It was Sunday, you know what that meant. All Elite Wrestling’s Redemption pay-per-view inserted itself randomly in the middle of and the upcoming All In. Tonight, featured ups and downs in terms of match quality and ended with a hell of an advert for Wembley’s big show. Let’s dive into this live spectacle from Montreal. Rocky Romero got punked out by The Rougeau Brothers on the Buy-In, just to throw that out there.
Your English commentators for the night consisted of Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Nigel McGuinness, and later Taz.
The Conglomeration (Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong, & Kyle O’Reilly) (c) v. The Lethal Twist (Jay Lethal, Blake Christian, & Lee Johnson) – AEW Trios Championship Match
The only match on the Buy-In was inconsequential, yet still very fun. The Demand at ringside appeared to be the next in line for the titles as the Lethal Twist were perfect villains to be thwarted. Blake Christian is better than a lot of people give him credit for with his high-flying. The End of Heartache from Roderick Strong to Jay Lethal ended this one when Roddy threw Cassidy onto the cover for the Glommy Boys win.
And now onto the main show.
“Speedball” Mike Bailey v. Nick Wayne v. Jack Perry v. Komander v. The Beast Mortos v. El Clon – AEW International Title #1 Contendership 6-Way Ladder Match
The most thrown-together match of all time, and it became super lively with spots. All the masked people flew through tables, and Nick Wayne did a freakin’ Phoenix Splash off a ladder through a table as well. Many unique dives from everyone got the crowd hyped. It all led to an explosion of joy when Mike Bailey grabbed the contract off the hook. This was the equivalent of a Money in The Bank Ladder match kicking off a WrestleMania, with the crowd hot for the rest of the show after seeing pure excitement.
Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) v. Death Riders (Joon Moxley & Will Ospreay) – Tag Team Match
All the drama in the world got placed into the second match of the night. Thanks to an errant headbutt, Nick Jackson got a concussion (kayfabe) and became perfect blood for the Death Riders’ shark mentalities. Ospreay however, did not want to go too far, hesitating enough to let the Bucks take advantage. This match ended with a Superkick Party knocking down Moxley for the win. It’s not every day you see Moxley take a pin in AEW!
This match made Ospreay look weak in comparison to the harsh training he’s been put through to shape himself as a Death Rider. Moxley had no problem doing business, but good boy Ospreay was just too noble. Since it was a Young Bucks match, the double teaming and switching from sequence to sequence was unsurprisingly great. Just a shame there was a bit too much drama for my liking.
Kyle Fletcher (c) v. Bandido – AEW International Championship Match
So much awesome sauce was squeezed into this match. It was given the longest length out of every match on the card tonight, and these two knocked it out of the park. There was a 21-Dragon-Plex, a Frog Splash to the floor, and a bunch of finisher near falls. Everything got executed to perfection, and the crowd hung onto every move. Matches like these are why Bandido should be hoarding every title like Mercedes Moné, he’s so damn amazing. In the end, Fletcher had to nearly kill Bandido with a Turnbuckle Brainbuster to get the win and retain his title.
Bandido’s got a godly PPV run going right now. From Swerve at Double or Nothing to Moxley at Forbidden Door, to now Fletcher tonight. He’s simply on another level. Sadly, we look forward to someone other than him. Thankfully, it’s The Protostar. This Wednesday was confirmed to feature Fletcher defending his title against Ladder match winner Mike Bailey.
That should be a ton of fun.
Bang Bang Gang (Jay White & Juice Robinson) v. The Dogs (David Finlay & Clark Connors) – Double Chain Tag Team Match
I am one of the biggest Jay White glazers of recent times and I must admit, this match was quite the disappointment. With Connors chained to Juice and Finlay chained to White, the anticipated brawling and violence was instead cast aside to make room for choking with chains and Death Riders interference. David Finlay used his shillelagh to pick up the cheap win after the Gunns and Ace Austin chased off Wheeler Yuta and Daniel Garcia. On the very generous side, at least The Dogs won something important.
On the critical side, this being a payoff to Jay White and David Finlay’s years-long hatred of each other along with Bullet Club history is bad. Hopefully everyone in this match wrestles again to get something more conclusive, because this left a sour taste.
Hikaru Shida (c) v. Maya World – TBS Championship Match
Shida kept calling herself the ace of the women’s division which was certainly a bold shout. Maya World responded to this arrogance with some fiery comebacks and big forearms. Towards the end of this one, Shida kept going around in full control of the match and the pacing. Right when it seemed Maya was done for, the Bridging Fallaway Slam connected onto Shida and Maya won outta nowhere.
It was quite the awkward way to lead to such a huge win for Maya World. That final stretch of the match where Shida just kept kneeing Maya in the head and not going for the pin was annoying. Even still though, good for Maya World. She deserved that and more. So much more! Here’s to hoping Maya can jumpstart this TBS division with banger matches.
Cage & Cope (Adam Copeland & Christian Cage) (c) v. Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli & PAC) – AEW World Tag Team Championship Match
Some middle-aged Canadian propaganda made its way onto this show, in the form of Cope & Cage. The crowd initially preferred cheering Christian over Copeland, but that gradually shifted throughout the match thanks to some hyped-up comebacks. Both Claudio and PAC worked like horses to pull out some convincing heel tactics, gaining as much sympathy for the Tag Champions as possible. An assisted Neutralizer from the Riders couldn’t get the job done, but a pop-up Spear from C&C did!
