Notes from AEW All Out on Wrestling Observer Radio.
Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer on Monday morning discussed the main event of the show, which saw Jon Moxley defeat Orange Cassidy to win the AEW International Championship. Despite that, the show ended with Orange Cassidy making it up back on his feet to a big ovation from the crowd.
“It didn’t feel like a sad ending to the pay-per-view. You knew the day was coming, you saw history, it went to a guy that’s a big star, and you got to give Orange his moment,” Alvarez said.
In the post-show press conference, there wasn’t much news. Khan did not talk about the situation with CM Punk. Christian Cage noted he had signed a new contract with the company. The gate for the show stands around $800,000, less than the $1 million Khan predicted last week.
“It’s okay,” Meltzer said. “US business is soft. Not that $800,000 is a bad gate. Again, in Chicago, you’d expect it at over a million.”
Bryan Danielson noted during the conference that he was cleared by both AEW’s medical staff and an outside surgeon, saying there was a lot of “smoke and mirrors” in his strap match against Ricky Starks.
Regarding Jack Perry, Khan said that he was “suspended indefinitely”.
Meltzer also brought up Ace Steel’s name, saying that “he’s in the same position that he was in three days ago”.
Below are notes from the post-AEW All Out media scrum.
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Adam Cole —
Cole said that he’s having the most fun he’s had in 15 years in wrestling in his pairing with MJF. He notes that the two were just “thrown together” and neither thought it would click as well as it has.
Cole said that he & MJF are open to facing any tag team on the AEW or ROH roster in defending the Ring of Honor Tag Team titles.
Christian Cage —
Cage spoke entirely in character.
Cage said that Khan had recently re-signed him to a “fat” contract.
Cage said that he collects things of great value including watches, and wrestling titles.
Cage said that he had added so much prestige to the TNT Championship that he thinks it might soon be called the TNT World Championship.
When asked about the possibility of his friend Adam Copeland joining AEW, Cage said that he has no friends besides Luchasaurus.
Kris Statlander —
When asked about Mercedes Mone, Statlander said that she would welcome the challenge. She also mentioned a rematch with Jade Cargill, Toni Storm, Jamie Hayter, Saraya, and Willow Nightingale as potential future opponents.
Statlander said that she appreciates everyone’s concern for her health after returning from two knee injuries, but that she wouldn’t have come back if she wasn’t capable of doing everything in the ring she could before the injuries. She noted that she hasn’t modified her style since returning.
Statlander put over Orange Cassidy as her best friend and noted that the Best Friends group with herself, Cassidy, Trent Beretta & Chuck Taylor are legitimately best friends who travel together and hang out together.
Bryan Danielson —
Danielson said Ricky Starks carried him through their match at All Out. He said he thought that Starks was good in the ring before, but that the two had never touched prior to their match and that Starks is every bit as good as he thought he was. He praised Starks for using his promo on Saturday’s Collision to elevate Big Bill.
Danielson said it was very hard to argue against Jon Moxley being the best wrestler in the world after stepping up with another great performance at All Out.
Danielson noted that the Blackpool Combat Club can straddle the line between being good guys and bad guys depending on what the particular story they are involved in calls for.
Danielson said that he was cleared not only by AEW’s medical staff but by an outside surgeon (implied that the surgeon who performed surgery to repair the broken arm he suffered at Forbidden Door) to return for his match with Starks.
In light of people being concerned for his health, Danielson said he would pull back the curtain and noted that there were lots of smoke and mirrors in the match with Starks to protect Danielson’s arm, mentioning that he never threw a strike with his right arm.
In speaking about Tony Khan calling him out as being a point person to help run AEW should anything happen to Tony, Danielson said that balancing work and his personal life is something he strives for and that he spends a lot of time thinking about. He said that he would want to help AEW out.
Khan noted that Danielson working Collision on Saturdays would probably be good for that work/life balance.
Khan said that Danielson traveled with him for a few weeks and could not keep up with Khan’s schedule and recommended that Khan hire Jimmy Jacobs to travel with him and help keep him organized.
