My phone was buzzing because I set it to vibrate over a decade ago.
It was a text message: “JASON”
Another text: “PUNK MELTDOWN DURING PRESSER”
Another: “JASONN….”
I wanted to type a response, but I needed to go to bed. The Message was delivered but I refused to experience it, which had actually been a theme lately. AEW’s All Out took place a half-hour from my house at the same NOW Arena I had the time of my life at last year, and I wasn’t there. I was at home. Now I was in bed. I was tired…
The words you read here, despite the occasional stars and numbers, are not seeking to review wrestling but to understand it – understand myself. A year ago I had an out-of-body experience watching CM Punk return live to wrestling. Now I was watching him from home and tired if not completely detached. What did that say about wrestling? What did that say about me??
Pro wrestling has got an interesting situation going on in regards to how it sends and re-enforces its messages: with no concrete facts (even wins and losses are suspect) if its’ participants don’t reflect on it later or its’ promoters aren’t invested in perpetuating that reflection, it falls on “us” — the spectator, the fan, the blogging reviewer — to find, interpret, and evangelize it. You’ve really got to care to do that, but us wrestling fans – we care. Usually.
When AEW began in 2019, wrestling fans were given a chance at living vicariously through the decisions of a wrestling promoter who wasn’t Vince McMahon, this time at a national viable level. When Tony Khan did this, it must’ve meant that! Even if Tony did that, it must have meant that other thing! Tony was clearly too focused on parodying this to focus on those other five things! Tony, Tony, Tony!
Then the last 12 months happened and The Business showed up. It was always going to show up – it was already here – but COVID had stalled AEW into character and story development that kind of dipped once touring resumed. The Elite and CM Punk changed The Biz but nothing was going to come close to the golden dumpster fire that was Vince McMahon’s retirement. As his last few years in charge at WWE revealed, it’s hard to get across a clear message when you’re so focused on money and bullshit.
I both enjoyed and genuinely appreciate AEW through 2020 and 2021, but the last 12 months had felt different – the bigger roster created more variety and “what ifs” but less payoff and consistency. Even before Punk’s first injury or that dumb 5-minute match with Mox it just felt off, like everyone wasn’t working together in this sport that really only works when people do. The main event scene was a drag and the midcard was too overwhelmed by all the drag to be as good as the paper might suggest — how does this keep happening!? Is the only possible alternative to WWE just TNA in bigger arenas!?
The fourth AEW All Out featured fifteen matches and took place at the NOW Arena.
0. Mixed Tag Match: Ortiz & Ruby Soho vs. Sammy Guevara & Tay Melo
Four of those fifteen matches were on the All Out Buy-In (pre-show), and this one began with Ortiz and Ruby chasing Sammy and Tay to the entrance tunnel in a golf cart. Once in the ring, Tay hit Ortiz with a Canadian Destroyer and later superplexed Ruby to the floor. At some point Anna Jay interfered and Ruby broke her nose. All in six minutes. It was a lot! *3/4
0. FTW Title: Hook [c] vs. Angelo Parker w/ Matt Menard
I like Hook. I like Parker. The match was short. The match was fine. Famous rapper (and New York’s own!) Action Bronson jumped the barricade after the match to help Hook escape a 2-on-1 beating from Parker and Menard. **
0. AEW All-Atlantic Title: PAC [c] vs. Kip Sabian
While recovering from injury, AEW Original Kip Sabian began wearing a box over his head that proclaimed he was Underrated And Over It. Here he had a match that could’ve been fine in some scenario but that scenario wasn’t this 15-match show. The match was 10 minutes of time mixed with occasional action, and Kip might’ve been rated just fine. **1/4
0. Eddie Kingston vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Wrestling’s so complicated, yeah? Shut up idiot. Their match at NJPW Capital Collision match rocked and so did this, two reputations colliding with chop after chops after chop after chop. The last few minutes were particularly great, as they usually are when these guys are trying to kill it: suplexes, lariats, backfists and brainbusters all utilized to optimal effect. Stay for Ishii’s post-match refusal to break character too, rejecting Kingston’s attempt to spotlight him in any way. ****1/4
1. Casino Ladder Match: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Wheeler Yuta vs. Penta Oscuro vs. Rey Fenix vs. Dante Martin vs. Andrade el Idolo vs. Rush vs. Joker
The order of entry was Fenix, Yuta, Rush, Andrade, Claudio, Dante, Penta, and finally The Joker, who arrived in the form of a bunch of masked guys (I thought Retribution for a second) followed by the shortest masked guy climbing the ladder, grabbing the poker chip, and revealing himself to be Stokely Hathaway!
