AEW St. Patrick's Day Slam (March 17, 2021) -- Results & Afterthoughts

St. Patrick's Day Slam is a special episode of the weekly television series, AEW Dynamite, produced by All Elite Wrestling. It was held on Wednesday, March 17, 2021 at Daily's Palace in Jacksonville, Florida. 

Highlights from this show include the first on-air interview with Christian Cage after signing with AEW, Jade Cargill's singles debut, the fallout from MJF's new faction laying waste to the Inner Circle  to close out last week's show, and the first ever AEW women's main event between Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. against Thunder Rosa in an unsanctioned lights out match. 

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Match Results: 

Cody Rhodes (w/ Arn Anderson) def. Penta El Zero Miedo

It goes back and forth a bit until Pentagon starts targeting Cody's ailing shoulder. He motions for his signature "arm breaking" spot from Lucha Underground, but Cody manages to get out of position and steals the win from right from underneath Penta's nose since he was milking it for so long. Pentagon immediately assaults him post-match until the Nightmare Family (namely Arn, Dustin, and the Gunn Club) come running out for the save. Pentagon SLOWLY walks away without the babyfaces giving chase and even passes by QT Marshall on the ramp, causing the rest of the Nightmare Family members to demand what took him so long. It seems like they are continuin this issue of desention between QT and the rest of the Nightmare Family members as he even turned his back on his former students in the group on last week's broadcast. Are they seriously thinking that QT could be a breakout heel at this point against the rest of the Nightmare Family? Sounds like a complete waste of time to me.

Then again, this is the same company that gave the Bucks' childhood friend a winning streak on Dark and job working for AEW Games with Kenny Omega...

Jade Cargill wins a quick squash vs. Dani Jordan

The best part of this were the tweets back and forth from them on Twitter all morning leading up to this match, only for Dani to tweet later that evening, asking "Did I win?" following her abrupt loss.

What happened did I win? #AEWDynamite

— Dani Jordyn (@DaniJordyn) March 18, 2021

This is exactly what it needed to be, short, sweet and to the point with Jade going over. I have to say that Jade's kicks look odd as hell. Maybe she needs to work on that a bit more. Otherwise, I'm fine with how she's coming along.

New Faction Promo

This was exactly what it needed to be following this new faction, what Tully Blanchard dubs, "The Pinnacle" during his promo. Tully did this masterfully well to lay out the groundwork for this promo and handed it off to MJF, who knocked it out of the park with a homerun. He explains that he was biding his time working underneath Jericho until he had the perfect opportunity and knocked down the entire Inner Circle like bowling pins. The Pinnacle declares themselves as the most powerful faction in AEW. 

No arguments from me when the not-so-Bullet Club or BTE (Being The Elite) guys are in disarray, the Nightmare Family is a bigger clusterfuck of talent than Master P and his No Limit Soldiers in WCW, and the Dark Order is still pretty much direction-less following the untimely demise of Brodie Lee. No disrespect to Brodie Lee, but were the Dark Order EVER a powerful stable outside of that hot minute when Brodie Lee killed Cody, Brandi, and majority of the Nightmare Family to win the TNT Championship? Oh yeah... let's not forget Hardy Inc., who's another clusterfuck of talent that we'll get into with the next match. 

I'm really anxious to see where this stable ends up in the next year or two. Hopefully not down the same route of bad comedy and show toons that the Inner Circle devolved into. A lot of people seem to be leaning towards the idea that AEW could be leading this feud between the Pinnacle and the Inner Circle into that Blood & Guts (AEW's version of War Games) match that never happened between the BTE guys and Inner Circle last year amongst COVID-19 concerns and safety protocols. I wouldn't be opposed to that, but the Pinnacle shouldn't be losing that match either. 

Hardy Inc. def. Jurassic Express and Bear Country

I said it while livetweeting during the show last night and I'll repeat myself here too. Hardy Inc. should be called "Team Clusterfuck" from the random assortment of talent that AEW clearly has no idea what to do with on a regular basis that they have lumped up together within Hardy's "acquisitions" of talent to hoard around and do his bidding. Bear Country comes across to me as a similar team in the vein of War Machine (Hanson and Rowe) from Ring of Honor before they went to WWE and became the War Raiders/Viking Raiders.

I didn't get why they were letting Marko Stunt get so much offense in. At least everyone bumped like crazy for Luchasaurus, who is admittedly getting rather stale now that the honeymoon period is over for this company. He does those kicks to his moonsault in every match now to the point where it's not even special anymore. 

Matt Hardy stole the win for his team after a bit of showboating, but it's like whatever at this point. Sure, Hardy Inc. needs wins for those losers that he has aligned with him, but is really a win when no one really cares about anyone in this match?

Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley def. Good Brothers

I think Moxley works better in a tag team than he does as singles talent if you ask me. This way he can do his signature spots while the heels feed for him off the hot tag(s). Kingston played the part of the babyface fighting from underneath masterfully here. By the end of the match and during the post-match attack though, he ate far too much abuse from the heels without getting anything in. They hit him with what, 2-3 Magic Killers, before this was all said and done?

I couldn't care any less about the Young Bucks and the rest of the former Bullet Club members having a rift down the middle of their not-so-happy relationship. Why should this matter when the Bucks act like douchebag heels 24/7 regardless if they are heels or babyfaces anyway?

Sting and Darby Allin Interview

I can't speak for anyone else but I'm flat out sick and tired of these Tony Schiavone interviews with Sting that get interrupted week to week. It's been the same goddamn thing for roughly THREE months in a row now. You can't tell me that this is the only material that they could cook up for this guy to do on a week to week basis. 

As for the "interview" if you can even call it that, I still don't know what the fuck that they are doing with Lance Archer. One week, he's a babyface and then on another, he's a heel. I'm sick of caring at this point, yet people complained about The Big Show turning so much. Well, Archer is on his way to follow in Big Show's footsteps in that regard. 

