Welcome to After 48 on GrapPro where we discuss an All Elite Wrestling pay per view two days after it aired. That way the hot takes cool down and we can think about it with a clear perspective. At least that’s the idea.
All In Texas had the highest of expectations. The main event, the two matches following, up and down the card was very high expectations. This is the biggest show of the year for All Elite Wrestling in terms of stadium size and attendance, but it’s also the biggest due to how much the matches matter. The weight of the show was all about deciding the direction of the company going forward.
Friends were discussing if this was going to be the best AEW pay per view in terms of build and card quality. I think in build it absolutely surpasses the original king: Revolution 2020. As for card quality? I honestly think it fell a little under Double or Nothing 2025.
That doesn’t make it bad. Please don’t do that hyperbole thing where a person tells you it’s just under one of the best AEW pay per views of all time and so you decide that’s me saying it sucked. It didn’t suck. It was an absolutely incredible show, and many of the results will mean so much to fans going forward. For importance? This is pretty untouchable. You have to go back to All Out 2021 to find a pay per view that felt this important to the momentum and status of the promotion as a whole.
There’s two matches I think fell under expectations. One is the four way, which was booked the day of the show due to the unfortunate injury of Adam Cole. I think both the match and result were underneath the quality of what this show demanded. The next was the Casino Gauntlet Match for the men, which had a lot of great wrestlers in it but just didn’t reach the level of previous Men’s Casino Gauntlet matches. The women were a level above them that Saturday night.
Add the Trios and Tag matches being good but not great, and both not having the best booking? It’s just a little under the expectations. But if you’re the type of person who feels “not meeting expecations” is the same or worse than the actual quality you got? You need to re-adjust your priorities. All In Texas was an incredible show, worth the length, worth the price of admission, and ended in such a beautiful fashion I’m still at a loss of words for it.
Favourite Wrestling Match
AEW Men’s World Championship
TEXAS DEATH
Hangman Adam Page versus Jon Moxley (c)
Jon Moxley was king.
Moxley ruled the lands. The Death Riders ensured he stayed king. The first months against him included a band of young wrestlers and AEW originals trying to come together to fight on the battlefield. They lost.
Moxley challenged them to become more than what they were. He challenged them to rise to a new level. Every time they tried, he’d use traditional tactics to break them down. Interferences, weapon shots, attacking their friends, everything that’s worked since the day of the Four Horsemen.
That was his trick. Moxley wasn’t doing anything new. He wasn’t reinventing the wheel. He was just creating a wheel so big that nobody could outrun it. Moxley broke down his opponents mentally and physically, and never played by the same rules. The king stays the king.
His challenge for someone to climb the mountain to come at him was intentional. He’s at the top of the mountain. You don’t fight him all the way to the top. You fight everyone around him.
Moxley succeeded at stopping Orange Cassidy and Darby Allin. He took Jay White out of action. Adam Copeland ended up victim to his own supposed friends. Samoa Joe and Powerhouse Hobbs failed to stop Moxley at the top of the mountain but were successful taking the AEW Trios Championship away from his goons.
It was at that point that the Death Riders started to lose their grip. Moxley had been king, and he created an environment of war, but that war was also taking a toll on his own troops. He lost PAC and tried to replace him in a Trios Championship match only for The Opps to win. He had to reach out to the Young Bucks for help against Swerve Strickland. Moxley wanted nothing to do with the Bucks and said as much, but every week it became clear he couldn’t survive without their help. Young Bucks are the only reason Moxley didn’t lose the AEW Men’s World Championship to Swerve Strickland at Dynasty.
Gabe Kidd, a man with no love for AEW or Jon Moxley or anything except himself? He’s now replacing PAC in the Death Riders. That’s the desperation of Moxley right now. Gabe could betray him any second in the name of the War Dogs of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Moxley knows this. He has no choice. He’s running out of options.
Then came Hangman Adam Page. And this whole preamble is important because it’s establishing why Hangman Page won. He wasn’t influenced by Moxley. He was influenced by Christopher Daniels retiring. Page fought Moxley in the four way at Worlds End and failed because he couldn’t find common ground with the other competitors. After retiring Daniels, he finally started to walk the path of redemption.
