All Out III - 9/5/2021

[Matt D]

I’m glad you guys liked it but if anyone tries to give me that cage match as a pick, they’re banned from Secret Santo for life.

[HarryArchieGus]

This was one of the greatest nights of pro wrestling I've ever seen.  The posi vibes have been there since the first show and are only getting stronger.  I am so thankful an astute and caring wrestling fan got to the position Tony Khan finds himself in.

But... if we're being honest, even as great as this show was, it's clear proof that exceeding 3 hours is too much of a good thing.  Christian and Omega were so good, as good as anybody on the card, but the boisterous Chicago crowd was so clearly exhausted and just waiting for the finish and foreseen Danielson debut.

That said, this show, and this company from the get-go, is a gift to pro wrestling fans for remaining passionate and caring after such a long drought.  
 

 

[Craig H]

Something not said yet was that the announcing was fucking great all night. Huge props to them. Tony had me cracking up multiple times. 

I thought it would be a good idea to rewatch the Jericho match until the end of the show because the tag title match really took everything out of me. On rewatch, I really, really liked Punk vs Darby and the main event was awesome as well even with the totally foregone conclusion. Even then, Christian taking an avalanche OWA is fucking crazy. 

Only match I thought was meh other than the Wight match was Jericho vs MJF, and even that picked up near the end. Jericho and MJF just had a bunch of scary spots that could have gone poorly. Jericho catches MJF for the powerbomb and then screams OH SHIT as he nearly kills MJF until he thankfully pulled the move off onto the apron at the last second.

In fact, that's my biggest nitpick. Dudes were fucking killing themselves all night. There were at least 3 or 4 people who took a bump on the outside where the back of their head bounced off the mat. Hell, Punk came one inch away from cracking his skull on the concrete near the end of his match. Plus, Matt Jackson legit got fucked up on that Destroyer off the top rope. Full neck compression and everything. If everyone walked away healthy then they're all incredibly lucky.

[hammerva]

25 minutes ago, EVA said:

There isn’t much to do with Abadon. She’s still a very green, developing wrestler, who isn’t really all that good right now. AEW is actually doing her a huge favor by limiting her exposure. There is no need to rush her into spots she’s not ready for.

 

 

You are right about Abadon still being very green but that hasn't stopped Jade Cargill from being pushed like a monster.   She has had only 2 good matches and they are both against Red Velvet who is really really good.    Abadon is definitely one who could be protected and still look like a beast at the same time

 

[Jiji]

Ah, so Aubrey pointed out Ruby said "Hey Bryce!" after winning the battle royal. That's even better and more her style after listening to her scrum last night. She seems ridiculously caring and nice. What a positive place that locker room must be and the additions should help that immensely. 

[Jiji]

2 minutes ago, hammerva said:

You are right about Abadon still being very green but that hasn't stopped Jade Cargill from being pushed like a monster.   She has had only 2 good matches and they are both against Red Velvet who is really really good.    Abadon is definitely one who could be protected and still look like a beast at the same time

 

But they did give her a mini push introduction, similar to what they've done with Jade, and cooled both of the them off so that they can get better. Obviously, Jade has more natural IT factor or whatever you want to call it so you're going to go with her more than Abadon. I think it's really neat that AEW has given relatively green workers a nice shine and then held off on over exposing them. Abadon ain't going anywhere and she needs to continue to train and get better. The gimmick, while fun, is also going to be pretty limiting in what you can do long term and she'll definitely need to be rotated in and out often. 

[hammerva]

Speaking of Bryce, if they wanted to an angle between Kingston and Bryce might be too inside baseball for wrestling fans but would make perfect sense given their history and what happened last night

[Craig H]

I can't wait for Wednesday. 

[The Natural]

Thank you, Tony Khan. Thank you for All Elite Wrestling.

[Matt D]

It’s funny that curmudgeonly Punk is nurturing and talking about giving back and helping the youth and nice guy Danielson wants to kick heads in.

[The Natural]

Bryan Danielson, the Greatest of All Time has just tweeted.

[A_K]

Abandon stuff is prime example of what should be put in the trash can now they’ve lined up a roster of superstars. Carny awfulness .. use it like a comedic Boogeyman derivative or get rid of it all together. Jade, Tay, Ruby, Rosa, Baker .. they have A class talent to elevate that promotion with who look a million bucks. Move the backyard wrestling schtick along. 
 

