We hear the phrase "professional wrestling does not have an off season" all the time. Since tracking every match I've watched for the year, I'm not only seeing how true this is, but I am also realizing that there isn't even down time. I've essentially dubbed this past month "oops all AEW", who has put on by far the best matches of any major promotion. I'm sure next month will be more neck and neck between the two American promotions as WrestleMania is about to be here. However as WWE was building for their biggest event of the year, AEW treated Revolution like it was theirs.
In terms of important events, March began with AEW's Revolution. Which had several Match of the year contenders take place. I could spend pages discussing every match on this card, but there was simply too much this month to afford that. I want to talk about 3 matches in particular. Continental Classic winner Eddie Kingston defended his Continental Crown Championship against Bryan Danielson. these two have competed against each other previously. A stipulation for this match was that the loser had to shake the winner's hand. on paper, this might not be the most enticing stipulation. However Eddie Kingston has had to prove his might to every member of Blackpool Combat Club, His former best friend Jon Moxley, his worst enemy Claudio Castagnoli, and now his biggest doubter: Bryan Danielson. The American Dragon, truly believed that Kingston was nothing more than a bum who got lucky. Danielson called him the king of the bums, which Eddie took and reclaimed as a badge of honor.
The Mad King and The American Dragon battled for just shy of 20 minutes. trading lethal punches and kicks. Danielson has learned in their previous encounters how dangerous Eddie Kingston and his Uraken spinning backfist truly are, So Danielson needed to turn Kingston's greatest strength to his biggest weakness. Danielson spent most the match targeting the right arm, all in hopes to neutralize the Uraken. At one point Eddie gets baited to strike Danielson on the apron, leaving Eddie to strike the metal ring post at full force. Later in the fight, Eddie pushes through the pain to try another backfist which leads him to having his already injured right arm be kicked. Taking advantage of the counter, Danielson hit his signature Busaiku Knee Strike. Which I was certain was the end. In a reverse of fate, Eddie later would counter the Busaiku, with a left arm lariat and a devastating powerbomb, to retain the Continental Crown. Following the match Danielson almost bailed on the stipulation before begrudgingly admitting his respect for Eddie.
The first of the major spring signings for AEW, was the Aerial Assassin Will Ospreay. Whose debut match as a part of the AEW Roster was against Konosuke Takeshita. Both of these men are affiliated with Don Callis for some reason. This exhibition match was to prove who the better man was, simple. Will Ospreay is at his best when he can't talk to the audience or twitter. I joked a lot about how this match would change my brain chemistry because of how great it was going to be. I worried that in my excited anticipation I would end up disappointed from over hyping myself. I couldn't have been more wrong, this match somehow exceeded my expectations.
22 minutes of pure none stop wrestling, It was like watching a video game come to life. These two nearly killed each other several times. Ospreay dropped Takeshita on the top of this head with a Tiger Driver 97, that made my jaw fall off. Takeshita delivered a top rope brain buster that made my hear skip a beat as Ospreay somehow hit every rope on his way down to hit his head on the mat. This match might not have literally altered my brain chemistry but this was a very strong contender for match of the year. The more Takeshita we see on TV the better.
All the way back in October of 2023, The Icon Sting announced that he would be retiring at AEW Revolution. Which lead to a long road to winning the tag team championships, which culminated in a tag team tornado match against The Young Bucks who have started an incredibly fun heel gimmick. The match theses 4 had was very fun. Some baffling spots that I'm still not sure how they got approved. during the fight, Sting's two sons joined the fray dressed up as different era of Sting, Surfer Sting and Wolfpack Sting respectively. At this point it has been a few months since AEW has done a tournament, and most people were expecting the result, of Sting winning the tag titles and vacating. Which is exactly what happened. Sting shared a lovely embrace with his sons, and spoke to the crowd which got cut short on the televised version as the stream faded to black pretty early on in his speech. Eventually released online later, he gave a heartfelt speech that you can find easily if you are interested. Everyone deserves to retire on their own terms, and Sting has absolutely earned it. I hope he enjoys retirement, because we all sure enjoyed the time he gave us.
A mere three days later, the episode of Dynamite was pretty skippable, a strong Riho and Kris Statlander match, and a bruised Ospreay battling Kyle Fletcher were both fun matches. However, we knew that someone was supposed to be arriving in AEW this week.
