AEW All Out 2020

AEW All Out 2020
Jacksonville, FL
Daily’s Place
September 5

Holy crap was I excited on Saturday for AEW’s second All Out pay-per-view. Because they only run four PPVs a year, I feel so much anticipation and excitement for these shows and they truly feel like special events.

Much like everything else in the world right now, the pandemic is really taking its toll on wrestling. AEW has done a great job of continually producing great television every week despite this. In the months after the Double or Nothing PPV back in May, they’ve been delivering some truly great episodes of Dynamite. In July they had a special two week Fyter Fest event that felt like a PPV stretched across two shows, followed by another special event – Fight for the Fallen. I LOVE that this company books these special shows in light of having only four PPVs. It really gives fans something to enjoy and look forward to. Despite these great events, the company has been in a little bit of a holding pattern. They’ve been dragging out some angles and storylines for weeks and months, obviously in hopes of having some form of an audience back. The lack of atmosphere and crowd reaction really takes a lot of the magic away from wrestling, and matches that are classics in the ring just can’t quite hit that next level without the fans losing their shit. And with every show in the same empty arena, with the same setup, there’s some monotony creeping into the production side as well.

All Out was a super fun and enjoyable card, yet felt a little average when all was said and done, but even an average AEW PPV was still a tremendous night of wrestling. The Fyter Fest specials were ultimately more exciting back in summer. The internet fans have been a little hard on this event, as you’d expect, but I’d rank all the matches higher. I’m heavily invested in AEW, and unlike a lot of fans, I don’t bother to compare it to WWE or NXT. There’s tons of great wrestling available for every type of fan right now, so just shut the fuck up and enjoy what you want to enjoy! If you don’t like WWE don’t watch it. If you don’t like AEW don’t watch it. Just stop with the fucking comparisons and pointless arguing! I digress lol.

AEW produced an excellent pre-show as usual – the Buy In – with all the usual great feud recaps and highlights. There were a couple matches added to the Buy In:

Buy In) Joey Janela (with Sonny Kiss) defeated Serpentico (with Luther) 7:35

When I was still working at the office – which feels like a lifetime ago – I’d regularly watch AEW Dark during my lunch breaks. Being at home now, I have a different routine, so I’ve fallen months behind in Dark. The show has become a lot like Superstars, with tons of squash matches and featuring a lot of the mid-card talent. They’ve done an excellent job of using Dark to develop characters, secondary storylines, get wins for wrestlers they’re planning to push, etc. The two Buy In matches here definitely felt like something off of Dark, which wasn’t a bad thing per se, but they could have featured something more exciting to get fans invested in the start of the PPV. Janela has certainly dropped far down the ranks of AEW, and he’s been very inconsistent in his matches. His team with Sonny Kiss has showed promise and it will be interesting to see if they can get some time on Dynamite. This wasn’t anything special, but at least Janella got a hard fought win.

Buy In) Private Party defeated The Dark Order 10:25

Private Party were also featured in the Buy In match at the last PPV, and their stock hasn’t risen since. They’re firmly planted in the tag team mid-card, which is perfectly fine, considering how young they are and how much they still need to improve. Speaking of improving, the Dark Order members Reynolds and Silver are starting to really impress. They’re borderline jobbers, but actually have developed into a really solid tag team and have been surprising me with their matches. I was disappointed to see them lose here, but Party has far more upside.

The one thing that really disappointed me about All Out is that they didn’t bother to decorate the set or arena at all. Double Or Nothing had all kinds of fun props and some different lighting, but they didn’t even bother with differentiating this PPV from an episode of Dynamite. Small touches like that go a long way, especially in this era that we’re currently stuck in.

1) Tooth and Nail match: Big Swole defeated Britt Baker (with Rebel) by knockout 10:00

This started out as a great and hilarious feud. Dr Britt Baker has become an amazing heel, but she’s been down with an injury for a few months. One of the criticisms lobbied against AEW that i agree with is that they peak some of their feuds too early. This feud has kind of run out of steam in recent weeks, which is too bad cause it was so hilarious early on. The Tooth and Nail match took place in Britt’s dentist office, which was a wacky idea and a good way to work around her injuries. It was a strange way to open a PPV though. This really needed to be somewhere in the mid-card. I always enjoy wacky brawls in weird places and this was downright zany, with all kinds of dentist implements used as weapons. Swole eventually used nitrous oxide to put Baker to sleep and win this match. It was the kind of goofy brawling I sometimes enjoy in wrestling.

