AEW All In 2024 8/25/2024

AEW All In 2024 8/25/2024 

Jamie Hayter returned on the pre-show. Why they did that on the pre-show, I don't know.  

They announced Grand Slam: Australia for 2/15/2025. They are re-doing what they did with The UK with this one. They should have been running Australia all along and should have been making money, but instead, they were saving up for a rainy day and are running a stadium show the first time there. It will probably work, but they probably would have made more money if they had ran it regularly. It's also probably going to have diminishing returns like Wembley has had once they have done their first show there.

AEW World Trios Title London Ladder Match - The Patriarchy (c) vs. The House Of Black vs. The Blackpool Combat Club & PAC vs. The Bang Bang Gang

Pac's team won here which didn't really make a lot of sense. They were the least likely team to win it and the only team not involved in this three-way storyline. They also weren't even a team until this week. To me it signifies that Penta and Fenix are gone. It was you usual ladder match here with lots of big spots and fast paced action with people coming in and out. It was fine for what it was but these matches are a dime a dozen and if you've seen one, you've seen them all.

AEW Women's World Title Match - Toni Storm (c) vs. Mariah May

It went a little longer than it needed to but I liked this one. They had a nice hate filled match with blood and aggression. May ended up winning with Toni's storm zero piledriver and thankfully won this one. I didn't get the spot with May slapping her own mother.

FTW Title Match - Chris Jericho (c) vs. Hook

Jericho got a big music entrance with a band. This was pretty much a joke with Hook being able to take on the whole Learning Tree 1v3 for most of the match. Tazz eventually put redrum on Bryan Keith as Hook put redrum on Jericho and won via submission. I didn't like this. It wasn't good and it made Jericho's crew look just like the jokes they are. This was all shenanigans from start to finish.

AEW World Tag Team Title Three Way Match - The Young Bucks(c) vs. FTR vs. The Acclaimed

It was your usual three-way tag here with lots of people coming in, various multi-person spots and had Billy Gunn interfering. I didn't think it was anything special. The Young Bucks won which doesn't really help any of the three teams. The Grizzled Young Veterans came in the ring after and stared down The Bucks. The Bucks left then The Vets beat up FTR. I like The Vet's and I don't have a problem with AEW signing them, but they were not re-introduced well here at all and I don't think as many people know them as AEW thinks.

AEW World Title #1 Contendership Casino Gauntlet Match

This had Kazuchika Okada, Orange Cassidy, Mark Briscoe, Nigel McGuinness (making his return after being out 13 years due to injury), Jeff Jarrett, Christian Cage, Ricochet (making his AEW debut), Kyle O'Reilly, Zack Sabre Jr., Adam Page and Luchasaurus.

Christian shockingly won this one by pinning Kyle O'Reilly. Christian is one of AEW's better talents so I don't mind seeing him being in the world title picture again. However, Ricochet losing in his debut is typical AEW booking and one would have expected Adam Page to get the win here. It was nice to see Nigel again but he was obviously never going to win this.

The match was long and was not too far off from the other multi-man matches on this show with only two people being in at one time and lots of people waiting outside for the next spot to happen.

AEW American Title Match - MJF (c) vs. Will Ospreay

 

Will had a weird ninja entrance with breakdancers and MJF had a bunch of USA themed stuff for his entrance.

Will won with a tiger driver. It was a long one with ref bumps, title shots to the head, cameramen getting hit, floor moves, apron moves and Daniel Garcia coming out to stop MJF. It was not a smart match and they totally overdid it here. 

Christopher Daniels got rid of the American Title after and give Will the International Title back.

AEW TBS Title Match - Mercedes Mone (c) vs. Dr. Britt Baker DMD

Mone came out wheeled in a carriage with a queen's cape and a dog.

The match was following a whole bunch of spot fests and a long dragged out match with big moves and didn't really have a chance. It went longer than it needed to and they did too much here with Mone kickikg out of a panama sunrise. It also had shenanigans with Kamille that didn't help things. They had some story here with Mone working Britt's back. 

AEW TNT Title Coffin Match - Jack Perry (c) vs. Darby Allin

Darby had thumbtacks glued to his head for this. Jack got the win here and it was shorter than expected. They still did way too much though and it was a real brutal match. Darby took bumps off the top to the floor, bumps into a casket and bumps off a stage. Jack also referenced CM Punk here, bringing out a bag of broken glass. I don't really like Jack winning here but he's one of The Elite's buddies and friends will always get wins they don't deserve in AEW. It's not clear where either guy goes from here other than completely new programs.

The Young Bucks came out after and poured gas all over the coffin Darby was in. Sting returned and beat up the heels and saved Darby.

AEW World Title Vs. Career Match - Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Bryan Danielson

 

Swerve had rappers for his entrance and Bryan's family is at ringside for his entrance. Jim Ross was on commentary for this one.

Bryan won this won with a head and double arm submission. I thought they did too much here with Bryan having a bad neck yet being able to survive head drops on the apron and a kudo driver. I thought it went longer than it needed to go as well and didn't think Swerve targeted his neck as much as he should have.

I didn't think the build up to this title win was well done. They pushed that Bryan's going to retire and needs surgery yet they had him beat Swerve. While Bryan will make for a better champ, I don't think there's a lot of obvious matches for him and thought they would spend more time on Swerve after going through so many efforts to push him as a big singles guy. I think this is pretty much the end of Swerve's main event run as he will probably feud with Page and lose and will likely get lost in the shuffle as Kenny/Ibushi return and hog up the main event scene with The Bucks.

Pac oddly was out there celebrating with Bryan, the BCC and Bryan's family after as they played The Final Countdown, shot confetti and fireworks.

Overall thoughts: It was a long show and that was without even seeing the pre-show. Jamie Hayter returned on the pre-show which was dumb. The undercard was mostly all multi-person matches outside of May/Toni which weren't that different from each other. I didn't like The Bucks winning or them having The Vet's come out after as I don't think they are well known enough. The top of the card had four singles matches and the wrestlers did too much and didn't really sell enough in any of them. I thought Mone/Britt wasn't as bad as everyone said but it just had to follow wilder matches. Jack/Darby was wild as expected. Bryan won in the main and likely ended Swerve's main event run with it. I was really surprised by the absence of Jon Moxley on this show considering that it's their biggest show of the year, he's their biggest star and it likely would have been a big payday for him. I didn't like this show and thought AEW tried to do an epic show here without really having the roster or the stories for it.