AEW ALL OUT

Jacksonville

JOEY JANELA vs. SERPENTICO (7:35): This was on the pre-show, which was an hour long. The main show lasted 3 hours and 51 minutes. This show was just way too long. Even New Japan, who usually have 5 hour long big shows, have cut their big shows to around 2 and 1/2 hours during the pandemic. I guess the reason NJPW is doing it is because shows without fans or shows with just a few fans aren't that great to watch. A rowdy, raucous crowd helps. And a long show without a huge crowd gets stale after awhile. It also didn't help that this show took place in Florida outside and supposedly the temperature and humidity were super high. That was probably the reason a lot of the matches were kind of slow and boring. The wrestlers just got tired from the heat after awhile. As for this match: it was short, mostly action, though not too memorable. I never even heard of the luchador Serpentico, although he looked halfway decent. AEW has too many wrestlers on their roster. The reason is probably because they were supposed to start a 2nd TNT show but that's been postponed because of the pandemic. There were a lot of factors as to why this entire show wasn't that good. It wasn't terrible, just kind of mediocre. The heat probably slowed some of the matches down. The show went too long. The Matt Hardy injury looked bad in every possible way. And there wasn't a match-of-the-year candidate or anything close to it on the show. **

PRIVATE PARTY vs. THE DARK ORDER (ALEX REYNOLDS & JOHN SILVER) (10:25): This was the second pre-show match. Alex Reynolds and John Silver looked pretty good. They do a bunch of cool, unique moves and are young so they're pretty fast. This was decent although nothing remarkable. **

BIG SWOLE vs. BRITT BAKER "TOOTH & NAIL MATCH" (10:25): This was a "cinematic" match. Meaning they taped it before hand and it took place mostly in a dentist's office (Britt Baker was apparently a dentist by day and wrestler by night before she signed to AEW). It was, as you can kind of tell from the description, stupid and awful. Baker is actually really funny as a heel...although I kind of liked her better as a babyface (and she got good crowd reactions). And while this match was bad...I doubt a regular wrestling match between these two would have been any better. 1/2*

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. JURASSIC EXPRESS (14:50): This was the best match on the show. When it started, with Jungle Boy and one of the Bucks (I'm probably just lazy because I still can't tell who's who with the Jackson brothers) wrestling a super-fast, back and forth sequence...it was stellar stuff. I've said it before (I think), but Jungle Boy needs to be in main event title matches in this company (preferably against Omega). When this was over, I thought to myself: these were the guys that killed Ring of Honor. Because this was a great Young Bucks match and when they were in Ring of Honor their matches were always the best on the show and always the crowd favorite. And when they left, Ring of Honor got boring and stale immediately. This wasn't a go-out-of-your-way-to-see-it match or anything, just very entertaining and fun. ***

CASINO BATTLE ROYALE (LANCE ARCHER) (22:15): There were a few highlights in this match, though I'm not particularly a fan of Battle Royals. Or "Battle Royales," like it's a Royale with Cheese or something. Matt Sydal, made his debut here by coming out, going up to the top rope to do his Shooting Star Press, and slipped and fell right on his back. So embarrassing! What a debut! Sydal is awesome, though, albeit getting up there in age. He was Evan Bourne in WWE, right? He also wrestled in New Japan with Kushida as The Time Splitters, one of the greatest tag teams of all time. The other highlight (although, Sydal slipping was more a lowlight) was Darby Allin being put in a body bag with thumbtacks by Brian Cage and then Cage tossed the bag over the top rope onto the concrete landing. Lance Archer won and gets a title shot in the future. This match was semi-entertaining. **

MATT HARDY vs. SAMMY GUEVARA "BROKEN RULES MATCH" (9:00): Well...this match made AEW look awful. They started the match outside the arena in the backstage area by the football stadium. They both went up on a forklift and Sammy speared Hardy off of it and through a table. The problem was they landed too far and Hardy hit his head and shoulders right on the concrete and it looked like he got knocked out. The ref put up her arms in the cross which means it's a real emergency but no one came out. Hardy got up and started fake punching with Guevera but Hardy couldn't even stand up so suddenly the ref stopped it, a bell rang, and a doctor came out. They cut to the announcers who were talking about stopping the match and injuries happen...then the match fucking started again! What? Sammy and Hardy brawled into the arena and climbed up a scaffold and Hardy pushed Guevera off and he crashed through a fake stage set up. The ref counted to ten and Hardy won. So after the show, Tony Khan said that he stopped the match to get the doctor to check to see if Hardy was okay and he was so the match started again. If you saw the bump and how Hardy looked after it...he was not okay. Anyone on Earth could have seen that. This match should have ended early and it made the company look terrible. 

