Editor’s Note: The All Out 2022 review was written before the CM Punk media scrum incident.
AEW pre-show kicks off with four matches to hype up the live Chicago crowd and the fans worldwide watching from home.
Tay Melo and Sammy Guevara defeated Ruby Soho to retain the AAA Mixed Tag Team Championships
Good match, one big high spot in which Melo suplexed Soho off the top to the floor, crashing down on Ortiz and Guevara. Thanks to interference by Ana J-AS, the dastardly duo retain. It appears Soho may have suffered a broken nose legit when hit with the Tay-KO.
Good match, but something was missing. Not sure if it is the specter of Santana’s absence or if the novelty of Sammy and Tay on screen has worn off. Where this goes, who knows?
Hook defeated Angelo Parker
Again, not a bad match, but seemed a bit off-kilter. Parker proved to me a more challenging opponent for Hook, scoring some solid hits and a nice looking cheap shot which kept tide in his favor for a while. However, a countered suplex attempt allowed Hook to lock in the Redrum for the submission victory.
Post match, Action Bronson rushes in to save Hook from a two-on-one from Parker and Menard. He’s a big beefy dude. This might be the start of a short program for Hook and formerly 2-point-0 duo. One can wonder if Taz might get involved sometime in the future.
Main Event of the Pre-show: Eddie Kingston defeated Tomohiro Ishii
My opinion, this is an AEW Match of the Year candidate. From the start, tearing into each other with chop shots forever!! This was an NJPW match from start to finish. Red chests, no-sold suplexes, two guys just beating the almighty hell out of each other other for almost 30 minutes.
Kingston getting the win was a glorious sight. It counts as a PPV win to me. What a match, what a fight.
The main All Out 2022 PPV kicks off with the Casino Ladder Match, with a mystery entrant winning.
The match starts with Wheeler Yuta and Rey Fenix, entering third is Rush, followed by Andrade, Cesaro, Claudio, Dante Martin, then Penta Oscuro. After an insane match with some scary high spots, a mob of masked men wearing all black invade, taking out everyone with one man climbing the ladder to grab the chip. The man reveals himself to be Stokley Hathaway with the other men revealed as The Gunns, Lee Moriarty, W. Morrisey, and Ethan Page, who Stokely recently recruited. However, the final entrant, The Joker, does not reveal himself, however there are a lot of similarities in how he walked into the ring as someone we have not seen in a few months.
The Elite defeated The Dark Order to become the first AEW Trios Champions
I have no doubt there will be some on the internet who will nay-say this match because the Bucks won it. They’ll say they booked themselves to win.
I don’t care. It’s a damn TV show. The match was fantastic. Simply put, all six brought their A-game and this could have gone either way. No interference, no foreign objects, this one ended clean. Granted, it was due to a “mistake” by Hangman which will likely be addressed in the coming weeks.
I enjoyed this match, and so should you.
Jade Cargill retains the TBS Championship against Athena
Sigh. Sorry, I can’t give this one a good review. This one felt very disjointed, and while Athena did come off as a believable winner, it seemed inevitable Cargill would win. To make this worse, Cargill doesn’t sell a thing. Even in a match where Athena delivered significant offense, Cargill poses in victory and walks away as though she earned another victory on AEW Dark. 37-0 doesn’t seem to mean much. Cargill needs to sell, that’s it. Just act like you had a credible opponent.
Athena losing like this diminishes her impact.
Despite the She-Hulk looking gear and skin coloring, which was cool, AEW needs to keep an ear out, because the novelty is wearing off.
FTR & Wardlow defeated Jey Lethal & Motor City Machine Guns
This was a fun match. Not a “5-star” by any means. Enjoyed seeing the MCMGs in an AEW ring. I still can’t figure what they’re going to do with Satnam Singh. He’s a big brute, but aside from one punch, he didn’t do a hell of a lot. Dutt had more interference.
The pull for this match Team Lethal out first, with Dutt wearing a shirt mocking Dax’s heartfelt promo about his 8-year-old daughter. Well, Dax brings out his eight-year-old daughter on the entrance ramp with her t-shirt “Fight Like an Eight Year Old Girl.”
The best, following Wardlow going conductor on Lethal, powerbombing him all over the place, plus the surprise return of Samoa Joe, Dax’s daughter gets the pinfall victory over Sonjay Dutt after she broke his pencil and had an assist from her team.
Damn you AEW for making me cry.
Powerhouse Hobbs defeated Ricky Starks
Clean.
A speedrun of a match, both looking solid individually, but out of nowhere Hobbs scores the bigtime Spinebuster making Arn and Brock Anderson jealous for the pinfall. Hobbs is an AEW original and look at the big guy now. High profile win over Starks.
