Lester Lee's AEW Grand Slam Australia Review

WWE Grand Slam Australia airing as a regular ol’ episode of Collision was strange until Tony Khan explained Warner/Discovery wanted to add it to their NBA All-Star Weekend.

Dope.

Makes sense.

Synergy and all those words that make emails sound important.

But I hadn’t realized that meant this show would run a pre-taped show Saturday morning and then air at 10:50pm Eastern Time.

13-year-old Lester would’ve been up until 2am shadowboxing in his room, pretending to be in the Brisbane Brawl match.

The current 30+-year-old Lester had to get up early to complain about how late this went.

But let’s review AEW Grand Slam Australia:

Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega look nuts together.

Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega standing next to each other looks like a 90’s “this is your brain on drugs” PSA.

Kenny Omega is a walking warning sign of what Will Ospreay will look like if he doesn’t find a healthy work-life balance.

Kenny looks like a Florida bodybuilder who lost their family over their addictions to fentanyl and Asian massage parlors.

Perhaps it’s the diverticulitis or just normal(ish) aging—but Kenny Omega looked like Takashita, Fletcher and Ospreay’s strange alcoholic uncle who lives in the garage apartment downstairs and knocked on the front door with a case of Busch Lights in his hands, asking to join the party because he heard the music playing when he went outside for his 19th cigarette of the night.

I had so many fantasy booking plans for Kenny’s return and now, I just need him to drink more water, first and foremost.

We don’t need this man in the ring with Swerve Strickland right now. Kenny needs an IV and a long nap. I don’t think humans are supposed to be that shade of gray.

I’m mostly focusing on aesthetics here because I’ve said it once and I’ll say it forever: I don’t enjoy regular tag team matches.

But as far as the actual match goes, I will say this tag team finisher is sick:

The Hidden Blade x One Winged Angel Combo Finisher 😭#AEWGrandSlam pic.twitter.com/F80ND9YWRD

— WrestlePurists (@WrestlePurists) February 16, 2025

This is how you start an episode of Collision at 11pm after the NBA Dunk Contest.

Mercedes Mone is one of the best performers in the world.

At first, Mercedes looked off compared to an AEW roster full of the greatest wrestlers in the world.

She always looked like she was competing in a different sport than everyone else.

Perhaps it’s the way she was trained.

WWE divas never learned to make their moves look like they hurt. They moved in slow motion—as if they were counting out their next move in their heads, desperately trying not to mess up their basic choreography.

Trish Stratus throws forearms like she’s starring in Sharknado 6 on Zeus TV.

Mercedes finally looks like she’s hurting people. At one point in this match, she hit Harley Cameron with a powerbomb that I know 2022 Sasha Banks would have never attempted.

18 months ago, everyone would’ve said she was the weak link in that odd Britt Baker match where two housewives tried their best to run the Chocolate factory assembly line and just kept making things worse, I tell ya.

But Mercedes Mone finally makes sense to me.

Tony Khan established that the TBS Championship only goes to the most dominant woman in the company. Jade Cargill proved that.

This isn’t some secondary title for the women.

The TBS Championship is an indicator to the audience that this woman is the one you should care about.

There is no other woman in North America having 20-minute WARS every month—believably winning each and every time.

Mercedes has had TWO 20-minute battles with Kris Statlander.

She had a 20-minute battle with Hazuki for the NJPW Strong Title.

She’s gotten into rock fights with Stephanie Vaquer, Momo Watanabe, Hikaru Shida and Willow Nightingale.

She made Harley Cameron look like a veteran and Britt Baker look like a random Make-A-Wish kid who wanted to meet Merdeces Mone before the leukemia won.

We are witnessing one of the best runs in professional wrestling right now and I’m officially all in on the ride.

Homegirl really left WWE and became a legit hooper—taking Canadian Destroyers from Harley Cameron—a woman Vince McMahon would’ve had in a bikini, washing the cars in his driveway if she was signed to the WWE.

Mercedes Mone vs. Harley Cameron was my main event, and I’m not just saying that because I turned the TV off when Edge came out after and decided to watch the rest in the AM.

Mercedes Mone the woman you are. pic.twitter.com/zZdOuYr0FL

— jai🌶️ (@rollininmone) February 16, 2025

She deserves 10 more championships to drag behind her in a big red wheelbarrow.

We’re almost done with this Death Riders story.

Hang in there folks, I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel for this Jon Moxley title reign that achieved nothing outside of killing some TV time while people recovered from injuries.

Guys like MJF and Adam Page and Swerve Strickland have all mentioned their desire to be AEW world champion again.

The boys are coming to save what I believe was originally planned to be some sort of baton passing to Darby Allin that got completely derailed by Darby choosing to cross things off his personal bucket list instead of going to work and being awarded the biggest promotion possible.

I pray Darby never becomes champ.

Imagine LeBron James skipping out on the NBA playoffs because he always wanted to climb a mountain. Stephen A. Smith would start First Take by staring into the camera and urging his viewers to storm LeBron’s property, drag him out and hang him in his driveway.

Whenever I feel super negative or my opinions start to echo the biggest losers on the internet, I know I need to take a step back and re-look at things.

