I liked this way more than their Final Battle match and thought it was pretty tremendous. It plays off the title change in obvious ways, but not to the point where it feels like they're forcing any learned psychology or whatever, and for a change I thought Gabe was good at getting the story across without being in-your-face smarky about it (also he doesn't shout DANGEROUSSSS at the top of his squeaky lungs once so that was welcome). Didn't hurt that Joe and Aries were both great on the night. Joe won't be surprised by Aries' explosiveness again and it'll be hard for Aries to reel off a combo like the one that won him the belt. Maybe the stars aligned that night and it's hard to imagine they'll do so again. Aries takes lots of powders early when he can't make anything stick. Everything he tries gets shut down and Joe is almost toying with him, dismissive and confident that Aries can't hurt him. Loved the bit where Aries tried to drag Joe to the floor by his leg, so Joe flipped it by walking back with Aries still clutching that leg. When Joe turns it on and finally goes out after Aries he wipes him with a tope, then Olé kicks him so hard he knocks a bunch of the front row on their butts. Aries bleeds and Joe puts an awesome mauling on him, working the cut and generally dominating him. Great bit where he has the STF but rather than hooking in the crossface he just digs his fingers into Aries' forehead and tries to peel off his scalp. Aries' bursts of offence come sporadically but they keep getting shut down. He sort of flirts with going after the leg, that doesn't work for him either and any combos are interrupted, including the crucifix bomb/head kick/brainbuster/450 that he won the belt with. He hits the first three individually at different points, but it's never enough to keep Joe down (the head kick looked spectacular, though). Then he misses the 450 and Joe throws those brutal grounded knees to the head. Cool finish as well, which shows how resourceful Aries is, even if he maybe had no clue that he was actually turning the choke into a pin and it was just a desperation attempt at escaping. Either way he looked tough as nails for hanging, smart enough to (maybe) think on his feet, and Joe looked like a wrecking ball who almost certainly would've won had he just shifted his bodyweight a little.
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