AEW ALL OUT

Hoffman Estates, Illinois

SAMMY GUEVARA & TAY MELO vs. ORTIZ & RUBY SOHO (6:00): 15 matches. Jesus Christ. This was a good show although not one of the best AEW PPV's. It was good but too long. The crowd was super hot. There were two excellent matches. Going in, the card felt a little strange and thrown together. Usually, Tony Khan seems to book long term and set things up. Wardlow teaming with FTR to face Jay Lethal and The Motor City Machine Guns? Does that sound like a long term, set up match? Same goes for Darby Alin and Sting teaming up with...Miro? The long term plan seemed to have been MJF vs. CM Punk in the main event. That changed when Punk got injured in June. Thunder Rosa was also supposed to defend her title against Toni Storm but Thunder Rosa was injured. The one thing this show didn't have was one "I gotta see this!" type of a match. But AEW PPV's always deliver, and this was a fun, entertaining, exhaustive show. Hopefully the backstage politics and turmoil don't destroy this company, because this was a thousand times more entertaining than yesterday's WWE Clash at the Castle PPV. The pre-show opened up with this fun, crazy mixed tag match. Weirdly they did this same match two days ago on Rampage. Sammy and Tay were making out backstage when Ortiz and Ruby, in a golfcart, drove after them and into the arena. They hit Sammy with the golf cart, then Ruby hit Tay over the head with a trash can. Fun start. Short match, but it was entertaining. Sammy and Tay are terrific heels and great together. **1/2

HOOK vs. ANGELO PARKER (3:55): There wasn't much to this match. I'm not really sure where they can go with Hook, though. If he's in longer, non-squash matches then will anyone care about him? But they have to go there someday. 1/2*

PAC vs. KIP SABIAN (12:25): This match was awful. I'm kind of surprised, because PAC is awesome. Kip is returning from a seemingly years long injury. His great storyline is he sat ringside for months with a box over his head for no apparent reason. After he lost, he grabbed the box and was yelling at it. I'm sure Vince McMahon would've loved that angle, as he always had a fondness for bad comedy. 1/2*

EDDIE KINGSTON vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII (13:25): This was great stuff. I kind of thought that the Walter/Sheamus match from yesterday was hard hitting...but I actually think this was even more gruesome. They chopped each other's chests for most of this match. There wasn't much more than that. Sammy Guevera and Eddie Kingston were supposed to have a match on this show but Sammy called Eddie "fat" in a promo and he got mad and they had a fight backstage. I doubt that match would have been better than this, but who knows? ***

THE JOKER vs. CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. WHEELER YUTA vs. ANDRADE IDOLO vs. PENA EL ZERO MIEDO vs. REY FENIX vs. RUSH vs. DANTE MARTIN "CASINO LADDER MATCH" (14:15): This match opened the PPV. This was terrific except the finish was kind of anti-climactic. Thankfully, the ending to this match played into the end of the PPV. They did some really crazy spots in this. Wheeler Yuta got flip power bombed by Andrade off of the top of the ladder onto a ladder bridge. Penta did a Canadian Destroyer to Rush on a ringside ladder bridge. Rey Fenix did a top rope splash through a table. The ending had Stokely Hathaway, who's a manager/agent, and his evil group come out and destroy everybody and take the poker chip above the ring to win the match. Stokely then handed it to the last entrant, the Joker, the suprise, mystery, masked man, who won without doing anything. Later on it turned out to be MJF. ***

KENNY OMEGA & THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE & THE DARK ORDER (JOHN SILVER & ALEX REYNOLDS) (19:50): Considering The Young Bucks vs. Adam Page & Kenny Omega was the Best Match of 2019...and all four of them were in this match...of course this was phenomenal. Kenny Omega looked like the greatest wrestler of all time in this match. Maybe I just forgot how good he was or maybe just having a long layoff and being healthy has made him better than he had been for awhile. John Silver was excellent as always, as were The Bucks. This was the first time Omega and Page have wrestled since Page beat him for the title last November, so those two in the ring got the crowd on fire. This was just pure action and great near-falls mixed in with some excellent story telling. Good stuff. ***1/2

