The show is now being credited as featuring the most paid fans for a single event in the history of pro wrestling. Whether you believe that to be true depends on where you fall in the “WWE vs AEW” debate, but no matter what, this is an insanely impressive day for a promotion that many didn’t feel could achieve anything along these lines.
Now, let’s see if the show itself matches up to the hype that the ticket sales have created. Folks, it’s time for All In(nit)!
CM Punk vs Samoa Joe – “Real World Championship” Match
Before even reviewing anything about the match, I have to say that I love the way the presentation of the show looks. It’s a relatively simple stage setup, but it still looks great, and of course, the absolute sea of humanity in attendance looks, and sounds, tremendous.
The beginning of the match saw me dealing with more issues with Bleacher Report. I was able to watch the match on the app, but the audio and video were off by about two seconds. When I tried switching to the Bleacher Report website, the stream wasn’t even working until about halfway through the match.
The match itself was fun. Certainly not the classics that Punk and Joe had in Ring Of Honor, but fun nonetheless. Some Hulk Hogan “tributes” mixed in with a Terry Funk tribute, to go with some actual hard-hitting action, as well as Joe getting a chance to perform his greatest hits. It won’t be anything that will be talked about for weeks, but it didn’t have to be, and it was a good way to get the show started in front of the mega hot crowd. 3.25 Stars
Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi & “Hangman” Adam Page vs Konosuke Takeshita, “Switchblade” Jay White & Juice Robinson – Trios Match
This was your typical Trios bout in AEW, and in no way, shape, or form is that a complaint. Non-stop action from bell-to-bell, and way too much going on, making me happy I don’t have to handle play-by-play for these shows.
I like that different guys got different chances to shine, which is to be expected, but that the doors remained open for future contests, specifically between Omega and Takeshita. Lots to like here if you’re a fan of these hectic types of matches. 4 Stars
FTR vs The Young Bucks – AEW Tag Team Title Match
Great stuff, to the surprise of nobody. We know the type of offense that FTR are going to bring to the table, and we know the type of offense that the Bucks are bringing to the table. That clash of styles continues to make for some incredibly entertaining matches.
I do have one complaint, though, and it has nothing to do with any of the four men in the match. It’s a complaint you’ve seen me mention a million times in my columns through the years. I need these bitch ass wrestling announcers to stop spoiling the results of matches with their calls. In the span of three minutes, Excalibur ruined three major 2.999 counts by declaring that the match was over. Sure enough, on the fall that actually ended the match, he sat back and simply counted the three. I fucking hate it, and every company has their fucking doofus announcers do it.
Anyway, really good stuff here, even if it didn’t quite reach the level of FTR’s matches with The Briscoe’s, but not many tag matches in wrestling history have done that. 4.25 Stars
Eddie Kingston, Penta El Zero Miedo, Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor & Trent Berretta vs Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, Santana & Ortiz – Stadium Stampede Match
Thank you, Joe Pesci, for not requiring me to do play-by-play here. There isn’t a chance in hell that I would be able to cover it all, because there isn’t a chance in hell that the AEW cameras and production team will be able to cover it all.
Blood, blood, blood, blood, and even more blood. Barbed wire, skewers, broken glass, forks, screwdrivers, chairs, tables, umbrellas, cookie sheets… everyone involved in this match should be checked out for some sort of mental illness. This was w-i-l-d, wild. If you’re a fan of this style, you’ll love this match. However, if you don’t like this style, your opinion will not be changed whatsoever after what we just witnessed. My goodness. 4.5 Stars
Hikaru Shida vs Saraya vs Toni Storm vs Dr. Britt Baker, DMD – Four-Way Match for the AEW Women’s Title
While the match itself wasn’t bad, it was more focused on the tension between the members of The Outcasts, with Saraya and Toni Storm falling apart and fighting each other. Then, Ruby Soho runs out to try and calm things down, only to get dropped by Storm herself.
Again, it wasn’t bad, but it seemed like more of a vehicle to display the problems of The Outcasts than anything else. That’s more palatable on television, but this is the biggest pay-per-view in AEW history, so I was expecting more. Perhaps that’s my bad. 2.75 Stars
Darby Allin & Sting vs Swerve Strickland & Christian Cage – Coffin Match
You know exactly what you’re going to get with Darby and Sting tag matches, and the AEW fans aren’t complaining one bit about it. Darby is going to put his body and wellbeing on the line, Sting is going to do at least one insane thing for someone his age, and that will work out for everyone.
A fun match that was never going to be anything great, but that’s fine. Kudos to Swerve Strickland for looking like a stud here. He deserves praise for a lot of the work he’s been putting in recently. 3 Stars
Chris Jericho vs Will Ospreay
I don’t know how much credit Jericho deserves for this, and how much credit Ospreay deserves for this, but Jericho is still having good matches. It’s 2023, and the man is two months away from his 53rd birthday. I don’t think he’s someone who is going to be having Match Of The Year contenders anymore, but he’s still a lot better than many people give him credit for these days.
Good fun here with Jericho trying to keep pace with the faster, younger Ospreay and actually succeeding in doing so for a while before slowly starting to fade and needing to switch things up a bit. I dig that type of storytelling, even when it’s just something small. 3.5 Stars
The House Of Black vs The Acclaimed & “Baddass” Billy Gunn – “House Rules” Match for the AEW Trios Titles
While the match was perfectly fine, it was never going to be anything earth-shattering in this spot on the card. The crowd was still excited, as everyone… loves… The Acclaimed… so I guess that’s what matters here.
I love the Bray Wyatt tribute during HOB’s entrance, complete with fireflies, a lantern, and Wyatt getting name-dropped on commentary.
If I’m going to give Chris Jericho props for what he’s capable of in the ring at his age, I have to do the same for Billy Gunn. Gunn’s birthday is a week before Jericho’s, but while Jericho will be turning 53 this year, Gunn turns 60. He is still in fantastic shape, and he still looks good during his matches. Lots of turning the clock back in AEW these days. 3.25 Stars
MJF vs Adam Cole – AEW World Title Match
The first “act” of the match was the two friends slowly seeing their friendship take a back seat to wanting to win the match. It was more of a focus on the storytelling aspect of things than on real action, but that’s fine. Cole working heel-ish really started to upset the crowd, and it only led to him taking more shortcuts, while MJF largely played the face role, and very well, I might add.
The second “act” was more of an actual AEW main event fight, and both men really got a chance to shine there. There might not be a more improved in-ring performer in all of wrestling over the last year or two than MJF. His matches are finally starting to match his character and promo work.
The third “act” was a mix of Attitude Era levels of overbooking and tease after tease of what everyone thought the outcome was going to be.
All in all, this was quite the mixed bag, and the reactions on social media prove it. I’ve already seen people praising this as one of the best wrestling stories told all year, and I’ve already seen people calling this “slow” or “boring” and saying it wasn’t very good. It wasn’t a great match, focusing far more on the story, but it certainly wasn’t a bad match. The pace was just different than a lot of what we have come to expect with AEW World Title matches. 3.5 Stars
Was it the best pay-per-view AEW has ever produced? No, not even close. Does that matter in the grand scheme of things? No, not even close. The company broke records, earned a shit ton of money, and delivered an event that was pretty solid from start to finish.