‘AEW: All Out 2022’ PPV Review
Welcome to this review of 2022’s All Out pay-per-view, which once again emanated from Chicago and saw home town boy CM Punk challenge once again for the AEW World Title and a couple of surprises up its sleeve – but NO, I don’t mean new additions to the roster! Let’s get into it…
ZERO HOUR:
Match #1: AAA Mixed Tag Team Championship Match – Ortiz & Ruby Soho def. Sammy Guevara & Tay Melo
My Thoughts: This started out so well, with Ortiz and Soho running Sammy over with a gold cart in a brilliant call-back to Sammy’s experience with said vehicle. Ortiz looked like a machine in this match, delivering some strong, hard moves to combat Guevara’s speed and agility. This match moved fast, with only a brief lull in action whilst it looked like, the teams recovered from the ridiculous fast-paced, high impact in-ring action! Wrong team won though and it took interference for them to do so as well! And yes, judging from reports, that nasty-looking (and sounding) Tay-KO actually DID injure Ruby Soho, breaking her nose! (I just hope we’re not back to a “dangerous” Tay, something which marred her NXT career).
My Score: 2.5 out of 5
Match #2: FTW Championship Match – Hook def. Angelo Parker
My Thoughts: Hook gets his first actual challenge in a match with Angelo Parker and Matt Menard using the numbers game and playing dirty throughout the match. Though that didn’t stop Hook from eventually locking in the Redrum and getting Parker to tap out. Great spot with Action Bronson (who was at ringside) helping Hook out AFTER the match when Menard and Parker beat him down.
My Score: 2.5 out of 5
Match #3: All Atlantic Championship Match – PAC def. Kip Sabian
My Thoughts: This was a well-fought match between two British talents and really gave credence that yes, AEW did right to stick with Kip Sabian. It does look like the “box head” gimmick is staying – especially after Kip started talking to it mid-match! In the end PAC retained but Kip didn’t let him win the match that easily.
My Score: 3 out of 5
Match #4: Eddie Kingston def. Tomohiro Ishii
My Thoughts: This was a hard-hitting chop-fest as to be expect from these two guys. Talk about strong style! This match was low and methodical with Kingston and Ishii matching each other blow for blow, move for move. Ishii brilliantly no-sold Kingston’s chops at times and Kingston played possum – this was not only about the fighting but about the mind games too. Both guys looked absolutely exhausted by the time Kingston got the pin. This one nearly went for the full 20-minute time limit (I think it hit around 15 minutes) and I wouldn’t haven complained if it did.
My Score: 4 out of 5
MAIN PPV:
Match #1: Casino Ladder Match – Winner: Joker (Mystery Masked Man)
My Thoughts: As per usual with AEW pay-per-views, All Out opened strong with the #1 contenders ladder match. A match that also delivered the first surprise of the night. This one looked brutal at times – Yuta took a hard powerbomb on a ladder for example – but I had NO idea what the hell Claudio was doing with the ladders when he entered the ring and it looked like he didn’t know either! Dante Martin was his usual brilliant high-flying self, making good use of his skills and the ladders at the same time… shame he got destroyed by Penta Oscuro on the ramp as Penta made his entrance! The match collapsed into a free-for-all as masked men made their entrance and took out ALL the competitors. Those guys were Stokely Hathaway and his new cadre, who welcomed the joker to the ring and handed him the casino chip! AND WE DON’T EVEN GET TO FIND OUT WHO HE WAS!!!! Though methinks he’ll show up after the main event… We’ll see.
