Kevin’s AEW All Out 2020 Review

AEW All Out

September 5th, 2020 | Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida

I don’t have time to cover the pre-show but here are the ratings for it.

Joey Janela vs. Serpentico – **

Dark Order vs. Private Party – **¼

Tooth And Nail Match: Big Swole vs. Britt Baker

This actually has been built up for a while. It took place at a dental office and was basically AEW’s latest attempt at a cinematic match. I don’t know if Britt Baker is quite ready for full action yet, so this probably was the way to go. However, it wasn’t well-executed. The more of these we get, the worse they seem to get. Gone are the days of the Boneyard match. Anyway, this was filled with cheesy moments and some involvement from Reba. I did gasp at the needle going into Baker’s leg. Swole won in about 6:30 and it was one of the worst things I’ve seen all year. Hopefully, the two get the chance to actually have a regular match when Britt is healed up. [DUD]

Jurassic Express (6-3 in 2020) vs. The Young Bucks (6-3 in 2020)

Hey, it’s identical records! This should’ve been the real opener. These are two teams ideal for that spot because they bring energy and have some fast-paced matches. That’s what you want to start a show. They gave me exactly what I wanted here. This was so much fun. It was interesting to see the Bucks acting as vicious heels. Like, they even kicked at the crutch of poor Marko Stunt. That’s an ideal role for them because they generally aren’t very likable. Even when they’re faces they act like tools so they should lean into it. Luchasaurus continues to shine and his dive into the crowd was pretty great. Jungle Boy took everything they had to offer and survived a lot but was finally put down by the BTE Trigger in 15:24. That was really good and just what I’m looking for in an opener. It’s intriguing to see the Bucks act this heelish. Jungle Boy is really good. [***¾]

Casino Battle Royale

This is becoming an AEW staple. You know the rules. Guys come out in groups based on the card suit they drew backstage and the winner gets an AEW Title shot. I’ll list the entrants but won’t go into detail about eliminations and such. Group 1 featured Trent, Christopher Daniels, Jake Hager, The Blade, and Ray Fenix. Nothing of real not happened during this interval. Group 2 included Frankie Kazarian, Will Hobbs, Chuck Taylor, Santana, and Ortiz. The latter two continued their feud with Best Friends. Hobbs, who I’ve seen a lot on Dark, was given a lot of shine here and that was great. He has a pretty good look. Group 3 or C featured Billy, Penta El Zero M, Ricky Starks, Brian Cage, and Darby Allin. That led to some Allin/Cage & Starks stuff. The final group had Shawn Spears (who did commentary to take a break), Eddie Kingston, Butcher, Sonny Kiss, and Lance Archer. Kiss eliminating Hager was great. The final spot, which goes to the “Joker,” was Matt Sydal. Unfortunately, he immediately went for an SSP and slipped, nearly injuring himself. It came down to Archer and Kingston. Using help from Jake Roberts and a snake, Archer won in 21:56. I like Archer but I don’t think he wins the title and losing another major title match will hurt him. I would’ve liked Kingston winning as him against Moxley could be good. The match was good and advanced several angles while also putting over Hobbs. [***¼]

Broken Rules Match: Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara

Obviously, this was the most controversial thing on the show. It was held under Last Man Standing style rules and started at the Jaguars’ practice field. Matt took a hellacious bump off a small scaffolding where he missed the table and hit the back of his head on the concrete. It was a terrible spot and he looked to be way out of it. Instead of ending things there, they opted to continue, which was a horrible decision. If it was a work, that’s also a bad look. Anyway, they rushed to the finish and Guevara won. The whole thing was bad. [DUD]

AEW Women’s Championship: Hikaru Shida (16-1 in 2020) [c] vs. Thunder Rosa (0-0)

The main reason that I watched the show. The women of AEW are talented but the booking team is ATROCIOUS at giving them the shine they deserve. Hikaru Shida is awesome, while Thunder Rosa was a treat in NWA. Props to Excalibur (and Schiavone. Really, AEW’s only bad commentator is JR) for saying that Shida spoke with CIMA for advice on facing lucha-style wrestlers. The idea here was that Rosa did her homework. She had counters and answers for most of Shida’s signature stuff. She actually dominated a bit of this and was vicious throughout. The leaping shot off a chair and the ring post wrenching on Shida’s back looked great. The same goes for the apron DVD. Playing off of the CIMA reference earlier Shida even hit one of his signature moves. Rosa kicked out of the Falcon Arrow at one, which should’ve been sold better by commentary. Only Excalibur hyped it. Rosa’s smile after was great. Shida had to find something new and dig deep to win. She did by hitting Tomashi at the 16:57 mark. Hell of a match. It’s almost as if AEW would be a much better company if they actually used their women well. Give them time, book them as stars, and reap the benefits. I loved that. It was hard-hitting, both women looked fantastic, and they told a great story. [****]

