Revolution was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It took place on February 29, 2020 at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois.
Eight matches were contested at the event, including one on The Buy In pre-show. In the main event, Jon Moxley defeated Chris Jericho to win the AEW World Championship. In other prominent matches, Kenny Omega and Adam Page defeated The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) to retain the AEW World Tag Team Championship, Nyla Rose defeated Kris Statlander to retain the AEW Women's World Championship, MJF defeated Cody, and Jake Hager defeated Dustin Rhodes in Hager's AEW in-ring debut.
(Dark Match) Tag team match
Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. and Penelope Ford (with Kip Sabian) def. Riho and Yuka Sakazaki
I'm guessing that this match will air on AEW Dark this week.(Preshow Match) Tag team matchThe Dark Order (Evil Uno and Stu Grayson) (with Alex Reynolds and John Silver) def. SoCal Uncensored (Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky)
I only caught the tail end of this where hometown hero Colt Cabana ran in for the save, only to get beat down by the Dark Order until the major tease with the Exalted One, only to be swerved with Christopher Daniels pulling off the disguise to run down and chase off the Dark Order. I swear if they are doing all of this run around only for it to be Daniels like it was Bully Ray running Aces & Eights all of this time then these guys need to be slapped. It better not be Raven either or I'm flipping a table. Either go with Matt Hardy or get the fuck out of here.
Singles Match
Jake Hager def. Dustin Rhodes by submission
Nothing really surprising here. Just went on a little too long for my taste. The right man won.
Singles MatchDarby Allin def. Sammy Guevara
What can I say here other than this was your typical Darby Allin match. He does a lot of stupid, high-risk stuff, but ultimately, it came together nicely despite a few hiccups here and there in terms of the dives out of the ring.
Tag Team Match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship
Kenny Omega and Adam Page (c) def. The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson)
This was easily the match of the night, but holy fuck they went a tad overboard with the near-falls towards the end. As great as this match was, the thing that kept me invested throughout the entire thing was the anticipation on whether or not AEW was going to pull the trigger on Hangman turning on the rest of the Elite. There were a TON of teases here and I honestly wouldn't blame him, especially for the fact that the Bucks were CLEARLY the heels in this match from bell to bell. Hangman even thought about hitting the Buckshot on Kenny Omega in the post-match, but ultimately decided against it. Like I said during my predictions post, they don't have to turn Hangman since he's insanely over right now. I much rather see Kenny Omega and the Bucks turn against Hangman instead. Think about it. The turn would be justified for the Bucks as they have already went as far as trying to end Hangman's career with the Indytaker on the entrance ramp. I kept watching Omega at ringside too as it seemed like he was waiting for the right spot to run in and pull the trigger on the double cross. I think AEW is going to make the right call with this by the time it's all said and done, but they made the right decision here as they could drag this out for a few more weeks.
Singles Match for the AEW Women's World ChampionshipNyla Rose (c) defeated Kris Statlander
This went for twelve minutes and I felt that was ten minutes too long. This wasn't very good match at all, despite the fact that they were trying to get the crowd into it, but after that excellent tag team match, you can't help that most of the crowd probably went to the concession stands or went outside for a cigarette.
Singles MatchMJF (with Wardlow) def. Cody (with Arn Anderson and Brandi Rhodes)
Aside from the fact that the live performance of Cody's theme was fucking awful and he is rocking that rather questionable neck tattoo/body paint (I hope that shit isn't permanent...), this was as good as I was expecting it to be from bell to bell. Much like every Cody match to date, this match was highlighted by the narrative going into it and throughout this match. Cody finally got his chance to get his hands on MJF after everything he's had to do to get to this point. Clearer heads would have beaten him promptly and ended it right then and there at the first opportunity, but Cody's emotions got the better of him. That ended up costing him the match when he opted to prolong MJF's punishment, only to have that window of opportunity to backfire on him in the end.
"How come Arn don't want me, man?"— IllegalForeignObject (@IFOWrestling) March 1, 2020
I was fine with the decision to have MJF go over as AEW can easily stretch this program out for a few more weeks. They just don't have to run it into the ground. I'm sure they could blow this feud off on Dynamite in a few more weeks.
Singles MatchPac def. Orange Cassidy (with Chuck Taylor and Trent) by submission
My only problem with this match was that it was so far up into the card that I honestly forgot that it was on card for the evening by this point into the show.
This is what happens when he takes the glasses off #AEWRevolution https://t.co/Agw60cSIty— Ben Talks Wrestling (@BenTalksWWE) March 1, 2020
I joked during the show that going into this show that I was picturing Cassidy "trying" being the wrestling equivalent of Naruto's Rock Lee taking off his training weights for the first time during the chunin exams after being regulated as being a token goof on this roster for so long.
Unlike most people, I have seen clips of what Cassidy is capable of before he signed to the company, so I knew what we were in store for here. Cassidy put on a solid performance, but I'm glad that they didn't make PAC put him over. At the same time, I thought it would have made more sense to have PAC beat him clean instead of the distraction finish from that random as all hell interference from the Lucha Bros, who I thought were still feuding with SCU a while ago.
Singles match for the AEW World ChampionshipJon Moxley def. Chris Jericho (c) (with Santana and Ortiz)
This match was good, but I can't say that I'm a big fan of Chris Jericho's performances in AEW as of late. As an on-screen personality, Tony Khan definitely got his money's worth with Jericho, but I can't say the same about him physically as an in-ring talent. He's still capable of great matches, but at the same time, the "dad bod" ain't doing him any favors when you can clearly see that Jericho's getting gassed just as fast (if not faster) as Brock Lesnar in these title matches.
Can't say that I was blown away by Moxley's "reveal" towards the end of the match when he never had the eye patch secured properly to begin with. He always had it hanging haphazardly over his face where you could see he had a side window to see out of for matches. He does get kudos from me for playing up the gimmick for this long though. Keep kayfabe alive and see what happens, folks? Excellent storytelling FTW.
I have to admit this was the result that I'm genuinely surprised that they went with. I could have easily seen AEW keep the title on Jericho for another few months until All Out to bring his first title reign full circle, but it's a little more shocking to see them put the title on another ex-WWE guy. I'm not saying that Moxley doesn't deserve it. He's definitely over like rover with their core fan base, but he doesn't necessarily need the title to be a top draw for the promotion. If I were to speculate here, I would predict that they are going have this reign lead to Moxley vs. Omega III in AEW with the rubber match clearly on the horizon, given the fact that their previous match was a fan-favorite for 2019 even though I wasn't too crazy about it. I wonder how Chris Jericho and the Inner Circle are going to bounce back from this loss, especially when Jericho has been arguably one of (if not the best in most cases) best acts in the company from week to week. I suppose that they could have Moxley drop the title back to Jericho on an episode of Dynamite down the road and do some screw job finish with the Inner Circle getting involved, but that could do more harm than good in the long haul. I'll tell you one thing though... It's definitely got me anxious to see where they go from here with all of this.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, I thought Revolution served as an excellent palette cleanser for what was Super Showdown two days prior for wrestling fans as a whole. This was a great card from top to bottom, with very few missteps. Everyone should be able to find something to enjoy on this card, whether you're a AEW die-hard or a casual fan. I'm still not a fan of the $50 price tag for PPVs though, especially after coming from paying $9.99 for the WWE Network. In that regard, I think All Elite Wrestling definitely gave their fans their money's worth and sent them home happy by the time this was all said and done. You know a show did a good job when you're anxious to see what's next. Wednesday Night Dynamite can't get here sooner enough.
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