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wrestlingisfake · 4 years

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Revolution preview

Chris Jericho vs. Jon Moxley - This will be Jericho’s fourth defense of the AEW men’s world championship. Moxley is the IWGP United States champion, but that title is not at stake. Moxley has not lost a singles match since August, and Jericho hasn’t lost a singles match since June, so something’s gotta give.

It was fairy clear that Mox would be getting the next big title shot after he defeated Kenny Omega on November 9. But the story only began when Jericho invited Moxley to join his heel stable, the Inner Circle. The championship wasn’t directly brought up, but it was clear Jericho’s goal was to eliminate a potential threat to his title reign. Moxley ultimately declined the offer on January 8, so on January 15 the Inner Circle beat him down and Jericho attacked his right eye with one of the little spikes on Jericho’s jacket. Moxley refused to take time off, winning a January 22 match with PAC to earn this title match. The Inner Circle has attempted to finish him off with matches against Santana, Ortiz, and “hired mercenary” Jeff Cobb, but he’s won them all while wearing an eyepatch.

The big question of this match is the status of Moxley’s right eye. The injury is just part of the story, of course, and he mostly wrestles like it’s not a factor. But if any opponent is going to work over the eye for the whole match, it’s gonna be Jericho. Even if Mox drops the eyepatch, with the idea that the eye has finally “healed,” it’s an obvious target. If he still has it on, I think the match will be slower, with longer stretches of Jericho clawing at the eye and Moxley in agony. Either way, though, Moxley should be fighting like a wounded animal, which might lead to at least one big spot that hurts Jericho enough to level the playing field.

When Jericho won the title on August 31, I figured AEW could easily keep it on him for a year or more. He’s over enough that the fans won’t start losing patience with him until maybe around Double or Nothing II on May 23. But something about this feud has really clicked, I think, and I’ve been seriously getting the vibe that it’s time for Moxley to have a title run. Nevertheless, despite all the victories Mox has racked up over the last six weeks, it feels wrong for a guy with a bad eye to score a win over the world champion. I’m picking Jericho to retain.

Cody Rhodes vs. MJF - MJF refused to take this match unless Cody complied with three stipulations. First, Cody agreed on January 15 not to touch MJF until the match starts. Second, Cody had to let MJF whip him with a belt on February 5. Third, Cody had to wrestle MJF’s henchman Wadlow in a cage match on February 19. It’s become clear that MJF never expected Cody to agree to, or successfully meet, his terms, and now the match is on and Cody wants to kill him more than ever.

This one has been building almost since AEW was first announced in January 2019, when MJF joined the cast of Being the Elite. Cody embraced MJF as his protege and best friend, but literally everyone else could see MJF was heeling on him behind his back. Then, just when people were starting to buy the Cody-MJF friendship, and hoping the turn wouldn’t come, they finally pulled the trigger on the turn. When Cody face Chris Jericho for the world title on November 9, with the promise that this would be his one and only title shot, MJF seconded him and threw in the towel. Then, just when you started to wonder if he was genuinely concerned for Cody’s safety, he kicked Cody in the nuts.

MJF is the biggest and most successful project at AEW so far--the only bigger stars in the company are guys that were already over in New Japan or WWE. So it’s going to be very interesting to see if they let the fans see Cody finally get revenge, or if MJF gets a win to propel him even higher. While I do think MJF can quickly recover from a loss, they’ve really got something here and it may be worth doing a cheap heel win. On the other hand, I’m not sure where MJF can go from beating Cody--I can’t see him in the world title picture just yet. So I expect this match to keep me guessing right up to the finish. It’s just too close to call.

Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs. Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson - Omega and Page won the AEW tag team title on January 21; this will be their third defense. The Young Bucks won a battle royale on February 19 to earn this title shot. All four men (along with Cody Rhodes) are members of The Elite, the spinoff of Bullet Club that was recruited to create this promotion.

Page has been sullen and combative with the rest of the Elite since Chris Jericho beat him on August 31 to become the first AEW world champion. I’ve already written at length about the backstory and where I think it’s going. Basically I think they’ve teased a heel turn too hard for it to actually happen. It feels to me like the story is less about what it takes for someone to turn than what it will take for Page to accept the other three accept him as an equal partner. I think the story is designed to get us really worried for Page and them pull him back for a big hug when all seems lost. (Then again, even if that happens, it doesn’t have to happen on this show.)

