Ex-TNA star Chistian Cage debuts in AEW! Ex-TNA star Ethan Page also debuts in AEW! And one
of the most emotional wrestling angles of the year main evented the show to just kinda
fizzle out... I’m Mr Davis, asking you to please give
us a subscribe, superkick that thumbs up button and enable notifications to always on for
daily wrestling news and review videos. Like my review of AEW Revolution 2021… in about
10 minutes. In a match that had ‘house show’ written
all over it - and I am all here for that - the only pre-show bout saw Riho and Thunder Rosa
team against Dr Britt Baker and the injured Reba-replacing, cutest wrestler in the world
Maki Itoh, who came out singing her entrance theme, which is the song to every anime show
you’ve ever seen. Kawaii! The action was quite sloppy in parts, but
the charisma in the ring more than made up for the blanks. Everyone’s characters meshed
well together, while Rosa also furthered her feud with Britt, getting hit by Reba with
the crutch behind the referee’s back to lose. And, if I wasn’t clear, Maki Itoh
is the cutest wrestler in the world. The main show kicked right off with the Young
Bucks attacking MJF and Chris Jericho in their blood feud tag title match.
This might not have been as great as the Bucks’ outings with Page and Omega or FTR last year,
but they still never disappoint. The final third in particular was full of great near
falls, Jericho hitting a Judas Effect on Wardlow (it’s Judas mistaken), the Bucks referencing
the Motor City Machine Guns, and then having a superkick party. First Big Show, now even
leg slaps have left WWE for AEW! Jericho ended up taking the pin, giving MJF
the perfect example to say to the rest of the Inner Circle Chris hasn’t got it anymore.
Jericho later announced Wednesday’s Dynamite will have a War Council to shake up the faction.
Battle Royales in AEW have been a mixed affair, but this was easily the best one they’ve
done, and actually my favourite match on the whole show.
It was essentially the Royal Rumble for tag teams, with a new team coming out every 90
seconds, and eliminations when both members are out.
There were cool angles, like QT Marshall falling out with Dustin Rhodes and then eliminating
himself, potentially foreshadowing the Natural Nightmares split. Bear Country did some amazing
power spots. The Butcher was the Butcher. Oh, Butcher. And just when you think, man,
this is a really fun match with loads of great tag teams, out comes Death Triangle. And then
out comes John Silver and Alex Reynolds. The final four came down to a mouthwatering
clash of Jungle Boy and John Silver joining forces against Pac and Rey Fenix. It ended
up as Fenix vs JB, where Rey is good, even if you think he gets eliminated, he still
somehow glitches back into the ring to win. An incredible match, which sets up a Death
Triangle vs Young Bucks feud oh dear god. In a totally different kind of match, Shida
and Mizunami had a hard-hitting, Japanese strong style, no I won’t sell your German
suplex clash. Even though they did about two kickouts too
many, the final sequence was absolutely incredible, which Shida won with a spinning knee - in
my second favourite match of the night. Shida worked slightly more heel, including
an overtly cheating eye poke, but then helped Mizunami after the match when Nyla Rose, Baker
and Itoh attacked them. Rosa ran down to even the odds - setting up a six woman tag for
Dynamite. I’m seeing double here. 12 women in an AEW
storyline. Miro and
Kip Sabian attacked Chuckie T and Orange Cassidy backstage, prompting a more drawn out angle
than a match. The angle being: Miro’s going to kill you all now.
This was the best Miro has looked since his AEW debut, and is the Bulgarian Brute Prime
we all wanted him to become once he left WWE, not Kip Sabian’s gamer buddy. He smashed
Chuck’s head through a window, beat up Cassidy, and even threw Penelope Ford to the ground.
He shouted at Kip for checking on his wife instead of focusing on the match, priorities
man! And then won by taping out Chuckie in the Game Over. Make this man a singles star
now. I thought Page vs Hardy was the best told
storyline in the whole company up until the go-home show let off a lot of the feud’s
steam. They had a 15 minute match, based around Page’s injured hand, where the Dark Order
sweetly saved Hangman from Private Party interference to win. Page hugged and celebrated with the
Dark Order afterwards. Please be their leader now.
We then got the Face of the Revolution ladder match between Cody Rhodes, Scorpio Sky, Pentagon,
Lance Archer, Max Caster and the AEW debuting Ethan Page - where the winner would get a
shot at the TNT title on Wednesday’s Dynamite, symbolised by the giant Sonic gold ring suspended
above them. You win at the next pay-per-view by being the first down a giant green pipe.
This was as insane as you would expect, with Penta hitting a Canadian Destroyer on a ladder
bridge on Cody, Sky went through a ladder on the outside, Penta superkicked Jake the
Snake Roberts so hard it made him really bloated on the apron for a few minutes. Lance, I’ve
had too many pies! And a huge Blackout from Archer on Caster onto a ladder..
But the real star of the match… was the giant gold hoop. Apparently it was meant to
be a brass ring, a la the ones people never quite reach in WWE, but it definitely looked
more like a giant cheerio. Or, as one person said in our live reactions chat, a golden
hemorrhoid pillow. Sky knocked off Cody to win - meaning I will
be the No. 1 contender to the Jampionship at Fastlane! Then I can win and main event
WrestleJamia against Andy and Adam! Then it was time for the main reason many
appeared to have bought the pay-per-view. The big tease of the Hall of Fame worthy signing…
It’s Christian Cage! He of Edge and Christian fame. The guy who only made his in-ring return
for WWE in January’s Royal Rumble after seven years out. He signed the contract, left
it in the ring, and debuted his new catchphrase ‘Out Work Everyone’.
