All Elite Wrestling made their Scotland debut last night as about 90% of the Scottish wrestling world congregated at the OVO Hydro. Me? I was at home so have sat my butt down and watched the Dynamite portion of the show back as big Tony K intended with the camera angles and commentary etc.

I’ll be blunt with you now, I don’t watch AEW. Outside of YouTube highlights and whatever comes across my timeline on social media it’s a foreign world. Being chronically online though does have the advantage of having an idea of the storylines coming into their big Forbidden Door event on Sunday in that there London so I wasn’t totally lost but might not have the nuances of callbacks to mind.

While keeping track of the goings on with the plethora of Scottish wrestlers appearing in an in-ring capacity or as security (ROH and Collision spoilers) it was an exciting evening even if I wasn’t in Glasgow to witness it in person.

So let’s light the fuse my dudes!

As Bryan Danielson made his way out to join commentary there was a cut to “Hangman” Adam Page exiting a Scotrail train with his case… no wonder Hangman drinks…

Will Ospreay entered to a big reaction from the UK crowd who serenaded him with an Olé chant. Ospreay had a chat with the crowd, talking the first time he came to Scotland and got a Greggs chant going (I’m sure they are prepping the advertising contracts already). Will switched to talking about the Death Riders, not being cleared to wrestle at Forbidden Door but will do it anyway cause he wants revenge bruv.

Will said his name so he appeared (but I don’t think Ospreay believes in Jon Moxley *stab* *stab*). Mox sauntered to the ring along with Marina Shafir via the crowd. Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta popped up on the apron but soon had Kevin Knight and Speedball Mike Bailey out to start a scrap.

Hiroshi Tanahashi gingerly ran out to even the odds and get the opening match started.

Trios Match – Hiroshi Tanahashi, & Jetspeed (Kevin Knight & Speedball Mike Bailey) defeated Death Riders (Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, & Claudio Castagnoli) w/Marina Shafir by pinfall.

Tanahashi and Moxley started off with Mox able to drag his opponent to the Death Riders corner to start the isolation. Tanahashi took Yuta down with a dragon screw to get Speedball in who went to kicking and flying.

Once again Death Riders got back in control with Marina Shafir blatantly kicking Kevin Knight and ringside in front of referee Bryce Remsburg who ejected Shafir with a little help from Will Ospreay returning and carrying her out of the arena. With it now a fair three on three match, Kevin Knight got the wheels turning, diving to the outside to take out Yuta and Castagnoli. Knight’s celebration was short lived when Mox ran him into the barrier and sent him back into the lion’s den with a waiting Claudio.

It was a Death Rider mugging on Kevin Knight as they kept the fresh man in to put the boots to Knight as he fought back to finally get Tanahashi tagged in to take it to Wheeler Yuta with a second rope senton. A triple twisting neckbreaker look to set up more high risk escapades but Gabe Kidd, Robbie X, Clark Connors, and Drilla Moloney of the Bullet Club War Dogs arrived to cause a ruckus.

Will Ospreay arrived on the stage with a body bag that distracted Moxley and Claudio long enough for JetSpeed to hit stereo dives and for Tanahashi to drop down with a High Fly Flow splash to pin Wheeler Yuta.

A big brawl erupted, The Young Bucks arrived to deliver a double superkick Ospreay but were grabbed by Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong to throw hands to the back. As Mox and Claudio investigated the body bag it turned out to be a ruse with Darby Allin bursting out like a Gremlin that was dipped in water. Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Katsuyori Shibata arrived to join in as the fighting went around the Hydro. As they all congregated around one of the exits Darby Allin dropped onto the crowd of bodies with a Coffin Drop to close the section.

30 minutes in and we had a promo, match, and big schmoz to fit in as many wrestlers that people would’ve paid money to see into one segment, cool. Ospreay’s opening was fine and hit the emotional beats but something unsettles me in this day and age with the whole “I’m not medically cleared to compete but I’ll fight anyway” thing. We’ve seen what gutting through injuries has done to stubborn wrestlers and there are better ways to drive home the same point without bringing that reality in.

It also makes management look silly that they are allowing it to happen “unsanctioned” or not (the only way an unsanctioned match works, in my opinion, is if we see an independent referee outwith the usual team in charge to at least show that these guys want to fight so much they have got their own ref so that AEW wouldn’t be liable despite them providing a ring, lighting, sound, cameras… okay I think if I start picking holes into the reality of professional wrestling I will be here for a long time, Irish Whips amirite?)

Sidebar: an unsanctioned match but one of the wrestlers provides their own ring that is set up just off the stage, it can look a bit ramshackled and last minute in organisation to add to the facade of the stipulation, and it has to be set up by an independant team away from the AEW crew. Unsanctioned matches are just a fancy name for a street fight, there are still rules so why not play around with the things that can be changed to make it feel like a separate part of the show y’know.

