SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
HITS
Adam Cole & MJF vs. Aussie Open (ROH Tag Team Titles): This match was short, safe, and got across what it needed to. The crowd popped huge for MJF & Cole’s win. I was worried that having them appear twice in front of the live crowd would diminish the reaction to them in the main event. That certainly didn’t happen and I was happy to be wrong. Considering the booking in the main event went the way of MJF retaining, I don’t mind how this played out and it helps keep the friendship/partnership alive. Personally, I still wouldn’t have had these guys work two matches and would’ve gone another direction but I was still very interested in the story they’re telling at the show’s end. More on that later.
Hook vs. Jack Perry (FTW Title): This was a solid match and brawl for a pre-show match. Still though, it was only a mild hit considering the easy money said that Hook would be reclaiming the FTW Title. I assume Hook moves onto another feud but I’m unsure what we get next from Perry especially taking into consideration the backstage altercation that he had with CM Punk.
C.M. Punk vs. Samoa Joe (“Real World Title): Another solid match that, because of Punk’s faux title, left little doubt as to who would go over. You could definitely tell that both Punk and Joe had a great time working with each other though and both played greatly to the crowd. The tricky situation that AEW now has is whether or not to kill the “Real World Title” angle sooner than later since Punk can’t seem to stay out of backstage altercations. I’m not going to argue here whether Punk is/was at fault for the “Brawl Out” incident last year or the backstage altercation with Perry at All In this year. But, the fact of the matter is that he is the common denominator for almost all AEW drama going back to March of ’22. The wrestling world should be talking about All In right now but Punk has found a way to once again steal headlines for the wrong reasons.
Kenny Omega & Hangman Page & Kota Ibushi vs. Jay White & Juice Robinson & Konosuke Takeshita: Another very good match. This one definitely shocked the crowd at the end with the finish. Ibushi still seems to be trying to find his way and hasn’t returned to his 2019 form; we’ll see if he can ever recapture that. I wouldn’t be surprised if coming out of All In and All Out we get a full on Bullet Club Gold (with Takeshita maybe?) vs. Elite feud. If anything, we’ll get some really good matches out of it. Hopefully, with AEW focusing more on episodic TV lately we’ll also get some solid storytelling out of this. At the scrum after, Don Callis asked Tony Khan to put Takeshita and Omega into a match at All Out, which was granted and makes sense based on the booking of this match.
FTR vs. The Young Bucks (AEW Tag Team Titles): It could be argued that this was the best match of the night. Having said that, I wasn’t blown away but still enjoyed it a lot and did love the finish. I’m not sure if The Bucks and FTR just don’t have the best in-ring chemistry and there’s nothing really wrong with that. It was still a very good match but never seemed to really kick into gear where it felt like a “match of the year” type match. Some were surprised by the finish but having FTR go over at the end still felt like the right move in terms of the booking if you can forget about Cash Wheeler’s legal problems. I’m not sure what to make yet of The Bucks blowing off the handshake from FTR after the match as I don’t see another Bucks/Elite heel turn coming. Perhaps it’s just that we’ll see these teams go at it again in the not too distant future. I’m hoping it’s expanded upon later this week.
Eddie Kingston & Penta El Zero Miedo & Orange Cassidy & Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta (w/Alex Abrahantes) vs. Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta & Mike Santana & Ortiz (Stadium Stampede Match): Another highly entertaining match that, in a backwards sort of way, has set up an International Championship Match for All Out this Sunday. Per the assumption of many in the pro wrestling media, this match was more of an expanded “Anarchy in the Arena” type match due to it taking place at Wembley Stadium and not the over the top style of the match that we saw in Jacksonville during the pandemic years. A lot of great brawling in this one and I absolutely popped big for Orange Cassidy taking a page from “Kickboxer” with his hands dipped in shattered glass. I can’t believe this spot hasn’t been done in the past 35 years since that’s when the movie was released. Maybe it has and I just have never seen it. The fallout from this match sees Cassidy facing Penta on Wednesday at Dynamite for the International Title and the winner facing Moxley at All Out (per the All In scrum). The booking is a bit convoluted to get to what I assume will be Cassidy vs. Moxley at All Out but most could see that title match coming about a month ago so I don’t mind the booking being slightly off getting there.
Darby Allin & Sting vs. Swerve Strickland & Christian Cage (Coffin Match): All four of these guys worked really hard and took some gnarly looking bumps (especially using the casket). I could’ve seen a few outcomes to this match but having Darby go over to give him momentum going into the TNT Title match at All Out did make the most sense. I’m glad Darby is being made to look so strong but I’m actually hopeful that Luchasaurus retains over him next week due to the strong mic work of Cage. The bigger part of this story right now is Cage and Luchasaurus, in my opinion, and needs to continue.
Will Ospreay (with Don Callis) vs. Chris Jericho (with Sammy Guevara): From start to finish this was a lot of fun and continued the Jericho story that was started a few months back. It was a ton of fun to see Jericho get to perform with Fozzy in front of a packed Wembley. This match was strong from start to finish. There were a few small botches but I can’t say that they affected the overall match. Jericho isn’t the same Jericho from 10 years ago or even 4 years ago for that matter. However, now that he’s not working as much, Jericho seems to be getting more out of less. I cite this match and his brawl with Roderick Strong a few months back as examples of Jericho stepping up when he’s needed most. I, almost certainly, thought Guevara was gonna turn on Jericho during this match but instead he helped and it was Jericho that pushed Guevara away after the match. I assume we could still get that moment this week if Jericho chalks it up as post-match frustration. Again, I’m happy to see the story continue on a more focused level with Guevara and Jericho.