Both have solid futures in pro wrestling, the question is, what is next for both in AEW? Roster is still very crowded, I’m not sure what could be in store for Starks, but I imagine Hobbs could believably work his way to challenging Wardlow for the TNT Championship.
Swerve in Our Glory (Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland) defeated The Acclaimed
If there ever was a time to put the championships on Anthony Bowens and Max Caster, this was it. I can’t recall the last time I heard an audibly deflated live crowd. When they lost, the crowd died. I never expected to hear boos for Lee and Swerve, but man tonight was the night for it. Lee seemed to embrace it until a post-match scissor with “Daddy Ass” Billy Gunn seemed to confuse the crowd, and Swerve. I should add, Lee and Swerve had three “miscommunications” which led to near-disasters. Caster and Bowens looked like absolute money tonight. Holy cow probably their best match yet and the crowd behind them added high energy to the match.
The post-match was a bit confusing, likely because Lee reverted back to face behavior even though the Chicago crowd turned on him.
Big problem, where do The Acclaimed go from here? This was the biggest match yet, and they lost. Discussing with our editor-in-chief, as we often do while watching, it seems All Out is a set-up PPV for the next feuds and builds in story. Perhaps the Acclaimed go on a run to earn another shot at both redemption and championships?
Toni Storm defeated Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, Jamie Hayter, and Hikaru Shida to win the “Interim” AEW Women’s Championship
I believe this match suffered due to the effects from the previous match. This was a good match, and I’ll go on record Shida is the utility player of AEW’s women’s division. Put her in any situation and she’ll make it great. The story coming out of this, the inevitable dissolution of the alliance between Dr. Baker and Hayter. The Chicago crowd massively behind Hayter, saddened again to see her lose. Baker stopped Hayter from winning, and as a result, Storm able to capitalize for the win.
Storm will face Thunder Rosa to unify, while the next contender will likely be determined following a short feud between Hayter and Dr. Baker.
Tony Khan needs to listen to the crowd. With a women’s division still having growing pains, you need to listen to the fans and who they want to see. Put Hayter on Dynamite and Rampage, get her some more wins, and get her towards the championship. AEW does not have many women fans believe could be a champion, let Hayter be one of them.
Christian Cage defeated “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry
An emotional build let to a surprising squash. Whether due to injury or a need for time, Dark Luchasaurus made his predictable full heel turn and powerbombed Perry into the stage, and then through a table. Easy prey for Christian to deliver finishers.
Welp. That was that. Likely to see Jungle Boy vs. Dark Luchasaurus in order to get to Christian again.
Chris Jericho defeated Bryan Danielson
This was a fantastic wrestling match. Along with Daniel Garcia, I was dismayed to see Jericho resort to an unseen low blow as a setup for Judas Effect and the pinfall victory. It’s amazing to see after decades of wrestling and evolving characters and personas, Jericho can go back to square one in putting on a wrestling clinic with Danielson. This is pro-wrestling, and this is a TV show, so it’s understandable the result is leading to a bigger payoff, likely for Daniel Garcia in the coming months.
Sting, Darby Allin, and Miro defeated House of Black
A fast moving match which hit all the right notes. Sting no-selling always puts a smile on my face. This is the Sting I know and love. Darby is both a wrecking ball and car wreck. He sells everything like death and it terrifies me. Sting with some mist of his own into the eyes of Malakai Black, tandem offense allows Allin to hit the Coffin Drop for the win. Miro got in some offense, but didn’t feel as though he had a major presence in the match.
The crowd roaring to their feet when Sting and Black had a staredown was epic.
Post-match phone footage shows House of Black hugging it out and Malakai taking bow before leaving. If he is truly taking time off, the whole wrestling community should simply wish him the best.
CM Punk defeated Jon Moxley to become a two-time AEW World Champion
This was the match we have been waiting for. Punk busted open early, Mox in the role of brutal aggressor. Despite being in Chicago, a significant split in crowd cheers for both wrestlers. Drama and tension built throughout the match as Mox and Punk tore into each other, culminating with Punk scoring two consecutive GTS finishers for the win, and becoming a two-time AEW World Champion.
However… Punk’s Chicago celebration is interrupted, and we hear audio of a phone call, sounds like Tony Khan offering someone some major financial incentive to make a return. Sure enough, we finally get the reveal we have all been waiting for, as the masked winner of the Casino Ladder Match reveals…
MJF IS BACK!
This is how you finish a show. In Punk’s hometown, the entire arena chanting for MJF as the show fades to black. Punk’s hometown celebration has been stolen from him.
All Out 2022 might get mixed reviews. Not every PPV has to be a bazillion stars. It served up a massive platter of future plans and potential feuds for the next few months. The road to Grand Slam is going to be a very intriguing one.
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