Tag: AEW Revolution Review

AEW Revolution review: Mox & Cope do their match

Posted on by Bryan Rose

The most annoying thing about Sunday’s AEW Revolution was that up until the main event, this was a surefire show of the year contender.

And you know what? Even after that nonsense, I am still going to consider it a top notch show anyway because a match like Jon Moxley vs. Adam Copeland isn’t going to drag me or this show down.

To be fair, Cope and Mox had to follow a steel cage match where Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher did literally everything under the sun in one of the craziest cage matches in recorded history. Their situation was a tough one, to be sure. But even taking that into account, I can’t understand why a match like this ended the show where the last two or three matches before it would have closed things on a high note. But that didn’t happen as Mox and Cope went out there, did their match, and it wasn’t particularly good.

After weeks of Copeland hunting down most of Mox’s crew, he proceeded to have a technical wrestling battle with Moxley. And by battle, I mean Mox sat there and did holds. Cope then sat there and did holds, and vice versa. For a match that had been built on Cope taking every single member of the Death Riders down so he could get his hands on Mox, going out there and simply doing a wrestling match felt off psychologically.

Then there was the ref bump and, what do you know, Wheeler Yuta came out. On the last episode of Dynamite, it was teased that Yuta was tired of being yelled at by Mox and it was implied he wasn’t going to help him Sunday. (Never mind this was at least the second or third time they’ve teased Yuta might turn on the Death Riders and Cope looked like an utter fool for letting him go.) So wouldn’t you know it, shock of all shocks, when the time came, Yuta in fact did not turn on the Death Riders and proceeded to lay out Cope. Wow. What a shock.

As usual with the Death Riders storyline, Suddenly A Bunch Of Stuff Happened. Jay White came out and interfered but accidentally struck Cope with the briefcase. Then Christian Cage came out and cashed in his anytime, anywhere title shot that he won back in August. And after all these months of teasing his cash in, here’s how it ended: Christian hit a spear and a Killswitch but Mox came to and put Christian in his bulldog choke. Christian cutely attempted to cover Cope, but Mox pulled him off and Christian submitted, the end. The Death Riders live on.

Swerve Strickland, who won a number one contender’s match earlier in the show, took out Mox with a dive off a balcony to end the show, so that’s kinda cool but it didn’t erase the last 30 minutes.

The ending to Revolution reminded me of those WCW shows in 1997 where you would get a great undercard but a totally abysmal main event. This wasn’t as bad as some of the worst WCW main events but, boy, was it a flat ending to an otherwise excellent show.

Here’s a rundown of the rest of the card:

  • Two things can be true about the steel cage match that took place between Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher. This was a brutal, violent, amazing spectacle full of incredible spots, something that won’t be forgotten for a long time. The problem was once they hit the high point, they continued and did so many crazy nearfalls that it bordered on parody. Once Mark Davis ran in for a second time in this cage match where there can’t be any interference, I was beginning to wonder what the finish was going to be. Would it be the really cool Oscutter off the cage? The Styles Clash onto the thumbtacks? The (multiple) screwdriver stabbings? The crazy Spanish fly off the cage? No, but all of that happened for some very close nearfalls. The answer? After all of that, Fletcher was pinned with a Tiger Driver 91. There were a lot of cool things, and I want to stress that overall, I thought the cage match was great, but there was A LOT going on, probably too much by the end.
  • Like the main event, Kenny Omega and Konosuke Takeshita had to follow a really violent spectacle in the Hollywood Ending, but unlike the main event, I thought they did a good job. I wasn’t expecting this kind of match where Omega sold and sold and sold for a long time, but they did a good job building toward the end and I enjoyed the crucifix finish. I didn’t imagine Omega winning the title but it does make sense as Takeshita got the win in their previous match.
  • Toni Storm and Mariah May had their Hollywood Ending and I must say, it was one hell of a brawl and maybe the best thing on the show in terms of overall execution. This was a fast-paced, brutal spectacle full of violence. Both women bled buckets, especially Toni. There was tons of glass and using that glass to spill more blood. Lots of piledrivers and big moves on surfaces that were not a pro wrestling ring. The aftermath of the bout where “THE END” was shown on screen as Storm continued to lie next to her former friend I thought was also a nice touch. This story kind of dragged in places, especially when Storm vanished for months, but now that it’s all said and done, I thought it was a very well done story. Who would have thought All About Eve would inspire a wrestling storyline in the 2020s?
  • The Hurt Business defeating The Outrunners was nothing special. I don’t really have anything to say about it other than The Hurt Business is probably not losing for a long time. Next!
  • There wasn’t much to Kazuchika Okada defeating Brody King either. Nothing wrong with it, I thought it was a good hard-hitting match, but it’s one of those bouts that gets lost in a sea of really great matches. Okada won, just biding time until they do the Omega match in July.
  • Swerve Strickland gained revenge over Ricochet in what I thought was an excellent back and forth match, probably the best bell-to-bell wrestling match on the show. Ricochet has found his footing as a heel and it’s helped out his matches a ton. Swerve is one of the best in the world and showcased it here yet again. Swerve is next for Moxley and while this may just be me ready to move on from the Death Riders storyline, I’m all for him to win the title again next month.
  • Momo Watanabe failed to win the TBS title from Mercedes Mone. These two had a very good, hard-hitting match. And when I mean hard-hitting, I mean Watanabe kicked Mone repeatedly. Hard. It didn’t seem fun, but Mone picked up the win after a hard battle. I’m kinda at the point where I’m wondering what the endgame is for Mone’s run with the TBS title, but she’s been consistently good so there’s no rush either, I guess.
  • Hangman Page defeated MJF in what I thought was an excellent opener, probably right there with Ricochet and Swerve. MJF’s petulant behavior, jealous over Page’s popularity, played out in full force here, particularly near the end when he started throwing a fit. Also, that Angel’s Wings spot towards the end looked like it HURT. This ended up being a very well-worked match, and with Page’s victory, he should get a World title match sooner than later.