Afterwards, “Sympathy for the Devil” by the actual Rolling Stones (the licensing fees!) hit and another masked man came out walking a lot like MJF. He was promptly handed the chip.
The kind of fun match you just sort of watch play out, though I still struggle with all roads in wrestling now leading to a Money in the Bank gimmick. Big bumps, Canadian Destroyers, and sunset flip powerbombs… most into ladders. ***1/2
2. AEW World Trios Title Tournament – Final: Hangman Page, John Silver & Alex Reynolds vs. Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks
Nick Jackson dying his beard a spectacularly stupid half-blonde might’ve been a real conversation topic, if not for The Happenings after the show and if not for this match really being incredible. They delivered plenty of storytelling around Page’s relationship with Omega and The Bucks but in the confinements of an action-packed 6-man tag highlighted by an Alex Reynolds chant and John Silver convincing everyone in the arena he was going to pin Kenny Omega not once but twice. ****1/4
3. TBS Title: Jade Cargill [c] w/ The Baddies vs. Athena
Jade Cargill, going on I assume three years as TBS Champion, entered with her body painted green to look like She-Hulk. Her challenger Athena was game for a pay-per-view championship match, but nobody else was. She hit her finish a minute in, fought through some awkward interference, took some bumps and springboarded off the ropes into a pump kick. Unfortunately just felt unnecessary. **
4. Wardlow & FTR vs. Jay Lethal & Motor City Machine Guns w/ Sonjay Dutt and Satnam Singh
FTR’s Dax Harwood brought his actual 8-year-old daughter to the ring before the match, then she got to punch Sonjay (who was wearing a shirt making fun of her) out after. Neat! In between was a fun if not forgettable match with no less than the Motor City Machine Guns. They hit some cool stuff but any potential chemistry with FTR didn’t feel totally showcased. The Powerbomb Symphony felt most important, even if it was a 15-minute wait to get there. Hey! Samoa Joe is back too! ***1/4
5. Ricky Starks vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
This is the problem. This right here. You build these two guys up, pull off a great turn angle and great promo or two, then poof, it’s … The Grudge Match just becomes a blip on a show. I’m sure they appreciated the payday if not the placement (or runtime). Starks took a nifty shoulder bump then lost clean to a spinebuster. **1/2
6. AEW World Tag Team Title: Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland [c] vs. The Acclaimed w/ Billy Gunn
Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland are good singles wrestlers who became a good tag team, while The Acclaimed are a good tag team who became AEW’s most over act. Still, nobody expected this to be this good, this great… this epic tag match where by the end Keith and Swerve had become full-blown heels and the crowd was begging – begging! – recent babyfaces Caster and Bowens to win it all. All while Billy Gunn (“Daddy Ass”) stood at ringside too.
Anthony Bowens’ Selling The Leg was the key component in this phenomenal tag that also featured with Max going at big Keith, an incredible double stomp from Swerve and a couple Caster near falls off the Mic Drop. And the scissoring. There was scissoring. What a great and not-at-all formulaic tag team match. ****1/2
7. 4-Way Match – AEW Interim Women’s World Title: Toni Storm vs. Hikaru Shida vs. Dr. Britt Baker vs. Jamie Hayter
The 4-Way Match has become a pretty boring trope across pro wrestling, everybody pairing off to deliver fast-paced action in lieu of any real feud over a championship. Highlights included Hayter breaking up a German suplex with a tombstone piledriver and Baker breaking Hayter’s pin on Shida. Good action, forgettable match. ***1/4
8. Jungle Boy vs. Christian Cage
Before the match Luchasaurus turned on “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry for the second time this year, then the bell rang and Christian hit a spear and Killswitch to win. It was but an angle, appreciated yet forgotten this late in the card. N/A
9. Bryan Danielson vs. “Lionheart” Chris Jericho
One of the most fascinating visual and audio experiences I have ever witnessed in my many years watching pro wrestling had to be when I saw nominally-known singer Elliott Taylor emerge wearing white pants and no shirt to sing Bryan Danielson to the ring. Rarely has a clash in tone or personality felt so apparent, and I’m actually going to blame it on this match being so disappointing.