Well he sure did work a few people. Even though what AEW teased is true: Christian
is definitely a Hall of Fame worthy talent, the hype did get out of control because, well,
CM Punk to AEW confirmed. We saw a portion of our live reaction viewers vocally underwhelmed
by the announcement. Me? I guess I’m whelmed. It’s what I realistically expected, thinking
it’d either be Christian or Kurt Angle. And with Edge being such a prominent figure
in WWE right now, though, it does make AEW look like the knockoff promotion.
But what is definitely for certain, WWE dropped the ball bigtime here. They knew Christian
was cleared to return months before the Rumble. They had big money reunion matches like Edge
and Christian vs the Usos and Roman Reigns. Yet they didn’t sign him. It’s just the
latest instance of WWE undervaluing Christian throughout his career. He deserves better,
and he’s going to be a very valuable asset in experience and mainstream name value to
help grow AEW’s roster and brand. So what happened? Tony Khan said on the post-pay-per-view
media call that he’s been friends with Christian since they met seven years ago, and that he
thinks “he's one of the great wrestlers from the last couple of decades.” Khan revealed
it was Christian who called him and asked to wrestle in AEW - implying WWE had nothing
for one of their biggest Royal Rumble surprise returns.
Additionally, Paul Wight revealed on the same call that Vince McMahon rang him to wish him
well when his AEW signing was announced, and “there’s no anger, there’s no dirt”
between him and WWE. Team Taz’s Brian Cage and Ricky Starks then
took on Darby Allin and Stiiiiing in a cinematic street fight match - where Sting didn’t
just awesomely wear Darby facepaint, so did a bunch of people wearing Sting masks. Oh
my god, Retribution have jumped ship too. This was a thing. Like a scene halfway through
a straight to DVD action film. Not the final scene, but the one where they beat up a bunch
of guys to find something before they take on the end boss. It’s as good as cinematic
matches are going to get, but I’m a bit over them now. Darby Coffin Dropped Cage through
a floor of the building, and Sting pinned Ricky Starks.
The main event was, of course, the Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch - where three sides
of the ring were surrounded by barbed wire and C4. And at the end of the 30 minute counter,
all the explosives would go off. Which referee Bryce Remsburg is preparing for, by getting
ready for a spot of beekeeping. This match was an absolute spectacle racked
with tension, because one wrong move could literally blow up in your face. Mox got the
first two explosions, and bled a gusher from his forehead, hit a Paradigm Shift on the
exploding board outside, and had one of the best spots of the year - kicking the bottom
rope to trigger an explosion after as Kenny pinned him after the One Winged Angel. Not
technically kicking out and protecting the finisher.
Omega’s gimmick is all about the heel interference though, and the Good Brothers helped him beat
down Mox with an exploding barbed wire bat, then another One Winged Angel onto the chair
to win. It was an awe-inspiring bout, pushing the
limits of the modern day artform, but there was still the small matter of all the bombs
still counting down round the ring. The heels handcuffed Mox, intent on blowing him up,
where his former friend turned enemy turned friend again Eddie Kingston ran out for the
save. But he couldn’t pick up the deadweight, so he just lay on top of Jon to protect him
as the timer counted down from 10, heroically sacrificing himself for his fallen brother.
I genuinely teared up and, recapping it to my girlfriend this morning, I legit cried
again. It was one of the most emotionally investing angles I’ve ever seen… and then
the explosions didn’t really go off. They just fizzled. Like Gillberg’s entrance.
Presumably not knowing how bad it looked, Mox and Kingston still sold it like they were
dead. The lack of spectacular explosions here completely
undermined Eddie’s sacrifice. Guys, your weekly show is literally called Dynamite.
It could’ve worked if Kenny then revealed it was all a joke, like the little flag that
says bang out of a toy gun, but it appears AEW didn’t have a plan B when they really,
really should have. This type of angle has a very high probability of going wrong, and
it did. So now any detractors like Jim Cornette have the perfect ammunition to tear AEW to
shreds. Even Moxley himself thought the angle was
rubbish, telling the crowd after the show: “Kenny Omega may be a tough son of a bitch,
but he can’t make an exploding ring worth a s***.”
A line Khan repeated in the post-show call, blaming Kenny for building “a dud”.
What did you think of Revolution? Let me know in the comments down below, and vote in our
Poll on a Pole match on the community tab - where 61% of you did indeed vote for Turnbuckle
Sparklers. AEW put on another fantastic show, with spectacular
spots, newsworthy debuts with Christian, Ethan Page and Maki Itoh and, ultimately, fantastic
in ring wrestling. But it’s how you leave them, folks, and they botched the landing
with the final explosion. Revolution 2021 is a four out of five.
Luke and I will have our full podcast livestream review on our WrestleTalk Podcast channel,
so go subscribe over there. And, in the meantime, watch Adam Blampied’s latest list on partsfunknown.
Here’s a look… Watch 10 Wrestlers Who Accidentally won a
match by clicking the video on the right, and subscribe to partsfunknown for all of
Adam’s lists. And click the video below that for mine and Luke’s full AEW Revolution
podcast review! I’ve been Mr Davis, Jam that Jam.