2) The Young Bucks defeated Jurassic Express (with Marko Stunt) 14:50

They really should have opened the show with this match or the 8 man tag. Kind of a weird layout to this PPV overall, which is the nitpicky bullshit internet nerds seem to focus their criticisms on. Excellent tag team match that really met my expectations. The Young Bucks are fucking awesome, and Jurassic Express are still learning and growing as a team, so it was a really great blend of styles and experience. Jungle Boy in particular continues to impress and has really grown on me over the past year of the company. The Bucks were bitter, almost heels in this match, based on weeks of storylines around the splintering of the Elite and the dismissal of Adam Page from the group. This has been the best storytelling in the company over the past year, and it’s only hurt by the lack of an audience. I also love how AEW has secondary tag team feuds – totally reminds me of the golden days of the WWF’s tag team division and classic WWF Magazine feuds between teams that would play out on house shows. I loved this match and really liked the finish. Jungle Boy kept fighting back until the Bucks finally killed him with the BTE trigger. Great hard work by everyone involved, and I’m excited to see where they take the Bucks storyline from here.

3) 21-man Casino Battle Royale: Lance Archer won by last eliminating Eddie Kingston 22:15

It’s no secret – I fucking LOVE battle royals! I’m always stoked when a battle royal gets added to a PPV and gets a ton of guys featured at an event. Love it so much! This was great. They had actually been building this up for a couple weeks, with lots of monster heels and factions all threatening each other. This battle royal was done in the same weird format they’ve used previously, with groups of five entering in three minute intervals. Kind of made things more interesting. I really liked all the storylines involved in this match, including the awesome ongoing feud between Darby Allin and Tazz’s stable of Brian Cage and Ricky Starks. I’m a massive fan of Lance Archer and loved seeing him mow through this match and eventually winning. Eddie Kingston has been a great signing for AEW this summer and it was hilarious seeing Jake Roberts torment him with the snake leading to the finish. I love battle royals and thought this great, especially that they gave it lots of time.

4) Broken Rules match: Matt Hardy defeated Sammy Guevara 9:00

This was a disaster that left a really bad taste in everyone’s mouth. This whole feud has been an epic trainwreck, with both Hardy and Guevara injuring each other accidentally and being totally careless. For whatever fucking reason, in the first big spot of the match, they went up a scissor lift and Guevara speared Hardy down through a couple tables. Except they missed the tables and Hardy smashed the back of his head on the concrete. It was sick and scary to watch. He could barely stand or comprehend what was going on, and the ref immediately was trying to stop it. For whatever reason, they stalled for time and decided to restart this match, even though Hardy looked barely able to continue. They went right to the finish, which inexplicably involved climbing a lighting rig and having Hardy shove Sammy off through a crash pad below. Wow, this was a beyond stupid decision. AEW is rightfully taking a lot of heat for letting Hardy continue, and even worse, doing yet another dangerous spot. For a company that has mainly been doing the right things, this comes across as a massive failure. If they’re all about setting new precedents in the industry, this match should have been called off immediately. I think this whole disaster is what soured a lot of fans on this PPV. It was dangerous and beyond stupid to let Hardy continue, especially with all the knowledge about concussions and head injuries. You can’t fuck around with this shit. Thankfully Hardy’s fine, but the guy really needs to retire from active competition – next time he might not be so lucky.

5) AEW Women’s World Championship: Hikaru Shida (c) defeated Thunder Rosa 16:57

Now this was awesome! Fans have been clamoring for Thunder Rosa to be brought in, and she appeared here on loan from the NWA. She’s technically one of the best women in the sport right now. I really, really enjoyed this mat based battle, with Rosa and Shida hell-bent on destroying one another. The women’s division in AEW has been a bit of a disaster over the pandemic months, with half their talent stuck overseas and a bunch of ladies injured, so it made perfect sense to bring in Rosa as a challenger. Just a really great, solid battle, with Shida outlasting all of Rosa’s offense and finding a way to win and retain the title. The really could scrap some of these spectacle matches like Hardy-Guevara and focus more on great in-ring battles like this.

