AEW Revolution 2022

AEW Revolution 2022

Orlando, FL - March 2022

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into this show, the AEW World Champion was "Hangman" Adam Page, Sammy Guevara was the TNT Champion, the AEW Women's World Champion was Dr. Britt Baker, the TBS Champion was Jade Cargill, and the Jurassic Express were the AEW World Tag Team Champions. 

AEW Revolution 2022 kicks off with Chris Jericho taking on Eddie Kingston. This match was built around Kingston wanting Jericho's respect, but the in-ring action was basically a Greatest Hits of Japanese-inspired throws and strikes. They both brought their A-game to this match, delivering a whole slew of suplexes and backfists and elbows and all of them hit their mark. Liked how it started with Kingston hitting a half-and-half suplex as soon as the bell rang, but it was a very similar start to his match with Punk in that respect. This was a hard-hitting battle and homage to the AJPW style of the 80s and 90s that had the crowd on the edge of their seat and featured none of the "hamminess" of some of Jericho's other AEW matches. I didn't love the finish only because the Stretch Plum - a move made famous by Misawa, if I'm not mistaken - doesn't look like a super-deadly finish to me (even when Misawa applies it). (3/5)

Next up - Jurassic Express defending the AEW World Tag Team Championships against ReDragon (Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish) and The Young Bucks in a triple threat match. The story here is that ReDragon and the Bucks have agreed to focus on Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus as their friendship dates back many years. Of course, about a third of the way in they realize that this means they have to break up each other's pin attempts which leads to conflict which leads to this just becoming a wild spotfest that the referee can barely control. I thought this built up really well and was maybe most impressed by Perry and Luchasaurus. Having now watched a fair bit of Jurassic Express, I'm 100% confident saying that Jack Perry is a much, much better tag worker than he is as a singles and it is not remotely close. Not only can he take an ass-kicking as the face-in-peril, but his comebacks are terrific and his offense was really well-executed here. Because this is a Bucks match, they definitely dip into overkill territory with the kickouts and the superkick sequences and I do think this match would've been better if maybe they had shaved off a nearfall or two. This "more is better" approach ends up causing the match to "peak" a good couple of minutes before we get to the finish. (3.5/5)

The Face of the Revolution ladder match followed with the winner getting a future TNT Championship opportunity. The combatants were Powerhouse Hobbs, Christian, Ricky Starks, Wardlow, Keith Lee, and the MVP of the contest, Orange Cassidy. I believe Keith Lee had debuted not too long before this event but would have to look it up. He was super over. Some of Cassidy's spots were really clever and fun, though I am an unabashed fan of the guy. Danhausen showed up at a certain point, which felt a little "hat on a hat" to me as his shtick is even more goofy than Cassidy's. As with any match, there are some painful-looking bumps, including Lee and Hobbs getting shoved off the entranceway through a table (it looked to me like Hobbs crashed through the table first, meaning Lee basically just landed on the remains of the table and concrete). Nothing super special here, but no worse than average. (3/5)

Swerve Strickland made his AEW debut in the next segment. A loud "Swerve" chant started up after his music quieted down, but there's nothing super notable about him signing with the company. 

Jade Cargill defended her TBS Championship against Tay Conti in the next match. It started with a bizarre kiss "mind game" from Cargill to Conti, throwing her off her game right from the start. Cargill was wearing green and looking green, but she got good heat by mocking Conti's martial arts background. Conti's trifecta of jumping kicks in the corner looked great and were followed by a tornado DDT that looked like it could've legitimately twisted Cargill's neck (not due to Conti's poor execution but because of how awkward Cargill took the move). Conti took out "Smart" Mark Sterling with a front flip splash while Cargill booted Anna Jay into a table. Some not so pretty wrestling followed and Cargill ended up running into a chair held up by Anna Jay for a nearfall. Conti gave her another DDT and hit a nifty DDT but only got another 2 count. Cargill hit a wild Eye of the Storm spinning slam but the route to get there wasn't too smooth. Cargill landed a frog splash for another nearfall and Conti rolled to the outside. Cargill followed her to the outside and ate another kick from Conti, who rolled her back into the ring. Once there, Conti hit a piledriver and, again, Cargill looked like she took the move quite poorly. Conti went to the top, got shoved, felt face-first onto the post, and then got pulled off the ropes by Jade, who executed her finishing move to retain the title. Jade's offense looked good, but all the transitions and counters and bumping were pretty poor. They might've overshot things here, trying to hit sequences and moves that were a bit too advanced for what Cargill was capable of at the time. I'll give some credit for the effort. (1.5/5)

