The Brisbane Experience Part 2- A Chance To Feel Alive

Alright, so we whet the appetite yesterday by talking about the Aussie wrestling shows leading to the massive AEW event on the weekend. For me it was going to Rock N Roll Wrestling at the Caxton and seeing former Brisbane Broncos captain Alex Glenn teaming with former WWE star (and Bronco himself) Xyon Quinn/Daniel Vidot. You can read that here if you missed it: https://www.pwdownunder.com/2025/02/17/the-brisbane-experience-part-1-two-broncos-walk-into-a-bar/

But now it’s time for the main course! Onto the events of Saturday, Saturday…

Saturday

Saturday night’s alright, oh yeah…

I chilled most of Saturday morning. Needed that recovery to hit a massive night strong.

Went to Brew Dog in the Valley for a parmi. It’s a basic bitch staple, but dammit, it works! There was a plethora of great food in the Valley alone, I need to go back for a food tour.

Rocked up to Brisbane Entertainment Centre around 4:30, I think? Got a Canadian Club and Dry. $15. Gee-zus.

By the time doors opened and a queue formed, AEW pretty much sold out of merch between the VIPs who got early entry and the other early arrivers. So many people missed out, including me. Ah well, more drinking money, I guess.

I met up with a couple of guys that I first met at WrestleMania 33. I did the trip to Orlando solo in 2017, and went across the other side of the world… to make friends with a couple of Aussies. Izak and Travis. It’s been all love on social media since, but while I managed to catch up with Izak last year at Elimination Chamber in Perth, this was the first time we had all been together in 8 years. Gotta love pro wrestling for bringing people together!

Once we got to our seats, we could already hear the chants of “Robbie, Robbie, Robbie- Oi Oi Oi” for our man, the Sniper of the Skies, Robbie Eagles, set to challenge for the ROH Pure Championship against Lee Moriarty on the AEW/ROH Global Wars pre-show- a last minute addition to the line-up which greatly increased the value for money on the tickets in my opinion.

Oh, and speaking of tickets… I had bought mine back when the show was scheduled to be at Suncorp Stadium. I deliberately chose first elevation as I’m not blessed in the height department. So while a lot of people got their seats moved back as part of the venue change to Brisbane Entertainment Centre, I got “upgraded” to 10th row on the floor, which did make it hard to see at times, even if it was technically closer. Especially when the first 6 rows jumped to their feet at every big spot!

The crowd is pumped. I look at my lady friend, who’s buzzing with excitement. Gee, she has pretty eyes…

Focus, Mick!

AEW/ROH Global Wars

The AEW/ROH show kicks off with the Learning Tree! I know it’s popular to hate on Chris Jericho these days, but he’s still one of my all-time faves. Although this gimmick isn’t my cup of tea.

DAMN! Big Bill gets a monster reaction! The Aussies love some Big Bill. A bit like Cardiff last year. I don’t know if it’s like an ironic memey thing or not, but he plays into it and it makes a red-hot atmosphere to start. The Outrunners are fantastic value wearing lucha masks, with one of them doing the world’s longest rope walk spot. Bandido was there for the actually impressive lucha antics. Big 21 Plex on Jericho gets the clean win! Wow. And we get a Powerhouse Hobbs appearance post-match. MEAT MEAT MEAT.

Next up, Robbie Mother’FN Eagles! He gets a great reaction. I first saw him at Rock N Roll in 2015. The show was in a bowling club, and the roof was so low that no high flying moves were happening, no superplexes, I think even vertical suplexes may have been off the table. But Robbie somehow pulled off a 450 Splash, sending the Dapto crowd into a frenzy. Absolute legend. So cool to see him here 10 years later in front of 10,000+ people in a big arena setting.

I couldn’t hear anyone yelling “In the Afterglow” from where I was sitting, I hope someone did.

Really good tekkers match. Moriatry gets a shady victory, giving Robbie an out in his home country for taking the L.

I look in the ring- what the hell, Tommy Knight’s standing there! Hanna and I scream “TOMMY!” and basically everyone around us looks at us like “who is this jobber and why are you cheering him?” Uncultured swine.

