AEW ALL IN

 

Wembley Stadium, London

LIO RUSH & THE RASCALZ (DESMOND XAVIER, MYRON REED & ZACHARY WENTZ) vs. THE OPPS (ACTION ANDRETTI, ANTHONY BOWENS & KATSUYORI SHIBATA) (9:13): How does AEW make any money when they have to pay all these wrestlers? They had 4 and 1/2 matches on the two hour pre-show (the Trios match started on the pre-show and ended on the main show). The pre-show actually ended up being pretty eventful which is usually not the case. This match was entertaining. Action Andretti was in a hardcore match on the ROH PPV at the ECW Arena last week and I was thinking to myself that he's a really great, fun wrestler...why did his career take a nosedive? Maybe it's his stupid name? The Opps were in this match, but Samoa Joe wasn't on this show. The Opps is basically now, without Samoa Joe, just a bunch of wrestlers that Tony Khan doesn't seem to know what to do with or want to push for whatever reason. This was a fun opener in a pretty empty 90,000 seat stadium (it did eventually fill up to supposedly 41,000). **1/2

HARLEY CAMERON & KRIS STATLANDER vs. SISTERS OF SIN (JULIA HART & SKYE BLUE) (9:55): Harley was a big star not too long ago and has seemingly been forgotten. It's funny how Tony Khan and the writers seemingly just get tired of people and stop using them for whatever reason. I do think she was injured for awhile, but she's back and losing on the pre-show. Julia Hart did look a little bit better wrestling wise here. Statlander was not too long ago the women's champ and now she's losing on the pre-show. Not good. *1/2

BOOM & DOOM (BIG BOOM AJ & QT MARSHALL) & THE HURT SYNDICATE (BOBBY LASHLEY & SHELTON BENJAMIN) vs. SHANE TAYLOR PROMOTIONS (CARLIE BRAVO, LEE MORIARTY, SHANE TAYLOR & SHAWN DEAN) (11:23): Every time Big Boom AJ and his son show up in AEW I keep wondering 'is that still a thing?' When I was watching this my nephew mentioned, "Is that...?" whatever they're called: The Costco Guys or something. So maybe they still exist in the popular Tiktok/Youtube community. I don't know what happened to The Hurt Syndicate, either. They were unbeatable tag team champs last year. Now they're teaming with Youtube goofs on the pre-show. There were rumors that MVP had a beef with 'Speedball' Mike Bailey last year. Maybe that's why The Hurt Syndicate are in the dog house. They weren't even on TV for a long time until recently. There wasn't much to this match. *

PERSEPHONE vs. MAYA WORLD (11:19): This was for the TBS title. Maya World's meteoric rise has ended, as she lost to Persephone thanks to a masked figure pushing Maya off the top rope. The masked figure turned out to be the returning Britt Baker, who hasn't been in AEW since November of 2024. I think she was in the dog house, too, as there were rumors that she had problems with people backstage including MJF. Plus, there was that hot mic incident when she said, "Nobody cares" on Dynamite when Sereena Deeb came out to apparently start a program with her. Britt probably is still half in the dog house, though, as her big return was on the pre-show and not during the main show or during/after the women's world title match. This match was decent. **

AEW TRIOS TITLE ROULETTE ROYALE MATCH (SWERVE STRICKLAND & THE NEW LEVEL (AUSTIN CREED & KOFI) (39:04): 'Hangman' Adam Page, Bandido & Brody King were the Trios champions. They started this match on the pre-show but waited for the main show to start to have The New Day make their debut in this match. They're now called The New Level. Kofi Kingston is just Kofi and Xavier Woods is now Austin Creed. The crowds were chanting their name, so I guess they like that they're in AEW now. They even pulled out the old WWE gimmick with Kofi where he was eliminated but his feet didn't touch the floor (Prince Nana helped him to his feet). Ricochet and his goons were a team. The Death Riders, The Dogs and Gabe Kidd, Ricochet and his goons, The Conglomeration, and The Bang Bang Gang were the other teams. Very entertaining, fun match. ***

