AEW All Out Review - September 5, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Buy-In: Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus), Wheeler Yuta and Best Friends (Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor) def. The H.F.O. (Matt Hardy, Private Party and The Hybrid2)

This was practically the perfect pre-show match. I couldn't care less about the H.F.O. to be honest with you, but they were a fine stable for the popular babyface team of Jurassic Express and Best Friends to be beating. Because it was the first match of the night, the crowd was electric for the action. There were some cool spots and it was what it needed to be. We also got the return of The Butcher afterward, for anyone who gives a shit (I certainly don't).

AEW TNT Champion Miro def. Eddie Kingston

I suspect Pac vs. Andrade El Idolo would've opened the event had it happened as planned, but Miro and Kingston kicking off the festivities instead made sense. They had a well-wrestled, back-and-forth match where the crowd was solidly behind Kingston throughout. The story a simple story with Kingston going for the DDT multiple times (which was said to Miro's "weakness") only for Miro to prevail in the end. I could see them going back to this in New York City, but it's also possible Miro moves on to other challengers. Sammy Guevara, anyone?

Jon Moxley def. Satoshi Kojima

I enjoyed Kojima's brief run in IMPACT earlier in the summer, so I was already a bit familiar with him coming into this contest. He wasn't who I would have put Moxley up against on pay-per-view, but as an undercard affair, it was rock solid. The crowd was surprisingly split on who they wanted to win, so it was nice to see Kojima get the love he did and still be able to go at the rate that he can at the age of 50. Moxley winning was never in doubt. Probably the biggest shocker of the night, even over all of the other debuts, was Minoru Suzuki showing up and brawling with Moxley. Those two will do battle on Wednesday's Dynamite in Moxley's hometown of Cincinnati, which I can't wait for.

AEW Women's World Champion Britt Baker def. Kris Statlander

For a match that didn't have a ton of heat prior to the pay-per-view, this was a lot better than I was expecting it would be. That's not a slight on either woman but rather the booking of the feud and how no one legitimately thought Statlander would win. She didn't, but she looked terrific in defeat and had a hell of a showing. The crowd gave this the respect it deserved and really rallied behind Statlander after she impressed with a handful of her moves. My only nitpick is that I would've had Baker win with the Panama Sunrise instead of Statlander kicking out of it and tapping out to Baker's submission moments later. The Panama Sunrise should have been a last-ditch effort that won her the match, but again, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

The Lucha Brothers def. The Young Bucks in a Steel Cage Match to Win the AEW World Tag Team Championship

I'd probably put this over the Young Bucks vs. Adam Page and Kenny Omega match from Revolution 2020, which is saying something. I realize not everyone likes Young Bucks and probably won't agree with me, but I thought this was one of the best tag team matches I've ever seen. Of course, I'm biased because I was there live, but you could just feel the energy in the energy and the crowd was hot for everything they did. Initially, I wasn't a fan of the thumbtacks as I don't think every Steel Cage match has to have a hardcore element to it, but the blood did made for an awesome visual and added to the overall outing. Young Bucks retaining was a legitimate possibility, so the uncertainty surrounding the outcome also helped. This was a wonderful piece of business, and although I've been saying for months that Santana and Ortiz needed to be the ones to take the titles off Young Bucks at the Arthur Ashe Stadium show, AEW would have been foolish to not pull the trigger on Lucha Brothers here and I'm happy they did. You could tell the moment meant a lot to them. I maintain they should have been the inaugural champions two years ago, but better late than never.

Ruby Soho Won the 21-Woman Casino Battle Royale to Earn a Future Shot at the AEW Women's World Championship

I'm glad this ended up moved from The Buy-In to the main card because this was a lot of fun. The early goings were no different than your average Battle Royal and some people were eliminated quicker than I thought they would be (Riho and Hikaru Shida come to mind), but on the whole, it was well worked. Soho was the joker entrant as we all expected and it got a great reaction, also as expected. I loved that it came down to her and Thunder Rosa because it easily could have gone either way, but I'm glad it was Soho because Rosa vs. Baker should be saved for later down the road. Soho already feels like a much bigger star in AEW than she was ever presented as in WWE.

Chris Jericho def. MJF

If Jericho lost this match, he vowed to retire from active competition in AEW. That stipulation made it obvious he was winning, but I liked how they made viewers second-guess themselves with the Dusty finish. It was nicely executed. The match itself was an improvement over their recent Dynamite encounter. The stakes being higher made the nearfalls more suspenseful, the attempted interference was thwarted, and the crowd was mostly into it. The drama was what made this match because it was never going to be a mat classic with Jericho in the twilight of his career. The question is where both of them will go from here. No matter what, I'm happy they're finally moving on to new things as their storyline has lasted an entire year.

CM Punk def. Darby Allin

Talk about a homecoming. Doing in this in Punk's hometown of Chicago was brilliant because even if he botched a few moves or it took him some time to find his footing, they would have been incredibly forgiving. But that didn't happen. He actually had a damn impressive performance and held his own. Allin did an exceptional job of bumping around and selling for him. He did a majority of the work, but it was a group effort and they put together a blast of a bout. This was all you could ask for considering it was Punk's first match in over seven years. The post-match bit with Punk, Allin and Sting showing respect for each other was a fantastic touch.

Paul Wight def. QT Marshall

Having been in attendance for this event, I can tell you firsthand that a ton of people in attendance used this as opportunity to either go to the bathroom or get food or merchandise. Hell, I did, too, but from what I saw while I was watching the match waiting in line, it was exactly what it needed to be. The Factory are a joke of faction and didn't pose any kind of a threat to Wight, who made short work of Marshall and was on offense the entire time. A Paul Wight match has no business being over five minutes long in 2021, so keeping this short and sweet was the right call. I could have done without this on the show all together, but it served its purpose ahead of the main event.

AEW World Champion Kenny Omega def. Impact World Champion Christian Cage (Impact World Championship Wasn't Defended); Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson Debuted

I felt bad for Christian because the crowd was clearly exhausted after almost four hours and the crowd knew there was virtually no chance he was unseating Omega as champion despite being undefeated in AEW and beating him once before for the Impact World Championship. Despite that, they had a very well-wrestled main event. The crowd came alive for certain spots, such as when Christian speared him through the table, and the closing stretch. That One Winged Angel from the top rope was perfectly executed. The real focus was on what happened afterward: Adam Cole shockingly debuting and realigning himself with The Elite followed by Bryan Danielson debuting and helping the babyfaces fend off the heels. Going into the show, I didn't know if it was wise to debut Danielson and Cole on the same night, but this was incredibly well done and creates a ton of possibilities. This was as hot of an ending to a pay-per-view as you could imagine. The double swerve was spectacular.

Overall Show

I don't think it'd be a stretch to say that this was not only AEW's strongest show to date but also one of the best all-around events in any promotion in many years. It gave me major Money in the Bank 2011 vibes and not just because both pay-per-views emanated from Chicago. There wasn't a bad match on the entire show and quite a few above-average ones. Young Bucks vs. Lucha Brothers stole the show, the debuts were extremely well received, everyone that should have won did, the four hours flew by, Wight vs. Marshall was a perfectly fine buffer, Punk vs. Allin was an entertaining attraction, and everything mattered. Kudos to AEW for putting together such a stellar show and for giving me the live experience of a lifetime. The key now is continuing to build off this momentum into Dynamite and so on. Based on what we've seen so far (and that there's likely more surprises still to come), I have faith that they can.

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