It feels too early for the Bucks to win the title. They obviously have to become tag champs at some point. But they know they have to build to the perfect moment and outwit everyone who assumed they’d put the belts on themselves right away. The Bucks need to overcome incredible adversity to finally get to the mountaintop, and beating an ad hoc transitional chmpion team doesn’t cut it. So they need to convince you Omega and Page aren’t an ad hoc transitional champion team. The easiest way to do that is to give Omega and Page a successful title defense against the Young Bucks. Which also happens to be an easy way to blow off Page’s drama without doing a turn. So I’m going with the champs to retain.

Nyla Rose vs. Kris Statlander - Rose is making her first defense of the AEW women’s world championship, which she won on February 12. There hasn’t been much of a story here--Statlander just got in Rose’s face during an interview and that was that.

The match should be okay. Rose is good with the big monster heel spots, and Statlander's alien gimmick sets her apart from all the other women Rose has thrown around. But I can’t say this is a particularly important match on the card, which is disappointing since I had hoped AEW’s women’s division would be a lot stronger by this point. It feels like this is just being thrown together at the last minute to be the token women’s match on the card, like WWE used to do.

I like Statlander but it’s just not her time to be champion right now, and Rose is just getting started. This shouldn’t be a one-sided squash by any means, but Nyla should emphatically win to set the tone for her title run.

Dustin Rhodes vs. Jake Hager - This issue started on October 30, during the build to Chris Jericho vs. Cody Rhodes, when Jericho’s flunky Hager broke the arm of Cody’s brother Dustin. It took a few weeks for Dustin to stop wearing a cast, and then for some reason it took him until February 12 to demand a match with Hager so he can get revenge.

Hager debuted with AEW all the way back in October 2019, but this will be his first match with the company. In fact, it’ll be his first match of any kind since he challenged for the NWA title in November 2018. For the past couple of years he’s been focused on his mixed martial arts career in Bellator; between that and his role as a taciturn henchman, I don’t think we’re going to see much of him between the ropes.

Both of these guys look enormous now that they’re away from WWE, so this should feel like an impressive battle of the giants. But the outcome isn’t in much doubt; the smart move is to give Hager a win in his debut match, to establish his credibility as a big enforcer.

Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara - Guevara beat up Allin with his own skateboard on January 29, and they’ve been selling the idea that Allin’s throat was injured and he couldn’t speak. (At this point I’m not sure if Allin’s supposed to still be mute or if he just chooses not to say anything.) On the February 26 show I thought Allin was going to waffle Guevara with a skateboard to get some payback, but Sammy broke the skateboard over Darby’s head instead, so I guess they’re saving that for this show.

This is a tough match to call because they’re high on both guys and trying to get them both over, but neither is critical enough to be assured a steady string of wins. Allin is the sort of tenacious twerp that can lose again and again and still be over because he won’t quit, but I think he needs to beat guys like Guevara once in a while or he’ll start to feel like a chump. Guevara is sort of a chump no matter what since he’s Jericho’s toadie, but it’s good heel heat for the entire Inner Circle if they keep racking up wins. I could see this one going either way.

PAC vs. Orange Cassidy - Pac was griping about his big loss to Kenny Omega on February 26 when Cassidy randomly came out to get in his face, so now we have a match. Orange’s whole gimmick is that he’s lazy and can barely work up the effort to hit a guy, so the entire hype for this match is Chuck Taylor’s assurance that “this time he’s gonna TRY.” I’m very curious what that would look like.

I’m only vaguely familiar with how Orange Cassidy’s gimmick works on the indies. My impression is that he can turn it on and wrestle an intense, competitive match, but the joke is that he chooses to see how long he can get away with not doing that. Most footage I’ve seen of him has involved other wrestlers sinking to his level for comedy spots where they exchange strikes in slow motion. That’s all fine on an indy level, but in AEW it’s settled into “Orange does a couple of weak kicks but then the other guy just destroys him.” I don’t understand how any of that is going to function in a Pac match. But I expect to have fun finding out.