Mark Davis comes out, one of QLD’s sons but he’s also part of the Don Callis Family. We get a hoss match, or a MEAT match. Tommy was trying to get a contract with this one, great surprise gem that I hope stays on the actual broadcast, and also hope it leads to more big opportunities for the ultra-talented Tommy Knight. He still owes me a beer from Colosseum like 3 years ago. I was double-parked, he was pretty sloshed and like “hey brother, you want a beer?” When I said, “I’m good for now, man!” he goes, “Alright! I owe you a beer next time!” Cashing that chip in before our boy gets in these big arenas on a more permanent basis!

At this point, I’m loving the variety on the show. The opener was comedy/lucha, 2nd was technical wrestling, 3rd was a hoss battle.

Now onto the tag match. Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara) against MXM. MXM are a riot, and Mansoor did well with a little Goldust taunt/mocking. Dustin brought the fun with a dive fakeout into a very bad Spin-a-rooni. Love it. Champs retain. I know Dustin seems to defy the laws of aging sometimes, but gotta think Australia might not have too many more chances to see him.

The main event of Global Wars was Athena vs. Alex Windsor for the ROH Women’s Championship. I haven’t gone out of my way to watch ROH for a few years, and Athena’s been kept as a ROH exclusive, so it’s been a long time since I’ve seen her wrestle. I didn’t know who Windsor was either. Well-wrestled, but probably the least invested I was in the show to that point.

Tony Khan comes out to thank the crowd, and gets BOOED pretty strongly! I mean, we’re all here, but the promotion of this event has been a disaster. The discourse around what this show was originally meant to be went for a good couple of weeks (now replaced with something way more annoying on Twitter, but we’ll get to that later). I’m just saying, the capacity of Suncorp is over 50K. People expected bigger things than a Collision taping. Since the only other shows AEW has held with that kind of capacity is All In at Wembley Stadium, expecting this to be the Australian equivalent isn’t that crazy a stretch. The last time a major pro wrestling company did a regular TV show in an arena that size was Raw in the Skydome at the height of the Attitude Era almost 30 years ago.

Anyway, TK gets the crowd on his side by promising to come back for another show. Since it’s been a good show so far, he gets some cheers. Good for him.

AEW Grand Slam Australia

Massive “Ospreay” chants as he kicks off the show. Big elaborate entrance for Omega with what I feel like is the only pyro on the show, but maybe I’m forgetting- or didn’t see it because I’m not tall enough.

I prefer “Battle Cry” as an entrance theme for Omega, but no one ever talks about it, so maybe I’m alone in that.

The match ruled, of course. Crazy spots and high flying aplenty. The Hidden Blade/One Winged Angel finish was a true jaw-dropping moment.

I’ll say it now- this was the highlight of the whole event- at least from an in-ring perspective. AEW have a habit of doing that, particularly on TV shows. You can go back to Omega vs. Danielson at Grand Slam in New York for another great example. But if you start THAT hot and put the best thing first, you only go downhill from there. I made that mistake in real life once. My first uni assignment, I put tons of effort into it, got 100% and the tutor asked if she could use it as an example to show all her future classes. Did I go onto to dip in quality from there? Oh hell yeah!

Up next, feel the wrath! This was a smart move. Harley Cameron isn’t Dean Malenko. But she’s over AF with her character work. I love that damn Mercedes puppet. Fun stuff and you can see the major improvement in Harley between the ropes, but this wasn’t her night.

Following that, we had the Brisbane Brawl! And here was my true highlight of the night. The Rated R Superstar, Cope, enters first… and calling it a hero’s welcome doesn’t seem to do it justice. I first saw him in 2005. Just days after WrestleMania 21, he had just won Money In The Bank. Here, he returned as a legend, a Hall of Famer, his career thought to be over, the miraculous comeback… I was so excited for seeing him again. Evidently, so was everyone else in the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, as we sang the full chorus of Metalingus after they cut the song a cappella. We almost moved the man to tears. Pure magic.

10,000+ singing Metalingus…

Possibly the last time we see @RatedRCope in Australia 🔥#AEWGrandSlam pic.twitter.com/bkFYCCUFIa

— Aussie Heat (@AussieHeatPW) February 15, 2025

And then the match happened. A fun brawl, and seeing the 51 year old Cope dive off the stands is insane. The finish of Mox choking Cope out was a little deflating, but I’m not as mad about it as some are. I think they’re setting up Cope to take the title, it’s just about continuing to put heat on Mox and the Death Riders and build them up to be a bigger obstacle for Cope to take down at Revolution. At least, I hope.