By the time Hangman won his shot against Will Ospreay? It was clear he had the backing of the fans. Hangman had transformed into the best version of himself not for Moxley, but for AEW. This got him the support of Will Ospreay, the support of The Opps, and eventually the support of Swerve Strickland.
At All In Texas, in Texas Death, both men went into a brutal war. Hangman didn’t hesitate to use a fork to break open Moxley’s skull and get him bleeding early. Moxley also made Page bleed early. Every advantage Moxley has used in the past ended up countered. He took out Joe earlier in the show which meant The Opps didn’t come out. Once Ospreay came out they essentially tried breaking his neck to take him out. Even losing those advantages? Hangman still got the services of Darby Allin returning from climbing Mt. Everest and some Blue Panther fan in a mask who kicked Wheeler Yuta’s fucking head in.
It would be the run in of Swerve Strickland with a steel chain that ended up taking out the Young Bucks and leading to the finish. Hangman Adam Page for the past three years has been walking rage over what Swerve did to him. How he invaded his family home and the crowd still cheered Swerve for it. He let that get him to the point of burning Swerve’s house down and destroying him in a Lights Out cage match. Both men have hated each other. Hangman ruined Swerve’s run as champion. Now Swerve has a chance to do the same.
Swerve chose to help Hangman Adam Page take out Jon Moxley.
The match wasn’t just run ins. The run ins are a big part of why I can’t say this was the best match of the night, but it was certainly my favourite. I was emotionally enthralled in the spectacle. When Page took a curb stomp onto the bed of nails, on just a corner? I winced.
Moxley was the all star of the match. He did absolutely everything he could to make Hangman look like the one man who could defeat him. When all was lost, with a chain around his neck, Moxley flailed in hopes of getting out. He was able to get himself to the edge of the apron, but the chain got tighter. No Marina. No PAC. No Claudio. No Yuta. No Bucks. No Gabe. No weapons. No rules to hide behind.
He tapped out.
Jon Moxley was king.
Best Wrestling Match
AEW Women’s World Championship
Mercedes Moné versus Toni Storm (c)
It was difficult to choose between this and the tag team match between the Young Bucks versus Swerve and Ospreay. Some of the spots in that match were absolutely incredible. I loved the finish.
Toni and Mercedes, however, was a perfect one on one title defence. It’s the way title defences should be. The two best wrestlers in the company going one on one to decide who is the better pro wrestler. A lot of people walked into the match believing Mercedes was going to win. I was in the minority predicting a win from Timeless Toni.
Mercedes has her heel tactics but most of her heat just comes from the fact she’s a fantastic pro wrestler who refuses to let up against you. She cuts your oxygen. She doesn’t give you time to think. She’s on you all the time. She’s always finding a way to get a psychological and physical advantage against you.
Moné, had she won, would have held her seventh championship. To counter that? Toni Storm hit her with seven variations of her signature moves over the years to win a match.
That seventh Storm Zero off the middle rope ended up winning the match.
Just an incredible performance by both women and leads to some really interesting places they could go after. I really hope Moné faces Sareee for the IWGP Women’s Championship at Forbidden Door. Toni has Athena in her crosshairs for winning the Casino Gauntlet, but that doesn’t mean she’s automatically the next contender.
More Thoughts After 48
Darby Allin: A lot of people were disappointed he didn’t finish his story with Jon Moxley but I expect him to get to finish that now without the title on the line. I heard some folks say he should have been the reason Hangman won. AEW did a real good job of ensuring everyone who helped Hangman in the match didn’t touch Jon Moxley. Only Page directly touched Mox.
Blue Panther Fan: Who was that guy?
Marina Shafir: I have never been a fan of Marina, especially in-ring. I’ve never been a fan of her work in Death Riders. I thought she was outstanding in the Texas Death. There was a real hatred between her and Page instead of just her being Moxley’s lackey.
Claudio Castagnoli: Claudio being the one to attempt to break Samoa Joe and Will Ospreay’s neck was interesting. It makes me wonder how much of a threat he is in a landscape without Moxley as king.