The match was fine, everyone got a bit of the action, Kevin Knight looked very good. Tanahashi moved slowly and looked to be in constant pain which was hard to watch. The reveal of Darby Allin got a big reaction, and I enjoyed Samoa Joe going back for one last kick to Moxley as the dust was settling on the spectacular dive from Allin, he made the most of his minutes on screen.

Adam “No Pyro” Copeland arrived, Glasgow delivered an acapella encore of Metalingus which was followed by another banger of an entrance theme as Christian Cage made his way to the ring to join Copeland.

The reunion was interrupted by Mama Wayne and Kip Sabian who introduced Nick Wayne on the tron to announce that due to a broken foot that he wouldn’t be in action at Forbidden Door but found a replacement in Killswitch. Killswitch stormed out, bathed in Luchasaurus chants, to chokeslam Copeland and doing the same to Christian Cage who suffered a nasty landing on his shoulder.

Mark Briscoe appeared before the break declaring that he was going to find MJF and kill him. We came back to Ricochet and the Gates of Agony being propositioned by MJF to find Mark Briscoe before Briscoe found MJF. Trevor accepted.

Tag Team Eliminator – Final – FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) w/Stokely vs Brodido (Brody King & Bandido) ended in a time limit draw.

Dax Harwood and Bandido kicked off, Dax tried to take things down to a technical level while Bandido tried to pick up the agility only to be driven to the mat with a shoulder block as the match started slowly. Harwood brought in Cash Wheeler with Bandido standing his ground.

Bandido faked out a dive to have FTR scrambling. Harwood started throwing chairs but in his tantrum Bandido tagged in Brody King who powered Cash around with Dax not faring much better with a couple hard chops.

Cash jumped on the back of King which was enough for Dax to hit a piledriver but Brody just shook it off and went back to smashing FTR around. Stokely made his presence felt with a pipe loaded punch to Brody King while the referee was occupied in the ring. Brody started bleeding from the forehead as FTR rolled him back in to isolate the big man.

King and Harwood traded chops and forearms, a back suplex from Brody King left both laying but Dax still had the energy to scoot to his corner to tag in Cash, who landed a Vader Bomb for a near fall. Brody held on to drag himself to his corner as Bandido once again tried to get the pace to his liking by sending FTR to the outside but his diving senton was caught by Harwood and Wheeler who slammed him onto the apron face first.

FTR went back to work, driving Bandido down with a brainbuster followed with a double team Demolition Decapitation and keeping him in their corner. Dax lead Bandido to the top turnbuckle but Bandido chopped his way out of the superplex predicament to land a flying crossbody block. Dax grabbed the leg of Bandido while Cash ran across the ring to knock a bloody Brody King off the apron.

A prolonged beat down had Bandido finally get a reprieve, taking down FTR with a hurricanrana and a double DDT to get Brody King back into the match who ran through Dax and Cash with pure power throwing himself with a senton from the apron to the floor followed by a diving senton over the ropes by Bandido.

Stokely tried to get involved again but Bandido fought him off, retrieving his stolen mask and switching it over before scaling up to the top again to land a frog splash onto Harwood for two. Cash was busy at ringside pushing King into the ringpost and planting him with a tornado DDT but King recovered quickly to stop an attempted a Power & Glory superplex/splash combination to Bandido by putting Wheeler into a sleeper hold while Bandido countered with a top rope hurricanrana for another near fall.

Brodido went for the Power & Glory combination but FTR managed to counter it into one of their own that King still managed to kick out of. It was announced that 25 minutes had elapsed with 5 remaining. FTR landed a Shatter Machine to Brody King but Bandido had tagged in beforehand as the sense of urgency was evident.

Both teams threw everything at the other as the time counted down, FTR gave Brody King an assisted piledriver on the apron, Bandido countered a Shatter Machine but couldn’t escape the second time of asking but King broke up the count with 60 seconds remaining.

FTR pulled out a table, for some reason, but Cash Wheeler found himself diving through the ropes to try and get to Bandido and ended up crashing through the wood as the bell rang. Bandido landed a German Suplex to Dax Harwood after the bell.

It was announced, per Tony Khan, that both teams would face The Hurt Syndicate at Forbidden Door, Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, and MVP entered to stare down their opponents from the entrance ramp after the match.

The crowd remained invested throughout the 30 minutes. It was a well paced match with the last 5 minutes being really good, except for the table pull out with 60 seconds left which seemed like an out of character strategy from a team that is highly rated for their mentality. That strategic prowess was shown over the course of the match with the constant grabbing of their opponents legs to stop tags being made, and just making it difficult for either Brody or Bandido to string a combination of moves together. Brody King was like a terminator and despite pissing blood early on that didn’t seem to stop he was quickly back to his feet more often than not after big moves, like the apron piledriver, which I’m unsure if it makes King look tough or FTR’s offense weak that Brody was just trucking along despite them throwing everything at him.

