James Drake & Zack Gibson vs. Moustache Mountain
They clearly wanted to have the MOTY here, and as a result, this came off as a really dull workrate-movez match. Way too long, too. All the four guys were super generic on the offense; your typical "big" moves & shitty transitions. I give them credit for trying something w/ the Trent FIP segment though; such a shame that it was so damn soulless. Same goes for Tyler's hot tag. I did like the 450 Splash nearfall though, that was legitimately great. Also having watched some Nigel McGuinness matches in the past few days leading up to this event, I must say that the London Dungeon that both Drake & Gibson did looked so goddamn weak. *
Finn Bálor vs. Jordan Devlin
Loved the start with Devlin delivering a disrespectful slap, which Bálor then answered to by completely overwhelming him w/ his signature offense - he runs wild for a while w/ a solid house of fire, but then Devlin catches him with a kick to the ribs. That is when the dynamic changes, and it's Devlin on top w/ Bálor making comeback bursts. Devlin is very focused on the attack - he targets the mid-section in a pretty awesome fashion, and even when it looks like he might be dropping the gameplan, he always goes back to it w/ kicks, abdominal stretches, etc. Bálor's selling in between the moves is pretty damn great, and his comebacks rule. Also an awesome subtle teacher vs. student dynamic to boot. Real good match. ***1/2
Dave Mastiff vs. Eddie Dennis
A really generic big lads no DQ brawl. It wasn't actively bad, but it was slow & plodding as hell, and straight up super forgettable. *1/4
Rhea Ripley vs. Toni Storm
This followed a simple formula of the cocky champ dominating things on top, while the babyface challenger fought from underneath. It's a dynamic that works most of the times, but my goodness was this match dull. Never seemed to kick into the second gear, the finish was REALLY sudden & Toni Storm's overall performance was pretty disappointing; thought that she looked heavily choreographed in parts, and that is literally the worst thing that can be said about a performance in a pro wrestling match, in my opinion. Her comebacks lacked soul, came off as super generic. A very dull performance, certainly not her finest hour. Ripley on the other hand came off as a total rockstar; great charisma & swagger throughout. Solid work on top, too. Sadly her opponent brought things down. *1/2
Joe Coffey vs. Pete Dunne
This was kind of a mess. The structure felt all over the place; one moment they're having Coffey doing work over the back of Dunne, and then the next thing I know they're having generic indy sequences. I did like a few things about it, namely I thought that some of Coffey's back work was very solid - the sequence with him first ramming Dunne to the ring post while they're on the apron, and then powerbombing him off it to the floor was very good. Sadly the back work was complete filler, as Dunne didn't bother to sell it at all. The finish was also pretty awesome - they told the story of Dunne trying to go for the fingers throughout, but Coffey blocked it every time till the finish; once he finally got to do what he wanted to the fingers, he got the win. That's some solid single match long term storytelling. But yeah, sadly the negatives are far bigger than the positives - the match went on WAY too long. I say that about many matches, but this is one of the best/worst examples of it in recent memory; if they had a tight 15 to MAYBE 20 min match w/ the back work & finger stuff, this could've been great, but they wanted to have an epic instead. I understand it, but I ain't a fan of it. The nearfalls were getting pretty comedic by the end, was wondering would it ever end. Oh & of course I gotta mention Coffey's overall performance - I mentioned the back work being solid, and it was, but everything other than that? Pretty goddamn awful. Some of the worst punches in wrestling, and then he outdoes himself with those stomps that were even worse than his punches. This was my first time watching him wrestle, and let me tell ya, certainly not the best first impression of the man inside that ring. Dunne wasn't much better either w/ his bad selling, but at least his offense looked better than Coffey's, even if that's not saying much. *3/4
WALTER's debut
He's the fucking boss *******1/4
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