AEW Revolution 2021 begins with MJF and Chris Jericho challenging The Young Bucks for the AEW World Tag Team Championships. The Bucks controlled early, showing off their tag expertise. Jericho and MJF managed to cut off the babyfaces on the apron and then got some extra help from Wardlow behind the ref's back. Throughout the match, Jericho and MJF showed some strong chemistry and, though he certainly wasn't moving as fast as he once was, Jericho's timing and execution was very good, speeding things up and slowing things down when needed to build a heated match. Highlights included: a rare Canadian Destroyer that actually looked good and organic from Nick Jackson, the Bucks' busting out a Motor City Machine Guns-esque combo neckbreaker/powerbomb out of the corner, Jericho and MJF's stalled vertical suplex (with added middle fingers to the audience), MJF countering a hurricanrana attempt into a sit-out powerbomb, and a good false finish after Jericho inadvertently hit Wardlow with a Judas Effect. On the negative side, there was an iffy moment when Nick Jackson springboarded into the Liontamer and I'm not a fan of underselling getting struck by a baseball. As one would've and could've expected, the final minutes were overloaded with signature spots, including a BTE Trigger and a whole bunch of superkicks before the Bucks hit the Meltzer Driver to get the clean win. I liked the booking here as the Bucks, the experienced tag team, were able to use their expertise and experience to get the clean win against two singles guys. Not an all-time great match or anything, but a smartly-worked one that certainly helped some of Jericho's physical limitations at this point in his career. (3/5)
The Tag Team Casino Royale was next with The Dark Order's Number 10 (Preston Vance) and Alan "5" Angels and Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall starting things off. Next in were Santana and Ortiz, who immediately go to work on Dustin. Santana and Ortiz get a bunch of their shit in, but it makes little sense in this context as everyone else sorta stands around them and watches. Angels is the first man eliminated, but Vance stays in the match. Next in are Matt and Mike Sydal, followed by Stu Grayson and Evil Uno, a pairing that I've been impressed by. Mike Sydal is eliminated as the Dark Order guys go at it with Santana and Ortiz. Awesome Grayson and Uno spot where Grayson basically tossed Santana into Uno for a sit-out powerbomb. The Gunns come in next, making their AEW PPV debut if I'm not mistaken. Matt Sydal got eliminated by Santana and Ortiz, making them the first team fully out of the match. Peter Avalon and Cesar Bononi (who I'd never heard of) come in next. Brian Pillman Jr. and Griff Garrison came in next, the ring really loaded up at this point. Bononi hit a tremendous suplex on both Pillman and Garrison to show off his power. Avalon was eliminated soon after by the Gunns, who attempted to toss Bononi but the Gunns got pushed over the top by QT! Dustin got in his face about it, leading QT to eliminate himself (the Gunns were associates of the Nightmare Family). Next in: Bear Country, who came in and made a huge statement with their strength and power. They tossed Grayson as the clock ticked down and in came Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus. Double chokeslam on Pillman and Garrison by Luchasaurs! Jungle Boy eliminates Ortiz, but eats a big strike from Bononi! Bononi goes over! Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy - with Marko Stunt - go on a tear and eliminate a few guys as The Butcher and the Blade join the fray. Butcher and Blade eliminate Vance and Pillman and, as the commentators note, Jack Evans could be seen momentarily but was also eliminated from a match that he wasn't even a part of. Not sure what the purpose of that was. With help from The Bunny, Dustin Rhodes gets eliminated and we're down to Bear Country, Butcher and Blade, and the Jurassic Express. In comes Private Party, who take a whole bunch of time with counters and evasions just to hit a rather weak double heel kick on Jungle Boy. Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian come in and end up being the focus of Luchasaurus, allowing Bear Country to come from behind and eliminate him. Then Bear Country gets thrown over by The Butcher! PAC and Rey Fenix come in and out goes The Blade and Quen from Private Party. Fenix nearly gets eliminated by Daniels as in comes John Silver and Alex Reynolds, the third team from the Dark Order stable. Cool moment when Reynolds piledrove Jungle Boy into Daniels' stomach. Silver and Reynolds then got rid of Isiah Cassidy. The Butcher was the next out. The remaining 7 brawled it out with Rey Fenix eliminating Daniels and then Reynolds getting sent off the apron and over the post by Jungle Boy. PAC eliminates Kazarian next, leaving Death Triangle, Jungle Boy, and John Silver as the last men standing. The final minutes of this were really fun as we got some cool elimination teases, Silver and PAC squaring off (ending with PAC delivering an awesome German Suplex), Fenix going "Old School" on the top rope, a ridiculous Fenix tope to the floor, a brilliant superkick by Jungle Boy when Fenix came off the top rope, and a reverserana by Jungle Boy. One of the best finishes to a battle royale that I can recall, good enough to lift an otherwise rather pedestrian and not-so-special battle royale into above-average territory. (3/5)
