[7.0] "This was a pretty good match. Sometimes I forget that Pentagon went through a phase with Penta Oscuro. He seemed to go darker, tapping in a little bit to that Pentagon Dark run that he had in Lucha Underground. CM Punk would go on to face Hangman Page for the AEW Championship, though not without some controversy. This was a fine match, with one bad botch off a springboard hurricanrana that Punk tried to save by selling his knee. I do wish we could have gotten a rematch from these two, but as this is the only one they've had so far, this was fun. ***1/2"
[7.0] "Punk is trying to prove that he can still hang with the kids and he doesnt prove that but he doesnt not prove it either. Punk tries to hit some ambitions moves but they dont quite connect and the botched springboard hurricanrana from Punk was ugly. He played it off well at first by selling the knee, but the selling goes away within minutes. It felt a little like a carry job by Pentagon as hes more physically capable and his heel work is the best part of the match. The closing exchange between these two is excellent though with reversal on reversal, even if its not very well earned."
[7.0] "This was a fun opener with a very hot crowd. Punk took control for the first bit of the match, until he botches a move and Penta takes control and the matches pace builds up. Punk caught Penta with a GTS to win. Despite a few botched and a slow pace at first, this was very intense."
[5.0] "You just look at the sign, then the match, and it's not impossible to call it a disappointment. All the charm of the Penta Oscuro was lost in a moment. All big moves are like a Piledriver or a Fear Factor on apron - they only gave a teaser for all this, the match itself simply proceeded from the initiative of one to the initiative of the other. Plus, cringe botch on the ropes, okay, at least the Punk could show something else after that, if he hadn't caught the Penta at the end, it would have been even more shameful. **1/4"
[7.0] "This was a really fun opener. The crowd was red hot and the finishing stretch was really good. Some of the match was awkward, and that botch from Punk wasn't great, but he made up for it with the selling of his knee afterward. ***3/4"
[5.0] "Considering these two are as acclaimed as they are, hard not to call this a disappointment. Pretty ugly at points and surprisingly even. Not the worst of Punks run but far from the best. Wasnt completely without positives though as Punk did look pretty agile at points."
[7.0] "It wasn't the dream match we were all expecting but it was still pretty good: the crowd was red-hot for both wrestlers and the first part of the match was enjoyable. The rope frankenstainer botch was bad and could've possibly ruined everything but Punk handled it well and they were able to get back on track almost immediately. The closing stretch was really good and Punk g.t.s. to counter a springboard by Penta was a cool finish. 7/10 - 3.5*/5*"
[7.0] "Solid opener between Punk and Penta here which was everything I expected, I think they're capable of even better in a bigger context and with even more time but they came to tell a good story together and the New Orleans crowd loved it as much as I did so I'm perfectly happy with the action as well as those great crowd reactions. It wasn't perfect of course but it was well paced, well executed and made sense so it was a lot of fun to watch from bell-to-bell. The turning point of the match was of course CM Punk's botch but that's where you see all his intelligence as right after that he pretends to have a leg injury and he sells that fake injury until the end of the match, it's clearly the experience and his ability to improvise that impressed me here. Penta played well around that too and the last few minutes were super exciting, I liked the way Punk brought his GTS in by catching Penta in mid-air. A lot of good stuff in this."
[7.0] "Richtig guter Opener, nur der Anfang war mir dann doch ein bisschen arg zäh. Aber dann wird das Match immer besser und mündet in eine starke Schlussphase. Penta sah sehr stark aus, Punk hat trotzdem den wichtigen Sieg bekommen."
[7.0] "I have never been a fan of Penta. This was by far the best singles match I have ever seen him have and the reason for that is CM Punk leading the match although at some points they seemed to have problems communicating. Punks selling after botching the hurricanrana was so convincing that I am having doubts whether it actually was a botch or not. If it was then great save. The selling pretty much made the match as good as it was. Also the match just made sense throughout which helps."
[8.0] "An hell of an opener. Maybe Punk is not suit for bouts like these, spotfest ones, you know. Nevertheless, he put on his storytelling skills. Punk's fall on the third rope was so well caught up, by everybody, added something though the fight. Penta was great as always. Superb finish as well."
[8.0] "This was a great opener that served the best out of it where even a misfire was shown as a part of the match's story (wear and tear angle) highlighting the experience of both these combatants. I never expected a match between these two but after seeing it, I'm desperate for Round Two. 3.75 out of 5 stars!"
[6.0] "They worked hard here and the ending was good, though it felt a bit like a match you would see on a big time indy show: no real reason for them to be fighting, but it makes fans go "that sounds AWESOME". It was good while it lasted though"
[8.0] "Richtig guter Opener, picke packe voll mit Kontersequenzen! CM Punk hat sich dieses Mal eher dem Stil von Penta angepasst und das hat Spaß gemacht. Das Finish war dann recht plötzlich aber sehr passend"
[6.0] "Actually, it wasn't the instant classic I was expecting to watch. The first half went pretty slow, and choreographed, even with two botches moves from Punk. Then the intensoty improved and got some nice interactions, until the match ended. Just a satisfactory match. [***]"
[6.0] "It was an okay enough match but it seemed like Punk's fall, which I do think was a botch, kind of had to be forced into the story of the match but didn't really go anywhere on Penta's side. That kind of thing is not such a huge issue for me, though, but I do think it's weird to have made this big deal about Penta's dark persona coming out when it feels like he has no momentum. He hasn't exactly gone on a tear since the change."