Tony Khan —
Asked about Sonny Kiss, Khan confirmed that he had not renewed Kiss’ contract. He put Kiss over as a great wrestler and a person that he likes a lot, but that he can’t keep everyone under contract. He did not rule out Kiss returning at some point, pointing to Stu Grayson as an example of someone who left the company and came back.
Khan said that he found out Saturday that Billie Starkz was not cleared to compete and that forced him to change some booking for All Out: Zero Hour, but that he wanted to showcase Athena on the card.
Regarding the business of All Out, Khan said that preliminary numbers indicate 100,000-plus pay-per-view buys and somewhere in the range of 10,000 tickets sold for a gate north of $800,000.
Khan said that CJ Perry had not signed any type of long-term deal, but didn’t rule out the possibility of signing her depending on how the story with Miro plays out.
Khan said that Jack Perry is suspended indefinitely following the backstage incident with CM Punk.
Khan thanked Punk for his contributions to AEW as a wrestler, and would not comment when asked if there would be a non-compete period following Punk’s termination, noting that he was not a lawyer who would interpret the language of a separation agreement.
When asked about running WrestleDream on a Sunday against the NFL, Khan said that he would like to avoid running against the NFL if at all possible and called it the most powerful media entity in the world. He said that he felt strongly that WrestleDream this year needed to take place on October 1 to honor the first anniversary of Antonio Inoki’s passing.
Khan said that All Out will likely be held at the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois next year due to an event held at the United Center [I believe he was referring to the Democratic National Convention, but that is taking place a week prior to what would be All Out weekend].
CJ Perry, formerly known as Lana in WWE, made her AEW debut at Sunday’s All Out pay-per-view.
Perry’s debut came in a post-match angle following her husband Miro’s match against Powerhouse Hobbs. After Miro defeated Hobbs, the two shook hands, then Hobbs used a blindside attack on Miro.
Perry then entered with “Hot & Flexible” on the video wall behind her and made her way to the ring. Perry hit Hobbs with a chair, which Hobbs did not sell. Hobbs confronted Perry, then Miro hit Hobbs with the chair and Hobbs left the ring.
Perry was never referred to by name on the pay-per-view broadcast by the commentators.
Miro and Perry stared at one another, then Miro walked off muttering “you’re not real”, leaving Perry standing in the ring.
Lexy Nair conducted a follow-up interview with Perry for AEW’s social media channels where she asked about the interaction with Miro.
Our own, @lexynair, catches up with @TheCJPerry after the strange interaction between Perry & her husband, @ToBeMiro after his match at #AEWAllOut. What's next for Miro & Perry?
Perry was with WWE from 2013 to 2021 under the Lana name, primarily as a manager for Miro (then Rusev) in NXT and on the WWE main roster.
Following Rusev’s WWE release in April 2020, Lana was often a challenger in the company’s women’s tag team division with various partners until her June 2021 release from the company.
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Sunday Update
Bryan and I were up last night covering the C.M.Punk firing, Payback and Collision and tonight we’ll be covering All Out. If you have any questions on the Punk situation you can send them to [email protected] as we’ll answer questions on that subject.
Obviously tonight’s show will be more interesting because of crowd reactions than anything else. Before Collision went on the air, Tony Khan spoke to the crowd in Chicago and it was very hostile as you can see. I will give him a lot of credit for this because regardless of arguments about how the situation was handled for the past 18 months, he easily could have just let it ride this weekend since everyone knew Punk was suspended and waited until after the PPV show to announce the firing, and just did the short taped prepared statement for television. But this was his speech and the reaction to it from the live audience:
This is tonight’s card which will go from 7 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. Eastern:
Athena & Mercedes Martinez & Diamante vs. Willow Nightingale & Hikaru Shida & Skye Blue
Over the Budget Battle Royal, the winner lists his favorite charity and AEW will make a $50,000 donation to that charity
Acclaimed & Billy Gunn defend the trios titles against Jeff Jarrett & Satnam Singh & Jay Lethal with Dennis Rodman in the Acclaimed corner and Sonjay Dutt in the Jarrett corner.
