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.
Grand Slam: Australia was not a pay per view but I felt like this was a good show to kind of stop and evaluate All Elite Wrestling early into 2025.
At the World’s End After 48 I talked about how All Elite Wrestling is once again entering the year with an unenthusiastic Men’s World Championship that pales in comparison to the excitement that the Continental Classic brought. The first few weeks for Dynamite and Collision ended up rough. This led to a rumour that Tony Khan, focused on his other properties, was not “in the weeds” creatively as much until recently.
Since then, Dynamite and Collision have been running a hot streak, or as I called it, fresh air. Since the Homecoming on January 25, we’ve had a strong Dynamite at Von Braun Center, a strong Collision following, the College Park, Georgia Dynamite with Ricochet and Swerve in the main evnet, the Collision in Rosenberg, Texas ending with Mark Briscoe versus Kyle Fletcher, the Cedar Park Dynamite last week exploding with MJF and Adam Page finally coming to blows, and now Grand Slam: Australia.
Grand Slam: Australia is going to be a tough show to talk about going forward. The show itself was a massive success in ring. It is also said to be the third highest gate in AEW history. We don’t know how the ratings did, and I’m sure with it starting after 10:30PM EST due to the NBA All-Star festivities it’s not going to look great just due to the late delayed start time.
The reason it’ll be tough to talk about going forward isn’t due to the ratings on TV or the product in the ring. It will be the fact AEW announced this months ago, did a poor job marketing and advertising it, and ended up having to move it from a stadium to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. It drew great overall with over 11,000 fans on current estimation, but it was expected to fill Suncorp Stadium. Nobody calls WrestleMania VII a success drawing 16,000 in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena when it was supposed to be held in the 70,000+ capacity Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Of course, the controversy everyone seems to have hopped on is the ring size. I commented that the ring looked a bit small and that might have messed up Kenny Omega on his dive. Others have turned it into a giant discussion about AEW cheapening out on an independent ring instead of shipping their 20×20 ring to the event.
If you want to say AEW had ample time to ship a ring to Australia go for it. If you want to say it’s a pointless cost and using an 18×18 is perfectly fine? Go for it. Both are completely valid points. Ring size is a stupid example of, “People freak out about the simple things they see.” It’s like when you see two wrestlers and one is taller than the other and you go, “Oh tall guy should win.” You know nothing about who is more skilled. You’re making a knee jerk visual analysis.
A larger issue is AEW being coy on when the show would take place, what time it would take place, and having to settle for after the NBA All-Star festivities. They announced the show in August of 2024. I know AEW finalized their WBD extension months later, but that’s still ample time to get something like this figured out. Nothing of importance was showing on TBS during this by the way. People could have had it explained better early on that this wouldn’t be a pay per view and would be a TV special. Then again, Grand Slam has never been a pay per view and has always been a TV special, so maybe that’s on the people who don’t pay attention.
Anyway. The ring size doesn’t matter. The in-ring action matters. AEW Grand Slam: Australia was successful in ring.
Favourite Wrestling Match
Mariah May versus Toni Storm
What a fantastic main event. I don’t think I’ve been as satisfied in a babyface World Championship win like this since Adam Page beat Kenny Omega at Full Gear 2021.
Toni started the match on fire with suplex after suplex, essentially ragdolling the Women’s World Champion and exerting her dominance. It was a clever veteran trick to get the fans instantly interested but also show that despite her roles played in the past? Toni Storm is the authority in this match.
Eventually it became a battle between The Glamour and Timeless Toni, with neither really gaining an advantage until the end. Mariah May began to be able to withstand the best of Toni and was taking advantage. It was at this point that Toni switched roles, becoming the rookie Toni Storm that won that title shot with a small package. The small package was also all she had the energy left to hit on Mariah May, and locking it in she did for a three count.
You can read more of my views on the match in Four Times Timeless.
Best Wrestling Match
Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita versus Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega
There’s various philosophies on how to build your wrestling card. Some prefer your opening match to be your least exciting and you move up from there. Others feel if a match is just as good as your main event? Put it as the opener so you book end fans with great main event calibre matches. There’s also the classic independent show where the match before intermission is treated like an early main event. If you check old WWWF cards during the run of Bruno Sammartino, he often had his big WWWF World Championship match early enough so the reporters could take photos and write up about it and it would make the newspaper. There would still be two to three more matches left on the show.
My perspective on booking philosophy is that the opening match shouldn’t be your money match (that’s the main event) and it shouldn’t be a secondary main event. It should, however, be the match you expect to have the highest level of action and excitement. If that involves undercard or midcard wrestlers that’s fine. In this case, it’s a former World Champion and former International Champion teaming against the current International Champion and one of the fastest rising stars in the company.