6) The Natural Nightmares, Matt Cardona, and Scorpio Sky (with Allie and Brandi Rhodes) defeated The Dark Order (Brodie Lee, Colt Cabana, Evil Uno and Stu Grayson) (with Anna Jay) 15:10

This 8 man tag came together after Brodie Lee and the Dark Order absolutely obliterated Cody and won the TNT title. It was an awesome surprise and huge angle. Brodie has been fantastic and I love seeing him with a title around his waist. The good guy team, lead by Dustin Rhodes, are all pals of Cody and enemies of the Dark Order, setting up this 8 man tag. Again, I love AEW making the effort to get so many guys featured on a PPV! This was a good solid eight man tag match, with everyone getting a chance to shine. They keep teasing pushing Scorpio Sky as a breakout star, but keep holding back for some reason. It would have been great to see him shine here on PPV a little more and be showcased in this match. If they want Sky to become a true superstar, they need to give him a lot more spotlight. They seemed to be doing that last fall, but completely slowed down his push. I was a little disappointed that the good guys won though, as Dark Order has been much better in recent weeks. As usual, the ego maniacal Brodie freaks out at one of his underlings – this time Colt – for losing the match. However, this lead to an awesome, fired up good guy promo from Dustin, challenging Brodie to a title match on Dynamite this week. Good mid-card storylines going on here.

7) AEW World Tag Team Championship: FTR (with Tully Blanchard) defeated Kenny Omega and Adam Page 29:40

Holy shit – this match was fucking incredible! The pandemic totally interrupted the amazing Omega-Page storyline that has been slowly building all year. They obviously were trying to delay this as long as possible, as it would be next level shit in front of a live audience. But the pandemic isn’t slowing down anytime soon, so the time has come to progress this further. FTR have been an awesome addition to AEW, and are excelling in the tag division as expected, bringing some of that classic fire they showed in NXT, wrestling awesome old school tag matches. FTR have been fucking with Hangman Page’s mind, further dividing him and Omega, and leading to Hangman being ousted from the Elite. Again, just awesome storytelling. This match was lonnng – going just under 30 minutes – and would have been off the charts amazing had it been in front of a sold out crowd. The wrestling here was the best in the company, with a real old school tag team flavor. Both teams just dished out crazy punishment and had their moments of control. FTR impressed with a vast array of double team moves and so many near falls were teased. I was on the edge of my seat through this whole thing, as there was so much intrigue as to whether or not AEW would finally take the titles off of Omega and Page, who have been damn near unbeatable. As the match built and built, the finish was really in question. It felt like such an epic moment when FTR finally won the titles, but damn, with no atmosphere, it dampened the moment a little. After the match, they strongly teased a heel turn for Omega and possibly the Bucks. This sets up so many possibilities – really looking forward to seeing where they take this going forward.

8) Mimosa Mayhem match: Orange Cassidy defeated Chris Jericho by knocking him into the vat of mimosa 15:15

Here’s another example of a feud that peaked weeks back. The whole Cassidy-Jericho feud started tremendous, with lots of intensity and hilarity, and they had an amazing first match on Dynamite weeks ago. Since then, they’ve just been spinning their wheels and it has been slowly crawling to a conclusion. Jericho is really slowing down in the ring, and he doesn’t work as well against faster opponents like Cassidy. Jericho is best kept in tag and gimmick matches, or working with brawlers like Moxley. I still enjoyed this match, but it certainly felt flat. Jericho also promised craziness and comedy, much like the out-of-this-world Stadium Stampede match at Double or Nothing. This was pretty much a regular brawl, with two pools of mimosa on either side of the ring. Not exactly the crazy wackiness we fans were all hoping for. Jericho also looked slower than usual, and this didn’t play to his strengths at all. The finish was quite predictable with Cassidy knocking Jericho into the mimosa to win the match and hopefully end the feud. No idea where they’re going to be taking either guy going forward.

9) AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley (c) defeated MJF (with Wardlow) 23:40

This has been a hugely entertaining feud over the past few weeks. Jon Moxley is still fucking awesome and continues to have stellar matches with a variety of opponents. The only criticism I have is that once he defeats his opponent, he just moves on to the next challenger. He had a really good feud with Brian Cage back in July, but it was all over and done in a few weeks. They definitely could have got more mileage out of it. I love watching Mox’s matches, as he brings so much fiery intensity and passion into the ring. His matches are always gruelling, blood soaked brawls, which was the basis of this whole feud. Friedman is an unbelievable talker and has a big time feel to him, but he really needs a lot more seasoning and experience before he hits the next level. I love how many potential young stars there are in this company. MJF was calling out Mox for weeks with clever, insider promos, and promised to out-wrestle Mox. Plus there was the whole added storyline of Mox’s Paradigm Shift finisher being banned from this match. So many great story elements woven into this match. The only negative is that this match was a little too long. This needed to be only around 15 minutes, especially after an already long card. Still, it was a great match and I really enjoyed the interplay between Mox and MJF. A lot of fans were speculating that MJF could take the title here, but it’s far too soon. Mox cleverly finishes him off with the banned Paradigm Shift to win the match and end the PPV on an exciting note.

What a fucking great company and another great pay-per-view. Can’t wait for Full Gear in November!