Dark Order (0-0) vs. Matt Cardona (1-0), The Natural Nightmares (7-2 in 2020) and Scorpio Sky (7-2 in 2020)

I’m gonna be honest. You aren’t going to get me interested in anything done by the Dark Order that doesn’t involve Anna Jay. Okay, I like Brodie Lee as well. This was a fine match but nothing more than that. The focus seemed to be on Grayson & Uno against the Natural Nightmares. They could’ve just booked a pre-show tag for that. Lee didn’t do a ton and even Scorpio Sky didn’t get as much shine as I wish he did. He’s a consistent highlight. The main story in the end was that Cabana ended up costing his team by doing a bit too much. He missed a moonsault and Dustin rolled him up to take this after 15:10. I think this needed to be cut back to be closer to 10 minutes. [**½]

AEW Tag Team Championship: Hangman Page (15-3 in 2020) and Kenny Omega (21-4 in 2020) [c] vs. FTR (7-0)

On paper, this is what fans were salivating for. Page and Omega have been way better as a team than most expected, while FTR is considered by many to be in the conversation for the best team in the world. This was one of those matches that desperately needed a legitimate crowd. It started well but once they got to the heat segment on Omega’s knee, it came crashing down. That kind of stuff is what FTR excels at but tag team wrestling like that needs the audience to feed off of. That depravation in heat segments and hot tags are dependent on the audience. Without it, the whole thing drags on. The Page hot tag was strong, though. After what seemed like forever, Omega accidentally clocked Page with a knee. Page survived a spike piledriver but couldn’t get up from a second. New Champions crowned at 29:19. It was dull at points and dragged at others. Good but highly disappointing. [***¼]

Kenny Omega left a fallen Page in the ring without helping him. As he left to the back, he wanted the Young Bucks to get in the car with him but they declined.

Mimosa Mayhem Match: Chris Jericho (17-7-1) vs. Orange Cassidy (8-5 in 2020)

They split their first two matches (***¾ and ***¼). The finish comes here by pinfall, submission, or being dumped into the vat of mimosa. What a waste of a perfectly tasty beverage. Jericho opened things with a Codebreaker immediately. It only got a near fall but it took Cassidy out of his game. There’s not much to say about this. Jericho did his thing, Cassidy rallied, and knocked him into the mimosa to earn the win after 15:09. This was good and I enjoyed it. I just honestly don’t have much else to comment on. It was what I expected. [***]

AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley (16-0 in 2020) [c] vs. MJF (8-0 in 2020)

If Moxley uses the Paradigm Shift, he loses the title. Neither man has lost a singles match in AEW. MJF had a plan, going after Moxley’s arm almost immediately. However, he was also not quite ready for the ass kicking that the champion was handing out. I loved that story. MJF is a prick but he’s never been booked as a tough guy. That means someone like Moxley should beat his ass when given the chance. MJF even got busted open, adding to the visual of this encounter. When his best offense couldn’t keep Moxley down, MJF resorted to cheating. That meant using things like the Diamond Dozen (I don’t remember the exact name) ring, though Wardlow fumbled that. With the referee distracted, Moxley was able to nail the Paradigm Shift to retain after 23:49. Combined with his performance against Jungle Boy at the last PPV, MJF is on a roll. The finish was pretty blatant and the match lacked drama because there was no way MJF/Lance Archer would be a title match, but the rest of this told a really good story and was highly entertaining. [****]

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

This was kind of what I’ve come to expect from AEW. There were flashes of greatness (Shida/Rosa, Moxley/MJF), some disappointments (FTR/Omega & Page, some matches going too long), and some things that were flat out awful (Tooth & Nail, the Matt Hardy situation). Those two DUDs hold this back but outside of that, this was a strong show. Trim a few minutes off the Dark Order tag and give us a less lackluster Tag Title match and you’re looking at a much better show.