HIKARU SHIDA vs. THUNDER ROSA (16:57): Thunder Rosa is from NWA, which I heard was probably going to go out of business. She also wrestles in Tokyo Joshi Pro. She's a great wrestler and it's good that she's been added to the mix since the AEW women's division has never really gotten off the ground. This match was kind of boring, though. Maybe it was the small crowd (they let around 700 fans into Daily's Place...although they were all sitting far away from the ring where some of the wrestlers sat ringside) or maybe it just never turned into anything particularly great. It was okay. Shida retained the title. **

MATT CARDONA, SCORPIO SKY, DUSTIN RHODES & QT MARSHALL vs. THE DARK ORDER (BRODIE LEE, COLT CABANA, EVIL UNO & STU GRAYSON) (15:10): I actually really liked this match. It was probably because it was eight guys and so by the end it was just move after move and guys in and out of the ring and action all over the place. The big theme was that Brodie Lee destroyed Cody a few weeks ago on Dynamite and beat him for the TNA title and so Dustin wanted revenge. Matt Cardona used to be Zack Ryder in WWE. Remember him? He probably hadn't wrestled on TV for WWE in years. He looked okay, but he at least he wrestles with enthusiasm. This was just a lot of fun with a lot of action. The Super Smash Brothers (aka Grayson and Evil Uno) are always fun to watch and this definitely worked. ***

FTR vs. KENNY OMEGA & ADAM PAGE (29:40): At about the halfway mark this match was great. And early on, I just kept thinking to myself: man, Kenny Omega is the best wrestler in the world. Sadly, the match slowed and went on too long (it felt 45 minutes long). The closing stretch was kind of boring, especially since FTR worked on Omega's leg (yawn) and so Omega wasn't running around going crazy which is when he's the best wrestler in the world. FTR won the tag titles here. Omega seems to be turning back into The Cleaner, his heel persona from New Japan. That's a good thing, as this company sorely needs four-star main event title matches (they haven't had one yet) and they're only going to get that if Omega wins the belt. FTR looked good in spots but looked about half as crisp and were half as exciting as Page and Omega, who are probably the most entertaining tag team in wrestling (or were...as they seem to have broken up). This was definitely good but just dragged on a bit too long. **1/2

ORANGE CASSIDY vs. CHRIS JERICHO "MIMOSA MAYHEM MATCH" (15:15): The best part was when Jericho fell from the top rope into the orange juice and champagne pool at ringside. That looked cool. The rest of this wasn't very good, just brawling around the ring for awhile. I was kind of surprised that Orange Cassidy won, considering he's not exactly meant to be anything but a side character thrown out for matches every blue moon. *1/2

JON MOXLEY vs. MJF (23:40): This wasn't bad or anything, but it was kind of boring. MJF is great on the mic and is good at playing a heel...but this was his time to shine. It was his first main event on a PPV. It was his first title shot. He proved that he's not on the level of the greats like...Omega. Granted, the "greats" are mostly in New Japan. MJF doesn't do any high flying or any big moves. And Moxley mostly just brawls. So this was mostly just fake punches, clotheslines, brawling, submissions. When I think of a great main event title match I want high drama and crazy, big moves like the ones in the Omega/Ibushi/Okada/Naito matches. With a sparse crowd, you probably aren't getting high drama. And these two don't do crazy moves like the ones that made Omega/Okada so spectacular. So this ended up being kind of just an average wrestling match. MJF did bleed. Moxley used the Paradigm Shift when the ref wasn't looking (the move was banned for some stupid storyline reason) and got the pin and retained the title. **