The most headscratching thing about this interview was Brian Cage addressing Sting and talking about how much he respects him after their match at Revolution two weeks ago. It comes across as Cage is going babyface so much to the point that even Taz utters "What the hell are you doing!?" while the rest of Team Taz looks on confused. Cage merely walks off and that's the end of this. 

Should they really be trying to split this group up NOW? I really don't get how this company thinks in terms of their storylines and angles sometimes. They spent the better part of a year fucking up Brian Cage in terms of storylines and feuds, only for a random light bulb to go off with the idea of turning him babyface? You can't tell me that this guy isn't reconsidering that decision to leave IMPACT last year at this point from how much AEW has mishandled him. 

Singles Match

Rey Fenix (w/ PAC) def. Angelico (w/ Jack Evans)

This was one of the rare occasions where you didn't miss anything of note if you decided to fast-forward through a Rey Fenix match. I don't get why this match was so far into this card and served as essentially a nothing match to serve as filler before the main event.

Unsanctioned Lights Out Match

Thunder Rosa def. Britt Baker (w/ Rebel)

Simply put, this match was for AEW's women's division that the No Mas Match in Lucha Underground between Mariposa (Cheerleader Melissa) and Sexy Star (despite what you may think of her currently after the fact...) was for that division at the time. It is going to put more eyeballs onto AEW's women's division that it desperately needs while at the same time, elevating both Thunder Rosa and Britt Baker. The only other noteworthy Britt Baker match in AEW prior to this was her match where Hikaru Shida broke her nose roughly a year ago. Ironic that she was left with a crimson mask by the time that was all said and done too. Britt Baker seems to thrive in these matches where almost any other female performer would throw in the towel. My only concern here is that this doesn't give AEW or any other promotion for that matter, the excuse that the only way women's matches are going to draw high ratings is to toss the women into a bloodbath. This is false. A strong, compelling narrative that fans can invest into will do the exact same thing. You don't have to have these women shorten their careers by making this into a trend. 

As for this match itself, there were some great spots in here, but my biggest knock against this match was it would have meant a lot more if these women would take a moment and sell the punishment being inflicted upon all of them. Britt Baker was lucky to have an excellent worker like Thunder Rosa to lead her throughout a match like this, but there were multiple points during this match where I could do nothing but shake my head at the women completely no selling the punishment that they were putting their bodies through here. I don't blame the women for this, but it kills a lot of these hardcore matches for me when guys and gals completely no sell the superplex spot onto a stack of chairs. Like c'mon... It wouldn't have killed Britt Baker to sell the ladder being kicked into her face for a few more moments when she had blood pouring down her face for an added effect. They completely no sold the spot onto the thumbtacks just to rush through the spot off the ring apron for the finish too. (Laughs) Why can't some of these people sell like death like how Reba (or Rebel) sold that table bump towards the end?

All that being said, I applaud the ladies for how hard they worked here. By the time it was all said and done, both of these women came across as battle-tested warriors, no matter what you may think of them. In that regard, it was a job well done for keeping many fans invested in the high stakes of a match like this from bell to bell. 

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Closing Thoughts: 

The praise for this show's main event seems to be unamious in terms of the positive reception of the ladies in that spot. They went above and beyond to deliver in that regard, but I can't help thinking that so many people were blown away by that match when the bar for the AEW Women's Division has been so low to begin with until excellent workers like Thunder Rosa, Leyla Hirsh, and Serena Deeb came along. Outside of those names, AEW's women's division is full of women who have good, consistent workers who don't embarrass themselves to others who are obviously not ready to be performing week-to-week on live television. To be fair, WWE is no stranger to putting their women out there to sink or swim either. If Thunder Rosa wasn't a star tonight then her star shown even brighter after this match. Britt Baker definitely deserved her share of that too, especially with the fact that Rosa has to return back to NWA this weekend for their PPV and their following TV tapings for new episodes of NWA Powerrr finally returning. Britt proved that she was more than a chicken shit heel here and showed that she could take her share of abuse while dishing it back out too. 

I don't necessarily agree with a lot of other critiques of this show, saying that this main event was the only thing worth watching tonight. Jade Cargill continues to impress with her singles match debut and I thought the formal induction to The Pinnacle with Tully and MJF cutting promos to put the new faction over was well worth the time. Everything else was your run of the mill episode of what we've come to expect on Dynamite on most weeks. I honestly still don't get why they went out of their way to bill this as a "special" episode of Dynamite just for St. Patrick's Day when there was only one marquee match.

AEW Beach Break (Feb. 3, 2021) -- Results & Afterthoughts

AEW Beach Break was a professional wrestling television special episode produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The event took place on February 3, 2021 at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida and was broadcast on TNT, as a special episode of AEW's weekly television program, Dynamite.

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Match Results: 

Tag Team Battle Royal for an AEW World Tag Team Championship match at Revolution

Chris Jericho won by last eliminating Darius Martin

Had The Young Bucks (c) won, they would've chosen their opponents for Revolution.

The first portion of this match was an absolute clusterfuck and hard to follow with so much going on with so many people involved. I don't understand why AEW insists on doing so many of these multi-man matches that never come across well on television with so many people involved. For as much as people who used to give IMPACT/TNA Wrestling enough shit when they were doing these types of matches during Dixie Carter/Vince Russo's time there, AEW sure gets a pass on it. It was hard to follow there and it's the same thing here. Slow it down or limit how many people are in this thing.


I was already confused going into this thing anyway as I had to ask my Twitter followers why were the Bucks in this match, along with both the Dark Order having 4 members in this and the Inner Circle having 6 of their members in this match. The Inner Circle having all of their guys in this at least made a little sense since they are heels, but I thought the Dark Order turned over a new leaf following Brodie Lee's untimely demise?