[7.0] "Gutes Match.Das war ein spaßiges Ding, beide zeigen tolle Aktionen und keiner wirk wirklich dominant dargetellt, nur komisch das Penta sich nicht viel stärker auf Punk's Knie fokussiert hat. ***1/2"
[7.0] "I am always happy when the audience is fully involved in the match and reacts to all the blows and gestures of the fighters. CM Punk stumbled hard on the ropes and the overall impression of the fight deteriorated, and the pace of the match slowed down, the fans certainly did not disappoint and help CM Punk in this awkward situation. Penta showed himself perfectly, he knows how to do it, bright super kicks and in general he always holds himself in the ring with dignity. These fighters could not disappoint and they coped with the task of opening the show."
[4.0] "I was not feeling this too much, it felt weirdly off at times, the whole deal with Punk falling off the ropes and seemingly hurting his knee was strange, Penta never targeting the knee at all so that was even stranger if it was an intentional piece of the match."
[7.0] "Good opener with a red hot crowd. Punk recovered well from the botched hurricane and played it into the match by selling it off as him having a bad knee the rest of the way.***1/2"
[6.0] "This was a bit disappointing to be honest. They did not seem to have the best chemistry and I assume they did the match on the fly as some of the spot calling was really noticeable. Penta's performances have been so down lately and he is relying (spamming even) the same 2-3 moves over and over. He is still one of my favourite wrestlers though. I wish we had got this a PPV match then maybe it would have been a lot better."
[7.0] "It's extremely hard to get something truly interesting out of Pentagon these days, but CM Punk, one of the greatest of all-time, managed to have a pretty damn fun opener with him here. Great selling, interesting transitions, neat singular moments of offense in the middle of his always overall-great arsenal, it was just a yet another great showing by Punker."
[7.0] "I think this was the more interesting "dream match" on the show. It seemed a little muted at first but once they found their footing they really got it. Hope to see a rematch."
[7.0] "This match was excellent as an opener and both men gave it their all. The build of the match just speaks to the professionalism of both men involved. ***1/2"
[6.0] "A little dissapointing considering both wrestlers have pulled out incredible performances in the past. It was decent enough, nothing noteworthy happened but it was great hearing such a great crowd and reactions to both men. Penta needs to find his footing in his new gimmick as apart from going for arm breakers occasionally nothing really seems to have changed. I was looking forward to this match but I think if there was a proper build and both men were given more time it would have been much better"
[7.0] "Never thought I'd see this match. Good opener and I think I'd like to see a rematch now that they've got some experience together. Punk does a great job selling. A shame Penta's new gimmick has meant nothing though."
[5.0] "I do not think they meshed well, as has been the case with Penta in AEW far more than not, sadly. Whether Punk botched the top rope huracanrana or not, it was somehow symbolic for the communication issues. Punk winning was expected, but other than most of his recent matches, this one did him no favors in my opinion."
[7.0] "This was a fun opening match. The chop off at the start diminished the one in the Joe/Suzuki match in my opinion, which is why AEW really needs people to go over the matches to make sure people don't repeat spots. Anyway, this had some good back and forth action, with some good false finishes and a great finishing stretch. Punk also sold the botched rana very, very well. However the botch slowed the pace miserably and took me out of the match a bit. Besides that minor hiccup though, I thought this was a lot of fun. [***1/2]"
[7.0] "Ich hätte mir hier vielleicht noch ein kleines bisschen mehr erwartet aber das war schon ein wie ich finde unterhaltsames und mehr als anständiges Match, welches daher in meinen Augen 7 Punkte verdient."
[8.0] "A fight that has been quite entertaining and with adequate time, maybe we can see them in the future, who knows, certainly a good start for this Dynamite."
[8.0] "Penta showed again why he's one of the best in the world, and Punk continues to improve each match since his comeback. Quite a mix of styles here, which made for an entertaining match as they combined them extremely well."
[5.0] "This felt like one of those late 80s early 90s WWE Hogan or Savage matches where they don't really do a ton in ring, but get by totally on aura and being over. This was two vets milking a ton out of very little (mostly chops and teasing big moves that never happened). Two over AF pros just soaking in."
[9.0] "The match is good! Has a lot of good moments especially the final part, I liked how Punk sold his knee it was amazing - although I thought it was a botch at first, I immediately realized that part of the plan to heat up the emotions! The audience responded well to each reception)"
[6.0] "Obviously this was a TV match, but it still failed to deliver much of the intensity or the excitement these two are so very capable. If this had happened on a PPV it would be a significant disappointment; on TV it's a forgettable encounter between two members of AEW's stacked roster that just didn't click together."
[7.0] "I didn't really like this as much as some people I think. It was still pretty good, they recovered well from the botch, Punk is a masterful seller. They need to stop having Alex Abrahantes in that Halloween costume coming out with Penta though. ***1/2"
[7.0] "Very fun match. Awesome towards the end where Punk and Penta were just spamming shit. That catch for the GTS was Gnarly and a great way to start Dynamite"
[6.0] "6.5 - Good example of how to recover from a big botch - sell it as an injury, check on the competitor, then continue the match. When Punk adds just one or two things to his match, it adds leaps and bounds. His catch on the final GTS was a perfect example."
[8.0] "It was a good match, but it was not clear at all why Punk injured his knee in the middle of the match, but there was no mention of it at all, and everything went very smoothly!"
[7.0] "Good TV match, and CM Punk got a major quality win over Penta Oscuro who was also ranked, the slow build towards Punk getting the title match at Double or Nothing continues. Penta got his chops in too, he certainly didn't make it easy for Punk."
[5.0] "Die typische "CM Punk gewinnt, aber zunächst muss er den Gegner stark aussehen lassen"-Struktur, die wir hier seit Tag 1 seiner Dynamite-Matches sehen. Mit Penta hat er dann jemanden als Gegner, den ich zuletzt in Singles Action mehrfach einfach verloren fand und so auch hier. Bisschen Trademark-Finger-Action, ein paar Manöver aus dem bekannten Repertoire, den Rest muss Punk machen. Solide bleibt es."