My Score: 3.5 out of 5
Match #2: AEW Trios Championship Match – Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) def. Hangman Page & Dark Order (John Silver & Alex Reynolds)
My Thoughts: Holy crap, let’s stack the opening of the show shall we AEW?! The Elite played the major heels in this one – spitting in their opponent’s faces – and lucky for us we got to see a vengeful Dark Order try and beat their opponents up for it. And when Page and Omega went at it in the ring the crowd was split 50/50… Though the crowd seemed to go quiet when Page played a weird “mid” role, working with Dark Order but then telling them not to go too hard on the Elite! It was an interesting choice to have Page have compassion for his opponents and former friends during the match (which is why I think the audience were quiet when it happened) but it made sense in terms of the long-term storytelling AEW have been doing on TV and on BTE on YouTube. In terms of the match, Reynolds and Silver have honestly never looked better than in this match, talk about in-sync teamwork! And when they got that first close pin on Omega? I was on my feet! The rest of the match played with your emotions as each team seemingly got over the other and there was near fall after near fall, so much so that you REALLY had no idea who was going to win! The finish was bullsh*t though!
My Score: 4 out of 5
Match #3: TBS Championship Match – Athena def. Jade Cargill
My Thoughts: This looked like it was headed for a well-deserved squash match on Cargill as Athena hit first, hit hard and hit fast. And maybe if it wasn’t for the baddies it might have been. Instead, we got a decent, if a little iffy, back and forth between the two. I say iffy as I couldn’t tell if some moves were botches or really each opponent getting out of the other’s moves! In the end Cargill won again, making her 37-0. Who’s going to dethrone her? Right now it looks like no one CURRENTLY on the roster will/can. Perhaps we have to wait for a back-from-injury Kris Statlander?
My Score: 2 out of 5
Match #4: FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) & Wardlow def. Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) & Jay Lethal
My Thoughts: Nice touch to have Dax’s daughter Finley come out with FTR at the top of the ramp to open the match… The crowd were 100% behind FTR and Wardlow for the entire time and with good reason. Though to be fair to the MCMG they wrestled one hell of a match really taking it not only FTR but also Wardlow. Thankfully Lethal took all the punishment from Wardlow and co. (I’m not a fan, can you tell?) before taking FOUR power bombs to end the match in Wardlow’s usual powerbomb symphony. Great end to the match too as Finley came out to break Sonjay Dutt’s pencil in his face AND get a three-count on him too!
My Score: 3 out of 5
Match #5: Powerhouse Hobbs def. Ricky Starks
My Thoughts: Powerhouse Hobbs comes out from the middle of the stage, in the cage, much like Cody Rhodes did in his AEW tenure. Does that signify something for Hobbs? Rumours are he’s in for a push to the moon and this feud with former tag partner Ricky Starks is just the beginning. This was an emphatic win for Hobbs who eventually hit his spine buster on Starks to get his first win of reportedly many. But what for Starks now?
My Score: 2.5 out of 5
Match #6: AEW Tag Team Championship Match – Swerve in our Glory (Swerve Strickland & Keith Lee) def. The Acclaimed (Max Castor & Anthony Bowens)
My Thoughts: I thought The Acclaimed had ZERO chance of winning this match until that rather arrogant response from Swerve in our Glory during the backstage promo on Friday’s Rampage. After that I had a change of heart and for moments in this match it did look like they could get the win – especially when Max Castor stood his ground against Keith Lee. And even more so when Keith Lee “turned heel” and attacked Castor rather than shake his hand. This was a crowd-pleaser of a match and one that got the live audience involved more than any other match up to this point and probably the night! Bowens eventually “re-injured” his knee, selling the injury well and Swerve and Lee attacking it over and over really cemented their heel role in this match, giving more credence that The Acclaimed were going over. They didn’t and the crowd were NOT pleased, nor was Twitter and neither was I. Gotta agree with the IWC, this one really could’ve done with a change in winners called during the match, if only for the result to last a few weeks (or to the next PPV).
My Score: 4.5 out of 5 – Match of the night!
