All In Reviews

What a show... Here are my reviews for the Women's Gauntlet, Omega vs Okada, and Hanger vs Mox. As usual I'm only going to review the matches I had strong feelings about. Doesn't mean the other matches are worse (I need to think more about Mercedes vs Toni for example), but I don't have a strong opinion yet.

Women's Casino Battle Royal

Really destroyed the Mens gauntlet IMO. The AEW womens division is hitting critical mass. Not only were the individual performances better, the structure of the match was so good. A really great sampler platter of what the AEW women's division is offering right now.

🌕🌕🌕🌕 (dropkickd)

Omega vs Okada 5

Being the worst -- or, well... Least Best match in one of the best series of matches still means this is an incredible match. It's not America, it's not the crowd, it's not the style. Time was the enemy here. Kenny is past his prime. Okada might still be in his, but age is catching up. Slower, less snap, less intensity. But a smart match. They didn't try and wrestle a "6 star match" and fail, they wrestled the match they were the most capable of, and the match the card needed.

Kenny is still one of the best at making spots FEEL dangerous. He has the best Superplex in pro wrestling, not because it looks the best, but because it makes people feel fear. Will he drop them, will he slip, will someone fall on their head? Every gesture he does says 'this is SKETCHY', even when he's in complete control. Throughout his career, Omega has backed up his 'fake scary' stuff with real, scary, freaky spots. He can do less of that now. You know what? Good, he's done enough.

A great match, that makes me reflect on the cruel passage of time. But while they can't reach their old heights, they can still shine. Also hey, 30 minutes, so more casually watchable then all but their G1 match.

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 (dropkickd)

Moxley vs Hangman

The Heart and the Ace. People doubted Moxley, but whenever things go wrong in AEW, he is the one to right the ship. People doubted him on this one, but we were proven wrong. This was the season finale they built.

Both Hangman and Mox spent over half a year, laying the foundations of patterns, relationships and receipts, building to this moment. While the actual violence was shocking (that FORK SPOT), the structure of the match was anything but. The match, structurally, was VERY predictable. Once the Darby video started, you knew the match wasn't going to end until it all played out. We watched a rube goldberg machine, one that was built for months, play out with perfect execution. Everything paid off, with the type of satisfaction we've been trained to not expect from American wrestling.

A long term heel shtick finally paid off. But it paid off not because we've just being doing heels wrong. No, to make a heel like that pay off you need a light at the end of the tunnel. American wrestling struggles to make true, beloved faces, who fans will live and die with, who fans will follow through darkness. Hangman, the heart, the true embodiment of the ideals of American wrestling, enabled this to work. We were all talking about Swerve or Darby, but having seen this match play out, it's so obvious that it couldn't have been any other way.

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 (dropkickd)