AEW ALL OUT

 

Chicago

OVER BUDGET CHARITY BATTLE ROYAL ('HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE) (13:18): CM Punk was fired by AEW. That was a bigger story then anything on this show. Punk got into a backstage fight with Jack Perry last week at All In and also supposedly "lunged" at Tony Khan and, in the process, knocked over a TV monitor onto Khan while yelling, "I'm quitting AEW!" or something. So Punk's gone and they had to do two shows in Chicago with the fans knowing this. Collision on Saturday started with Tony Khan saying that he fired Punk. One fan on this show in the front row had a sign that said, "Tony Khan Cured Cancer" or something, meaning Punk was a cancer in the company. Considering Punk got into two backstage fights in a year, he sounds like a bitter old man at this point. Some speculated that he just wanted out of AEW, maybe because they just re-signed Adam Page, the Bucks, and Omega, four guys he had a beef with. Oh, well. As for this show...it definitely was weird doing a PPV a week after their biggest PPV and show of all time. Considering they're doing this again next year, Khan doesn't seem to think it's a problem. I don't know, though. They were asking $50 for this show and it didn't have a championship title match, a tag team title match, or a women's title match. It did have all the secondary titles on the line, and most of the big stars were in matches, but still...the main event was for the International title. Okay. The show turned out really good, but most AEW shows are, so that wasn't a surprise. This first match was a pointless battle royal. Page won and got to donate $50,000 to the charity of his choice. He chose some Chicago school charity. On Being the Elite, Page joked that he won all this money and had to give it to some stupid kids. That made me laugh. Considering Page was once the AEW champ...maybe do something more with him then put him in a forgettable Battle Royal. **

HIKARU SHIDA, SKY BLUE & WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. ATHENA, DIAMANTE & MERCEDES MARTINEZ (8:28): Sky Blue got the win, which was good, considering a ton of heels got wins tonight plus Skye is from Chicago. Mercedes Martinez did a top rope, sitting suplex on someone that put them right on their head. That looked gruesome. Match was okay. *1/2

BILLY GUNN & THE ACCLAIMED vs. JAY LETHAL, JEFF JARRETT & SATNAM SINGH (5:57): Dennis Rodman came out with The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn. Eventually he hit Jarrett over the head with a guitar. This show was in the United Center where the Bulls play, so I guess that's why Rodman was there. I wonder if he still talks to Kim Jong Un. Match was fun and short. **

BETTER THAN YOU BAY BAY (ADAM COLE & MJF) vs. THE DARK ORDER (ALEX REYNOLDS & JOHN SILVER) (14:08): This match baffled everyone. I guess The Dark Oder hasn't been wrestling much lately so Khan threw him a bone. Otherwise, I have no idea the purpose of this match. Cole and MJF retained the ROH tag titles. The crowd loved the Double Clothesline and the Kangaroo Kick. It was fun but nothing spectacular. Supposedly the Collision that featured Cole & MJF wrestling FTR for the tag titles got big ratings. Other than that, Dynamite always beats Collision in the ratings. So CM Punk wasn't a giant ratings draw for Collision, probably one reason they were okay with firing him. **1/2

SOMOA JOE vs. SHANE TAYLOR (6:23): MJF was walking to the back after his match and Somoa Joe came out for this match and nudged MJF with his shoulder. This caused MJF to run into the ring and start brawling with Joe until security came out. Then this match happened, which was good not great. Joe retained the ROH TV title. Shane Taylor looked good as usual. It was two big guys doing big power moves. **1/2

LUCHASAURUS vs. DARBY ALLIN (12:14): Considering this was the only match on the show that was announced a full month early, I figured it was because Darby was going to win the TNT title. He didn't. It was mostly a beat down. Darby was bloody. Darby did a top rope flip onto Luchasaurus on a chair. Nick Wayne came out because he's feuding with Christian for some reason. Match was good but nothing special. They probably should re-unite Jurassic Express, because both Jack Perry and Luchasaurus aren't as exciting anymore nor are even used much anymore. **1/2