It was one of those wrestling matches that happens a lot in this business where those at the top control The Message, where two old pros face off for 20+ and probably call it in the ring and they’re respected and everyone says it’s good but despite some quality grappling and a Danielson hip swivel it never comes close to the level of their previous, better work or even many of the matches on this card. Jericho countering a Frankensteiner with the Walls of Jericho always impresses me, and they went really hard on the submission and cradle trading towards the end but even that felt a step off before a finish that came out of nowhere – the bad kind. ***1/4
10. Sting, Darby Allin & Miro vs. Malakai Black, Brody King & Buddy Matthews
Let’s just get this one in quick too, sure. Fun match that came towards the end of a long show and didn’t feel like it moved anyone anywhere. 63-year-old Sting doing hot tags, however, remains one of pro wrestling’s modern treasures. ***1/4
11. AEW World Title: Jon Moxley [c] vs. CM Punk
When CM Punk beat Hangman Page for the AEW World Title in May at Double or Nothing, I knew something was wrong. Call it intuition of the wrestling-obsessed. Everyone I knew was convinced Punk was winning and every sign (logic, money, etc) was pointing that way, but the way I saw it Punk the returning pro wrestler who cut that promo last August at The First Dance had two options: put over the young champion still in need of a definitive win, or win the title and turn heel because you’re another big time wrestler stalling wrestling’s progress.
AEW went with the title switch but continued presenting Punk as a good guy until he got legitimately injured, prompting Mox to swoop in as interim champ, headline in Chicago with Hiroshi Tanahashi, and become even more popular. When Punk returned he challenged Mox to determine the real champion on Dynamite, a strange move made stranger when Mox beat him to become the undisputed AEW World Champion in under 5 minutes. Afterwards, with All Out in Chicago just a week away, AEW continued to send The Message that CM Punk was a babyface to root for all along. And somewhere under that backdrop is why when tickets went on sale for this show I didn’t lift a god damn finger.
In the comfort of my own home, though – and about an hour before Punk and the entire wrestling business seemed to once again confirm everybody’s worst assumptions – I watched a great pro wrestling match. Maybe there were a few moments of sloppiness where these 40-year-olds physical limitations caught up with them in the tornado of a modern pro wrestling main event, but otherwise this felt like two guys in their primes wrestling their asses off for a World Title.
They got right to punching and kicking and teased a quick Punk GTS win to remind everyone of the quick Mox win nobody liked. They brawled in the crowd, Punk got busted open and Mox licked the blood off his hand. Punk began favoring his leg so Mox began to work over it, a Leg Work that put Punk at a disadvantage the rest of the match.
They got a big reaction off Punk reversing a figure-four leglock, which led towards a counter-filled and compelling finish: Mox grabbed a bully choke, Punk escaped and hit a high kick but got knocked silly by a more alert Mox. Another bully choke followed, Punk tried a GTS and Mox countered with a Death Rider for 2 before going back to the bully choke, only for Punk to reverse into a GTS for 3. The worst part? Because of a backstage fight after the show between Punk, Omega and The Young Bucks none of it even matters. ****1/2
Afterwards, the Casino Ladder Match’s Joker revealed himself as MJF and stared down CM Punk. And, well… I was tired…
Happy Thoughts: Even before my favorite pro wrestler had a psychotic episode and called out Marcia Cabana, All Out ’22 was like too many AEW PPVs: plenty of good wrestling matches overshadowed by all the good wrestling matches, then even more by the “media scrum” (Tony, Tony, Tony!) that followed. MJF’s return, Kingston/Ishii, and the Tag and World Title matches are all worth seeking out while the rest ranged from “ran together a little” to “damaged the whole territory.” 3.5 / 5.0
