AEW All Out Review - September 4, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Zero Hour: AAA Mixed Tag Team Champions Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo def. Ortiz and Ruby Soho

Guevara and Melo were being interviewed at the start of the pre-show when they were immediately attacked by Ortiz and Soho, so Guevara and Melo didn't wrestle in their usual gear. Personally, I haven't been able to bring myself to care about this feud at all. I know Guevara vs. Eddie Kingston was put on the back burner due to real-life issues between the two, but this didn't really need to be on the show. That said, this was a nice little sprint, though I didn't expect Soho and Melo to take AAA's pointless mixed tag titles.

Zero Hour: FTW Champion Hook def. "Cool Hand" Angelo Parker

Hook had his first AEW match late last year. Honestly, I thought we'd start to see him against legitimate competition by now and not one-half of a jobber tag team (all due respect to the former 2point0, but they're basically Chris Jericho's lackeys in Jericho Appreciation Society at this point). This would have been better off on an episode of Dynamite or Rampage rather than a pay-per-view pre-show, but at least it was what it needed to be with Hook beating Parker in a matter of minutes. The crowd popped for Action Bronson (who sings Hook's entrance music) saving Hook from Parker and Matt Menard afterward.

Zero Hour: AEW All-Atlantic Champion Pac def. Kip Sabian

This was one pre-show match I didn't have an issue with because the All-Atlantic title needed to be defended on an AEW show eventually and Sabian was a fine challenger. He's actually very talented in the ring, but his sitting-at-ringside-with-a-box-on-his-head gimmick has been pretty lame and this contest came together on a whim. This was a good match and I assume Pac winning decisively means this feud is over as quickly as it started.

Zero Hour: Eddie Kingston def. Tomohiro Ishii

As previously noted, Kingston vs. Guevara was originally scheduled for this show before plans changed. Truthfully speaking, I saw this as an upgrade despite not having much story behind it other than this being a rematch from a New Japan Pro-Wrestling event. It was similar to what we saw from Sheamus vs. Gunther at WWE Clash at the Castle in that it was a hard-hitting affair where they beat and slapped the hell out of each other. This was a treat.

The Joker def. ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli, ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta, Penta El Zero M, Andrade El Idolo and Rush in a Casino Ladder Match to Earn an AEW World Championship Opportunity

We see Ladder matches in AEW (and just in wrestling in general) so often nowadays that they don't mean as much as they once did and a lot of them are bound to blend together. This will not be remembered as an all-time classic Ladder match by any means, but it was fun for what it was with everyone getting their time to shine. The finish made everything that came before it feel inconsequential, but it sure did leave you wondering who was underneath the mask (of course, we'd find out at the end of the night). Stokley Hathaway revealing his new faction wasn't overly impressive, though. It screams "undercard loser group" to me, but we'll see what AEW does with them and if they'll be aligned with MJF in any way.

The Elite (Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks) def. "Hangman" Adam Page and The Dark Order (John Silver and Alex Reynolds) to Win the AEW World Trios Championship Tournament and Become the Inaugural AEW World Trios Champions

Say what you will about The Elite (and quite a lot can be said about them), but they deliver in big matches and there absolutely is an element of storytelling to most of them as well. Page's history and chemistry with those guys made this match a blast, and to their credit, Silver and Reynolds didn't feel out of place with the showings they had. The finish was practically perfect with the way they went about it (playing off the finish to Page vs. Omega from Full Gear 2021) and The Elite becoming the inaugural champions was the right result.

AEW TBS Champion Jade Cargill def. Athena

It was reported Kris Statlander was in line to receive a huge push before she got hurt and was probably going to be the one to end Cargill's undefeated streak and take her title, but since she'll be out for a while, I very much believe Athena is the next best candidate. I mean, who else in the AEW women's division is a logical choice currently? Unfortunately, this fell below my expectations, which possibly could have been due to them only getting four minutes. Would it have been worse with more time? There was one bad botch where The Baddies failed to pulled Athena out of the ring on time and Cargill had to kick out of Athena's finisher, so that sucked. I want Athena's chase to continue, but nothing about the ending gave me the sense that it will.

AEW TNT Champion Wardlow and ROH/IWGP/AAA World Tag Team Champions FTR def. Jay Lethal and The Motor City Machine Guns

As I've established before, there was no reason for this match to be made because Wardlow has been teasing hitting his finisher on Satnam Singh for the past month and he didn't have a chance to do that here. Sure, he pinned Lethal, but what does that matter when he already beat him a month ago at Battle of the Belts III? The selling point of the match for me was seeing FTR and Motor City Machine Guns go at it, and while their interaction was cool, they didn't go all out (no pun intended) the way I thought they would. Fingers crossed we get them in a straight-up tag team match one of these days. Oh, and everything Dax Harwood did with his daughter beforehand and afterward was adorable.

