Tonight from the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois is All Elite Wrestling All Out 2022 on pay per view.
I would love to write a long explanation as to how we got here, but this card is massive and I just don’t know if someone wants to read 5,000+ words on this. I’ll try to condense (over 3,000 words is me condensing lol) and get to the matches.
On May 14 at NJPW Capital Collision, Tomohiro Ishii defeated Eddie Kingston in one of the best matches of the night. After Eddie Kingston got suspended, his match with Ruby Soho against Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo got cancelled. This is now his chance at redemption against Big Tom. Lucky Eddie. Gets out of the program and still gets a major match on the show. Good job pahtnah!
Winner: Eddie Kingston
I’m glad 2point0 get on the preshow. I really hope Daddy Magic and Cool Ang get an AEW Tag title shot down the road. Maybe they should have got it tonight? Anyway, this is a good chance for Angelo Parker to show what he has as a solo competitor. 2point0 really proved everyone wrong by being solid contributor’s on the roster. I don’t know if they were a favour to Kevin Steen or not but I’m glad they are in AEW. A Hook match means I have to deal with Danhausen at some point so I’ll probably just go to the bathroom until the match is over.
Winner: Hook
As I mentioned earlier, Eddie Kingston and Ruby Soho were supposed to face Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo on the pay per view. There’s even rumours it was supposed to be a mixed trios match with Sammy and TayJay on one side and Eddie Kingston, Ruby Soho, and someone WWE just recently re-signed on the other. Again, this is all for the best it didn’t happen. Ortiz has really stepped up as Ruby’s tag partner, and Ruby has improved since her debut in AEW last year. Sammy and Tay likely retain, but I wouldn’t be against giving the titles to Ruby and Ortiz to defend in AAA.
Winners: Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo. Congratulations on the wedding.
Kip Sabian got shoulder surgery back in May of 2021 and is finally returning to the ring in August of 2022. I specify in ring because he’s been standing ringside with a box on his head for almost a year. The box head thing has been really weird, like there’s a storyline going on that has never been recorded. It’s just a bunch of lore that doesn’t exist but feels like it should. Kip made his return to cost Death Triangle their match against United Empire in the Trios tournament, and having him challenge for the All-Atlantic is a good way to come back to the roster. I’ve seen photos of Kip and he’s definitely put the time into the gym. I like the new look as well. I hope he’s found a new gear in the ring. He was always, “good but nothing special” and against PAC? You need to be special. I don’t see Kip winning on his first night back but I hope we see that extra gear he’s been missing.
Winner: PAC
Dragon versus Wizard.
As a fan of medieval fantasy I am very happy to see All Elite Wrestling provide us a dragon versus a wizard! Oh, it’s just nicknames? There isn’t a dragon? Not even a dragon man? Bummer. Well I guess getting Bryan Danielson vs Chris Jericho is a good substitute. I guess.
This has been one of the longest running feuds in AEW, beginning with Eddie Kingston and Chris Jericho’s match at Revolution in February. Jericho’s heel turn has been one of the best of his career. The man is truly a wizard. He continues to find ways to survive in new eras of professional wrestling. At 51 he’s having one of the best runs of his career, and one of his best runs in AEW. I get why people don’t want to give a multiple time donor to Donald Trump his props, but you don’t watch pro wrestling for smart people. You watch pro wrestling for great pro wrestling. Jericho is bringing it, and he’s facing the American Dragon so he better. This should be a great match and should be either the conclusion or close to it for Jericho Appreciation Society and Blackpool Combat Club.
Winner: Bryan Danielson
AEW lucked out on this one. Thunder Rosa has had a lackluster title reign, a combination of AEW booking her poorly and Thunder Rosa either being hurt or just not game as champion. Hopefully she takes a lot of time off and thinks about how she can turn the narratives currently about her in ring and out.
Replacing this is a much more exciting four way between the top four contenders in the division. Toni Storm was likely going to be winning the title from Rosa at All Out before Rosa bowed out due to injury. Jamie Hayter is one of the top heels in the division but needs something to stand outside the shadow of Britt Baker. Baker has been out of the title scene since dropping it to Rosa but has shown herself as more giving to her opponents unlike her reign where she did nothing but take. Finally, Hikaru Shida has been off television for most of 2022 working in Japan and only getting spots on Dark so AEW could try to heat up Marina Shafir. Yeah, let that sit in your brain for a little bit.
