AEW All Out 2022 Match Ratings and Commentary

Hoffman Estates, IL—Now Arena

September 4, 2022

MJF (Credit: AEW)

Here’s where we landed with AEW All Out 2022. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.

AEW All Out - 9/4/2022

• Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo def. Ortiz and Ruby Soho: ★★

• Hook def. Angelo Parker: ★

• PAC def. Kip Sabian to retain the AEW All-Atlantic Championship: ★

• Eddie Kingston def. Tomohiro Ishii: ★★★

• MJF def. Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, Penta El Zero Miedo, Rey Fenix, Rush, Dante Martin, and Andrade El Idolo: ★

• The Elite def. “Hangman” Adam Page and Dark Order to win the AEW World Trios Championship: ★★★★1/4

• Jade Cargill def. Athena to retain the AEW TBS Championship: ★

• Wardlow and FTR def. Jay Lethal and the Motor City Machine Guns: ★★★

• Powerhouse Hobbs def. Ricky Starks: ★

• Swerve In Our Glory def. The Acclaimed: ★★★★1/4

• Toni Storm def Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D., Jamie Hayer, and Hikaru Shida to win the Interim AEW Women’s Championship: ★★★

• Christian Cage def. Jungle Boy: ★

• Chris Jericho def. Bryan Danielson: ★★★

• Miro, Sting, and Darby Allin def. House of Black: ★★★

• CM Punk def. Jon Moxley to win the AEW World Championship: ★★★★

CM Punk (Credit: AEW)

Show Highlight—

• Everybody loves The Acclaimed.  I was of the camp that it was a missed opportunity to delay Bucks and FTR III but hearing the reaction to Swerve In Our Glory—and, in particular, The Acclaimed—putting these two teams in this spot as opposed to giving it to Bucks/FTR III bolsters the division and allows this program to continue to have legs.  This was probably the coldest title match coming in with as little of a motive for them wrestling.  You always hear there’s money in the chase, if so, let’s hope the chase affords AEW to sell boatloads of “Scissor Me, Daddy Ass” tees.  The valid concern from the fanbase was maybe not so much that Tony Khan should have called an audible and let them win the belts, but that Tony is going to delay the inevitable for so long it lands like Thunder Rosa winning the belt in the cage in her hometown.  We’ll see.  Both teams deserved the spotlight and The Acclaimed feel like they’re going to be the stars everyone saw them blossoming into.

What Worked—

• “Extra rare roast beef, extra thick.” Great line by Taz, describing the tenderizing effects of Eddie Kingston and Ishii chopping the ever-loving shit out of each other.

• Trios Tournament Final.  Great match.  Nothing was going to beat the trios match with Ospreay and Aussie Open but this was still high-level stuff.  I may be in the minority on this, but Hangman is AEW’s North American equivalent of Okada in being the perfect dance partner for Kenny Omega.  Satisfying ending to have Hangman cost Dark Order the titles to fuel even more anxiety about himself and doubts on his friendships.

• Fight Like An 8-Year Old Girl.  Cute moment.

• “Detroitians.”  Intentional or not I laughed my ass off at that.  More annoying than our Michigan accents, is the secure knowledge that whenever we point to our palms, that is the universally understood hand gesture to show where you reside in the lower peninsula.  I love it.

• Looking Pretty.  Great looking new ring-gear for Ricky Starks.  His redemption story is going to play like Hangman’s to a certain extend.  I’m guessing his fans feel like he was squashed here but some heels have to win.   

• Punk’s new gear.  I’m the only Wrestling Elitists who was in love with Punks tights and Danhausen’s boots.

• Camera work.  AEW has drawn sold-out areas and big arena gates, but they haven’t always shown it on television because of the angles and camera work they’ve done.  This looked like a 15 or 20K arena as opposed to just 10K.  The cranes and pans made this feel like a big-time production and event without stealing from WWE’s playbook of shooting an arena.

What Didn’t Work—

• PACking it in.  What the hell was that?  I’d like to give PAC the benefit of the doubt and maybe he’s injured, got a concussion, something.  But yikes that was sleepwalking-through-a-WCW-house-show disengagement.

• Shill out.  Jesus Christ the show hardly started before Excalibur went into the Draft Kings copy.  No real intro, no rundown, nothing.  And just days before Tony Khan went on Twitter saying that he loved the image of the announcers with their backs to the full crowd.

Show Cringe—

• Ladder Match.  The psychology was all off.  You’d think JR was on the call with the announcers questioning why guys were walking slowly to the ring to take off their suits and masks.  The ladder spots seemed contrived and cooperative, too.  I won’t shit on Claudio for not being able to pull off whatever he was initially trying to pull off with his show of strength with the ladders, but that didn’t make this any less disappointing.  Then to the finish itself.  I like the idea of having a change of pace and trying an unconventional ending, but it’s why some ideas exist on paper and are never executed.  Am I looking too far into it to wonder why anyone would bother being in a Casino Ladder Match without having their stable do their bidding for them first?  If I’m, say, Jericho, I’m going to have the whole JAS beat the shit out of everyone and then I can just get the chip later.  And couldn’t Stokely just have pulled it off, waited for all the other legal contenders to get introduced, and then fork it over to MJF later on?  If Stokely and MJF had this incredible ruse planned, then why come out last?  That wasn’t part of the covert voicemail on MJF’s answering machine.  If he specifically said I’ll give you the joker slot, that could have excused some of the silliness.  Ladder matches have their own silly, rubber band reality to begin with, this just made it seem goofier.  There’s a reason why Braun or Andre never won a battle royal by flipping over the ring, or why Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake didn’t just cut the ropes with his hedge clippers and shove everyone out of the ring.  You don’t do that because you have to do one of these matches again.  And one last thing, again, poking holes in the goofy reality that is wrestling, but how could it have possibly been a surprise to anyone that was MJF?  Who else wears a jacket but lacquers-up their wrists with fake spray tan?  I love that MJF’s back, don’t get me wrong, but this was so eye-rolling and underwhelming compared to the high-art he’s put on previously this year.

  …oh and then that scrum happened and AEW embarrassed themselves and overshadowed everything on this great show.

The Elite (Credit: AEW)

Follow us @ https://twitter.com/WrestleElitists