I feel like I’ve done a disservice to myself as a wrestling fan and as someone who wants to report on the entertainment driven sport by strictly covering WWE content the past year or so, but it’s just hard man. I love wrestling passionately don’t get me wrong, but there is so much wrestling content readily available nowadays that it’s hard to keep up with watching everything. Especially when you’re someone like myself who loves other TV shows and movies as well and wants to have time to consume everything I want to get to, but I’m looking to change that and give attention to both WWE and AEW as much as I can in both my blog and just in my personal fandom. It’s not that I have anything against AEW or I’m strictly a “WWE guy”, sure I grew up on WWE and in a way it will always be my go-to company, but there’s a lot of talent on the AEW roster that I consider myself a fan of as well and they are doing some good stuff over there as well. So, I took it upon myself to go in with some friends and order AEW’s latest PPV ‘Revolution’ this past weekend. So let’s get into it!
After a couple rather decent ‘buy-in’ matches on the Revolution pre show, the show opened up with Daniel Garcia and Christian Cage for Christian’s TNT Championship. Christian is doing some of his best work now as a veteran, the patriarch if you will. Christian has always been good at being the scummy heel and add in him making fun of people’s dead fathers and you have the scummiest and most entertaining version of that yet. Christian goaded Garcia in early faking an ankle injury before jumping on the attack, until he actually did hurt his ankle in a moment of real karma and Garcia capitalized, focusing on and repeatedly attacking the weakened ankle. This caused Christian to get his patriarchy involved where they could and him repeatedly trying to score a count out victory or even a loss in an attempt to hold onto the title. First Killswitch got involved, chokeslamming Garcia, before being fought off by Matt Menard who came to Garcia’s rescue temporarily before being disposed of. The patriarchy eventually became too much though, Nick Wayne clocked Garcia with a punch, setting Christian up for the Unprettier and the victory. Next came a matchup between Eddie Kingston and Bryan Danielson for Eddie’s Continental Crown Championship. This was a hard-hitting affair from the jump, prompted by Eddie’s desire for respect and Bryan’s bitter nature unwilling to give it to him. Chops and punches rained down all match from both competitors, leaving both men red and bruised by the end of the contest. Danielson smartly targeted Kingston’s arms twisting and stomping and locking him into holds whenever he could, Bryan is clearly the superior technician and Kingston is clearly the better brawler, so smart ring psychology from Bryan, but would you expect any less? Bryan hit a running knee for a near fall and locked in a triangle choke that Eddie narrowly escaped, but as Bryan set up for a second knee, Eddie countered into a vicious clothesline followed up by a booming powerbomb for the victory. After the match Kingston and Danielson reluctantly shook hands, finally showing some respect to one another.
Next came the 8 Man All Star Scramble for a World Championship title shot at a later date. The match included Chris Jericho, Powerhouse Hobbs, Dante Martin, Lance Archer, Brian Cage, Magnus, Hook, and Wardlow. I feel as if this was an attempt to get some of their biggest names onto the card that didn’t have a match yet, but that’s understandable and I’m not upset about it. Chris Jericho is one of the best to ever do it and Hook is one of my favorites on the roster and some of the other names in the match are a prominent part of the weekly show as well, so the card definitely looked better with those names on it than not. This match was a messy hodgepodge of big spots and heavy bouts of offense, as expected from a match this style, with the bigger men pairing off first and then the smaller guys taking advantage and diving onto the larger competitors before having a series together themselves in the ring. After that everything broke off into pairings more or less, with each guy getting a moment to shine the brightest among the field of competitors, all before Wardlow leveled Martin with a powerbomb for the win. This was expected as Wardlow has been calling his shots and getting the most promo work and shine coming into this matchup for the past few weeks and was probably the right call in order to not kill the momentum that they’ve started to build with him. Then came Roderick Strong and Orange Cassidy in a brutal matchup for Orange’s International Championship. Cassidy’s already injured back took a BEATING this match, wearing athletic tape around his back and ribs it was like a bullseye for Strong who heavily targeted the injured area all match long. After wearing down the injury some already, Strong dropped Cassidy from the top rope onto the turnbuckles and ropes on his already injured ribs with a gutwrench slam that looked particularly brutal. This was followed up soon after with multiple excruciating backbreakers to the champ courtesy of Strong and submission holds to wear Orange down even further. Cassidy found his footing late in the matchup some, countering Strong with heavy handed offense before connecting with a Panama Sunrise for the near fall. Orange hit the signature Orange Punch that got the crowd hyped up, but Strong kicked out and soon powered back with a flying knee and his awesome finisher the ‘End of Heartache’ for the win to become the new International champ.
