411’s AEW Revolution 2023 Preview

Hello 411 guys, gals, enbies, and everyone else! Welcome to 411’s AEW Revolution 2023 preview! I’m Jeremy Thomas, here as always, and today All Elite Wrestling presents its first PPV of 2023. We have an unusually light main card at just eight matches (compared to 10 for Full Gear and 11 for All Out), mostly thanks to our hour-long main event. Still, eight is a lot of matches and there will be plenty of action to be had. There’s a lot on the line for AEW, who have been a bit up and down in quality as of late. But they often deliver big for the PPV audience, so we can hope for a great show. With all that said, let’s hop right in!

Ricky Starks vs. Chris Jericho

Image Credit: AEW

Ricky Starks and the Jericho Appreciation Society have been feuding for around three months as of late, which for Jericho is pretty much the norm these days. Jericho loves his long feuds where he tries to elevate talent, and he’s clearly been having a good time working with Starks. And well he should. Starks is someone who has all the potential in the world to become a top name in the company, and this feud has been working out pretty well for him even if it doesn’t seem like it needed to go quite this long; the whole point of extending this seems to have been to get it to a PPV, and that’s fine. Starks and Jericho can work a good match together; of course, the payoff needs to be that Starks gets the win. While Starks did get the initial win between the two of them, his momentum doesn’t continue if he loses — especially if the JAS is banned from ringside. Even some clever way to circumvent that would result in Starks taking a hit, as this is the logical point at which to end this feud and him losing the final match in the feud makes no sense.

WINNER: Ricky Starks

The Final Burial
Jack Perry vs. Christian Cage

Image Credit: AEW

Speaking of long-term feuds that need to be blown off at Revolution… “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry and Christian Cage have literally been feuding since June of last year, when Cage turned on Perry and attacked him after AEW Road Rager. For reference, that was four different AEW Tag Team Title reigns ago. Now, part of the stall here has been due to injury, and I understand that. Still, while they’ve kept this feud more or less on the rails throughout this time by way of the Perry & Luchasarus matches, it has meant that Perry has been locked up in this storyline for the better part of the year. It’s time to move him past that, and apparently it’s happening with a “Final Burial.” This match was a No Holds Barred match until it got that name, and as of this writing it’s not clear if that’s just a special name for this match or if it means we’re literally going to get some variation on a Buried Alive match. It doesn’t matter in terms of the result either way, because again Jungle Boy needs to win this one. He is one of the pillars of AEW and this feud was always intended to season him some more while elevating him to a higher level. A Christian Cage win here extends this feud even further, and that’s the last thing we need at this point. This should be a fun bout, but in the end Perry needs to walk away with the victory once and for all.

WINNER: Jack Perry

AEW World Trios Championship Match
The Elite vs. House of Black

Image Credit: AEW

This is actually a somewhat harder match to pick that I expected. On one hand, The Elite just got their AEW Trios Championships back in January at the conclusion of their Best of Seven series with Death Triangle. While they’ve held them for 54 days since then and defended them a few times, it still feels early in their run. On the other hand, a run with these titles is exactly what House of Black needs and a loss to Malakai Black and company wouldn’t exactly hurt the Bucks and Kenny Omega. While this match does feel a bit thrown together, the House of Black presents an interesting sort of challenge for The Elite that they haven’t entirely had to deal with in AEW. I would be perfectly fine with this match going either way, and it almost goes without saying that the match should be a blast considering everyone involved. Right now I’m leaning toward The Elite winning in a way that potentially extends the feud into something more substantial than creepy promos by the HoB, but I could easily see this resulting in new champions as well.

WINNER: The Elite (STILL AEW World Trios Champions)

Texas Deathmatch
Jon Moxley vs. Hangman Page

Image Credit: AEW

Well, we know at least one match on the show will be bloody as hell. Jon Moxley is a hell of a worker who just seems to love wearing crimson masks anymore, to the point that it’s a standard feature of a lot of his matches. And with as heated a rivalry as he has with Hangman Page, there’s virtually no way that he doesn’t get busted open (probably Hangman too) in a Texas Deathmatch. Whatever you think about the blood issue, this feud has been kept pretty hot thanks to how they played off Hangman’s injury in their AEW World Title match back in October and the promos delivered back and forth. These guys are going to lay it all on the line and it may not be to everyone’s tastes, but it will deliver what we expect from it. Moxley has two wins to Page’s one, and the smart money feels like it’s on Page to win the fourth (and presumably final) match to at least keep both guys strong.