The Dark Order's Evil Uno and John Silver had strong showings in this match and the same can be said for Top Flight and The Acclaimed. These throwaway efforts by Santana and Ortiz are doing absolutely nothing for their stock value in this company. Is there any other tag team in this company, outside of maybe FTR, who have fallen off the radar as much as Santana and Ortiz? Coming into this company, they were coming off a great run on the indies and in IMPACT Wrestling as the tag team to beat. Here in AEW, they have been regulated to being merely interchangable goofs aligned with Jericho who talk a big game but never get anything done. I have to wonder if they are regretting signing those contracts now.


At the end of the day, this match served as a backdrop for the ongoing rift between the members of the Inner Circle. Jericho unintentionally eliminated Sammy Guevara, but still won the match to win himself and MJF a future AEW Tag Title shot at Revolution. Speaking of the Inner Circle, it seems like whatever MJF is plotting behind the scenes to either destroy or takeover the faction from within is playing out exactly how he wanted. 




It was announced after the in-ring exchange between Sting and Darby Allin and Team Taz that Darby would be defending the TNT Championship against Joey Janela next week on Dynamite. I legitimately busted out laughing. Thank Tony Khan for giving us a free reason to flip the channel or to take a bathroom break during the middle of next week's show.


Team Taz and Sting are devaluing themselves each and every week at this point on this show. Sting is already overexposing himself since his debut to the point that his appearances on Dynamite aren't special anymore, despite the fact that he's not wrestling. At the same time, it's getting tiresome to see Team Taz talk a big game when they haven't accomplished nothing to back those claims up. The time for talk is past due. It's time to be marching down to that ring and beating the bricks off this old man and the skinny emo kid that surprisingly not his son.

The wedding between Penelope Ford and Kip Sabian with Miro and Charles the Butler (Chuck Taylor)

This wedding was officiated by the Sinister Minister himself, Father James Mitchell. That had to be part of their partnership with IMPACT Wrestling for sure. This wasn't as entertaining as what it could have and should have been, but they didn't drag this out for too long. Miro got his foot chained to the bottom rope, which allowed "Charles" to lay in some punches onto Kip. That skirmish caused Penelope to get a face full of cake before Orange Cassidy popped out of it to join the action. I guess this is leading into a tag team match between these two factions, but I couldn't care less at this point.

I'm legitimately happy for Penelope and Kip though.

Singles Match

Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. (with Rebel) def. Thunder Rosa by referee stoppage

I don't know why people were surprised that Baker had the best match of her career up to this point with Thunder Rosa. It looked Rosa was really laying it in to help knock sense into her to do business as she led her through most of this match, but I could be reading a little too much into things.


Britt Baker's win here tells me that she has to be in line to take that title from Shida sooner more than later. She might be the dark horse who comes out of the Women's Championship Eliminator tournament to get her shot next. Otherwise, we could see another match between Rosa and Baker as this feud is clearly not over from that finish. Alternatively, Rosa could beat Baker in this tournament and win the AEW Women's Championship herself. AEW has a few ways that they could play this as I have found it rather strange that Rosa hasn't gotten her rematch to the NWA Women's Championship after Serena Deeb won it from her, nor that any other NWA Women's talent have come to take it from her either.


Kamille had a rather telling tweet too a few weeks ago that was really telling. So there has to be some frustration going on that end of that partnership.

This February the #AEW Women's World Championship eliminator tournament begins! Here are your participants in this competition. pic.twitter.com/v9fqx8Q2b7

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) February 4, 2021

While I'm not too familiar with majority of the names on the Japanese end of the brackets, I have heard some good things about Maki Itoh, so I'm pulling for her and Aja Kong on that end of the brackets. As for the US side, I think Thunder Rosa, Riho, and Britt Baker are all favorites to make it to the finals. All-round though? This tournament has the potential for some bangers on paper. Let's just see how it goes in terms of execution. 

Tag Team Match

Adam Page and Matt Hardy def. Chaos Project (Luther and Serpentico)

Outside of being a personal favor to Chris Jericho since Luther is friends with him in real life, I can't fathom seeing why Luther is collecting a paycheck in this company or even presented on this television program this much. Keep him on AEW Dark where he belongs. Serpentico is just as bad as Luther, if not worse in some cases. The less I see of these guys, the better.


This was a complete nothing of a match used to further whatever they are teasing between Big Money Matt and Adam Page. I doubt this is going anywhere other than Page getting fed up of Page's bullshit and facing him at the next PPV.

Lumberjack Match

Lance Archer (with Jake Roberts) def. Eddie Kingston (with The Butcher, The Blade, and The Bunny)

Even though this was a rather messy match to watch with so many working pieces in it, I was happy to see Archer and Kingston get to duke it out again. The Lumberjacks got a little too involved at one point, but I was glad that Archer picked up the win here.

Hopefully this means that he's done with this feud and moving on. Given the match that they've confirmed for next week following the events of this show after the main event, that seems like the case, but we'll see.






Everyone involved in this Cody and Shaq feud must have had a come to Jesus meeting or an epiphany and realized that it might not be a good idea to have this match on PPV for multiple reasons. First and foremost, this is going to be Jade Cargill's first in-ring, televised match for this company. If she stinks the joint out on this one then that's not going to be a good look. Secondly, I believe Shaq is set to appear in the NBA All-Star game the weekend of AEW's upcoming Revolution PPV, so that would easily be a scheduling conflict. I still say it would be a good idea to give Jade a warm-up match or two on these weeks leading up to that match for she won't embarrass herself out there. So far they have been sending her out there to fail on her two feet. 