Match #7: Interim Women’s Championship Match – Toni Storm def. Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker & Hikaru Shida
My Thoughts: It was hard to decide whether Britt Baker or Jamie Hayer got the biggest entrance pop for this one. Hayter definitely got more of a crowd chant that’s for sure. Other than that, the audience was a lot quieter for this one – shame the women had to follow such an exciting tag match. Shida was taken out, literally, by Hayter and Baker, the latter stomping Shida’s head on the stage, leaving Toni Storm in somewhat of a handicapped position as Baker and Hayter kept their alliance going to take her on. Shida eventually returned with not one but TWO Kendo sticks in hand, but not even Shida could save this match from an audience that seemed uninterested in the events taking place for most of the time, only getting vocal when pinning predicaments were involved – or when Hayter looked like she could win! This match featured a BRILLIANT piece of storytelling as Britt Baker not only cost Hayter a pin but also tried to pin Hayter herself! I’m guessing (and hoping) we’re now going to get a feud between Hayter and Baker that will shoot Hayter up the women’s division. The fans here certainly sounded like that’s something they’d want to see!
My Score: 3 out of 5
Match #8: Christian Cage def. Jungle Boy
My Thoughts: As predicted by the IWC, Luchasaurus double-crossed Jungle Boy yet again, slamming him into the pyro rig in front of the stage before the match even started. Luchasaurus eventually delivering his former tag partner to Christian Cage in the ring – after slamming him through a table first… right in front of Jungle Boy’s sister and mother! Of course jungle Boy didn’t give up and the bell rung and Cage hit a spear and then the Kill Switch to get the pin. Bit of a bullsh*t match TBH.
My Score: 1 out of 5
Match #9: Chris Jericho def. Bryan Danielson
My Thoughts: Shock horror, Chris Jericho actually wrestled a match. No showboating, no messing around. He really did bring back “Lionheart” for this one – and I don’t mean by being a pastiche of his former self like he has done in the past. It really felt like Jericho was back on form and he needed to be against Danielson obviously. There was a lot of mat wrestling in this one, with Jericho using his high-flying skills to punctuate the action when needed. But otherwise this was a great display of technical, professional, wrestling. These two looked, much like the Kingston/Ishii match on the pre-show, like they were legitimately wearing each other out the more this match went on. And it went on… Like a lot of the matches on tonight’s show this one went long, with a surprise win for Jericho – after a dirty, unseen, low blow of course!
My Score: 4 out of 5
Match #10: Darby Allin, Sting & Miro def. House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King & Buddy Matthews)
My Thoughts: Miro went into business for himself, not legitimately of course, but he wanted to take care of HoB all by himself and – in the early stages of the match – it looked like he could! Of course when Darby Allin tagged himself in everything changed and Allin did his usual schtick of taking an inordinate amount of punishment, including from an on-form Malakai Black, who actually cracked out his Muay Thai moves in this match. GREAT confrontation between Sting and Black that had the audience on their feet before anything even happened! This was a back and forth match with neither team looking definitively in control – until Sting got vengeance on Black by spraying him with his own brand of black mist! No-one saw that coming, especially Malakai Black!
My Score: 2.5 out of 5
Match #11: AEW World Championship – CM Punk def. Jon Moxley
My Thoughts: What a tease this match was. It really did look like a reversal of Punk and Moxley’s match from Cleveland, with Punk looking like he was going to squash Moxley! It was not to be as instead our duo got a massive amount of time to take this PPV home. Punk was busted open pretty badly only a few minutes into the match and Moxley relished in it as usual. It made for a good visual but the Chicago crowd weren’t too pleased that their guy looked like he was in trouble – though the crowd sounded like they were evenly split down the middle in their support of each man. Like the Jericho/Danielson match, this one went back and forth over and over. Eventually Punk hit two GTS’s in a row and got the win. And yes, I was right… The masked man did reveal himself after Punk’s victory.
My Score: 4 out of 5
News of the Night:
- AEW paid a small fortune (undoubtedly) to use a Rolling Stones track to intro the Joker in the Casino Ladder Match.
- Samoa Joe returned to AEW after the FTR/Wardlow tag match.
- A returning MJF was revealed to be the masked man who won the Casino Ladder Match.
