00:00Kenny Omega returns, setting up a dream rematch against Kazuchika Okada.
00:04Edge returns, setting up a Moxley and Christian title triangle.
00:09Will Ospreay somehow put two classics on in the same night?
00:14Yet all I want to talk about is that the Tijuana Street Fight clearly had two tricycles set
00:18up on the entrance ramp, but nobody used them.
00:21You ruined 2024 for me, AEW.
00:24You ruined it.
00:25I'm Oli Davis, your new Jam That Jampion, beat Sat Farron Square on our Christmas Day
00:30quiz.
00:31Oh, it's a legit title reign.
00:33And this is my review of World's End 2024… in about 10 minutes.
00:41Before I get into the show, please superkick the thumbs up button and piledrive the subscribe,
00:46as we're about to go into 2025.
00:49Then you can stay up to date with the huge start to the year, with the first Dynamite
00:53on Max this Wednesday, and WWE's massive move to Netflix from the 6th.
00:58The World's End Zero Hour pre-show had Tony Storm beat Layla Gray with a surprise roll-up.
01:02There wasn't much heat, but I think this new Tony Storm is definitely one to watch.
01:06She's got a bright future ahead of her.
01:08Jeff Jarrett beat QT Marshall in the most house show match that ever house showed.
01:12This was such a house show match, I actually took a mortgage out on it.
01:15Most interestingly, however, was Double J announcing he'll make an announcement about
01:19his career on Wednesday's Dynamite, which I'm predicting will be a retirement tour
01:23for 2025.
01:25And Lio Rush stole his team's win from Lance Archer against Top Flight and the Outrunners,
01:29which set up a staredown with Rush and Action Andretti against the tag champion's private
01:33party afterwards.
01:35After the tag team titles main-evented AEW's first pay-per-view of the year with Sting's
01:39retirement, the belts weren't even defended on the pre-show here.
01:43If you're going to elevate teams by giving them the titles, you actually need to book
01:47them like you would established stars.
01:50Sometimes feels like AEW only cares about the tag belts when either the Young Bucks
01:53or FTR have them.
01:55But who needs tag team wrestling when you've got… oh yeah, when you've got tournaments.
02:00And not just tournaments on weekly TV, oh my, but both the semi-finals and the fully
02:07erect finals on the same pay-per-view night.
02:13The main card opened with both of the Continental Classic semi-final matches, which gave the
02:18show thematic bookends.
02:19I'm just pretending Okada vs Ospreay closed the show rather than Moxley's Dick Riders,
02:23making the pay-per-view feel like it had one coherent narrative.
02:26The first of these was the excellent Will Ospreay vs Kyle Fletcher, who started their
02:30competitive blood feud not with a brawl or lock-up like cowards, but with a series of
02:34insanely fast reversals and Ospreay getting busted open with an absolute gusher, and Kyle's
02:39pristinely white boot getting covered in red whenever he kicked Will in the face.
02:43All the blood made it feel like we're at the half hour mark of an epic war, rather
02:47than how long the match had actually been going on for, which was about 3 minutes.
02:51Fletcher tried to use the ropes for a pin, but the referee caught him, arguably giving
02:55him the cheating backfire that led to his loss, as it then went into a series of great
02:59near falls, and Will somehow telling physics to take the Christmas period off when he reversed
03:03a Brain Buster into a Hurricane Rana, then a Styles Clash to win.
03:07Even though I predicted Fletcher to win at the start of the tournament, I feel like he's
03:11come out looking even better than when it began.
03:14Especially with the actual best spot of this match, when he ripped up a fan's sign that
03:18read Ospreay's better, for the same fan to reveal a backup sign that read Ospreay's
03:23still better.
03:24I could also see either Ricochet or Okada winning their match, with both guys having
03:29built in stories against Ospreay in the final.
03:31They had a very different kind of story to Will and Fletcher, with Okada realising he's
03:36got to wrestle twice tonight, so he's going to do… well, mostly nothing.
03:39But there's few better at doing mostly nothing than the defending Continental Champion.
03:45And him running the ropes back and forth and side to side just to slap Ricochet on the
03:49baldness of his head, mocking everything Ospreay and Fletcher just did, was one of the night's
03:54best spots.
03:55He eventually hit one Rainmaker in just over 10 minutes to win.
03:58Afterwards, Swerve Strickland came out to deliver on his promise of humiliating Ricochet
04:02if he blew it in the C2, giving the crowd toilet rolls to throw at Ric as though they
04:06were streamers, which Ricochet sold by vibrating with anger.
04:10I think Ospreay with the bleeding head was more in need of that tissue paper.
04:14Both Ospreay covered in blood and swearing, and Okada, calm with barely a drop of sweat
04:19on him, cut promos with Renee backstage, establishing the injured underdog vs the greatest tournament
04:25wrestler of all time for the final later on.
04:29Reymae then retained her women's title against Thunder Rosa in a filler spot, both in terms
04:34of the show, with them wrestling a Tijuana Street Fight as a hardcore palate cleanser
04:38from the opening C2 matches, but also in May's title reign, with Rosa just filling time until
04:43that plucky rookie Toni Storm can build herself up to face Mariah.
04:47There were trash cans, there was Mr Rosa's walking stick, there was a piñata full of
04:52thumbtacks, but there wasn't a single use of the two tricycles that were placed by the
04:59entrance.
05:01I love Adam Cole, I love MJF, I loved a lot of what they did together in 2023, so it genuinely
05:15hurts me to see them both still in this lacklustre feud.
