AEW All Out 2021

AEW All Out 2021

Chicago, IL - September 2021

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into this show, the AEW World Champion was Kenny Omega, the TNT Champion was Miro, the AEW World Tag Team Champions were The Young Bucks, and the AEW Women's World Champion was Dr. Britt Baker.

Opening up the show - which was built around CM Punk returning to in-ring action for the first time in 6 years - was Eddie Kingston challenging Miro (Rusev) for the TNT Championship. Kingston got some offense in early, but Miro took over once they went to the outside. Kingston went for a crossbody off the apron but Miro caught him with a powerslam to the floor. Miro followed it up by lifting Kingston up and ramming him back-first into the post. Kingston tried to fight back but Miro kept the pressure on, applying a headlock to keep Kingston on the mat. Miro hit a beautiful dropkick but couldn't capitalize on it. Kingston hit an enziguiri and then a belly-to-back suplex before we got a strike exchange sequence. Kingston hit 2 more suplexes but only got a nearfall. Kingston went for the spinning backfist but Miro ducked to the outside. Kingston dived to the floor, sending Miro into the guardrail, and then caught him with a fisherman suplex for 2 in the ring. Miro went to work on Kingston's lower back in the corner and Eddie accidentally pulled off the turnbuckle pad. Miro hit a brilliant thrust kick and then applied his finisher, but the crowd would not let Kingston quit and he was able to grab hold of the bottom rope to a huge pop. Kingston surprised him with a huge spinning backfist and a DDT but the ref was out of position for the count! Kingston couldn't get Miro up for a piledriver and was prevented from using the exposed turnbuckle by Remsburg, who also missed Miro delivering a mule kick to Kingston's groin. Miro then hit a pair of devastating kicks to get the W. I thought this was pretty good with Miro's offense looking especially good. (3/5)

Eddie Kingston's good buddy Jon Moxley took on Satoshi Kojima in the next match. As I'm not super familiar with Japanese wrestling, I'd never seen Kojima compete before. This was good, hard-hitting stuff, but I didn't find myself emotionally invested. The debut of Minoru Suzuki in AEW during the post-match is remembered more than anything Kojima and Moxley do, which is a bit of a shame because they delivered a good, straight-forward contest. Nothing super special, which is why Meltzer giving it 4-stars seems awfully high. Nice and concise at 12 minutes. (2.5/5)

Dr. Britt Baker defended her AEW Women's World Championship against Kris Statlander in the next match. I wasn't expecting a great match here as Baker did not impress me much in her title win against Hikaru Shida at the previous show and, for ages, I'd heard that Statlander wasn't too great until recently. I ended up liking this quite a bit and would say that if Statlander was "hit or miss" at this time, she was "hit" on this night. Like the two previous bouts, this one went just a little over 10 minutes but felt more "complete" than either, building in suspense as it went along. It didn't start with "big fight feel," but, by the end, it felt like a major championship match. I'm never a fan of the Panama Sunrise, but it was a nice touch here considering who would be making their debut at the end of the night. Liked the Curb Stomp on the floor. Statlander's missed 450 was still unreal to see based on her size. Very solid match. (3/5)

The AEW World Tag Team Championships were on the line next as The Young Bucks defended against The Lucha Bros in a steel cage match. These two teams have such tremendous chemistry and are capable of so much that you know that you're going to get a real fireworks show every time they face off. I came into this not knowing who would win, but figuring that the Bucks were the obvious choice just based on how they'd been presented in the months building to this match (as rather dominant, ultra heel champions). This match delivered absolutely everything one would expect and more. Some of the high spots - and there were a ton - were unbelievable. Highlights included the best Canadian Destroyer I've ever seen (and it came off the top rope!), Rey Fenix getting drilled onto the apron multiple times, a great Superkick Party sequence that didn't feel hokey, Penta and Fenix both getting busted open by the Bucks' thumbtack-studded Air Jordan, and Penta sacrificing himself for his brother was a great moment. I don't think this falls into "masterpiece" territory but it is darn close and certainly worth watching if you're a fan of either team or just want to watch a really fun, spot-loaded, violent match in front of a red hot crowd. (4/5)

The next match was the Women's Casino Battle Royal. There were some good showings here and the crowd was very enthusiastic throughout the whole thing, but particularly vocal in their support of Skye Blue (a hometown favorite in Chicago), Thunder Rosa, and Ruby Soho, who debuted as the "Joker." On the heel side of things, Nyla Rose was treated as a huge deal, while Emi Sakura, Riho, and Hikaru Shida weren't (somewhat surprising considering Sakura's career and the fact that Riho and Shida were former AEW Women's World Champions). Some of the eliminations looked a little awkward as some competitors struggled to clear the top rope without bouncing off the bottom one (and, in some cases, it was quite noticeable). This also led to multiple "apron eliminations," which can get repetitive. The final two were Soho and Rosa and, while the crowd was happy to see Soho get the victory, in hindsight, Rosa probably should've got the W here as her and Baker were coming off a legendary Lights Out Match (still need to watch that sometime) and Soho, while a good hand and arguably the biggest "name" talent on the women's roster at the time, probably needed a bit more time to develop as an "AEW talent" instead of coming in and ex-WWE talent and getting an almost-instant title shot. (2/5)

