Had a blast at this but I'm now in the camp that ppvs are too long. By the time the main event started, I was exhausted and ready to get on the road.
Based on the line and my section I'd say there was a solid mix of casual watchers with the SICKOS because there were a lot of people talking about how they don't follow the shows regularly, only know certain people, etc. This was also obvious during the show when people would be asking who the fuck certain guys were (GOA, Conners, Kevin Knight)
Preshow
Marina Vs Windsor- aside from chanting at Marina to wash her feet there was really nothing going on here.
Kamille Vs BIG ANNE- No one knew who Kamille was at all.
Jack Vs Mark Davis- My brother and I refused to do the arm wavey thing and tried to cheer Davis. Got very little support. Fun match though. Jack is the first in my group of "better when I don't have to look at his goofy facials" category for tonight.
Divine Dominian Vs Maya World/Hyan- God damn Megayn Bayne is THICK. People got into the faces a lot and the heels continue to improve as big hosses.
Main Show
Bucks Vs Okada/Takeshita- Next entry in "better when I can't see their faces" are the Bucks. This might have been my MOTN. Okada was hysterical and the collapse of the heel team was perfect. Bucks pulled out a ton of great offense. Everyone was smooth as silk. The way they set up spots was fast and looked great. I'll compare this to another match latter.
Jericho Vs Ricochet- I don't know how this was on tv but Jericho was probably the second most over person on the show to my disgust. He did work his ass off and was way better than I expected him to be. Some fun spots but this also went way too long. As soon as Jericho lost a big portion of the crowd hit the concessions. People weren't happy at him losing but it wasn't a huge deal.
Darby Vs Andrade- The crowd loved Andrade. At the start of the match the AEW security came out in my section and we were talking with the one head security guy a little. Andrade taking his pants off after we chanted for it got a huge pop.
FTR Vs Cage and Cope- Canadians 0-2 now felt like a weird choice and it did deflate the crowd a bit. This was a good match but FTR went over awfully clean here. Crowd wasn't pleased.
Gauntlet match- I hated this. Maybe it's better on tv when you can't see everyone lying around doing nothing, watching for their queue to get back in. Or slowly getting in position for the dives. This made the Bucks stuff look so much better. They also only put the timer up on the screen at the top of the ramp so you had to look away from the ring to know it was happening, and only for the last few seconds. Really hurt the countdown pop. Half the time people barely knew it was happening. Glad Knight won though.
Thekla Vs Hayter- like a third of the crowd (all men of course) got up to piss but Hayter was hugely over with the people who stayed. Also god damn does her ass look great live. Thekla has great heel ring presence.
Moxley Vs Ospreay- People love Will. No one joined my attempts to start a bow for Moxley. A lot of people were confused by the time limit but I think it made the match better. Really great brutal match. Will just too desperate to hurt Mox and not ready.
Conglomeration Vs Dogs- The entrance was great as was Kidd pissing on the couch. OReilly got a great pop and a lot of us were expecting him but people were clearly tired and the match falling apart made it worse. I missed Kidd getting hurt but noticed him leaving via the crowd. I hope he'll be ok. At least a Canadian finally won!
MJF Vs Omega- Omega was of course the most over guy at the show but there was a good sized chunk of us vocally cheering for MJF. I'd have liked this more if I wasn't so tired but it was still great. Omega is the final member of the "Better when I can't see his face" group for the night although I'm still docking points for the kungfu pose he did during the match which had several people calling him a "fucking dork". We left pretty fast after MJF won.
I don't know if having all the big Canadian names lose was the smartest way to book the first ppv here and they could have cut a match or two maybe but it was a great show and a fun time. I'll for sure go to another ppv if they come back.