WINNER: Hangman Page

AEW TNT Championship Match
Samoa Joe vs. Wardlow

Image Credit: AEW

Hey look, it’s yet another feud that’s been going on for forever. One thing you can say about AEW; they do stick to their long builds, even if in some cases it’s to their detriment. The Joe vs. Wardlow storyline does feel like it’s a little long in the tooth, but it hasn’t gone too far over the line and it makes sense for them to get to this point considering how personal Joe has made the feud in regard to cutting off Wardlow’s ponytail which was a tribute to Wardlow’s late dad. I’m not complaining too much about the length here because these two have brought it when the bell rings, and we shouldn’t expect anything less here. As to who wins, the answer comes down to one thing for me: ROH. Joe is currently the AEW TNT Champion as well as the ROH TV Champion. With ROH Honor Club TV now up and running, it makes more sense for the rosters to be a bit more divided and while I can see some crossover for guys like Joe, Claudio, and Wheeler Yuta, it doesn’t make sense to have one guy have titles in two companies. Wardlow should pick up the win here to become a two-time champion, which leaves Joe to defend his title in ROH so they can stop feuding for the foreseeable future and Wardlow can defend against Powerhouse Hobbs on Wednesday’s Dynamite.

WINNER: Wardlow (NEW AEW TNT Champion)

AEW Women’s World Championship Match
Jamie Hayter vs. Saraya vs. Ruby Soho

Image Credit: AEW

While I appreciate that AEW is trying to build a bigger storyline in the women’s division beyond “The ladies want the title,” I am not certain how well the AEW Originals vs. AEW Invaders storyline is working. It hasn’t been a disaster, necessarily; Saraya and Toni Storm’s heel turns were well-timed considering the fact that they weren’t working too well as babyfaces, and it has set up a solid dynamic while giving Hayter a storyline as AEW Women’s World Champion. That said, there’s still a lot of work that AEW needs to do in order to continue building the division to where it’s worthy of the talent within it. This title match is playing off the Invader vs. Original storyline with Ruby Soho stuck firmly in the middle. Under normal situations, I would say that Soho’s presence is there to just take the pinfall so Saraya or Hayter are protected. However, it feels more like she’s in a situation where she’s going to have to play kingmaker and take a side. It’s too early in Hayter’s run to take the title off of her, and while Saraya’s name value makes her a potential logical business choice to wear the belt she does need some rebuilding first. There are a lot of ways this could go, but I’m predicting that Soho makes her choice to side with the Originals and that allows the champion to retain.

WINNER: Jamie Hayter (STILL AEW Women’s World Champion)

AEW Tag Team Championship Match
The Gunns vs. Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal vs.
The Acclaimed vs. Danhausen & Orange Cassidy

Image Credit: AEW

The Gunns won the AEW Tag Team Championships in fairly surprising fashion from The Acclaimed on the February 8th episode of Dynamite. The Acclaimed had a pretty solid run with the titles, but it still seemed like there was plenty of gas left in that tank so I at least certainly didn’t expect it. Now the two teams will clash again, with the additional teams of Jeff Jarrett/Jay Lethal and Orange Cassidy/Danhausen. While it’s still early in The Gunns’ title reign, I could see AEW using this chance to put the belts back on The Acclaimed without having the champions be pinned. Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal do not need a title reign together, and while it’s nice to see Danhausen and Cassidy in a title match they sure aren’t winning here. All that said, we at least know this will be a fun and chaotic match with plenty of potential to shine. My guess is that The Gunns get to keep the titles at least a little longer and just like the Acclaimed win scenario, The Gunns can retain without pinning The Acclaimed. I’m willing to bet that Danhausen takes the pinfall and the champions retain.

WINNER: The Gunns (STILL AEW Women’s World Champion)

AEW World Championship Iron Man Match
MJF vs. Bryan Danielson

Image Credit: AEW

The bulk of the show will of course be taken up by the main event, an 60-minute Iron Man match for the AEW World Champion. I have to acknowledge that MJF’s World Title reign has been somewhat disappointing to me. It got off to a solid start but has been a little lost in the shuffle. That’s not MJF’s fault, to be fair; part of it was how the All Out situation overshadowed his title win, but the other part is that he’s basically running the same “prove yourself to me” storyline one too many times. The MJF feud is becoming a boilerplate at this point and I understand why it works with his character, but that doesn’t stop it from being a bit of a “rinse, lather, repeat” situation. Fortunately, it has resulted in some absolutely stellar matches from Danielson as he’s fought to get his World Title shot. And that brings us to here. Even if MJF wasn’t a stellar performer, I’d have high expectations for this match because of Danielson. But MJF can bring it and lasting an hour in the ring will be his biggest test. There’s always the opportunity for shenanigans, and I would be surprised if there weren’t at least some because there’s not much chance that Danielson wins the title here. But as long as they keep that to a minimum, we should have a pretty great match here and hopefully something that can send MJF off into his next feud.

WINNER: MJF (STILL AEW World Champion)

And that’s all we have for AEW Revolution! With a lighter card than previous AEW PPVs, we should be able to get some solid matches even with most of that extra time dedicated to the main event. Whatever AEW’s problems are, they usually deliver as long as the only TNT we have to deal with is the one currently around Samoa Joe’s waist. Thanks once again for reading and remember that we will have live coverage of the show courtesy our own Robert Winfree right here on 411mania.com. Now if you’ll excuse me, Tony has a big announcement, and I don’t want to be in the blast radius when it inevitably disappoints…

Image Courtesy of AEW