THE BRAWLING BIRDS (ALEX WINDSOR & JAMIE HAYTER) vs. DIVINE DOMINION (LENA KROSS & MEGAN BAYNE) (11:40): This was by far the weakest main event match. The women's tag team titles have been pretty meaningless ever since they were introduced. Hayter was once AEW's best women's wrestler but her tag team isn't all that exciting. Divine Dominion are just dull. This was also fairly dull. The Brawling Birds won the titles. *

JON MOXLEY vs. NIGEL McGUINNESS (17:12): They had a tournament to set this match up. This match was helped by the crowd being behind Nigel since he's English. I think they watched the recent G1 final because this was all submission holds and suspense and someone tapping (in the G1 final, the big submission drama was a head lock of all things...Ryohei Oiwa won). Nigel tapped out with his fingers inches from the ropes. Pretty good match. **1/2

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. KYLE FLETCHER vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (13:13): Good match. Very exciting. The crowd was into everything on this show. They didn't get tired. The show didn't feel long and didn't drag. I think one reason was that the two best matches on the show were the last two. They did seem to have less matches on this show because the entrances and ring walks took longer (just walking to the ring from the giant stage took forever). Okada won the International title here (Fletcher came in as champ). They're setting up Fletcher/Okada eventually and I guess Fletcher going babyface. Okada has been in AEW for a few years now and hasn't had a main event title match yet on one of these PPV's. That's surprising but I can see that changing since Ospreay/Okada is a big time feud. ***

AEW WORLD TITLE #1 CONTENDER CASINO GAUNTLET MATCH (ANDRADE EL IDOLO) (21:06): There were no surprise entrants in this. MJF and Andrade started the match. I'm not sure why they didn't have MJF in a big singles match on this show. The announcer mistakenly announced Kommander as being Mistico. Mistico was next and he said, "You guessed it, the next entrant is Mistico!" Jericho got a big pop. It's funny, because a year ago AEW fans were chanting for him to retire. Jack Perry, Daniel Garcia, Ciampa, Nick Wayne, and Mark Davis were also in this. Garcia finally did his stripper dance again to cheers from the crowd. This was a very entertaining match. Andrade vs. Ospreay should be a hell of match, though it makes no sense since both guys are babyfaces. ***

CAGE & COPE (ADAM COPELAND & CHRISTIAN CAGE) vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS (MATT & NICK JACKSON) (20:06): This "dream match" was good but not great. It seemed to finally be heating up into something when it suddenly ended. Christian Cage put a wrench in his cast and hit one of The Bucks to win. When it finally got going it was excellent, though. Afterwards, a bunch of other tag teams came down to the ring to stare at Edge & Christian. The New Level, The Motor City Machine Guns, and FTR came out. That was a cool moment. ***

DARBY ALLIN vs. KEVIN KNIGHT "FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH" (15:48): The big spot was Darby doing a Shane McMahon and doing a Coffin Drop off the lighting rig on the stage onto Knight through a gimmicked floor that broke apart. It was crazy high but the gimmick kind of negated the insanity. Immediately after, Knight was being wheeled away on a stretcher (those EMTs are fast!) and Darby did a Coffin Drop off the stage onto Knight. Darby won the TNT title. Darby was bleeding from the back of his head during the match. Knight did a top rope flying elbow onto Darby on the announce table. Jake Doyle and Brian Cage came out to beat up Darby but Sting and Sting's son came out to make the save. The Sting family set up a ladder and Sting started to climb it but his son told him no and did the dive off the ladder to the floor. Entertaining match. **1/2

