the positives were awesome. jungle boy vs MJF was far and away the highlight of the show for me. no fuckery, real selling, real charisma...top notch all the way around. that should be a PPV main event some day.

the battle royal was fun in a way that the main event was not, bc there was nothing that didn't make sense. well, not TOO much. the brian cage burial and resurrection was a little heavy handed but whatever. Frankie Kazarian has really won me over just by being a physical realistic competitor. i hated the SCU Sgt. Pepper thing last summer, but his work has made me have mad respect for him.

Kris Statlander is gonna kill someone. she's
got a lot of potential, but her botches are just too much and kept their hottest heel off the PPV.

kip sabian to me is a perfect chicken-shit midcard heel.

i expected fuckery in the Nyla Rose - Shida match, and i was disappointed in the finish, but otherwise it was a pleasant surprise. it didnt need the stipulations but i enjoyed that the no-dq was kinda marginalized and it was basically just a no count-out match with spots that were fun, again in a way the main event wasnt, because it never overshadowed the idea that these women were fighting for something important.

Cody - Archer, also very very good, until something happened that almost made me choke on my dinner. a referee came from the back to enforce some authority. what in the absolute fuck. these jabronis have been getting buried by talent for 12 months amd now the worst fucking ref in the whole company is coming out to swing his dick around? totally ejected me from what had been a decent amount of emotional investment, but they reeled me back in for the end. good match.

Moxley and Luke Harper did stuff to each other back and forth for a while, spending about 7-8 minutes outside of the ring while the same ref who charged out of the back earlier just pleaded with them to get in the ring. dude never even made a 1 count. thanks for burying yourself and slapping me in the face with the fact that none of this matters. im starting to think that Moxley needs to be produced. his stuff looks good and hes an engaging promo, but his matches can be boring and the ineffectual referee killed this for me.

which brings me to the main event. a carnival of fuckery unmatched in televised wrestling history. first of all, everything Jericho was directly involved with was absolutely perfect. the challenge flag, the mascot, the review, the line...everything worked because he stayed serious even drenched in absurdity. of course Chris Jericho would drop the mascot and demand video review of a 2 count.

on the other end of the spectrum we have Matt Hardy and the Young Bucks. i was always under the impression Broken Matt Hardy worked in Impact because no one ever indulged the idea that he was ACTUALLY POSSESSED. but no, he is actually endowed with supernatural powers, and Excalibur drives that home incessantly. i feel bad for Jim Ross in times like that. everything hes been involved in since he showed up has made me feel like an idiot for even trying to care about it.

the Bucks...i would honestly prefer if they were just never on TV again. the show was better without them, i dont believe in anything they do, and its all just moves moves moves. if wrestling were guitar music, they are Bill and Ted trying to do Yngwie Malmsteen, and it oozes out of their pores that they are just 2 dorks acting like what they think pro wrestlers act like. Kenny Omega is adapting and slowly, with fits and starts and setbacks, becoming a TV character i can be interested in. its just not happening with these assclowns.

overall a good time. more of the good stuff and less of the bad stuff plz.