The first World Champion in AEW history will be crowned tonight.

All Out is taking place at the Sears Centre Arena in the Chicago area and will feature Chris Jericho and Hangman Page facing off to determine the inaugural AEW World Champion. Jericho advanced to the match by defeating Kenny Omega at Double or Nothing, while Page got his spot by winning a Casino Battle Royale.

With Jon Moxley unable to wrestle at All Out due to injury, Omega will now face PAC tonight. The Lucha Bros and The Young Bucks will clash in a ladder match for the AAA Tag Team titles. Cody is facing off with Shawn Spears, who will have Tully Blanchard in his corner. In storyline, Blanchard made a stipulation where Cody will only be allowed to have one person at ringside with him.

Tonight’s main card will also feature Hikaru Shida vs. Riho, Darby Allin vs. Joey Janela vs. Jimmy Havoc, Best Friends vs. The Dark Order (with the winning team getting a first-round bye in AEW’s Tag Team title tournament), and a six-man tag match between Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy & Marko Stunt and SCU.

The pre-show will begin at 7 p.m. Eastern time. It includes the women’s Casino Battle Royale and Private Party vs. Angelico & Jack Evans. The main card will start at 8 p.m. Eastern.

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Goldenboy and Excalibur are on commentary to kick off the Buy-In.

Casino Battle Royale winner: Nyla Rose

Leva Bates, Faby Apache, Priscilla Kelly, Solandra Royale and Nyla Rose are in first. Rose took everyone out. Bates was almost eliminated but she didn’t touch the floor; she landed on two books. She went back in the ring and Rose hit her with a book and eliminated her. Diamonds are next: Penelope Ford, Shazza McKenzie, Sadie Gibbs, Big Swole, and Britt Baker are in next. McKenzie was eliminated quickly. Rose did a double chokeslam. Big Swole was way over and her and Rose had a quick, good exchange. Rose is dominating early on.

Next out: Tenille Dashwood, Bea Priestly, Brandi Rhodes and Awesome Kong. Baker jumped Priestly on the outside before this group made it to the ring, revenge from Fight for the Fallen, I imagine. Kong dominated as soon as her and Rhodes hit the ring. Later Rose and Rhodes had an exchange and Rhodes hit a big stunner on Rose which elicited boos. Allie, Nicole Savoy, Teal Piper, ODB and Jazz are out next. Big chants for ODB on her entrance. Savoy and Kong faced off, then Kong whipped her into the ropes but she flew through them and did a tope suicida onto some of the wrestlers outside. ODB has a flask. Piper poked ODB in the eyes and put her in the sleeper. Nyla Rose eliminates Savoy. Rose and Kong now face off. Big pop for their lock up until Jazz gets in on it, then ODB. Bigger ODB chants during this four-way face-off.

Baker eliminated Kong. Jazz was also eliminated, and moments later Brandi was out too. The joker entrant is Mercedes Martinez. She has red hair and new gear now, and sounded like she got her own music. Huge response from the Chicago crowd here, a real superstar reaction. She planted Rose with a backdrop suplex upon entry.

Sadie Gibbs did a press slam to Bea Priestly but she botched the slam part. Regardless of that, she was eliminated by Priestly thirty seconds later. The final four are Baker, Martinez, Rose and Priestly. Props to Excalibur for calling a gamengiri kick during one of Baker’s spots. Martinez was eliminated quickly and the final three way among the AEW-contracted talent bgean. Rose did a step-up dance-kick thing on the aprong and kicked Baker. Baker did a Canadian Destroyer on Priestly, and a few minutes later Baker eliminated Priestly. Rose snuck in just afterwards and dumped Baker to the floor. Nyla Rose is your winner. She’ll face either Riho or Hikaru Shida for the AEW Women’s title on Oct 22 in Washington, DC.

This was a string of spots put together with the intention of getting a lot of girls over quickly without much (if any) storytelling. It worked sometimes, especially with Martinez, but for the most part this was a quick, sloppy opener that the crowd enjoyed.