MERCEDES MONE vs. WILLOW NIGHTINGALE (21:52): These last two matches were great. There hasn't been a great women's match in forever in AEW. This was bloody and brutal. Mercedes had her nose broken and was gushing blood throughout. Willow's hand was storyline broken and in a cast so Mone worked on that. Every move seemed brutal and intense. There was high drama in this one. Willow tapped out and Mone won the title, a title she's never had in AEW yet. Great match. ***1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. KENNY OMEGA (34:25): When this was over, I said to myself: 'That was the best match I've ever seen.' So, yeah. This was phenomenal. The Will Ospreay entrance was also phenomenal. I can see wrestling companies copying that in the future. It was like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol; Will passing all the wrestlers that made up his lifetime in the business. There was a great video package set to The Who's "Baba O'Reilly" while Will's mother narrated. Then Will walked backstage towards the ring and passed Michael Oku and Amira, Zack Sabre, Jr., Ricochet, Swerve, and Aussie Open. Ospreay met his wife, Alex Windsor, and they kissed. Henare, Akira, and Callum Newman helped Ospreay put on his robe and walked out to the ring with him. Moxley appeared at the curtain to hand Ospreay the British flag to carry. This was fucking awesome stuff. This made the match feel like a big time event. The match itself was insane. The amount of brutality these two are willing to go through just to entertain us is beyond the pale. After the last time they wrestled, at Forbidden Door in 2023, I noted that maybe I don't want to see these two wrestle again simply because the amount of punishment and craziness they do to each other. In those two matches they had in 2023, they did one big spot that started the blood flow. In this match, it was Omega giving Ospreay a German Suplex throw off the announce table onto a table standing up. When Ospreay gave Omega a flying hidden blade, Omega's eye was busted open. There were two insane spots in this match. Ospreay gave Omega a full on head butt that was gruesome to watch. The other insane spot was Ospreay giving Omega a Tiger Driver and Omega landed on his head. After that move, Omega's arm wasn't moving and the announcer's mentioned that a numb arm probably meant a neck or spinal injury (Omega said later it was a shoulder injury which caused his arm to not be able to move). When Omega's arm went numb, he walked to the ropes and looked in the direction of the trainer. I was thinking: stop the fucking match, it's not worth it. They didn't. The story early on was that Omega was destroying a bloody, lifeless Ospreay. Ospreay eventually made a comeback, even kicking out of The One-Winged Angel (only MJF and Ibushi have kicked out of that, and MJF's kick out came when the ref was knocked out for a good 30 seconds). Omega gave Ospreay a Tiger Driver. Ospreay gave Omega a One-Winged Angel and Ospreay kicked out at 1. Ospreay gave Omega a Hidden Blade and a Stormbreaker and Omega kicked out at 1. The stadium was unglued at this point. Finally, Ospreay gave Omega another Hidden Blade and won. Ospreay finally is the AEW champ. This was pro-wrestling at it's apex. It really doesn't get better than this. The fantastic entrances. The big stadium. The hot crowd. The blood. The high drama. The devastating moves. Omega looked as good as ever here, which is a bit surprising since I said he looked old and slow and it was sad when he wrestled MJF in the main event of Dynasty. This was the Omega of old. He was fast, wild, crazy, and having the time of his life. Both men looked like they had survived a war when this was over. I watched this match three days ago and am still thinking about it. I have no idea how AEW will ever top this. I should probably just quit watching wrestling, because I don't think it'll ever be this good. ****

WWE SUMMERSLAM

Minneapolis

Night 1 (Saturday):

LIV MORGAN vs. IYO SKY (13:35): The big problem with the WWE is the same problem that any company has when they get sold to a big corporation: they lose their soul. The WWE just feels like a glossy, safe, commercialized "product" now instead of something with drama, intensity, excitement, and freshness. The WWE with Vince in charge before the sale to TKO wasn't exactly fantastic, though, so it's not like the WWE is worse than it was. It just doesn't have that edge to it. It feels too manufactured and produced. It's stale and mostly dull. TKO only cares about making money so last year they decided to turn Summerslam into two nights. That didn't work, as a few weeks ago I heard they only sold 20,000 tickets each night for a show at a 60,000+ football stadium. I'm guessing they cut prices and gave out free tickets to fill some of the seats, though one side of the stadium was empty (they tried to not show it on TV) and the stage was set up around the 40 yard line, so they didn't even sell seats to probably 40% of the stadium. Why even do it in a football stadium then? Lesson learned? What did they think exactly? Minneapolis isn't a big market. They really thought they could sell out two nights in a football stadium in Minneapolis? Even if you combine the population of Minneapolis and St. Paul, they don't crack the top 10 of the highest populated U.S. cities. If they keep trying to do two nights of Wrestlemania and Summerslam at football stadiums every year, I think they're going to run out of cities to run where they could legitimately sell well. Next year's Wrestlemania is in Saudi Arabia, so I guess that's already happening. As for this show, Night 1, it was okay. There were no great matches. There actually weren't any good matches. Nothing was awful. The matches all pretty much felt like typical TV matches except for the Punk/Cody match not because that was good but because it was long. Liv Morgan retained her women's title in this opening match. It was okay, nothing special. They really didn't do anything noteworthy or memorable. The crowd seemed to like Iyo Sky. Maybe she should've won? Didn't they literally just do this match at the last PPV? **

