AEW ALL IN

Wembley Stadium, London

ACTION ANDRETTI, KIP SABIAN, KYLE FLETCHER, LIO RUSH, ROCKY ROMERO, TOMMY BILLINGTON & TOP FLIGHT vs. ANTHONY AGOGO, ARIYA DAIVARI, JAY LETHAL, PRIVATE PARTY, SATNAM SINGH & DARK ORDER (11:34): How is AEW making any money paying all these wrestlers? There were over 70 wrestlers on this show. And some of the big AEW stars weren't even there, like Moxley, Takeshita, and Adam Cole. Anyway, this was a great show with a great main event and a lot of big moments. The 50,000+ crowd was awesome. You definitely got your money's worth if you paid to watch it. The only thing fantastic on this pre-show was the return of Jamie Hayter. She was out with an injury at last year's All In, too. What possible injury did she have to be out more than a year? She didn't break her neck or anything. As for this match...it was entertaining though pretty much just a match to get as many wrestlers as possible on the show. Are the Dark Order guys heels? They were on the heel team. AEW hasn't been using them on TV lately for whatever reason. Top Flight and Private Party used to be bigger stars in AEW, now they seem to only be booked on forgettable Rampage matches. The one big star they have been pushing this summer is Kyle Fletcher. He's awesome so it's too bad he got stuck in this. **

TOMOHIRO ISHII & WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. KRIS STATLANDER & STOKELY HATHAWAY (8:14): The shocking thing about this match was that Stokely actually looked good when he was wrestling. Ishii pinned him so Willow gets to pick the stipulation for the Statlander/Willow match at All Out in two weeks (they decided not to do a Labor Day weekend PPV this year and moved it back a week). Willow is probably the most over AEW women's wrestler. Maybe they should start giving her bigger matches than this. **

DUSTIN RHODES, KATSUYORI SHIBATA, SAMMY GUEVARA & THE VON ERICHS vs. CAGE OF AGONY & THE UNDISPUTED KINGDOM (13:08): Sammy was suspended after doing a Shooting Star Press and landing on Jeff Hardy's face. That happened so long ago because Jeff Hardy is in TNA now. You could tell Sammy is trying to get back in Tony Khan's good graces because he was doing top rope flips and dives non-stop, probably trying to look as exciting as possible. Match was fun. **

SARAYA/JAMIE HAYTER: Saraya came out with her family to berate the crowd, saying she won the title here last year and wasn't even booked on the show this year. Jamie Hayter returned to a gigantic pop and laid everyone out. Kind of weird having Hayter's big return be on the pre-show instead of somewhere more prominent on the card, but it was at least in front of her hometown crowd.

BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB (PAC, CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI & WHEELER YUTA) vs. THE PATRIARCHY (CHRISTIAN CAGE, KILLSWITCH & NICK WAYNE) vs. HOUSE OF BLACK (BRODY KING, MALAKAI BLACK & BUDDY MATTHEWS) vs. BANG BANG GANG (THE GUNN'S & JUICE ROBINSON) (18:58): This was the PPV opener. Great match. Another typical, crazy, wildly entertaining AEW ladder, tables, and chairs match. Originally, Death Triangle was supposed to be in this match but The Lucha Brothers decided to go to WWE. That meant they had to insert PAC into the BCC for no real reason. I still have no idea why Moxley wasn't on this show. He was last seen in AEW losing the IWGP title to Naito at Forbidden Door. I don't think he's hurt. Maybe Tony Khan just decided to give him July and August off because Moxley had been traveling to Japan a few times in the Spring and was probably burned out. Christian started the match running away and leaving. He returned when everyone was down to attempt to climb a ladder and win. Nick Wayne's mom tried to climb the ladder at one point. Nick Wayne did a running, over the top rope into a Canadian Destroyer onto Malakai through a ringside table. That was a wild spot. Just a bunch of craziness. Really entertaining. The odd team of Claudio, PAC, and Wheeler Yuta are now the Trios champs. PAC is from England and got a big pop when he grabbed the title, so that's the reason they won. ***

MARIAH MAY vs. TONI STORM (15:14): Good match. Mariah, being an evil heel, walked over to her mother at ringside and slapped her. That was kind of a weird spot. I mean...now her mom had to sit there looking forlorn and holding her cheek the whole match. Toni then ran over and hugged Mariah's mom. The crowd was super into Toni Storm. Mariah is from England...so you'd think they could have tried to switch the roles so Mariah would be cheered in her hometown. I guess they realized the fans were never going to boo Toni Storm because, if you remember, her 'Timeless' gimmick started as a heel gimmick but everyone loved it. Toni gave Mariah a piledriver on the stairs and Mariah was bleeding. This was better than the 'bigger' women's match, Britt/Mone. Mariah is now the women's champ. ***

HOOK vs. CHRIS JERICHO (10:14): They had Dyanmite in Cardiff, Wales on Wednesday and also taped Collision after that. On Collision, Hook wrestled Big Bill. I don't know why, but Big Bill got cheered voraciously in that match. It was the funniest thing ever (he's supposed to be a heel...plus nobody in the states cares about him). And I'm not talking just cheered, they were going ape shit for him. So that continued here, with them cheering when Big Bill was beating up Hook (this was an FTW rules match...meaning no rules) and booing when Hook was beating up Big Bill. Eventually, Big Bill got pushed off the apron onto a table with a barbed wire board on top. There were some “please retire” chants for Jericho. He came out singing with his band Fozzy. All of the guys in Fozzy are, like, thirty years younger than Jericho. It's kind of weird. This was probably the weakest match on the show. They brought out a bag of cricket balls and a cricket mallet and used that stuff. Hook wins the FTW title. I would not be surprised if Jericho heads back to WWE. If you remember, Cody left as soon as he started getting booed and now people chant for Jericho to retire. He'd definitely be cheered in WWE. **

