Revolution and all the images you see in this recap are owned by All Elite Wrestling, Tony Khan, and Shahid Khan
I may have my moments where I get tired of AEW and even fall behind in recapping the shows, but I always manage to come back around in time for the big Pay-Per-View shows! It definitely helps when the card is as stacked as this one is with all the biggest stars of the company getting a chance to shine, and how can you NOT be excited to see Keith Lee back in action of a show like this? Does the show live up to the hype and put yet another notch in AEW’s already impressive track record? Let’s find out!!
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Leyla Hirsch Vs. Kris Statlander
The AEW Buy-In isn’t necessarily where the lower tier matches go so that the best gets saved for the PPV, but in this case that is exactly what’s going on; a rather mediocre build that leads to a mediocre match at just the right spot where they can get away with it. Things start off well enough as Statlander’s size and strength give her an advantage and Hirsch uses underhanded tactics to target her arm, but aside from a few moves here and there like the Powerslam Statlander gives her and A Blue Thunder Bomb for a two count, there isn’t much excitement going on here and the drama doesn’t really connect due to the feud itself being so lackluster. The other issues are some botches as Hirsch fumbles on a Springboard early on and there’s this bit on the turnbuckle where Statlander has trouble getting Hirsch on her shoulders, so on top of being kind of stale, it’s a bit janky as well. Hirsch eventually rolls out of the ring to grab a weapon and bashes Statlander with it behind the ref’s back. She then goes up top to hit a Moonsault and gets the pin to win the match, so no top of everything else we get a screwjob finish. I’m probably a bit too harsh on this since the Buy-In matches don’t have to be PPV quality, but this was definitely the most disappointing fight of the night.
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Tony Schiavone is in the ring to announce a special guest for the Buy-In! Kenny Omega’s music hits and everyone gets excited… until Don Callis comes out. Looks like Kenny isn’t here and it’s just his hype man here to brag about their legendary title run and to shame the crowd for all the great matches Kenny gave them while he was injured. Fair enough I suppose as Kenny’s injuries were an open secret for a while there, but Callis can’t quit while he’s ahead and starts railing about the violence that will take place on the show before talking down to Adam Cole. I doubt that Kenny asked him to do that since he and Cole are friends, but Callis is gonna Callis, and for what it’s worth, it was nice to see him again.
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Hook Vs. QT Marshall
This whole deal with QT and Hook feels like one big missed opportunity because as much as I like Hook, I don’t want him to be unflappable and devoid of conflict. He needs an opponent to really test him, but instead, he’s getting jokers like QT. Fortunately, this match does go on a bit longer than you’d expect as QT puts up an okay fight against the guy, but at the same time he only manages to get any ground here by cheating with throat shots, eye pokes, and the like. QT’s last desperate attempt to take control of this match is a Diamond cutter, but Hook avoids it and locks him into the Redrum which he taps to immediately.
You know who would have been perfect for this angle? Cody Rhodes! They already have a history together and he definitely has the gravitas to believably knock Hook down a peg, so if he does end up coming back with that whole Ring of Honor thing then I’d put them up right away. Until then, or until Hook can get a proper feud going, it’s still fun to see him but it feels more like a novelty act each time he comes out.
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Death Triangle & Erick Redbeard Vs. House of Black – Trios Match
Death Triangle is accompanied to the ring by Alex Abrahantes
While the Buy-In definitely has a lower bar to clear than the actual Pay-Per-View, that doesn’t mean they can go above and beyond which is exactly what they do here! The (comparatively) little guys here show off what they can do and have some great back and forth action; especially Buddy Matthews who has the most to prove since this is his first match at AEW. As far as workers he probably feels the most like Pac being an absurdly jacked short guy with lots of agility, and the two definitely have some great moments here. Still, the shining stars are Brody King and Redbeard; two big beefy dudes who fight like Kaiju and cause as much destruction! They have a few meet-ups in the ring where they show their strength and skills, and Brodie King gets the spot of the match where he lifts up Redbeard to give this massive dude a Death Valley Driver!
