411’s AEW Revolution Preview

Hello 411 guys, gals, enbies, and everyone else! Welcome to 411’s AEW Revolution 2021 preview! I’m Jeremy Thomas as always, and it’s time to take a look at the latest AEW PPV. The company has been building to this for a while, delivering some big themed episodes of Dynamite en route to what looks like on paper to be a pretty good show. Anyway, we have a LOT to get into in terms of matches so let’s jump right in, shall we?

Buy In Match
Thunder Rosa & Riho vs. Britt Baker & Reba

Our pre-show match this time around picks up arguably on the most interesting feud that the AEW women’s division has had to date. It also benefits in having some of the division’s best regular talent working in it. Rosa and Baker have been going after each other for a while now, and Baker picked up the win in their match at Beach Break. That brings them to now, where Rosa is teaming with her opponent from the first round of the Women’s Eliminator Tournament in Riho to seek revenge. It’s nice to see a women’s match on AEW PPV that isn’t a title match or thrown together, and given the chance these four can deliver a pretty decent affair. In the end through, it’s hard not to see Rosa and Riho picking up the win, likely with Reba taking the fall so Baker stays strong as a heel.

WINNER: Thunder Rosa and Riho

AEW Tag Team Championships Match
The Young Bucks vs. Chris Jericho & MJF

It was announced by Tony Khan on the AEW Unrestricted podcast that the Young Bucks’ title defense against MJF and Chris Jericho will open the main PPV, and it’s not hard to see why. This match has every potential to be an absolute banger, and it will start the show impressivey hot if all four deliver their usual work. AEW has done a pretty good job building some heat for this rivalry and creating a few X-factors for this match. Will the Good Brothers get involved to help (or betray) the Bucks? Will Sammy Guevara return and cost MJF and Jericho the win and titles? There are a lot of factors that could come into play here. It’s always possible that they could hold off the Guevara return into MJF and Y2J win the titles to give them a feud, but now feels like the right time to really kick this storyline into the next stage. I figure Guevara comes out and makes the save for the Bucks somehow after the Inner Circle tries chicanery, allowing the Bucks to get the win and leading to Guevara feuding directly with MJF and Jericho.

WINNER: The Young Bucks (STILL AEW World Tag Team Champions)

Casino Tag Team Battle Royale
Private Party, The Butcher & The Blade, Santana & Ortiz,
John Silver & Alex Reynolds, Evil Uno & Stu Grayson, Top Flight,
Bear Country, Death Triangle, Varsity Blonds, Gunn Club, SCU,
Chaos Project, Pretty Picture, Jurassic Express,
Natural Nightmares, Sydal Brothers, & 5 & 10

Man, that’s a lot of tag teams — and we still have more to be announced. AEW may be different than WWE in a lot of ways, but they both sure do like their “get everyone on the card” clusterfuck matches. This one has the added benefit of being a way to promote their casino video game. (For the record, I’ve played it and…well, it’s a casino game. There’s nothing outside of the name that is AEW-specific. If you like playing casino games with fake money, have a blast.) Anyway, this match will be a lot of fun spotwork and hectic nonsense. There are a lot of potentially great options for winners in here between Private Party, Bucther & Blade, PAC & Fenix, Santana & Ortiz, and so on. That said, My guess is that one of the unannounced tag teams — say, the Good Brothers? — pick up the win here and go on to face the Young Bucks. In fact yeah, let’s go with that.

WINNER: The Good Brothers

Miro & Kip Sabian vs. Orange Cassidy & Chuck Taylor

Cassidy and the Best Friends remain one of the most pleasant surprises of AEW, but by the same token it’s difficult to see how little Miro’s been allowed to get over. He’s been meandering his way through the whole “Best Man” bit for a while, which of course culminated at Sabian and Penelope Ford’s wedding. There has to be a point where Miro starts to pick up steam, otherwise why did AEW pick him up? This feels like it’s gotta be that moment. Cassidy and Taylor can take a loss without too much difficulty, and if done right this could give Miro the kick in the pants his AEW run needs to really get started. That’s what I expect happens here.

WINNER: Miro & Kip Sabian

Winner Gets Loser’s 2021 First-Quarter Earnings
Hangman Page vs. Matt Hardy

This mini-feud has been kinda fun, even if its kind of just a stopgap feud to give Page something to do before he gets a push further up the card. Big Money Matt has been very entertaining and a nice switch from the Broken gimmick, and his attempts to sign Page to a predatory deal blowing up in his face worked well from a viewing perspective. All that said, this is the kind of feud you don’t want to overextend. It works nicely for what it is but push it out too long and it gets tedious. Hardy winning would extend the storyline, while Page could pick up the win and move on to something else while Hardy could deal with the aftermath without directly involving Page. That’s the smarter move. The match should be fun, but Page should go over strong here.

