In the wake of All Out 2022 we head into what could be an exciting period for the brand. All Out was a very good show with 2 major talking points. The biggest being MJF and his long awaited return. The other being The Acclaimed and how over they are.
Casino Ladder Match
So realistically this match was very simply a set-up for what happened at the end of the match. Although there was an illogical part of this match where Rush was the third entrant into the match. So he is slowly getting ready to come to the ring at the top of the ramp, this is requiring Wheeler Yuta to climb the ladder extremely slowly and fumble about while he waits fro Rush to get in the ring. But that is basically the only low point. The rest of the match was fun.
All of a sudden masked men come out and attack all the participants of the match. Once all of them are out of commission, one of these men climbs the ladder and takes the poker chip hanging above the ring. The men were then revealed to be Stokely Hathaway and all of the men he has recruited. Ethan Page, The Gunns and W. Morrissey. Then another masked man comes out, this time out of the entrance way, gets in the ring, and Stokely gives this guy the chip and calls for the bell.
This man teased an unmasking but stopped, and they all walked to the back. Now during all of this, the very clear pick of who this was, was MJF. Just the way he walked, the mannerisms and just the way he acted. Nevertheless it was very well done. All of it and was not the last we seen of him.
The Elite vs The Dark Order – Trios Championship Tournament Final
Obviously this tournament could’ve been more on one side. But this match was an amazing final for the titles. Kenny Omega came out for the match looking fantastic, no tape on his body, clearly fully healed storyline wise.
The match itself delivered and Hangman gave Dark Order a lot of legitimacy in this match. To a point where some of the nearfalls and false finishes, were so convincing that it looked like Dark Order would come away with the belts.
But it was not to be, as Hangman was setting up for his buck shot lariat on Omega, who was being held up by John Silver. Omega ducked out of the way, Silver went down after being hit by the lariat and Omega got this pin on Silver. I thought it was a good finish but there was a great moment in the match where Hangman was setting up for his buck shot, and Matt Jackson was on the outside similarly to how he was at Full Gear last year. Contrarily to last time though, Matt Jackson makes sure he doesn’t hit it.
But ultimately with The Elite winning here it gives the titles immediate legitimacy and star power. The direction I want it go in has definitely got to be the Blackpool Combat Club against The Elite. With the BCC going over and taking the titles eventually. It doesn’t need to happen right away, but down the line it should happen.
Jade Cargill vs Athena – TBS Women’s Championship
This match was quite short, shorter than I expected but it did resemble a larger issue on this show. Which was that there was too many matches on the show. There wasn’t much to the match apart from the physicality on display which is always great to see.
Jade Cargill retained fairly easily. Now I thought there would be a title change here but no. Athena could get a rematch soon possibly. But if Jade is winning this match, you may as well take her winning streak to 50-0 or 49-0 and then beat her at that point.
The question is, who would beat her? Jamie Hayter seems like a great choice, and while she could be in the Women’s title hunt. It could be a good choice after what we seen later on in the show with Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter.
Wardlow & FTR vs Jay Lethal & Motor City Machine Guns
I thought this was a good match but definitely could’ve been more. Especially when you have FTR and Motor City Machine Guns in the same ring. Which is a match that should definitely happen at some point in the near future.
So Wardlow picked up the win for the team over Jay Lethal after 4 powerbombs. But probably the most important things happened after the match. As the victors celebrated in the ring, they were almost surrounded by Jay Lethal and his crew. That was until Samoa Joe’s music hit. Out came the ROH TV champion to even the odds.
Sonjay Dutt was the one to recieve comeuppance here. Joe threw him in the ring surrounded by everyone. Then, Dax’s daughter who came out with FTR during their entrance. She ran down to the ring as she was not at ringside. This was a great moment for her, who Dax cut a promo a while back about how she went through hardships due to her heart. But what happened next was so enjoyable, she broke Sonjay’s pencil, the thing he carries on his ear all the time before he decked by Dax. Then they did a mock pin to end a very memorable moment. Loved this post match segment.
Ricky Starks vs Powerhouse Hobbs
Another match that went very short, once again probably due to how many matches were on the show. But this was a glorified squash match. Ricky Starks looked great on the show though and Hobbs looks like a star with his entrance.
The match went about 5 minutes with Hobbs picking up the win with an excellent looking spine buster. Hobbs has one of the best looking spine busters right now.
I expected Hobbs to win here, not in this short fashion but it should’ve went longer. I think this feud continues to build, because while they did build some, I feel that it could be more. Not to mention Starks should eventually overcome Hobbs at some point too. But we’ll see where it goes and if they just move on.
Swerve in our Glory vs The Acclaimed – AEW Tag Team Championship
In my mind this was match of the night. Not to mention how over The Acclaimed were, they got fantastic reactions out there. Like the Trios match, this match had some incredible nearfalls that convinced you The Acclaimed were walking out with the titles.
Swerve an Lee are normally babyfaces with their act. They changed it up on this show seeing how over The Acclaimed were, they acted more on the heelish side. This gave the match a great dynamic between, otherwise, two babyface teams. The story here was Anthony Bowens and his knee. It was worked on throughout the match and the crowd was so into it.
I know a lot of people wanted an audible called for The Acclaimed to win here. It is a fair call if that happened because the crowd would’ve gone insane. However, I think holding off on it and giving this feud a little more heat, as well as giving The Acclaimed some more wins and then doing another title match at Grand Slam or even Full Gear would be the way to go here.
