All Elite Wrestling held their Revolution event tonight. Check out the review of the match card and all the action that happened. The event was highlighted by an Exploding Barbed-Wire Deathmatch between Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega. Last year’s event felt very much like the Wrestlemania for AEW. This time around, it also had that big feel to it with a lot of it’s matches.
Let’s dig in.
AEW Tag Team Championship Match: The Young Bucks (C) vs. MJF and Chris Jericho
In the pantheon of Young Bucks matches, that was not their best. But it was also far from the worst. If an 8/10 performance is middling, then you know the team puts on great matches. Filled with rollups and power moves for false finishes, this was a fitting match. The finish is a bit surprising. I’m not sure how we go forward with MJF and Jericho. I was expecting them to win this match and go forward terrifying the tag team division. Now it seems like they might have something to do with the rest of the Inner Circle.
The crotch-chops with “suck it” from MJF was a bit much for this writer, but it adds to his character.
The Young Bucks have their date with whoever wins the Casino Battle Royale match. As for that winner, it could be anyone in the match. So we’ll have to see how that goes.
Starting the show with this match makes sense as you don’t want to introduce viewers to your programming with a strange gimmick battle royale.
The Young Bucks Retain Via Pinfall
Rating: 8/10
Casino Tag-Team Battle Royale
This was simultaneously a gargantuan mess but also incredibly awesome. The right team won in Ray Fenix and PAC. Their match against the Young Bucks is almost guaranteed to be fantastic. Ray Fenix is a madman in the ring and the end of this match featured four of the biggest rising stars in the wrestling business. I would pay to see more matches between Jungle Boy and Ray Fenix. On the other side of that coin, John Silver vs. PAC is huge money in the waiting as well.
Jungle Boy gave us a thrilling effort in this match, but came up short. AEW has a great tag team division from the top to the bottom. For all the good in this match, there was a lot of messy spots though. You can chalk a lot of that up to there being so many teams. QT Marshall turning on Dustin is the biggest wet fart of a spot in pro wrestling. Other than all of that, AEW has a bright future with it’s tag division. They might have to institute an AEW Dark Tag Team Championship at this point.
The messy presentation didn’t take too much away from the overall grade, because the ending was so exciting. The right team won, so let’s all look forward to Fenix and PAC vs. The Bucks.
Ray Fenix and PAC Eliminate Jungle Boy To Win
Rating: 8/10
AEW Women’s Championship Match: Ryo Mizunami Vs. Hikaru Shida (C)
Well if you want more people to care about the AEW Women’s division, this is one of the ways to do it. Bring an old rival for Hikaru Shida and let them have a fantastic match. For people who just tune in for the PPV events, this might have been lost on a bit. The AEW commentary team did a good job of putting this forward. After the match Nyla Rose, Britt Baker, and Maki Itoh came out to beatdown Mizunami and Shida. What this means going forward is murky. Are we getting more faction warfare in the AEW Women’s division?
Britt Baker is likely the undisputed challenger going forward once she finishes her program with Thunder Rosa. I for one, wouldn’t have a problem with a bit of tag-team action for Shida going forward. Give the belt some more time, and then let her get to her next challengers.
As for the match, it was great. Shida and Mizunami have great chemistry. For people who aren’t in the know with her, she should be a fixture in AEW for the future. Give her some matches against the underrated women of the division, and let them show how great they can be.
Hikaru Shida Retains Via Pinfall Over Ryo Mizunami
Rating: 9/10
Miro And Kip Sabian Vs. Chuck Taylor And Orange Cassidy
The preceding couple matches were ranging from pretty good to great. This one was middling. Logic wasn’t really on display. Sabian and Miro beat the living crap out of Chuck Taylor. So you’d think they would win easily. The Superman Punch from Orange Cassidy to Miro at the start was pretty wicked, but it doesn’t make much sense why after, they wouldn’t knock Miro on his ass after. It was really a showcase for his power and dominance. I’d like a little more dominance from Miro over someone like Chuck Taylor though.
Outside of that, I don’t really know where AEW is going with Kip Sabian. He had his big showcase spot with his wedding to Penelope Ford. After this, who knows. Orange Cassidy is, well, Orange Cassidy. He’s going to be over, especially when AEW can get more fans into the crowd.
I’d like to see both sides move on after this match.
Miro and Kip Sabian Win Via Submission Over Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy
Rating: 6.5/10
Big Money Match: Matt Hardy vs. Hangman Adam Page
Well that was the right result.
But is Matt Hardy supposed to be the equal of Hangman Adam Page? It took the Dark Order saving him to give him the win in this match. If Page is the future of AEW as the commentary paints him to be, he should be disposing of Hardy fairly easily here. The reinvention of Matt Hardy continues here, with his straight heel gimmick continuing.
Private Party might get lost in the shuffle when they shouldn’t be. The Dark Order getting Hangman on their side might actually raise his star. They’re supremely over with the crowd, it should only help him.
