For the second year in a row, All Elite Wrestling held their now annual All In event from Wembley Stadium in London and after the previous year’s record-setting attendance, we didn’t quite have that repeat performance here. No big surprise; something about diminishing returns. On the bright side, though; you still had a respectable 40-50K in attendance and they were given a largely entertaining show capped off with a show-closing moment that should have come sooner. Most importantly of all, there was no backstage drama to kill the mood and so people can talk about how this was a good show rather than some bullshit that happened in the back… but most people would rather talk about attendance being down since that’s the commonality with AEW these days.
Whatever. I don’t care. I finally got around to seeing both All In and All Out recently (via a loan of DVD recordings) and I have some quick thoughts for this show… as for the next show… well, that’s another story, but for now, All IN…
Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta) and Pac… wait, hold on, let me try that again… THAT NO-GOOD MOTHERFUCKING GODDAMNED WANKING BASTARD PAC! (that’s better) defeated AEW Trios Champions The Patriarchy (Christian Cage, Killswitch, and Nick Wayne), the Bang Bang Gang (Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, and Juice Robinson), and the House of Black (Brody King, Buddy Matthews, and Malakai Black) in what was dubbed a London Ladder match (basically a Ladder match in London… cheeky fuckers) to win the titles. They don’t even bother with the entrances; they just go straight into the action because fuck it, we don’t have time for nine hour entrances on this ten hour show. You’ve got some high spots, you’ve got some good bits, and you’ve got the closest thing to a hometown guy – THAT GODDAMNED MOTHERPLONKING BASTARD WANKER PAC!!! – getting the win to give the hometown crowd a happy start to an otherwise long-ass show… by the way, the BCC would eventually become the Death Riders, the House Of Black would lose the Black and redub themselves the Hounds of Hell, the Gunns would be out with an injury, and Christian Cage is still looking for kids with dead fathers to bring in. Sounds about right.
Mariah May defeated AEW Women’s Champion Timeless Toni Storm to win the title. Mariah started off as a “protege” to Timeless Toni before eventually turning on her and this is the obvious payoff is for Mariah to kill off Timeless Toni and win the title… and then do nothing of note with it before dropping back to Timeless Toni earlier this year because… eh, whatever, I don’t care. Anyway, the match was fine between two perfectly fine wrestlers and it told the right story. The follow-up, however… well, that’s another story for another time.
HOOK defeated FTW Champion Chris Jericho (who has Fozzy playing his music on the way out) via submission in this hardcore match to win back the fake title, which he would then retire and give back to his old man Taz. Goes to show how out of the loop I am with this promotion when I completely forgot about CHRIS JERICHO holding on to Taz’s old vanity belt, but then again, there’s a lot of nothing bits that I’ve completely forgot about… but I can still remember the Big Swole/Britt Baker feud from the pandemic days, so really, what does that tell you? Anyway, it’s a hardcore match. Some weapons are used. Jericho is eventually choked out. Life goes on. I was mildly entertained, at least.
AEW Tag Champions The Young Bucks defeated The Acclaimed and Fuck The Revival to retain the titles in a triple threat match… even now, I am flabberghasted that they didn’t switch the belts here because the Bucks holding on to those things was just… what was even the point? And then I recall that this was during a time when they were trying to push JACK PERRY as an existential threat to the main event picture… yeah, that worked out pretty well, I’m sure, but we’ll get to that later. Anyway, this match… it was a thing that happened. Not a bad match or anything because the Bucks and FTR are talented tag-teams and the Acclaimed… well, they wouldn’t be a team for long, but that’s besides the point. Anyway… eh, this was a thing that happened and let’s move on.
Christian Cage wins the Casino Gauntlet match (with an assist from Luchasaurus, who teased breaking away from the Patriarchy by way of going back to his old name rather than the new name, Killswitch) to earn himself a future AEW World title shot… cool, let me know when that actually happens. Anyway, this was a thing that happened. I could list participants, but really, none of it matters and everything is just a blur to me anyway, so we’re moving right along.
Will Ospreay defeated AEW American Champion MJF to win the title… that he doesn’t accept, but instead just takes the International title that MJF won and subsequently replaced with his own AMERICAN title. I wonder if there was a tariff to be paid with that International title and that’s why MJF went American. Anyway, this was a great match, with the story being Ospreay being somewhat reluctant to use his Tiger Driver finish out of fear of causing unnecessary harm before he eventually does use it on MJF to secure the win and the title. And then months later, Ospreay would take a tombstone piledriver on some steel steps during a match and kick out at two so he could be pinned by a superkick or something. It’s jarring that one minute, they’re treating the move like it’s a lethal, potentially career-ending maneuver, but then right after, that same move is just a transition to the next series of spots. Yes, this isn’t a strictly AEW problem; lots of promotions tend to fall awry in this regard, but it’s never been as readily apparent as it has with THIS promotion.
TBS Champion Mercedes Mone (with Kamille – you know, former NWA Women’s Champion Kamille? Wonder where she’s at nowadays?) defeated Dr. Britt Baker DMD (you know, former AEW Women’s Champion and AEW Original Dr. Britt Baker DMD? Wonder where she’s at nowadays?) to retain the title. One of the rare occasions where I can say that I watched a truly great Mercedes match and I don’t get to say that often. With the right opponent and the right circumstances, Mercedes can pull off a fucking great match and the same can be said for Dr. Britt. These two worked wonderfully together and it’s a shame that this one off was all we got.
TNT Champion JACK PERRY defeated Darby Allin in a coffin match to retain the title. This was another case of Darby getting his ass kicked in the sickest ways possible before being tossed into a coffin for the win. The Bucks come out to douse the coffin with gasoline – you know, for the barbecue – but then out comes IT’S STIIIINNNNGGGG!!!!! to make the save with some timely bat shows, no-selling Jack Perry’s shitty chair shot, and sending the Bucks to their doom. So nice of Stinger to enjoy retirement and make an appearance on this show. Maybe he’ll show up at this year’s event.
Bryan Danielson defeated AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland via submission to FINALLY win a fucking World title in AEW. Yes, Danielson came out to Final Countdown. Yes, the crowd were smart enough to do the thing. Yes, this was a fucking great match between two top-tier performers putting on the peak performance of their careers. Yes, there was a Hangman Page run-in because we need to remind folks that Swerve and Page have unfinished business. Yes, I’m happy that Bryan Danielson – after weeks of saying he didn’t want the World title – won a fucking World title because fuck me, if he went through his whole AEW run without at least ONE BLOODY BELT in his hands, I would have found a Justin Roberts lookalike to choke with a tie. Yeah, this was a match that could have gone either way and honestly, I wouldn’t have had an issue with Swerve continuing his run had that been the case… but on this night, there was really only one outcome that would’ve been a happy ending. And that’s the outcome they went with. Swerve has nothing to be ashamed of. He worked his ass off and came out strong. Hopefully, he gets another run with the belt because that bastard deserves it.
And that was All In 2024 and honestly, with three really excellent wrestling matches on hand and not a sour point to be had either in front of or behind the cameras, I can honestly say that this was definitely a top-tier AEW PPV outing. That said, I’m glad they’re doing All In from Texas this year rather than trying to go third time in a row at London, because that’d be diminishing returns, as is the case with most of AEW these days.
Next week, we’re sampling the following All Out PPV… which had some stuff there.
dtm666 