As an admitted Hikaru Shida fan, of course I want AEW to give to Shida what they recently gave Jon Moxley: give the wrestler who carried the women’s division during the pandemic a chance to be champion in front of full audiences. Shida called herself the best wrestler in the company and it’s hard to argue with her. Nothing would make me happier to see Shida be AEW Women’s champion again, even interim. But my guess is they want it on Toni Storm like the original plan.
Winner: Toni Storm
There’s a lot of drama surrounding Malakai Black from his hidden injury to rumours he’s depressed and unhappy about being a pro wrestler right now. He might have even asked for his release and didn’t receive it. I don’t know what’s going on, but what I do know is that Brody King has absolutely stepped up in his absence in his program against Darby Allin. Malakai Black still has a main event run in the holster with him so if he can get to 100%, I could see him and CM Punk having one of the best programs of the year. Of course, he’d need to stop running storylines where his crew assaults and harasses a young women only for the young woman to be manipulated into joining their “house” since that stuff is absolute garbage and needs to stay in WWE where it belongs. If it’s that stuff he wants to run and he’s unhappy he can’t? Let him out of the deal. Anyway, this story? It’s a bit long in the tooth, and the handling of Miro as a babyface has been a bit clunky, but I am certainly looking forward to Miro and Brody King throwing down. I am also looking forward to Darby Allin getting to move on from this into something new. If there’s anyone who should be unhappy it’s him. He went from one of the hottest stars in AEW to completely cooled down.
Winners: House of Black
Originally supposed to be Kris Statlander’s shot (which Statlander was likely going to win either tonight or at Grand Slam in NYC), Statlander unfortunately went down with another long term injury. Replacing her is Athena, who has been teaming with Statlander and makes perfect sense since Jade has been ducking her as well. I feel like Jade is going to continue as TBS champion until she reaches at least 50 wins, so I don’t see Athena winning. Then again, if Kris was supposed to win? Maybe Athena just takes the title all the same. I did really like Athena’s promo on Friday.
Winner: Jade Cargill
This program is way past its expiry date. They missed their peak by about a month. It doesn’t help that Jungle Boy just isn’t ready for a high profile singles program no matter how much AEW tries. Christian Cage is doing his best as a great heel but there’s only so much he can do. I expect Jungle Boy to win to end the program but it should be Christian Cage moving on to bigger and better things. Not looking forward to Jungle Boy trying to be an upper card babyface.
Winner: Jungle Boy
Should Wardlow have a singles match tonight? Probably. Should FTR be wrestling for the AEW Tag championship? Probably. Should Jay Lethal be getting a PPV match? Probably not. But the moment they said Satnam Singh and Sonjay Dutt were out and Motor City Machine Guns were in I didn’t give a care anymore. This is my favourite light heavyweight tag team of all time. The reunion of Alex Shelley with Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal gave me warm and fuzzy memories of the Paparazzi Productions in NWA:TNA some of my favourite wrestling skits of all time. You want two small guys who can believably hit Wardlow with offence? You need Sabin and Shelley. You want two guys with history and swagger to eventually face FTR for the ROH Tag championship? Motor City baby. I actually expect MCMG and Lethal to get the win so Wardlow can get one last decisive win against Lethal and finally powerbomb Satnam through a table while MCMG build their match for FTR down the road.
Winners: Jay Lethal and Motor City Machine Guns
One of the matches I’m most looking forward to. Powerhouse Hobbs is ready for the next level. The man is good on the microphone, has incredible presence, puts in the work improving his body, and wrestles an intense style that can work against guys smaller and bigger. When it comes to people who put in the work? Hobbs has done it and then some. I loved his turn on Ricky. I’ve loved his promos after the fact. I think he should be winning tonight. If he doesn’t win tonight? I hope the program goes forward so he can win the final match. Ricky Starks already seems to have his eyes on Chris Jericho after Rampage, which is usual for him. Always looking forward instead of dealing with the present. I know a lot of people love Ricky Starks but all I see is Dolph Ziggler for AEW. Crying promos. Complaining promos. Always relying on his potential. I know I’m the minority on that. Ricky probably wins but I’m never betting against a Powerhouse.
