AEW REVOLUTION

Chicago

THE DARK ORDER vs. SOCAL UNCENSORED (9:25): This was the pre-show match. I actually really like The Super Smash Brothers. I think their matches against The Young Bucks in Ring of Honor over the years were all great. However, their new, evil, Dark Order gimmick isn't working and is just stupid. I hope they decide to change it but will that even work? The fans hate them. This was a pretty basic match but at the end Colt Cabana (who is from Chicago) ran down and beat up The Dark Order and the crowd popped big for that. Christopher Daniels came out dressed in a robe (shades of Vince McMahon as the Higher Power?) to tease being The Dark Order's leader (who hasn't been revealed yet but could end up being Lance Archer, who just signed with AEW) but instead just beat The Dark Order up. This was average stuff. **

JAKE HAGER vs. DUSTIN RHODES (14:40): Jake Hager is a good bodyguard type...but I hope we don't see him wrestling again anytime soon because he's boring. The AEW crowds all love Golddust for some reason (probably because they watched the WWF in the late 90's like everyone). This wasn't terrible just kind of dry. *1/2

DARBY ALLIN vs. SAMMY GUEVERA (5:00): These two remind me of Hiromu Takahashi and Dragon Lee five years ago. That's probably not entirely a good thing, as Dragon Lee accidentally broke Hiromu's neck. But Allin and Guevera are similar in that they're fucking nuts and they move at warp speed. Allin did a dive through the ropes and his foot caught on the rope and he landed on his head in the exact botch that the new La Parka did last year (La Parka, not L.A. Park, ended up in a coma and then died a few weeks later because of that). The other crazy spot was Guevera doing a 630 from the top rope through Allin on a table. These two are insane. The table spot and a bunch of other spots happened before the bell even rang, that's why officially it was only five minutes. These two type of guys should really be in the main event for the title since they're so much more entertaining in the ring than Moxley or Jericho. ***

KENNY OMEGA & ADAM PAGE vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS (30:56): While I thought that perhaps this was AEW's worst PPV so far, this was maybe AEW's best match yet. It's not really surprising, as Omega and The Young Bucks are three of the best and most entertaining wrestlers in the world and have been for years. Adam Page is now the crowd favorite (probably because his gimmick these days is being a drunk, bad ass, lone wolf 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin type). The crowd was so behind Adam Page in this match that they began to boo The Young Bucks even before The Young Bucks started to do a few heelish things at the end. While the match was non stop action and they're all working at the top of their game...there was also a ton of storyline elements in this match that only really smart workers like these dudes can pull off. When one of the Bucks ripped off Omega's shoulder tape he suddenly stopped and held it in his hands and looked as if he was thinking, 'What am I doing? What kind of monster have I turned into?' At thirty minutes, this match had literally everything. Two weeks ago, PAC and Omega had a 30 minute Iron Man match in which Omega hurt his shoulder. When Omega attempted The One Winged Angel, his shoulder gave out so he couldn't deliver it. So Page did The One Winged Angel instead and the crowd fucking roared. My one nitpick in this masterpiece is that The Young Bucks didn't win the titles. AEW is known for their healthy tag team division yet their best team, the Bucks, aren't the champs and seem to lose often. And in a company that has a ton of real tag teams...why are two single wrestlers the tag champs when they're not even really a tag team? The Bucks winning the titles, though, would not have worked here because the crowd was totally against them and a sour finish would have ruined this match. This was an all around great match and so far the best match of the year. ****

NYLA ROSE vs. KRIS STATLANDER (12:45): Ha ha! Follow that last match! Nyla Rose beat Riho for the title a few weeks ago on Dynamite. A re-match would have been better because Statlander hasn't been around long enough for anyone to care about her (plus, Riho is awesome). This was fairly brutal and not terrible but not particular memorable. *1/2

MJF vs. CODY RHODES (24:40): Ugh. This whole match I just kept cringing when looking at Cody Rhodes' new tattoo on his neck. Is that a real tattoo? Not that any tattoo is cool or pretty or nice or anything because they all look fucking stupid but Cody's new tattoo is the ugliest and stupidest looking thing I've ever seen. It's the shape of the United States but it's also the American Flag colors. Maybe up close it's halfway decent but from far away it just looks like a hideous, black mark on his neck. It's also in a totally weird spot, like half on his neck but also creeping up the side of his head by his ear. God it's awful. Would it have killed someone to talk him out of that? I couldn't even pay attention to this match. The match was okay. They did a bunch of interference stuff. Cody kicked Arn Anderson in the face by accident. Brandy jumped off the apron onto Wardlow who caught her. MJF used his diamond ring to knock out Cody when the ref wasn't looking and MJF got the pin. MJF was also a bloody mess. The buildup to this match was better than the match. **

PAC vs. ORANGE CASSIDY (13:00): This by far had the most heat of any match on this show. Shocking, really, when you think about it. The crowd was more into PAC, a guy they don't really seem to care about that much, versus a dude that never wrestles, in a match for no title or anything, that was just announced a few days ago. But if you watch AEW you get it. Orange Cassidy has always been a crowd favorite. I love him. Why? I guess because he's amusing but also a new, fresh character that you haven't seen before. It's a great gimmick. He's lackadaisical...so when he finally did some unbelievable, big moves in this it was shocking and the place went ape shit. This was just super entertaining. They even had The Lucha Brothers come out so that The Best Friends could tangle with them a bit. Humor, action, drama. I mean...this had it all. ***1/2

JON MOXLEY vs. CHRIS JERICHO (22:20): My one gripe with AEW is that they don't have main event championship matches like Omega/Okada where it's like two guys at the top of their game battling for forty minutes in a classic, epic. The reason is simple: Jericho is the champ. He's too old to have any sort of classic, fast paced match. Sadly, Moxley isn't either. Can you imagine how awesome a Jungle Boy vs. Omega main event PPV title match would be? Or one with Darby Allin or Sammy Guevera? Well we won't be seeing those any time soon, and I guess I get why, as Jericho and Moxley are more popular and sell more tickets than guys like Jungle Boy or Allin. Moxley won the title here. You can blame the tired crowd all you want but let's face it, this match was slow and pretty boring. Jericho has only been in a few good matches in the last few years (his Naito match at last year's Dome was the best one) so it wasn't a big surprise that this was pretty sloppy and dull and just okay. Moxley bled, they brawled through the crowd, The Inner Circle interfered, Moxley took off his eye patch to reveal he wasn't blind (so why was he faking it? doesn't make much sense). So where do we go from here? I don't want to see Jericho/Moxley 2. What other heels are there? Moxley/PAC would probably be boring. Omega/Moxley would be decent but they can't really top their hardcore match from last year. Moxley's been champ in CZW, WWE, and now AEW (plus he's the U.S. champ in New Japan). Kind of crazy that ten years ago he was in Delaware in a Tournament of Death and now he's a worldwide star. **