Adam Page and the Buckshot Lariat are awesome and it should mean an AEW Title run at some point. The match was good and the story of it was the hand injury for Page. It’s probably why Hardy got more offense in than I would have liked.
It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. So it sits somewhere in that middle range.
Hangman Adam Page Wins Via Pinfall Over Matt Hardy
Rating: 7.5/10
Face Of The Revolution Ladder Match
The right guy won here as well. Scorpio Sky deserves a shot at the TNT Championship. I’d go as far as to say that he deserves to win that title from Darby Allin. Darby has been a good champion, but he’s been preoccupied with Taz and his group for most of his reign. Scorpio Sky is a fantastic performer that can be a pillar for the Championship picture for a long time to come.
I’m not a huge Cody Rhodes hater. I appreciate what he does for the wrestling business, but sometimes it goes too far. What in the hell was with his booking in this match? I get they want to position him as a gatekeeper of the TNT Championship, but why have him stand around on the ramp so long. It was distracting from the action at hand. Plus, AEW doesn’t need to show off their medical staff being overridden by wrestlers. The other performers got tons of action in, particularly Lance Archer. Going into this match, any of these performers could have had a claim to winning. Either way, all of them now deserve a shot at the TNT Title after Scorpio Sky gets his choice.
Some of the spots in the match were horrific and brutal, which is what you want out of a match like this. Ladder matches are always going to be fun, especially when the performers are all this good.
Cody just needs to keep some of that spotlight off him.
Scorpio Sky Grabs “The Brass Ring” To Win A TNT Championship Shot On AEW Dynamite
Rating: 8/10
Street Fight: Darby Allin and Sting vs. Brian Cage and Ricky Starks
This match really needed the commentators to shut up.
WWE doesn’t have commentary on their cinematic matches and it makes them feel cinematic. This would have been a good cinematic match, but the commentary just completely stripped it of the power. Taz is one of the worst commentators in the business today. Not only did he mess up multiple times talking about the match in the past tense, but his ramblings throughout didn’t add anything. Sting and Darby looked good here, that’s the point of this match. Brian Cage looked like a supreme asskicker, and it took breaking a bat and Darby Allin jumping off a second story window to take him out.
The match was beautifully shot and well laid out. The action strong and hard hitting. Sting was made to look great here, and his limitations were kept in check. All this great action was held back by the commentary that took me completely out of it.
It all comes back to the presentation of the match for me. Just give the match some time to breath. It’s the classic adage of “show, don’t tell”. We didn’t need Taz screaming about how much of a monster Brian Cage is, we can see that. The ring being involved was meh to me. But for a street fight, why would you need that?
The entrance for Darby was about two minutes too long. After going through all of this, AEW needs to look at, of all places, WWE for their cinematic matches.
There’s a reason why the Boneyard Match is held to such a high regard. Copy that blueprint.
Sting and Darby Allin Win Via Pinfall Over Brian Cage and Ricky Starks
Rating: 5.5/10 with the commentary
8/10 if Taz and Co. would just shut the hell up
Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch For The AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega (C)
AEW is really good at having normal pro wrestling matches. They’re absolutely fantastic at having gimmick, violent-filled matches. This exploding barbed wire deathmatch was a fantastic display. It made Kenny Omega look like a completely legitimate champion. If you had issues with him before this, you better shut up. It took everything in Omega’s playbook to beat Moxley. Two One-Winged Angels and the Good Brothers intervening were the difference.
After the match, Omega showed his villainy by beating down Moxley and handcuffing him. If this is how Moxley goes out so he can be with his wife during her pregnancy, this is the best way he could have gone out. Moxley is the best babyface in the business right now.
If this was the most hyped match of the year, it lived up to any and all hype that was built up. Omega is the undisputed King of Pro Wrestling right now. No one can touch him in the ring, and now he’s beaten the current King of the Deathmatch.
The only thing that I can say about the match is that it didn’t go to the time limit. The way of eliminating Moxley from the equation was fitting for his character. Eddie Kingston put his body on the line for his friend. If this means that we’re getting Eddie Kingston vs. Kenny Omega, I’m all for that.
Kenny Omega Wins Via Pinfall Over Jon Moxley
Rating: 10/10
The only thing that I can say that detracted from the match was the “explosion” at the end. They could have had the similar pyro to Brock Lesnar’s old ring entrance, plus some fire. I’m not sure what the Daily’s Place rules for that are, so that could be the reason why.
Moxley going out like this sets up an unknown for Kenny Omega’s reign as Champion. His greatest challenger was Jon Moxley. So going forward, who knows who’s going to challenge him. We’ll have to figure that out on Wednesday on AEW Dynamite.
AEW: Revolution was another great PPV event for the company. Outside of some questionable commentary and the explosion at the end, it was a great pro wrestling show. AEW is still on a roll, and after “defeating” WWE NXT on Wednesday nights, the sky is the limit.
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