All Elite Wrestling was back on pay-per-view this past weekend, this time in St. Louis, a historical wrestling city where a territory was established by legendary, Sam Muchnick, who was a pioneering member of the National Wrestling Alliance in the 1940s. Wrestle Dream was originally intended to be somewhat of a flimsy tribute to Antonio Inoki, and there was a brief portion of that on the broadcast, but all things considered and all legitimate respect to the iconic Japanese promoter, it’s probably a concept that should be phased out in the future.
As with every AEW pay-per-view, there was the good, the bad, and the ugly on the show. To my knowledge, Clint Eastwood wasn’t in attendance, but a reference to the movie title was enough to justify mentioning him. You’re going to get good wrestling, bad wrestling, and some nonsense on these shows, that’s just what the product is, and you have to know that going into the viewing experience. Granted, if it wasn’t for the work that I do for these articles, I’d probably have skipped most of the AEW PPVs of the past two years so the work involved for these reviews might skew the perspective. Still, the fact remains that, positive or negative, it’s well established what the Tony Khan product is.
Sure, the argument could be made that every wrestling show has the potential to have a little of each category, but the problem becomes that the AEW events bring such a level of inconsistency in terms of quality from segment to segment that you generally don’t know where the score card is going to end up by the time the show goes off the air.
True to form, Wrestle Dream covered all the bases.
The show actually opened with the continuation of a bout from the pre-show, which was a really neat and innovative way to kick off the pay-per-view. If Tony wants to bring concepts to the table that haven’t been seen before or not often for the American wrestling audience, he should focus on more stuff like this and less of the usual cannon fodder that gets churned out on these marathon cards. FTR beating Jet Speed in the final eight minutes of a fireworks match is almost mood in the grand scheme of things. The much bigger point is that it was a unique way to jump start the momentum of the PPV and was a quality segment on top of that.
The scheduled opener was Jamie Hayter vs. Thekla, and it was a decent contest, as the execution of the maneuvers was very well done, but it had somewhat of an inconsistent pace that led to a few flat points during the 15-minutes segment. The biggest missing piece of the puzzle for this match was the fact that the fans simply weren’t invested in who Thekla is and thus the overall reaction to the sequences were minimal. That’s not a criticism of her, but rather of how she was presented since she arrived in the promotion nearly six months ago. What do the fans truly know about the Thekla character? Yes, she calls herself the toxic spider so she can do the crab walk, which most fans will associate with the late Bray Wyatt, but what has the character been booked to do in AEW that the fans should character about? Very similar to many other talented performers that get lost in the shuffle, Thekla was brought into All Elite because of her success in Japan, which is completely reasonable, but in a glaring faux pas that has happened with other performers that made a previous reputation in Japan, All Elite Wrestling never truly explained her background. They mention the Stardom promotion, but as much as this might disappoint the diehard core AEW audience, the vast majority of American fans have no idea what Stardom is. Yes, the women’s promotion has produced some absolutely tremendous wrestlers, but as an organization, the reference is over the head of most of the viewing audience. There wasn’t anything done on television to truly put into context why Thekla’s arrival should be a major deal for the women’s division, and her almost superficial status in the company right now reflects that.
On the flip side, the fans have seen Jamie Hayter evolve from a secondary role in the organization to a champion in the past. It’s unfortunate that most of her AEW tenure was plagued by injuries so far, but she undoubtedly has an upside between her crowd reaction and skill set. The response from the audience to Hayter compared to her opponent was an example of why it’s so important to establish who the performers are to the entire audience. The sequence with the lariats to set up for the pin for Hayter was very well done.
Speaking of being well done, the tag match between The Young Bucks and Jurassic Express was really solid. It was a 20-minute dazzling spot fest that was a representation of the original mission statement of AEW with the notion to bring more fast-paced high spot wrestling to a national stage in the United States. The problem is that this is literally the same match that could’ve taken place six years ago and both teams are in the same place today as they were in 2019 so how much progress has really been made? AEW is still a relatively new venture, it hasn’t been already long enough for nostalgia to be a selling point. Instead, this was just a retread to try to recapture something that worked before since nothing else has truly gotten off the ground.