Samoa Joe vs. Shane Taylor for ROH TV title
Eddie Kingston & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta
Kris Statlander vs. Ruby Soho for the TBS title
FTR & Young Bucks vs. Jay White & Juice Robinson & Gunn Brothers
Miro vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
Adam Cole & MJF vs. John Silver & Alex Reynolds for the ROH tag titles
Luchasaurus vs Darby Allin for the TNT title
Kenny Omega vs. Konosuke Takeshita
Bryan Danielson vs. Ricky Stars in a strap match
Orange Cassidy vs. Jon Moxley for the International title
I expect a lot of good action matches but I’m dumbfounded about some of the matches like the ROH tag title match (which may be very entertaining but I can’t understand why the hottest act in the company is wrestling the Dark Order on a major PPV show), and no Adam Page or Chris Jericho. The PPV numbers will be very interesting on this. But nobody is expecting a big number coming a week after All In, which should end up as one of the biggest PPV shows in company history. About 9,500 tickets were out for the show, so it won’t be close to sold out but it’s still a healthy crowd and Tony Khan last week said he was thinking it would top $1 million which is always a major success.
We’re looking for your thoughts on both WWE Payback from last night and All Out from today, you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
We’re also looking for reports on tonight’s MLW show in Philadelphia to [email protected]
Alex Hammerstone is off today’s MLW show for family related reasons. MLW is planning its PPV version of the show on FITE+ from 6-8 p.m. so it will end before the start of the All Out PPV portion of the show.
The PPV version is:
Alex Kane vs. Willie Mack for the MLW title
Jacob Fatu vs. Rickey Shane Page in a weapons of mass destruction match for the National Openweight title
Maki Ioth vs, B3CCA
Kushida vs Tony Deppen
Matt Cardona vs. Mance Warner in a kiss my foot match
Akira vs. Jimmy Lloyd in a street fight
Ichiban vs. Tracy Williams
Go Shiozaki won the N-1 tournament from Pro Wrestling NOAH beating Kenoh in the finals today in Osaka. Their next major show is 9/17 with Will Ospreay vs. Naomichi Marufuji.
Grayson Waller complained that Jey Uso attacked him unprovoked on his own show on Twitter and then showed him holding a Pepsi can to his head like an ice pack, seemingly in reference to C.M. Punk.
Even with all the news this week, the only thing that cracked the Google searches this past week was Payback from yesterday which was No. 19 with 100,000 searches, which is lower than WWE PPV shows usually do. Punk did not crack the top 20. Yesterday’s UFC show had nothing that cracked the top 20. All In, believe it or not, didn’t crack the listings last Sunday either which basically tells you that the interest in the show was big enough among wrestling fans to do a big U.S. PPV number, but it did not break through outside of the wrestling fan base big enough to crack the top 230.
Wrestlecon has announced its activities for WrestleMania in Philadelphia will be at the Sheraton Downtown Hotel in Philadelphia.
Kevin Von Erich did a talk show Friday night in Dallas. Dan Cerquitella told us that he really enjoyed it and the crowd was into it. He said the drawback was the host didn’t know wrestling and that Kevin came off so likeable. But he said Kevin shined through.
People were raving to us about the Eddie Kingston and Toshiaki Kawada panel at Starrcast today saying Kawada was just awesome in answering questions. Kawada said that after the death of Mitsuharu Misawa, he just lost his passion for wrestling. He indicated he didn’t like Kenta Kobashi, saying he had a big head. He also said he didn’t like Kensuke Sasaki. He said he didn’t go to Pro Wrestling NOAH because he couldn’t leave the Baba family after all they had done for him.
Progress noted that Yoshiki Inamura of NOAH will debut for the promotion on 9/9 in Birmingham, England. Inamura will be facing Ricky Knight Jr. for the Atlas championship.
