I think Meltzer is just stroking his own ego and the 'exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch' receiving ****½ proved that. I thought the 'exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch' was an absolute dumpster fire and proved AEW is nothing more then TNA with wCw money. Even just going by the match itself Moxley vs. Omega at Revolution wasn't that great.
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If it was in the Tokyo Dome it would have got 10 stars
THE BOTTOM LINE!!!
Probably going to be in the minority here in thinking that it wasn't that bad, but it was NOT ****1/2.
I honestly went into the show thinking it might be a bad idea and was hoping that it would come off good, but I had my doubts. I think because of that way of thinking before hand had me enjoy it more than I thought I would. I just think the pyro being used as an electric shock, everything looking like obvious pyro just is silly to me.
That being said, if an explosion of some type would've went off at the end, they were telling a decent story there. Long time friend turned enemy of Moxley, comes out and "saves Moxley's life" by putting his own at risk. Ok maybe it's like a typical simple action movie story but it's wrestling...it's a decent enough story. Instead nothing goes off but some sparkles and screws the story up..and it didn't help that Kingston still sold it. (though he tried to clean it up later by saying he passed out from the nerves and shock of the situation)
Overall if that is a ****1/2 match..then the bar is a lot lower than it used to be. They could've had a simple no rules barbed wire type of match and it would've been so much better without having the expectations of expecting bombs and explosions going off but getting pyro and sparkles.
It was honestly the AEW's Shockmaster moment.
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I thought it was great except for the horrible finish
Jim Crockett Promotions Fan
A Bad idea and even worse execution. It does remind me of the fact that the first shows I saw Jon Moxley work in 2009 were Dragon Gate USA Shows and Combat Zone Shows. It just shows you how much Jon Moxley loves Hardcore Wrestling so much that he brought back something that reminds me of those Matches that Terry Funk and Cactus Jack did in Japan almost 3 Decades ago.
Stiff Dragon
Well that's not surprising coming from the guy that said AEW tag team division is the best that wrestling ever seen since 80's AJPW. I believe he also said The Young Bucks vs Omega/Page is the greatest tag team match of all time. The old man either lost his mind and forgot the long history of classic tag team matches or this obssession with Omega got to a point where it's clearly getting ridiculous.
If you see the rating on Cagematch(dot)com the match got mixes reviews. I never understood why people pays so much attention to the the star rating system as they are not facts, they are one man's opinion.