Overall, a good match with nothing notable happening in it aside from Cope & Cage being loved in Montreal. After this match, the Young Bucks came out to the ring and interrupted Cope’s Alter Bridge singalong to signal themselves being the new Tag Title challengers. There’s the match for All In, folks, The Bucks v. C&C in a generational clash for the ages. After a so-so title reign for C&C The Bucks should pull out something spectacular from them at Wembley.
“The Painmaker” (Jericho) v. Tommaso Ciampa – No Holds Barred Match
What a ridiculous match, in the best way possible. The “Painmaker” was presented similar to Finn Bálor’s Demon character and appeared pretty corny previously. Here, Jericho entered to Judas Priest and tuned to his hardcore side as seen in his match against Nick Gage. Ciampa played ball with The Painmaker, being on the butt-end of jokes of hockey team references. We got to also see barbed wire, glass, and hockey puck thumbtacks all being used against Ciampa.
A Fairy Tale Ending through a barbed wire table looked gnarly, but it still wasn’t the end. Ciampa got hit with the Judas Effect, but that also wasn’t the end. It wasn’t until Jericho used a screwdriver on Ciampa’s bald head to get the Psycho Killer to tap out. As much as I love Ciampa and wanted him to win here, Jericho proved that he can still hang at the age of 55. This silly little “Painmaker” gimmick got a memorable match here, gotta respect it.
Mark Davis (c) v. Andrade El Ídolo – AEW National Championship Match
This match featured two shooters just shootin’ from the hip and reminding people why they’re great. It also marked the continuation of Andrade’s crusade against the Don Callis Family, all while still picking up girls in the crowd during his matches. Super glad he didn’t lose his specialty and turn into a Frankie Kazarian styled “Elite Hunter.” Davis produced another performance worthy of a title holder, although he served as a brick wall for Andrade better than anything.
In the end, Andrade ripped his pants off to flaunt his bulge and “HOW YOU KNOW” trunks. Then, that deadly back elbow followed by The DM finisher got Andrade the win and the National Title. Even though this match was thrown together days before the show, it was one of the better ones of the whole shebang. I’m predicting some “Andrade v. DCF member” National Title matches for the future leading up to All In where he possibly wrestles MJF. Should be fun.
Thekla (c) v. Willow Nightingale – AEW Women’s World Championship Match
It’s insane to point out that a match going 15 minutes was the shortest match on the main card. Thekla and Willow used those minutes for quite the harrowing form of dissection: ear offense. Willow’s stitches from a previous attack by Thekla got exploited with slight trickles of blood following her around. Because of this, Willow matched Thekla’s stiff strikes with some of her own, creating for a gritty affair. The match ramped up in intensity with Thekla diving off the top rope, then Willow dodged some big moves.
In fact, this match finished with a Spear dodge into a Willow Backslide rollup. And the abrupt win! Willow finally gained the Women’s World Title….via rollup?! This very clearly set up a Willow v. Mercedes All In match, but it was a little contrived to end Thekla’s title reign in this whimper of a finish. Overall, tonight’s semi-main event was great with some hard hits and unique chemistry. But shoving Thekla aside like this ahead of Wembley just doesn’t sit well with me.
Kenny Omega (c) v. Kevin Knight – AEW Men’s World Championship Match
Kevin Knight is very good at this wrasslin’ thing. He continuously hooped well with the very best of AEW, and tonight was no different against the Best Bout Machine. Knight’s confidence would backfire on him here as Kenny sniped him out with plenty of V-Triggers and Snap Dragon Suplexes. Knight still had a fight though, using not as much high-flying as normal to translate his heel nature into his arsenal. In the end, Kenny put out an arrogant Kevin Knight with the One-Winged Angel to get the victory and title retention.
But that’s not all. First off, Kenny made sure to highlight to the crowd how great Kevin Knight was, but then the Death Riders would jump Kenny. Claudio wrapped a chair around Kenny’s head but Will Ospreay ran out to stop his stablemate from stomping on the chair. Then, Jon Moxley pulled out the dreaded plastic bag and wanted Ospreay to kill Kenny (South Park style). But the super-babyface Ospreay refused and chased the Riders out of the ring. He even hit a Hidden Blade on PAC, finally letting out some of that anger towards being in the same faction as him all this time.
After a tense standoff with Kenny and Ospreay, they appeared to be on the same page. Until Kenny hit a One-Winged Angel on Ospreay! He held up the ripped plastic bag, and thought Ospreay was going to go through with the Death Riders’ demands. Noooo Kenny, it’s a misunderstanding! The Young Bucks hesitantly posed with Kenny to close out this show. The focus is obviously on the post-match Death Riders stuff, but damn, we can’t overlook how great of a match Kenny can still have. He’s still one of the best.
Overall, this was a mixed bag of a pay-per-view. We got some amazing matches like the main event and the International Title match, but also some unremarkable matches like the TBS Title match and the Double Chain Tag. Perhaps this show being FIVE HOURS long minus the Buy-In also had something to do with the lull of quality in the middle of this show. The crowd died after Fletcher v. Bandido but woke back up during Jericho v. Ciampa. At least the show ended with a great main event and nail-biting Death Riders drama to send the crowd home happy.
My biggest criticism of this show is every match being over 15 minutes and some misplaced importance on sections of it. For instance, some of these matches could have easily been placed on Dynamite or Collision instead of a sudden PPV ahead of All In. The big concern seemed to be if this show was warranted, and altogether I believe yes. However, the disappointing Double Chain Tag happening right after the brilliant International Title match is a good dichotomy to describe this show.
AEW could have benefitted from letting All In build more from Forbidden Door. They instead swung the bat again to not hit a home run, but rather a sacrifice fly.