A Dog Collar Match between CM Punk and MJF followed. Punk came out to his old Ring of Honor entrance music and was in his old black-and-white basketball shorts get-up. Within the first 5 minutes, he was leaking blood all over his face, sporting the proverbial "crimson mask," but the fight was fairly back-and-forth throughout. The crowd was heated for this but seemed to be waiting on a "big spot" to bring them to their feet (I don't think the crowd was as "dead" as some reviews make it out to be), but they didn't rush anything, really getting over how grueling and tiring the stipulation was. Punk's tombstone on the apron was a clear highlight, as was the suspense built around the pair of big thumbtack spots,  but it was Wardlow's appearance in the closing minutes that garnered the biggest reaction of the match. This match is a bit overrated on Cagematch in my view, but I can understand the love in the sense that, for its time, in AEW, a match like this provided a stark contrast to the faster-paced, "movez"-heavy matches that Omega, the Bucks, and others were having. A good match, no doubt, and certainly a worthy chapter in the history of dog collar matches thanks to the focus on the stipulation, MJF's selling throughout, Punk's targeted attack on MJF's hand and MJF's work on Punk's knee, and the crowd-pleasing finish, still, if one were hoping for innovation or a creative twist on an old school classic, this wouldn't be where to find it. Punk and MJF executed a "traditional" feud-ending blood-soaked battle, nothing more and nothing less. (3.5/5)

Dr. Britt Baker, DMD defended her AEW Women's Championship against Thunder Rosa in the next match. If Punk and MJF managed to make 30 minutes feel like 15 because of how much emotion they put into every punch, Baker and Thunder made a 17-minute match feel like twice that. Baker and Rosa threw every move they knew into this fight but something was still "missing." Granted, they had to follow a very heated, main event-level grudge match, but its not like they didn't have time to get the crowd back into things or were facing a "cold" audience. Neither Rosa or Baker are the smoothest workers, but what this match really needed was a more interesting through-line, a story beyond just how evenly matched they are. The most heated moments of the contest were when Baker's cronies - Jamie Hayter and Rebel - got involved and Rosa got visual pins on the champ, but they took 12+ minutes to get there and nothing before really registered beyond "okay." Again, this is a case of two wrestlers knowing and delivering some very good moves - Baker's Avalanche Celtic Cross was great - but not structuring the overall match in a way that felt new and exciting. Baker can be a great heel, but didn't really draw much heat. When it was time for Rosa to string together a series of fiery comeback moves, they didn't look well-executed. This was a disappointment, but also a match that exposed Baker and Rosa's limitations at the top of the division and, more obviously, in matches that go deep in minutes. (2/5)

Bryan Danielson took on Jon Moxley in the next contest. The storyline going into this match was that Danielson wanted to team with Moxley, but Moxley said he couldn't trust a tag partner until they had gone to war against each other. That's about as good a set-up as you need and they do proceed to go to war against eachother. Danielson is really relishing in his pseudo-heel/Ring of Honor persona at this point, though I can understand why it may have been a bit jarring to those unfamiliar with his pre-WWE work. Moxley bleeds a gusher (because why not?), but he did practically guarantee it in all his promos before the match so you had to know he would deliver. Big strikes, great execution by Danielson with practically everything he does, Moxley taking a ton of punishment but showing how tough he is...its all good, but maybe never great. Like in the Punk/MJF match, I wouldn't say the crowd was "dead," but they certainly weren't mic'd well to capture the atmosphere. My biggest gripe would be the very poor finish. They took a big swing with the referee counting down Danielson's shoulders while he had a choke locked in, but it was captured terribly by the camera (which, from the angle we saw, Danielson's shoulder was very clearly off the mat, a fact that wasn't even noted on commentary). The post-match provided a great moment, though, as William Regal made his AEW debut, slapping both guys in the face and forcing them to shake hands. I wouldn't consider this "must see," but it was certainly above-average until the wonky finish. (3.5/5)