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. THE ACCLAIMED vs. FTR (13:32): This was entertaining, though nothing particularly special nor on the level of the FTR/Bucks matches from the past. They probably should have just had The Acclaimed vs. The Bucks because they had been pushing that story all summer long. The Bucks looked great. The Acclaimed are probably turning heel...maybe. At one point, Max joined in to do an EVP trigger. The Bucks retain the tag titles. After the match, The Grizzled Young Veterans, who used to be in NXT, came out. They beat up FTR. The GYV actually wrestled on Collision awhile back, so this wasn't, like, a big debut or anything. **1/2

CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE vs. JEFF JARRETT vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. KYLE O'REILLY vs. LUCHASAURUS vs. MARK BRISCOE vs. NIGEL McGUINNESS vs. ORANGE CASSIDY vs. RICOCHET vs. RODERICK STRONG vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. “CASINO GAUNTLET MATCH” (25:57): This was a hell of a lot of fun. The rules for this are that anyone can pin anyone at any time, even before all the wrestlers get in the ring. It started off with Orange Cassidy and Okada. Okada may be a heel, but the crowd here adored him (kind of a running problem with AEW heels, right?). Nigel McGuinness was a surprise entrant, considering he's long retired and is just an announcer these days. The fans loved everything he did and he looked great considering he hasn't wrestled in years. Zack Sabre was another surprise. And Ricochet was the big debut of the night. He did all his top rope flips and looked like a superstar (something he definitely wasn't in WWE). Christian Cage eventually won and gets a title shot. I love Christian but I doubt they'd ever put the title on him. Super entertaining match. ***1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. MJF (25:57): This was excellent...but it wasn't as good as their 59 minute match on Dynamite last month. The ending was a classic, though. The story started in the Ospreay/Danielson match all the way back in April. Will fake injured Danielson with the Tiger Driver and vowed never to do it again. So of course he did it here on MJF and won. The final five minutes or so was as good as pro-wrestling gets. High drama, back and forth kickouts, a hot crowd. Ospreay wins back the International title. I will say, though, when they announced they signed Will Ospreay I figured that he should be in the main event of this show winning the title. Maybe they thought it was too soon, or maybe they figured Danielson might not be around the next time they have a big stadium show and wanted to give him a big title win on a grand stage (they announced tonight that they're doing a stadium show in Brisbane in February and Forbidden Door next August in London...they previously announced All In will be at the Texas Rangers' baseball stadium next July). ***1/2

MERCEDES MONE vs. BRITT BAKER (17:19): Britt Baker is rarely if ever in good matches, so it wasn't a big surprise that this was just okay. Mercedes hasn't been in any really good matches, either, since coming to AEW. They did have a good build for this match as they do both present themselves as big time stars. The match just wasn't all that exciting. Mercedes retained the TBS title. **

JACK PERRY vs. DARBY ALLIN “COFFIN MATCH” (10:37): This was watchable but too short to amount to much. Darby came out with thumbtacks glued to his face. Jack Perry brought out a bag of glass and poured it in the ring, causing some “CM Punk” chants. Perry got slammed on the glass. Darby did a running dive and missed Perry and hit the coffin. Perry taped Darby's hands together and tied his feet with a belt and tossed him off the stage on a table. Then he put him in a body bag and dragged him to the coffin, put him in, and won. I was, like, that's it? Well...no. The Young Bucks came out with a can of gasoline and were going to set the coffin with Darby in it on fire. Sting then came out and the place went nuts. The Bucks hit Sting with a chair and he no sold it, then gave The Bucks a double Scorpion Death Drop. That was great stuff. The actual match was just okay. **1/2

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. SWERVE STRICKLAND (25:59): Towards the end of this match, they did the story where Danielson was done, he was beaten, and Swerve was just toying with him. Then Swerve would deliver a big move or a finisher and Bryan would miraculously kick out. When these kickouts happened, the stadium popped so loud it brought tears to my eyes. This was high-level, emotional, dramatic stuff. The gimmick was that Bryan would retire if he lost. Nobody believed it. But they had Bryan's wife and kids and ringside, and the story had Bryan fighting to win for his family. They did do a spot that didn't sit well with me, though, which was kind of the point. Bryan was a bloody mess, and so Swerve dragged him over to show his kids their father was bleeding and beaten. The kids were fucking crying! Jesus Christ. And his kids are too young to comprehend that this is, like, fake. I mean...I'm sure they told the kids it's fake, but their brains aren't fully developed. This spot did work, though, because when Bryan started to comeback, you could see his daughter standing up and cheering in the front row. It doesn't get much more emotional than that. 'Hangman' Adam Page ran out during the match but was quickly chased off by security. This caused Swerve to be distracted and Bryan him him with a knee but only got a 2 count. Eventually, finally, Bryan submitted Swerve and won the title. Bryan's family came in the ring (his wife is ex-WWE's Brie Bella, if you, like, don't know) and celebrated. That was just an awesome end to this show. The match itself was good but it was the family drama that really made this a high water mark in wrestling for the year. AEW really delivered, again. And this company is #2 behind WWE? I'm just fucking baffled. ****