Pac pretty much has to win, though.

Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian vs. Evil Uno & Stu Grayson - This is scheduled for the pre-show. Uno and Grayson have been trying to get people to join their stable for months, and it’s starting to cause tension as Sky and Kazarian wonder if Christopher Daniels will betray SCU to join the Dark Order. I think they’ve oversold the idea that Daniels is turning, and even if he does turn I don’t expect it to be on the pre-show. Nevertheless, the Dark Order needs a win here, so I think it’ll come from SCU worrying about Daniels. I’m pulling for Scorp, though, since I think I saw him on the elevator Friday.

#aew #revolution #chris jericho #jon moxley

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wrestlingisfake · 5 years

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All Out preview

Chris Jericho vs. Hangman Page - This match is to determine the first AEW men’s world champion. Page qualified for this match by winning a 21-man battle royale at Double or Nothing on May 25; Jericho qualified by defeating Kenny Omega later in the same show. Jericho has held six world heavyweight titles; this would be his first outside of WWE. Page has never held a singles championship of any kind in a major-league promotion, although he’s been talking about being the first to hold this title since the original AEW press conference in January.

AEW is trying to position this as a true main event, mainly on the strength of the title and Jericho, even though the ladder match and (at one point) Omega-Moxley were clearly bigger draws. I expect that this match will go on last just to establish the primacy of the world championship. That’s a lot of pressure on Page, who was barely even a midcarder 18 months ago. Of all the talent getting pushes to elevate them to the Kenny Omega’s star power, he’s the one with a rocket strapped to his back. There’s a sense that this match is his Rocky moment, and he’s carried that idea well in interviews.

Jericho has handled the story convincingly, pushing the notion that Page is ready for this level of competition, while still asserting that he’s the favorite going into the match. Page is great...but he won’t be good enough on this particular night. Jericho has also stressed that he needs to beat Page, because a loss would set up talk about him passing the torch in the twilight of his career, and he’s not willing to be treated like a used-to-be. It’s an interesting approach for the 48-year-old Jericho, because the tipping point between “veteran superstar” and “old timer doing jobs on the way to retirement” is precarious. It makes sense that he would fight tooth-and-nail to keep from going over that tipping point, and direct that fury towards his 28-year-old opponent.

Assuming this really will close the show, it needs to be a great match. I don’t think it will be, or needs to be, the best match of the night. But it needs to be great enough that we leave thinking they were right to put it on last, and that Page has what it takes to close the show. More critically, we need to come away thinking AEW title matches are epic conflicts, so the promotion can credibly use the championships as box office attractions in their own right.

I would be fine with Page as champion, but I think the best move is to have him deliver a star-making performance and then suffer a heartbreaking loss to Jericho. That’s not to say Page shouldn’t eventually win the title. But Jericho has both the clout and the heel heat to sustain a very long chase from multiple contenders, which will make the first men’s world title change as important as the first men’s world title match.

Rey Fenix & Pentagon, Jr. vs. Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson - The Lucha Bros, Penta and Fenix, are defending the AAA tag team championship. The Young Bucks, Matt and Nick, are defending an AEW undefeated streak. This is a ladder match, so the title belts will be suspended above the ring; to reach them ladders will be provided at ringside for the wrestlers to climb. The first person to retrieve the belts will win the match, and the championship, for his team. Since that’s the only way the match can end, there are effectively no count-outs, disqualifications, pinfalls, or submissions.

The feud between the Lucha Bros and the Young Bucks in February, when Penta and Fenix took exception to the Bucks claiming to be the best tag team and attacked them at their own press conference. On March 16 the Lucha Bros headlined AAA’s Rey de Reyes and won the tag team title, but the Bucks showed up for an impromptu title match and took the belts back to AEW. The Bucks successfully defended the title in a rematch at AEW’s Double or Nothing on May 25, but the Lucha Bros finally won it back at AAA’s Verano de Escandalo on June 16. The Bucks teamed with Kenny Omega against the Lucha Bros and Laredo Kid at AEW Fyter Fest on June 29 and AAA Triplemania on August 3. Penta and Fenix issued the challenge for this match at Fight for the Fallen on July 13.