The only issue I had with the match was the ending which felt needlessly convoluted. Everyone is running in and out of the ring with no regard for the rules, and of course, there’s a point where the Baby Faces go for a pin only for the ref to say they aren’t the legal man. I can only assume he’s right given how chaotic things got, but that seems less like a mistake on the Baby Face’s part and more of a failure of the ref to not keep the match under control. Redbeard eventually makes his way back into the ring with Buddy Matthews and Malakai Black (again, good job ref for controlling things) and it looks like Redbeard will get the upper hand since he’s a giant dude with meaty fists to punch them with! After a failed Meteora from Matthews and an only somewhat effective Back Heel Kick from Black, Redbeard has them both by the neck and is ready to Chokeslam them when Black sprays him with the mist. Once again, Black manages to turn the match completely around with the goo in his mouth and the Heels get the pin on Redbeard to win the match. The ending didn’t exactly thrill me, but this was still a great match and could have easily been slotted into the Revolution lineup! Speaking of which, this was the final match of the Buy-In so let’s move on to the show itself!
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Eddie Kingston Vs. Chris Jericho
This is a really good match, but we do have to talk about the elephant in the room and that’s how Kingston drops Jericho RIGHT on his head in the opening seconds of the match. Jericho spends a good minute clutching his head and it’s clear that Eddie knows he screwed up, but what makes it bizarre is the crowd seems to either not know or not care about the bad bump because they are cheering Eddie on regardless. Jericho eventually gets his bearings and starts working over Kingston outside the ring, but the crowd is resolutely in Kingston’s corner which might be ticking off Jericho as I’m guessing the spot where he stops and gives the crowd the bird was not in the original plan.
Thankfully the match really kicks into high gear after that point and it’s just a brutal and ugly brawl. Not a particularly unsafe one mind you as the drop on Jericho’s head is by far the worst bump in this match, but they just hit every move they can to try and get the other to feel pain! Jericho definitely has the more well-rounded move set with Hurricanranas, Lionsaults, and Code Breakers, but Eddie is incorrigible and just goes after Jericho with strikes and the occasional Suplex for variety. Both find themselves barely able to move after several minutes of this slobber knocker, but the turning point comes when Jericho goes for his trusty Judas Effect and Eddie manages to dodge it and hits two of his Spinning Back Fists back to back. Instead of going for the pin though, Kingston puts Jericho in a submission and holds tight on it until Jericho eventually taps out; giving Kingston the win and only adding to the humiliation he is about to endure. Not missing a beat and with a hint of smugness about him, Eddie Kingston holds out his hand as Jericho promised to shake it if he managed to beat him in this match. Jericho hems and haws a bit, eventually sticks out his hand… but doesn’t do it! He just walks out of the ring to a chorus of boos as Kingston’s music hits. The opening spot where Jericho got his head smashed definitely dampened some of my enthusiasm here, but there’s no denying that both of these guys are great in the ring and Kingston having something to lord over Jericho will surely lead to some fun matches and storylines down the road. Hopefully next time they fight, they can do so without someone almost getting injured!
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Jurassic Express Vs. Red Dragon Vs. The Young Bucks – Three-Way AEW Tag Team Title Match
The Young Bucks are accompanied to the ring by Brandon Cutler
For this match type, only two wrestlers are allowed in the ring at a time which means that one team is left out entirely unless they can reach over and tag someone which I guess is a more strategic approach to a three-way and is better suited for a title match, but I still prefer a Tornado Tag match when you’ve got three teams like this. That said, they do try to use the rules to their fullest as the match has two angles to it; will Red Dragon and The Bucks find a way to work together, and can they keep Luchasaurus out of the ring? Now don’t get me wrong, Jungle Boy kicks all sorts of butt in this even when he has to take on both teams, but they give Luchasaurus a lot in this match as he gets to play the unstoppable monster whenever he jumps in and it takes the might of all four of his opponents to keep him momentarily incapacitated. This, however, gets harder and harder for The Bucks and Red Dragon to pull off as the match goes on; the closer they get to the end the clearer it becomes that only one of them can win and that someone will have to take the first shot. This infighting gives Jurassic Express some breathing room and eventually leads to Kyle O’Reilly tagging himself in; not to face Jungle Boy or Luchasaurus, but to face off against Matt Jackson.
Sadly there isn’t a lot of drama to this face-off as Jungle Boy tags himself back in pretty quickly, but the point is clear that whatever shaky alliance was between them is deteriorating rapidly and the rest of the match is basically a free for all with everyone running in and hitting big moves. Red Dragon manage to land a belt shot on Luchasaurus behind the ref’s back and The Young Bucks have an interesting Pile Driver spot that takes out Jungle Boy and Kyle O’Reilly, but neither team can get the pin because they keep breaking up the other’s pin. They are so distracted by their infighting that the champs are able to hit a Thoracic Express on Matt Jackson (after he had thrown Red Dragon out of the ring) and it’s enough to get the pin and win the match. Work-wise it was excellent with everyone getting their moments to shine and there were enough good moments in the storytelling for the match to stay compelling all the way through. I feel that the champs were kind of incidental since so much of the focus was on the other two teams which should rarely be the case in a title match, but they’re building towards something with Red Dragon and The Bucks so I won’t begrudge them putting the spotlight on that. Just maybe give Jurassic Express at least one more REALLY good feud before they lose the belts to one of these teams, okay?
