All Elite Wrestling: All In review and match ratings.

In 2014, I began my journey in the world of pro wrestling with the dreams of making it big. Safe to say I fell well short of that, but as I have been reliving through my blog on this here website, some of the things I got to do in the business were things I never could have dreamed of doing. In 2023, I had an injury that basically made me rethink my time in wrestling, and I stopped paying attention to it until about 3 months ago. Since then, All Elite Wrestling has rekindled my love of the sport (mostly because Tony Khan signed all of my favorites from NJPW). I have been eagerly anticipating All In since the card started to come together and now that it's finally here, I am going to have the show on my PS5, my notes app open on my PC so I can write my live reactions to each match, and the Reddit discussion thread on my phone so I can interact with my fellow sickos. If you haven't watched the show, I highly recommend doing so, because I will be spoiling all of the matches before giving them a ranking out of 10 stars. I also don't believe in half, quarter, or decimal stars because what is the difference between 7.25 and 7.5. That's just silly. Full spoilers ahead.

Preshow:

• Sons of Texas def Shane Taylor Promotions: I’ll be honest, I’m pretty unfamiliar with any of the STP guys, but they were all as good as you can be in an 8-man tag match to open a show. Overall it was a fun opener and the pop for Kevin Von Erich hitting the claw was great. About as solid as you could hope for to open a show like this. ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

• Big Boom AJ, Tomohiro Ishii, Hologram, & Kyle O’Reilly def Don Callis Family: I still have no idea who Big Boom AJ or any of his crew are, and I don’t really care to be honest. All I know is that if I see my stone pitbull Tomohiro Ishii on my screen, I’m a happy guy. Once everything got settled after the hot start, there was some good back and forth between Hechicero and Hologram. Trent Beretta pushed a child to the ground. Finally after an eternity, my guy Ishii got in and had some good back and forth with Lance Archer. Once everything broke down, the kid from earlier hit a big spear on Trent and then AJ hit a powerboom on Rocky Romero for the win. I was going to make a comment about how AJ didn’t seem out of place the way that a lot of non-wrestlers do, but it turns out he was a wrestler for 10 years, so there’s a pretty good reason why he didn’t look out of place. Overall a fun match. It was what it was and there’s nothing wrong with that. ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

• FTR def The Outrunners: This was an old school tag match and it was great! FTR is obviously an all time great tag team and The Outriders absolutely held their own in this match. Once the match kicked into the next gear, I was glued to my screen and there’s not much more praise I can give it. A very good match that, if given more time, could be an incredible match. If Tony Khan is reading this for some reason, let’s run these teams back for some titles at some point. ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Main show:

• AEW Trios Championship: The Opps def Death Riders: Very good opener. As someone who was lucky enough to train with Katsuyori Shibata a few times, I can’t tell you how much I love seeing him every time he wrestles. There was some good back and forth throughout this match and after all of that, Joe hits Yuta with a muscle buster for the pin. After the match the Death Riders beat Joe down to the point where Joe was stretchered off. I was surprised that there wasn’t an appearance by Hook at some point. ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

• Men’s Casino Gauntlet: MJF def everyone else: Somehow this is the first Casino Gauntlet that I’ve ever seen. MJF and Mark Briscoe start things off here. Shortly after, Ricochet joins the match followed by Bandido. Later in the match, Juice Robinson returns but is then jumped by the Gates of Agony. I don’t know all of the rules of this match type, but this makes me think that there are no DQs, in which case why would you not come to the ring like New Jack and just beat the piss out of everyone with weapons, especially if you’re one of the first two. After a big tease by both Nigel McGuinness and the production team, Max Caster comes out and does his thing. Not too long later, Mark Briscoe hits Roderick Strong with the Jay driller. MJF shitcans Mark and steals the win. Fun match, but MJF winning gives me hope for Hangman winning the main event. ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