JADE CARGILL vs. ATHENA (4:20): Cargill came out painted green and dressed like She-Hulk. She burst through a brick wall for her entrance. The costume was cool. The match was okay. It was definitely hard hitting. Athena hasn't really been much of a fixture on TV since her debut, and Cargill never has matches longer than 5 minutes...so you kind of got what you expected here. *1/2

WARDLOW & FTR vs. JAY LETHAL & THE MOTOR CITY MACHINE GUNS (16:30): I would have rather seen FTR vs. The Motor City Machine Guns for one of FTR's titles (they have the ROH, the IWGP, and AAA titles). I guess they needed something for Wardlow to do on this show. This wasn't very good for whatever reason. Samoa Joe came out after the match to beat up Jay Lethal and his crew, so that got the crowd pumped up. After that, Dax Harwood's daughter came out to pin Sonjay Dutt. This played out because of a promo Dax did on Dynamite awhile back. That was the highlight of the match, actually. The crowd adores FTR everywhere...so it would've been nice if they had given them a better match than this.  **

POWERHOUSE HOBBS vs. RICKY STARKS (5:05): Starks is actually becoming a crowd favorite and a star...so they had him lose. I guess they wanted to continue this program. Hobbs is a bore, though, so this match wasn't that great. At least it was kept short so it didn't really get boring. **

SWERVE IN OUR GLORY (KEITH LEE & SWERVE STRICKLAND) vs. THE ACCLAIMED (22:30): This was the match of the night and match of the weekend. Fuck, this was great. Thank the crowd, who were as boisterous and as loud as that Cardiff crowd was for McIntyre and Sheamus. The crowd was so behind The Acclaimed that it was a true shame that they lost. It's amazing how The Acclaimed have become so popular. They used to be just a random tag team nobody really cared too much about. Max Castor's raps were interesting, though, and that kind of started the team's appeal. Then they teamed with The Gun Club and the whole "scissor" thing got popular. Now it's like the biggest thing in AEW. Usually, crowds sing for Keith Lee, but this time they changed the words to, "Ohhhhh, scissor me, daddy." It was hilarious. This was like the hottest crowd ever. I loved it. The Acclaimed even aren't the greatest in-ring team or anything. They're still a bit green, a bit young, but with this crowd and the story telling, this was something special. Anthony Bowens sold his knee, so throughout the match he had to dig deep and fight on. Keith Lee and Swerve started playing up being heels, so that got the crowd even more in The Acclaimed's favor. If The Acclaimed had won...this might've been match of the year. ***1/2

TONI STORM vs. DR. BRITT BAKER, D.M.D. vs. JAMIE HAYTER vs. HIKARU SHIDA (14:20):

This was just okay. Again, the story telling was great. Jamie Hayter and Britt are of course in the same heel group, so they played up them turning on each other. Jamie was about to win when Britt pulled the ref out of the ring. Britt attempted to pin Jamie at one point. The rest of this was kind of mildly entertaining. Toni Storm won the interim title since Thunder Rosa is apparently not going to be out for too long. **

CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. JUNGLE BOY (0:20): This was short. Luchasauras choke slammed Jungle Boy onto a steel grate by the entrance and then through a table before the match even started. Then the match started and Jungle Boy kicked out of a spear but then got pinned by after Christian's finisher. I would've rather seen a real match but, hell, this show was long enough. I'm not sure this storyline is really helping Jungle Boy, though. It's certainly helping Christian, as he's an awesome heel. The funniest thing is that when Christian turned heel, he started coming out doing promo's wearing a turtleneck. The funniest thing recently was when Christian told Jungle Boy that he loved him on Dynamite. Then Jungle Boy beat him up and they started brawling and Christian yelled at him, "I hate your guts." Jim Ross, on commentary, noted that, "He just said he loved him. Now he hates his guts." I'm still laughing at that one. I'm not too sure about Luchasauras as a heel, though. I mean...did anyone care about Kane? Because that's what he'd be. *1/2

