Powell’s AEW Revolution Hit List: MJF vs. Bryan Danielson in an Iron Man match for the AEW World Championship, Jamie Hayter vs. Saraya vs. Ruby Soho in a three-way for the AEW Women’s Title, Jon Moxley vs. Hangman Page in a Texas Death match, Samoa Joe vs. Wardlow for the TNT Title, The Elite vs. House of Black for the AEW Trios Titles

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

AEW Revolution Hits

MJF vs. Bryan Danielson in a sixty-minute Iron Man match for the AEW World Championship: Damn, was that a good time. It’s always an ambitious move to go an hour, and even more so when the match winner feels obvious. In this case, it just felt way too soon for MJF to drop the title. And yet to the credit of both wrestlers, they made the fans believe that Danielson was on the verge of winning. I’m down on promotions doing worked segments in front of the pro wrestling media during press conferences and media calls. It’s just awkward for the media members and it seems to defeat the original purpose of these sessions. But MJF was ridiculously entertaining in the post show scrum setting. He stated his case for fans who went into this match feeling that he’s more of a talker than he is a wrestler. I’m not sure why some fans have been so quick to forget his quality matches, but this one should change everything. MJF went over an hour with Danielson and more than held up his end of the match. MJF accomplished his goal of showing that he’s not just a slick talking pest heel, he really is the total package.

“The Elite” Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson vs. “House of Black” Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews: This was my favorite AEW trios match since the division’s titles were introduced. Spotlighting the power of King brought something new to the table that we haven’t seen in the other trios matches. I also enjoyed the way that they spotlighted Omega’s first-time interactions with the House of Black members. Hopefully we’re nearing the end of The Elite in the trios division now that the titles are in good hands. Omega is too valuable as a singles wrestler to be spending all of his time working trios matches, and the Young Bucks could add a needed spark to the tag team division.

Hangman Page vs. Jon Moxley in a Texas Death match: This was more of a Last Man Standing match than a Texas Death match, but it over delivered on the promise of carnage to the extent that no one seemed to mind. Page didn’t just beat Moxley, he beat Moxley in his own style of match. I assume this means Page will be next in line for a shot at the AEW World Championship. Either way, I’m curious to see where Moxley goes from here. How will his character react to losing the war to Page?

“Jungle Boy” Jack Perry vs. Christian Cage in a Final Burial match: The AEW version of a casket match (or a Buried Alive match) was a success. While the actual casket area looked a little underwhelming, I loved that the casket fell “into the ground” the moment that Perry closed the lid. Cage’s sleeveless turtleneck was hilarious. Cage and Perry worked a style that fit the bitter tone of their feud and successfully told the story of Perry developing a killer instinct. Casket matches typically suck, but they really made this version work.

Ricky Starks vs. Chris Jericho: A really good opening match with Starks getting another clean win over Jericho. Sammy Guevara’s attempted run-in felt unnecessary, particularly given the stipulation that Jericho Appreciation Society was banned from ringside. It also set up another spot that made another AEW referee looked like a moron for focusing on what was happening outside the ring for no good reason. Aside from that needless spot, this was a strong match that started the trend of perceived AEW originals beating more established opponents. With Jericho taking two losses to Starks and another to Andretti, are we moving closer to the end of the JAS? Please say yes.

Mark Briscoe, Penta El Zero Miedo, and Rey Fenix vs. Josh Woods, Ari Daivari, and Tony Nese: A fun pre-show opener. Is this more of a casual alliance or are Briscoe and the Lucha Bros being set up as challengers for the AEW Trios Titles? While RJ City doing his Billy Eichner impersonation got old in a hurry, I like the idea of having one match rather than loading up the pre-show with three or even four matches. It really helped the main card in that the fans never seemed as fatigued as they were at times during past AEW pay-per-views. I suspect they took this approach because of the Iron Man match headlining the pay-per-view, but I hope this becomes the regular formula for AEW and ROH pre-shows, albeit with a little less RJ City comedy on the pre-show. City’s act can be fun, but it works better in smaller doses.

Overall Show: This was a star making show that featured wrestlers who are perceived as AEW originals beating veteran wrestlers with WWE history in all but two of the main card matches. That seems to have flown under the radar a bit, which is actually a positive in that it means the fans accept the perceived AEW originals as being worthy winners. AEW has been in a creative funk lately and really needed this to be the strong show that it was. The key is the follow-up. AEW has built a great track record of delivering strong pay-per-view events. The issue has been the week-to-week booking leaving a lot to be desired. So now that they put over some key players in meaningful matches, hopefully those same wrestlers continue to be showcased and get strong storyline support coming out of the pay-per-view. On a side note, the lack of time between matches continues to be an issue in most cases. The video packages are so brief that the live crowd doesn’t get a chance to catch their breath before they go from one match to the next. WWE takes too much time between its PLE matches, especially now that Peacock has an ad-based tier. That said, AEW should try to find the sweet spot even if it means going with longer video packages or by adding some backstage interviews in between some of the matches.

AEW Revolution Misses

Jamie Hayter vs. Saraya vs. Ruby Soho in a three-way for the AEW Women’s Championship: The match was decent and the right person went over. But they completely lost me with the swerve silliness afterward. Soho could have worked with Saraya during the match to take the title from Hayter, but she waited until after the match to align with the heels. And even if the idea was that she didn’t decide to do this until after the match, did she really need to clear Saraya and Toni Storm from the ring just to swerve Hayter and Britt Baker? This overbooked mess made my head hurt. And why won’t the heels give up on the groan inducing spray paint gimmick?

Samoa Joe vs. Wardlow for the TNT Championship: Wardlow felt cold coming into the match and it’s tough to be excited about him winning a secondary championship that he already held. Wardlow has an obvious grudge with MJF’s character and dominated him in their only pay-per-view meeting, yet the only time Wardlow has expressed interest in going after the AEW World Championship is when he was asked about it during the post show media session. As damaging as it could be to Wardlow, I’ll be much more excited about the TNT Title if Powerhouse Hobbs wins it on Wednesday.

Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn vs. “The Acclaimed” Max Caster and Anthony Bowens vs. Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal vs. Orange Cassidy and Danhausen in a four-way for the AEW Tag Team Titles: When did the tag team division become the comedy division? The Acclaimed got over in part due to their fun entrance and the scissoring routine. But it’s as if the creative forces forgot that the fans fully invested in them when they had a great match with Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland. What happens to The Acclaimed now that they came up short in this match and then FTR returned and seem to be next in line for a title shot? It’s great that FTR are back, but Caster and Bowens are a great home grown act who feel like they are at risk of slipping down the card due to questionable booking.