props to everyone for working stiff, but even when they got it right they still sometimes felt the need to inject Sports Entertainment

i loved the boneyard match, but the druids and the pyro each took 30-60 seconds for me to recover from. that was the best filmed fight scene ive ever seen...until the pyro went off and the druids vanished. but AJ and Taker were unbelievable, and the verbal interactions were absolutely amazing. i believed in everything they did, and it oddly reaffirmed what really makes wrestling awesome. two believable guys that believably hate each other, and have a fight because one is a fucking asshole. the selling was easily the best ive seen since I was a teenager, and "please dont bury me" was the highest spot in wrestling this year. granted all thats easier with reshoots and editing, but still.

the firefly funhouse thing...it was alright i guess, but if there is no plan for some 4th wall breaking John Cena rebirth it kinda just felt like a shoot burial of his legit body of work. laughing at his annointing because Vince could never let go of outdated ideas, criticizing him for not being able to evolve his character...that seemed oddly, idk, hurtful lol. only the end felt like a work because Wyatt strikes me as the kind of guy who actually has no issues doing jobs, because he obviously knows how to use that to get over down the road. but no opportunity to refute the other stuff, then *poof* hes gone? i didnt like that part.

Edge vs Orton...wow. seems like i liked that more than a lot of other people did. again, stiff as fuck, and i believe in "edge" and the "legend killer" so i believed in why they were doing it. in that regard, the "old guys" put on a clinic in selling and emoting. i can see why some people thought it was too long, but for me the length made for some excellent legitimate wear and tear effects in the last 10 minutes that added to the intensity for me.

Charlotte vs Rhea Ripley...also wow. Shades of Hart v Austin at WM. Charlotte is the best in that whole company, full stop, and thats why shes going to be on NXT now. This is the first real sign that AEW is landing body blows, because shes a star that acts like a star, and knows how to do what her daddy used to do. Win and get someone else over at the same time. I dont watch NXT regularly but i did watch Shayna vs Ripley, and this match did more for her in my eyes than that one did...because she held her own with the only prime-age Icon in all of wrestling right today. I could watch her matches over and over and over again. She made Asuka look like a million bucks 2 years ago, hopefully they do better with Ripley. best traditional match of the night for me.

beyond that Becky-Shayna, Rollins-Owens, and Zayn-Bryan were all very good. Brock-Drew was dumb. I hate Hate HATE when repeated finishers only seem to help someone recover from the first one. Goldberg-Strowman was the only way out of their Saudi Arabian money-grab booking.

the rest of the good stuff was all individual things within over- or under- booked matches (John Morrison finish, Bayley-Sasha interplay, Otis-Dolph finish)

the remainder meant nothing to me in either direction.