CHRIS JERICHO vs. BRYAN DANIELSON (23:40): This was the longest match of the night. It was also boring. I really never want to see Jericho in a singles match ever again. He's great on the mic but he's too old to be wrestling long matches like this one. They really didn't do much noteworthy as it was a pretty basic wrestling match. *

DARBY ALLIN, STING & MIRO vs. THE HOUSE OF BLACK (MALAKAI BLACK, BRODY KING & BUDDY MATTHEWS) (12:10): This was entertaining but nothing great. Usually, Sting is jumping off balconies and stuff in his PPV matches and they're crazy melees. Not this one. This was more a typical TV match. The big note was that Malakai Black blew a kiss to the crowd after the match. Supposedly he asked for his release, either because of mental health issues or maybe he wants to go do WWE now that HHH is in charge. They probably should have put him in main event title matches last year when he was super over. Oh, well. **

CM PUNK vs. JON MOXLEY (19:55): This was okay. Punk was a bloody mess. The crowd was super hot and raucous. The crowd helped because the actual match wasn't anything special. Punk is an old man now so his matches look more like 90's WCW matches than the exciting, high flying AEW stuff which we're accustomed to. In that regard, I'd much rather have a champ like Omega or Page that can have awesome, fast-paced, exciting title main events. But Punk is the big star, so he's the champ. They had this same match two weeks ago on Dynamite and Moxley won in 3 minutes. I'm not exactly sure why they did that. Punk seemed to reinjure his foot in that match...but they didn't play that up here for whatever reason. Good but not great main event to an entertaining show but not an all time AEW classic like last year's All Out. After the match, MJF came out to reveal that he was the masked man that won the Casino Battle Royal. He gets a title shot...so presumably that will happen at Grand Slam in a few weeks. Punk and MJF had a month's long feud that spanned last year and this year so I'm not entirely sure why they're doing it again. MJF has been off TV since June so I guess they were just waiting for Punk the return from injury. The problem is if you do that, you kind of have to have MJF win the title. And Punk just won the title...so would you really change it already? I guess that adds to the intrigue. **1/2

WWE CLASH AT THE CASTLE

 

Cardiff, Wales

MADCAP MOSS & THE STREET PROFITS vs. AUSTIN THEORY & ALPHA ACADEMY (6:29): This is supposedly the first WWE PPV in the UK in thirty plus years. They've been doing PPV's in Saudi Arabia for the last few years, though, so it's not like they've been against doing overseas PPV's. Money talks, though. Apparently they had the show in Cardiff, Wales instead of, say, London, because Cardiff paid them to have the show there. They filled the 60,000 seat stadium, too, which just proves how hot the WWE is lately. Even RAW ratings have been up. It's all kind of strange considering the product hasn't gotten much better. Vince is gone, and slowly we're seeing some changes. Matt Riddle and Austin Theory got their first names back. Johnny Gargano was signed and is on the main roster. HHH also re-hired Scarlett and Karrion Kross, who Vince had fired. After this show, though, you'd think ratings would plummet. The sour taste in your mouth after the end of this show has to linger for awhile, right? This show was kind of a "fuck you" to the UK fans because both of their boys, Sheamus and Drew McIntyre lost. The end of this show reminded me a lot of when Roman Reigns won the Royal Rumble in Philly and the fans all booed even though Roman was a babyface at the time. Hopefully HHH learns from this mistake, as this show might just be a fatal one for some fans. This match was on the kickoff show. This was short, exciting, fun. The crowd was great for most of the show tonight, which was a plus. Visually, though, it wasn't too spectacular because the stadium has a roof on it. Summerslam, in the outside football stadium, looked more impressive. **1/2

