicks – a kid in the crowd yelled ‘That’s what you get for licking her!’ – neckbreaker, ‘nother two count.

Schiavone said they have some ‘standby matches’ or something if matches don’t go the full time-limit.

Abadon hit a running knee and Black Dahlia to win.  Thanks for the name Nigel.

Baffled.  What on earth do you do with a character like this?

The lights went out because that has to happen 19 times a show.  Julia Hart appeared behind her.  They went off again and Julia had ‘disappeared’.  As will the audience if Abadon’s her next challenger.  Usual hokey HOB stuff.

Winner: Abadon

From the ridiculous to the serious – Samoa Joe backstage.  He was asked by Marvez about being pissed with Max when ‘SAMOOOOAAA’ interrupted – Roderick Strong of course.  Yelling that as a first name’s pretty funny.

He told Joe this was all a trap and Max is the devil.  And since Cole likes Joe, that makes him Strong’s ‘best friend by proxy’.  Max is probably plotting the whole trap right now.

Joe laughed then left.

Erm, did you actually bother explaining to people who didn’t watch Wednesday why Joe’s pissed with Max?

Andrade El Idolo vs Daniel Garcia

Backstory: Match 2 for Garcia, 1 for Andrade

Garcia came out and danced.  Break him Andrade.  Leave body parts in the ring.

Matt Menard’s joined on comms.  They emphasized he’s not allowed to leave the desk.  He said he doesn’t have a problem with dancing on the ramp, it’s the dancing during the match he hates.  Who the F is the heel here?

Lockup, quick slip behind and roll-up for two as Garcia let Andrade know he was ‘this close’ to losing.  Perry’s been sent backstage too as Andrade ran through Garcia with a shoulder block.  Garcia tried to fling him outside; Andrade landed in his pose in the ropes, then turned his back on the apron for no reason other than to be placed in a sleeper, fought it off, cross body off the top, low dropkick when Garcia tried a drop-down, vaulting splash to the outside.

Garcia tried to counter a suplex, was grabbed into a headlock but responded via two dragon screws, low dropkick, barely a one count.  The announcers reminded us that he had a victory over Bryan Danielson.  Which I’d totally, totally forgotten and seems incomprehensible given the youngster’s last twelve months.

Related, how’s Takeshita doing after that win over Kenny?

Fighting outside, Garcia introduced Andrade to the barricade, tried a cover after a knee drop and barely got a one count, went upstairs and was shoved down to the floor.

Ads.  Nothing special so far.  Am liking mixing the counts up in these matches instead of everything being a ‘near fall’.

Back to a Garcia belly-to-back, Menard said this has been Garcia’s best match in ages and not coincidentally he hasn’t danced.  As the youngster landed a running knee in the corner, placed El Idolo in the tree of woe, Menard rooted for him to keep his head in the game as he landed a basement dropkick, elevated ddt out of a suplex, two count.

Chop to the chest, Andrade ducked a lariat, hit his diving forearm, kip-up, he’s being booed here.  Garcia clearly the babyface to this crowd as he was snapped into a suplex, another, the third of the amigos blocked, Garcia slipping into a sleeper, Andrade carried him up the ropes, broke the hold, the third amigo off the top, Andrade holding-on down into a fourth and even a fifth before bagging a two count.

Andrade prepared a figure four, Garcia cradled through into the Dragon Tamer, synched deep.  Too deep, as he fell out of the hold, right up into the El Idolo DDT to take another loss.

Menard was good on comms here and very likeable rooting on his friend.  AEW’s face/heel stuff is a mess.

Winner: Andrade El Idolo

They showed Wardlow beating AR Fox Wednesday.  Willie Mack wasn’t happy with it cause Fox is his friend.  So they’ll wrestle next week.

Who possibly cares?  Enough with feeding Wardlow undercard guys.  Seen it for two years now.

*****

The Kingdom came out with Strong, he repeated what he’d said to Joe about Max being the Devil.  Strong yelled that the Kingdom are going to ‘beat their (the dudes in the ring) ASSSSSSSSS’.  And dedicated the match to his best friend Adam Cole.

The Kingdom vs the Iron Savages

Backstory: NONE

They’re just begging people to tune out.

The Kingdom hit a spike piledriver to win in a few minutes.  Remember this next time AEW want us to take the Iron Savages seriously as they challenge for trios titles or something.

Winner: The Kingdom

Lexy with Ethan Page.  Page has been winning lots of matches in ROH and wants to be the King of Canada.  So he’s challenging Kenny Omega.

Poor Ethan man, dude’s so talented and they never use him.

