by AEW had their All Out Pay Per View tonight, as the traditional Labor Day weekend show took place from Chicago, only hours after the company departed with Chicago’s favorite wrestling star, CM Punk. In a mild shock, the CM Punk chants were limited, if any of note, as it signaled the fans are tired of his act as well.
As for the actual card, it featured a three-match undercard on the dark portion of the show. Adam Cage won an “Over budget charity battle royal”, and will now get $50,000 to donate to his favorite charity. It was a cool way to keep Page relevant despite him not having a major match on the main card.
Other matches on the undercard featured a six-woman tag match as Hikaru Shida, Willow Nightingale and Skye Blue defeated Athena, Mercedes Martinez and Diamante. Again, a way to get Shida some action and keep her on screen until they figure out what to do next with her. Speaking of trios matches, it wasn’t the only one on the undercard as The Acclaim with Billy Gunn retained their belts with a win over Jeff Jarrett, Satnam Singh and Jay Lethal.
The main card started off with perhaps the most popular act in all of wrestling right now as team Better Than You Bay Bay defended their straps successfully over The Dark Order. Hitting all of their favorites along the way including the Kangaroo Kick and Double Close line for the win. The thing to pay attention to here is the brief scuffle between MJF and Samoa Joe after the match. Perhaps this means that a Joe vs MJF title match is not long off.
As for Joe, he wasted no time running through Shane Taylor in less than 7 minutes to retain his ROH World Television Championship. I do want to mention that I thought it was a strange choice to have the main portion of the PPV start off with back-to-back ROH’s matches. There is no accident in that as Khan is doing everything possible to keep it main card worthy by not giving it away for free.
The Darby Allin match challenging Luchasaurus for the TNT title was excellent. Allin was on his game tonight with several high spots. In the end, he came up just short, but his effort is to be commended! Sting was nowhere to be found tonight, as he had Nick Wayne with him instead, I thought that was an odd choice but slightly fit the storyline.
The former Lana, CJ Perry, made her AEW debut tonight as she attempted to stop a post-match beatdown on Miro from Powerhouse Hobbes. Miro won a heated match that the crowd went from mocking at times, to cheering loudly for as it went on. Where Lana goes from here is anyone’s guess, as Miro was none too pleased that she arrived to help him.
The whole Outcasts gimmick is about done in AEW as Toni Storm cost Ruby Soho her title match against Kris Statlander. It doesn’t speak volumes for her title reign as it never helps the credibility of a babyface when they win by two heels feuding with each other. As for Soho, this appears to be a sign she will be turning face once again, which is where she belonged all along.
It was sad to hear how awful Ricky The Dragon Steamboat sounded on air tonight. He was bad this past weekend, and was even worse tonight. Steamboat struggles to speak, and they need to keep the microphone away from him, about as far away as possible! The strap match between Bryan Danielson and Ricky Starks however, was an absolute bloodbath with Starks handing it to Danielson for the for the first 10 minutes.
Eventually Danielson got on the better side of things and showed us that brutality he used to bring before his WWE days in ROH. This was vintage Danielson, battered and bloody, and handing out a brutal whipping along the way.
As horrendous as the commentary from Steamboat was, the in-ring action was every bit as good to distract viewers from what they were hearing. Eventually Bill Big would get involved and Bryan Danielson used his body to fly through the air and cause the collision, strap intact, knocking everyone out. It was then that Starks almost shocked everyone with a spear to steal the win, but Danielson kicked out at the last second. Eventually after 20 straight minutes of blood and violence in front of a rabid crowd, Starks passed out cold from the pain of Danielson choking him out with the strap.
WOW WOW WOW was this match damn good! The American Dragon is back, meanwhile, Ricky Starks got over big in a loss.
Up next was the token Eddie Kingston match for those of you who need a social emotional stunted wrestler to pull for so you can feel like you have someone to relate too. He tagged with Katsuyori Shibata to take on Claudio Castagnoli along with Wheeler Yuta. The fact that this match followed an instant classic in Starks vs Danielson didn’t do it any favors, as the slow pace and exhausted crowd didn’t make for a good combination. In the end, not shockingly, Kingston got his shoulders pinned to mat by “Cesaro”.
Kenny Omega and Konosuke Takeshita proved you can wrestle 3 times in 30 days, and each match can be completely different but each extremely entertaining. AEW made the right booking decision here by having Omega lose, and giving Takeshita his receipt after jobbing to Omega twice already.
The Young Bucks took some booing from the hostile crowd who perhaps blamed them for the CM Punk issues in AEW. Regardless the Bucks and FTR played into the crowd a bit in their match with Bullet Club Gold. The match itself was rock solid and worthy of a rewatch! The Gunns continue to get better each time out, and then joining The Bullet Club Gold was the smart choice. Your winner here was The Bullet Club Gold which is extremely smart booking. It keeps the friction going with FTR and the Bucks, while a much-needed win for Gold to begin to build some credibility.
Who would have ever thought an “International Title Match” would headline an AEW PPV in Chicago, but sure enough, it did tonight. Let alone, one that featured Orange Cassidy. Two outliers none of us saw coming. I think AEW is going for that UFC feel, by giving several titles, and several performers a chance at he main event. Combine that with AEW All In just seven days prior, and this was the main event we got.
The UFC feel was even complete with walkouts through the backstage area as well. It didn’t disappoint as once again Moxley once again proved why he is a consistent main eventer in AEW and OC, showed why this won’t be his last!