Fenix suffered some sort of leg injury in the past week. From what I’ve read, it might not be anything, but he was worried he tore something and had to get it checked out. The fact I haven’t heard an actual diagnosis suggests that they couldn’t find anything wrong with him. That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything wrong, but I’m hoping it turned out to be nothing and Fenix just needed to rest it up. Either way, I expect the possible injury to be worked into the story of the match, and for the Bucks to do a bunch of moves and stuff onto the leg.

I kinda think the Mexican team should walk out with the Mexican championship, but it is the Bucks’ show and they’ve talked up how legendary their ladder matches are. They can easily win here and then drop the belts at a AAA show, without any apparent impact on the AEW win-loss stats. I gotta pick the Bucks to win (at least all the way up to the finals of the AEW tag title tournament).

Kenny Omega vs. PAC - Pac, formerly Adrian Neville in WWE, is a substitution for Jon Moxley, who had to pull out of this match last week due to a staph infection. Ironically, the substitution pays off on plans that were canceled a while back.

Pac’s involvement in AEW was announced at the company’s original press conference, while he held Dragon Gate’s top title (the Open the Dream Gate championship). He was set to feud with Hangman Page, and the storyline played up the idea that Page wanted to be a champion, implying the match would figure into the AEW world title picture. Then on May 18 Page beat Pac by disqualification at a British indy show, setting up an angle where Pac refused to face Page at their scheduled AEW match on May 25.

It turned out Pac would not agree to lose any matches during his title run, and AEW had decided never to do DQ finishes to get out of booking clean finishes. There was talk that Pac wasn’t even supposed to lose to Page, but he would be feuding with Omega later. I seem to remember speculating that Omega and Pac were meant to win their matches on May 25 and meet for the AEW title here. Obviously that didn’t happen. But Pac has since lost the Dream Gate belt on July 21, which puts him back in play at AEW. And just in the nick of time, it seems.

I was expecting Moxley to be the slight favorite in the originally scheduled match, but now that Pac is in the mix anything is possible. The outcome is totally up in the air, and it’s just as well since I expect the focus is on delivering a killer match to make up for failing to deliver the advertised match. Even though Omega was playing a dick by mocking Mox’s “boo-boo,” Pac is an even bigger dick, so I’m lowkey pulling for Kenny.

Cody Rhodes vs. Shawn Spears - Spears will be seconded by Tully Blanchard, playing on the legendary rivalry between Blanchard and Cody’s father Dusty. Cody brought an entire entourage to the ring a year ago at All In, but for this match he is contractually limited to a single person in his corner. We haven’t been outright told this person will be a big surprise who will make a big difference in the match, but it’s been set up to let us think that, so I hope Cody doesn’t just bring out Dustin Rhodes or Dallas Page.

Rhodes and Spears were friends in OVW when they were coming up through WWE developmental. Cody hit it big in WWE, while Spears (as Tye Dillinger) languished for most of his thirties. When Spears jumped to AEW, fans generally considered it a positive move for both parties, although Cody made an offhand remark about Spears being a “player-coach” and a “good hand,” curiously implying that he was dismissing his friend as a journeyman. Spears took offense and blasted Cody with a chair on June 29, leaving Cody a bloody mess.

This is easily the biggest match of Spears’s career, and it’s probably one of his last chances to escape the stigma of being a never-was. A win would give him momentum as a key figure in the early weeks of AEW’s TV show, as Cody would need to chase him for a few more months to seek vengeance. A loss would simply validate WWE’s lack of interest in Tye Dillinger--and worse, affirm Cody’s kayfabe dismissiveness on AEW’s own programming. Cody hasn’t actually been pinned yet in AEW, so I assume they’re saving that for something; I hope this is it.

Evil Uno & Stu Grayson vs. Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta - The team that wins this match earns a bye in the AEW tag team championship tournament. So basically you have to win this one match in order to skip one tournament match. That’s kinda screwy. Both of these teams won three-ways to qualify for this match. The Best Friends (Taylor/Beretta) qualified on June 28, while the Dark Order (Uno/Grayson) qualified on July 13.