DAMAGE CONTROL (BAYLEY, DAKOTA KAI & IYO SKY) vs. BIANCA BELAIR, ALEXA BLISS & ASUKA (18:44): For a big show, there were mysteriously a lot of wrestlers not on it. Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar, Sami Zayn, The Uso's, Kevin Owens, Ricochet, Baron Corbin, The Miz, Bobby Lashley. Ricochet is wrestling Sunday on the NXT PPV, so there's that. I bet if this show was in Saudi Arabia, Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar would've been there. This match was boring, as a lot of this show was. They probably should have had Bianca have a singles match for her title, as she's a crowd favorite and fairly exciting. This was just pedestrian and dull. *

GUNTHER vs. SHEMAUS (19:33): This was probably the best WWE match of the year. Everyone has been noting that Walter looks lame now because he's just a skinny, random looking dude instead of the big monster. But even skinny he can still pull off a hell of a match. These two beat the hell out of each other. This went beyond a typical Ishii or Suzuki match, though, into the realm of brutal Go Shiozaki or Nakajima NOAH matches where the chops become unbearable to watch and it's as if you're viewing a snuff film. While this was fantastically brutal, it did go on a bit too long. The other problem was the crowd was the greatest crowd of all time behind Sheamus...and then Sheamus lost. Dude, call a fucking audible and have the crowd favorite win, you idiots! When Sheamus lost I figured that, well, McIntyre, the other UK dude, was probably winning and they wanted to save the victory celebration for that. Nope! Both UK crowd favorites lost. Really? I feel so bad for those fans to be denied two cathartic, loud, boisterous, rapturous victories. Sad. Great match, though. ***1/2

LIV MORGAN vs. SHAYNA BASZLER (11:02): This was awful. I didn't even think Shayna was still in WWE. -No Stars-

EDGE & REY MYSTERIO vs. THE JUDGMENT DAY (FINN BALOR & DAMIAN PRIEST) (12:35): This match wasn't bad or anything, but it was just a typical, forgettable RAW type of match. The big Dominic turning heel storyline happened after the match when he kicked Edge in the balls then hit his father. Does anyone really want to see Dominic go solo as a heel? No. **

SETH ROLLINS vs. MATT RIDDLE (17:22): This was a pretty good match. Considering this was a huge, stadium show, would it have killed them to put a ladder or cage match or something on the show? They didn't even break the announce table. I'm not sure why so many heels won on this show. Do they hate their fans? **1/2

ROMAN REIGNS vs. DREW McINTYRE (30:47): I remember Roman Reigns wrestled Cesaro in a 30 minute main event title match last year and it was excellent. This, sadly, was not excellent. Drew is of course not as good a wrestler as Cesaro, so there's that. They also over-booked this thing, which was bad. They also had the hero, the babyface, the UK, homegrown guy that everyone was cheering lose, which was disappointing. That made everyone go home sad, which you kind of don't want to do, right? They did a ref bump. Austin Theory came out to cash in his MITB contract but Tyson Fury, sitting at ringside, punched him to stop it. A new Uso brother showed up to pull the ref out of the ring when Drew was about to win. This led to Roman retaining the title. After this, Tyson Fury came into the ring and sang the "Bye, Bye, Ms. American Pie" song which was probably supposed to be a fun, joyful thing but the angry crowd mostly just booed this and it was awkward. Putting a show in the UK, then setting up a UK guy for a title shot, then having him lose, is not the smartest decision in the world. I bet they lost a lot of fans today. I'm guessing they thought, well, hey, we're an American company, we're not going to have a title change in the UK, fuck those idiots. All of these rising ratings, optimism at Vince gone, WWE being "hot" was seemingly gone in an instant. What a horrible way to end this show. Jesus. The WWE just never learns. This might just go down in history as one of the dumbest decisions the wrestling business has ever done. Can you imagine the victory celebration this awesome crowd would have delivered? It would've been legendary. **