Hoffman Estates, Illinois
The day after this PPV, Pac was found dead in his car in a parking lot in Illinois. I did watch this show before I heard the tragic news, but it's still going to always overshadow this show, as Pac wrestled for the last time on the show and even did a run in during the main event. The only thing known about his death, at age 40, was that there was no foul play involved. We'll have to wait until an autopsy report eventually comes out. On Dynamite on Wednesday they did a tribute show, which, shockingly, was AEW's third tribute show in September. They had one for Rebel because she has ALS (Rebel was Britt Baker's sidekick in the early days of AEW). Rebel is still alive but there's no good news with that disease. The other tribute show was for The Butcher, who was in The Butcher & The Blade tag team in the first couple years of AEW. He died after hitting his head during an indie wrestling show. If you're a long-time wrestling fan than you've been around when wrestlers die in their prime. It sadly happens more often than it should. Pac was a great wrestler. He wrestled in WWE and was the champ in Dragon Gate. His finishing move, The Black Arrow, was one of wrestling's best. AEW never really pushed him into the main event picture for whatever reason. I do remember him being in that championship three way at Double or Nothing in 2021 when he wrestled Orange Cassidy and Kenny Omega. His 2024 All Out match against Ospreay was great. And I remember early on in AEW he had a great Dynamite match against Omega. One of his best matches was when he wrestled Orange Cassidy at Revolution in 2020. I remember the crowd going ape shit when Orange Cassidy started doing all these crazy, high flying moves out of nowhere. Lately, Pac had been in the Death Riders and mostly in tag team matches. It was nice that his last match was a singles, to open this PPV against Andrade. He will be missed. I feel awful for his wife, family, and friends. And I definitely will never forget him.
JACK PERRY vs. KATSUYORI SHIBATA (9:15): The first three matches were on the pre-show. The show was good but not great. The Chicago crowd was good but got tired as the show went on. The injury to Steve Borden kind of put a damper on things, too. This match was fine but nothing special. It would be nice to see what Shibata can do in a long, 30 minute main event. We'll never know if he's close to his old self if he's only doing 9 minute matches. Jack Perry had been calling out Samoa Joe for weeks, so Joe finally showed up and just head butted him and left after this match. **
SISTERS OF SIN (JULIA HART & SKYE BLUE) vs. MINA SHIRAKAWA & QUEEN AMINATA (9:55): This match was not very good. I mean, at this point we're just going to have to accept that Julia Hart and Skye Blue aren't great wrestlers and will never be in a fantastic match. 1/2*
BANG BANG GANG (ACE AUSTIN, AUSTIN GUNN, COLTEN CUNN & JAY WHITE) vs. DEATH RIDERS (DANIEL GARCIA & WHEELER YUTA) & THE DOGS (CLARK CONNORS & DAVID FINLAY) (12:10): This was a lot of fun. All the wrestlers were dressed up like football players and Juice Robinson was the coach. When the wrestlers came out, they did the NFL gimmick where they said what college they were from. One of them said someone's mom's house or something amusing. Someone brought out an empty keg of beer. This was a blast and the crowd was loving every second of it. ***
ANDRADE EL IDOLO vs. PAC (18:43): So this is Pac's last match ever. That's pretty sad. Andrade retained the National title. The match was entertaining. It didn't seem like Pac got injured or anything in this match, but who knows? They did the usual spot where Andrade takes a selfie with a woman at ringside but this time Marina Shafir was behind the woman and choked her out. **1/2
DON CALLIS FAMILY (KEVIN KNIGHT & KYLE FLETCHER) vs. DARBY ALLIN & STEVEN BORDEN (13:07): Steve Borden got injured during this match and they stopped the match. Steve and Kevin Knight were doing a spot where they both stood at opposite sides of the ring on the top rope and jumped towards each other. Steve landed hard on the back of his head, so it was probably a concussion. In hindsight, it does seem stupid for someone fairly new like Borden to be doing some crazy, high-flying spot. In hindsight, it also might seem reckless to have partnered him with Darby. Of course Steve Borden is going to see the crowd reaction that Darby gets for all of his crazy shit and try to emulate him once or twice. Hopefully this isn't the end of his career or anything, since concussions can be scary. Adam Cole had to retire because of concussions and he's only 37.
PERSEPHONE vs. DANI LUNA (14:42): This was Dani Luna's debut. No, I don't know who she is but she was apparently in TNA recently. The match was okay. The crowd did get into it a bit towards the end. Luna did do a cool suplex off the ropes on Persephone, who retained her TBS title. Britt Baker came out as Persephone's sidekick, so Britt is a heel these days. **
KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. TOMMASO CIAMPA (21:01): Great match. They did a spot where Okada went over to Ciampa's wife and 8 year old daughter at ringside and gave the daughter the finger. The daughter gave Okada double middle fingers in return. The crowd loved that. There was some really good, back-and-forth action in this one. This felt like the Okada of old. Okada retained the International title or whatever he has (I kind of give up keeping track of AEW's 1,000 titles). ***1/2
THE BRAWLING BIRDS (ALEX WINDSOR & JAMIE HAYTER) vs. DIVINE DOMINION (LENA KROSS & MEGAN BAYNE) "CHICAGO STREET FIGHT" (17:39): They used a barbed wire board, tables, chairs, a barbed wire chair, Singapore canes, and a glass bottle. Honestly? The violence probably made this more entertaining than it would have if it was a normal wrestling match (I gave their regular wrestling match at All In one star). The Birds retained the tag titles. **
SWERVE STRICKLAND & THE NEW LEVEL (AUSTIN CREED & KOFI) vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE & BRODIDO (BANDIDO & BRODY KING) (23:56): Great match. This was super entertaining. This reminded me of the old days in New Japan when the Juniors division was stacked with The Young Bucks and Ricochet and ReDragon and they always had these crazy, fantastic matches together for years. This was all action with big, creative moves and a hot crowd. Swerve and The New Level retained the trios titles. ***1/2
THEKLA vs. WILLOW NIGHTINGALE (13:19): The winner of this gets a title shot against Mercedes at Wrestle Dream. Mercedes wasn't the only big name not on this show; MJF and Omega weren't here, either. This match never really turned into anything substantial. Thekla just isn't in good matches. It was kind of obvious Thekla was going to win because Willow just faced Mercedes at All In. **
THE YOUNG BUCKS (MATT & NICK JACKSON) vs. CAGE & COPE (ADAM COPELAND & CHRISTIAN CAGE) vs. FTR (CASH WHEELER & DAX HARWOOD) "LADDER MATCH" (23:25):
Good match, although at this late hour the crowd wasn't going ape shit like you might've thought they would during a TLC match. They did all the usual stuff and it was exciting, but it was also the same old shit. FTR's manager, Stokely, took the big bump off the ladder down onto two tables (only one broke).
The Bucks won the tag titles. ***
WILL OSPREAY vs. JON MOXLEY (32:46): This match felt like it was written by a WWE writer. Main event matches on WWE PPV's seem to always have the heel go on a long stretch beating up the babyface, then there's copious amounts of interference and a ref bump. This match was all of that. It got really exciting late, though. They also attempted to add some drama and storytelling with Moxley holding a briefcase and fighting with himself over whether or not to hit Ospreay with it (he did). Ospreay did a few miraculous kick outs at the end and won with a Hidden Blade (Moxley was kneeling in the middle of the ring and knowing it was coming and smiling, realizing he was about to lose and Ospreay got the best of him). I think the whole reason you put the main title on Ospreay is so you can have great PPV matches month after month. I don't think this was a great match, but it was a good one. ***