MIRO vs. POWERHOUSE HOBBS (15:34): The crowd really got into this match. Miro wasn't doing anything in AEW for practically a year. He bitched about it on Twitter and then Khan noted that Miro had turned down some idea he had and that's why he was on the sidelines. Well the crowd in Chicago loved Miro and loved this match. It was kind of like a WWE match in that nobody did any wild, crazy moves. It was all just power slams and holds and stuff. Match was pretty good mostly thanks to the crowd. Miro's wife, Lana, came out at the end but Miro saw her and left the ring. I don't know what that was all about. **1/2

KRIS STATLANDER vs. RUBY SOHO (12:20): Toni Storm took the spray paint out of Ruby's hand at the end which caused Ruby to lose. I think The Outcasts group as been pretty entertaining, so I'm not so sure about breaking them up, but whatever. Match was kind of boring. Statlander retained the TBS title. Whatever happened to the last TBS champ, the woman that was undefeated forever? I even forget her name, that's how long she's been gone for. *

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. RICKY STARKS "STRAP MATCH" (16:39): Good match, and a surprise match as Danielson made his return the night before on Collision. These guys beat the shit out of each other and were both bloody messes. At one point, the announcer noted that, "This is hard to watch." Usually in a strap match they will whip the other guy's back or stomach or something. In this one, they were whipping each other in the face and on the head. That was hard to watch. Very brutal but very compelling. ***

BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB (CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI & WHEELER YUTA) vs. EDDIE KINGSTON & KATSUYORI SHIBATA (15:50): I guess with Shibata in this it was a bit more than just a random Dynamite match. Supposedly Shibata doesn't work for NJPW anymore. I guess this is all he does? Wrestle for AEW on occasion? Match was entertaining but pretty standard. Kingston got pinned, which I guess is a surprise since he was the crowd favorite. They keep building another Kingston vs. Claudio match, so that was mostly the focus in this. **1/2

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. KENNY OMEGA (22:21): Considering Omega is usually in awesome singles matches (this year alone he had fantastic matches against Ospreay, Moxley in a cage, and Vikingo), I kind of thought this would be better. One reason is that crowd was a little bit quiet and seemingly not that into this. Maybe they don't see Takeshita as a big star. It's probably good then that they had Takeshita win, since they should start elevating all these non-main event guys they have. Match was good, though, it just never hit that high level we've seen in previous Omega matches. Takeshita had an awesome Dynamite match against Adam Page this year...so maybe I figured Takeshita could translate some of his shorter, awesome matches into an awesome, longer match. I was wrong. There was one particular move that reminded me of those sadistic Naito/Ibushi matches. Takeshita did a suplex type slam on Omega that put him right on his head. Takeshita also gave Omega a Blue Thunder Bomb from the top rope. Omega pretty much lost clean here, which was a bit surprising. Good match but, alas, not great. ***

BULLET CLUB GOLD (JAY WHITE, JUICE ROBINSON & THE GUNN'S) vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS & FTR (21:41): This was a fun match, although basically just a Dynamite main event. I thought maybe the reason they even did this match was because The Young Bucks would join Bullet Club and turn on FTR. They didn't...even though the Bucks were in Bullet Club long before Jay White, Juice, and The Gunn's were. They do seem to be setting up another FTR/Bucks match...which doesn't really make sense considering their All In match was billed as the "who's the greatest tag team" and "final in the trilogy" match. The Bucks got booed early but actually got cheered a lot when they were doing all of their awesome, fast paced, high flying and super kick stuff. There was a lot of action at the end which made this a lot of fun. **1/2

JON MOXLEY vs. ORANGE CASSIDY (19:43): Good main event. One of the highlights of AEW this year has been Orange Cassidy's International title reign. The announcers mentioned he defended it 31 times. Well it's over, as Moxley won. Since this is the International title...why don't they give it to someone from another country? PAC had it earlier this year. What about Penta? Fenix? Takeshita? Anyway, Orange was busted open and bleeding all over the place. The crowd got super into this by the end and was totally with Orange's every move. Good way to end a good show. Now onto Arthur Ashe. ***