WINNER: Hangman Page

Face of the Revolution Ladder Match
Cody Rhodes vs. Scorpio Sky vs. Penta El Zero M vs. Lance Archer vs. Max Caster vs. One More TBA

This match will give the winner a shot at the AEW TNT Championship, a title AEW has done a decent job of making important. Of course, this multi-man ladder match will be a bit of a car crash (in a good way), and has a mix of established top talent and guys who have the potential to reach the next level. It would seem like a rehash to give Cody the win here so he can face Darby Allin again, and similarly both Scorpio Sky and Lance Archer have battled their way around the titles for a while. I could see arguments for Penta or Caster winning; Penta could of course deliver a hell of a match with Allin, and Caster would be absolutely elevated with a win here. But I’m going to go out on a limb and pick the mystery guy, who I have a strong inclination is Ethan Page. Page left Impact Wrestling recently and they could play that into the “Forbidden Door” storyline, while also putting over a newcomer to AEW quite strongly. Honestly, there are no horrible options here unless their new arrival is someone terrible, but best not think of that possibility.

WINNER: Ethan Page

AEW Women’s World Championship Match
Hikaru Shida vs. Ryo Mizunami

This title match has been built up to courtesy of the AEW Women’s World Title Eliminator Tournament, which was a hell of an undertaking with brackets in both the US and Japan. That tournament ultimately saw Mizunami beat Nyla Rose in the finals on Dynamite to earn this title match. The big question here is how much they want to get behind Mizunami, and where they see the top of the women’s division going. Shida has been a dominant champion and currently stands as the longest-reigning title holder in AEW history. While I’m tempted to say that they pull the title switch here to make the Eliminator Tournament have some real impact on the state of the women’s division, I don’t know that she’s the person to dethrone Shida at this time. Shida still has some title feuds that can have real value such as Britt Baker. So while I want to say we see a title change, I’m going with my head and saying Shida retains after a hell of a match.

WINNER: Hikaru Shida (STILL AEW Women’s World Champion)

Street Fight
Sting & Darby Allin vs. Team Taz

Sting’s return to in-ring action is something that I think people are anticipating in an anxiety-laden way. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen him in real action, and he is a 61 year-old whose career ended due to injury. Putting him in a street fight seems…reckless. But then, a cinematic match could absolutely be the way to work around that if that’s the direction that they want to go. Either way, the Icon’s association with Darby Allin is clearly being done to help elevate him, and while Team Taz is a fine idea for a midcard heel stable I don’t see Brian Cage or Ricky Starks as guys that AEW is ready to give a big win the way they want to do with Allin. I expect Allin to pick up the pin here in a match that will be chaotic and probably not that great, but entertaining for what it is.

WINNER: Sting & Darby Allin

AEW World Championship Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch
Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley

There are a lot of concepts I thought we would eventually see in mainstream American wrestling. But hoo boy, an exploding barbed wire deathmatch was not one of them. Leave it to Moxley and Omega to shatter those expectations. The two of course had that insane Lights Out match at Full Geat 2019 which got the company some blowback, and while I don’t think this will go to the ridiculous lengths that the Lights Out match did it’s not not exactly going to win over the Cornettes of the world. It should be exciting and cringe-worthy and everything you would expect from a match like this, and that’s all any of us can ask for. Omega’s run as champion to date has been very good, but it’s time that he move onto someone else to feud with. Moxley has a lot going on between his NJPW work, a baby on the way and more, and so it makes no sense to switch the title back here. Omega’s win is a foregone conclusion, and I’m okay with that.

WINNER: Kenny Omega (STILL AEW World Champion)

And that’s all we have for Revolution! AEW has generally delivered very well on its PPVs, and I expect nothing different here. There will be a dud or two of course, and a match or two may disappoint, but the hype is there and is real. As long as they deliver on the big promises, this should be a show that helps AEW continue to build its momentum.

Anyway, thanks once again for reading, and remember that we will have live coverage of AEW Revolution courtesy of the man, the myth, Tony Acero, right here on 411mania.com. I’ve gotta run — Tony Khan is saying something about the Forbidden Door, and I think I’m headed to Impact!