“The D’Amore Drop” is a weekly guest column on Uncrowned written by Canadian professional wrestling promoter, executive producer, trainer and former wrestler Scott D’Amore, best known for his long-time role as creative executive at TNA/IMPACT Wrestling. D’Amore is the current owner of Canada’s leading promotion maple leaf pro wrestling.
AEW reached a major milestone last Sunday when 12,000 tickets were sold for its AEW Revolution pay-per-view at the Crypto.com Center (formerly Staples Center) in Los Angeles.
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This isn’t AEW All Out, their biggest show of the year, and it’s not in the UK, a market starved for big shows. This is a regularly scheduled AEW pay-per-view show in one of the toughest markets in North America, drawing huge crowds.
This show is the pinnacle of AEW. Tony Khan’s promotion brought a lot of wrestling and intensity to the audience. AEW knows exactly what type of product it is and what it’s for.
There was a lot of blood and it might be a bit too much for some, but AEW made it clear that they are an adult product and will continue to be an adult product.
At this point, if you watch AEW and support it, you know what you’re getting.
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Some people won’t like the ultraviolence, that’s fair enough, but AEW doesn’t pretend to be what it is. I think some people want AEW to be family friendly purely because they’re tired of WWE’s sky-high ticket prices, but AEW should always do what’s good for AEW and try not to react to WWE.
Hardcore stuff, spectacle, violence, gore, these are all part of AEW, and for many of their viewers, that’s exactly what they exist for.
MJF continues to impress and have a great run as a heel champion. It will be interesting to see what happens next for “Hangman” Adam Page, especially after his loss at AEW Revolution, which stipulated that Page could never challenge for the AEW World Championship again.
I’m sure this will be fulfilled for the foreseeable future, but I think we’re all interested in how AEW addresses this issue in the next year or two.
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John Moxley went on to become the MVP of AEW. He goes out and delivers every time.
Konosuke Takeshita is a great all-around professional wrestler, and he and Moxley had a great run at Revolution. I want to see more of these two together.
On the women’s side, there’s a lot going on, too, which ties into what we’ve discussed before in this column. Megan Bayne and Lena Kross winning the Tag Team Championship gives you a look at an impressive pair of female talents.
Megan Bayne came in and made a strong impression, then maybe treaded water a bit, but she feels like someone who’s really found her footing.
Ronda Rousey’s jump to AEW is surprising, especially since she’s training to take on Gina Carano in what is sure to be one of the most-watched MMA matches of all time (as the fight will air on Netflix on May 16).
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Ronda has broken into the mainstream in a way that very few wrestlers have, and any kind of promotional friction AEW gets from Ronda vs. Gina, which airs on Netflix, is huge.
What’s especially interesting is that if AEW could devote any attention, even a little bit, to this, it would give them a real chance. Ronda’s real-life best friend Marina Shafir is there to give you a natural connection point, storyline-wise, and if Ronda stays around the AEW product between now and May, suddenly you’ll have mainstream eyeballs and curiosity going into AEW.
Toni “Eternal” Storm is a generational talent at the peak of her powers. If Ronda Rousey can bring Toni new attention, it would be incredible for Toni, Tony Khan and AEW as a whole. I hope fans understand that.
The AEW women’s division is ready for mainstream attention, and Ronda will bring that attention.
By the way, I thought Marina Shafir was great in her match against Toni Storm last Sunday at AEW Revolution. Transitioning from MMA to wrestling is difficult, from never letting anyone see you get hurt, to making sure everyone in the cheap seats can see you “get hurt” – everything in MMA is contrary to the instincts you need in pro wrestling.
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However, she and Tony work really well together. While Toni is a Ric Flair type who can definitely have a good match with everyone, Marina showed on Sunday just how hard she works. I think she really did it justice in the game.
While Randy Orton is great in any role, his performance as a villain has always been incredible. His brutal attack on WWE’s undisputed champion Cody Rhodes on “SmackDown” last week really lit up their WrestleMania 42 match.
Well done. Cody tugging on the heartstrings with real-life stories—”You’re not my dad, you’re not my brother, but I will always be proud to be your boy!”—really set the stage for Orton’s brutal attack.
There is such a thing as telling a story through omission, and Orton using street fighting tactics like kicks instead of RKOs was a great job. It told viewers, “This is a brutal attack, not a pro wrestler using his super fun, super finishing move.”
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Any notion that WWE needs to add Drew McIntyre to the Mania main event can be dismissed right now.
The match between Cody and Orton was intense, and as teased on Raw, Orton had a surprise for Cody.
Randy Orton fully supports Cody Rhodes on WWE SmackDown.