I think the plan was for the Dark Order to be super-over as a hot team with a spooky gimmick and a cult following on the indies. It hasn’t been working out. Honestly, Chuck Taylor manages to come off as creepier than the Dark Order’s gimmick just by being a really weird dude who is oddly devoted to hugs. Hopefully the popularity of the Best Friends will override disinterest in the Dark Order to heat the match up. Logically, the bad guys should get the bye, so I think the Dark Order better cheat a lot.

Riho vs. Hikaru Shida - I’ve heard talk that the winner of this match will qualify for the first women’s world championship match on October 2, but I haven’t been able to confirm that. It wouldn’t make a ton of sense anyway, considering Riho is 2-1 in AEW and coming off of a loss, while Shida is 1-0 but hasn’t appeared in the company since May. I don’t have stats in front of me, but I would think at least one other woman in the company would have more credibility in this spot. Then again, Britt Baker was sidelined with a concussion for much of August, so maybe she was originally slated for this spot and they decided they couldn’t wait to see if she’d be cleared. I guess I’ll go with Riho to win, even though I’m still not sure what’s at stake.

Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky vs. Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus & Marko Stunt - The Daniels team is SCU. Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus are “A Boy and His Dinosaur,” so I guess with Marko they’re “A Boy and A Boy and His Dinosaur” or something like that. This could be a good chance to put over the Luchasaurus team, but their gimmick is going to be over either way, so maybe they should keep up momentum on SCU.

Darby Allin vs. Joey Janella vs. Jimmy Havoc - This is a three-way match, so the first man to score a fall on either of his opponents wins. These guys were on the losing end of a six-man tag match on July 13. At the time I believe I observed that nobody in that six-man had yet won a match, so now the losers of the Weenie Hut Jr.’s Bowl are having a Super Weenie Hut Jr.’s Bowl. I guess the guy who scores the winning fall gets to escape into the midcard, while the other two open the next show, and the loser of that match gets to hang out with Brandon Cutler backstage or something. Of the three, Allin is the biggest project with perhaps the least indy scene cred, so he’ll probably be the Super Weenie Hut Jr.’s champion.

21-Woman Casino Battle Royale - This is set for the free pre-show. It’s a gauntlet battle royale with timed entrances and over-the-top-rope eliminations, but with the same special rules as the one AEW did on May 25. Five women start the match, and every three minutes another group of women enter; the 21st woman enters alone. Eliminations can occur at any time by exiting the ring over the top rope and placing both feet on the floor before re-entering. The last woman left after everyone else is eliminated wins the match, and qualifies to wrestle...uh, someone (maybe the winner of Riho vs. Shida?) for the women’s championship on October 2.

As soon as AEW announced the match, they admitted they didn’t have 21 women on the roster, so we can expect a lot of new faces. Confirmed so far:

Allie

Awesome Kong

Big Swole

Brandi Rhodes

Britt Baker

Ivelisse

Jazz

Nyla Rose

Sadie Gibbs

Shazza McKenzie

Teal Piper

I heard AEW and Impact Wrestling were in talks to put Tenille Dashwood in this match, but even if that’s true they might not get the i’s dotted in time. Taya Valkyrie was on Being the Elite the other day, but I don’t know if that means anything. Obviously Chicago is wondering if CM Punk will be at this show, but I never see anyone wondering if his wife, AJ Mendez, might show up. Apparently something is up with Kylie Rae but nobody’s talking about it, which is troubling. I don’t even know what continent Bea Priestly will be on during this show, so she may not be available.

It feels like AEW’s biggest plans in this division are for Baker, although that could be just to have her put over someone else when the moment comes. The safest bet is Britt, though, until someone else emerges from the pack.

Jack Evans & Angelico vs. Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen - Another match for the pre-show. Kassidy and Quen are Private Party, and everyone likes them but the big issue I’m always hearing is that they’re green and need to be protected by veterans until they’re ready. Evans and Angelico are veterans, so there you go. My guess is that AEW won’t book Private Party to actually win a match until they’ve decided the team is truly ready, but since we don’t know when that’ll happen we have something to look forward to every time they wrestle. For now, I gotta pick Evangelico (is anybody calling them that?) to win.

#aew #all out #hangman page #chris jericho #the young bucks #lucha bros #kenny omega #pac

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