AEW WrestleDream review: Adam Copeland is All Elite

So in the end, was it the beginning of a new era in AEW?

It seemed that in fact, it was for at least someone as Adam Copeland, known for years in WWE as Edge, made his AEW debut at Sunday’s WrestleDream. Copeland’s arrival ended the great show from top to bottom on a strong, buzzworthy note.

After Christian Cage retained the TNT Championship over Darby Allin thanks to a betrayal by Nick Wayne who blasted Allin with the title, Sting came out for the save but Luchasaurus came out for the three-on-two beatdown. Copeland, complete with his theme song by Alter Bridge, came out to a thunderous ovation. Teasing that he’d help Christian, Copeland instead took out the heels and shook hands with the faces, indicating that it may be Christian vs. Edge once again down the line.

It’s a big move for Copeland, who has been associated with WWE in some form or fashion since 1997. It’s a new promotion with a new roster and fresh faces to wrestle, and it’s always a good thing for a wrestler to test the waters in a new promotion.

The main event had hometown hero Allin lose to Cage in a two out of three falls match that I thought was really great and super well-built. The slam into the stairs that caused Allin to be counted out was one of the sickest I’ve seen in some time. Seriously, it was a brutal bump and you have to question just how long Allin has left. How much can one person take? 

The Wayne turn works real well, by the way. He’s needed something for a while in AEW and I think this is a good way for him to get some heat. He sure got a lot of it by doing the turn in his hometown of Seattle.

Let’s have a look at the rest of the show. With a 90-minute pre-show and a four-hour main card runtime, this felt real long by the end. At the same time, I also can’t say there was one single bad match. AEW’s problems with their big shows are never about content, just pacing.

• The co-main event had FTR retain the AEW Tag Team titles by defeating Aussie Open. This was all very good stuff, but I thought there were better matches on this show and it paled in comparison to their match from last year in London. I think the biggest problem was that it took place at a point in the card where people were tired. Still, this was very good work by both teams. I hope Aussie Open finds their niche here because both guys are good. Kyle Fletcher, in particular, comes off as a future star, but the team has yet to find their place in the company.
• The latest in the Don Callis saga continued with Sammy Guevara, Will Ospreay, and Konosuke Takeshita scoring the win over Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho and Kota Ibushi after Guevara pinned Jericho thanks to Callis’ interference. It was a good match although did you see the cupping on Ospreay’s back? Holy toledo. Still, it’s clear that the Callis family saga isn’t over and it’s very likely we’ll get another Jericho/Guevara match down the line Maybe Full Gear?
• Bryan Danielson defeated Zack Sabre Jr. in what, shock of shocks, was an excellent technical match with some of the best back-and-forth grappling and submissions you’ll see. It was a clinic and lived up to expectations. It was such an easy match to watch and pay attention to, if that makes any sense.
• Ricky Starks defeating Wheeler Yuta was mostly designed for two things: one, to get a win for Starks following last week’s Texas Death Match on Collision and two, to tease a future match between Starks and Jon Moxley, who was doing commentary. This was good while it lasted, but definitely was a buffer match following Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page.
• Speaking of, Strickland bested Page in an excellent match with the crowd firmly behind Strickland throughout the entire match. Strickland has been gaining steam for most of the last year, but this should be the match that elevates him as a major star as he was just awesome here. I’m not so sure about Page, who looked great here but definitely is at a crossroads in terms of momentum.
• The Young Bucks look to be facing FTR again soon after winning a four-way match over The Gunns, Lucha Brothers, and Orange Cassidy & Hook. It was a four-way party match where there were a million moves a minute and all of it was good, insane action. I could see the Bucks winning the titles at Full Gear in Los Angeles if AEW wants to wait that long.
• Kris Statlander retained the TBS title by defeating Julia Hart in what ended up being a pretty good match. The work here was good, though a bit sloppy at times, and the crowd was super into it, especially toward the end. Still, I kind of wish there was a long-term direction for either of the women’s titles nbecause right now, it just feels like everything is running in place. I’m waiting for a real good title program as opposed to just title defenses and championship qualifiers.
• ROH World & NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston vs. Katsuyori Shibata was also very good and exactly what you would want between these two. This was just a good back-and-forth match with nice submissions and crisp striking. This was definitely a tribute to Antonio Inoki just like Claudio Castagnoli vs. Josh Barnett was.
• MJF did it by himself, defeating The Righteous in a handicap match to retain the ROH World Tag Team titles. MJF told The Righteous that he was going to bodyslam Dutch and shove Vincent’s head into Dutch’s rear end. Like a top level babyface, he fulfilled his promises. This ended up being a pretty controversial match. In my opinion, if it got over with the crowd, then it worked. Plus, it was a fun opener where the babyface looked strong so you can’t really complain about that.

And now for some pre-show thoughts:

• The Acclaimed & Daddy Ass defeated TMDK to retain the AEW Trios titles. There wasn’t much to this, but the action was good while it lasted. The crowd was into this more than the other matches on the pre-show.
• Luchasaurus squashed Nick Wayne. Initially, I had no idea why they did this total squash of a match. Obviously, it made more sense by the end of the night.
• Claudio Castagnoli defeated Josh Barnett in what ended up being a very good technical match with a lot of good-looking strikes. This was very Inoki. Moxley was on commentary and was pretty entertaining, adding to the match. He also did commentary for Yuta vs. Starks which was fun too. This was probably the best match on the pre-show in terms of in-ring action although the fans were not into it that much.
• The opening match of the night was a mixed tag that had Athena, Billie Starkz, Satoshi Kojima and Keith Lee defeating Shane Taylor, Lee Moriarty, Diamante, and Mercedes Martinez. This was a fun opener and what you would expect from an opening eight-person tag. Lee seems to have lost a lot of weight in recent weeks.

That ends another AEW pay-per-view, which now seems to be venturing into monthly territory with the annual Full Gear event taking place next month. AEW’s momentum is hit or miss lately with some of their TV and ticket sales, but there has never been a bad pay-per-view event yet and this was no different.