We've got one more AEW show to cover before All Out in Fight for the Fallen. It only got two weeks of build, so the main card hasn't exactly gotten a lot of hype manufactured for it, but that's not a problem for the Buy In, which tends to consist of thrown together matches for it anyway. Certainly, "thrown together" is the correct term for this one, the two matches AEW decided to showcase here are about as awkward as any I've seen from this company.
- Woof, that logo is ugly. I know, I know, it's just a free preview show and the fact that logos are even designed for these Buy Ins is a level of added legitimacy that other companies don't have, but it still looks awful. This Buy In comes to you from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida, with Alex Marvez and Excalibur on the call. I wasn't a fan of Marvez at Double or Nothing, but I thought he was fine here, though that might be because the action in the ring slowed down to match his muted style.
- The first of our two contests on the Buy In features the return of Sonny Kiss, who opened some eyes in the Casino Battle Royal back in May, and he's taking on Peter Avalon. Kiss' athletic ability is unreal, and I do love the usage of the splits to avoid moves. Unfortunately, I don't have much to say about this match, Kiss is still unpolished as a performer and Avalon is extremely bland in the ring. Kiss gets the win with a unique split-style leg drop off the top rope.
- Buy In main event time, as Riho and Britt Baker team up to face two top champions in the Joshi world, at least at this moment, in Shoko Nakajima and Bea Priestley. A lot of the Joshi influence I've seen in AEW thus far resulted in some standout matches, but this certainly was a big miss. This match is extremely sloppy, none of the four women have any experience tagging with each other and I think the language barrier may have caused them to simplify everything, with almost no interesting spots booked. Nothing looks fluid, but the match does elevate when they stop trying to wrestle and just start brawling. The highlight was the collision between Baker and Priestley, as the crowd seems hyped to seem them and their exchange at least looks more believable than Riho and Nakajima's weak forearms. Shoko gets the win with a sloppy hurricanrana into a pin.
3/10
Boy, this was a near-disaster for AEW. The only good news was that it was the shortest Buy In to date, so at least it didn't overstay it's welcome, but even at 45 minutes, it was still way too long. Honestly, without Sonny Kiss, this is bordering on a 0 for me. His entrance with the Jaguars cheerleaders and mascot was cool, but the actual wrestling on display was average at best. That women's tag match is the type of thing that can kill a division. Even though my expectations aren't high for these pre-shows, the previous two had at least one killer angle, like the Casino Battle Royal or that amazing triple threat tag match at Fyter Fest. The best we got here was what, a short promo from Cody and Dustin Rhodes? This isn't gonna cut it.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Fight for the Fallen 2019, which hopefully will be at least a little better than this mess, featuring a brothers versus brothers clash in the main event as Cody and Dustin take on Matt and Nick Jackson. See you soon.
- Henry
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