AEW All Out review: Never judge a show by its build

I had many reservations about Sunday’s AEW All Out which had most of its card announced Wednesday and Saturday. The build, to say the least, wasn’t solid. So it’s a good thing that the card itself ended up being one of the better shows of the year once everything was said and done. Who would have thought?

After nearly a year as champion, Orange Cassidy finally lost the AEW International title in the main event to Jon Moxley in a match that, shock of all shocks, was an excellent, bloody, back and forth battle. There were many times where I thought Cassidy had a shot to win, but ultimately, the story told here was that after so many great title defenses, he could not keep up with someone as unrelenting as Moxley, who finished off Cassidy with two death rider DDTs.

The main event was awesome in a show that featured plenty of awesome matches. But it wasn’t the best match on the card.

After Bryan Danielson returned on Saturday’s Collision to accept a strap match against Ricky Starks in a shocker, their match Sunday was incredible, one of the best strap matches I’ve ever seen, and what should be seen as a benchmark for what to do in the future.

Danielson utterly beat Starks within an inch of his life in a ridiculously brutal match, full of hard belt shots and, you guessed it, blood. Danielson won by taking the strap and choking the life out of Starks for the win. No, really: Starks’ face was turning red. It was gross, but incredible.

Here’s the rest of the rundown for this show, which continued the streak of very long AEW pay-per-views clocking in at almost five hours:

• Bullet Club Gold scored a win over the odd pairing of FTR and The Young Bucks in a match that ended up being really good. They were put in a bad spot on the card as the show was well over the four-hour mark at this point, but everyone here looked great. It’s clear there’s more to the story between FTR and the Bucks, and we’ll likely see another match between the two down the line. Maybe in Seattle?
• Konosuke Takeshita got the biggest win of his career by defeating Kenny Omega in their big singles match. This lived up to the hype as the two had an incredible athletic match. Omega tends to lose a lot in these big singles matches, but he’s Omega. That’s fine, he’s made. Takeshita needed a big win here to really solidify himself as a top name in AEW, and they did so here. Now it’s up to AEW to continue with that momentum as their track record for that is pretty spotty (remember Wardlow?).
• The TBS Championship match was perfectly fine. Kris Statlander retained over Ruby Soho in a match where nobody did anything wrong. Toni Storm distracted Soho long enough for Statlander to get the win, furthering the split between The Outcasts. The main problem is everyone in this match feels like they’re just treading water. Statlander seems to be missing something she had before getting injured since returning in May. The Outcasts stable has just kind of been going along with no real direction and now they’re breaking up. None of this feels engaging at all.
• Miro defeated Powerhouse Hobbs in a great match where the crowd made it special, chanting for “MEAT” at every possible turn. They wanted desperately for this to be great, and it elevated the match as a result. Just two guys going out there and having a cool back and forth match with big spots– exactly what was needed. After Miro won, Hobbs beat him up after shaking his hand until a woman who was not named made the save with a steel chair. That woman, formerly known as Lana in WWE, did not have a name here and the announcers went out of their way to not name her. The video screen, which read “HOT AND FLEXIBLE” did not name her. Miro then didn’t seem happy she was there and left in a weird ending to what was a really good match.
• Darby Allin was unsuccessful in winning the TNT title from Luchasaurus, but man, did he work his ass off to have a real good match. He looked like a complete mess when this was all over. The finish felt like right out of the WWE playbook, but my assumption is that there is more to this storyline and we’re not totally done between these two just yet.
• The ROH title matches seemed more like a backdrop to what appears to be MJF’s next AEW World title program as he got into it with Samoa Joe following an altercation between the two in between their title matches. They ended up getting into a brawl, having to be separated by security. The matches themselves were just matches, not really anything beyond your normal television fare.
• Hangman Page won the Over Budget Battle Royal, winning $50,000 dollars for a charity of his choice, the Chicago Public Education Fund. It was every single battle royal you’ve ever seen, but it was fun towards the end with Page last eliminating Brian Cage.
• The Acclaimed retained the AEW Trios titles over Jeff Jarrett, Satnam Singh, and Jay Lethal in a match that was just kinda there with the usual Jarrett antics. I don’t mind seeing a Jarrett family spotfest once in a while, but after that Texas Chain Saw Massacre match from a few weeks ago, I don’t need to see another one for months. They’re wacky and fun, but the matches feel like overkill.
• The women’s trios match was good and seemed to maybe set up a future ROH Women’s title match between Athena and Hikaru Shida, which I’m all for.

AEW is inching closer to monthly pay-per-view events with their next PPV set for Sunday, October 1st with their first-ever WrestleDream in Seattle. On the plus side, I am hopeful the build towards that card becomes clear after this week’s AEW shows. On the minus side, dear lord, there is too much wrestling content. I’ve done three of these in the last week. Help.