Six-man Tag Team Match

Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) (with Don Callis) def. Jon Moxley and Death Triangle (Pac and Rey Fénix)

I'm going to sound like a Debbie Downer here, but man are the Good Brothers just as boring to watch here as they are in IMPACT and back when they were in WWE. It's wild too because I enjoyed their few matches that I saw when they were in New Japan. I don't know what is going on. It just seems like they are merely going through the motions without any substance behind it. I've stated on multiple occasions that Moxley's matches haven't done anything for me even back when he was in WWE and it still doesn't do much for me here. Pac and Fenix were the definite highlight reels for this match. I can't write off Omega here either as he was the glue that was keeping this whole thing together for the most part.


This whole match was easily forgotten as the entire wrestling world were talking about what transpired in the closing minutes of this show with the arrival of NJPW's KENTA (formerly WWE NXT Superstar Hideo Itami) laying out Jon Moxley. Moxley had appeared on NJPW's recent New Japan Strong show last week and laid out KENTA, so it was justified for him to return the gesture in his own backyard. 

NJPW's KENTA arrives in All Elite Wrestling.

The thing that I didn't understand why people were losing their minds about was that KENTA made no qualms about keeping it a secret on Twitter that he was appearing on this show.

Hey @ReneePaquette pic.twitter.com/Sa96PGuJQ7

— KENTA aka Lil’K (@KENTAG2S) January 30, 2021

Let me ask 🤔
How far from Orlando to JACKSONVILLE?? 🤔

— KENTA aka Lil’K (@KENTAG2S) February 1, 2021

ITS GOING TO BE A GREAT DAY

— KENTA aka Lil’K (@KENTAG2S) February 3, 2021

I won't deny that Schiavone's line about "The forbidden door has been opened..." was great though.


ALL of these companies SHOULD be working together, pooling resources against WWE. This makes for a great environment for not only the fans, but the talent as well. It gives talents more of that "territory" feel where you could get more experience and exposure in different companies, working against a variety of opponents who you wouldn't work with normally otherwise. This protects talents from being overexposed on television - a VERY common issue in WWE - while simultaneously giving your talents room to grow as performers. AJ Styles wouldn't be the performer he is today if he was just confined to working with exclusively IMPACT/TNA talent. He's a well-rounded wrestler from competing for years all over the globe for multiple promotions. He's able to adapt to any style instead of having one type of match he can wrestle - an issue that a LOT of men and women in not just AEW, but a lot of modern wrestlers as a whole have.


AEW Beach Break will be remembered in history for this moment, but also for the fact that this is the first time that IMPACT, New Japan, NWA, and AEW wrestlers all were on the same show and television network at the same time. Wrestling is pretty wild, sometimes, folks.

AEW All Out (Sept. 5, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

All Out was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It took place on September 5, 2020 at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida. It was the second event in the All Out chronology.

The event was originally slated to take place in the Sears Center, in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, just like the previous edition of All Out were held Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation, the state's equivalent to a state of emergency, since March 9, which banned large public gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic that affected the state. Instead, the event was moved to Daily's Place, where all of AEW's events have been held since March.

Eleven matches were contested at the event, including two on The Buy In pre-show. In the main event, Jon Moxley defeated MJF to retain the AEW World Championship. In other prominent matches, Orange Cassidy defeated Chris Jericho in a Mimosa Mayhem match, FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) defeated Kenny Omega and Adam Page to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship, and Hikaru Shida defeated Thunder Rosa to retain the AEW Women's World Championship.

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Match Results:

Singles Match

Joey Janela (with Sonny Kiss) def. Serpentico (with Luther)

A completely rotten match won by arguably the worst talent (or lack of) on the entire AEW roster with the second place candidate taking the L here. I have remotely no clue why you would even start your PPV off with a completely "nothing" match like this that does absolutely NOTHING to garner interest in buying the PPV later tonight.

I remember chatting with a friend and saying that Sonny Kiss was great back in Lucha Underground, but I feel that him being associated with Janela is going to only bring him down. Kiss' glass ceiling is going to be whether or not the TNT Network (and more importantly mainstream wrestling as a whole) is ready to accept an extremely flamboyant wrestler (that's not a complete gimmick nor parody) as a serious competitor. He fit right in with the exoticos in Lucha Underground, but it's hard for me to tell what his shelf life is going to be in this company long-term.

Tag Team Match

Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) def. The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver)

I couldn't give a flying fuck about this match. It's the same as every other Private Party match, but just against the bottom of the rung guys in the Dark Order. The boys in PP do some nice spots but their basics STILL need a lot of work.

I LOVE Private Party's finish though.

I still can't help but chant "SPOTS! SPOTS! SPOTS!" during their entrance theme now after making that joke a while back.

Tooth and Nail Match

Big Swole def. Britt Baker (with Rebel) by knockout

I'm sure Big Swole is a nice person outside of wrestling in her personal life, but as an onscreen character and an in-ring talent, she's fucking horrible. I don't see why this company invested so much time into this nothing feud. While I love Britt Baker's heel persona, I'm fed up with all of these "role models" in mainstream wrestling, whether it's Madison Rayne in IMPACT as the "Locker Room Leader", Sasha Banks & Bayley in WWE as the "Golden Role Models", and here with Baker as the "Roll Model". I'm just sick and fed up of hearing that shit. Come up with something else original that not everyone and their grandmothers are using right now. I want to add that as much as I like Britt Baker's heel persona, I never thought her in-ring skills were much to write home about either, despite the fact she has a pretty sick submission finish. Reba's reactions (Rebel) was the best thing about this "cinematic" match - if you could even call it that. If this was supposed to be a dig at WWE's cinematic matches, then they definitely have a lot to learn in terms of cinematography.

Britt Baker stabbing herself with her own needle that loaded with numbing agent.

Britt Baker lost the match after falling victim to her own laughing gas/sedation.

At the end of the day, I thought the finish was creative, but Britt Baker buried it when she woke up immediately following the decision. She's a fucking dentist after all, so she should know how long laughing gas/sedation would keep someone under. C'mon, now. In either case, I'm ready for both of these women to move on to another feud. 

