We are a couple of days removed from All Out and I think it is ample time to reflect on what happened Saturday night. Overall, I thought it was the worst PPV has put out to date. It wasn’t really impressive and for a promotion that has been can’t miss for the most part since they started, it really wouldn’t have bothered me to miss this PPV. Do I feel like I wasted my money? Not really, because I did want to watch it and I got what was advertised, but I just felt like I could’ve saved the money and follow what was happening on Twitter. I felt like they stretched out a 2 ½ show into 5 hours (including the Buy-In). With that being said though, none of the matches were particularly bad, but none were really memorable. There were a couple memorable moments and I’ll get into it later on, but not a lot stood out from this show and part of me thinks this could’ve just been a two-week event on Dynamite. Here is my reaction to the show and the results attached.

- Men’s Singles Match

Joey Janela (with Sonny Kiss) over Serpentico (with Luther)

This match was added to the Buy-In last minute and I don’t think it wouldn’t have mattered if it were put on the card or not. Nothing is probably going to come of this and Janela picking up the win here does absolutely nothing for him. So basically, this was a time filler and nothing more.

GRADE: 6.6/10

- Men’s Tag Team Match

Private Party over The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver)

Like I said in the preview, The Dark Order was basically marching their C team out here, so Private Party taking the W here was a likely thing and that was the case. The match was better than the first Buy-In match in my opinion, but Buy-In matches lack a certain urgency that the main portion of the show has. It’s technically a PPV match, without the aura that come from being in a PPV match. With that being said though, It was a nice preshow match, but nothing more.

GRADE: 7.2/10

- Tooth and Nail Match

Big Swole over Britt Baker

I totally didn’t expect this to be the show’s opener and to be fair, I think it slightly hurt the rest of the show by leading off. It wasn’t an opening caliber match, but to be fair, in the grand scheme of things it didn’t really matter over the course of a 4-hour main show. I think they decided to go with this gimmick match because Baker wasn’t fully cleared to compete in the ring. That is my personal opinion and it could be wrong, but that is the reason I’m thinking. Moving forward, I think this helps Big Swole due to the fact that she technically picked up a PPV win, but I don’t think it gives her a ton of momentum. We’ll see where this feud ends up, but I don’t think it is over.

GRADE: 7.0/10

- Men’s Tag Team Match

The Young Bucks over Jurassic Express

For a match that was planned at the last minute, it was entertaining. I personally think it should’ve been the show’s opener looking back, but you know what they say about hindsight. After looking at the rest of the tag matches on the card, I think this one was the best. I had a feeling that their styles would mesh perfectly and I was right. With a little more time, I expect the Jurassic Express to be serious tag champ contenders sometime in 2021. I expected this match to be a precursor to the tag title match later in the show, but nothing came of it. This was a really solid match, but not particularly a memorable one.

GRADE: 8.5/10

- 21-Man Casino Battle Royale: Winner gets AEW World Championship Match

WINNER: Lance Archer

LAST 4: Lance Archer, Eddie Kingston, Matt Sydal, and The Butcher

The most anticipated thing about this match heading into it was the fact that there were 4 unannounced entrants. Of those unannounced Will Hobbs and Matt Sydal were the only two that we don’t see on a regular basis. During the match, I was shocked to find out that Matt Sydal was the wrestler formerly known as Evan Bourne. I haven’t seen or heard from him in years and here he was in this battle royal. He took an odd dive from the top rope and it could’ve ended horribly, though it appears he was fine. A lot of people normally dislike battle royals, but I’ve always had a soft spot for them. With that being said though, this battle royal took entirely too much time and I won’t say it was a relief to end, but it was longer than it should’ve been, especially with a good number of powerhouse performers. I predicted Archer to win, so it wasn’t really a surprise, but predictability isn’t a bad thing, especially in this case. Archer competing for the World title is something that I expected sooner than now, but here we are and I’m ready to see it happen.

GRADE: 8.0/10

- Broken Rules Match

Matt Hardy over Sammy Guevara

Sadly, I think this match was the most talked about of the night for all of the wrong reasons. Matt Hardy took a nasty fall onto the concrete from a scissor lift and continue the match as if nothing happened. This caught the attention of everyone and the ref even threw up the X, meaning that there was medical attention necessary. They checked him out during the match and cleared him as the segment was wrapping up and as oddly as it seemingly ended, it wasn’t over. The match continued and if there was any reason to believe he may have had a concussion, the match shouldn’t have continued. Hardy was sent to a hospital after the match and it turned out that he wasn’t concussed, but to be fair, I think AEW should’ve erred on the side of caution and ended the match regardless. The match continued, but it was one of those deals where the performers are just going through the motions to end the match and set up the big spot in the end. 20 years ago, they wouldn’t have thought twice about continuing the match, but knowing what we know about head injuries today, it shouldn’t have continued if there was a slight hint of doubt that their quick diagnosis could be wrong. I know that is a tough decision to make in the moment, but AEW is still a new company and for the most part they’re learning as they go along. Matches like these will only make them more precautious and prepared for anything.

