AEW REVOLUTION

Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles

BOOM & DOOM (BIG BOOM AJ & QT MARSHALL) vs. THE INFANTRY (CARLIE BRAVO & SHAWN DEAN) (7:41): I wasn't the biggest fan of the scheduling of this show. It was on as the same time as the Oscars. It was also in the same city as the Oscars. Maybe they got a discount to run the Crypto.com Arena (formerly the Staples Center) because of that. Do wrestling fans not watch the Oscars? I guess we'll find out when the buy rate to this show comes out. As usual with AEW PPV's, this was an exhausting but good show. Revolution was 2025, 2024, and 2022's Best Show of the Year...so this PPV had a lot to live up to. It started off with the internet-famous crew, Big Boom AJ, his son, and The Rizzler. Are they still internet famous, though? Because internet fame is fleeting, and their five minutes may be up. Who knows? Match was fine. The Crypto.com Arena was sold out for this show and the crowd was loud and fantastic...until later on they finally got tired during the last three matches. The highlight of this match was The Rizzler getting shoved to the ground and then AJ's son spearing the culprit. The Infantry must only be on ROH, because I vaguely remember them. ** 

WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. LENA KROSS (10:58): The gimmick here was that Willow would put up her TBS title against Lena Kross and then later on Willow & Harley would put up their tag titles against Lena and Megan Bayne. In this match, Willow won but hurt her shoulder...which would play a part later on. Match was fine, nothing special. *1/2

21 MAN BLACKJACK BATTLE ROYAL (JACK PERRY) (22:55): Originally, it was supposed to be Ricochet vs. Jack Perry for Ricochet's National title. I'm not sure why they decided to make it a battle royal instead. This match started on the free pre-show but didn't end until the beginning of the PPV. The beginning of this was dumb: instead of everyone starting in the ring, they all started brawling outside of the ring. That was just confusing. Kommander did his top rope walk/run into a moonsault to the floor and the announcers had to explain that, no, Kommander wasn't eliminated. Um...how? He fucking went over the top rope! Some of the others in this were Juice Robinson, El Clon, Rocky Romero, and Ciampa. The final two ended up being Jack Perry and Ricochet anyway. Jack is from L.A. and when he eliminated Ricochet he celebrated with his mom and sister. That was cool. The finale was exciting, as Perry gave Ricochet a head-scissor take down on the apron. It was very precarious there. Jack Perry also made his entrance to this match with Luchasaurus driving a Jurassic Express bus to drop him off. **1/2

FTR vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS (19:41): The Bucks came out with their kids which was really cool. What wasn't cool was that this was a bloody match and their kids were sitting at ringside. Their kids are, like, ten years old and younger. I don't know...maybe go watch that Beyond the Mat documentary sometime where Mick Foley's wife and kids were traumatized for life because The Rock hit their father over the head with a steel chair over and over. So this was a pretty great match. It was also pretty chaotic. I didn't expect FTR to win...but then when Edge & Christian returned after the match it made sense to have them return to set up facing a heel team as opposed to returning after a triumphant Bucks victory. ***

TONI STORM vs. MARINA SHAFIR (9:46): This match was okay. Marina wrestled in a bra...which I was constantly wondering how it wasn't going to rip or come off (I'm a perv...but you were all thinking the same thing!). At one point, Toni grabbed Marina's breast and bit it. That got the big pop of the match. What didn't get a big pop was Ronda Rousey showing up after the match. She just ran into the ring and stood there. Maybe people didn't realize who it was? She hasn't been doing anything for the last few years (she's in an MMA fight in May). Toni and Marina are having a re-match on Dynamite this week. *1/2

JON MOXLEY vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (23:32): This was the match of the night. By the end of this, when both men were kicking out of each other's finishers, the crowd was going bananas. I've never been the biggest fan of Moxley outside of the hardcore matches he's been in...but lately he's been in some incredible pure wrestling matches (Moxley vs. Fletcher at World's End was one of 2025's best matches...and the time limit draw match in Australia with Takeshita and Moxley was excellent). This was just a great, hard hitting, back-and-forth, dramatic match that the crowd got super into. Anytime there's a ton of near-falls at the end of a match a crowd usually gets into it...and this was something else. Great match. Moxley retained the Continental championship by choking out Takeshita. After the match, Will Ospreay made his return. He flew to the ring to attack Moxley and the Death Riders. Ospreay supposedly had neck surgery...but why is he back so soon? He was doing a frigging top rope Sky Twister to the floor. Yikes. Maybe his surgery wasn't as serious and you'd think. And he already proved that he's not toning down his style. ***1/2

DIVINE DOMINION (LENA KROSS & MEGAN BAYNE) vs. BABE OF WRATH (HARLEY CAMERON & WILLOW NIGHTINGALE) (5:00): Willow was hurt from her match earlier, so the Divine Dominion pretty easily won the tag titles here. Kind of a strange match with it being so short and nothing noteworthy besides the dominance. I feel bad for Megan Bayne's previous tag team partner. They just replaced her out of the blue. 1/2*

SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. BRODY KING (14:19): Brody King is a certified star all of a sudden. He's been in the company for a few years but he's finally like a big deal. So what do they do? Keep beating him! Makes sense. I figured Swerve would win, as he's a heel now but also one of the top stars in AEW. The story in this match is that they would turn this into a hardcore match by using the ring and the surrounding accoutrements. So they pulled up the ringside mat to slam each other on the hard floor. They would pull off the corner padding to use the steel bolts. I suppose it was...inventive. It did hold my interest. After the match, Kenny Omega ran out when Swerve was ready to crush Brody's head on a cinderblock. **1/2 

THEKLA vs. KRIS STATLANDER "2 OUT OF 3 FALLS" (17:09): I feel like Thekla just got to AEW (it was sometime last year). Why did they give her the AEW title so soon? I guess Tony likes her. I feel bad for her group, The Sisters of Sin. Julia Hart has been in AEW since the beginning...and Sky Blue has been in AEW for the last four or five years...and yet Thekla shows up and is instantly the champion. Thekla is a fine wrestler but her matches are never great or anything. She plays a good heel and has good presence/charisma. The crowd was pretty quiet for most of this match. The ref got knocked out at one point, which eventually led to Julia Hart and Sky Blue interfering. Thekla retained. **

JETSPEED (KEVIN KNIGHT & MIKE BAILEY) & MISTICO vs. THE DON CALLIS FAMILY (KAZUCHIKA OKADA, KYLE FLETCHER & MARK DAVIS) (17:21): This match was fantastic. Mistico signed with AEW, although it's a dual contract with CMLL. Mistico did look a little off and a little tired, probably because he's old (43). Apparently, the hardcore fans in Mexico boo Mistico. You wouldn't know that watching AEW, though. This was just all action, all big dives, super fun, super entertaining. Mark Davis looked great in this, doing a bunch of big, power moves that the crowd loved. After this match, the crowd got tired. ***1/2

ANDRADE EL IDOLO vs. BANDIDO (20:55): The one thing I didn't expect was for this match to be kind of slow. What these two did do was a bunch of ultra-creative spots, some I've never seen before. Good match. Andrade won, which was kind of a surprise. They've been pushing a guy that didn't want to be in AEW, so he quit but had to come back because the WWE fired him. Andrade has looked a lot better than he did in his first AEW run. I think this match, like the next one, probably would have been better earlier with the hotter crowd. *** 

DARBY ALLIN, ORANGE CASSIDY & RODERICK STRONG vs. THE DOGS (CLARK CONNORS, DAVID FINLAY & GABE KIDD) (12:23): AEW is taking everyone from New Japan. They signed three of the War Dogs and re-branded them "The Dogs." So creative. This was all kind of a fast paced car wreck match. They tied Darby by the neck to the corner at one point. The crowd eventually chanted, "Please help Darby." Then Darby zip tied Gabe by the entrance to put him out of the match. This was, really, more of just a Dynamite match than a PPV match. I think at this point, everyone was ready for the main event. **1/2

MJF vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE "TEXAS DEATH MATCH" (46:18): I've mentioned before that AEW has yet to have a men's championship surprise. Every time someone has won the title, it's been obvious. Well, the title didn't change hands here, but I never thought MJF would retain here. Why? Because 'Hangman' said that if he lost, he would never challenge for the title again. They actually did this before with Cody and look how that turned out (Cody quit the company). What possible storyline could they be doing with this stipulation? #1: 'Hangman' is injured and wants to retire soon...and/or wants to retire soon to spend time with his family. #2 'Hangman' is leaving for the WWE. #3 'Hangman' will turn heel and thus defy the stipulation in the future. There are other ways to get around it. There isn't a point, though, to have one of your top stars stick around in the company if he can't be in title main events. That's fucking dumb, right? Right? So the match ended on a downer...with MJF winning and the crowd sad. At 46 minutes...this was a loooong match. It was definitely epic, if that's your thing. The one problem was that a lot of this match was just both men stopping the entire match to go and look under the ring for something. They didn't do anything new but they did do everything. There was a glass window they broke in the ring and both men got dragged through the glass. There was a barbed wire chair and a barbed wire board on a table. There was an exploding table. MJF stuck a syringe through Page's cheek (the crowd howled at that spot). 'Hangman' gave MJF a dead eye through a ringside table. MJF gave Page a pile driver through a ringside table. At one point, 'Hangman' brought out a dog collar and attached one end to MJF's neck and it turned into a dog collar match. 'Hangman' broke two light tubes on MJF. The exploding table by the entrance was pretty cool. 'Hangman' stuck the wooden kebab sticks into MJF's head at one point. The finish played into the finish at last year's All In. MJF punched Page with his ring then choked him out with a chain. Page couldn't make the 10 count. This was a pretty wild match. It was super bloody. It wasn't the best Texas Death Match this company has had. I think if Page had won it probably would have been better because the crowd would have erupted in happiness to end the show. I guess the stipulation at least makes things interesting, although that will depend on what they do with it. Obviously, they had some sort of story planned with Cody that they never ended up doing. I suppose they wanted to finally do it. This was more a memorable match than a great one. ***