While Baker's gotten all of the hype and love, this match was about as much as Statlander as it was Dr. Kris Statlander, AEW Women's Championship match: 4.5 starsīaker's championship reign is really taking shape and living up to hype as she continues to lead the AEW women's division from pole position. The real money is what's next for Mox, with another Japanese legend, Minoru Suzuki, making an appearance after the match, planting Moxley with a piledriver after a short exchange. His match with Japanese legend Satoshi Kojima was about what you'd expect out of the two. The guy shows up, whoops ass, decides he wants to wrestle a Japanese legend every now and then, win belts in other promotions, and leaves.īut that's not to say that Moxley is phoning it in, because he's not: No matter what he's up to, his character makes sense and his matches deliver. Jon Moxley is living the wrestling dream. Who will be next to challenge for Miro's throne? Who knows? But whoever knocks him off is going to have a tough, tough task in filling the boots he's currently wearing as TNT champ.
Oh, and he did something that Eddie Kingston requested on Friday night's episode of "Rampage:"Īsk and you shall receive.
The match was a knock-down, drag-out fight that lived up to everything you'd think a couple of heavy hitters like Kingston and Miro should deliver. Miro has been absolute money as TNT Champion, and Kingston was next in line to be "redeemed" by God's favorite champion. Eddie Kingston, TNT Championship match: 4.25 stars Here's how all the matches graded out: Miro vs. It was a loaded All Out card that went, well, all out. In simpler terms, Sunday night's All Out solidified and proved one thing: All Elite Wrestling is truly all in. That could not have been made clearer on Sept. Whether it was NWA: TNA's once-promised golden horizon of a new era of wrestling in the early 2000s or the independent scene that was secretly great but just couldn't grasp mainstream attention, AEW and Khan deserve a lot of credit for building a domestic company that delivers on everything wrestling should and can be in 2021. Over the last 20 years or so, American wrestling promoters have routinely overpromised and under-delivered. To be fair, the skepticism for AEW wasn't without merit. He says they focus on what they are doing and that's the way to grow.
The same can't be said for purveyors of sports entertainment, which sells out for TV deals, shareholders and bean counters, telling you everything is fine while stuff blows up behind them, like Leslie Nielsen in "The Naked Gun."ĬM Punk says AEW's competition is the fans and keeping them interested.
The signings prove that.Īnd the best thing about professional wrestlers being professional wrestlers? It's great for starved wrestling fans, who - contrary to the propaganda fed to you by the former 'Fed - have always held the power in wrestling. But sports entertainers have stayed in 'E for less over the years, and the rise of AEW and the legitimate avenue it offers for professional wrestlers to be, well, professional wrestlers, is turning heads across the industry. Britt Baker, DMD) are AEW stalwarts? Of course it does. That's why his debut means just as much, if not more, than any of the others: Cole jumped ship during the prime of his career, leaving a company in which he was given the world (and likely promised more), spurning the idea of being a main-brand "superstar" to join an upstart group of wrestling rebels who are taking a sledgehammer to the industry.ĭoes it help that his best friends (The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega) and his girlfriend (Dr. Consistently at the top of the card, Cole was teetering on the edge of the main WWE roster (where NXT careers go to die). His NXT run, which started in 2017, was among the best, most well-protected and dominant runs in the brand's history, both as the leader of a faction and a single's star. Of all the impressive signings AEW has made since the beginning of the year, none of the recent debuts - not Christian Cage's or CM Punk's or Bryan Danielson's or Malakai Black's - may mean as much as Adam Cole's, though.Ĭole was a guy who was being groomed to be "The Man" (sorry, Becky Lynch) on the main WWE roster. What a moment and what an ovation when appeared last night at #AEWAllOut! If you missed the historic All Out PPV, order the replay: /tQTrxSfzul