Tag Team Match
The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) def. Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) (with Marko Stunt)

I hate to admit it, but I honestly liked this match more than the AEW Tag Title match later in this show. It didn't overstay it's welcome and it showed the best of both teams here, even though I wasn't too crazy about how much stuff Jungle Boy was kicking out of at the end. I thought the Jurassic Express should have pulled off the upset towards the end, but of course, the BTE boys had to turn things around for the win. To their credit though, I like seeing them working with a more serious "edge" them now as if they are teasing a heel turn too, much like they have been planting the seeds to the point that it's inevitable with Kenny Omega for the last few months now.

21-man Casino Battle Royale

Winner received a future AEW World Championship match

Lance Archer won by last eliminating Eddie Kingston

Casino Battle Royale entrances and eliminations

Draw	Entrant	Order	Eliminated by	Eliminations
Clubs	Trent	9	Lance Archer	1
	Christopher Daniels	2	Jake Hager	0
	Jake Hager	6	Sonny Kiss	1
	The Blade	1	Will Hobbs	0
	Rey Fenix	4	Darby Allin	0
Diamonds	Frankie Kazarian	12	The Butcher	1
	Will Hobbs	16	Lance Archer	1
	Chuck Taylor	5	Santana and Ortiz	0
	Santana	8	Trent?	1
	Ortiz	10	Lance Archer	1
Hearts	Billy	3	Brian Cage	0
	Penta El Zero M	11	Frankie Kazarian	0
	Ricky Starks	13	Darby Allin	0
	Brian Cage	17	Lance Archer	3
	Darby Allin	14	Brian Cage	2
Spades	Shawn Spears	15	Matt Sydal	0
	Eddie Kingston	20	Lance Archer	1
	The Butcher	18	Matt Sydal	1
	Sonny Kiss	7	Brian Cage	1
	Lance Archer	-	Winner	5
Joker	Matt Sydal	19	Eddie Kingston	2

I'm not even laughing at that. That fall legitimately scared the shit out of me seeing it live. #AEWAllOut https://t.co/V38CFA1OOH

— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) September 6, 2020

Matt Sydal pulled the Joker card and made his AEW debut in this match, only to deliver the first scary as hell moment on this show when he slipped and fell off the ropes while attempting to do a Shooting Star Press. That scared the hell out of me seeing it live and I thought we were watching that guy break his neck from how bad that was. Fortunately, he was fine and was able to complete the match. As of this posting (9/11/20) he hasn't reported any injuries.

Introducing Will Hobbs. One of AEW's best kept secrets tucked away on AEW Dark...

This match marked the standout performance of Will Hobbs. Now where have they been hiding this guy? Dude was on par with Big E's size while showing off Keith Lee's power and ability. This is a guy they should be featuring on Dynamite instead of regulating to Dark every week.

Seems like AEW is just pairing people off to rekindle old Lucha Underground dynamics and/of feuds as that was the exact vibe I got from Sonny Kiss eliminating Jake Hager. Kiss/Janela are already booked to face Hager/Jericho on Dynamite this week as payback from Jericho's brutal attack on Janela the week prior in his "warm-up" match for Cassidy later tonight.

Darby Allin is put in a bodybag, tossed out of the ring by Brian Cage and reportedly injured. #AEWAllOut pic.twitter.com/LqAfpEy4v7

— GIFSkull IV - Banned Soon Due to False DMCA Spam (@GifSkullIV) September 6, 2020

Stupidest bump of the night (up to this point anyway) went to Brian Cage performing a Border Toss on Darby Allin trapped within a body bag full of thumb tacks to land on the corner of the stage/ramp. There was absolutely no reason to do this bump but a million and one ways that this could have ended horribly wrong. This wasn't cool nor amazing to watch. It was just fucking stupid.

I was fine with Lance Archer picking up the win here, but it pretty much spoiled the main event in a sense. You knew that AEW are marks for that New Japan style matches and feuds, so you know that they want to setup the Wrestle Kingdom rematch between Lance Archer and Jon Moxley at Full Gear.

Broken Rules Match

Matt Hardy def. Sammy Guevara

Had Hardy lost, he would have had to leave AEW

The match started out into the stadium arena where the Stadium Stampede Match took place at their last PPV and quickly spilled out into the backstage area/parking area. One thing led to another that set Sammy and Matt up on a raised platform that saw Sammy SPEAR Matt Hardy off the platform, seemingly to go through the two tables that were set up below. What happened instead was their lower bodies hit ONE of the tables while the back of Matt Hardy's head hit the unforgiving concrete below.

Here's the Matt Hardy spot #AEWAllOut pic.twitter.com/HHNiDaxD9V

— WrestleZone on Mandatory (@WRESTLEZONEcom) September 6, 2020

This was the moment where I was absolutely disgusted with this company. I've seen wrestling podcasters, journalists, wrestlers, and even the die-hard of their fanbase express their absolute disgust with how AEW handled this situation.

Let me be absolutely fucking clear.
There is NOTHING entertaining about a concussion. Shame on everyone in that goddamn building. pic.twitter.com/ujdOU9Z60I

— Reby Hardy (@RebyHardy) September 6, 2020

Reading is fundamental, you absolute asshat.

Matt was the #1 idiot in this scenario.
I’ll let you figure out who #2 was.