GRADE: 4.0/10

- Women’s Singles Match: AEW Women’s World Championship

Hikaru Shida (C) over Thunder Rosa

Heading into this match, this is the contest that I was most eager to see and it didn’t disappoint. I only saw one Thunder Rosa match prior to this contest and I am a fan of what she does in the ring. With that being said though, I don’t think there was ever any doubt that this wouldn’t be a successful title defense for Shida. It was a physical matchup and hopefully this opens up the door for more inter-promotional matches in the future. You obviously don’t want to overdo those kind of matches, but it is cool to see belts of other companies being on display in a good light on other shows. I would like to see more of Thunder Rosa and hopefully it is with AEW moving forward.

GRADE: 8.6/10

- 8-Man Tag Team Match

Dustin Rhodes, Matt Cardona, Scorpio Sky, and QT Marshall over The Dark Order (Brodie Lee, Stu Grayson, Evil Uno, and Colt Cabana)

To be fair, I think this match could’ve been left off of the card. I said in the predictions article that I thought this should’ve been a singles match for the TNT Championship, but instead we got an 8-Man Tag. It looks like the only thing that will come of this is a match between Dustin Rhodes and Brodie Lee tomorrow on Dynamite and potentially another match with Cody. It felt like a waste of time to put all of these people in a PPV match, but whatever. For what it was, it was a decent match, but nothing spectacular.

GRADE: 7.7/10

- Men’s Tag Team Match: AEW World Tag Team Championship

FTR (with Tully Blanchard) over Kenny Omega and Hangman Page (C)

I think most fans of AEW saw this title change coming from a mile away. Usually when these guys are in the ring together, you don’t notice that the match is beyond 20 minutes, but this one dragged out longer than it needed to. The match time was nearly 30 minutes and it should’ve only been around 20 in my opinion. It was long and there seemingly was not anything memorable about the contest. It appears that Omega and Page are splitting up for good, but it wasn’t a certainty after the match. Omega just left the arena with The Young Bucks and nothing was said or done. We’ll find out more tomorrow on Dynamite probably, but all-in-all, this wasn’t a great match.

GRADE: 7.8/10

- Mimosa Mayhem Match

Orange Cassidy over Chris Jericho

Although the match wasn’t great, it was entertaining. The purpose of the match was to make Orange Cassidy a more serious competitor and I don’t think this match solidified that, but I do think that it made him a more accessible name in terms of bigger matches. It proved he can work with the best that AEW has to offer and that you can put him in different situations and thrive. I realize that Cassidy isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, beverage pun not intended, but there are a lot of fans that really like him and they’re trying to capitalize on that. I’m interested to see what is next for both competitors.

GRADE: 8.3/10

- Men’s Singles Match: AEW World Championship

Jon Moxley (C) over MJF (with Wardlow) *Match of the Night*

Although I was excited to a certain degree to see this match, but at the same time I really wasn’t as excited as I could’ve been to see it. MJF has proven himself as the fastest rising star in AEW and Moxley has proven himself as the standard bearer for AEW. I’m bigger on Moxley than most fans are I believe, but I think there aren’t any better options to be AEW than him at the moment. The match itself was kinda slow paced and dragged out, but I particularly liked the way this match ended. Moxley using the “illegal” move behind the referee’s back to secure the victory was perfect. With that being said, it was the right move for MJF to lose the match not only in this particular fashion, but I just don’t think he is ready for the belt yet. He will be pretty soon though. I have stated this in other articles, but I hate the fact that AEW feels the need to bring the blades out for big matches. There was really no reason for MJF to be bleeding that profusely. I’m not a big fan of hardcore matches with a lot of blood, but this was just a regular matchup. I get there are fans that like to see blood regardless, but I am not one of those fans personally. I think the story is told just as well, if not better, without blood. Certain situations can warrant it, but I didn’t really feel that anything in this match warranted it. It was a solid match, but not a match that I’m rushing to rewatch anytime soon.

GRADE: 8.7/10

Yacs

AEW All Out (2020) Results and Reaction