Powell’s AEW All Out Hit List: Swerve Strickland vs. Hangman Page in a steel cage match, Bryan Danielson vs. Jack Perry for the AEW World Championship

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

AEW All Out Hits

Will Ospreay vs. Pac for the AEW International Championship: A great spot-fest style match with minimal selling and spectacular moves. The style isn’t for everyone, but it’s a staple in AEW, and these two execute it to perfection. My only knock against the match is that it suffered from a lack of suspense. There was just no reason to think that Pac was going over, so his near falls didn’t feel dramatic. The backstage scene with Ospreay and Ricochet was bizarre. Ospreay came off like a heel by talking down to Ricochet about not earning his paycheck, and then Ricochet delivered a flat response and showed zero charisma while doing so. Ricochet has never been known for his promo skills, but he’s better than he showed here.

Swerve Strickland vs. Hangman Page in an unsanctioned lights out steel cage match: This was billed as being such a violent feud that the company refused to sanction their match. Anyone who saw their previous match had to have a good idea of what they were going to get this time around, but perhaps that still didn’t prepare some viewers for just how far these two ended up going. I’m giving this match a reluctant Hit due to the insane level of effort from both wrestlers. We’ll get into the excessive violence later, but my bigger concern is how much Swerve and Page put their bodies through and what comes next if they or others feel like they need to top this match the next time AEW has an unsanctioned match. On a more trivial note, I’m normally not a fan of having weapons in cage matches, including WarGames style matches. But I appreciated the way the wrestlers and Prince Nana scrambled to get their weapons of choice inside the cage while it was being lowered as opposed to the weapons simply being there or the wrestlers coming up with some contrived way to get the weapons inside cage.

Willow Nightingale vs. Kris Statlander in a Chicago Street Fight: I felt a sense of pity for these two in that they had to follow the Ospreay vs. Pac match, which was no easy task. Willow and Statlander rose to the occasion with a really well paced brawl that never gave the live crowd a chance to come down. This was one of the only finishes of the night that caught me somewhat by surprise. Statlander going over made sense, but I figured she or Stokely Hathaway would cheat to give her the win. Rather, it was a straight forward win with Statlander forcing Willow to submit while hooking a chain in her mouth. Does it create the need for a blowoff match? If not, what’s next for both wrestlers?

Kazuchika Okada vs. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Mark Briscoe in a four-way for the AEW Continental Championship: A quality four-way match. The wrestlers did a nice job of creating drama with near falls and showed good timing with the numerous last moment breakups of the pin attempts. It seemed like Takeshita was positioned as the strongest threat going into the match so perhaps that will lead to a singles match between him and Okada. I’m all for doing more with Takeshita, but what’s the deal with all of the Don Callis Family members getting over as babyfaces when they are supposed to be heels?

MJF vs. Daniel Garcia: A soft Hit. The weak nut shot finish brought the otherwise strong match down a notch. I’m typically a defender of heel MJF cheating to win, but it’s starting to feel tired and predictable. Garcia had a good showing in defeat, and the post match angle seemed to set up MJF taking more time away. But that post match scene with MJF offering a handshake and trying to take a cheap shot at Garcia was a groaner. MJF is a cerebral character and yet it came off like he was the only person in the building who thought that Garcia might fall for the same type of trick that started this feud in the first place.

Bryan Danielson vs. TNT Champion Jack Perry for the AEW World Championship: A soft Hit for a well worked and yet highly predictable match. Granted, the first title defense for a new world champion is almost always predictable, but I just don’t buy Perry as a credible world championship contender. Although he’s fine a one of the company’s three secondary champions (good lord), he just hasn’t reached a level where I would buy into the possibility that the company wants to make him the world champion. Perhaps he’ll get there someday, but he’s not there yet. Even so, it was a well worked match and the crowd took delight in watching Danielson get the better of Perry.

“The Young Bucks” Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson vs. Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta for the AEW Tag Team Titles: A soft Hit for a solid tag match that was thrown together during go-home week. AEW had such a promising tag team division when the company started and it felt like something that could help AEW stand out because WWE was doing such a piss poor job with its own tag division. AEW has produced some top notch tag team matches, but the booking of the division continues to be a major disappointment. It’s not too late. The booking of the WWE tag team division hasn’t improved much since Paul Levesque took over. I don’t play favorites, I just want at least one of these companies to get it right with a tag team division.

AEW All Out Misses

Over the top violence: We all have our own line when violence goes too far. For instance, I enjoy a good slasher movie, which might be too much violence for another person. I have no interest in watching torture scenes in horror films, which other viewers enjoy. What AEW did on Saturday made me think of horror films and not just due to the obvious similarities. My first instinct is to question AEW’s approach from a business standpoint because the over the top violence of suffocation and the use of a hypodermic needle as a weapon is clearly a turnoff to many viewers. It seems like a foolish business decision to play to the niche group that enjoys this level of violence while running the risk of alienating the larger core audience. To be fair, horror film producers make a similar choice. They’re not trying to make the biggest blockbuster film that will bring in the most amount of money. The producers play to a specific genre of fans and can still turn a nice profit. That said, it makes me wonder whether AEW’s priorities have changed. Tony Khan got into the business with the goal of beating WWE and running the top pro wrestling company in the world. Once WWE took such a commanding lead, Khan started talking about being a challenger brand, which there’s nothing wrong with. If Khan has given up on running the top promotion in the world and he wants to play to a niche audience, it’s his money and he’s free to spend it however he chooses. But if the goal is still to be a long term challenger and to make AEW as profitable and stable as possible, then the extreme levels of violence is a foolish decision. Does Khan really want to play to a subculture of fans while alienating the masses and potential business partners, while also making his product downright unwatchable for families? Again, it’s Khan’s money and he can do whatever he wants with his product, but the idea of playing to a niche audience while alienating so many others is an extremely questionable business decision.

Mercedes Mone vs. Hikaru Shida for the TBS Championship: The only bad match on the main card. Their television match was solid, but this was a big step back. Mone struggling on the mic shouldn’t surprise anyone, but having disappointing back-to-back pay-per-view matches is out of the norm. It’s not all Mone’s fault, but she really needs a strong bounce back match.

AEW All Out Pre-Show: The AEW pre-show matches feel like they are more about getting as many people on the shows as possible than actually servicing the fans. The pre-shows are needlessly long and inevitably burn out the live crowds two or three matches before the main event. The fans always bounce back for the main events, but it’s still asking a lot of a live crowd to sit through 5.5 hours. If there’s one lesson I wish Tony Khan would learn it’s that more isn’t always better.