Ironically, The Young Bucks’ attempt to change the business from the traditional benchmarks almost proven why the building blocks of the business have endured over decades. High spot wrestling is some incredible stuff, but if you want to draw money on the national level on a long-term basis, there must be substance to go along with the sizzle. Despite some cringe worthy attempts to incorporate heel character development, The Young Bucks are actually less over today with six years of national exposure behind them than they were when the company launched. The organic buzz that they built on social media prior to the start of AEW with their over-the-top style was traded in for a rather forced attempt at trying to desperately sell their importance to the audience. Maybe the criticism that the high spot style lacks depth in the overall presentation has some validity because watching a Young Bucks match once a month on the independent circuit had a much different response to when there was a Young Bucks match on television every week. This isn’t meant as a knock on the match itself, it was very entertaining, I’m just not sure where any of them go from here, Jack Perry got the pin to secure the victory so was this designed to attempt to push him? Should Tony Khan trust Jack Perry with any level of importance in the company again?
The six man tag match between The Hurt Syndicate and The Demand was fine for what it was. There wasn’t anything wrong with it, as it was basically a TV match that you could’ve seen on an episode of Dynamite. The Hurt Syndicate got the win, which isn’t surprising, and the only problem is that with a card that went over four and a half hours, this match could’ve been trimmed from the show without effecting the quality of the pay-per-view.
The TNT title match was really solid and a good representation of the brand. The only problem, besides that it went a few minutes too long and had a few tedious points, is that it was a main event style match, with the dramatic peaks and valleys that you’d expect from a closing segment, in the middle of the card. There was the power bomb on the steel stairs, an apron bump, and the brain buster on the turnbuckle. Some might consider that too risky, especially for the mid-card, but again, it’s one of those aspects that you know come along with the All Elite package. The point being, if this was booked in the main event segment, not to say it should’ve been, but with the type of match they had, it would’ve worked a lot better in that position on the card. Fletcher retained the title.
The Women’s world title match was a good bout that added a level of quality to the overall card. Both Kris Statlander and Toni Storm can go bell-to-bell so this contest was about what you’d expect from two pros that know how to work a match. The ending was a little flat after the extended submission attempt before the pin, but it didn’t take anything away from the segment. Statlander retained. Mercedes Mone made her entrance while Statlander was still in the ring, implying that they might be a match between the two of them. If that happens, it would be nothing more than another way for her to try to shoehorn the Ultimo Dragon gimmick even more than she already has. It gets to the point that it’s silly since for the most part, her All Elite tenure has been somewhat underwhelming. The interim Ring Of Honor Women’s champion, Mina Shirakawa accepted the challenge, but the segment lacked any major importance, as the crowd reaction was minimal. Different from the previous women’s bout, the title vs. title match was rather clunky. Mone won with a backslide and added the ROH interim women’s belt to her mostly meaningless collection of titles. Post-match, there was another confrontation with Statlander so I’d assume that Mone will eventually win that championship as well.
The AEW Tag Team title match was very good. In a sea on nonsense and chaos, there’s undoubtedly quality wrestling within AEW. This was a 30-minute fireworks show and has its place on the card. It would stand out exponentially more if there was even the slightest measured approach to the rest of the card. This was a 30-minute bout that was fast paced and hard-hitting. It was quality action, and the thrown together tag team of Bandido and Brody King became something that has given them both a solid direction in the organization. Bandido pinned Okada to retain the titles.
The AEW world title match was fine for what it was. It just didn’t build any major drama since it was obvious that there wasn’t a realistic chance that Joe was going to win the championship. Page won with the buck shot lariat. The post-match heel turn was very well done, and it worked for the pace of the card as well since it wasn’t in the final segment of the night. Truth be told, the post-match angle was better than the actual bout since it created more intrigue for the future since the result of the match itself wasn’t in doubt. It will be interesting to see if the Page/Joe feud continues and if it’s used to try to boost Page as champion or give Samoa Joe a final world title run before he retires.
The main event was polarizing, which isn’t anything new for the All Elite product, or either of the competitors. A stark reaction is more or less par for the course, an aspect that makes it less “shocking” and more of a level of credibility to some of the criticism of the program. This I Quit match was basically the point in the feud where it was almost a flat point compared to what they did previously in the storyline. That’s why there should be logical limits to what ends up booked on the card, as it eventually leaves you nowhere to go. Darby almost had his ear taken off with a fork, and he set Moxley on fire. Dunking Darby’s head in a fish tank is rather tame by comparison. If you see a head-on collision on the road then see a fender bender five minutes later, it’s not nearly as surprising as it would’ve been otherwise.
Ironically, the match was actually well worked in the first half when they took the time to sell, particularly as Jon Moxley whipped Allin with the belt. The fish tank spot almost looked cartoonish, not dangerous. The Sting cameo was fun to set up the finish where Darby used the Scorpion death lock to get the win. All things considered, Moxley should either take an extended vacation from AEW or potentially return to WWE. I understand that an entire stable of performers are involved, but Moxley and the faction have been completely overexposed in the company.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