Kazuchika Okada: Okada was absolutely incredible winning the Unified Championship, a decision I felt was right seeing he would need to be the guy to work the Continental Classic come the fall. I thought the finish was a little rushed but otherwise was a brilliant match. It’s expected for the Unified Championship to be treated like a 1B to the 1A of the World Championship. If that’s the case I hope we see some real contenders against him. Ospreay and Strickland should both be targeting him.
Kenny Omega: Kenny was incredible against Okada and I think for the most part he’s still Kenny Omega. His only issue now is the speed and pace he used to be able to have, probably the greatest speed and pace of any wrestler ever? Omega really can’t do that anymore. It’s often expected from him and the best he can do is what he performed in this match. I’m curious as to what Kenny does going forward. I don’t know who he could really face at Forbidden Door as a big match.
Christian Cage: What a great performance by Christian in the tag match. He really kept the match at a great pace and level. A true ring general. I see more “Christian is my father” signs at shows than any other wrestler so it’s a good time to eventually turn him babyface and give him his last tag run with Cope.
Adam Copeland: Most people hated “Go Find Yourself” but I didn’t. Cope in tags is exactly where he needs to be, and I hope this final run with Christian allows him to end his career the right way.
Nick Wayne: Wayne is incredible. There’s a lot he still needs to work on but he’s still a kid! Barely outside of teenage years! He’s already becoming better and better on promos and as he fills out he will become a better wrestler. I’d love to see him, after this Cope and Christian feud, look to working ROH against Bandido or whomever is ROH Men’s World Champ.
FTR: FTR had another good match with The Outrunners and made their presence against the Hurt Syndicate. It’s obvious the plan will be for Cope and Christian to face FTR in Toronto for All Out. Curious to see if they put the belts on them before that.
Athena: Athena said at the end of show presser she will be a regular again in All Elite Wrestling. It’s been a real interesting career for her to spend so much of it in Ring of Honor so now her coming up to AEW almost feels like signing a top talent. It’s a good thing she stayed healthy throughout. Still needs to drop that ROH Women’s World Championship though…
Kris Statlander: Rough for Kris to again be first in a Casino Gauntlet and not come out the winner. She’s building some great momentum. I hope she ends up the one to beat Mercedes for the TBS Championship.
Syuri: Great debut for her. Excited to see what she does. Hopefully Hikaru Shida can return soon so they can work together in tag team matches.
Swerve Strickland: Swerve was the co-star of this pay per view next to Hangman Adam Page. Not only did he help win it for Ospreay and him in the match against the Bucks but him coming out to KO the Bucks with the steel chain and pass it to Hangman so he could choke out Jon Moxley was a fantastic ending to the main event. It’ll be interesting to see how Swerve handles a world where Hangman is champion. You gotta figure even if he helped Page stop Moxley? That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want a shot at that title.
The Young Bucks: The Young Bucks losing EVP status was the right move. It was time to end that as it was basically giving someone authority powers to abuse it. It’s nice for cheap heel heat but it had well worn out its welcome. I’m glad the Bucks are now just wrestlers on the roster. I think it will go a long way to leading to the Young Bucks turning babyface someday down the road. Let the fans cheer them again.
Dustin Rhodes: A lot of people loved seeing Dustin Rhodes winning the TNT Championship in Texas as it was a way to bring the crowd back after the disappointing news of Adam Cole vacating the championship. I’m a bit of a bigger picture person and I think it was more important to follow through with crowning Kyle Fletcher than it was to do something to temporarily save the crowd. That crowd would have been coming back on the Swerve/Ospreay vs Bucks match or when Athena came out. They could have split up Cole’s announcement and the TNT Championship match. But what’s done is done, and now they have a Saraya situation where they put the belt on something just for the hometown pop who absolutely isn’t at the level of those around him. I like Dustin (I wish he wore his Natural jacket) but he’s currently hoarding two championships in ROH from the younger talent and now has the TNT. I don’t care if Fletcher wins the belt on Wednesday. He should have won it on a show people will rewatch for years to come.
Kyle Fletcher: Fletcher continues to be an uncrowned TNT Champion. Hopefully he gets the belt soon and they don’t hold it off too long to “Give Dustin his flowers” but this certainly frustrates me when Kyle should have won it back at Revolution.