The Battle Royal was followed by Chris Jericho putting his career on the line against MJF. Going nearly 20 minutes, with Jericho spending much of it selling on the mat or on the outside, this match struggled to maintain my interest after the admittedly excellent ring entrances. For a guy that tends to speak of himself as a creative genius, there just wasn't anything interesting about this match to warrant such a long runtime. In a sense, it made me think of how, in one of his books, Jericho listed out all the transitions and sequences in his match against CM Punk, trying to "sell" the match as an epic to the reader. As impressive as it looked on paper, it isn't a 5-star classic and I wouldn't consider it even among the top 10 or 20 matches of either guy's career (even back then). Similarly, on paper, maybe this match would come off as an amazing battle loaded with great long-term storytelling ideas (Jericho targeting MJF's lower back to set him up for the Lion Tamer, for example) and nifty twists on old favorites (MJF's Heatseeker on the apron), but it never really grabbed me and the audience didn't seem particularly hot until the false finish and the referee reversing her initial decision. Speaking of the "Dusty Finish," I actually thought it was one of the better-executed ones I've seen because there was a clear reason - to prevent Swagger and Wardlow from interfering - as to why a second referee was at ringside and able to see Jericho's foot on the rope. It was the best part of an otherwise somewhat disappointing match. (2/5)

CM Punk made his in-ring return after 7 years to take on fellow babyface and fan favorite Darby Allin in the next match. Choosing Allin as his first opponent was a wise move as Darby was already one of the best workers on the roster at this point. In fact, Darby's bumping here - specifically a wicked one he took into the ring post that sent him to the outside and the way he crumpled and fell out of the ring after Punk hit him with his first GTS - was really what "made" this match. That's not to say CM Punk didn't look good too and I especially liked how he wrestled with clear strategy and purpose (plus the subtle pseudo-heeling by not breaking the referee's count when he thought he might get the victory with Allin on the floor). Obviously, the atmosphere for this match also pushes it a bit closer into "should watch" territory. Very good. (3.5/5)

Big Show vs. QT Marshall was next. This was clearly designed to be a "piss break" match and the best thing that can be said about it is that it did, in fact, serve its purpose and not eat up too much time. I don't even think it went 3 minutes bell-to-bell. I'll give it a point for not overstaying its welcome. (1/5)

Main event time - Christian challenging Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship. The story coming into this match was that Kenny Omega, who had previously won the TNA World Championship by defeating Rich Swann, had dropped that title in his first major loss to Christian on the premier episode of Rampage in August. This made Christian the Number One Contender for Omega's AEW World Championship. The trouble with a match like this is that, despite beating Omega weeks earlier, it felt very predictable that Omega would "get his win back" here. With the finish not really in question at any point, Christian and Omega had to make this match work without the benefit of real suspense. What won the crowd over in this match was the quality action and the inventive spots. This was a 20+ minute fight, well-paced, well-wrestled, and thoroughly engaging. I'm not sure what else these two could have done to add drama as they pulled out all the stops and even through in some Elite fuckery at the end before Omega finished Christian off with a One Winged Angel from the top rope. Good stuff. (3.5/5)

What might be remembered more than anything else from this show, though, was the post-match debuts. First, after beating down Christian and the Jurassic Express (who came in to try to save him), Omega cut a brief promo about how the only people that are "on his level" are either not "here" (meaning, in AEW), tired (did he mean retired?), or dead (which was quite a statement). This led to the arrival of Adam Cole (Bay Bay!) to a huge ovation. Cole teased some awkwardness with Omega, but then booted Jungle Boy in the face with a superkick and got hugged (and kissed) by the Young Bucks, reuniting with his buddies. Omega grabbed the microphone again and said goodbye to the audience...only to be interrupted by the music of Bryan Danielson! Danielson came out to an even bigger ovation than Cole and, with help from the Jurassic Express and a recovering Christian, cleared the ring, hitting Nick Jackson with the Busaiku Knee for good measure. One of the best double-debut/post-match angles in AEW history that still made the hairs on my arm raise up even knowing what was coming and having seen it before. (+1)

With a Kwang Score of 2.83-out-of-5, All Out 2021 was an overall good show. Its important to note that if you take away the Show/Marshall match, the score shoots up to a very good 3.06, which should tell you how imperfect the science is behind averaging out all the matches on a show. The opener, the cage match, and both main events (Punk/Allin and the AEW World Championship match) all delivered what they needed to and the atmosphere of the show was electric from beginning to end. Take the Big Show match out, shave a few minutes off the Punk/Jericho match and throw Hangman on this card somewhere (I'm not sure if he was injured or just not pencilled-in) and I think it would've been an overall better show. Still, worth checking out.

FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote in Hand