“AEW: All Out” Changes the Wrestling Game

All Elite Wrestling (AEW) hosted their first pay-per-view (PPV) outside of Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Fla., which has been their home during the pandemic. The show took place in Chicago, Ill. in the Now Arena. 

“All Out” began with their annual “Buy In” match during the preshow. The 10 man tag match had Best Friends (Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor, and Wheeler Yuta) and Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) face the Hardy Family Office (Matt Hardy, Isaiah Kassidy, Marq Quen, Angélico, and Jack Evans). 

The match ended with Jungle Boy using the “Snare Trap” to make Angélico submit, giving his team the victory. Jungle Boy used the “Snare Trap” submission on Angélico, succeeding his team. 

The opening contest pitted TNT Champion Miro against Eddie Kingston for the title. The two colossals beat each other senseless. Miro ended the match by kicking Kingston below the belt to retain the championship. 

The following showdown had former AEW Champion, Jon Moxley, face legend from New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) Satoshi Kojima. Moxley’s goal to run through all the NJPW legends continued, after hitting Kojima with the “Paradigm Shift” for the win. 

After the match ended, Minoru Suzuki, a major legend in NJPW, came out and gave Moxley his two cents. The two have history, and Suzuki attacked Moxley, setting up a future rematch. 

The first woman’s contest of the night came next, between the AEW Women’s Champion, Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. and her undefeated opponent, Kris Statlander. 

Baker and Statlander tore the house down. Baker came out on top in the end, submitting Statlander with her iconic move, the “Lockjaw.” 

There was one title change at “All Out.” The Lucha Bros (Rey Fenix and Penta El Cero M) met the Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), in a steel cage, for the AEW Tag Team Championships. It was an instant classic. 

The two teams brought their best to the table. Fenix jumped off the top of the cage. Matt Jackson brought a shoe with thumbtacks on the sole, hit Penta in the face, which caused him to bleed. 

Penta and Fenix hit their finishing move, “the LB Driver,” on Nick to win the match and become the new champions. 

The 21-woman Casino Battle Royale came afterwards. AEW had four groups of five women come out to different suits of a card deck. There was one unknown entrant, who ended up being the Joker. 

The Battle Royale had hard hitters, like former AEW Women’s Champions, Hikaru Shida and Nyla Rose, Tay Conti, Thunder Rosa, a returning Anna Jay, and more. However, the Joker became the most talked about entrant.

Formerly known as “Ruby Riott” in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Ruby Soho debuted as the Joker, and eliminated Rosa to win a title shot against Baker. 

The bout that followed put Chris Jericho against Maxwell Jacob Friedman, aka “MJF.” The stipulation put Jericho’s career on the line. 

The match between the two went on to crown MJF as the winner in a false finish. Jericho placed his foot on the bottom rope before the count of three. 

Another official informed the match’s referee, Aubrey Edwards, of what occured . Edwards decided to restart the match. 

Jericho ended the match by tapping out MJF with his submission hold, “The Walls of Jericho.”

The bout that followed had CM Punk in his first match in over seven years, face Darby Allin. 

Punk and Allin had a back and forth for 16 minutes, until Punk hit Allin with his finisher, the “Go to Sleep,” to get the win. Punk, Allin, and legend, Sting, celebrated the fight in the ring afterwards. 

In the penultimate match, QT Marshall and Paul Wight faced off. The match happened to be Wight’s first bout in AEW. After three minutes, the match ended with Wight chokeslamming Marshall off of the top rope. 

The main event of the show had the most at stake. Kenny Omega, the AEW World Champion, faced Impact World Champion, Christian Cage, with the AEW Championship on the line.  

Omega performed a “One Winged Angel” off of the top rope to defeat Cage. Once the official hit three, the Young Bucks and the Good Brothers came and attacked Cage.

Jurassic Express, friends of Cage, came down to help him. They came outnumbered. 

“The only people that would ever have a chance of beating me are either not here, they already retired, or they are already dead,” Omega said after the match.

The lights went out, and when they turned back on, Adam Cole came out to the entryway. Cole became a free agent the week prior to “All Out,” after not renewing his contract with WWE.

After Cole’s entrance, he shook Omega’s hand and joined the Elite, swerving the fans. 

Omega wanted to end the show on a high. He started his end of show routine, when music hit over him again.

“Flight of the Valkyries” played, which happened to be the same theme song of Daniel Bryan in WWE. However, Bryan Danielson walked down the entryway. 

Danielson had not been seen since the week after Wrestlemania 37. He became a free agent, but layed low.

Danielson came face to face with Omega, making his intentions clear. 

“All Out,”  jumped to the top of my list for favorite PPVs from the recent past. Every match had a satisfying finish. I would rate most of the matches with three or more stars out of five. Go stream AEW “All Out” on Fite.tv and see these game-changing matches for yourself.