Sammy Guevara: It’s a real shame that so many in AEW cannot stand Sammy and don’t even want him on their screen. I don’t think he should be in the main event, the upper midcard, or even a champion in the midcard, but just as a midcard guy taking losses like what AR Fox and Beast Mortos do? I wish Sammy could do that without the baggage. We could get some really good matches with him in the mix.
Daniel Garcia: I respect the fact Daniel Garcia has essentially allowed himself to get humiliated multiple times in order to build up folks like Kyle Fletcher but it makes me wonder what the plan could be for him. I think his babyface run has gone about as far as it could go and it might be time for Danny to find a new perspective.
MJF: Some want AEW to go directly into a program between MJF and Hangman but I think this needs to be held off for a little bit. I don’t know if run the program for All Out or Full Gear but I wouldn’t go right ahead with it for Forbidden Door and there isn’t enough time for this program to do it at WrestleDream. If they can hold it all the way to Worlds End you could have MJF trying to regain the championship on the same show he lost it.
Mark Briscoe: I know there’s some folks frustrated that Mark Briscoe can’t move up the card but he’s already in a position nobody would have predicted him for. He’s doing absolutely fantastic in his current run. Loving everything he does even when he doesn’t win.
Juice Robinson: Juice is obsessed with changing up his look. Shaving a fantastic beard was a real risky move. His promo afterwards saying the Bang Bang Gang was going to be serious was… a questionable move. It all makes sense if they plan to turn heel and want to remove what makes him and the Gunns cool but as babyfaces? Probably not the right move.
Brody King: Great showing in the Casino Gauntlet. Once Fletcher becomes TNT Champion? Brody needs to feud with him.
The Von Erich Brothers: I love the fact the Von Erich brothers are in AEW/ROH. It’s great for AEW to pay tribute to the history of the family. Marshall absolutely has potential. His brother Ross? He’s 37, looks absolutely incredible physically, but in-ring… I don’t know if he’s there. Or will ever be there.
Shane Taylor: Shane once again showed at Zero Hour he’s an excellent heel for AEW. The more opportunities for him the better.
Adam Cole: Really tough for Cole. A concussion from a bump is cause for concern. I was really hoping to see him drop the TNT Championship to Fletcher then go on a great run with Paragon. I worry about Kyle and Roddy being lost in the shuffle without him. If he has to take a few years off, I hope Adam Cole can work some sort of ambassador role for AEW. He doesn’t have to be an authority figure on screen but just the guy they can reliably send to do PR and promos.
Road to Forbidden Door
With Hirooki Goto allegedly dropping the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship so he can go play E. Honda in a terrible Street Fighter movie, it really makes me a bit “meh” on what happens between NJPW and AEW for Forbidden Door. I honestly hope NJPW takes a seat back for CMLL.
I would be far more interested in what CMLL can provide with Templario, Hechicero, Máscara Dorada, and of course Místico in matches. Honestly? Have El Sky Team defend the CMLL Trios Championship at Forbidden Door.
There isn’t really anyone in NJPW right now I want to see face Hangman Adam Page for the AEW Men’s World Championship at Forbidden Door, but if we got Templario or Hechicero instead? Would love that.
As for Zack Sabre Jr. as IWGP Men’s World Champion, I don’t think there’s a match I would look forward to as much as I did Goto facing Katsuyori Shibata. I guess you could put Swerve Strickland or even Jon Moxley against him. I guess that’d be a way to go. Most seem to think it will be Will Ospreay and honestly? I’ve seen it before. Doesn’t really drive me.
Don’t take this as me saying it’s going to be a bad show. I just am not as excited about potential matchups as I would have been in the past, and with the G1-Climax in session, it’s going to be hard for anyone from NJPW who is in the G1 Climax to help promote the pay per view. That’s a part of why I hope to see more CMLL interaction.
That said, AEW has incredible momentum coming out of All In Texas, and it would be good to keep it up instead of taking the summer off. What happens tomorrow on Dynamite will be big in the direction of the company. Hopefully running a Chicago residency at the Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom doesn’t make the company feel too small for the rest of July. Six shows in Chicago in July and three shows in Ohio in August, only to have a late August/early September residency in Philadelphia at the old ECW Arena. Hopefully these residency shows keep up the energy we’ve had from post Dynasty on to All Out in Toronto.