*****

They recapped the Willow Nightingale/Mercedez Martinez feud you probably didn’t know was a thing.  I certainly didn’t.

Malakai Black & Buddy Matthews vs Matt Sydal & Christopher Daniels

Backstory: NONE

This is apparently one of the stand-by matches they referred to earlier.  The House of Black are surely used to being afterthoughts at this point.  Got Malakai’s cool music and entrance for the second week in a row at least.

Before their opponents came out, was thinking how much this felt like Rampage.  Now it feels like Dark.

Buddy tripped Sydal down and got several covers.  Sydal hit a cross body off the top, Matthews rolled through, hauled Sydal onto his shoulders, the vet slipped off, hit a couple kicks, Matthews shook them off, Sydal again slipped behind, and again slipped behind, Matthews took a kick to the head after being distracted by Daniels.

A kick and STO combo as Daniels came in, the vet got two.  Matthews kicked Daniels away and tagged Black.  Daniels hit a leg lariat, Black worked the arm and tagged right back out, Daniels whipped into a Malakai big boot which left him outside where Malakai nailed him with a moonsault.

Ads.

Sydal got a hot tag, headscissors to Buddy, dropkick to Malakai, legdrop driver for two on Black.  But was caught atop the buckle, Daniels blind-tagged in, Matthews and Sydal hit simultaneous meteoras to their opposites, Buddy sent outside after a Sydal knee strike, Sydal dragged out by Black, Daniels hit a suicide dive against the announce desk.

Black fought off Angel’s Wings, legtripped Daniels, Buddy Curb Stomp, Sydal leapt off the top into a Black knee strike before the End polished off Daniels.

Had some good sequences but very hard to care about.

The lights went out briefly before FTR came out to their music.  Black took the mic to say he assumed they were here to join the House of Black.  He knows they’re family men and the House are the only people in the locker room who’ve been there for FTR.  Malakai said he’s done a lot of things but he never lies.  Crowd chanted for the House.  Malakai offered his hand, Buddy struck out of nowhere with a knee strike to Dax, hit a Stomp to Cash, Black nailed him with the End.

Malakai told them not a single person is coming to help them.  He kept repeating ‘no-one is coming for you’ then nailed Dax with the End after the latter flipped him off.

Decent little angle which they tied back to last week’s weird comments about Punk and etc.  Outside of the fact the crowd don’t remotely see the HOB as heels.  Possibly Copeland joins for a six-man if they’re moving him away from Cage for a bit after Wednesday?

Winner: HOB

Renee with Toni Storm.  Storm said she has no time for prepared questions.  She advised Skye Blue to ‘walk backwards, because the only time anyone has something nice to say about you is when they’re taking pictures of your bottom (Renee nearly lost it at this), am I supposed to be scared because you’re spooky now?’.

She finished with her ‘chin up, tits out’ line then stole Renee’s shoe cause she was barefoot and threw it at her as she left.  Nice to see them tying the character back into actually wrestling and the title r/t amusing themselves backstage.

*****

Blue called what Toni’s doing a ‘pathetic… mid-life crisis’ and said nothing will stop her taking the title.  She said she’d have her chin up, her tits out, ‘and I’m a shove your shoe right up your ass’.

So to me that started heel, finished babyface and I have no idea what Toni is.

*****

They recapped the Cage/Copeland feud with old pictures interspersed.  Cage said Copeland wants to take everything he’s built but it’s his time, he’s the face of TNT and AEW, now and forever.  He’s always been better than Copeland and he’ll prove that Wednesday.

They really should have shown extended clips of that segment from Wednesday or possibly played the whole thing.  It was exceptional.

Vikingo vs Kip Sabian

Backstory: NONE

Yet another stand-in match.  Vikingo got absolutely zero reaction.  Sabian about the same.  A p-in-p promo showed Sabian calling Vikingo the most overrated wrestler in the world.

They wrestled smoothly and seamlessly, Sabian maintaining an arm lock throughout, Vikingo springboarded over the apron to break the hold, hit a spin kick after ducking a lariat, slipped to the apron to avoid a splash in the corner, springboard armdrag, tejeiras, man this dude’s fast.

Until Sabian bridged him through the ropes and hit a springboard moonsault to bring the break.  Crowd are so quiet.

Back to Vikingo bouncing back off the ropes (he like spears them to rebound back behind his opponent), rolling through, corkscrew kick, GTH, out-to-in phoenix splash for a near fall.  Sabian tried a superplex, Vikingo headbutted him down but springboarded up to hit a rana and Michinoku driver for two.

They are pushing All In incredibly hard tonight.

Vikingo hit a leaping forearm, rope-walk tornijo to the floor, bull’s horns in the corner, incredible 630 that looked like a bitch to take, for the win.  A short but impressive showing.