Because this match didn’t really have any heat going into it, and was barely built up. So if this match gets the proper build and The Acclaimed win the titles in New York for Grand Slam. That could go over maybe even better compared to winning them here.
Toni Storm vs Britt Baker vs Jamie Hayter vs Hikaru Shida – Interim Women’s Championship
First off, this was match was very good and similarly to the Liv Morgan vs Shayna Baszler match from yesterday, the crowd was clearly exhausted after seeing the tag title match. But nevertheless this match still delivered and had the right outcome with Toni Storm winning the Women’s title.
The one thing that intrigued me more than anything was, what would happen between Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter? Becuase obviously, there are no friends in a multi-person match like this. We got our answer when Jamie Hayter hit her finishing move on Toni Storm, and Baker pulled the referee out of the ring as he was counting what would’ve been a 3 count. So they argue and in the end it costs both of them win. As Storm takes the win and the title.
As I said before I think Jamie Hayter should eventually take the TBS title off Jade Cargill. But before any of that happens, we need to see a split between Hayter and Baker. Because we’ve now reached a point where Jamie Hayter needs to be on her own, because she is far too good to be stuck as a lackey. So this needs to lead between a feud between the two.
I can only hope that with Toni Storm as champion the women’s division gets the spotlight it should. As well as the storylines in the division, it has to be improved. When Thunder Rosa comes back from injury the unification match hopefully has some heat to it when we get there.
“Jungle Boy” Jack Perry vs Christian Cage
I loved all of this. It was fantastic. Jungle Boy now seems to be known as “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry. It is a great move, it gives him more sense of being a main eventer. As Jungle Boy came out, he was looking around for Luchasaurus as he must’ve expected him to be by his side. But in a brilliant confirmation of everything that has happened, Luchasaurus finally showed who he is with when he took out Jungle Boy before the match.
Up at the stage, Luchasaurus chokeslammed him onto what looked like the pyro grating and when Luchasaurus carried him to the ring you could see the marks on his back. So as we get to ringside Christian orders Luchasaurus to put Jungle Boy through the timekeepers table.
The match wasn’t really a match. Christian hit a spear followed by a Killswitch to get the win. Jungle Boy loses nothing from this really, because of the beatdown he was given. Christian now looks like a bigger heel for what he has done now. This will also give more story where Jungle Boy now has to go through Luchasaurus to eventually get his one-on-one match with Christian.
I could see this being dragged out to Full Gear but has the potential to all be blown off by Grand Slam. So this should be very interesting and one of the angles I am looking forward to.
Chris Jericho vs Bryan Danielson
This was a very good match. As you would expect from both of these guys. Jericho coming out as “Lionheart” again. Though this match maybe could’ve been slightly better but it was still great.
The main story for the match was the whole Daniel Garcia factor. We did not see him at all during the match. I thought we would see him cost Bryan and help Jericho win because it was all a big ploy by Jericho and Garcia. Obviously not, but the match did end with Jericho winning after a low blow to Bryan followed by a Judas Effect.
Realistically this was the right decision anyway, but after the match all of the JAS came out to the ring apart from Daniel Garcia. He was not there with Jericho, so in a segment backstage later, Jericho explains that for Garcia’s match with Wheeler Yuta on Dynamite this week, he will need to go out there alone with no back up from the JAS.
I feel like this has to lead to a full babyface turn for Garcia, because at this point and the build up, I think it would be a good payoff, and maybe have him switch sides to the BCC. I don’t know if he wins the title from Yuta on Dynamite, but maybe its the turning point.
Miro, Darby Allin & Sting vs House of Black
This was a solid match but once again, seeing the House of Black lose. Especially having Malakai Black taking another pin. Although after the match off camera, Malakai embraced with his group and had a goodbye sort of thing for the fans in attendance.
Now if Malakai is just taking some time off like reports have suggested, then this was probably a fair outcome. If not and the House will be continuing on TV with Malakai, then this result was a mistake. Really only time will tell but if Malakai is taking time off, hopefully he is able to work through any issues he’s been dealing with and comes back stronger.
Jon Moxley vs CM Punk – AEW World Championship
The main event, the one that everyone was waiting for. This match was probably the match most were expecting on dynamite a few weeks ago. But if anything, Punk winning this match, justified the squash a few weeks back. Because Moxley beat Punk at that point, he looked very strong going into this match and now losing this match, doesn’t really hurt him at all.
But at the beginning of the match, Punk hit a quick GTS and I genuinely thought at that moment they would reverse what they did last time. But Mox kicked out. CM Punk ended up bleeding in this match, quite a bit. Moxley did not bleed though, going away from the norm.
The ending of the match was great. Punk hit a GTS, Mox went and bounced off the ropes, fell on Punk. Then once again, Punk hit a GTS, and won the match and won back the AEW world title.
The biggest talking point of the show followed. We got a video of Punk back in ROH many years ago where he said, “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people he didn’t exist”. If you go back to the build up of Punk vs MJF at Revolution this year, that same storybeat popped up. We also hear about the deal that was made with Tony Khan to come back to the company at All Out, at this point it was obvious. Soon after we get an unmasking of the man in the mask who won the casino ladder match earlier, he turns around and reveals himself to be none other than MJF.
This was masterful, he then comes out with his theme playing and therefore setting up Punk vs MJF for the AEW World Championship at some point soon. This is where MJF will win the title and it will be fantastic. Another note is MJF was cheered, in Chicago over babyface hometown hero CM Punk. I am very much looking forward to see where this goes going into Grand Slam where I think the match happens and MJF wins.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