Also, fuck you. https://t.co/vnUVNRWuPg

— Reby Hardy (@RebyHardy) September 6, 2020

They needed additional imaging done after his CT. He’s still in the hospital. 1000% concussion. Anyone with eyes could have told you that tho. pic.twitter.com/pvitxewWI5

— Reby Hardy (@RebyHardy) September 6, 2020

As of this posting (9/11/20), Reby Hardy (Matt's wife) has reported that Matt Hardy has suffered a concussion when he was checked out at the hospital that evening and was kept for more testing Sunday. On the other end of things, Tony Khan has been removing all of the blame on himself and pointing it towards the ring doctor who checked Hardy out and clarified that Matt was able to continue after administering a concussion impact test. There's no way in hell that they ran an impact test when the match was restarted within the span of 3-4 minutes after Matt Hardy was knocked out unconscious for at least 45 seconds. That tells you right there that there's no sort of concussion protocol in place nor that Tony Khan have the slightest idea of how to administer one, despite the fact that he owns a fucking football team. This entire incident showed me a complete lack of proper leadership and this money mark - that's all what he is at this point to me - only cares about booking his fantasy matches and jerking off to high spots no matter who gets hurt as long as it pops a rating. It's HIS fucking company. He could have easily overruled the doctor to stop this match. Stipulation or not, this match should have been stopped the moment Matt Hardy was knocked unconscious for his own safety. Instead, Khan is giving his company a very bad look not only to his fanbase but to the wrestling industry as a whole for this false narrative that he is painting with how this entire situation played out Saturday night.

But yet, you have ass-hats out there like Dave Meltzer is siding with Tony Khan on this decision.  Like seriously, how much is that dude paying you to blow him every week in your writing and radio shows dude? Anyone with a fully functioning brain could tell that Matt Hardy suffered a concussion in that match. You could see it in Ref Aubrey's face when it turned pale when she trying to get him to respond. That was arguably the hardest moment to watch as wrestling fan out of my 30+ years of being a fan. When I saw Matt Hardy's head hit that concrete and his body stiffened up like he was frozen, I thought we just saw that man die live on PPV and it legitimately scared the shit out of me for the second time tonight during this broadcast. If I saw a man die on this broadcast tonight, I can guarantee you that I would not have come back to watch this sport again.

For me personally? I'm siding with Konnan and Disco Inferno on this discussion.

Seriously, this should be the last straw and wake up call for every fan out there that fails to realize week to week that these reckless, downright STUPID, and completely unnecessary bumps (especially with or without crowds) aren't needed to make any match any better. That doesn't just go for AEW, but for all of modern wrestling as a whole.

Singles match for the AEW Women's World Championship

Hikaru Shida (c) defeated Thunder Rosa

I was hyped for this match ever since it was announced and they did the mock MMA contract signing for it between both respective champions.

Watching this live was pretty darn tough after the horror show that we witnessed with the Matt Hardy situation, but Rosa and Shida definitely had my favorite match of the evening by far. If you don't watch anything else from this shit-storm of a PPV, go out of your way to watch this match. This is EASILY the best thing on this show and not only the second best women's match in this company's history. That's shocking too when Thunder Rosa and Serena Deeb killed it on Dynamite a few days prior to this event.

Another completely unnecessary, reckless bump that could have EASILY ended horribly, like many things on this card.

The only knock I have against this match was the diving senton spot out onto the stage where if Thunder Rosa's head and neck was any closer to those steps from the entrance ramp that Shida would've killed or paralyzed her from the landing. Can ANYONE in this fucking company tell these people enough is enough when it comes to these reckless and completely unnecessary bumps? Seeing that spot really made me mad, especially after what we saw with Matt Hardy in the match prior to this.

Outside of that one knock, this match raised the bar for women's wrestling in this company. I felt sorry for the folks who had follow this act. NWA's Thunder Rosa may have lost here, but she has put on two standout performances in every match AEW has featured her in.

Eight-Man Tag Team Match

Matt Cardona, Scorpio Sky, and The Natural Nightmares (Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall) (with Allie and Brandi Rhodes) def. The Dark Order (Brodie Lee, Colt Cabana, Evil Uno and Stu Grayson) (with Anna Jay)

This was easily the bathroom break match of the night and should have served as the buffer following the Matt Hardy situation. Piss poor match order placement in regard of having these matches following that event. If the crowd was struggling to cope with what had transpired in the last match then they really didn't care about this shit. I know I sure as hell didn't. Hell, I didn't even know that Brodie Lee was even in this match until it started. I thought it was going to be full of more of standard losers of the Dark Order. To be fair though, Stu Grayson and Evil Uno are decent workers. I'll give them that much, but they are saddled with this gimmick that is utter shit, no matter what AEW does to polish this turd.

Can someone explain to me why Brandi Rhodes is already back to managing the Natural Nightmares? She couldn't sell that attack that her and Cody suffered for a few weeks at least? She stayed out for what felt like a goddamn week or two only to show up at the PPV like nothing happened. She only came out here to contribute to some of the run-ins in this match, namely to get some payback on Anna Jay (who strangled her to death during the assault on Cody) - when Allie could have done that to the same capacity. The Nightmare Family has all of these managers and extra sidekicks and associates that they are starting to look as foolish as the Dark Order as the weeks and months have rolled on since the start of AEW. Speaking of friends, Matt Cardona sure looks like he's taking full advantage of not being tested on WWE's Wellness Policy. Scorpio Sky seemed like he was just there to be the extra guy on this mash-up of guys who needed to be in this filler match that should have been relegated to Dynamite the following week.

Jim Ross got a lot of heat online for his wardrobe malfunction comment he made towards Anna Jay on commentary. I laughed hearing it live, but at the same time, it just adds to the laundry list of questionable moments of him on commentary since signing with this company. It just adds to the proof that JR doesn't give a flying fuck working here as long as he's just collecting that fat paycheck while squandering away his own credibility by endorsing this tomfoolery going on in this company with his name and voice attached to it.

And for the record, I can't speak for anyone else, but while I think that Dustin Rhodes has had a career renaissance since the tail end of his last WWE run to now in terms of his ring work, I don't give a damn about seeing him face Brodie Lee for the TNT title on Dynamite. I don't understand why they are rushing this match, along with having Brandi coming back so soon, when they could afford to space this out a bit. Let the Dark Order breathe a bit and garner more big wins if they are so dead set on establish them as this "dominant" faction (laughs), even though they are no less threatening than Aces & Eights (BEFORE Bully Ray was revealed as the leader) at this point.