Next up - Sting, Darby Allin, and TNT Champion Sammy Guevara took on the team of Matt Hardy, Andrade El Idolo, and Isiah Kassidy (of Private Party). I wasn't expecting them to go as long as they did following the Danielson/Moxley war (which went a full 20-minutes without including the post-match stuff) but this Tornado Trios Match got over 10 minutes and they didn't waste much time getting to the good stuff, with some crazy high spots including a Spanish Fly from Guevara to Kassidy off of part of the entrance structure through a pair of tables (which didn't even fully break but more just collapsed) and Sting diving off a balcony to put Andrade through a whole stack of tables. The MVPs of the match, unsurprisingly, were Andrade and Darby Allin, though, the former giving the latter an absolutely nasty and perfect double stomp in the corner at one point. Unfortunately, Matt Hardy was out of position for the Coffin Drop finish, which is a shame because, had he hit it flush, it would've been a great closer instead of feeling like the perfunctory, pre-planned "go home" spot. (3/5)

Main event time - "Hangman" Adam Page defending his AEW World Championship against Adam Cole. I knew coming into this that I would most likely not enjoy this match. It was precisely what I expected - Page and Cole going back-and-forth, dishing out a ton of cool-looking moves and high spots, but never having me doubt that Page would prevail and never offering anything unique, different, or outside of each guy's wheelhouse. At this point in his career, based on what I've seen, Page was still very much a guy that would work his opponent's matches rather than one who had developed his own "brand" of in-ring storytelling. When the opponent was Danielson or Omega or even a fun, athletic powerhouse like Brian Cage, Page's ability to adjust his style led to good-to-great results. Here, though, he's wrestling Adam Cole, a guy who makes up for his lack of size or real presence with well-timed superkicks, backstabbers, and other big signature moves, including his Canadian Destroyer (a move I generally dislike no matter who is doing it). In the end, though, all the "movez" in the world couldn't make up for the fact that this felt like two guys "performing" a great match rather than having one. Even the eventual run-ins from reDragon and the Dark Order, as well as a Deadeye through a table, felt "by the book." They do so, so much in this match but none of it left an impression on me and, at 26 minutes, that is a lengthy amount of time to only be impressed by execution and not by storytelling. (2/5)

A bit of a mixed bag in terms of entertainment value, Revolution 2022 was a slight step down from the previous two AEW shows I've reviewed, earning only a 2.77-out-of-5 Kwang Score. While there isn't a single match I'd consider an all-timer (even the widely-praised MJF/Punk Dog Collar match), the show is at least interesting up until the main event. This show also highlights how AEW had, to some degree, "lost its way" a bit once CM Punk became the brand's centerpiece. The crowd was super into everything he did and his feud with MJF made for great television, but because his style was so far removed from the more flashy, "work-ratey" style of The Bucks, this version of Hangman, Omega, and guys like Sammy Guevara and Jungle Boy, it also led to shows like this that offered a fair amount of variety but didn't necessarily make sense as a "whole meal." This show also highlighted how relatively weak the women's division was, at least compared to what the WWE had going on around this same time. I can see a lot of people - especially viewers in 2025 - not loving this show based more on the viewing experience today than the experience at the time as guys like Moxley, Jericho, Jungle Boy, Cole, Matt Hardy, Ricky Starks, and even Punk have been a bit overexposed or, in some cases, "flamed out" a bit since this show aired. 

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver