AEW: ALL OUT 2020
September 5th, 2020
Jacksonville, FL
1) Joey Janela (w/ Sonny Kiss) vs. Serpentico
This match was added at the very last minute and is pretty random, but it's decent. Fun little back and forth action to kick things off. The Janela/Kiss alliance continues to work pretty well as Janela wins and they seem to be gelling pretty nicely.
Match rating - **1/2
2) Private Party vs. John Silver & Alex Reynolds (The Dark Order)
The former Beaver Boys really have been busting out some low-key heaters lately. This once again had me pretty riled up on a team I was never super stoked on. Private Party pick up the win, but what I got out of this was that I want more Silver/Reynolds tag matches. Very fun.
Match rating - ***
MAIN SHOW:
1) Big Swole vs. Britt Baker - Tooth & Nail Match
So, this happens in a "dentist office" - a lot of people shat on it, but it was entertaining and kept me into it the whole time by the sheer weirdness and... stupidity of the stip? A needle of novacaine and a drill came into play and this was a fair enough blow off for all the issues they've had in recent weeks.
Match rating - **1/4
2) The Young Bucks vs. Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus) - #1 Contender's Match
The Bucks do an amazing job here of playing off where they are as characters, It seems like we could be headed towards a heel turn for them. Lots of frustration stemming from the Page/Omega stuff and you could almost sense a small lack of confidence. Jungle Boy & Luchasarus looked like straight up stars here and The Bucks gave them a lot. Great tag match with loads of action and fun spots, plus the Bucks story telling made this a success. The Bucks win and are the new #1 Contenders to the Tag Team titles. Jungle Express looks strong in defeat.
Match rating - ***3/4
3) Casino Battle Royale
Off the top of my dome - three things stand out from this year's edition of this match, and I will mention those right off the bat. First being Will Hobbs who had an awesome showing. He had several great displays of his strength and agility, but also had the moment of checking on Sydal smoothly and discreetly following his botched shooting star press. Speaking of that, that's one of the three things that stood out here. Matt Sydal was the big final surprise entrant. Myself and the room of people I was watching with were super stoked. Sydal comes down, knees Shawn Spears in the face on the ramp, climbs the top turnbuckle for a shooting star press and.. slips and falls. I could not get the lump out of my throat for the rest of this match. Such a big moment for Sydal, arguably his biggest since leaving WWE as Evan Bourne and damn... I still hope he gets the chance to show out in AEW. And the third thing that stood out here was the absolute insanity of Darby Allin and the bodybag full of thumbtacks bump he took here - absolutely devastating. In the end, it's Eddie Kingston and Lance Archer left. A perfect final two as it felt like it could go either way, and Archer gets the win after a short struggle. I am big down for a Mox/Archer re-match after their match in NJPW so hell yeah to this.
Match rating - **3/4
4) Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara - Broken Rules Match
Man oh man.. poor Matt Hardy. This feud with Sammy Guevara has nearly killed him on two occasions now. First it was the botched chair shot on Dynamite that busted him open and it took 13 staples to close him up. Now they go right out the gate in this match with Guevara spearing Hardy off a lift thing, Hardy misses the table and clocks his head on the cement, going stiff almost immediately, clearly knocked out. The match gets stopped for a little while then they re-start and go right into the finish with Hardy throwing Guevara off a scaffold tower thing through some stage boards. FUCKED. I can't even rate this, but it was insane to see unfold live and I hope Matt is okay.
5) Hikaru Shida (c) vs. Thunder Rosa - AEW Women's Title Match
After the ups and downs of the battle royal and the scary Hardy/Guevara spectacle, this show needed a cool down and more of a straight forward wrestling match and that's what we got from Rosa and Shida here. This is a match that I was super looking forward to and it definitely delivered despite taking a few minutes to get into gear. After some intense back and forth, Shida retains over the NWA Women's Champion. I hope we get more AEW/NWA stuff because this was solid.
Match rating - ***1/4
6) Kenny Omega & Hangman Adam Page (c) vs. FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) - AEW World Tag Team Title Match
Ohhhhh man. Here we go. Omega & Page had a five star classic (and my only five star rated match in 2020) back in February against the Young Bucks at Revolution and proceeded to be the leaders of the best tag team division in all of pro wrestling with every defense being fun/very good at the least. I can only think of one or two that didn't hit over *** and those were still solid in their own right. AEW truly has the best tag team division in the world right now and this match is another example of that. There is so much going on story wise here. The tension between Page & Omega, Page's continual amazing character development, FTR's first big match and title match since jumping ship. So, yeah. A lot of people thought this match went too long, but I thought it made perfect sense considering FTR is the traditional tag team and they were in clear mental and physical control of this match so for it to be worked in their vein/this vein made sense. Lots of awesome story and character work from Omega & Page and at almost the 40 minute mark after a lot of struggle - FTR dethrones Omega & Page. This match was a slow burn, but had me on the edge of my seat for most of it anticipating if a turn would happen between Omega/Page and honestly what would happen in general. There was so much at stake that it had me grasped from start to finish. Another awesome tag team contest for Page/Omega and AEW. Its not Bucks/Omega & Page, but it's great and something totally different.
Match rating - ****1/4
7) Chris Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy - Mimosa Mayhem Match
The show is starting to feel kinda draggy and long at this point, but that aside this was another fantastic match from these two. The fire from Orange is amazing and I literally can't believe that he got the feud ending victory. Lots of sick exchanges and moments. Jericho ends up being the one to eat shit in the mimosa pools at ringside after loads of teasing and that is the finish despite them having some good near fall sequences in the ring. I thought they worked the stip well and didn't overdo it or make it look dumb. Another career defining performance for Orange Cassidy.
Match rating - ****
8) Jon Moxley (c) vs. MJF (w/ Wardlow) - AEW World Title Match
God, I wish this would have happened under different circumstances and not at 11pm at night after a super long and sorta rocky show because they knocked this out of the fucking park. It was smash mouth, in your face and brutal. MJF was the chicken shit heel that he is better than anyone and Moxley is Moxley. They work the paradigm shift being banned stip well and the way they play into the finish is fun and an outcome I didn't at all think of heading into this match. MJF bleeds a ton after eating a post shot. The bleeding stops, but Moxley headbutts him brutally and repeatedly and opens the cut back up which alone is fucking nuts. But this whole match ruled even if I was exhausted of this show by this point - it fucking ruled and is probably my favorite Moxley defense yet and my favorite AEW match of his since the Omega match. Awesome stuff. Mox retains after a banger.
Match rating - ****1/4
Final thoughts: Some say this was a shaky PPV, but to me it was only plagued by running a little too long as I was exhausted by the time Jericho/Cassidy and Moxley/MJF rolled around. None the less, it still delivered big to me with there being no BAD matches and there being three that hit four stars+. I think this will defnitely be better on a re-watch than live for some people.
No comments:
Post a Comment