By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Revolution Hits
“FTR” Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler vs. “The Young Bucks” Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson for the AEW Tag Team Titles: This was the best match these teams have had together. The clean win for the heels in Bucks’ Country was a pleasant surprise. The Bucks’ chase just hadn’t reached a point where the masses were clamoring ot see them win the titles. The post-match returns of Adam Copeland and Christian Cage got over huge with the live crowd. It was interesting that the Bucks stuck around and were in the ring when Copeland and Cage placed the AEW Tag Team Title belts on the mat. This seemingly suggests that we’ll eventually get a three-way tag.
Jon Moxley vs. Konosuke Takeshita for the AEW Continental Championship with no time limit: A hell of a match with some fantastic near falls. Having so many near falls during two of the first three matches could have been damaging to the rest of the card, but it helped that pinfalls didn’t count in the main event. It was a bit much to have Moxley be the first man to kick out of Takeshita’s Raging Fire finisher, and still go on to win the match. That said, Takeshita is a special talent, and none of this will do any long-term damage. The surprise return of Will Ospreay was great. It was strange watching Moxley go from showing respect to Takeshita, to playing the heel once Ospreay came out. I really wish they would pick a direction rather than allow Moxley to go back and forth between being a babyface and a heel, but I digress. Ospreay didn’t just make a quick appearance; he showed fans that he’s back by performing a sky twister. It’s wild that he underwent double fusion surgery in September and is already back in the ring. It could be huge for AEW to have Ospreay back well before the All In event in London. If he stays healthy, I suspect this will be the year that he challenges for the AEW World Championship at Wembley Stadium.
ROH World Champion Bandido vs. Andrade El Idolo in a non-title match: Andrade has really found his groove in AEW. He’s having consistently strong matches, and his confidence appears to have soared. The two back elbows he hit Bandido with were excellent, as they looked like they came out of nowhere. The ROH Championship came off as an afterthought. Will Andrade’s win lead to him getting a shot at the ROH Championship, or will they skip that and keep him in the AEW World Championship title picture?
MJF vs. Hangman Page in a Texas Death Match for the AEW World Championship: Mixed feelings. Going 46 minutes was both ambitious and overindulgent. Tony Khan’s “more is more” approach to pay-per-views didn’t help, as I suspect the match length would have been more acceptable had it not occurred at the end of a 5.5-hour show (pre-show included). But MJF and Page also took the “more is more” approach by cramming everything they could into the match. They had a hell of a brawl, but much like the overall event, it would have been better if they trimmed some of the fat. Most of the violent spots have been done in AEW before and didn’t bother me, but the idea of sticking a syringe through a man’s cheek so that the needle was sticking out the other side was a massive turnoff. Who does AEW think this appeals to? Okay, I’m sure some death match fans got off on it, but is it worth playing to a niche audience when you risk turning off the masses? The stipulation that Page can’t challenge for the AEW World Championship ever again because he lost likely sold some fans on the match, but it will be interesting to see how they handle this long-term. AEW has a good track record of adhering to its match stipulations, but I expect them to go back on this one eventually. Hell, I hope they do. It was a mistake to have Cody Rhodes declare that he would never challenge for the AEW World Championship, and keeping Page out of the world title picture permanently would be disappointing. MJF’s character took everything that Page could throw at him and came out on top. AEW needs to drive that home so fans see MJF as a heel who can hang with anyone, rather than being a heel who must cheat to win.
Toni Storm vs. Marina Shafir with everyone banned from ringside: The match didn’t overstay its welcome and played to Shafir’s strengths. Of course, the real story was Ronda Rousey’s surprise appearance afterward. It’s a logical move for her to team up with AEW to promote her upcoming fight with Gina Carano. Rousey doesn’t seem to be on good terms with TKO, given some of her recent comments about UFC, so perhaps AEW can get her to wrestle after her May 16 fight. Rousey vs. Storm in a singles match would be big for AEW. A Rousey and Shafir vs. Storm and Mina Shirakawa match doesn’t seem quite as big, but it would still be fun.
Swerve Strickland vs. Brody King: A strong win for Swerve, yet the match was laid out in a way that allowed King to show heart in defeat. It sounds like Kenny Omega had to pull some strings to return from Japan in time to make his post-match appearance. Unfortunately, it felt a little flat because he showed up after the surprise appearances of Adam Copeland, Christian Cage, Ronda Rousey, and Will Ospreay.
Kazuchika Okada, Kyle Fletcher, and Mark Davis vs. Mistico, Kevin Knight, and Mike Bailey for the AEW Trios Titles: Holding the two matches that featured lucha stars later in the show really helped with the issue of crowd fatigue that AEW often encounters due to the length of their pay-per-views. The lucha fans in the building were loud in support of Mistico, as well as during the Andrade vs. Bandido match. I’m not sure if Mistico’s dual contract with AEW and CMLL means he will work more AEW dates than he has been, but the fans in the building were pleased. Even so, I could have done without Okada, Fletcher, and Davis losing the titles less than eleven days after winning them.
Thekla vs. Kris Statlander in a best-of-three falls match for the AEW World Championship: A soft Hit for Thekla going over. Statlander was heavily protected, so this may not have been the end of the program. Either way, they should be building up the next challenger.
Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron vs. Megan Bayne and Lena Kross for the AEW Women’s Tag Team Titles: A soft Hit. They told an easy-to-follow story by having Willow bite off more than she could chew by defending two titles in one night. Willow carried over a shoulder injury suffered during her pre-show TBS Title defense over Kross, only to have Kross pin her to win the tag team titles. Limiting this match to give minutes was a good call. The match didn’t overstay its welcome, and it provided a nice change of pace from the longer matches that preceded it.
AEW Revolution Misses
Darby Allin, Orange Cassidy, and Roderick Strong vs. “The Dogs” David Finlay, Gabe Kidd, and Clark Connors in a tornado trios match: The match was fine, but the outcome was disappointing. I was open to the possibility that the idea was to give the babyfaces the win on pay-per-view, and then run it back on Dynamite and have The Dogs win in front of the bigger audience. Rather, they are going with an Allin vs. Kidd coffin match on Wednesday. The only thing AEW needed less than adding another title belt is a new faction, but this one has potential, so it’s odd to watch them taking early losses. This was a match that could have been saved for television to cut time from the marathon show length.
21-man Blackjack Battle Royale for the AEW National Championship: I know I wasn’t the only one who had no idea what the rules were until shortly before the match started. It turned out to be a standard battle royal, only they had most wrestlers spend a lot of time on the floor so they could spotlight what was happening inside the ring. Jack Perry winning the title in this fashion was an odd call. Why not just have Perry beat Ricochet in a singles match? The pre-show had 33 people either wrestling or standing at ringside during a match. Is it really worth the travel expenses alone to have so many wrestlers on a pre-show?
(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time dating back to 1997. He hosts a weekly podcast, Pro Wrestling Boom, and also appears regularly on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. Reach him via email at dotnetjason@gmail.com and on social media via @prowrestlingnet.bsky.social or x.com/prowrestlingnet. For his full bio and information on this website, click here.)
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