AEW REVOLUTION

San Francisco 

THE LUCHA BROTHERS & MARK BRISCOE vs. ARI DAIVARI & VARSITY ATHLETES (JOSH WOODS & TONY NEESE) (12:50): This was a great show. AEW usually always delivers on their PPV's, and this was one of their better ones. There were two matches that will definitely go down in history as memorable AEW matches, the Texas Death match and the Iron Man match. Nothing was awful, probably because there wasn't a Jade Cargill match on the show. I guess because they had a 60 minute match on the show, they decided to cut down the number of matches. This was the only pre-show match on the hour pre-show. The regular PPV went about 3 and a half hours. This meant that the show didn't drag, which is usually one of the AEW PPV's problems. This pre-show match was fun but Ari Daivari, Neese, and Woods couldn't really wrestle The Lucha Brothers in a coherent, cohesive manner. It was a little sloppy. I guess Tony Khan isn't sure yet what to do with Mark Briscoe, as he's the Ring of Honor tag champion without a partner. I guess they'll figure out something eventually. **

RICKY STARKS vs. CHRIS JERICHO (13:49): This was a good match but kind of pointless. These two were feuding awhile back and had their big match on Dynamite that Ricky Starks won. I'm not sure why they continued the feud here. Jericho attempted to cheat by using his baseball bat. Sammy Guevera came down to the ring even though the J.A.S. was banned at ringside. Action Andretti ran out to beat up Guevara. **1/2

'JUNGLE BOY' JACK PERRY vs. CHRISTIAN CAGE "FINAL BURIAL MATCH" (14:49): This was pretty wild and pretty brutal. It was basically a coffin match, as the winner had to put the loser in a casket up by the entrance way. They battled in the crowd early. Jack Perry was standing on the ring steps at one point and Christian swiped his feet out from under him and Perry landed hard on the steps. They ended up using a shovel and chairs. There was dirt around the coffin and Christian threw dirt into Jack's eyes. While I like that Jungle Boy is evolving into Jack Perry, the main event singles wrestler...I kind of miss Jurassic Express because they were a super entertaining tag team. Plus, Luchasaurus hasn't been around since he lost at the last PPV. What the hell are they going to do with him? Why don't they put him with Mark Briscoe? Jack Perry eventually put Christian in the coffin and it dropped down into the ground and smoke billowed up out of the hole. That was kind of cool. ***

THE HOUSE OF BLACK vs. THE ELITE (18:03): This was a good match, albeit not as exciting or dynamic as those Elite/Death Triangle matches. This was more hard hitting than high flying. The House of Black won the trios titles here, which I think is a good thing if it means Omega can go back to being a singles wrestler. When Omega and Malakai Black were in the ring together I kept thinking that, man, I wish these two were in the main event for the title. Brody King was perhaps the star, as he was the big man doing the big, power stuff and The Elite were forever attempting to cut him down to size with quick kicks and double teaming. Julia Hart was on the apron trying to interfere at one point and got kneed in the face by Omega and fell to the ground. There were a bunch of near falls where someone had to leap to prevent the count. Hopefully this means that The House of Black actually wrestles more, as these last few months it seems they've only been standing around in the shadows looking menacing. ***

JAMIE HAYTER vs. RUBY SOHO vs. SARAYA (10:06): This was kind of a weird match that seemed to be thrown together. You would think the ultimate destination is a Britt Baker vs. Hayter title match...although they haven't really planted any seeds yet for that. Hayter is awesome and she proved it here by looking phenomenal as always. Ruby Soho looked pretty good. As for Saraya...she's been pretty much a bust in AEW so far. She hasn't been in a good match yet and her promo's are fairly cringe worthy. They turned her heel already which probably tells you something. After Hayter won, Ruby Soho turned heel and joined Saraya and Toni Storm to beat up Britt Baker and Hayter. Soho has been pretty popular as a babyface, so turning her seems odd, though I guess this plays up the originals vs. ex-WWE wrestlers. That even doesn't make too much sense because even though Hayter wasn't in WWE, she wasn't an AEW original because she came to AEW like two years after it started. This wasn't terrible or anything but definitely one of the weaker matches on the show. **1/2