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Face of the Revolution Ladder Match
Participants: Keith Lee, Orange Cassidy, Powerhouse Hobbs, Ricky Starks, Wardlow, and Christian Cage
Some people watch wrestling for the deep technical aspects, some like to see the blood and drama, and some people like to see hot dudes in the ring. Me, I tend to gravitate towards fun and novelty which is what this match had in abundance and it might just be my match of the night. Now it’s probably worth taking that with a massive grain of salt (one of my favorite WWE guys is The Miz so take that for what it’s worth), but this match had great action, hilarious spots, and an abundance of charisma from some of the company’s most dynamic stars! To go over every spot I cheered at, laughed at, or just found immensely entertaining would make this already long recap that much longer, but there was a lot to like here if you enjoy your wrestling matches with a little bit of goofiness!
After everyone goes back and forth between climbing the ladder, using the ladder, and getting hit by the ladder, the turning point comes when the three big guys, Wardlow, Keith Lee, and Powerhouse Hobbs, take the action outside of the ring and even start climbing the ramp for… reasons I guess. They eventually make it all the way to the announce desk where Wardlow shoves them both off the stage and leave them in a crumpled heap on the floor below. It’s a bit disappointing that Keith Lee is out of the match for the finish, but we do get an appearance from Danhausen who comes out from under the ring, and Curses Ricky Starks and Wardlow, so that’s fun at least. The curse seems to be taking less effect though as both of them do get wiped out but recover very quickly and are back in the ring before Christian Cage can finish climbing the ladder. Wardlow gives Cage a Powerbomb on the mat which ends up being the easy way out as he chases Starks up the ladder and gives him a Powerbomb onto another ladder; one that LOOKED clean as Starks had time to put his hands behind his head, but left him in a pretty nasty looking heap.
With no one left to chase him up the ladder, Wardlow makes his way up and gets the ring to win the match! Aside from Keith Lee getting sidelined for the end, I thought this match was fantastic and let everyone shine in their own weird way. What I think impressed me most though is that there weren’t really that many dangerous spots which are the usual calling card of Ladder Matches. The unpredictability is supposed to be the selling point as you don’t know who’s gonna get smashed through one or if the end of one ladder whacks someone in the face, but this didn’t really lean into that and instead used the ladders for goofy spots with more people hanging off of them in comical ways than getting put through them. Of course, Starks got the short straw here with that Powerbomb at the end, but it was still a refreshing change of pace!
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To settle everyone down after seeing such an amazing match, Tony Schiavone comes to the stage with an important announcement! At this point it’s more or less a selling point of the Pay-Per-Views to see what stars turn up to sign with the company, and for this segment, we learn that Swerve Strickland is All Elite! Now I only know this guy by some murmurings here and there when he was on NXT as Swerve Scott, but AEW has done great work with the underappreciated castoffs of WWE and I expect Swerve to be no different!
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Jade Cargill Vs. Tay Conti – TBS Title Match
Cargill is accompanied to the ring by Mark Sterling while Conti is accompanied by Anna Jay
The whole Jade Cargill thing is a double-edged sword as her presence and aura of ultimate power is her selling point and makes her fun to watch, but it also makes it hard to book interesting matches around her as she’s still pretty limited in what she can do. The purpose of this match is less to convince us that Tay has a shot of winning, but to give Jade more time to practice selling because she does take a lot of damage here from Tay who comes out swinging and leaves Jade on the defense for a good chunk of it. For what she has to do I think she pulls it off well as she does sell the damage and falls over when she needs to, but she’s also great at keeping her composure and manages to remain unflappable even in the face of such an unexpectedly difficult match.
What it comes down to though is that you can’t buy Tay as actually having a shot here. Despite landing some solid moves throughout, there was never that moment that I thought they were gonna have Jade lose or that Tay landed a strong enough move to maybe get a pin. Despite it being more competitive all the way through, it still feels like a match for Jade’s benefit and not Tay’s, and as expected Jade finally lands the Jaded to get the pin and win the match. She’s getting better and I certainly was impressed when she hit the Frog Splash in the middle of the match, but much like Hook, I’m wondering if we’re waiting too long for someone to feel like an actual challenge to her.
