Powell’s AEW Revolution Hit List: Sting and Darby Allin vs. The Young Bucks for the AEW Tag Titles, Samoa Joe vs. Swerve Strickland vs. Hangman Page for the AEW World Championship, Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita

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

AEW Revolution Hits

Sting and Darby Allin vs. “The Young Bucks” Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson in a tornado match for the AEW Tag Team Titles: An outstanding sendoff for Sting. The video that aired prior his entrance was top notch, the actual entrance with his sons coming out dressed as classic Stings was a really cool touch, and Sting walking out to Metallica’s “Seek and Destroy” was perfect. The only knock against the match was Allin’s over the top bump through a sheet of actual glass. Allin is beyond respectful of Sting and I have no doubt that he did this spot with the idea of enhancing his friend’s farewell match. In reality, that spot temporarily took the spotlight away from the man of the hour and felt completely unnecessary. If Tony Khan truly cares about his wrestlers, then he needs to step in and save some of them from themselves. With that said, Khan can also be very proud that he sent off a pro wrestling legend in grand fashion with a wonderful retirement match. The Young Bucks more than did their part to make Sting look great while creating some believable near falls along the way. I really wish the company would have saved enough time to air Sting’s full post match speech, but the actual match and the overall presentation was awesome.

Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita: A great balls to the wall style match. There wasn’t much in the way of consistent selling, so I can see why this didn’t work for some viewers. But it was truly excellent for its style and somehow managed to live up to ridiculously high expectations. Ospreay going over clean in his full-time debut was the right call and I’m happy we didn’t get any Callis Family shenanigans. Ospreay is a special talent. He is second to none when it comes to his in-ring style and he has a ton of charisma. I was really impressed when he spoke at the post show press conference about the things he needs to work on now that he’s appearing on U.S. television. Ospreay should be one of the true faces of the company and could end up being its top babyface. Takeshita is also a special talent and I hope there’s a plan to give him a meaningful bounce back win. Takeshita has spent far too much time standing in the background of Callis Family promo segments and his in-ring push has been far too inconsistent. That needs to change immediately because he’s phenomenal and could be pushed as a top Ospreay rival for years to come.

Samoa Joe vs. Swerve Strickland vs. Hangman Page for the AEW World Championship: This match had the tough assignment of following the Ospreay vs. Takeshita match and it came through nicely. Joe retaining felt like the obvious call because there was no good reason for this being a Triple Threat if they were going to crown a new champion. The only thing that didn’t work was the story that Excalibur tried to tell afterward when he wondered if Page tapped out to prevent Swerve from winning the title. This would have worked so much better had Swerve been on the top rope while setting up for a double stomp only for Page to see him and then tap out before Swerve could execute the move. As it played out, Swerve wasn’t on the verge of winning when Page tapped, so the story Excalibur told didn’t mesh with what viewers saw with their own eyes. Will Swerve get a shot at Joe in a singles match at AEW Dynasty next month?

Eddie Kingston vs. Bryan Danielson for the Continental Crown Championship: Kingston going over felt like the obvious move after Danielson put him on the Dynamite go-home show. They put together a very good match and the scene with Danielson honoring the stipulation by shaking Kingston’s hand and even raising his arm afterward was really well done. I like that they carried over the Continental Crown tournament rule that no one is allowed at ringside during Continental Crown Championship matches. It helps the championship stand out as unique, but there’s still no indication as to where this title ranks compared to the other secondary championships in AEW.

Christian Cage vs. Daniel Garcia for the TNT Championship: A good opening match for those who actually got to see it. The Bleacher Report app caused all sorts of problems for its users and this isn’t the first time. It’s out of AEW’s hands, but it’s absurd that this is still an issue. Anyway, it’s a shame that the closing spot with Nick Wayne appearing to go for a cutter through the ropes was botched, but that wasn’t enough to ruin an otherwise enjoyable opener.

Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli vs. “FTR” Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler: The first half of the match was a bit on the slow side, but they really picked things up during the final ten minutes. You had to know this match was going past the 20-minute mark after these teams went to a 20-minute draw on Dynamite. I was mildly surprised to see Moxley and Castagnoli go over. I wonder if the result would have been different if Wheeler wasn’t dealing with legal issues.

Orange Cassidy vs. Roderick Strong for the AEW International Championship: The wrestlers told a good story with Strong exploiting Cassidy’s injured ribs consistently throughout the match. The match concluded with a clean and decisive finish, but the injury storyline protected Cassidy. Strong winning the belt breathes a little life into the Undisputed Kingdom, but the faction still feels like it’s on life support. It was nice to see Kyle O’Reilly return from his long layoff from a major neck surgery. O’Reilly was very emotional at ringside and for good reason.

AEW Revolution Misses

Wardlow vs. Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Lance Archer vs. Chris Jericho vs. Hook vs. Brian Cage vs. Magnus vs. Dante Martin in an eight-man scramble for a shot at the AEW World Championship: A chaotic match with a lot of sloppy moments. Martin had a rare off night in that his foot hit the ropes during multiple dives. Wardlow winning felt fairly obvious given that he was one of the three wrestlers advertised for the Meat Madness match that was scrapped in favor of this scramble match. Wardlow was also the only one from that original group who received significant promo time going into the match. Wardlow challenging Samoa Joe feels more like a big television main event than something that will sell pay-per-views, so I’m curious to see how they play this.

Toni Storm vs. Deonna Purrazzo for the AEW Women’s Championship: The sold out Greensboro Coliseum crowd was hot for nearly every match on the main card, but they were noticeably quiet during long stretches of this bout. As fun as the Storm character is, she doesn’t go for heat, which puts her babyface challengers in a tough position. Granted, they tried to make Purrazzo look good by having Storm tap out to her submission finisher, but the heat was on the referee for looking incompetent rather than being on the actual heels. On the bright side, I did get a kick out of Mariah May coming out dressed as the rocker version of Toni Storm. Was I the only one who had to do a double take to make sure that Storm wasn’t reverting to her old persona for one night?

Pre-Show: A soft Miss. The two pre-show matches were forgettable. Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander vs. Julia Hart and Skye Blue was the better of the two and yet it also felt like something that one might see on Collision or even Rampage. The Bang Bang Scissor Gang is dreadful and needs to end. If nothing else, it was encouraging that there were only two pre-show matches as opposed to the company cramming in three or even four matches.