This month’s Positive Trio was a difficult selection. The excitement of All In weekend had a massive influence meaning the incredible segment from the 5th August Raw involving Rhea, Damien, Liv and Dom was left out. The final selection for this month was Bryan versus Swerve, Riot Cabaret’s All Singing All Dancing, and Mariah May.

Yes! Yes! Yes! It’s been a few years since I’ve been in a stadium where this chant has been ringing out and it brought out such emotions. Watched on by his wife Brie and children Birdie and Buddy, Bryan Danielson captured the AEW world title for the first and probably the last time with his retirement looming.

One of the best matches of the year against Swerve took the audience on a rollercoaster of emotions as we knew Danielson’s career was on the line. From the first notes of the Final Countdown to the celebration in the ring with his family and friends, this match has the crowd of over 50,000 people in the stadium gripped.

The match saw great technical wrestling, a few painful looking spots and lots of near falls and submissions. It was a fitting end to the All In show and the start of a title run which will see the end of Danielson’s career when it ends.

Possibly the most fun of any wrestling promotion I have been to is had at Riot Cabaret. Their All Singing All Dancing show the Friday before All In surpassed expectations.

The show saw an over two hour Falls Count Anywhere match between Amira and Cassius which saw them fight on Severus Road, on a bus, the tube, at a skatepark and on a boat on the Thames. It was creative, fun and saw Amira finally getting the victory back in the ring.

After Nina Samuels had successfully retained the title she has held for two years, her celebration was interrupted by a surprise guest. Thunder Rosa received a rapturous ovation and proceeded to mock Nina with her rendition of Livin’ La Vida Loca (Wresting Thunder Rosa). Showing a great singing voice and bags of charisma Thunder perfectly laid down the challenge to Nina for a title match in October.

The show ended with Michael Oku defending his title against Nico Angelo and Mark Andrews in a triple threat match. Andrews had some help during the match from the rest of SubCulture and this led to a ‘Shield’ Bomb of Nico through a table. Despite the best effort of the champion, the numbers game was too much and a new champion was crowned as Andrews held the title aloft to a chorus of boos.

At All In 2023 Saraya won the women’s championship and it would have been difficult to predict that a year later a fellow English wrestler in Mariah May would be holding that title. Mariah was not even in AEW at the time but her character and in ring development has been incredible.

The storyline between ‘Timeless’ Toni Storm and Mariah has been one of the best in the history of AEW. After turning on Toni after winning the Owen Hart tournament, the match at Wembley was the biggest of her career.

The performance both competitors put in made for an incredible match. Mariah was busted open but still managed to slap her own mother, attack Luther and get the victory over the ‘Timeless’ one to cap a memorable nine month storyline.