Would be cool if they actually take some breaths now. No need to shoot the load all at once. With the likes of “Broken” Hardy last summer the long programs became a bore because the external talent injected was so clearly past it’s sell-by-date: for the first time since promotion origination really they’ve inherited some grade A superstars who should still be in or at least very close to their commercial prime. You can put the Bucks in some 2-v-2 tags against other superstar impromptu teams without holding the division up .. you can use Miro as an unaffiliated force like a Goldberg late-90s lite .. Darby/Danielson/Punk/Page/Omega/Moxley all proven draws and performers in the singles stakes .. stuff like Best Friends can admirably & realistically hold up the lower card without losing lustre ... basically they can really craft a top~$$$ show without everything being a huge 5-5, 6-6 clusterfuck etc. Organised chaos but lots of ways for individuals to get shine outside of monotonous faction work. Breaking some of the redundant factions down and reiterating the individual superstar draws is probably their final step towards moving onto equal-rating/daw playing field w/ WWE. Good case study in how when an industry leader stops innovating the chase to catch them really can take very little time at all.

Edited September 6, 2021 by A_K

[Krone]

Also, a musician named Elliot Taylor said on Instagram he worked with Bryan Danielson on that theme song which has been dubbed "Born for Greatness" so if there's any questions - looks like that IS his theme going forward.

[Jiji]

I wonder how much Europe was asking for. 

[eikerir]

14 minutes ago, Matt D said:

It’s funny that curmudgeonly Punk is nurturing and talking about giving back and helping the youth and nice guy Danielson wants to kick heads in.

Lol yeah, he’s definitely come in with a “dangerous” vibe compared to Punk. So far it’s been like:

- Punk: I wanna help out the young ones.

- Cole: I’m happy to be with my gf and friends.

- Bryan: I just wanna fuck shit up. 
 

Speaking of his music, here it is and you can clearly hear the “get you fucking head kicked in” chant:

 

Edited September 6, 2021 by eikerir

[Krone]

I love that for Bryan too.

I love all of this. I'm still so happy today. Man, I say it a lot - more than necessary but I'm so thankful for Tony Khan and AEW. I'm not even joking, being able to experience stuff like this is akin to reaching nirvana. Goosebumps on goosebumps, brain spinning from the unbelievable, a drug that just can't be substituted.

Jesus, it actually infuriates me that WWE over the past twenty years have been the same old. I started watching wrestling in 97ish when I was 6. It wasn't until 2002/2003 that I got really invested on a weekly basis. 2005, TNA gave me a taste of what wrestling could be like and I ate it up.

2021, AEW showed me what wrestling really could be like - and sweet baby jesus give me as much as possible. I really do hope WWE turns it around too, but it almost doesn't matter. AEW has filled that void and it's fucking nuts. I'm so happy three+ years ago I started following NJPW and it eventually led to me following this.

I watched in the cord with some lapsed fans and casuals and as you can guess... they ate every second of it up. Tony Khan you beautiful man, thanks for being one of us. It just goes to show you booking for the fans works.

Edit - I'm also surprised nobody mentioned Kenny's nugget at the end of the show - "The only people who can beat me either aren't here (Hangman Page), already in this ring (Christian Cage), or dead (Adam Cole). Then he says after Cole comes out about how "he wasn't worried about this guy, he's one of their friends"... That leaves Hangman. Don't worry, Page ain't going anywhere.

Edited September 6, 2021 by Krone Meltzer

[Krone]

Oh my god... the chorus in the song goes "You're gonna get your fu... head kicked in" clap clap clap clapclapclap

THAT IS SO FUCKING SICK

[elizium]

Baker/Statlander was my match of the night. I love that Statlander managed to win the crowd over by just doing some cool as shit power stuff, that recovery on the top rope gutwrench where she ended up deadlifting Britt was wild. The crowd never stopped supporting Britt, but definitely started cheering Stat as well and even threw some boos at Britt towards the end, before she pulled them back with the Panama Sunrise

[Matt D]

I get all the angles, including having an irritating heel champ that is so good in the ring he keeps surviving and that Danielson was about to go out, but the Urkel thing was not the face the company wanted to put forward in that exact moment. I could see 1980 Buddy Rose in that spot with that sort of feel but he’d have picked something contemporary to be annoying about. They had enough going for them in that moment that it doesn’t matter in a bubble but it was pretty bad. 