05:19Matt Taven and Mike Bennett were guarding the Dynamite Diamond Ring at ringside to stop
05:22Max from using it.
05:24Both MJF and Cole bladed, which makes sense with their blood feud, but it felt like a
05:27cheap way to get the crowd invested.
05:29Max threw himself into the steel steps to frame Taven and Bennett to get them ejected.
05:34He tried to use the Diamond Ring behind the referee's back, but Cole got it off him
05:38to, like, zero heat.
05:40Max kicked him in the balls instead, and hit one Heatseeker for a weak win.
05:45Max went to pulmonise Cole's previously injured ankle in a chair afterwards, but rather
05:49than Taven and Bennett, who were literally just there making the save, Roderick Strong
05:54and Kyle O'Reilly came down instead.
05:56They all hit their moves on MJF, Taven and Bennett joined them, the Undisputed Kingdom
06:01are all together again.
06:04Again to not much heat.
06:05I just hope them and Max can go their separate ways and move on from this story now.
06:09I wouldn't mind if Tekashta and Hobbs continued their feud, though, because it turns out we
06:13didn't eat all the turkey at Christmas, as there was still a load of meat in this
06:18ring.
06:19Hobbs sold his knee really well throughout, giving him the underdog psychology despite
06:22being the more powerful of the two.
06:24Aubrey ended up having to help Hobbs remove his leg brace, but that let Tekashta hit his
06:29raging fire to retain the international title.
06:32After one of the best women's matches in AEW history at Full Gear, Mercedes Monet and
06:36Chris Statlander went at it again over the TBS title here, and it was just as good.
06:42Going 25 minutes, not only the longest match on the card, but also the longest women's
06:46pay-per-view match in AEW history, Monet and Chris told a great story of power vs smarts.
06:53They got over Chris' strength advantage early, having her carry Monet up the steel
06:57steps to hit a body slam on the apron.
06:59But then, in a neat mirror image, Mercedes hit her own ring apron powerbomb move, from
07:03slipping out of Chris' top rope superplex attempt, using her smarts.
07:08This played into the finish, where the apron got pulled off the side of the ring, and Mercedes
07:12wedged Statlander's boot in the metal rungs underneath.
07:15I'm choosing to ignore that Monet broke the count to do that to, um, win by countout.
07:20Chris took her boot off to escape, using her smarts now as her power has taken a hit,
07:25but walked straight into a piledriver on the apron.
07:28This led to a fantastic visual, where Monet was celebrating a countout win sitting by
07:32the ropes when Chris climbed back in the ring to shock beside her.
07:37Monet ultimately got the win, though, getting the better of a sequence of technical pins.
07:41Even though Mercedes has beaten Chris clean twice, it felt like they could do a third
07:45match.
07:46I would've preferred the C2 final to have been the main event.
07:49It was far bigger than Moxley's four way filler title defence, and had the much more
07:53dramatic story.
07:54Will stumbled down to the ring with his head bandaged up, dried blood in his hair, while
07:58Okada gracefully walked down, ready to work over Will's head and leg for 15 minutes,
08:03before going absolutely crazy for the last five.
08:06The final act of this match was the best thing on the entire show for me.
08:11Firstly, Ospreay hit the Styles Clash, the move he beat Fletcher with earlier in the
08:14night, but Okada kicked out.
08:16Then Okada hit his Rainmaker, the move he beat Ricochet with earlier in the night, but
08:21Ospreay kicked out.
08:23They then went into an incredible sequence that brought the whole crowd to their feet,
08:27finishing with Will hitting a Rainmaker of his own, then a Stormbreaker for a nearfall.
08:32They went even faster with several more moments, Okada hitting his perfect every time dropkick
08:37counter on Will's Oscutter, and Okada hit a Rainmaker to win.
08:41I don't think there's a 20 minute time limit for the final, but I wish this could've
08:45gone five more minutes.
08:46I would've also had Ospreay win, considering he's mostly lost his big matches this year,
08:51but the post-match showed why Okada was the right choice.
08:55Christopher Daniels walked out to say he can't present the Continental title to Okada because
08:59he's no longer an EVP.
09:02But this man is.
09:04Introducing Kenny Omega.
09:08Yes, I don't know why AEW has a one EVP in, one EVP out rule.
09:13Yes, I also thought Daniels was an acting EVP for Tony Khan, not Omega.
09:17What are the rules?
09:18What are the rules?
09:20But it doesn't matter, because Kenny is back, and we got a tantalising shot of him
09:24going face to face with Okada and the All In 2025 poster in the background.
09:30The AEW World title main event was unfortunately by far the weakest match on the main card,
09:36and the crowd had already peaked for the last several matches.
09:39The Dick Ryders interfered early, with security eventually walking them out of the stands.
09:43Cassidy Page and Wight hit a Shield style powerbomb on Moxley through the table.
09:47Everyone started to hit their big moves, but at just 15 minutes, they started to work towards
09:51the interference heavy finish.
09:53Wheelie Yuta took out the ref, breaking up Jey's Blade Runner pin on Mox.
09:57Wight had a Blade Runner on Marina, but Yuta hit a knee on Wight, letting Moxley retain
10:02in a very limp finish.
10:03The big post-match angle was FTR coming out first, for their tron to neatly switch to
10:07RATED FTR for Adam Copeland to make his return and spear Moxley, while Christian, who has
10:13the title contract, was watching on from the stands.
10:16AEW World's end is 75%.
10:19But who was the best wrestler of 2024?
10:21Click the video onscreen now to watch our special episode of Tables, Lists and Chairs.
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