Winner: PA PA PA POWAHOUSE HOBBS
Poor Swerve In Our Glory. We watched the Jurassic Express as Tag Champs who most of their major programs were just being stapled to someone else’s program. This now happens to Swerve In Our Glory, getting stapled to the Gunn Club vs The Acclaimed program. Gunn Club will probably do a run in on this match to keep their program with The Acclaimed going. Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland deserve a proper title program against a proper rival. Would love to see it be 2point0 or La Facción Ingobernable.
Winners: Swerve In Our Glory
Someone on Twitter, I wish I remember who, had a great idea for this match. With eight spots, seven should go to seven factions in AEW. Each faction gets to pick one person to represent the faction. The eighth spot goes to the Joker. I loved the idea. Instead we get what feels like an eight man tag match but with three teams, a singles wrestler who’s tag partner is injured, and a Joker. Anyway, keep an eye on Rush. He’s been great in AEW since coming in. ROH fans are still bitter and keep bringing up his attitude and laziness but none of that has come out in AEW. Has anyone asked yet why the Casino Ladder Match is at All Out? Why does Double or Nothing have two gimmick matches? They should have named this something else. The Zero Hour Ladder Match. All Out Ladder War. I’m not paid to come up with names and it appears nobody is paid there to come up with them either.
The Joker
Lots of Joker speculation eh? Most think this could be Maxwell Jacob Friedman. He’s bound to be returning soon. I expect it is and he wins, after Tony Khan revealing that MJF vs CM Punk was the original plan for All Out in the main event before MJF was sent away and CM Punk got hurt. Maybe it’s someone you haven’t thought about that’s a free agent in pro wrestling right now like recently released from NXT UK Mark Andrews or former ROH World champ Bandido. Maybe someone we already know like Dragon Lee? Maybe Samoa Joe returning?
Or maybe it’s Kota Ibushi, 100% healthy and on loan from New Japan Pro Wrestling to absolutely shock everyone. Oh, a ladder match is too dangerous after his injury? IT’S KOTA IBUSHI HE DOESN’T CARE. Anyway yeah it’s probably MJF.
Winner (and Joker): Maxwell Jacob Friedman
Tony Khan once said he didn’t want to introduce the AEW Trios championship until Kenny Omega was ready. Well, Kenny Omega is ready. So here’s the match for it.
Omega has done a fantastic job creating intrigue and doubt as to whether or not he’s 100% for the match. The compression sweater, the deliberate sloppiness, the old school axe handle chops. It’s good enough to fool long time pro wrestling fans and wrestlers into thinking he’s actually not ready. The matches against La Facción Ingobernable and The United Empire were absolutely fantastic. Kenny not yet at full power, the United Empire beatdown, it’s all to try to give you doubt in the idea of The Elite being the inaugural Trios champions when we know Tony held the titles off for them.
On the other side we have the Dark Order, who have had a much rougher path to the final. Originally Ten was on the team, but was quickly hurt in the match against House of Black. They needed Miro to interfere so Alex Reynolds could get a flash pin on Malakai Black to advance. Evil Uno was about to enter the team but Andrade inexplicably attacked him backstage trying to recruit Ten who had crutches. Why not just say Evil Uno is still in Germany? Who knows. Anyway, this puts Hangman Page into the team, and he makes a huge contribution for their match against Best Friends. Dark Order wins again on a surprise pin, this time by John Silver on Chuck Taylor.
The Dark Order with Hangman Page are the unquestionable underdogs. To the point where people might be upset if Dark Order beats The Elite. WWE just recently tried having the team nobody expected to win pull it out and it backfired in their face with the Women’s Tag championship. It’s probably best for The Elite to go over, but I would also love for Hangman Page to do what he couldn’t last year in the 10 man tag and win it for his team. Hangman needs something to do. He literally wasn’t booked for this pay per view until the win on Friday. That said I gotta go with The Elite. They likely were supposed to win this against Undisputed Era before they all got hurt. Now Bobby Fish is fired so it’ll never happen. I’m not complaining. Replace him with Jay White.
