ALL IN

Matt Cross vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman


An awesome opener. MJF impressed with his work on top - some very nice shoulder/arm targeting by him, and Cross' selling was fine throughout, as well as his flippy comebacks were very good. Good match. ***
 

Christopher Daniels vs. Stephen Amell

A pretty hard match to rate, but I thought Amell (just like at SummerSlam a few years back) looked impressive, and he clearly wanted to give the fans a show, so you just gotta respect that. Daniels is a stud inside the ring, that is for sure. **


Britt Baker vs. Chelsea Green vs. Madison Rayne vs. Tessa Blanchard


Pretty awkward in it's pacing & structure for the most part, but there were a few good sequences here & there. Tessa was clearly the best performer. An OK match. **



Nick Aldis vs. Cody
Cody winning the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship is one of the coolest moments in all of wrestling in 2018. Loved all the pageantry - in particular those MMA style walkouts popped me big time. The actual match was really good, too. Aldis did most of the work on top, as Cody was 200% the babyface here in this setting, and it worked. Aldis was really good working the heat, specifically targeting the back, which Cody sold greatly. His overall babyface performance was pretty damn awesome. Very good match. ***1/2

Hangman Page vs. Joey Janela
Some absolutely insane spots in this one - Joey Janela sure is one crazy ass mofo. Overall a good one, with a bit of an awkward pacing for the first half or so. ***

Jay Lethal vs. Flip Gordon

This sure wasn't good. Seeing the Black Machismo back in action was fun & all, but as the match went on, the gimmick took away from the flow of it. Not that there was much of that without it either, though. Flip was just absolutely awful in this one. *1/2

Kenny Omega vs. Penta El Zero

A very generic back & forth stuff, with both guys doing their shtick & "greatest hits". Wasn't much of a good match, never really clicked for me. It certainly was far from a bad match though. **1/2

Kazuchika Okada vs. Marty Scurll

This had it's moments of dullness, but overall I thought it was a good match that told the story of Marty having something to prove against THE Heavyweight in Kazuchika Okada very well. The ending was pretty badass. ***

The Golden Elite vs. Bandido, Rey Fenix & Rey Mysterio

After reading the reports of this one being cut short due to a few matches before going overtime, it truly was clear as I was watching it. Started off pretty rough w/ stuff that felt overly choreographed & there wasn't much of a flow. Once the Ibushi vs. Mysterio standoff happened though, that's when things got good. Flips, flips & some more flips. While the match being cut short did bring out a few negatives in the match, it also had a good effect in it, as in it helped to give it a nice sense of urgency when they started to go crazy with all the dives. Very good match! ***1/2