The Young Bucks headed out to the ring, and kicked Tony Schiavone out so they can have the spotlight. They announce that Kenny Omega has been fired from the Elite as he hasn't been fulfilling his duties due to him being hospitalized from Diverticulitis. Frustrated by their blabbing, Eddie Kingston enters to interrupt them. The first words out of Eddie's mouth are "yeah I'm wearing sweatpants and Timbs." Which isn't that important but I felt I needed to acknowledge it. Eddie proceeds to challenge the Buck's claim that if anyone bad mouths them, they will be fined. Kingston begins tossing crumbled up money at them while he says he's got problems. After a snarky joke about not airing grievances on national television, a fight breaks out.
As strong as Eddie is, he can't compete in a 2 on 1 situation, and gets beaten down. As the Bucks set up for their double knee strike. A familiar sound echoes through the arena, a coin drop. The audience erupted, we all knew this was happening but it didn't change how exciting it was. Kazuchika Okada arrived! The Buck's act confused as Okada stands alongside Eddie. Before Eddie knows it, he has been had. Okada grabs him and spins him into a Rainmaker Lariat laying him out. Okada isn't just all elite, he's with The Elite now. A huge swerve that made this feel like a surprise.
Switching over to Stardom, who ran their tenth annual Cinderella Tournament. I stopped in for some marquee matches throughout their tournament, on night 2, I stopped in as I was pulled in by the main event: Giulia defending her NJPW Strong Title against Stephanie Vaquer. It was revealed online that Giulia was not renewing her contract with Stardom, and would be gone by April, so we were all pretty certain she was dropping this title. This match went 11 minutes, so to me, for a main event title change, it felt anticlimactic. Two of the best in their respective divisions should have been given more time. I was left wanted another 5 minutes at least. Vaquer is now holds three championships, The CMLL World Women's Tag Team Championship, the CMLL World Women's Championship and now the NJPW STRONG Women's Championship. At 31 and starting to break out on an international scale, I'm excited to watch her continue to take over the world.
Through out this month WWE has dedicated alot of it's time to building for WrestleMania, so I ended up not watch any live, because I can simply pick and chose which promo segments I am interested in. Going into March, Bayley and Damage Ctrl storyline was white hot. Now at the end of march, im convinced WWE was bothered by that fact and have sidelined it completely. There have been a few angles since the swerve, it just feels stiffled by hour long segments with The Rock and Roman Reigns, which I personally can really be bothered with. The build up between Becky Lynch and Rhea Ripley on the other hand has felt really strong. Having interconnected feuds for the two nights of mania feel really interesting. I'm excited to see how it all turns out. If you had to check out one thing from WWE this month, I'd have to say check out Dwayne beating Cody Rhodes to a pulp from the March 25th episode of Monday Night RAW. Which everyone online was a bit too excited about.
March 18th was AEW's BIG BUSINESS show, a special episode of Dynamite that I was anxiously awaiting. Going into the show, The card itself looked not too bad, Wardlow challenging Samoa Joe for the World Title, a Riho match against Willow Nightingale, and a six man tag match with the returning Pac, Penta and Eddie Kingston against The Elite: The Young Bucks and Okada.
My interest in these matches paled in comparison to my excitement for the signing of Mercedes Moné! They wasted no time, The CEO has arrived in AEW. I've been a die hard Mercedes fan for a decade, I got into college with an essay about her match at Takeover Brooklyn. To me she is the biggest star in wrestling, and AEW has treated her as such. AEW has had trouble booking their women consistently and evenly. Throughout March I've seen a steady incline in amount of Women's segments. I'm hoping with Mercedes arriving, this process will be sped up a bit. Mercedes showed up at the end of the show to save Willow and Kris Statlander from an attacking Julia Hart and Skye Blue. Teasing an eventual rematch between Mercedes and Willow. I will have to be patient, as AEW is taking their time with her as it seems.
This year in NJPW, The New Japan Cup tournament took place in March, which boasted a very interesting bracket. It was hard to truly guess who was going to win. The finals took place on March 20th, Hiroki Goto and Yota Tsuji. I was elated to see that this was the finals as they are two of my favorites in NJPW currently. I was along for the ride. I felt like earlier this year Yota should've had a bigger moment at Wrestle Kingdom, This makes up for it. Yota Tsuji became the 19th winner of the New Japan Cup! Tsuji is going to take over New Japan in the next year or two, mark my words.