Hikaru Shida vs. Ryo Mizunami for Shida's AEW Women's World Championship was next. This one started out a bit odd as Mizunami would give Shida a super stiff chop in the corner and then go into "comedy mode" within an instant, lightly padding the champion and miming/doing the robot, before going on the attack again. Commentary didn't seem to know how to "sell" what they were seeing really, though Excalibur at least tried (Jim Ross seemed to disappear from commentary completely after a few minutes). This awkward start was followed by some incredible action, though, as Shida and Mizunami beat the hell out of each other and we saw some nasty suplexes and a cool spot where Shida got tossed over the guardrail into a group of "fans" (lower tier wrestlers that made up the first row due to Covid restrictions). Unfortunately, in the final stretch, we got a few too many nearfalls and false finishes and things got a bit sloppy with both Shida and Mizunami looking not only gassed, but possibly concussed. Some of the knees and lariats they threw at each other over the course of the content were absolutely brutal. By the time Shida put Mizunami out of her misery, it really looked like she couldn't get up to defend herself at all. (3/5)
Miro and Kip Sabian beat the hell out of Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor before their match, with Miro sending Taylor through some glass (which seemed to have opened up Taylor's) and then dragging him into the ring, all the while taunting him by calling him "Charles." It was awesome. Sabian and Miro proceeded to beat the holy hell out of Taylor, who also seemed to get cut underneath the eye at some point. Taylor's selling was excellent and Cassidy eventually making his way down the aisle told a good story, but this felt very much like something you'd see on Dynamite as opposed to a PPV. Miro was the all-star, but I can see why some might've thought, right from the start, that being put into a tag match with Kip Sabian and the Best Friends was underselling his talent, presence, and star power. This was fun - especially the Cassidy/Miro exchanges - but inessential. (2.5/5)
Matt Hardy took on "Hangman" Adam Page in the next match. This match had a bit of a goofy stipulation - if Page won, he'd receive all of Matt's Quarter 1 Earnings - but it exceeded my expectations and was really smartly worked with an emphasis on Hardy going after Page's right hand to limit his ability to hit the Buckshot Lariat and Page doing some good extended selling work. Coming off of the dreadful Ultimate Deletion match from the last show, I was not expecting to enjoy anything Matt Hardy was doing, but this was a hard-hitting, well-paced match with a feel-good ending thanks to some interference by the Dark Order. (3/5)
The "Face of the Revolution" Ladder Match was next with the winner receiving a shot at Darby Allin's TV Title. The participants were Penta, Lance Archer, Scorpio Sky, Max Caster, Cody Rhodes, and...the mystery entrant: "All Ego" Ethan Page. This was a sloppy mess with some surprisingly poor or, at best, generally unremarkable showings out of every single competitor except Lance Archer, whose inability to win in big PPV matches really hurt his credibility as anything more than a "JTTS" (Jobber To The Stars) heat-and-serve monster. Cody Rhodes tried to gain some sympathy by getting taking out of the match due to an aggravated shoulder injury and then making his return 10 minutes later, but I felt indifferent to his participation in the match entirely. This match desperately needed someone like Darby Allin, Jack Perry, or John Silver to come in and get that underdog crowd support or to build "hope spots" around. Without a core figure to build the match around - and Cody's booking had made him somewhat unlikeable by this point - the match needed to be filled with ridiculous, never-seen-before ladder spots to merit its 20+ minute runtime. Unfortunately, at times, Penta looked tepid. Ethan Page looked out of his element. Scorpio Sky was just sorta "there" for extended stretches and did nothing that "stole the show." On the positive side, Max Caster took some nasty bumps and Lance Archer had the best looking offense, but this was a real disappointment considering AEW's reputation for a roster that is willing to do higher risk stuff than what the WWE offers. (1.5/5)
Christian makes his debut in AEW by signing a contract in the middle of the ring.
