AEW All Out took place at the Sears Centre in Chicago, Illinois, in front of a sold out crowd. The audience was noticeably hot right away, and stayed that way for most of the night’s action. The production value was once again through the roof, as AEW has excelled in giving its product a great look since the beginning. Speaking of cameras, the video crew was much sharper tonight than they’d been in previous broadcasts. The commentary team also had a major step up, as Golden Boy took the place of Alex Marvez on the show. Nothing against Marvez personally, but he comes off rather monotone and unenthused, which is a big part of why the AEW commentary team hasn’t gelled just yet. While Jim Ross has showed signs of slowing down himself, the team as a whole didn’t seem as lost during the stipulations and transitions as they had in other broadcasts. Let’s take a look at the long night of action, and see how the overall product fared.
1. Casino Battle Royal- Nyla Rose Wins
Two things make for a great battle royal: the stakes, and the stories being interwoven throughout. This #1 contendership match did that in spades (pardon the pun). We also saw a lot of quality independent talent being showcased in this match, including Evolve’s Priscilla Kelly, Impact Wrestling’s Tenille Dashwood, and Shimmer veteran Mercedes Martinez. Nyla Rose may have stolen the match with ten impressive eliminations, but Martinez looked crisp in cleaning house as the match’s popular Joker’s Card (final entrant). They continued the Britt Baker/Bea Priestley feud by having Britt take Bea out of the match, only to have Bea interfere in the end and cost Britt. Sadie Gibbs also had some stand-out athletic spots in this fun affair. It’ll be interesting to see how many of these ladies are offered AEW contracts. Rose takes out Baker to win, and she goes on to fight for the Women’s Championship on TNT.
2. Private Party defeated Jack Evans/Angelico
This was another fun pre-show bout that had the crowd excited to get the main card going. This preliminary flight fest overcame its lack of heat by wowing the audience with lots of flips and team moves. Private Party will be the kind of homegrown gem that they can introduce to a mass audience as they look to create fresh stars for weekly TV. Private Party get the win with a hurricanrana-into-cutter combo, and Evans/Angelico turn heel with an attack after the match. This feud will be a good fit for the Tag Title Tournament on TNT, and gives these undercard teams something to fight over.
We see a vignette of Wardlow, a massive mountain of a man from Pittsburgh’s IWC promotion. He’s tossing guys around in a parking lot, and it’s shot very cinematically. He’s the kind of athletic hoss that will provide a different style from the rest of the roster, and he’s another fresh face that casual fans will be exposed to under the AEW banner.
3. SoCal Uncensored defeated Jurassic Express
The main show kicked off with this fun six-man tag. Jurassic Express is incredibly likeable and seems to be very over with the crowd. Luchasaurus can deliver a hot tag flurry like very few in wrestling can. Marko Stunt is very small, but they get around his unbelievability by doing a lot of assisted offensive moves. This hides his weakness and is a creative way to do trios offense. SoCal played great foils to the babyfaces in peril. They got the win with the BME-double tombstone combo, and this got the crowd hot to start the main card.
4. Pac defeated Kenny Omega
There was some shock that this went on so early, but it made sense since Pac was a replacement and they had to break up the big matches so they wouldn’t burn out the audience. Both men looked very sharp on counters and quick strikes early. Pac started to garner great heat early on, and he continued to play to the audience (something that’s a dying art in wrestling). The beginning and the end of this were hot, but at over 23 minutes, it seemed to go a bit long. Lots of positive power displays on suplexes, and both men nearly got hurt on dives to the outside (the barricades were a little close on all three sides of the ring). Pac got a shock win as Omega passed out from the Standing Regal Stretch. This gets Pac off to a hot start as a heel in AEW, and doesn’t really hurt Omega at all. Pac showed up to confront Adam Page at the post show press conference, so it seems he’ll be sticking around. You have to think Omega/Moxley and Pac/Page will be top matches on future shows.
5. Jimmy Havok defeated Darby Allin and Joey Janela
This was a three-way Cracker Barrel Clash match (try saying that three times fast). Essentially a No DQ free-for-all, this started with a bang as Havok was duct taped to a chair, and had his mouth duct taped shut with thumbtacks inside. This style of hardcore wrestling is very divisive, but it served here nicely to break up the show and keep the audience into the action. These three daredevils matched up perfectly and delivered one of the show-stealers on the night. Havok delivered paper-cuts to the hands of his opponents, while Joey Janela took a shot at Jim Cornette by pulling a tennis racket from under the ring. Darby Allin did what he’s known for doing: taking punishment. He took a Canadian Destroyer off the ring apron through a table, and later he did a Coffin Drop off the top rope using one of the barrels, onto the steel steps. This was a brutal car crash in the best way, that got Havok a big first win, and got Allin over for the beating he took.