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CM Punk Vs. MJF – Dog Collar Match
Out of every match announced for this show, this is the one that had the best build and the most at stake that isn’t a shiny belt. What makes it even better is that despite MJF going all out in his wickedness and letting the cat out of the bag on Wednesday’s Dynamite, this is a match he clearly wants nothing to do with. He’s good at what he does, but he hasn’t had to fight in a match like this and has already lost when the bell rings. It takes him perhaps a bit TOO long to understand the concept of the dog collar (and his opponent’s ability to pull on it), but he finally gets smartened up and gives Punk a Powerbomb to start his offensive. The sheer hatred with which MJF is fighting this match is just another sign that this kid is gonna be one of the biggest stars if his body holds up, and right away he starts shoving a mic in Punk’s face demanding that he quits! Punk is no slouch here either though and what he may lack in sheer strength and stamina is more than made up for in tenacity and experience. He’s far more adept at using the chain as a weapon and even manages to hurt MJF’s hand which ends up saving him several times throughout the match, but this is not an easy fight for him and the dude gets way too bloody way too early to be healthy for a guy his age. Not only that, but he messes up his knee just as surely as he messed up MJF’s hand, so both are struggling to pull off their best moves and spend a lot of time just looking for the energy to continue.
The most predictable thing about MJF though is that when things look tough it’s time to cheat, though since this is a No-DQ match I guess you wouldn’t even call it cheating and he probably should have opened with this if it was a card he had up his sleeve. MJF grabs a back of thumbtacks from under the ring and scatters them in the ring. Punk sees what’s coming and tries to fight him off, but MJF manages to land a Superplex from the top rope that sort of sends him into the tacks (MJF probably should have scattered them closer to the corner instead of in the middle of the ring), but even this is not enough to put away Punk who manages to kick out at two! And with that, MJF is done. He’s not dealing with this any longer and starts screaming for Wardlow who does come out to the aid of his employer but doesn’t look too pleased about it. He’s here to deliver the Dynamite Diamond Ring to MJF… but he can’t seem to find it in his pockets! He doesn’t know what happened to it! MJF is utterly flummoxed by this and is so infuriated that he doesn’t notice that CM Punk has already recovered and is not prepared when he pulls on the chain! Punk quickly gets him up and manages to hit the GTS despite his bad knee which is the exact moment Wardlow manages to find the ring. Despite MJF being out on his back, he doesn’t bother to wait for him to get up and just leaves the ring on the apron; not giving the ring to Punk per se, but not NOT giving it to him either! Punk puts on the ring and pulls MJF up. MJF spits in his face which may have been satisfying for him, but doesn’t stop Punk from hitting him with the ring to get the pin and win the match! That was a darn good and extremely blood journey that paid off the storyline between these two about as well as I could have expected! I probably didn’t need as much blood as Punk was willing to shed for it, but the action was great and the chain was well used throughout the match. There’s still just enough ambiguity in Wardlow’s actions that maybe this isn’t the end of his relationship with MJF, but I guess we’ll have to wait for the fallout on Dynamite to know for sure!
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Britt Baker Vs. Thunder Rosa – AEW Women’s Title Match
Baker is accompanied to the ring by Rebel (Not Reba) and Jamie Hayter
Despite a decent contract signing and an okay angle with Mercedes Martinez, this feud has felt underwhelming and was even significantly undercut by the match on Wednesday where Rosa pinned Baker clean in the middle of the ring. With all that against it as well as the great matches that it has to follow, there wasn’t a lot of hope for this match to stand out and sadly that turns out to be the case. It starts out well enough with Rosa and Baker having some decent back and forth action, but as soon as Jamie Hayter and Rebel (Not Reba) start attacking Rosa while the ref’s back is turned, I just threw up my hands. We’ve seen this exact scenario play out a hundred times before, so whatever the outcome is it doesn’t mean anything! If Rosa had a modicum of awareness going into this match she would have either brought her own backup or demanded it be a Cage match to keep this very obvious thing from happening, but instead, we’re just going to watch the same thing play out once again.