Private Party (Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy) defeated Jack Evans and Angelico

Angelico and Kassidy are in first. Party people in the place to be. They did some lucha things before Quen and Jack Evans started going big move for big move, lots of handsprings and handstands, lots of showmanship that the crowd admires. The announce team did a tickets promo for their upcoming TV tapings in October. Evans did a springboard roundhouse kick. Quen did a coast-to-coast tag to get Kassidy back in on the action; the latter hit an Asai moonsault to the floor onto Angelico and then a modified springboard quebrada back into the ring on Evans for two. The crowd started chanting “Pri-vate -par-ty!” Private Party did a few innovative double-team moves, then Quen landed a shooting star press on Evans that had a lot of hangtime. Kassidy was the legal man and pinned Evans for a two-count.

The finish saw Quen hit a super-poisonrana on Evans which Quen “didn’t get all of,” as they say, then Kassidy hit a regular poisonrana, and finally Private Party hit their finisher, something where Evans was catapulted into Kassidy who hit Angelico with a cutter. The crowd loved that, but hated the heel swerve after the match which saw Evans and Aneglico offer a handshake then ambush the winners. The crowd chanted “party poopers.” This was impressive and the crowd sounded into it at the end.

–They cut to a promo/mini-movie for Wardlow. It saw him beat up a bunch of goons in a parking lot at night. Wardlow was with a young woman. When he took his shirt off in the segment the camera kept focusing in on a scar on his right shoulderblade.

–Quick promo with MJF with some comments on the Cody vs. Shawn Spears match later on.

–Jim Ross entered the announce booth to a standing ovation like he has at the past shows. All three announcers went over tonight’s card as production panned to different fans in the crowd tonight. It looked fun, everyone looked excited to be there. It was similar to what CMLL does between matches on their shows.

The Buy-In has wrapped, and All Out starts now.

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SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian) defeated Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus & Marko Stunt

SCU came down to their late-’80s Red Hot Chili Peppers-inspired theme song and a small tidal wave of cheers. They did a promo inside the ring and the crowd went “SCUUuuu.” Luchasaurus carried Jungle Boy out. These three had music that sounded like something straight out of Game of Thrones. Jungle Boy and Kazarian were in first for their respective teams. Jungle Boy is going to be a big superstar in a few years. He and Daniels looked awesome together. Luchasaurus is very popular with this crowd. Marko Stunt was in next and flossed and did a few frankensteiners. He looks so small on the TV screen. Him and Jungle Boy did dives onto SCU, then Luchasaurus did a one-legged flip dive onto everyone that people lost it for. It looked really good. Jim Ross keeps saying “Jungle Jack.”

When SCU returned the offense they were suddenly evil heels and they leaned into it. Daniels mocked Stunt and did his own version of the floss dance. They worked over Jungle Boy until “Jack” was able to make it to his corner tag in Luchasaurus. He did a lot of kickboxing kicks, even the Arisa Hoshiki Brazilian Kick. He went on a tear and did a lot of choregraphed-looking muay thai/kickboxing exchanges with all three of SCU who were just so damn good in their roles, bumping like maniacs for him. Luchasaurus has a slight Tom Magee softness to him when he does strikes, you sort of always see them coming, but everything he landed tonight looked fine and this is nitpicky but negligble. He was wildly, wildly over with the crowd at points, even garnering a standing ovation at one point. The match was over after a few more high spots, followed by SCU hitting the Best Meltzer Ever on Jungle Boy for the win. This was short but action-packed. It was a showcase for the three younger guys and SCU was genius in helping them tonight. Really good stuff.

Pac defeated Kenny Omega via TKO (Brutalizer submission)

Of any two in AEW who could come together for a match with no story beforehand, nothing at all, really, it’d be these two men. For many this is a modern dream match. The two are talking trash andn keep exchanging short, explosive sequences. Pac blocked the Kotaro Crusher leg lariat. They’re shifting gears now and teasing dives. Omega went for a pescado but Pac kicked him in the gut on his way down. The match shifted in tone and is getting much more physical.

After a few minutes of ringside punishment, Pac rolled Omega back into the ring and blasted him with a missile dropkick, and later locked in a rear chinlock with a sprawl, his murder-stare locked onto fans in the front rows. Omega bounced back and lariat’d Pac to the floor, then landed a beautiful swandive tope con giro to the floor, flush onto Pac. The crowd reacts to anything Kenny does.