Powerhouse Hobbs def. Ricky Starks

I was looking forward to this match because of how effectively furthered the feud has been over the last six weeks or so (aside from the stuff involving The Factory). Starks has a ton of potential as a babyface and Hobbs can be a dominant heel with the right booking. Speaking of dominant, Hobbs was in control for a majority of this matchup and then he won clean within five minutes. Unless I missed something, Starks was given no out for losing, so he was made to feel like just another guy. This was decent but way too short to be anything special. The finish felt like it came out of nowhere, so hopefully this isn't over yet.

AEW World Tag Team Champions Swerve In Our Glory def. The Acclaimed

Contrary to the previous match, this wasn't a match I had high hopes for coming into this show because of how quickly it was put together and the babyface vs. babyface dynamic, but it ended up being the best bout on the entire card. Do not underestimate how over The Acclaimed are as babyfaces at the moment. That's why I felt strongly about them winning the belts here and how bummed I was when they didn't, but all will be forgiven if they take the titles at Grand Slam in New York in a few weeks. Again, this was tremendous stuff and I thought the storytelling and psychology was wonderful. Props to all four for putting together something special.

Toni Storm def. Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker and Hikaru Shida in a Four-Way Match to Become the AEW Interim Women's World Champion

I felt bad for the ladies because they had to follow that super hot tag title match, but at the very least, I appreciated that they were given an ample amount of time and they made the most of it. It didn't have a ton of heat to begin with because it was originally supposed to be Storm vs. Thunder Rosa one-on-one, but I liked that they teased tension between Baker and Hayter because they really should have split up by now. Storm becoming champion was the only acceptable outcome.

Christian Cage def. "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry

I love that Jungle Boy is using his real name now and is using Jungle Boy as a nickname. If AEW wants the audience to take him seriously, then that was a necessary change. This was a match I was highly anticipating this weekend, but personally, I wasn't upset that it didn't actually happen. Okay, so it did, but it was over within 30 seconds. Luchasaurus finally turning on Jungle Boy and aligning with Christian had to happen and it gives Christian a cheap win over Perry. Most importantly, it prolongs the program and will make Perry's eventual win over him mean that much more.

Chris Jericho def. Bryan Danielson

Jericho had one of his strongest matches in AEW to date with Jon Moxley last month, so I was hoping Danielson would be able to get something great out of him here as well. The wrestling itself was clean and crisp for the most part and I enjoyed the action, but it never reached the level I or the crowd thought it would based on their quietness early on. It was one of his better bouts, but I was hoping for more. They may have another chance if there's an eventful rematch, which there could be based on the lame dirty finish this had. Daniel Garcia didn't get involved at all, and instead, Jericho cheated to win. Does Jericho really need to be beating Danielson on pay-per-view in 2022? I wasn't a fan of that, especially since the Jericho Appreciation Society stuff sucks.

Darby Allin, Sting and Miro def. House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King and Buddy Matthews)

This was a star-studded six-man tag team match that I should've been more excited for than I was. Don't get me wrong, it was entertaining and strategically placed at the end of the show because it was obvious the crowd would be into it no matter what, but the build to this has been inconsistent and largely lazy. It also suffered from both teams needing wins. It feels like Allin hasn't been able to win the big ones all year, so this was a step in the right direction, but Black taking the losing fall was disappointing. Then again, if rumors are to be believed and he's taking time off or on his way out, then I suppose that decision made sense. Still, it's sad to see how underutilized he's been since coming to AEW.

CM Punk def. Jon Moxley to Win the AEW World Championship; MJF Revealed Himself as The Joker

After seeing the storyline play out, I stand by what I said originally: the first one-on-one encounter between these two should have been saved for Dynamite and not given away on free TV a week and a half early. It made this feel less important, but they did have a terrific match that got even better down the stretch. The closing moments with Punk willing himself to victory with the help of the Chicago crowd was well done and the post-match return of MJF was excellently executed. All signs point to Punk and MJF meeting for the AEW World Championship at Grand Slam and a double turn could be in the works.

Overall Show

As I always say, AEW can really benefit from cutting down on the amount of matches they have on each pay-per-view. I realize they don't do as many as WWE, but only the most important matches should make the card. That said, I applaud Tony Khan for keeping it under four hours (or five hours if you include the pre-show). It paled in comparison to last year's installment and even Full Gear and Revolution in my opinion, but it was a definite improvement over the mess that was Double or Nothing. They stuck the landing and there were several top-notch matches sprinkled throughout the night, so it receives a thumbs-up on the whole from me.

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