FTR and the BCC (Mox and Castagnoli) followed after in a fine example of tag team wrestling. Mox and Claudio came to the ring wearing spiked shoulder pads to honor The Road Warriors, one of the best tag teams to ever do it! This turned out to be a rather brutal, hard fought back and forth affair as both teams hit each other with all they had. Harwood was driven into the ring post and busted open before engaging in a back and forth affair with Mox, he landed a pop up powerbomb for a near fall and a piledriver onto Mox with Wheeler coming off the ropes to drive him into the ground harder for another near fall. BCC hit the necessary Doomsday Device onto Harwood, and a giant swing from Claudio capped off by a Shotgun Dropkick from Mox ended in another near fall for the duo. FTR nearly won the match with a Doomsday Device of their own, but after some more back and forth action Claudio and Mox locked in tandem rear naked chokes on FTR until Harwood passed out for the win by submission. The AEW Women’s Championship match followed after with defending champ Toni Storm taking on Deonna Purrazzo. Side note, I love what Toni is doing over there, her ‘Timeless’ Toni gimmick is legendary and the transitions from normal color screen to grainy black and white when she is on the screen is *chef’s kiss*. These 2 battled it out in a technical affair, with Purrazzo’s submission ability proving to be nearly too much for the champ at times, but Luther and Mariah helped even the odds for the champ as she capitalized off distractions to gain the upper hand and beat down Deonna. After Deonna got the upper hand and nearly had the match won with a brutal submission, Luther distracted the ref while Mariah caused the distraction on Deonna, this ended up being her fatal mistake as Toni spiked her with a piledriver for the pin and retained her title. Will Ospreay and Konosuke Takeshita followed in what was one of the cleanest, most refined displays of pro wrestling that you’ll find which makes sense given the 2 competitors we’re talking about. I’m not even going to attempt to break down the action because it simply wouldn’t do this match justice and these guys were hitting each other with so many polished wrestling moves so close together that it was hard to even keep up watching, let alone writing about it later. Ospreay finally won the contest following a stiff, vicious clothesline from Takeshita with a Styles Clash, Tiger Driver, Hidden Blade combo.
The AEW Men’s World Championship between Swerve, Hangman Adam Page, and Samoa Joe for Joe’s title took stage next. Joe made it known early that he didn’t care about Swerve and Hangman’s beef, and he was keeping the title by any means necessary, leveling both men early with hard hitting offense. The rivals found themselves forming temporary alliances repeatedly throughout the match to get rid of the larger Joe, and Joe was seen as the somewhat desperate veteran champ trying to hold onto his title at all costs. Swerve nearly had the match won after a House Call on the champ, but Hangman wouldn’t have it, dragging the ref out of the ring as he was counting the pin before beating him down and smashing Swerve with the AEW title. Hangman then hit Joe with a pair of Buckshot Lariats, but the ref was still out, Joe fought back with a Coquina Clutch on Page and nearly had the match won before Swerve broke up the hold. Swerve found another opening amongst the chaos later and nearly had a roll up pin on Joe before Hangman pummeled the 2nd referee to avoid the 3 count again. Hangman hit another Buckshot on Joe before eating one himself at the hands of Swerve, Joe planted Swerve into the mat hard with a suplex and locked Hangman into the Coquina Clutch again causing him to tap out and a desperate Joe retained the belt. The main event followed as the AEW Tag Team Champions Darby Allin and Sting took on the Young Bucks in Tornado Tag action in Sting’s final match! Sting had a great entrance opened up by a video package highlighting some of his biggest moments from his NWA and WCW days, before his sons came out to his entrance music dressed as Surfer Sting and Wolfpac Sting, all before the music switched over to Metallica’s ‘Seek and Destroy’ and the man of the hour himself hit the stage. Darby, Sting, and his sons had their way with the Bucks in the early going of the match, with Sting’s sons hitting Stinger Splashes to both men in the corner, Sting locking in a double Scorpion Deathlock onto both men, and Darby hitting a Coffin Drop on them both on the outside. As the men were down, Darby, Sting, and his sons set up tables and panes of glass around the ringside area, but this allowed the Bucks the breathing room to get back into it. Nick Jackson hit Darby with a Falcon Arrow through a table, and Matt followed suit with a suplex of his own to Sting through another table. Allin found himself in harms way trying to fight off both men before getting a moment of breathing room and using that to his most Darby way of “advantage”, he climbed up a tall ladder inside the ring before diving off it towards the Bucks and the pane of glass, unfortunately for him the Bucks moved and Darby was sent crashing back first through the pane of glass in a very heavy metal wrestling moment, devil horns up! With Allin seeking medical attention at ringside the Bucks turned their full attention onto Sting, first driving him off the ladder and through a table, but Sting sat up unphased in legendary fashion, so the boys then tossed him into a pane of glass himself set up in the corner of the ring. This prompted Sting’s old war buddies, Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair, to intervene. Flair covered up Sting’s beaten body and Steamboat tried to fight the men off before they both ate tandem Superkicks from the Bucks. After a few close calls in ring, Darby returned to the mix pushing Nick Jackson off the turnbuckle and through a table at ringside. A Scorpion Death Drop, Coffin Drop, and Scorpion Death Lock to Matt Jackson sealed the deal and Darby and Sting walked out victorious after an enthralling matchup capping off a legendary career for the Stinger. Thank you Sting for all the wonderful moments and memories you gave to the business. You truly gave your blood, sweat tears, and hell even most your life to this business and you’ll go down in history as one of the most respected Legends to ever do it.