Pac landed an Orihara moonsault onto Omega and crash-landed shin-first into the barricades. It looked brutal. Pac hit a 450 splash on Omega in the ring after this, but only for two. Omega launched a return attack, landing a number of big moves including a Sky High spinebuster. At one point Omega lifted Pac onto his shoulders, then caught him mid-air and threw a German suplex for a close two-count. There was a nice loud peak from the crowd here. They started booing after Pac returned with a back bodydrop.

The finish saw Pac lock Omega in the Brutalizer crucifix submission until Omega passed out. The ref called the match. Pac wins and gets a shot at whomever wins the AEW Heavyweight Championship later tonight, either Adam Page or Chris Jericho. This was excellent.

Jimmy Havoc defeated Joey Janela and Darby Allin in a Cracker Barrel Clash three-way match

The announce team put over Cracker Barrel like crazy before the match, almost to comedic levels. Jimmy Havoc busted out a staple gun early on. Allin taped Havoc to a chair with gaffer tape. Allin poured thumbtacks into Havoc’s mouth and then taped his mouth shut. To the best of my knowledge thumbtacks are not on the Cracker Barrel menu. Not yet. Allin did a flip onto Havoc who was still all taped up. Janela landed adisgusting Emerald Frosion onto the apron on Allin. Havoc started doing the paper cut spots and people were losing their minds. This feels like a Quentin Tarantino movie. Janela did a running flipping piledriver from inside the ring through a table to the floor and the crowd exploded. Janela did a dive onto nothing, just the floor, I guess trying to match what PCO did from last week. People chanted “Cracker Barrel” and “we want barrels.” Havoc smashed Janela in the face with a tin of cornbread.

Allin recovered after the table spot and brought a thumb-tacks-covered skateboard and did an ollie onto Janela’s back, the same spot Allin and Brody King did in PWG somewhat recently. This match was a complete car wreck that got over like gangbusters. The ringside area was trashed, cornbread everywhere, and later splinters of wood after Allin dove off the top turnbuckle onto a pull-away staircase, back-first. It was a huge bump, the barrel exploded, the crowd did, too, sort of, but it was so grotesque that JR mentioned there were also “murmurs” throughout the arena afterwards. Allin’s back looked red and purple immediately after the bump. Havoc superplexed Janela off the ropes but only Joey’s leg caught the barrel. The finish saw Havoc landed a Rainmaker through said barrel for the win. This was always violent and sometimes sadistic.

The Dark Order (Uno and Stu Grayson) defeated Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent), will receive bye in first round of AEW Tag Team title tournament

The winner of this match gets a bye in the upcoming AEW tag team tournament. Dark Order had masked minion boys with them. The Best Friends hugged and did the parody of Kazuchika Okada’s Rainmaker pose. People started chanting “spooky perverts” chant and Excalibur confirmed this on commentary. Uno dominated Trent for a while which really takes on a different tone when you actually know what Uno’s ring gear looks like. Trent made a hot or rather tepid tag to Taylor who went to land a tope con giro onto the Dark Order.  Stu Grayson landed a crazy-looking tornillo onto his own guys, so I didn’t completely understand that but hey it looked cool and I guess that’s what they want to count here. The Dark Order did some cool double team moves but Best Friends kept kicking out. The crowd was loud in support of the buddies. Trent almost pinned Grayson until Uno pulled him to the floor and the minions beat him behind the ref’s back. The Dark Order hit the Fatality on Taylor next to win the match. This was the weakest match of the card so far.

The lights went out and Orange Cassidy out. He got a huge reaction and did a tope suicida with his hands in his pockets. JR called him “Mr. Laisez Faire.” Taylor and Trent hugged with Orange Cassidy “squeezed” in the middle.

Riho defeated Hikaru Shida, will face Nyla Rose for AEW Women’s championship in Washington, DC

They flew at each other from out of the gate. Shida seemed to take on the heel role here. The fast work is great but I’m not sure if every move registers on television as much as it does live. Shida slowed the pace midway through and bent Riho in half with a deep Boston crab. Riho rallied back and later hit a stiff diving double stomp from the top to the apron onto a prone Shida. Back in the ring they started laying in hard elbows. Riho went for a 619 but Shida blocked it and transitioned into a Stretch Muffler submission until Riho rolled her into a high stack pin for two. Shida used an impressive deadlift vertical suplex on Riho that got a nice reaction. Riho wouldn’t stay down for anything though it felt like she was getting hit with everything. She finally returned with a snap Northern Lights suplex and later another diving double stomp to a draped Shida, sort of like what Dragon Lee or Alberto Del Rio would do. She only got a two-count. Shida returned with a powerslam into a backbreaker that looked to break Riho in two. They began trading big moves until Riho swung herself into a headscissors and pin on Shida. Riho wins and she’ll get a shot at Nyla Rose in Washington, DC at AEW’s first TV broadcast.