6. The Dark Order defeated Best Friends
This was the point where the show went downhill a bit. That’s not to say the quality or the wrestlers involved were bad, but after seeing a main event followed by a hardcore spectacle, the crowd was a bit burnt out. Adding in the fact that the crowd doesn’t know how to take The Dark Order yet, and the match went nearly 14 minutes. The match times as a whole need to be cut down, to save the wrestlers from doing too much, and save the audience’s energy. Stu Grayson has a lot of potential to be special down the road. The former Super Smash Brothers get the win with their impressive Assisted Blockbuster combo, and they get the bye in the AEW Tag Title Tourney. They attempted to carry Trent away, and as the lights went out, Orange Cassidy appeared to take out The Dark Order’s henchmen.
7. Rhio defeated Hikaru Shida
This was another solid athletic outing, but another match that suffered from the lack of energy and engagement of the audience. AEW showcasing Joshi women’s wrestling is a nice unique staple, but they need to make sure they establish these women as characters and make them familiar with the American crowds. Kicks and stomps are great, and these women are talented, but a lot of audiences aren’t personally invested in them yet. The scrappy underdog Rhio gets the win, and she’ll face Nyla Rose on the TNT debut for the Women’s Championship. It was never established why these two got the one-on-one treatment for the title shot, while the others had to go through a 21 woman battle royal. But Rhio and Nyla have faced off before, so they can play into that history.
8. Cody defeated Shawn Spears
The crowd came back for the match that had the most psychology and build to it. Cody came out with Brandi, DDP, MJF, and Pharaoh The Dog (who wanted NONE of the live crowd, and tried to leave every two seconds). He ultimately chose MJF to corner him, to oppose Tully Blanchard being in Spears’ corner. Tully used his old Horsemen cheating tactics to get Spears the advantage, and MJF wound up inadvertently distracting the referee a lot. The announcers played up that MJF’s inexperience as a corner-man was hurting Cody, and it also plays into the storyline that MJF might be using/turning on Cody. Arn Anderson eventually came down and gave a famous spinebuster to Spears. Cody won with a Disaster Kick on a chair into the face of Spears. This match was masterfully done. It got MJF over by working opposite a legend, the brawl showed the intensity of the former friends’ feud, and Arn popped the crowd with continuity and nostalgia as he came down to equal out his former partner. The only puzzling thing here, is having the face (Cody) win outright, as you’d expect this feud to last a while. Now I’m not sure where it goes from here. Nonetheless, this was the match of the night (as the Cody matches always seem to be).
9. The Lucha Bros defeated The Young Bucks
If you like crazy and dangerous ladder spots, this one was for you. This brother-team battle was for the AAA Tag Team Titles, and both sets of high flyers showed off the extent of their arsenals. The use of dueling dives and table splashes showed good timing and popped the crowd quite a bit. At one point, Pentagon gave Matt Jackson (forgive me if I name the wrong Buck) a Canadian Destroyer off the top of the ladder through a table. They came back with dueling frog splashes off of the ladder through tables on the outside. Then Matt (again, forgive me) got pushed off the ladder to the outside, and his foot clipped the top rope. He clattered awkwardly through one table, smacking his head on another table, as blood poured from his head. This was a next level car-crash match that got legitimately dangerous at times. It’s great for live audiences, but I don’t know how many of these they can do as they try to top each other. The Lucha Bros retrieved the titles, and then LAX came out to attack them. LAX is the former TNA staple, and is a major acquisition for the AEW brand. Their tag division seems to be complete, and is one of the strongest pieces of the roster.
10. Chris Jericho defeated Adam Page
The 48 year old veteran defeated “The Hangman” to become the first ever AEW World Champion. While Jericho has noticeably slowed down in the ring over the past few years, this was a much better outing than he had against Kenny Omega at “Double Or Nothing”. The thing that hurt it the most was the crowd once again being drained after the 21 minute ladder war that just preceded this. They were quiet for a vast majority of the match, although the two told a good story. The counter-wrestling was nicely done, and Jericho even bled after a big forearm shot from Page. Although the story was that the aging veteran struggled to overcome the upstart workhorse, Jericho eventually won in 26:25 with the “Judas Curse” elbow. The first ever WWE Undisputed Champion now has another first to add to his legendary mantle, as we go off the air.
Overall, the show was a success. The visual and audio aspects improved, and the match quality was very good. They built young acts like future stars (Nyla Rose, Private Party, Darby Allin) and told some very good stories in the ring (Cody/Spears, Jericho/Page). They established a bit of a hardcore division, and added another big notch to their tag team division. On the negative side, match length is simply too long. Counting the pre-show, this show ran for over four and a half hours. Not every match needs to be 15-25 minutes. You need some 6-9 minute stuff to break up the pacing. These broadway shows hurt the quality in the eyes of the viewing public, and effect the live crowd during transition matches. They still have a lot of growing to do with the commentary team and the use of story development. But they have a lot to be excited about, going into their TNT weekly debut.