LA KNIGHT, ROYCE KEYS & SOLO SIKOA vs. THE BLOODLINE (JACOB FATU & THE USO'S) (11:00): A 6 man tag! What is this? Smackdown? It seems like they're turning Solo Sikoa babyface because he was dancing around and doing Jey Uso's "Yeet" gimmick and the crowd was eating it up. He's supposed to be a dastardly heel, right? I also feel like they should finally give LA Knight the championship. This company needs something fresh. They had it with Sammy as champ and that lasted a week. With 6 guys in there, at least this was all action. I still can't believe how dumb the name Royce Keys is. Powerhouse Hobbs wasn't an awesome name or anything, but it was a hell of a lot better than Royce Keys. **1/2

GUNTHER vs. NICK ALDIS (11:40): Aldis never wrestled in the WWE. I only remember he was the NWA champ when Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins brought the NWA back and they had a weekly one-hour show and some PPV's years ago. He also wrestled in TNA a long time ago. Well, this was a one-off, as he went back to being the Smackdown GM on Night 2 of Summerslam. After Aldis lost, he brought in his wife, Mickie James, and his son to the ring. I guess he was retiring? I don't really know what the point of this match and feud was. Did anyone care that Aldis was going to wrestle all of a sudden? The match was fine. Aldis looked to be in great shape. Maybe he shouldn't retire from wrestling. Gunther hasn't been in a great match in forever. He needs to start eating more because he's so skinny he looks malnourished and sickly and he should go to AEW or Japan so he can actually be in good matches and use his skill set. *1/2

FATAL INFLUENCE (FALLON HENLEY, JACY JAYNE & LAINEY REID) vs. THE BELLA TWINS (BRIE BELLA & NIKKI BELLA) & PAIGE (7:30): The Bella's turned on Paige after Paige got pinned and they lost. Hmmm. Does anyone want to see Paige vs. Nikki or Paige vs. Brie? Unless that was just a way to actually fire Paige in real life. The crowd wasn't really into this match. Most of these new NXT wrestlers are young and good looking but not good wrestlers. That's a problem. If you only care about looks and not in-ring ability you can always go watch porn or Love Island or something else. When we're watching wrestling, we want to see good wrestling. *

CM PUNK vs. CODY RHODES (29:45): Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer noted that these two were trying to do an 80's match when Bryan Alvarez mentioned that this was sloppy and slow. They weren't trying to do an 80's match...this is how these two wrestle! You're not going to see dynamic moves like in a Takeshita/Fletcher/Ospreay match from Cody or Punk ever. The big deal about this match was that ref got knocked out and Randy Orton ran in to give Cody an RKO which led to him losing. The crowd loved seeing Orton show up. The match was slow. Punk attempted the worst moonsault you'll ever see. Punk tried a top rope elbow drop to the announce table but Cody moved. This wasn't bad or anything, but it never turned into anything exciting or dramatic. One problem with the two men's championship title matches was the fact that there was no story involved. Cody walked out on TV one night and told Punk he wanted a title match. Seth Rollins walked out on TV one night and told Roman Reigns he wanted a title match. Summerslam is supposed to be one of the bigger shows of the year. Why not, like, build up the championship matches a little bit? **

OBA FEMI vs. BROCK LESNAR "HELL IN A CELL" (11:30): The WWE championship match wasn't the main event. That kind of makes your title look lame. And no, this wasn't "hell." They barely used the cage. Oba threw Brock into a table leaning against the cage. They used a chair and the ring steps. Brock did pull back to mat to give Oba a Tombstone Pile Driver on the wood floor. Oba won of course. After the match, Brock took the mic and told the crowd that he was the past and Oba was the future. If you're going to do a supposed "hardcore" match...maybe make it a bit more hardcore? Maybe one more table break? Singapore Canes? A chain? I guess these two muscle heads can't climb the cage but jeez, there wasn't much to this. I can't really say that Night 1 was a disappointment because this is what the WWE is these days: a glossy, commercialized, safe, stale, predictable, mildly entertaining product. *1/2