Perhaps I’m being too harsh about this. The action is sold with both hitting some big moves and even reversing out of each other’s more brutal attacks, but by the time we get to the end, it all just felt like filler. Rosa eventually manages to land a Tombstone Pile Driver on Baker which looks like it will end the match, but Rebel (not Reba) got up on the apron to distract the ref, at which point I wanted to take a break because a Pay-Per-View shouldn’t cheat you out of a finish so egregiously but regardless, and Rosa manages to take her out. This turns out to be a bad idea because instead of officiating the match, Ref Turn keeps an eye on Rebel (Not Reba) instead of just letting one of the doctors come over to deal with her brutal injury sustained by… a forearm strike. Jamie tosses Baker the belt which she Stomps Rosa’s face into, and the ref turns around just in time to count Baker’s pin. This only gets a two count, but don’t worry! Rebel’s back up a minute later for another distraction at which point Rosa just Spears her out of the ring and takes out Jamie Hayter for good measure. Rosa gets back in the ring but Baker lands another Stomp on her as she does, and she gets the pin to win the match. All I can really say about this match is that it would have been fine for a TV match. It’s not like you can’t cheat in a Pay-Per-View, but giving us such a tainted finish in such a predictable way is not what people want when they go the extra mile to pay for one of these shows instead of just watching it on free TV.
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Jon Moxley Vs. Bryan Danielson
The Baker match was not good, but then I wasn’t expecting too much from it. The real disappointment for the night, at least for me is probably this match; not because it’s bad in any meaningful way, but it just didn’t feel like the epic clash of two superstars that I was hoping for. It was well done, rather technical, and played to both of their strengths, but ultimately felt like a somewhat friendly spar. I guess it makes sense since the storyline is not that they hate each other and that Moxley just wants to challenge himself, but the low stakes involved as well as how far into the show it was left me feeling a bit tired of it by the time we got to the end. Now there is a story here and it’s a pretty solid one which is that Danielson is the professional with the precise offense and strategy that Moxley’s more rough-and-tumble style needs to overcome. He usually achieves this through sheer aggression and brutality, but that’s not going to work here as Danielson isn’t really any less brutal than him and therefore knows how to work around him. Basically, it’s Frieza Vs. Goku (the first time) and while Moxley never goes Super Saiyan, he does have to fight smarter than he usually does to try and overcome Danielson.
Continuing with the Dragon Ball Z allusions, Danielson’s ultimate downfall is his hubris as Danielson does the face stomps and locks in the Triangle Sleeper, but instead of putting extra pressure on Moxley, he starts posing for the crowd. Moxley, making perhaps the smartest wrestling move of his career, flips over with the hold still in place which means that Danielson’s shoulders are pinned to the mat and he can’t break the hold before the three count; effectively outwrestling the world’s greatest technical wrestler! Naturally, Danielson is humiliated and infuriated so he starts wailing on Moxley after the bell has rung which is just fine by him who fires back with just as much fury, but then William Regal shows up out of nowhere to break it up and shout some sense into these two like they’re a couple of rowdy children! This is our second surprise signing of the night and while I’m not very familiar with Regal’s career, I understand that he was a big part of why NXT was great during its golden years and frankly AEW could use an authority figure. As I mentioned before, having people actually go to Tony Khan or a GM to request matches instead of just saying they did it off-screen would help flesh out the stakes involved in these matches and I’d like to see him do something like that rather than just be another manager running around. Still, they certainly found a heck of a way to end the match, and even if it felt more like a preview of a future match I’d like to see more, I thought it was very well put together.
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AHFO (Andrade El Idolo, Matt Hardy, and Isaiah Kassidy) Vs. Darby Allin, Sting, and Sammy Guevara – Tornado Trios Match
When putting together a Pay-Per-View, you need to order the matches in such a way that the pacing doesn’t either overwhelm the audience with too many big matches in a row, but also doesn’t bring things to a crawl. You want to keep the audience warm in between the big matches without losing them entirely and having to rebuild that momentum for the main event. This is one of those buffer matches, though they take a different approach with it. Storyline and pacing are pretty much non-existent here because this is pretty much a popcorn stunt show as everyone does something ridiculously dangerous to try and get the crowd to pop. As junk food and as a way to keep the audience warm before the main event, it’s a pretty good move! My only issue is with the aforementioned danger as there are some terrifying spots in this match. The clear winner as far as making me sink into my chair in absolute dread was the Sting spot. For reasons that are not important, The Butcher and The Blade have run in and built a two-story ladder tower outside the ring in front of one of those tunnel entrances. Andrade is put on top of the tables by Darby and Sting is on the barricade above the tunnel. You can probably guess where this is going.
