By Colin McGuire, ProWrestling.net Staffer
They came. They saw. They Spanish Fly-ed off the top of a cage. They found their Hollywood Ending. They ruptured an eardrum. They brought the boom. They cashed in their Not-Money-In-The-Bank-Contract to no avail. They had one really bad main event.
AEW’s 2025 installment of Revolution is in the books. There were some tremendous matches. There was at least one not-tremendous match. As such, here are five things to say about all of it:
ABOUT THAT MAIN EVENT
Dean Ambrose vs. Christian vs. Edge feels like a WWE No Way Out fever dream built with the aid of some type of DLC for WWE 2K25, but this wasn’t WWE and there were no video games. There was no way that this match could have followed what preceded it, so let’s get that acknowledgment out of the way first. The second half of Revolution had a tremendous run of matches before it got to the show’s main event. Outside of John Cena showing up to turn babyface, there was nothing left anyone involved in the main event could do to live up to what came before it.
But something hit me for the first time last night: It’s not fun to see ex-WWE guys in AEW anymore. There’s something about seeing MJF vs. Hangman Adam Page or Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fetcher that makes things feel like AEW is actually being the alternative brand it wants us to believe it is. Mox vs. Cope vs. Christian, though? Seeing those three in the ring together took the piss out of the night for me. Like … why? Honestly. Why? All three guys have earned the respect and love of wrestling fans’ hearts through the years – and rightfully so – but in the year 2025, does this really need to close a show that comes from a company that prides itself on being hungrier, younger and more innovative than its American competition?
The Death Riders bit needs to die – I think we all agree on that by now – but take all that nonsense away and you still didn’t really have a good and/or compelling main event. Also (and I may be in the minority on this), but is anyone else starting to feel like never actually seeing the AEW World Championship in the flesh is making the title feel less important? Do any of Moxley’s matches actually feel like world title bouts anymore? Going into Sunday’s main event, it didn’t feel like two guys fighting over a top prize; instead, it was just a blood feud that never reached the temperature everyone hoped it would reach.
In short, there are reasonable, productive ways to use Jon Moxley, Adam Copeland, and even Christian Cage at this point in AEW. The 2025 Revolution main event, however, was not one of them.
ALL ABOUT THE BOOM
Adam Cole Bay-Bay! Or something like that.
Watching the pre-show, I nearly fainted at the sight of Adam Cole heading to the ring in front of a half-full crowd to face a faction that consists of HonorClub stars. It’s not that I didn’t know the match was coming; it’s just seeing it actually happen made my stomach turn for the guy. I have to think Cole can do what he wants to do and as such, teaming with his buds on pre-show matches is probably what he wants to do these days, but this was a main event guy for so long. From Black and Gold NXT to his first couple years in AEW, Adam Cole has been a major, top-card player for a very long time wherever he goes.
Not these days. Sure, you can sell me on the idea that the pre-show eight-man tag had only one purpose and that purpose was to further the story between Cole and Daniel Garcia, but the TNT Title ain’t no AEW World Championship and Daniel Garcia – despite what a lot of wrestling fans will tell you – ain’t no “Hangman” Adam Page, who Cole wrestled in the main event of 2022’s Revolution. It’s all to say that I hope Cole gets another run at the top before it gets to be too late. He’ll turn 36 years old later this year and those tires have a lot of miles on them. Let’s try to get him back up the card before he decides that hitting the road as much as he once did isn’t worth it anymore.
TONI STORM AND MARIAH MAY FOREVER
One thing that even the AEW haters have to admit is that the company has done good by its women for the entirety of its short existence. Think of Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa (all real life personal feelings they have for each other aside). Think of how Jade Cargill felt when she was on top. Think of even the mid-card feuds that resulted in some memorably bloody Rampage main events for Tay Melo, The Bunny or Penelope Ford. AEW has done a nice job showcasing the women, even if that nice job is too often overlooked.