Cody (w/ Brandi Rhodes, Diamond Dallas Page, MJF & Pharoh) defeated Shawn Spears (w/ Tully Blanchard)

Spears sat in a folding chair at the top of his entrance, an allusion to him hitting Cody with the chair. Blanchard followed him out after. Spears had white contacts in and looked like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. Cody and his crew were dressed in Star Trek-inspired tunics. Cody dove through the corner at Spears and Blanchard before the match. The fight spilled deep into the crowd before the bell had even rung, Hart vs. Austin Wrestlemania 13 style. Production got an amazing shot of Cody posing in the crowd while they chanted for him. Blanchard snuck over to Cody while MJF distracted Earl Hebner and landed a low blow, leading to an eruption of boos. Cody hit an ugly top rope frankensteiner on Spears. MJF kept trying to involve himself and yelled at Hebner to do his job properly. Hebner actually freaked out on Spears when he went to hit Cody with his own weight belt. He screamed at him and threatened to DQ him. Spears conceded but Blanchard slipped him his own belt his he whipped Cody with anyway. I guess that’s Hebner’s gimmick in AEW, tough as nails and dumb as bricks. Cody fired up and started no-selling the belt shots and the crowd really went into a frenzy. He landed a jump kick to Spears’ face.

At 20 minutes into the match both looked exhausted and rolled to the floor. Spears gave Cody a running Death Valley Driver onto the floor. Spears made it to the ring and Hebner started counting Cody out. Cody’s back looked bad, really tore up from one of the spots outside earlier. Cody was able to make it to the ring and somehow sneak a CrossRhodes in but Blanchard broke up the count. Blanchard and MJF then got into it in the ring and started choking each other until Spears took MJF out. Blanchard tarted stomping MJF on the floor until ‘Double A’ Arn Anderson stomped his way to the ring. The roof disappeared after this crowd exploded. Anderson had a look on his face that said “I don’t care for this foolishness, Tully Blanchard.” He got into the ring and squared up. Spinebuster. This place must have shook. Blanchard had no idea what to think and sold it like his plan was royally screwed after this.

Cody hit a “bowling-shoe ugly” draping DDT and then teased a chairshot. Spears begged off. Cody landed a Disaster Kick while Spears had the chair in his hands. He then planted Spears with a CrossRhodes to win the match. MJF celebrated with Cody in the ring though he teased turning on Cody as he’s done in Being the Elite recently. This was tremendous, and probably one of the best to happen in the States this year. The Arn Anderson angle had about as much heat as the KENTA/Shibata angle from a few weeks ago.

Escalera de la Muerte ladder match for the AAA Tag Team Championship:Lucha Brothers (Fenix and Pentagon) defeated The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson)

I haven’t mentioned it but the production value tonight has been slick and most everything was high quality. They’re also begun displaying AEW records on the screen when some wrestlers come out.

The Bucks came out in their own entrance masks and money rained down from the sky. They exchanged catchphrases before things really got started. Excalibur mentioned this was the sixth meeting between the two teams this year. Penta did a cross body from a ladder to the floor. Fenix launched himself from the middle of the ropes over a ladder and onto the Young Bucks for the first big dive of this match.

Fenix and Nick Jackson did a spot where they sprung from the ropes to the ladders at the same time. Penta and Matt Jackson did cutters to their teammates from the adjacent ladders, then both speared Nick and Fenix through two tables. Penta screamed “Escucha, puto!” at Nick which loosely translates to “please listen to me, sir” and went for a chop but Nick countered and somehow that led to a corckscrew dive to the floor. Fenix did a springboard frankensteiner from the top rope onto a ladder. The crowd chanted “AEW.” Pentagon showed off some mild flying, nothing too flashy but cool enough to elicit even more chants from the crowd. Nick did a swandive tope con giro to the floor onto Penta. When Matt Jackson tried tipping Fenix off the top of the ladder he adjusted in mid-air and somehow did an amazing Oirhara moonsault to the floor onto Nick and Penta. Moments later in the ring, Penta used a slingblade from atop two ladders. The crowd got onto their feet and started chanting for the company again. Nick Jackson dove under the ladder but over the tope rope and to the floor. Isn’t this guy injured??