RevPro results from earlier today in London: Sha Samuels b Connor Mills to win the British cruiserweight title, JJ Gale b Robbie X, Bredan White & Danny Jones b Jude London & Paris De Silva, Luke Jacobs b Wild Boar, Ricky Knight Jr. & Zak Zodiac b Sunshine Machine, Alex Windor b Maya Matthew with the sharpshooter, Michael Oku b Cameron Khai in a non-title match, Gabe Kidd b Leon Slater (thanks to Shannon Walsh)
Stardom had a PPV show earlier today in Hiroshima, Japan: Ami Sohrei b Lady C, Maika & Megan Bayne b Mina Shirakawa & Mariah May, Utami Hayashishita b Momo Watanabe, Tam Nakano b Starlight Kid, Syuri b Mayu Iwatani, Saki Kashima b Momo Kohgo to keep the High Speed title, Natsupoi & Saori Anou b Suzu Suzuki & Mei Seira to retain the Goddesses of Stardom tag title, Mirai b Konami to retain the Wonder of Stardom title, Giulia b Risa Sera to retain the New Japan Strong women’s title. There will be a UWF rules match with Syuri vs. Mina Shirakawa soon. (thanks to Shannon Walsh)
It’s been almost a week since the Jack Perry/CM Punk altercation backstage at All In, but the repercussions are still being felt.
On Wrestling Observer Radio this Friday, Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales discussed the altercation, with Gonzalez mentioning that numerous versions of the story have emerged in what is the latest in a string of incidents that has involved Punk.
“It’s insane. It really is,” Meltzer said. “Every week, there’s something….I don’t know what [AEW] are going or do, or if they will do anything.”
As a result of their altercation, both Perry and Punk have been suspended pending an investigation. This couldn’t have come at a worse time booking-wise, as Chicago native Punk was scheduled to wrestle at All Out at the United Center on Sunday. It still remains to be seen if Punk will appear at the show.
“The deal is that when Saturday night’s Collision is over, we’re gonna know,” Meltzer said.
Ricky Starks is scheduled for that, where he is set to challenge Ricky Steamboat to a strap match at All Out. Originally, Punk was set to wrestle Starks. However, if Punk is unable to appear another person will take his place. One of the names mentioned as a replacement is Hangman Page, someone that Punk has had issues with in the recent past.
“It shouldn’t piss off Punk at all,” Meltzer said on the idea of Page replacing Punk. “But it could.”
Steamboat served as the special outside enforcer for a Starks vs. CM Punk match on the August 5 Collision episode, a match won by Punk. After the bout, Starks attacked Steamboat, whipping him with Steamboat’s own belt. As a result, Starks was issued a storyline suspension of 30 days, later reduced to 28 days.
Steamboat, 70, wrestled what was billed as his retirement match last November at a Big Time Wrestling event, teaming with FTR against Jay Lethal, Nick Aldis, and Brock Anderson. That match was Steamboat’s first since 2010.
Saturday’s Collision will be held in Chicago at the United Center, the same venue as the next night’s All Out.
The updated lineup for Saturday’s Collision, the go-home show for Sunday’s All Out pay-per-view:
Ricky Starks to challenge Ricky Steamboat to a strap match at All Out
Dax Harwood vs. Jay White
World Trios Championship: Max Caster, Anthony Bowens & Billy Gunn defend against Daniel Garcia, Matt Menard & Angelo Parker
Saraya, Toni Storm & Ruby Soho vs. Britt Baker, Hikaru Shida & Kris Statlander
Orange Cassidy will officially defend the AEW International title at All Out.
Cassidy successfully defended the title against Penta El 0 M on Wednesday’s Rampage. As a result, Cassidy will now move to All Out this Sunday in Chicago, where he will face Jon Moxley.
After Cassidy won on Wednesday, he cut a promo in the ring saying he doesn’t talk much but he said he was hurt, and with each title defense the backpack was getting a little heavier. But he told Moxley that he was going to need more than a fork to beat him. Moxley came to the ring and the two had a staredown to close the show.
The Blackpool Combat Club have been targeting Best Friends in recent weeks. At Sunday’s All In in Wembley Stadium, Cassidy teamed with Trent Beretta, Chuck Taylor, Eddie Kingston, and Penta El 0 M to defeat The Blackpool Combat Club, Santana, and Ortiz in a Stadium Stampede match. During the All In media scrum, it was announced that Moxley would face the winner of the International title match on Dynamite at All Out.