All four men have great chemistry with each other, and it’s exactly what you want to see from four singles wrestlers in a tag match. You want to see the chemistry develop throughout instead of just being expected from the beginning. It’s that development of chemistry which led to Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega coming together with a One Winged Angel/Hidden Blade off the top tag team finish to win the match.
This will lead to Kenny Omega getting an AEW International shot against Konosuke Takeshita and Will Ospreay facing Kyle Fletcher again, this time in a steel cage. Two matches more than welcome to add to Revolution. Great excitement, and honestly? I think all four men have a better match in them if they ever choose to repeat it.
More Thoughts After 48
Jon Moxley: There was a lot of discussion on how the Brisbane Brawl would end. Some wanted Jay White to go over so he wasn’t just a punching bag in this program. I was good with Jay pinning Claudio and that leading to the Gunn’s teaming with Jay White to face Death Riders for the Trios Championship at Revolution. There was also the viewpoint that the Champion should get pinned here to build the match up at Revolution. Instead? Moxley choked Cope out. How is this guy getting a title match now?
Cope: My fear, my great fear at the moment, is that AEW President Tony Khan heard all of the screams of PIVOT PIVOT PIVOT so he now plans for Cope to get his retribution for being choked out by Mox at Grand Slam Australia and ends up winning the AEW Men’s World Championship at Revolution. That’s not the pivot anyone wanted, but monkey paws don’t care. Pivot you wanted? Pivot you get. Hopefully not. Cope tried really hard in the match though. He’s a very good wrestler still. Just as I said on BlueSky, there’s 10 guys he should never be ahead of in AEW and right now he is. That’s the problem.
Mariah May: Deserves all the credit in the world for how she handled this big main event match against Toni Storm.
Harley Cameron: There were a lot of people hoping Harley Cameron won this match and won the TBS Championship. That means AEW did their job making you think this wrestler with one TV win in her career should be able to beat Mercedes Moné, one of the best wrestlers in the world. That’s what a heel champion needs to do. Make you believe. Harley has done some great work on TV so hopefully they find a good role for her out of this.
Buddy Matthews: It’s unfortunate he got hurt in his entrance and looks like he might be out of action for a while after the match with Kazuchika Okada. It was a good TV match, but I feel like Buddy wished for more. The Hounds of Hell will be waiting for his return.
Kyle Fletcher: People thought Kyle would get cheered for being in Australia but people didn’t know that those in Brisbane don’t take kindly to those from Sydney. Even so, I think if he was still a babyface with Mark Davis they would have been cheered. It’s because Kyle Fletcher is such a great heel (along with Don Callis) that they still got booed. One of my big old man pet peeves is people thinking cheering a heel means the heel is doing good. No it’s not. You boo the heel to show they are doing their job. You cheer them if you want them to get a new job.
Road to Revolution 2025
Revolution is March 9, which means we got three Dynamite’s (Phoenix, Oceanside, Sacramento) and three Collision’s (Phoenix, Oakland, Sacrament) before the pay per view. The current matches booked are:
Big Boom! AJ versus TBA
Will Ospreay versus Kyle Fletcher in a steel cage match
Kenny Omega versus Konosuke Takeshita for the AEW International Championship
Cope versus Jon Moxley for the AEW Men’s World Championship
I could see rematches from Grand Slam: Australia coming out of Mariah May and Toni Storm, as well as Harley Cameron versus Mercedes Moné if they want to see if Cameron can pull off a successful rematch.
Another rematch I see will be Ricochet versus Swerve Strickland. Ricochet insists he’s done with Swerve, and Prince Nana also wants Swerve to start focusing on the AEW Men’s World Championship. Swerve, however? He can’t get over this. He’s going to want his rematch. He let Bobby Lashley beat him without trying to get revenge and he can’t do that again.
The match I’m looking forward to most would be Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Hangman Adam Page, a match five years in the making.
I expect some sort of multi-man tag match for the AEW World Tag Championship, and I’m not sure if Death Riders defend the Trios Championship or not. We now actually have a thriving Trios division but after Undisputed Kingdom lost I don’t know who steps up next for the shot. If it isn’t Jay White with the Gunn’s, maybe Danny Garcia with 2.0 get it?
We also have the word that Orange Cassidy is returning to action in AEW with a match against Roderick Strong, which could lead to an AEW International Championship shot against Konosuke Takeshita. If he loses, what does OC do next?
All I can say is that this is already looking to be an incredible pay per view and keep Revolution as the must watch AEW PPV of every year. 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024 all hold that distinction. Revolution 2025 should do the same.
Just please. No “Cope wins then gets cashed on by Christian Cage” finishes. If you’re gonna do anything? Cope loses. Christian cashes in. Christian loses. No Instashot ever again.