Night 2 (Sunday):

KEVIN OWENS vs. FINN BALOR vs. GUNTHER vs. SAMI ZAYN (8:30): This match was supposed to be Finn Balor vs. Sami Zayn for the #1 contender slot for one of the championships (they have 2 main WWE championship belts...which makes zero sense). For no reason, Nick Aldis decided to add to competitors: Gunther and the returning Kevin Owens. Owens has been out for a year and a half after neck or back surgery. I suppose the surgery was successful, as he was doing running cannonballs as soon as the match started. I'm not entirely sure why Gunther was in this match, as he wrestled yesterday. The match was fine but nothing special. I'm glad to see Owens back, though, as he's been consistently one of the more entertaining WWE wrestlers. **1/2

BARON CORBIN vs. TRICK WILLIAMS: Why is Baron Corbin back? I know Vince loved him for some reason. I guess Triple H does as well. The only possible reason I can think of that they brought him back is because they don't have a lot of heels on the roster. There's Gunther, Dominik, Bron Breakker, Logan Paul, and Austin Theory. I think Solo Sikoa is technically still a heel. Logan Paul is injured. Bron Breakker and Austin Theory weren't on either night of Summerslam for unknown reasons. Trick Williams is a big, new star that the crowds love...so why did they have him lose the U.S. title to Baron Corbin? I give up. * 

CHELSEA GREEN vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR vs. JADE CARGILL vs. LASH LEGEND vs. TIFFANY STRATTON "LADDER MATCH" (13:00): I love ladder matches, so I thought this was entertaining. There weren't any death-defying spots, it was mostly just the women falling off ladders and being slammed onto ladders. Lash Legend slammed Tiffany from the top rope onto a ladder resting on the second rope. That was pretty brutal. For some reason, the fans went crazy when Chelsea was on the precipice of winning and then later when she won. Why? Is Chelsea Green over? Is she even on TV? It feels like I never see her for some reason. Someone I do see on TV all the time wasn't even on Summerslam: Bron Breakker. Wasn't he supposed to be the next big star? That's strange. **1/2

DANHAUSEN vs. DOMINIK MYSTERIO "HUMAN MONIES ON A POLE MATCH" (6:50): A Money on a Pole match? What, is Vince Russo writing this now? Danhausen was amusing in AEW, but the WWE has completely oversaturated him plus turned him into more of a kiddie goof. I'm already sick of the WWE Danhausen. JD came out to beat up Danhausen. I'm not entirely sure why interference is allowed, as this was a Pole match, not a no DQ match. The little Danhausen wrestlers came out to beat up Dominik and JD. You pretty much got what you expected with this clown show. 1/2*

CHAD GABLE vs. PENTA (11:05): Gable won the Intercontinental title and then acted like he won the actual WWE championship. His wife, kids, and parents entered the ring to help him celebrate. I get it: he's from Minnesota and I guess they were trying to recreate the ending to his Mask vs. Mask match, but it's the frigging Intercontinental title! Why are you crying? Who gives a shit about that title? Gable had a lot of momentum after that Mask vs. Mask match and the WWE is turning him into a goof. The match was nothing special. And I'm still baffled why the WWE refuses to use The Lucha Brothers as a tag team. Penta isn't as good by himself. **

ROMAN REIGNS vs. SETH ROLLINS (33:30): The best thing about this match was how hot the crowd was for it. They were standing and cheering like this was Omega/Okada or something. It was good but very, very slow. Neither Reigns nor Rollins did anything dynamic. Michael Cole is still calling Jon Moxley "Dean Ambrose." I hate when these wrestling companies act like we don't know things. Rollins did a move that "Dean Ambrose" used to do and he mentioned it. They both slammed each other onto announce tables. They kicked out a bunch which apparently got the crowd into a frenzy. What...you've never seen a kick out? The ref got knocked out and no other ref ran in. Do they not watch this in the back and no one in charge notices the ref is out for ten minutes? Roman refused to use a chair when the ref was out. Roman retained the title. For the WWE it was a good match. In the real world, it was fine. I'll be honest: this company is not great right now, and I don't possibly see how they can get out of this dull mess they've put themselves in. **1/2