Here is the updated card for All Out in Chicago on Sunday:
AEW International title: Orange Cassidy defends against Jon Moxley
TBS Championship: Kris Statlander defends against Ruby Soho
TNT Championship: Luchasaurus vs. Darby Allin
ROH Tag Team titles: Adam Cole & MJF defend against winners of a battle royal on Rampage
ROH Television title: Samoa Joe defends against Shane Taylor
Eddie Kingston & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta
Kenny Omega vs. Konosuke Takeshita is official for AEW All Out.
Stemming from an angle at the post-All In media scrum on Sunday, AEW’s Tony Khan officially announced the match for the Sunday, September 3 All Out pay-per-view in Chicago.
Following a trios match at All In where Takeshita, Jay White, and Juice Robinson defeated Omega, Kota Ibushi, and Hangman Page, Takeshita and Don Callis appeared at the media scrum. Callis told Khan that he and Takeshita were “tired of waiting” for the one-on-one match between Omega and Takeshita, and Khan officially announced the match for All Out.
Takeshita scored the win for his team at All In by pinning Omega.
Omega and Takeshita squared off twice in DDT over a decade ago, with Omega coming out on top in both contests.
The updated card for All Out:
AEW All Out, Sunday, September 3, 8 p.m. Eastern time on pay-per-view —
AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy or Penta El Zero Miedo defend against Jon Moxley
TNT Champion Luchasaurus defends against Darby Allin
Miro vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
TBS Champion Kris Statlander defends against Ruby Soho
Kris Statlander will be defending the TBS Championship next Sunday at All Out.
On Saturday’s Collision, Ruby Soho made it clear she wanted the next championship match against Kris Statlander. In a promo that aired later in the show, Statlander accepted Soho’s challenge, saying she was tired of the Outcasts and if they wanted to call her out, she’ll take them out.
This past Wednesday’s Dynamite saw Soho defeat Sky Blue. Prior to the match, an inset promo aired with Soho calling out Statlander. Soho’s partners Saraya and Toni Storm will compete at All In this Sunday, facing off in a four-way match with AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida and Britt Baker also involved. On Friday’s Rampage, Soho got involved in a tag match featuring all four of the participants, leading to Statlander coming out and carrying Soho away.
Here is the updated lineup for next Sunday’s All Out, which takes place at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois:
TNT Championship: Luchasaurus defends against Darby Allin
TBS Championship: Kris Statlander defends against Ruby Soho
The AEW World Championship match for All In is set.
Adam Cole will challenge MJF for the title at Wembley Stadium on August 27. The match was confirmed on Wednesday’s Dynamite after MJF decided to give Cole a championship match, offering a contract. Cole signed the contract, hugging MJF as the segment ended and the two celebrated.
AEW also confirmed that All In will air live on pay-per-view and Bleacher Report starting at 1 pm ET, with the Zero Hour pre-show starting at noon ET.
MJF came out on Dynamite Wednesday talking about how he has battled both ADD and Rejection Sensitive Disorder, and how as a result of that often rejected and stabbed people in the back before they could do it to him. He said he used to do that because he was scared, but is no longer scared and thanked the fans for showing they cared. He then asked Adam Cole to come out. Cole came to the ring and thanked MJF for sharing his story, saying he was not alone as for years he was a jerk as well because he was scared. MJF then said he would give Cole a title match at All In as he promised earlier, and offered him the contract.
Here is the current lineup for All In in London:
AEW World Championship: MJF defends against Adam Cole
AEW has announced their schedule for All Out weekend.
On Sunday’s Forbidden Door event, AEW revealed that Dynamite and Rampage will be held on Wednesday, August 30 at the NOW Arena. On Saturday, a live edition of Collision will take place at the United Center. All Out will follow the next day, also taking place at the United Center.
This will be the first time that All Out won’t be held at the NOW Arena, formerly the Sears Centre. The venue was the host of All In back in 2018, the predecessor to what eventually would become All Elite Wrestling. AEW continued to hold a major pay-per-view event in September, now called All Out, every Labor Day weekend with the exception of 2020 where it was held at the Daily’s Place due to COVID-19.
A week prior to All Out, AEW will hold a second All In event at Wembley Stadium on August 27 in London, England. It will be a live televised event, though it has not been announced how viewers at home will be able to watch the event.
