A history-making PPV is in the books. If you are of the belief the 2025 AEW Revolution Pay-Per-View is one of their best events in history, I join you in this belief. With a few notable exceptions, each match brought a level of pure wrestling and story enjoyment. Even the pre-show carried some memorable moments. Albeit probably temporarily, still memorable.
Pre-show:
A fun starter featuring Komander and Hologram defeating Blake Christian and Lee Johnson – No story needed. Four guys to hype up the early crowd.
Daniel Garcia and Undisputed Kingdom defeated Shane Taylor Promotions
I think an opportunity was missed here. If Shane Taylor pinned anyone on the babyface side, he could have an argument to challenge Garcia for the TNT Championship. It’s clear Adam Cole will face off with Garcia again, but adding Taylor in the mix would have made it more exciting. In fact, I would like to see Shane Taylor AS the TNT Champion. He’s a big bad dude. I’d love to see him against a slew of potential challengers.
Chris Jericho vs. Gravity never got off the ground as the Learning Tree group opted to ambush the challenger, pulling his mask off. This led to Bandido running in for the save. My guess is Jericho will start trying to unmask luchadors until Bandido or Jericho agree to a title vs. mask match at the next AEW or Ring of Honor PPV.
The “Main Event” of the pre-show, “Big Boom” AJ, Orange Cassidy, and Mark Briscoe defeated MxM Collection and Johnny TV. A goofy match with a lot of comedy but also had a decent amount of wrestling to keep the tone serious. Funny moment when Mansoor stole cookies from Rizzler, and got smacked around by Cassidy for it. As much as people dump on social media influencers, once in a while you gotta throw the seriousness to the side and lighten up a little. There is plenty of seriousness on the main card. Favorite spot, the one of the familiar hot tag attempts, where Johnny TV tries to sunset flip Cassidy who struggles to reach his corner. Instead of some elaborate roll or flip, he simply removes TV’s hands off his legs and walks over to tag. Brilliant. Why has no one ever done that before?!
The next three hours featured what I imagine will be universally hailed as one of the greatest PPVs in AEW history. Until the next mind-blowing PPV anyway. AEW always seems to have a solid formula for their events, however not without a hitch or two. No promotion is perfect but tonight came pretty close. Revolution 2025 featured matches which left fans standing or at the edge of their seats. When someone asks “What about the stories,” you can point to this event here as a prime example when story development comes to a head.
“Hangman” Adam Page defeated Maxwell Jacob Friedman
Great opener. MJF is great at pissing off live crowds. Hangman’s original theme hits but immediately is halted by a smirking MJF. Have to admit he’s pretty clever. At one point Page is down and MJF runs the ropes in cynical fashion, only to bump the cowboy with … his crotch. That’s a new one. The hits would become progressively more violent as the match continued on, with Hangman ultimately dumping MJF on his head with a Deadeye, followed by one of the most terrifying Angel’s Wings I have ever seen. Page planted MJF right onto his face. One Buckshot later, and the Cowboy takes it.
Talk about hard hitting. My only gripe, no fire. I thought after Dynamite last week, it was teasing some sort of horrible event.
Mercedes Mone retains the TBS Championship against Momo Wantanabe
Fantastic title match. one of the best showings from Mercedes since her debut. Watanabe was equally impressive, and seemingly brutalized the champion throughout the match. Both women held their own and really went back and forth multiple times with no clear picture of who was the more aggressive wrestler. For a moment I was left questioning a title change because of how good this match went. Unfortunately, my prediction was accurate, as Mercedes retained the TBS championship. I still maintain if another title was on the line Watanabe would have believably won it.
Swerve Strickland defeated Ricochet to become the #1 Contender for the AEW World Championship
The hits just keep on rolling. This long brewing Grudge Match was a major hit. There’s no way anyone would have believed Ricochet would be this over as a heel and legitimately a threat to Swerve, and on top of that a potential number one contender to the world championship. Big stakes on the line besides the championship contendership, but the fate of Prince Nana’s legendary Embassy robe, and a friendship between Swerve and his manager. On more than one occasion Swerve miscommunicated and inadvertently floored Prince Nana. This caused Nana to give up, abandoning Swerve by leaving the match. Later on in the match Prince Nana returned and yet again it almost seemed as though their friendship was hanging on by a thread after another inadvertent collision. Despite the chaos, Swerve outmaneuvered and outsmarted Ricochet by scoring the decisive victory. Swerve took Jimmy Rave’s robe, got on one knee, and presented it to Prince Nana who then embraced the new number one contender. This story ran deep on multiple levels; you couldn’t have asked for more.
This match had a scary spot as well when Ricochet caught Swerve on a dive through the ropes, planting him with a Death Valley Driver which seemed to crash Swerve squarely on top of his head. At this point I’m wondering if someone’s going to die tonight.
Kazuchika Okada retains the AEW Continental Championship against Brody King
What a match, what a brawl. I was disappointed that Brody did not win the title. It leaves me wondering what creative plans are in mind for the Hounds of Hell. With Buddy injured, and Brody seemingly directionless, I’m just not sure where either go from here. They were built up to be strong on their own without being bossed around, yet they both seem to choke in big matches. Perhaps a run at the Tag Team Championships would be an order when Buddy is healthy, however what good is it if they make a run only to lose again?