Buddy Matthews vs. Kazuchika Okada was a fun reminder that Buddy can absolutely be a singles star. Even after tweaking his ankle on his entrance (at least, I hope it’s a tweak) he went on to have a banger with Okada. Buddy had the out for losing as well with the low blow. The crowd still bringing the energy. I was fatiguing big time at this point, not with my voice or will to be involved, but with my legs going to jelly having to stand up so often to see the action, since the dudes in the first six rows kept leaping to their feet on. Every. Other. Spot. I could have craned my neck up at the big screen I suppose, but that was at an awkward angle and would’ve hurt my neck more. Pick your poison, I guess. Hope Buddy’s doing okay though!

Main event time! Timeless Toni gets a monster reaction, and having Luther back was a cool little Easter Egg. It’s as Aussie as it gets in there with “f*** her up, Toni” chants. They put on a barnburner and it’s probably the most I’ve enjoyed Mariah May in-ring so far in AEW. The heavily invested crowd works, especially for those big near falls and finisher kickouts. And I liked the small package finish- she’s a rookie, after all!

Post-match (I don’t think this would have aired), Toni grabs the mic and thanks the crowd. She also reveals that her mum made her Australian flag inspired gear. We get a “Toni’s mum” chant. And that’s the show!

A few people left their VIP chairs behind. I was tempted to grab one (we were literally the row behind), but the note said you needed a wristband to take one. Walked out, saw lots of people walking out with chairs, didn’t see a single person there to check wristbands. Maybe it was just the way I went out. Anyway, if anyone’s selling a chair… ya boi might be keen.

What an experience. I’ve been to some big wrestling shows, but AEW Grand Slam Australia is right near the top. The only one that might beat it is WrestleMania 33, and that’s only because the Hardyz returned. Objectively, it wasn’t the greatest Mania. The audience vibes were immaculate. Somewhat reminiscent of Backlash in France or Puerto Rico… a hot crowd can really elevate a show, and I think that was the case here. I’ll never forget the Cope moment, and independent of crowd reaction, that Ospreay/Omega tag was everything I wanted it to be and more. Loved it.

If you’re curious, top 5 wrestling shows I’ve actually been to is probably something like this:

1. WrestleMania 33
2. AEW Grand Slam Australia
3. PWA Colosseum 2019
4. WWE Elimination Chamber Perth
5. PWA It Started Out With A Kiss

The original plan was to hit up Emo Mania for a couple of PWA sessions post-Grand Slam, but AEW ran much longer than expected and we didn’t get back that night until 11:45. Sorry, Big Fudge! I was looking forward to seeing you team with Lil Marz.

Ended the weekend with some great food, great company and great pints. Also attended NJPW Tamashii on Sunday afternoon which was a fun time, but I was definitely hampered by my failing legs at this point, as well as the considerable heat at the Superordinary venue. But I got to see a bunch of talents that I previously only kinda knew by name. Liked seeing Craven vs. Jake Taylor, talk about a clash of characters and styles. Was very cool to see Erika Reid and Kyla Knight make indigenous history, Caveman Ugg DESTROYED Andrew Vega- I was not wrong about the chops at all, Vega got absolutely tenderised out there. And finally Kulture vs. Rogue Army was a great way to cap things off, very hard-hitting, and an impressive moment when Toa actually body slammed Bad Luck Fale! And Bonza’s impassioned post-match promo about supporting Aussie wrestling even when big companies like AEW aren’t in town was a great message to cap the weekend off.

And finally, the merch problem that was had at AEW was solved when AEW put up a new merch site to get your Grand Slam stuff. My tour t-shirt is on its way- $10 more due to postage, but better than missing out entirely! If you want to get yours: https://aew-store.com/

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading my ramblings! Would love to hear your thoughts on the AEW show, your thoughts on any shows you attended in Brissy over the weekend, or if you just watched on TV, what you thought of Grand Slam.

Until next time, take care.