Enter Toni Storm and Mariah May. Not only has this been the best women’s feud AEW has ever produced, but it might be the best women’s feud in American pro wrestling … ever? In the last 10 years? 20 years? Sasha Banks and Bayley might have a word to say about that. Maybe Becky and Charlotte, too. I’m sure I’m forgetting others, but in the glow of Storm and May’s Hollywood Ending from Revolution, I don’t feel entirely uncomfortable making that claim, as reactionary as it may seem. The protege. The turn. The title change. The title change back. The illusion of a rookie. The blood. The pomp. The circumstance. The red carpet brawl. The absolute commitment to the story.
Those women deserve every bit of flowers anyone could give them. Their work cemented AEW not just as a place where women can thrive as pro wrestlers, but also a place where women, men and everyone in between can thrive as creatives. Not in a million years do I think a program like this, with these characters, could have played out this way in any other company. Kudos to Tony Khan and AEW for that. Timeless, indeed.
A HURT SYNDICATE
Remember when AEW was The Company With The Tag Team Division? You had The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and Hangman Page, Lucha Bros, Top Flight, Private Party, FTR, SCU, Best Friends … the list goes on. These days? These days, your pay-per-view tag team championship match amounted to a glorified, throwaway squash. Don’t get me wrong – The Hurt Syndicate is great on every single level – but AEW’s tag team division seems oddly cold right now. And when you consider recent history in hindsight, the truth is probably that it’s been oddly cold for longer than we think.
Private Party winning the gold was a feel-good story, but they didn’t really have a reign and now they’re just … gone? The Young Bucks are supposedly on their way back, but The Hurt Syndicate is so strong … would it make sense to take the gold off them anytime soon? The only team that could logically give them a run for their money size-wise (Brian Cage and Lance Archer) are stuck in some type of 50/50 purgatory. What happens now?
My point is that the Syndicate’s easy win over The Outrunners on Sunday put a spotlight on the reality that this tag division isn’t what it used to be. In fact, it’s not even really all that interesting. How this gets fixed is anybody’s guess, but somehow, someway, this division needs a shot in the arm. It should be interesting to see who or what provides it.
FROM NEW JAPAN TO ALL ELITE?
Will Ospreay has bent over backwards (and then some) to get his pal Kyle Fletcher a spot or two up the card and it’s worked – with their cage match Sunday night cementing Fletcher’s rise, even in defeat. Ospreay and Fletcher’s move to AEW has worked well for both (though we can debate all day long about how Ospreay should be even higher on the card, or for that matter, working world title matches, but I digress), and Ospreay has been loud recently about how personally important it has been to him to have the gig at AEW.
Looking down the Revolution card, however, you’ll see a name that feels like a complete afterthought these days: Kazuchika Okada. Hey, did you know he successfully defended the AEW Continental Championship against Brody King Sunday night? Wait. Did you even remember a Continental Championship exists? The arc of people like Okada … and even Nakamura … and even Kenny Omega to some degree should be studied in 400-level college courses when it comes to being a pro wrestling star in Japan and being a pro wrestling star in America.
Omega, for his part, seems to have turned a corner with this recent run, wrestling smarter and holding court as The Guy We Love And Respect. But Nakamura and Okada in their respective companies haven’t even approached the stardom they once enjoyed in New Japan Pro Wrestling. It’s such an odd, inexplicable thing. Could it be bad booking? Could something be lost in translation? Did these guys come to America after the best days of their prime were gone?
Whatever it is, watching Okada beat Brody King in 11 minutes on Sunday night did nothing for me while Fletcher and Ospreay tore down the house about an hour later. Someone make it make sense.
Okada and Nakamura can’t cut promos in English and both were already way too banged up from the moronic modern strong style to have anything left to offer in the ring, as both were already in their mid 30s with 10-15 years of wear and tear.
So-called workrate doesn’t sell at large scale in the US and it never has.
Been saying that about Mox’s belt for weeks now. If its not important to show on TV why do we care if its defended