I don’t even know what to say at this point. Wrestlers are gonna wrestle and if they want to do this crap in their sixties, then I’m not gonna stop them. I’m sure Sting was having a blast doing that and I can only hope he was able to get out of bed the next morning. Everyone else gets one of those spots where you question their choices in life, but eventually, it comes down to Darby Allin and Matt Hardy in the ring. Hardy works him over with the chair for a bit including a spot where he sticks Darby’s head through hit and hits the Twist of Hate, but Darby manages to escape and hits a Scorpion Death Drop on hardy. He then goes up top and hits the Coffin Drop (a little off target, but it still made contact), and Darby gets the pin to win the match. As I said, the whole point of this match was to put people through tables, throw them off of high things, and hit them with weapons until the Baby Faces get the win. It was short, sweet, and to the point, but seriously Sting; you are in your mid-sixties!
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Hangman Adam Page Vs. Adam Cole – AEW World Title Match
This show had a lot of great matches, and I probably liked at least one better than this, but as far as a Main Event worthy match this was pretty fantastic! It definitely feels like an endurance test kind of match where the goal is to see how many big moves they can hit each other with before the other passes out, and boy do they hit a lot of moves here! Cole starts out on defense as Hangman’s size makes him a formidable foe, but he soon events the odds with a kick to the face and by throwing Hangman into the steel steps which starts a back and forth heat segment where one guy lands a bunch of moves before the other gets a counter and is in control for a while. This happens no less than five times in the first half of the match, and while it does drag on a little bit because no one is really getting an advantage one way or the other, the moves are great to see and these two work brilliantly together!
As you’d expect, Red Dragon run down to give Cole a hand as soon as things start going bad for him, but unlike in the Baker match where it’s already been done a dozen times to protect her belt, here there’s at least a little bit of drama to it as Hangman is the one with something to lose here. With Red Dragon’s help, Cole lands a bunch of moves including a few Panama Sunrises, and he finishes his assault with a Boom Knee Strike. He goes for the pin, the ref counts, one… two… NOPE! Despite the interference, Hangman managed to kick out of Cole’s finisher and is back in this match! The Baby Face managed to overcome the unfair advantage instead of using it as an excuse for someone to hold onto a belt, which makes a pretty big difference here, and it builds to an even bigger moment soon after. After a spot where Hangman and Cole go through the Timekeeper’s table, The Dark Order run down to check on Adam Cole and end up fighting with Red Dragon all the way back up the ramp; returning this to a fair fight. Hangman hits the Buckshot Lariat on Adam Cole, but much like how Hangman kicked out of the Boom Knee Strike, Cole is close enough to the ropes to break the pin. At this point, Hangman is getting upset and takes a much more spiteful approach to this match as he works over Cole with his own moves and even ties him to the ropes with his belt just like how Cole’s buddies duct-taped him on Wednesday. Normally such flagrant displays of Heelish behavior would spell doom for Hangman, but actually, it works out quite well for him! He hits the Boom Knee Strike on Cole after he breaks free of the ropes, and he hits another Buckshot Lariat. Since Cole isn’t anywhere near the ropes this time, Hangman is able to get the pin and win the match to retain his title! And… that’s it! No big surprises, no cliffhangers, just Hangman celebrating in the ring as the show comes to an end!
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I’m not too interested in ranking Pay-Per-Views against one another, especially with there being so many of them now, but this was a great show that managed to pull off almost everything it tried to do. Sure there were some hiccups here and there and honestly, the end of the show was a bit underwhelming (certainly no All Out 2021), but the matches were very well put together for the most part, and the dramatic storylines hit their mark exceedingly well. I’m curious to see where some of the fallout lands, but for the most part, I feel like I got everything I needed in this show and it ended up being very satisfying because of it. No doubt there are seeds of future storylines being planted, but this delivered on the necessary payoffs and it’s just another reminder of why AEW has become such a big name in wrestling in such a short amount of time.
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Unfortunately, we have to end this on a bittersweet note as I’m sad to say that I will be making a significant change to my wrestling recaps going forward. It’s just getting too difficult for me to review both Dynamite and Rampage every week, so from now on, I will only be covering the Pay-Per-Views and the occasional special episode on TV. I’ve looked at the numbers and it’s just not worth the time and effort to write about them, and my focus would be much better used elsewhere. I’ll certainly stay up to date on the shows though, and maybe I can find another venue to discuss them, but I’m genuinely excited to start working on other projects and I hope you’ll enjoy them as well!
The Reviewers Unite 