Next up - a streetfight with Darby Allin and Sting taking on Brian Cage and Ricky Starks. I was expecting an actual match and not a "cinematic" one. The match begins in an empty warehouse where there is an old ring and a referee standing because...On the plus side, I really liked Sting and Darby's "entrance." The commentary was weird because they were treating it like a "live" wrestling match despite it clearly being filmed. I liked the look of this match much more than the Ultimate Deletion from the previous show. Darby can be counted on to do cool shit and his "segments" during the early part of this match against Brian Cage were terrific. Hobbs and Hook showed up at one point to double-team Darby with Hobbs and Cage eventually swinging Darby through a window. The comeback came when Darby tossed Sting his trademark baseball bat. This led to Darby Allin hitting a huge elbow drop from the top floor of the warehouse onto Cage with both men falling through the floor. In the ring, Sting and Starks went at it with Starks hitting a spear for 2 and the streetfight turned into a basic wrestling match with Sting hitting the Death Drop to win. I'm not sure why this match needed to end with a decisive pinfall in the middle of the ring when the best and most interesting aspects of the "match" was the unique location and how the wrestlers interacted and utilized it. One of the better cinematic matches I've seen, especially compared to the Matt Hardy one and the Britt Baker one, both of which were pretty bad. (3/5)
Main event time - Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley in an Exploding Barb Wire Death Match. The rules were fairly simple: three sides of the ring would have ropes covered by barb wire, when a wrestler went into it, an explosion would occur, there were also three "triple hell" zones outside of the ring with wired explosives, and at the 30 minute mark, all the explosives around the ring would automatically detonate (guess how many minutes this match would go?). I'm not going to detail every ridiculous spot in this match because, from bell to bell, this is a tremendous, bloody, violent, and highly entertaining match. The psychology and "teases" in the beginning of the match are great, Moxley takes some nasty bumps into various barbwire boards, and I really liked Omega's selling throughout. This match, bell to bell, absolutely delivered. The actual finish - the one that led to a pinfall - looked awesome. Unfortunately, after that closing bell, things turn to shit. The Good Brothers and Omega beat down Moxley for what feels like an eternity before Eddie Kingston shows up to cover up his longtime "frien-emy" as the ring is about to be blown to bits. Of course, the ring does not blow up. Instead, some firecrackers go off along the ring posts and everyone is left with their pants down (actually, had Kingston, Moxley, and the entire commentary team simply stood up in the ring with their pants down, it might have actually been less cringe). As the commentators tried their best to sell the moment - which was so ridiculously underwhelming, there was simply nothing they could say to save it - Kingston laid on top of Moxley like they were trying to survive a nuclear bomb dropping. In that moment, TK should've just cut the cameras because every additional second of showing Kingston and Mox was embarrassing. And, for this reason, this unnecessary post-match moment, this match is rightfully shat on and remembered as being a joke. It is truly unfortunate that this is the match's legacy because the actual match itself is terrific. Terrific enough for me to still consider this whole presentation, warts and all, as "must see." (4/5)
With a Kwang Score of 2.88-out-of-5, AEW Revolution 2021 was, by my scorecard, the best AEW PPV since the first All Out event. Unfortunately, its memory is marred by not only the embarrassing non-explosion at the end of the event, but also the kind of Cody Rhodes performance that helps explain why so many fans "turned" on him towards the end of his AEW run. Ignoring those glaring problems, though, the rest of the card is solid if not super memorable. Hangman, The Young Bucks, Darby Allin, and Brian Cage are all so impressive in their respective matches that they pick up the slack for their veteran opponents, and the Women's Championship match, while a bit odd at first, does end up offering some really hard-hitting action that'll please any fan of classic joshi.
FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote In Hand
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