Tag Team Match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship

FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) (with Tully Blanchard) defeated Kenny Omega and Adam Page (c)

I watched this match twice - once live and again a few days later to make sure I didn't miss anything. I don't fault the talents involved, but I didn't think this was a very good match at all. The best tag team match on the card goes to the Young Bucks vs. Jurassic Express in my humble opinion. FTR against Omega and Page felt like a styles clash at multiple points in this match. The lack of a pumped, enthusiastic crowd for this match hurt it even more, along with the fact that Omega was half-assing the selling of the limbs that FTR were tirelessly working over. Working over Omega proved to be for nothing when Page was the one who got pinned when it was all said and done. Did I miss something or did they do the exact same finish twice before covering Hangman for the win?

After the match was won by FTR, Omega immediately quit selling his leg (even though he was barely doing it during this match, if at all) and went outside of the ring to get a table. He TEASED using it on Page to complete the heel turn that everyone is anticipating at this moment and thought better of it before storming into the back with the Young Bucks. They seem to be teasing a heel turn for the Elite collectively instead of solely with Omega. I'm fine with that if they are going forward with Hangman being a lone wolf babyface.

Even though I wasn't happy with the match as a whole, I'm glad that the tag team title are with FTR, who can confidently call themselves the first tag team to hold the NXT, RAW, SmackDown, AND AEW Tag Team Championships.

Mimosa Mayhem match

Orange Cassidy def. Chris Jericho by knocking him into the vat of mimosa

Match could be won by pinfall, submission, or fully submerging an opponent into a vat of mimosa

This was just there at this point as I kept looking at the clock in my room. It was past 11PM after this point. I get that AEW doesn't have too many PPVs over the year, but by this point we were clocking in roughly 6-7 hours of AEW content in one night if you watched the Countdown to All Out on TNT, the Buy-In Pre-show, and the Red Carpet specials on YouTube - along with this PPV in its entirety to this point. I was pretty much waiting for the bump into the mimosa and Jericho didn't disappoint in that regard at all.

#AEWAllOut
Chris Jericho has been Mimosa'd. pic.twitter.com/NZHbMFSSM6

— GIFSkull IV - Banned Soon Due to False DMCA Spam (@GifSkullIV) September 6, 2020

I legitimately laughed at how Jericho flew back into the mimosa like it was Charlie Murphy kicking Rick James into the mirror. #AEWAllOut pic.twitter.com/yEv4X9MXUS

— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) September 6, 2020

Singles match for the AEW World Championship

Jon Moxley (c) defeated MJF (with Wardlow)

Moxley was banned from using the Paradigm Shift finishing move

Time and time again and I honestly don't see what's the fascination with Moxley as a world champion. I didn't see it in WWE and I REALLY don't see it here in AEW. Out of the three guys in The Shield - Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose (now Jon Moxley), Moxley was the easily the short end of the stick. I think that it's ironic that while he went off on podcasts and interviews after leaving WWE that he was frustrated with being the "wacky Dean" character on WWE programming, he still gives off that vibe here when he's trying to splice in elements of Stone Cold Steve Austin too. I have tried to give him the benefit of a doubt but there hasn't been a single Moxley match in this company that I have seen that I have been blown away by in any capacity. Ambrose bored me to tears in WWE and Moxley is repeating that trend in AEW. I'm really starting to see why Vince McMahon (much like Brodie Lee) didn't have faith in him as a top draw. This match had a lot of ass-backwards psychology going on, with MJF working majority of the match from underneath as the heel while Moxley was in control as the babyface no less. It didn't make much sense to me, especially when they kept dragging this match along and it was minutes to midnight at this point of the show. Watching this match live, I was just beyond fed up and ready for this show to end. 

A Paradigm Shift ends the match regardless of the fact it was banned.

Like I mentioned earlier, the end result wasn't a surprise in the least when you already knew that Lance Archer won the Casino Battle Royal for the future title shot against Moxley. This company isn't stupid. They want to do the Wrestle Kingdom rematch from this year that New Japan can't capitalize on. I will give AEW props for the finish here as that was a nice touch as it gives MJF an out and something to complain about like all shit-eating heels do. 

---

Afterthoughts:

Dear AEW,

PLEASE refrain from anymore stupid, dangerous, and completely unnecessary bumps tonight. I don't want to see any of these hard working men and women to die not tonight or any night. Work smart not stupid. #AEWAllOut

— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) September 6, 2020

Overall, I thought this was AEW's most embarrassing PPV outing to date. I was downright disgusted with this company by the time it was over. This show, from top to bottom, should be a wake-up call for every wrestling fan thinking that this company does no wrong when that is the furthest thing away from being true.

I'm not the only one saying this either. You got a wealth of people calling out AEW for this bullshit tonight with a few noteworthy tweets below.

Much like several podcasters said or wrote. Last night was a wake up call for everyone who sees a can do no wrong promotion in aew. Nothing is perfect or always 5 stars. Least that being pro wrestling. Tony Kahn and his brain trust crew. Should be taken to task. Nothing to debate

— Kevin Castle- Kev On Demand (@KevZCastle) September 6, 2020

Wait so Matt Hardy was knocked out for a full minute, Aubry tried to end the match, a doctor said he's good & they kept going? They didn't even give him a Z Pack?

— PowerBomb Jutsu (@PowerbombJutsu) September 6, 2020

AEW operates with the same reckless abandonment that WWE has. It's just what happens when you can throw a billion dollars at a company. But nobody takes issue with it because it's the smart fan's show. But it's the same exact shit.

— PowerBomb Jutsu (@PowerbombJutsu) September 6, 2020

WWE has a COVID outbreak yall go crazy. AEW let's Jerich wrestle after playing a concert stating "he passed the test" but it can take 2 weeks for symptoms to show & there have been 500 cases from that event, plus they've invited fans back. But it's all good.