• TNT Title Match: Dustin Rhodes def Daniel Garcia, Kyle Fletcher, and Sammy Guevara: On the pre-show, it was announced that Adam Cole was out, so this match became a 4 way. Adam Cole comes out and talks to the crowd directly about his health issues. Very emotional promo followed by a very loud “Adam Cole, Baybay”. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious. After the promo, this match was essentially put out there to revive a saddened crowd. These four had their work cut out for them, and they all worked their asses off to bring the crowd back into it. Dustin got the win with a roll up on Daniel Garcia for as good of a feel good moment as you could ask for after the Adam Cole segment. As a match, it was fine, but the way they all brought the crowd back from the dead is a testament to all these guys. ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

• Swerve Strickland & Will Ospreay def The Young Bucks: We get an Assassin’s Creed stinger before a bunch of dudes with katanas do a dance routine while a monologue about Assassins plays in the background. Will Ospreay comes out and gets all of the pyro. And I mean, just a cartoonish level of pyro. Jojo Offerman is here to sing “Ain’t Nobody”. We are then treated with Prince Nana doing his dance down the entire length of the ramp during Swerve’s entrance. I’m not ashamed to admit, I was doing the dance on my couch at the same time. The Young Bucks come out, do their pose and get a significantly inferior pyro display. They then go to the back and come out on a boat on a scissor lift, while Justin Roberts reads a speech reminiscent of the one he read before Anarchy in the Arena. I have no problems with any of this. The match starts with the Bucks out tag teaming the two singles competitors, but shortly after, Swerve and Ospreay get on the same page. Near the middle of the match we get one of the most insane double down sequences I’ve ever seen (although it was more of a quad down). This crowd has come alive completely and we’ve got ourselves a barn burner. After many minutes of fantastic rasslin and a million superkicks, Swerve and Will hit a combo House Call/ Hidden blade to pick up the win. There were a few too many kickouts from big moves, but beyond that, this PPV paid for itself with this match. Banger ★★★★★★★★☆☆

• Women’s Casino Gauntlet: Athena def everyone else: Kris Statlander and Megan Bayne are the first two out and I can’t help but think that these two should be given 20 minutes to just go at it at some point. Lots of really good stuff in this match and all the ladies looked like they could be legit contenders for either Toni or Mercedes. Mina Shirakawa was going for a submission, when Athena hit her finish off the top for the pin. Very fun match that I enjoyed more than the men’s one. ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

• World Tag Team Title Match: The Hurt Syndicate def JetSpeed and The Patriarchy: FTR is on commentary for this one. The Hurt Syndicate are played to the ring by Westside Gunn and Smoke DZA. MVP grabs a mic and raps a bit as well. Jetspeed is out next. These two might be two of the best signings Tony Khan has made in a very long time. The Patriarchy is out next and Christian Cage still has some of the best music in all of wrestling. Good action from all three teams all throughout this match. At one point Shelton Benjamin German suplexed Mike Bailey over the ropes onto a crowd of other wrestlers, which was pretty cool. FTR is hilarious on commentary all throughout this match. Bobby Lashley throws Cristian Cage into FTR then pie faces them before spearing CC for the win. Good match all around, but damn if I don’t become a bigger Jetspeed fan by the week. After the match FTR confronts The Patriarchy. Nick Wayne betrays Christian Cage. Mama Wayne even gets in a few shots on Captain Charisma. Everyone is setting up a conchairto on Christian before Metalingus hits and Adam Copeland makes the save, after taking his time to run from one end of the stage to the other and then hit his pose on the ramp. He chases everyone off, then tells Christian to go find himself before leaving. ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

• Women’s World Title Match: Toni Storm def Mercedes Mone: It’s time for the first of three main events of the evening. A bunch of Texas Rangers cheerleaders are on the stage wearing all of Mercedes Mone’s various belts and start dancing while the CEO’s music plays. Mercedes is driven to the side of the ramp in a classic car before making her way to the ring in a cape adorned with the names of everyone she has beaten for all of her many titles. We get a short video of Toni Storm before she does a short version of the Willy Wonka thing on the stage. I’m on my couch trying to get a “Both these ladies” chant, but my cat isn't in the chanting mood apparently. The crowd is hot right off the bat with battling “Let’s go Toni” “CEO” chants. After a great back and forth match, Toni Storm hits a Storm zero piledriver off the second rope for the pin. Once again there was a little too much kicking out of big moves, but otherwise this was a great match. ★★★★★★★★☆☆