'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE vs. JON MOXLEY "TEXAS DEATH MATCH" (26:04): This was very memorable. They probably should have just made this a no-rope barbed wire match, as they used barbed wire throughout the match, including both men going through barbed wire boards. Moxley used a fork to jab at Hangman's forehead. They brought out two bricks that they used in various ways. They used chairs. They used a chain. Both men were bloody. And even though they weren't usuing real barbed wire, this was pretty sadistic stuff. Among the highlights: Hangman wrapped himself in barbed wire and did his top rope moonsault to Moxley on the floor. Moxley gave Hangman a pile driver onto the balled up chain. Hangman slammed Moxley from the top rope onto a barbed wire wrapped chair. Hangman was on the top rope and Moxley pushed him onto a barbed wire board set up between two chairs on the floor. I could go on. The ending at Moxley dangling over the ropes and being strangled by the chain around his neck and he tapped out. This was something. ***1/2

WARDLOW vs. SAMOA JOE (10:42): Good luck following that! Considering 'Powerhouse' Hobbs gets the winner of this match on Dynamite...this seemed a little anticlimactic. Wardlow won the TNT title by choking out Joe, which was a strange finish. I guess Wardlow couldn't lift Joe for a suplex so they did a submission finish. Samoa Joe looked awesome in this match. He's looked awesome since coming to AEW, which is kind of surprising considering he's gotta be getting up there in age by now. This was decent but coming after that last match this was pretty forgettable. **1/2

THE GUNNS vs. THE ACCLAIMED vs. JAY LETHAL & JEFF JARRETT vs. ORANGE CASSIDY & DANHAUSEN (13:22): First off, why did they ever give The Gunns the tag team titles? I guess because they wanted FTR to win the titles and didn't want them to beat The Acclaimed. Otherwise, why give the titles to a team that isn't that great? I had thought it was only to get The Acclaimed a chance to beat them on this PPV...but then they made this match a weird, thrown together 4 way. There were a few fun, wild sequences in this, though. Singh, the giant, came into the ring. Danhausen stepped up to face him. The crowd went wild for this (the crowd tonight was good but not legendary, as some of the Vegas and Chicago crowds for AEW have been in the past). Orange Cassidy ran in and gave Singh a Superman punch. This led to Billy Gunn coming in to give Singh his fame asser maneuver. Then The Gunns gave their father a double low blow and threw him out of the ring. The Gunns eventually retained the titles. Afterwards, FTR came out and beat up The Gunns. Supposedly, FTR's contract is up this Spring and they had said that they might just go independent. This probably means they signed a new contract. **1/2

MJF vs. BRYAN DANIELSON "IRON MAN MATCH" (65:19): This was something. Some of it, mostly early on, was a little slow and a little boring. But by the end they had the crowd in a frenzy and the last ten to fifteen minutes were as dramatic as a great New Japan final flurry. They did some really great chain type of back and forth wrestling, including a bunch of sequences with multiple flip pinfall attempts. The story was that MJF's knee was hurt and Danielson's shoulder was hurt. Both men bled. MJF did a top rope elbow drop onto Bryan on the ringside table. Then he gave Bryan a running pile driver onto the same broken table. That was brutal considering Bryan's history of concussions. The final was 3 to 3 and Bryan had MJF in a submission hold when the bell rang. This led to a sudden death extra time period. When the bell rang, all the medics ran in and they were tending to both men and they were giving oxygen to MJF. In extra time, MJF used the oxygen canister to hit Bryan in the head with it. Then he put him in the Labell Lock finisher. Bryan at first raised his hand at 3 to survive and the crowd went wild. But MJF kept the submission on and Bryan tapped. The crowd obviously hated the finish, but they were pretty hot for most of this match at least in spots. While some of it was slow it was very engrossing throughout. It definitely heated up at the end and achieved that pinnacle of excellence that very few wrestling matches ever get to. Both men did a phenomenal job here. At one point, MJF was frustrated so he went into the crowd. He grabbed a woman's soda and threw it on her son. That was hilarious. There were a lot of little things like that throughout that made this watchable. But it was ultimately the perseverance of both men that highlighted this match. Going 65 minutes is one thing, but going through tables, bleeding like stuck pigs, slapping the hell out of each other, and showcasing their fantastic wrestling abilities...this was something you don't see every day. Definitely one of the more memorable AEW PPV main events. I was kind of hoping Bryan would win so we would finally get that Omega/Bryan PPV main event title match. Oh, well. Someday, I suppose. I think this show might be pretty hard to top this year as show of the year, though. ***1/2