Pentagon did a Canadian Destroyer to Matt Jackson from the top of the ladder through a table. It looked insane. Nick and Fenix then did dueling splashes from the ladder to the floor through tables on Matt and Penta. The best part about that spot was the shot they got on camera, which will most likely be used as AEW B-roll footage for a while.

There was a spot towards the end where Nick didn’t know whether to help Matt with a Meltzer Driver on Fenix or grab the titles. Penta kicked Matt and then pushed Nick off the ladder. Nick’s ankles caught the rope and he went through one of the tables. It was an explosion. Penta and Matt were on top of the ladders when Nick grabbed Penta’s mask off and pushed him off the ladder. Feniz jumped and Matt kicked him midair. The Lucha Bros then did Zero Fear, the cradle piledriver with a diving double stomp, to Matt onto a ladder that was on the apron and barricade. Really good finish to this.

After the match two masked men in came out and took out the Young Bucks. One of them wore a Bill Clinton mask. AEW will be in DC soon. The two unmasked and it turned out to be LAX from Impact.

Chris Jericho defeated Adam Page to become the first AEW World Champion

Things started slow, deliberately. They exchanged sharp chops and Page lit up Jericho’s chest early on. Jericho returned with a dropkick from the second rope, but Page did a tope suicida through the floor. JR mentioned he’d seen a lot of tope suicidas tonight, which is fine for his podcast but not great when you’re trying to get talent over. Page went for the running shooting star press off the apron but Jericho timed a Codebreaker masterfully and crushed Page with it as he hit the floor.

Jericho beat on Page in front of his family who were in the front row. He took the bell and rang it and walked around the ring like he’d won the match, then tossed the bell over his shoulder. There sounded to be a ton of Jericho fans in the crowd and they were really split amongst themselves over him and Page throughout this. Jericho landed a cross body that’d make Ricky Steamboat proud. Page rallied back but only picked up two-counts. Jericho locked on the Walls of Jericho but Page fought out of it and used a discus punch to wobble Jericho out of the ring to the floor. Jericho started bleeding from above the left eye and they sold it like Page did it with the punch.

Page laid in a few potato punches while Jericho was on the tope rope bleeding all over the place. He used a top-rope swinging neckbreaker, but Jericho again came back and again locked on the Walls of Jericho.

Jericho and Edwards got into it but Edwards stood her ground, Jericho backed down. Page used their tiff to knock Jericho to the floor and landed a big Orihara moonsault. He then went for the Buckshot Facelift in the ring but Jericho countered with a Codebreaker and a very close count of two. Page put Jericho out with the Deadeye, his reverse-tombstone finish, but only got a two-count. Huge pop for that. He hit the Buckshot Lariat for two. Jericho then, out of nowhere, blasted Page with the Judas Effect back elbow as Page was mid-discus punch. One, two, three. Chris Jericho is your first-ever AEW World Champion. This was a really good match, and a solid way to kickstart their main event division.

Final thoughts —

This was a solid show that went maybe an hour too long. Kenny Omega vs. Pac was the stand-out match, with Spears vs. Cody and Jericho vs. Page not too far behind. The Lucha Brothers vs. the Young Bucks was great for what it was, and while the finish was clever, it didn’t feel and better or worse than any of their other matches in the past. Riho and Hikaru Shida worked really hard but the crowd seemed somewhat burnt out from the matches early on. A few of the tag team matches were good but nothing that off-the-charts, though the crowd loved pretty much everything, even the Best Friends vs. Dark Order angle. The biggest reactions sounded to be the Arn Anderson angle during the Cody vs. Spears bout and the LAX debut. The Cracker Barrel three-way match went beyond violence from conflict and felt more about trying to showcase as much violence as possible in the moment as creatively as possible. With all that happened tonight, I wonder if some of those more sadistic spots were worth it. All in all, a solid show and a good lead-in to whatever AEW plans on doing in October on television.