• Unified Title Match: Kazuchika Okada def Kenny Omega: I consider Omega/Okada 4 to be the second best wrestling match I’ve ever seen so I was fully amped for this one (#1 being Okada vs Shibata from Sakura Genesis 2017). We get Good Ol’ JR on commentary for these last two matches. Okada is out first accompanied by Don Callis. I wish he would come out with the dinosaur again but here we are instead (good luck finding a video that NJPW hasn't taken down). Omega is out next with a full choir performing his entrance. We also get Jason Charles Miller singing his music. Justin Roberts makes the introductions, the bell rings, and oh baby here we go!! Okada spends a good chunk of time working the midsection of Omega. Commentary makes sure to get across Kenny’s battle with diverticulitis. This was a much more American style match with the interferences and ref shenanigans. Okada wins it with a Rainmaker. It was easily their weakest match but damn if it still wasn’t great. ★★★★★★★★☆☆

• World Title Texas Death Match: Hangman Adam Page def Jon Moxley: It’s main event time, but for real this time. A cowboy with a guitar is on the stage and is shortly joined by a woman in a dress who whistles along with the guitar as we get a short video of Hangman Page. His original music hits and there is a really good small touch here as the camera is pointed at the heel entrance, but then whips over to the face side when Hangman comes out. Moxley’s music hits and he’s backstage riding in the bed of a pickup truck with the rest of the Death Riders. Mox and Marina walk to the ring and leave the rest of the crew who surely won’t be seen again for the rest of the night. We get blood a few minutes in when Hangman stabs Mox in the forehead with a fork, then Mox uses some barbed wire on Hangman’s forehead. A little later, the broken glass comes out and these two lunatics roll around in that for a while, before Mox hits a piledriver on the shards. After some more horror movie shit, Yuta tries to interfere but gets his ass handed to him immediately. Hangman sets up for the Buckshot, but Marina interferes and gets a death valley driver through a table that had been set up earlier. Claudio is out now to help Mox. As he and Yuta set up a table Ospreay runs down, followed by Gabe Kidd. The Arial Assassin is quickly outnumbered and he gets the same treatment as Samoa Joe did earlier. Things aren’t looking good for our cowboy. Mox suplexes Hangman from the apron through some barbed wire tables on the floor as Ospreay is stretchered out. Now thoroughly covered in blood, Mox and Hangman continue fighting in the ring leading to a couple of close calls. As Mox is about to put a plastic bag over Hangman’s head a video plays on the screen. Darby Allen recorded the world’s only promo from the summit of Mt. Everest. Then, Bryan Danielson runs in to take out the Death Riders. Darby repels from the ceiling to help as well. Danielson and Darby take the Death Riders away from the ring area and now everything is mostly even. After Marina helps Mox beat a 10 count, the Young Bucks show up and lay Page out. Mox and Marina pull a fucking bed of nails out from under the ring. Hangman takes a curb stomp and a ddt onto the nails. Hangman barely beats the 10 count and we cooking real good now. As Marina goes to grab the briefcase containing the belt, she is handcuffed. Prince Nana pops out and Swerve shows up to take out the Bucks. He slides Hangman the chain. Hangman tries to hang Mox over the ropes, but Mox gets out of it. Hangman hits a Buckshot lariat and Mox falls on the bed of nails. Hangman lives up to his name and hangs Mox over the ropes. Mox taps and we have a new champ. Hangman pulls the belt out of the briefcase and parades it around the ring. This match was everything it should have been. Perfection in wrestling form. ★★★★★★★★★★

Overall thoughts: I hate to say that I was slightly disappointed by the show, but when my expectations were for the last three matches to all be 5 star classics, that’s on me. Even the weakest match on this card was still pretty good, and of course the main event was the perfect ending. Much like Wrestlemania 40, the story was finished and it was perfect. On the whole, this is the type of event that makes me remember why I ever like pro wrestling in the first place.

Thanks for reading and don't let the bastards grind you down.