The Hurt Syndicate retains the AEW Tag Team Championships against The Outrunners
While entertaining, this match felt a little bit of a letdown, it didn’t seem to pack the punch which was expected. We all love The Outrunners and their vintage gimmick, unfortunately not enough to Dethrone the champions. Some may question why build them up only to be knocked down considering The Outrunners were massive underdogs going in. It seems as though the hurt syndicate will gradually take down every tag team until one worthy is able to step up. I’m not sure who that tag team will be just yet but hopefully when it happens it’ll be great.
Needless to say, the hurts and to get continues to be massively over regardless if they’re booked as faces or heels. Shelton Benjamin continues to be an absolute suplex monster, while Bobby Lashley remains as a brutal force to be reckoned with.
“Timeless” Toni Storm defeated Mariah May in the Hollywood Ending Match to retain the AEW Women’s Championship
The first of three matches which words struggle to aptly describe or do justice to. The Hollywood Ending match was phenomenal. From start to finish, the level of brutality escalated the longer it went. At one point it broke down into a Taipei Death Match. Both women wound up bloody at different points, but blood would not stop either one. Ultimately, the finish took place where it all began Center Stage, at the entrance ramp. This time, it was Tony storm who spikes Mariah May with the bloody white heeled shoe as the exclamation point to what I believe to be the greatest story and feud in the history of All Elite Wrestling. Dual screens highlighting the words ”The End” in the Hollywood script added brilliance to this whole tale.
Many felt that this should have been the true closing main event of the pay-per-view. Could you imagine the show closing with the words the end like that on screen? It would have been glorious.
Kenny Omega defeated Konosuke Takeshita to become the new AEW International Champion
What an incredible bout. While many came into this with a prediction of Omega becoming champion, it didn’t take long for doubt to creep in. and various points it truly felt that it was possible for Omega to lose to Takeshita for a third time. Kenny Omega becoming the International Champion is a big move, but a bigger move would see Takeshita starting to distance himself from Don Callis. This could play out with Don becoming increasingly disappointed in his Protege or perhaps the alpha will get tired of his antics and leave of his own accord. The international title was satisfactory at the time, but a lack of television appearances and title defenses didn’t really change much. It’s time for the young Superstar to be featured more prominently on television with bigger matches.
Stellar match. My only complaint is the announce team could not stop themselves from talking about his surgery for diverticulitis. At one point they were trying to explain something about the removal of his intestines was the specific section that absorbed certain things… Whatever it was, it was completely wrong, because I’ve had my intestines removed and that’s not how it works. None of them have medical degrees, although Taz probably would be the closest to a medical expert out of the whole lot of ‘em.
Will Ospreay defeated Kyle Fletcher in a Steel Cage Match
Oh Come on! How can I possibly describe a cage match featuring the wrestling firepower of this magnitude? A bloody and brutal match, Ospreay giving a shout out to Cactus Jack. The stuff these two pulled off defies every law of physics, gravity, and even common sense. In cliched fashion, this one easily earned five stars from start to finish. Dangerous objects such as barbed wire, thumbtacks, chairs, and even the dreaded screwdriver came into play. a brutal and bloody war which Ospreay won via the terrifying Tiger Driver ‘91, despite interference from United Empire teammate Mark Davis.
Jon Moxley retains the AEW World Championship against Adam Copeland AND Christian Cage
This, my friends, is where the internet broke and suddenly individuals had selective memory. Regardless of this final match of the night, the entire card up until this point was phenomenal. You could find everywhere in social media, even the most die hard of WWE fans, were praising this pay-per-view event. Even those with accounts purely for engagement, and have to throw shade towards AEW just to gain viewership and to maintain a persona on social media had to admit that the pay-per-view was awesome.
I’m still not sure how to describe this match, because it did not feel like a wrestling match, it did not feel like a brawl, it just felt like each one was purely trying to outlast the other. honestly, how could you top the previous three, five-star matches. The reality is, the whole Death Riders shtick needs to end. Nothing makes sense anymore about it.
However, despite the disappointing closer, there are multiple directions this can go now.
#1) Wheeler Yuta returns and interferes on Mox’s behalf: After Cope showed Yuta respect a week ago, the “whipping boy” of the Riders remains loyal. Cope could feud briefly with Yuta.
#2) Jay White “accidentally” clocks Cope: This didn’t get more time to breathe, so here we go into the whole conspiracy angle of “Was it by accident… or on purpose?”
#3) Christian Cage fails to cash in, and winds up being the one to tap out. He prevents Cope from winning, but winds up failing as well. So they’ve quickly written off the cash-in, Cope can beef with Christian about it, and then claim Mox never beat him.
#4) Swerve attacks Mox. This is your money. Swerve has proven to be the most dangerous man in AEW, and Mox will try to knock that down. Mox will rant and rave about him being dangerous, but against a man like Swerve? It’s not going to work. I wonder if they have decided to put the title back on Swerve. Honestly, if my true prediction doesn’t pan out, then this has to be it right here.
#5) The only way the Death Riders finally end, is when The Opps (Samoa Joe, Hook, Shibata) take the Trios Championships away, and then Eddie Kingston returns to dethrone Mox.
Again, this will go down as one of the best pay-per-views in AEW’s history.