Winners: The Elite
Double or Nothing in Las Vegas ended on CM Punk winning the AEW World Heavyweight championship from Hangman Page, ending his 197 day title reign after six title defences that will be better remembered than the reign itself. Despite all of CM Punk and FTR’s attempts at playing Bret “The Hitman” Hart covers, it’s Hangman Page playing the role of Bret’s first WWF World Championship title reign. Hart held the title for 174 days with 11 title reigns, against various opponents of shapes and sizes. Hangman’s six defences included two rematches but at least didn’t have mediocre opponents like Virgil and The Mountie for 30 seconds.
CM Punk was about to embark on his “PUNK STILL RULES” campaign after beating Hangman Page before shattering his foot and needing surgery. This didn’t just mean that AEW needed a new World Champion but they would also need a new main event for the NJPW vs AEW Forbidden Door pay per view in June, which was properly in Chicago and sold out the United Center. Replacing Punk in the main event against Hiroshi Tanahashi would be Jon Moxley to determine the interim AEW World champion. Moxley won.
Moxley, who carried AEW during the pandemic, really didn’t get a chance to be world champion in front of an audience. He got that opportunity this time and has been spectacular as champion. It’s arguably better than his original reign. CM Punk returned and after a weird moment calling out Hangman Page (allegedly a receipt for Hangman calling him a fraud for claiming he supports workers rights based on his behaviour backstage) the feud with Jon Moxley went into overdrive.
The past three weeks have reminded me of the build up to Steve Austin vs The Rock at WrestleMania X-7. That might sound like heresy to some people, but only if you don’t remember how they were originally building that program around Debra before turning it into Austin’s obsession with being World champion once again with only a few weeks remaining. In this, Punk and Moxley have been at each other’s throats to the point where they ended up doing the Undisputed unification match early in Cleveland, Ohio. That Dynamite people expected a 30 minute classic. They instead got Punk hurting his foot and Moxley taking advantage. Moxley ran through Punk only a week before the pay per view.
Punk returned to Chicago doubting himself only for his good friend and Second City Saint alum (who was the third member of that group? Can’t think of his name) to slap some sense into CM Punk the way Arn Anderson used to for Cody Rhodes. Remember that guy? The guy Punk basically replaced? Anyway, CM Punk would put down a killer line about someone trying to murder him since the day he was born. He followed it up with the less killer cheap pops about Chicago. We were getting a rematch.
And honestly? Kudos to Tony Khan. If we just went into All Out and CM Punk won a competitive match against Jon Moxley it would have felt hollow. This gives us the affirmation we needed that Jon Moxley was indeed the undisputed champion of AEW throughout the summer, and even if CM Punk defeats him tonight? He’s losing to a man he once destroyed. The rubber match can be done any time after, and it’ll have the world’s attention. I expect CM Punk to win tonight, but get the run he was supposed to get at the start of summer. But now we get it with a CM Punk that isn’t beating every in prime young star in AEW on his way up. He’s doing it with an Achilles’s Heel. Punk is beatable. Punk is vulnerable. Is CM Punk the injured asp in the snow waiting for an old man to be stupid enough to nurse him back to health? Guess we’ll find out when he leaves the comforts of Chicago.
Winner: CM Punk
My final thoughts on this show? I expect it to be long but I expect it to be great. There isn’t many results that would make me disappointed which is a good thing. My hope is that following All Out, Tony Khan plots out his next pay per view a little better. Injuries happen. Suspensions happen. I get it. But when Hangman Page is considered a top two contender for the AEW World Championship but doing absolutely nothing until the weekend of the pay per view? That doesn’t look good story wise. I get things might have come up but you can still write a better story for your former World champion than that. The Tag championship needs to be handled better. The women’s division needs a fresh start with a fresh champion, which they hopefully get. I give all the credit in the world for Tony Khan being able to take his incredibly talented roster and put them in very good matchups, but my emotional investment in AEW isn’t where it used to be. Hopefully it is coming out of this show.
Oh, one more thing. Please get that ROH TV deal done.