“Hangman” Adam Page made his way out and had a rant about MJF jumping him the week prior, Page looked right into the camera to deliver his declaration that he was going to shove his size 12 boot up MJF’s ass. MJF’s music hit but no entrance was made. Tony Schiavone announced that MJF had a camera backstage which revealed a tied up Mark Briscoe with Ricochet, Gates of Agony, and MJF. Briscoe was dosed in petrol while MJF proceeded to demand three changes to their match at Forbidden Door.

Page agreed to the title changing on a disqualification, the title changing on a count out, and that MJF didn’t have to use his Casino Gauntlet title shot for their match. As the transmission ended Hangman grabbed a chair and rushed backstage as the show went to a break. As we returned Page cracked a chair off the back of a loitering Ricochet while the titanic security team of Adam King, Marcus King, Brody Turnbull, Jake Lawless, and Gabriel Saul broke up the brawl. Saul let Page know that MJF had left the building so he got sucker punched in reply.

Athena & Mercedes Moné defeated Toni Storm & Alex Windsor by pinfall.

Adorned in a red and black tartan, Toni Storm was the firm favourite in the OVO Hydro but it was Alex Windsor and Mercedes Moné that started off. Windsor had the number of Mercedes, being one step ahead with headlocks and winning a shoulder block collision.

The CEO pulled out some agility, trying to lock in an arm trapped crossface but the strength of Alex Windsor kept Mercedes from locking the hands. Moné dived with a crossbody but Windsor managed to roll through and threw Mercedes into her teams corner to bring in Toni Storm to a roar.

In a preview for Forbidden Door, Athena tagged in and bamboozled Storm with a high energy fast offense but Toni weathered the storm(!) to take Athena down. The match broke down with all four getting in about it, Athena exploded through the ropes to send Windsor spine first into the announce desk, Storm sent Moné off the apron with a hip attack, but Athena slammed Toni down at ringside with a powerbomb.

After the chaos subsided, Mercedes Moné and Athena got the upper hand back into the ring as they isolated Alex Windsor in the corner. Mercedes and Athena took a lot of joy from beating down Windsor, taunting Toni Storm while driving the knees and boots into Alex’s face.

A little miscommunication allowed Windsor to crawl her way to Toni Storm who came in swinging to take Athena down with a Thesz Press. A Fisherman’s Suplex caught a near fall as Toni and Alex got the momentum going with a unique tag team moveset. Moné pushed Windsor off the turnbuckle which swung the meter back to Mercedes and Athena who got back on the same page to keep Toni Storm away from her corner.

The Hydro willed Toni Storm to get the tag as she and Athena got to their respective corners for Alex Windsor to fire out of her corner right after Mercedes Moné. A Blue Thunder Bomb almost wrapped it up but Athena broke the fall. Toni Storm returned to the action but Athena piledrove her onto the ring steps to leave Windsor all alone.

Mercedes tried to trap Windsor with a crossface but Alex rolled through to lift Moné for a Samoan Drop. Windsor locked in a Sharpshooter that had Moné tap but referee Aubrey Edwards informed her that Mercedes was not the legal woman. As Alex tried to make sense of it all Athena appeared from the skies out of nowhere with an O-Face to pick up the victory.

Of the three matches this was, for me, the best on the show. The dynamic of Mercedes Moné and Athena not quite on the same page but were able to get it together as the match went on, Toni Storm making Mercedes uncomfortable with her shenanigans, Alex Windsor making Moné tap out teased a potential title change on Sunday, it all worked.

Athena was an absolute beast from her high impact offense to the piledriver on the ring steps that looked killer, and Storm treated it as such by not having the super human comeback that I felt wasn’t done well in the previous tag team match. All four looked very good and accomplished a lot with each moment getting to breathe within 10/15 minutes given. A belter of a main event that really sold both matches for Sunday.

When I saw that there were three matches in two hours I came into this with heavy trepidation but the show spaced out things well. It felt more like a bonus final push to Forbidden Door with getting everyone on the show with focus put onto each match per segment. My drawback to AEW in the past was always been the unnecessary references to things that weren’t relevant to the story but every promo was tight to the point to put all focus on All Elite Wrestling and the matches that were being pushed for London.

My only thing I would possibly add is an authority figure which may’ve made the tag team announcement, and maybe the Will Ospreay segment, a bit grander but that is a nitpick as the Hydro audience were loud and all in on everything presented to them. The Dynamite portion of the night with the lack of matches looked to be made up with the never ending conveyor belt of matches that followed for Collision.

There was plenty of variety on the show from the technical to the flying, to the silly with Toni Storm, and the chaos of the melee after the opening match, with Kevin Knight and Athena being the stand outs for me on this show.

An easy watch and it may’ve just pulled me into the All Elite Wrestling universe for future viewing.