— PowerBomb Jutsu (@PowerbombJutsu) September 6, 2020

Remember how you were all mad at WWE for letting Kari continue that tag match after being knocked out? Same shit here.

— PowerBomb Jutsu (@PowerbombJutsu) September 6, 2020

WWE has made gimmick matches the center of their PPVs. So people continuously have to up the ante and it leads to injuries. AEW is doing the same exact shit. Matt Hardy should have never been allowed to do something like that at his age in the first place.

— PowerBomb Jutsu (@PowerbombJutsu) September 6, 2020

Without a shadow of a doubt, All Out (2020) will live on as a complete embarrassment for this company. The honeymoon period is CLEARLY over and we need to stop giving AEW a free pass when it comes to constructive criticism and grade them in the same capacity as IMPACT, WWE, or any other promotion under the sun. A lot of stupid shit went down on this show and AEW along with Tony Khan should be called out for it, no matter how much you may love the talent that works here or want to see an alternative "topple" WWE. If Khan expects AEW to survive long term and no one doesn't end up killing themselves on his programming then he needs to really start telling these guys and girls NO when it comes to some of this reckless abandon that I see on these shows on a regular basis. It's not cool - it's goddamn stupid and that's exactly what we need to be calling it as.


As of this posting (9/11/20), the All Out fallout edition of Dynamite has come and gone. Matt Hardy appeared on Dynamite, accompanied by his wife, Reby Hardy with their infant child in the crowd, and thanked all of the fans for their support in that dire situation on Saturday night. He apologized for scaring everyone, his family included, for putting them through that traumatic experience, but I felt that Tony Khan should have made a rare appearance on-camera and apologized not only to Matt Hardy, but Reby Hardy as well, for allowing that match to continue when Hardy wasn't in any shape to continue it just to do the finish spot. Instead, Khan continues to brush this whole situation under the rug and sweep all blame away from himself. If you go onto AEW's Twitter page, you will notice that they have removed all traces of Matt Hardy's infamous fall off their account. Between how this company has mishandled that situation and the stupidity that allowed on this program on a regular basis, I can't see Tony Khan as nothing more than a money mark. I'm sorry, but he hasn't shown me anything to make me think any different.

During an interview on Dynamite, Kenny Omega clarifies that everything between himself and Hangman Page is fine, but the more he talks it seems to be that he's teasing a return of "The Cleaner" from his days in New Japan while the Young Bucks seem to be going "all in" on this heel turn for The Elite. Omega needs to do something as compared to a year ago, his stock value in wrestling has drastically gone down. He's nowhere as the high profile free agent that was in high demand this time last year. Being a giving performer in this business is one thing, but you don't be so giving that it's detrimental to your own career. Omega and the Bucks should have taken the reigns at the start, much like Chris Jericho and THEN put over guys to bring them up to their level. One year later, it seems like it's going to be all for nothing when only the AEW die-hards still think those guys are in high demand anymore.

Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford revealed that Miro - the former "Bulgarian Brute" Rusev in WWE - is their "best man" for their pending wedding. Miro came out to the same song and dance as every other ex-WWE guy coming into this company or IMPACT Wrestling for the last decade and a half, saying how they were misused and denied a brass ring. I'm sorry but I'm not feeling sorry for him with that shit. Same goes for a lot of ex-WWE talent. No one held a gun to your head and MADE you sign those renewal contract deals for all of those years you stayed there. Don't be mad now that the checks stopped coming in. That was your own stupidity. The best way to get back at WWE is to rub your newfound success in their faces, not constantly bring up the past looking for some sort of a pity party. Rusev, now Miro, had a lot of high-profile matches for WWE. I can't say that they completely misused the guy when his ultimate downfall was him and his own wife, Lana, went to TMZ and told him about their real life wedding when they were in divorce storyline on camera. I don't blame WWE for burying him for killing kayfabe on what was a great gimmick and pairing at the time. In regard to Miro in AEW, I don't have any high expectations for this lackluster debut. All I'm going to say is that it's "nut up or shut up" time.

FTR held a "celebration" of sorts on Dynamite to celebrate their win with the entire tag team division, but I was more surprised that they didn't get their faces dunked into that sheet cake that they brought out. Instead, all of the tag teams at ringside were able to enjoy it at their leisure. That definitely has to be a first for modern wrestling that a cake was shown on television and not ruined in any capacity. On a positive note, I'm anxious to see who FTR works with next in hopes of elevating this tag team division because that mess with Hangman and Omega didn't click at all.

NWA's Women's Champion Thunder Rosa walked away from All Out in a losing effort, but I think between her match on Dynamite and on All Out, she opened a LOT of people's eyes who weren't aware of nor familiar with her talents prior to her appearances for this company. I'm glad to see that she's getting a chance to defend her title next week on Dynamite with one of her fellow Lucha Underground alumni, Ivelisse. Meanwhile, Shida seems to be pegged to resume her feud with Nyla Rose yet again. AEW signed Tay Conti from the Deadly Draw Women's Tag Team Tournament this week. She lost to Rose on Dynamite, but I hope we see more of her. She's still pretty green, despite being trained at the WWE Performance Center, but she shows a lot of promise, especially more than a lot of the other women in that division.

As for that Dustin Rhodes vs. Brodie Lee match for the TNT Championship, I walked out of the living room and did the dishes in the kitchen over watching the bulk of that match. Naturally (no pun intended), Dustin lost. Who didn't see that coming? They aren't going to take that title off of Brodie Lee after that massive injury angle they did with Cody to write him off television. He's probably isn't going to lose that title until Cody is ready to come back. I doubt we have to wait long as they were airing vignettes for him during All Out and he's being advertised for appearing on another television show, so we know he's not hurt. It's not like this company keeps up much kayfabe to begin with.