Returning to AEW, a special Toronto show, a double feature of Dynamite and an episode of Rampage immediately following. The show with a huge match between Eddie Kingston and Kazuchika Okada for the Continental Crown Championship. I wish AEW would let larger matches get some time to build up drama. The build to this match was, Okada signing to AEW and swerving Eddie, and a 6man tag where Okada pinned Eddie. It makes sense for Okada to have a title opportunity, but this could've waited another week to hype up drama more. Triple Crown Eddie Kingston is no more as the Continental Crown now belongs to the Rainmaker.
When Adam Copeland finally arrived in AEW, it was only a matter of time before we got this match. Adam claimed he came to AEW to finish his career alongside his best friend, but when he arrived he discovered The Patriarchy, a group formed from the twisted mind of Christian. Adam actually has defeated Christian before, In Long Island for AEW Worlds End. Adam's TNT Championship reign lasted mere minutes as Christian used Killswitch's (FKA: Luchasaurus) title opportunity. This was their final stop, Toronto. Where they grew up together, where they trained together. It ends where it begins. This was an I quit Match, the only way to lose was to admit defeat. As the match progressed it was shaping up to be a match of the year contender for sure, but this is a Christian Cage match, so shenanigans must take place. Killswitch, Nick and Shayna Wayne all interfered to aid Christian. Copeland has played this game several times by now, he had back up of his own. Daniel Garcia and Matt Menard come to even the odds. This was such a fun main event and absolutely a stand out for the month. Even though I would've preferred less outside interference.
What ended up being a match of the year contender on this night was the tag team street fight between Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander against Skye Blue and Julia Hart. To call this match a fight would be an understatement, this was a war. These four have been entangled with each other for months now. They have done a great job of keeping things fresh. This street fight earned every bit of its violence. Skye Blue hit a jaw dropping Code Blue on Willow on top of the announce table that looked so painful. What's an AEW street fight without some thumb tacks? At one point Julia shoved a bunch of tacks in Statlander's mouth. You're missing out if you skip this one.
This match really felt like a breakout for Skye Blue. She has been rapidly improving every week. combined with a shift of her character and aligning with Julia Hard has left her shine in a whole new way. At this point I'm always happy to see her on the card. This angle overall has gone on a long time and now with Mercedes Moné in the mix, I'm hoping we are heading towards its final chapters.
The final Dynamite of the Month boasted an impressive card that lived up to what it promised. Will Ospreay wrestled Katsuyori Shibata, which to no surprise was great. The Young Bucks faced Private Party, a match we haven't seen since early AEW. There was a banger of a women's fatal four way match, with some spots that even made Mercedes gasp on commentary. However packing all of that into one show wasn't enough. Kunosuke Takeshita faced Swerve Strickland, The winner earns the right to challenge Samoa Joe for the world title. These two cant miss. Takeshita and Swerve are going to carry this company, in fact they are already starting to.
Going in it was clear that this was Swerve's match to win, but when Takeshita kicked out of Swerve's double stop off the top, I was convinced the outcome was different. When matches like this arise, and one competitor has had a longer running rivalry with the champion, these can feel unnecessary. Swerve is sick of being "tied" with other wrestlers and needed to finally be ahead of his peers to prevent what happened at Revolution from happening again. Swerve won the match by countering a powerbomb attempt into a double stomp. Finally hitting a "Big Pressure" JML driver to make the deciding fall. At this point I'm convinced that neither of these men can put on a bad match.
AEW ran away with March, and if you're not a big AEW fan I apologize as this month's recap was a little less All encompassing. The Stardom Cinderella Tournament culminated with Hanan winning. Next year, all my bets are on Lady C, because that girl has to win something eventually. April is shaping up of be an enormous month as well, NXT Stand & Deliver, WrestleMania, NJPW's Windy City Riot, AEW's Dynasty will be enough wrestling to each have more than one Match of the Year contender. Thinking about it too much makes my head spin. I hope everyone is excited for WrestleMania weekend. Whether your in person attending in Philly or watching at home. Lets all have a great time, Wrestling is in the best state it has possibly every been. We would be stupid to not relish in it once in a while.
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