(WWE via Getty Images)
I’m not sure we’re “there” yet, CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns feels like the main event of a big WrestleMania show, but the promo between these two is very, very strong.
FTR’s victory over The Young Bucks to retain the AEW Tag Team Championship came as a surprise to many, especially considering Los Angeles is so close to the Bucks’ hometown, but it was the right decision.
The Bucks have reached the point where, like Roman Reigns, Randy Orton or Kenny Omega, they can go years without a championship and still be the undisputed main event star.
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The right choice would be for FTR to walk out of the pay-per-view with the belt and start this exciting fight with Cope and Christian.
Adam “Cop” Copeland and Christian Cage returning to AEW obviously means a lot and it really sets the stage for what’s next for them. I actually talked to Adam the night before the show, but we didn’t talk about any wrestling. we have actually no way Talking about how long he wants to wrestle, though he said there’s more mileage in the rear view than the road ahead, and AEW is his last stop.
Adam is in crazy shape and still in top wrestling, he’s having great matches on big shows that the fans love and I can tell he’s enjoying it for a long time.
So does Christian. Like Adam, his career ended unsatisfactorily. He then had a second career in AEW, a career he grabbed with both hands and added to his legacy.
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The two lifelong friends are writing the final chapters of their Hall of Fame-caliber careers. But neither would be on their last page – if they didn’t want to.
All I know is that their return gave AEW a tailor-made feud with FTR first, and then The Young Bucks. It’s been a year filled with great games and stories and I can’t wait.
While fans were clamoring for Oba Femi to powerbomb Brock Lesnar in preparation for an epic WrestleMania showdown, I didn’t know I wanted to see Brock vs. Seth Rollins so badly until WWE teased it.
Brock vs. Rollins could be a huge match this summer.
I saw pictures on social media of Fermi with a tear on his face and he was so touched and proud of the reaction he got on Raw in his biggest storyline to date with Brock Lesnar.
Brock yelling at the young wrestler to put his boot on his chest made me laugh. There aren’t many awesome things about being older, but being able to allow younger people to benefit from your experience is one of them.
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WWE knows they have a monster – and most likely a monster star – Fermi. Everything is going well now.
When it comes to the whole “Raw” segment, ladies and gentlemen, Paul Heyman has a commitment to his character that few can match.
He was on “Raw” for a full 45 seconds, basically to contradict Seth Rollins and bring out Brock Lesnar, but look what he did in those few minutes.
He broke the fourth wall and told Rollins he was interrupting his “angry promo,” he introduced a new catchphrase “FA/F-5” which was a play on F Around and Find Out, ended his hatred of Rollins, was absolutely committed to hurting Rollins, revealed Lesnar as the killer, and then reacted to Femi as if the newcomer was the devil.
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But what really impressed me was the attention to detail. Hyman’s red irises, the bags under his manhood, and the three-day stubble on his cheeks all conveyed that he was in poor health and stressed.
Great stuff.
I’m so excited to see my friends The Good Brothers’ “Talkin’ Shop” podcast. The series will be released soon on Spotify and YouTube.
We are eight days away from MLP’s Global War pay-per-view event, my promotion’s first show of 2026.
Interestingly, Mistico will be attending the MLP Multiverse at the Palms in Las Vegas on April 17 and has signed a dual contract with AEW/ROH and CMLL.
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In this new era where promotions are more collaborative than ever, I think we’ll see more talent signing two or even three promotions at once.
I will be executive producing QT Marshall’s 1FW fashion show this Saturday at the Forum River Center in Rome, Georgia. This is a TV taping for Peachtree Sports Network and TrillerTV, so it’s a real platform and not just some local independent date.
Arn Anderson is returning to Rome with son Brock Anderson and the likes of Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal, Billy Gunn, Harley Cameron and Hollywood star Paul Walter Hauser by his side.
I’m very interested in Brian “Road Dogg” James stepping down from his WWE creative role last week.
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James is a true force in WWE. He had real influence behind the scenes, so much so that he was running “SmackDown” and if Vince McMahon wasn’t there on any night, Bryan would be running things from the gorilla position.
I’ve known Brian for a long time and he’s the kind of guy who isn’t afraid to “calm down” and leave if he’s upset and feels like things aren’t going in a direction he can support.
He’s a very smart guy, both in terms of wrestling and the business side of the “wrestling industry.” I saw a “WWE Unreal” segment where Bryan advocated for pushing Chelsea Green to the top of the WWE Women’s Division while everyone else said no.
Well, Brian was right and everyone else was wrong. He was also right about WWE firing R-Truth. You wonder how many times Brian had arguments with other members of the creative team.
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But whatever the reasons for his departure, a real wealth of knowledge and experience has just hit the open market.