He offered a hand to Sabian who looked like he was ignoring it.  But we never properly saw it.

Winner: Vikingo

Because they raced away to Keith Lee backstage with Lexy.  To ask who ‘Him’ is.  Shane Taylor interrupted to say it must be him because Lee wouldn’t dare look past him.  He challenged Lee for Final Battle.  Lee accepted.

They showed Danielson and Kingston getting ready backstage.  More of that please.

Might want to explain ‘Him’ to people who didn’t watch last week.  Keep your audience informed so they understand your stories.  Not that hard.

*****

Miro interrupted CJ Perry and tried to barge in to what was presumably Andrade’s locker room.  Perry said if she meant anything to him would he ‘please’ leave her client alone.  Miro promised not to while stroking her hair.  After saying if his god were still with him he’d be in the tournament snapping El Idolo in two.

Bryan Danielson vs Eddie Kingston

Backstory: Match 2 for Eddie, 1 for Danielson

What on earth would this show be without Danielson on it?  And this time next year, he won’t be.  Nigel said someone should tell him Halloween’s over.  After vowing not to make pirate jokes.

Starting tentatively, Danielson kept aiming kicks at Eddie’s legs, Kingston backed him to the corner where the Dragon sought the ropes.  Again aiming kicks, keeping Eddie at bay, Kingston trapped him in the corner, Danielson again got the break.

Then landed a chop.  Pissing Kingston off.  They both aimed low kicks, body shots too from Kingston, until he shook off another chop and knocked Danielson on his ass with a receipt – Nigel howled.

Back to a lockup, Danielson finally landed a flurry, Kingston came out swinging and Danielson collapsed back after a kick to his broken arm.  Suckering Eddie in for a single-leg then firing kicks to the quad and chops to the chest.  Eddie asked for more, down came the straps, the Dragon responded with yes! kicks and barely got one after a snapmare.

Knee to the back with the arms captured, Kingston to his feet, reversing the hold, Danielson reversed it back, landing a German which Kingston tried to pop up from but crashed down and rolled to the apron.  From where another chop battle took place until Danielson knocked him off with a low dropkick, Kingston avoided a baseball slide, belly to back on the floor.

Ads.

Building nicely.  Clearly working around Danielson’s eye.

Back to them fighting atop the buckle, Kingston headbutted down, missile dropkick, both down.  Up to a fight – Kingston hurling chops; Danielson kicks and strikes until being overwhelmed to the mat with backhands, flying armbar to counter a Kingston slam, thinking LeBell, not getting it totally, trying again after rolling through, Kingston powered out and landed forearms to the face from the mount.

Danielson struck back with slaps to the face, armdragged Kingston through looking for the busaiku knee, missed, Kingston belly to back, Uriken, very near fall.  Slam out of a suplex (might have just been a sloppy suplex) for another two.  Both down once more.

Crowd chanting again for Kingston as he looked for a piledriver, fired knees to the orbital bone, Danielson backdropped his way free, Kingston on his knees, ripe for a flurry of yes! kicks until being cutting the Dragon off with blistering knife edges.  Sounded like god damn gun shots.

Danielson hit back again with more kicks until Kingston ducked, enziguri, half and half, Uriken blocked, Danielson belly to back with the leg captured, both down once more.  Danielson up first, more stiff yes! kicks, another leg-capture belly to back into a bridge for two, wrists captured, kick your head in stomps until exhausting himself and crashing to the mat.

Both guys exhausted, crawling toward one another, Kingston screaming at Danielson and waving his fist, Danielson again up first for a nasty busaiku knee to end it.

Good god what a match.  Gripping, stiff, realistic, felt like a fight.

Danielson took an ‘Eddie is a Bum’ sign and held it up in the ring before dumping it on Kingston’s downed body.

Winner: Bryan Danielson

 ________________________________________________________________

Next Dynamite:

• Adam Copeland vs Christian Cage (TNT Title)
• MJF & Samoa Joe vs the Devil’s Goons
• Toni Storm vs Skye Blue (Women’s Title)
• Swerve vs Briscoe
• White vs Lethal
• Moxley vs Rush

Next Collision:

• Ethan Page vs Kenny Omega

Thumbs Up/Down

• Claudio vs Brody
• Mox promo
• Danielson vs Kingston

 *****

• This show is becoming Dark with tournament matches, it’s exactly what happened to Rampage
• And much like last week, you could’ve checked out the first and last matches, skipping everything in between
• And yet they didn’t find time to announced next Saturday’s tournament matches

Appreciate you reading.  Enjoy the rest of the weekend.