MJF vs. Adam Cole (AEW Title): I’ll go on record right now by saying this is not the direction that I’d have gone. I was all for a Cole heel turn, at some point during the pre-show or during the main event, whether he won the title or not. But, here were are and I will say that, emotionally, I was there until the end of the broadcast. MJF and Cole have done a good enough job to convince me that this story must continue. I still feel the Cole turn in inevitable and imminent. However, I’m not sure it’ll pack the same punch if it’s done during something like a ROH Tag Title defense against The Kingdom. It’ll still be the right move, albeit a late one. You can’t argue that the fan reaction at the end of the show was tremendous (and throughout the show for that matter). The AEW fanbase is completely invested in this story and, if this wasn’t the first go-around at Wembley, I feel Khan would’ve pulled the trigger on the heel turn at the end of the show. A big part of me feels like it was important to end the show on a huge “feel good” moment in Khan’s mind for this huge show and it did work in the moment. Here’s hoping there’s more than enough material to make this work still and that the turn, when it does happen, doesn’t feel diluted.
Overall Show: After months of waiting, a lackluster overall build, and a hot final week of TV (well, Dynamite anyway) I think it’s fair to say that this show was fun and a big success. They’ve already committed to next year in Wembley so AEW isn’t shying away from the online arguments about what will or won’t be “good enough” when it comes to attendance next year. Next year’s show could see a drop that only sees somewhere between 40-60k attend and I think it’d be considered a success again just from that standpoint. I still don’t like that Khan doubled down on doing the All In and All Out shows 7 days apart again next year but I’m very hopeful that by then AEW will have either a streaming service or a spot on Max by then to make it easier on the consumer. If you are a fan of in-ring action, I’d say this was a solid but not incredible show. There were no “match of the year” candidate in general but all the matches were solid in the ring, even the “misses.” If there’s one thing I can point to that is a big positive coming into and out of this show though is that AEW is continuing to improve on its storytelling. They had a few good stories coming in and have some good ones coming out of this show. I’d grade the show out at a B+.
MISSES
First Hour of the Pre-show (Zero Hour): The only way you knew this first hour of Zero Hour (was the the “Negative One Hour?”) was going on was if you were on X (Twitter) and saw that AEW was going live. It wasn’t promoted on Threads at all. I saw many people on X that had the same thing to say. How this wasn’t communicated at all during the 5 hours of television that AEW has weekly (plus the Road to All In hour) in simply mind boggling. It’s still things like this that show that AEW has some things to button up. In case you missed it, you didn’t get to see the Miro and Powerhouse Hobbs contract signing and a fun in-ring segment that included Karen Jarrett, Jeff Jarrett, Satnam Singh, Jay Lethal, Grado, Paul Wight, and Anthony Ogogo. Did these segments set the place on fire? Absolutely not. But, it would’ve been nice to know they were happening and that fact that zero promotion went into it still confuses me.
Hikaru Shida vs. Toni Storm vs. Saraya vs. Britt Baker (AEW Women’s Title): This was a minor miss, if only, because I didn’t like the decision to go with Saraya as champion at the end. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great moment for her but I don’t think her in-ring work is strong enough yet to carry the division. Storm is really starting to hit her stride for the first time since coming over to AEW and she’s been great. Baker also would’ve been a great choice due to her usual popularity. If I was fantasy booking this, and she was available, I’d have Mercedes Mone defeat Saraya this coming weekend at All Out (I still don’t believe she was there simply as a guest and not cleared yet, per Khan at the scrum). That would easily turn this minor miss into a hit after the fact. I’m not completely down on everything that happened as the work in the ring was pretty good. Saraya does have the personality to carry the title but we’ve seen very little from her the past 12 months in terms of in the ring and that small sample size just hasn’t been great.
House of Black vs. The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn: This was another very minor miss. All six worked well together (seven, if you include Julia Hart). The in-ring work was well enough and I’d even say that the right team went over. Having said that, there’s no reason that this match couldn’t have been held off off until All Out as it had little heat to it. I’ll also go on record now as saying that I believe the Trios Title is a failed experiment. I was a proponent of these titles coming around during the pandemic era when gangs mostly ruled the day in AEW. Those days have long since passed. My hope now is that Malakai Black can move onto some singles programs and Buddy Matthews & Brody King can be moved into the tag division. But, that also puts another great tag team mired into the trios division with The Acclaimed. At this point it seems like nothing but a vicious cycle of really good tag teams being cannibalized by the Trios Division.
(Tony Donofrio is a PWTorch contributor, covering AEW PPVs with Hits & Misses columns. You can contact Tony at TonyDonofrio@icloud.com and follow him on X and Threads @TonyDonofrio.)
OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET: AEW pay-per-view notes including new PPV title in October, Full Gear location, Wembley in 2024
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