Casino Battle Royale
Who would challenge Moxley in the night's main event, a shot at becoming interim AEW world champion at stake? We found out early in Wednesday's broadcast as the Casino Battle Royale to determine Moxley's opponent kicked off the evening.
Darby Allin, Daniel Garcia, "Murderhawk Madman" Lance Archer, Eddie Kingston and Tony Nese, kicked off the match. Ricky Starks, Jake Hager, Rey Fenix, Swerve Strickland, and Keith Lee arrived on the scene next.
The Dark Order's John Silver, The Acclaimed's Max Caster, Konoske Takeshita and The Gun Club (Austin and Colten Gunn) entered next. Dante Martin, Wheeler Yuta, Powerhouse Hobbs and RedDragon (Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish) rounded out the four card-themed suits.
Andrade El Idolo returned after a few weeks off, entering the match as The Joker to complete the collection of combatants.
The so-so battle royal took too long to get started, with talent packing the ring before rapid-fire eliminations ensued. Once the field thinned, things got better, with more room and opportunity to do more really enhancing the action.
Still, it took a bit too long to get to that point before O'Reilly scored the win to continue his recent string of victories and set up what should be a damn good main event against Moxley later in the show.
A damn physical one, too.
Grade
C+
Top Moments
- Ring announcer Justin Roberts revealed the match to be a Casino Battle Royale, with a different collection of competitors entering in intervals. This twist, usually reserved for pay-per-view, was not announced ahead of the show.
- Strickland eliminated Lee to add credibility to the "every man for himself" theme of the match type.
- Caster took credit for CM Punk's broken foot during his pre-match rap.
- Yuta as the second-to-last competitor elevated his stock and teased the possibility of a Blackpool Combat Club-heavy main event.