Fight Game: AEW Revolution recap show

Posted on by Garrett Gonzales

John LaRocca and I are back with a special show recapping AEW Revolution with Jeremy Finestone from Speaking of Strong Style joining us.

We kicked off the show by giving our report card grades for the event before going through all of the matches, as well as some of the comments during the post-show presser.

We also livestreamed it on YouTube, which you can watch below.

Click Here to Listen (sub needed)

AEW Revolution review: Thank you, Sting

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Sting ended his career at Sunday’s AEW Revolution on his own terms, capping off what will probably be one of the top shows of the year.

Over 16,000 fans packed North Carolina’s Greensboro Coliseum to watch AEW Tag Team Champions Sting & Darby Allin team together one last time to defeat The Young Bucks in a fantastic, heated, bloody and brutal match that gave us the happy ending that everyone wanted: Sting winning his last match with the Scorpion Death Lock.

It wasn’t the best match on the show, but it was the perfect one to end Sting’s career.

Allin nearly killed himself (and I mean that literally) by taking a huge bump off a ladder through a real glass pane on the outside of the ring. I cannot stress enough how crazy of a bump that was on a show full of crazy bumps. But this was Sting’s time to shine, kicking out of all the Bucks’ finishers as the crowd ate it up. After spending most of the match recovering from his insane stunt, Allin helped Sting pick up the win.

Sting could have spent the last three years of his career doing nothing and he still would have got a big response because he was a star in one of the most successful eras of pro wrestling ever in North America. But he did the complete opposite: working his butt off in every match, giving us amazing moments that I don’t think anyone will forget anytime soon, including on Sunday. 

For that, thank you, Sting.

Here are thoughts on the rest of the card, which is very easily a show of the year contender:

  • The AEW World Championship match was an excellent three-way bout. It was pretty hard to have to follow a match like Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita, but they held their own with Samoa Joe retaining by choking out Hangman Page. I think one of the stories for 2024 has to be Swerve Strickland getting the win and the title. It doesn’t have to be now, but I think with his recent face turn, he should be at the top. His time seems to be coming.
  • Ospreay made his AEW debut with an incredible match against Takeshita, as expected. Getting match of the night honors on a show like this is extremely hard, but these two got the job done. They put on a clinic and did all of their crazy moves as one would expect in a big time match like this. The sheer drop brain buster into the turnbuckle was sick and one that made Ospreay’s back looked so trashed afterward (although Allin outdid him later). Ospreay was also super over with this crowd — so much so that it’s plainly obvious he should be one of the top babyfaces on this roster.
  • There’s not much to say about the Women’s title match which was two people wrestling and doing okay stuff in front of a crowd that absolutely did not care. Despite her work elsewhere, Deonna Purrazzo just hasn’t connected with the AEW audience and while Toni Storm’s act does connect, for whatever reason, it almost never results in a good match. People want to cheer her, but she’s a heel doing heel things. All of this, of course, is a backdrop to Mercedes Mone’s eventual debut at Big Business on March 13th, so we’ll see if the division picks up from there.
  • Orange Cassidy and Roderick Strong told a very good story. There are some who absolutely loathe the character, but these people never want to accept how good of a worker Cassidy is. His selling here was so great and Strong was excellent as being the heel in control and working on the back, naturally as he’s the messiah of the backbreaker. Kyle O’Reilly made his return after Strong won the International title, but didn’t immediately join with his friends, so there’s some drama here for the near future.
  • Boy, was FTR vs. Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli fun to watch. I don’t know how long they went but every minute felt like a tribute to tag team wrestling with tons of cool callbacks to teams of the past and some hot near falls. None of these four wrestlers ever have a bad pay-per-view match and this more than delivered. Both teams should absolutely be in the upcoming Tag Team title tournament and probably in the finals.
  • Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston and Bryan Danielson had an excellent match. This would probably rank as the second or third best match on this show, but easily could have been the top match on any of the big shows last year. A battle of attrition that just kept going, this was a tribute to Japanese pro wrestling in North Carolina. I think at this point, Danielson needed the win more as he’s been doing plenty of jobs lately, but I can’t complain at all. It was excellent.
  • The opener for the pay-per-view saw Christian Cage retain the TNT Championship against Daniel Garcia. This was a great opener and the last few minutes were fantastic with some great near falls. Of course, this was a buffer match for the eventual Adam Copeland return, which I am guessing will be at AEW’s next pay-per-view, Dynasty, in April.
  • Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale defeated Julia Hart and Skye Blue. These four have been feuding with each other for what feels like forever and all of them just seem to be treading water. What is the Stokely Hathaway stuff leading to? Is Willow going heel? Is Statlander turning on someone? The story is moving so slow, I just want it to go somewhere. They tried here and this wasn’t a bad match, but a lot of stuff looked sloppy.
  • The opener, pitting the Bang Bang Scissor Gang against Jeff Jarrett’s crew and Willie Mack, was good. This was nothing special, but fine work. I feel like everyone in the Bang Bang Scissor Gang feels less over being in this group for some reason. There really hasn’t been much advancement in the story and Max Caster is now doing a gimmick where he can’t rap anymore. I don’t like that.

And that will do it for Revolution as AEW’s next big show will be April’s Dynasty PPV in St. Louis. After ending 2023 on a sour note, I hope we see more shows like Revolution from the company. WWE is hot right now, but they aren’t putting on these kinds of shows which needs to be AEW’s strong suit going forward.