I normally don’t like blood and weapons matches, but it worked so well here as the blow off to this blood feud. Everyone played his part to perfection:
Finlay – Finally looked like the real leader of War Dogs. He came off as a badass with some of the bumps he took, and unlike Jay, he didn’t act like a cowardly heel. It’s unfortunate that his next match is a heatless title defense against Nic Nemeth because that might kill some of his momentum.
Drilla – Came out looking like Rambo with a fork bandolier and did everything he could with one arm.
Clark – The star of the match for me. He was a total wild man, had some great looking spears, and took some sick bumps with the thumb tacks.
Coughlin – Had some great power spots and looked like a beast. Also showed more character than he had in a while.
Gabe – He’s a fookin madman you know
Ospreay – All time great performance. The storytelling at the end with Ospreay rolling Akira out of the ring so he wouldn’t have to take the beatdown was incredible. Unlike Okada, I get the sense that Ospreay doesn’t want to leave and would have stayed if New Japan could have gotten close to the AEW offer.
Akira – Finally got his revenge against the people who have been tormenting him for months. Showed so much fire as a babyface underdog and should be a favorite to win BOSJ.
TJP – Even though it took him like twenty minutes to change his costume under the ring, I liked the aswang character in this match. But I think he could’ve been more violent with it given what else was going on (thumbtacks, barbed wire, etc.).
Henare – Hopefully the cut he suffered wasn’t too bad. He played off Kidd really well.
Cobb – Like Moloney, did as much as he could with a bum knee.
The only guy who came out looking like a geek was GoK. His buddies are in an all out war, and he’s sorta just there backstage and then at ringside goofing around with Gedo. Maybe they could’ve added Ishimori to the match so GoK could have been included, but that might have killed the vibe of the match.
It’s going to be really hard to top this as MOTY.
by Megistrus