I had no interest in this “Brisbane Brawl” match but honestly, it’s cool as shit that this guy Claudio I grew up watching have classics with Nigel McGuinness and Samoa Joe and El Generico, is in a ring with Edge—one of the biggest stars in WWE history and Jay White—whose departure from New Japan Pro Wrestling essentially capsized their entire boat.

From day one, Jon Moxley has proven he’s the guy in AEW.

Anytime you may have thought his opponents were bigger and better—Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, CM Punk or Bryan Danielson—Jon Moxley has risen to the occasion to stand eye-to-eye with titans.

Marina Shafir looks cool, she’s hot and had her career resuscitated by a vet in Moxley who saw a greater potential in her.

Death Riders is fine.

I guess my point is, soon, this group will break up and I know I’ll look back and think “eh, that was kind of cool.”

Minus all the not cool stuff, of course. Looking directly at you, FTR. Go sit down for a while.

This match seemed like a way to get Edge and Jay White in front of an Australian audience.

Mission accomplished.

Okada is the master of in-ring storytelling.

I didn’t have much of a relationship with Okada before he joined AEW.

I had seen his matches with Kenny Omega but I kind of just knew him as the guy with the fly-ass jackets.

There’s a jacket maker in Japan just sitting on the finest fabrics and designs, in his office, facing the wall with the lights off waiting for Nick Wayne to walk in so he can dramatically turn around, light a single candle and whisper “We’ve been expecting you”

Every single one of Okada’s matches is scripted completely different from the last.

He has such a fundamental understanding of who his character is—this bratty legend who has already proven his greatness and doesn’t feel like anyone in front of him is worthy of his efforts—but he adds this layer of comedy like he’s a big kid being dragged out of bed in the morning by his parents to catch the school bus on time.

I have a new respect for Buddy Matthews.

Every wrestler thinks they should be the world champ, the main character, the center of every poster, their faces wrapped on every truck.

His buddies Andrade and Malakai Black seemed shocked that AEW didn’t build their re-orient the whole company around their every whim.

But look at what happened when Andrade returned to WWE.

Nothing.

The same thing will be true of Malakai Black.

Not everyone can be the guy.

Shows need roleplayers and it feels like Buddy Matthews has embraced that as he and Brody King will most likely have a dope tag team feud with The Bucks or The Hurt Syndicate or even Kenny and Ospreay soon and they’ll probably lose—but momentum will build and fans will start demanding they go over.

Meanwhile, Andrade and Carmelo Hayes might have a 3 minute slap fight on the Wrestlemania preshow while fans are out running errands before Andrade walks backstage after the match to crickets while the WWE crew is scrambling around to make sure his ex-wife has all of her catering needs met.

Toni Storm is a global superstar.

After winning the AEW Women’s Championship at Wembley Stadium in front of her people, it felt like Mariah May was sort of just killing time.

Toni Storm earned some PTO after carrying the division on her tiny little back for so long.

May’s champagne parties with Mina Shirakawa were fun but Mariah is a legit hooper and deserved to be back in the main event.

AEW is consistently great at pinning two characters against each other in what feels like lifelong blood feuds. Whether it’s Swerve and Hangman or Rush and whoever is unfortunate enough to have to be kicked in the face by him—AEW makes their rivalries feel important.

Toni Storm became the first ever 4-time AEW women’s championship and she deserves it. She went out there week after week after week after week after week and turned herself into a global superstar.

This women’s division is uniquely stacked.

I love everything Deonna Purrazo is doing right now.

Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander are consistently compelling.

Megan Bayne is clearly next up.

And that’s not to mention microwave scorers off the bench like Thunder Rosa, Serena Deeb, Queen Aminata or Penelope Ford.

This Toni Storm/Mariah May story will most likely always be a thing but I’m excited to see Timeless Toni Storm interact with new characters. Let’s see if she can tell a new story as big as this Mariah May one.

Random Stray Thoughts

I would’ve had Edge win this tag match instead of having him lose in Australia and then lose at the PPV but wait, maybe this means Edge gets the win back and becomes AEW World Champion. I could see Tony Khan wanting Edge to be in his company’s record books. Plus, Christian is the no. 1 contender. Edge and Christian can have a quick, all the emphasis in the world on quick, championship feud before one of them passes it back to MJF, Hangman or Swerve.
Gotta shout out some of my favorite fits. Mercedes and Toni rocking the Australia gear. I see you. Kyle Fletcher will always fuck around and get a fire fit off.
Dear Edge, you don’t have to keep jumping off stuff.

Great sign for Cope. Usually a wrestler is cautious when they come back from injury. The first thing Adam Copeland does is yeet himself off of a high spot.

He finally has in ring freedom and he’s going to take advantage of it. Broken bone be damned.pic.twitter.com/omBlQgofMc

— AEWDefender (@AewDefender) February 16, 2025

If you enjoyed what you read, head over to our Substack. We’ve got more content making fun of the ridiculous world we live in, sent directly to your email inbox daily.

Follow us over on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Or shoot me an email at Deadseriousmailbag@gmail.com. Let’s chat, bay-beeeee.