[hammerva]

Okay I thought last night Bryan's entrance music sucked but now that I can actually hear the full version without the crowd noise  it is pretty awesome

 

[Curt McGirt]

Fuck, I forgot all about Abadon's '80s Japanese hardcore mohawk. Death Side would be proud. 

Your top three show botches: 

3. Rebel's splits (again fitting her character so no biggie) 

2. Kenny falling on his ass trying the barrier moonsault

1. Jericho's guitar player

EDIT: Honorable mention goes to the camera always catching Punk's spot calling. I bet Cena watched that and said "so I call to the back of the hall, huh motherfucker?"

Edited September 6, 2021 by Curt McGirt

[elizium]

Biggest laugh of the night was Shida and Riho, especially Riho, going out like chumps. They were the champs!

I'm also surprised that Jade went out when she did, but I guess we got to keep that Nyla Rose train going. I like Nyla, but she's turning into Kane where she loses all the time, but every couple months we got to pretend they're an unstoppable monster.

I love battle royals, but the casino battle royal is such a bad concept. Why should we care what suits are drawn when we don't even know what suits people are in? For a company that has like 3 different backstage vlogs, how hard would it be to do segments with wrestlers drawing suits and then trying to form uneasy alliances with others in their suits?

The entrances are a whole mess onto themselves. How can we get 5 people in a match at once and ensure that none of them get any shine? Either you cut back to the ring and miss like 3 entrances or you just show the entrances and miss out on what's happening in the ring for longer than you'd want to. Once someone hits the ring, focus is immediately pulled from them because here come's Mongooooo. There's two ways I think you can improve it. First by spacing them out a little bit more...not so much that it ruins the idea of suits, but like maybe 15 seconds or so just to give the crowd time to register the new person that came in and let them get a little moment and not take focus off the ring for too long. OOOOORRRR you go completely the other way, eschew entrance music altogether, and literally have your 5 wrestlers run out at once and get some chaos and fighting going down the ramp as they come in.

All that said, it did get quite good once it calmed down and got down to the last 5 or so entrants. Like, shucks, you give your talent space and time to work and it will generally go well, you know?

[The Natural]

17 hours ago, The Natural said:

It's Monday. You know what that means.

Done well on 75 minutes sleep. Couldn't switch off such was my enjoyment of this awesome show, professional wrestling done right. Will try and get some proper kip after this post. Cheers!

[Octopus]

DERP THOUGHTS

 

Big Show was fun. It was short enough and to the point and you got to be in awe of a legit giant. A spectacle that can be missing when you are surrounded by such massive bodies or the large individuals wrestle like small guys. I want a slow, intimidating strength, yet still limping with a slight vulnerability in my giants. We are witnessing something special merely because it exists, like the large neighborhood oak tree. He gave QT reasonable moments but largely his point is to crush bullies. Give me Giant and one face (Marko?) vs 4 jerks.

It was interesting to see got the larger pops from the women’s battle royale. I agree with the spin on bunched entries being problematic. I don’t watch the Dark shows, but I do now want to see a Big Swole entrance. The Bunny was great. Allie works the camera as well as Brit. I’m pretty sure Riho’s elimination was a botch. I was most excited to see her. The full match was kind of sloppy but those that shined did so, so the goal was met. Hirsch is a bad ass. Thunder Rosa is the top face. Nyla is the feared beast and Jade was booked to look like an impressive future threat to the division. I love Red Velvet’s fire. Abandon is scary and a solid gimmick. The ending was cool and brings an interesting new challenger we haven’t seen. Ruby does all the little things in the ring well. Her selling, face expressions, in between move body motions all were a joy to take in.

The best part about The Mad King vs The Redeemer is that it will lead to more from them. GIVE ME MORE BACKDROPS. Hopefully an intense tv special Main event.

Jericho vs MJF wasn’t for me but the crowd loves Jericho. I enjoyed the Dusty Finish and Inner Circle hug. 

Kris Statlander is awesome. I didn’t like the alien gimmick at first but she found the right balance. The crowd was more behind Brit at first but she is so impressive and the Made-ya-BOOP moment won everyone over. Plus seeing OC care and get pumped up was great. Brit is a great champion.

Cage match was neat. I love Penta taunting and the entrance pumped me up. A cage match revolving around thumbtack Shoes was unique and made for an enjoyable experience. These were the right titles to change hands. 

I’ll rewatch the main event. Was in and out, I like both people involved. The after match double swerve with Adam Cole and then Danielson was smart. I was legit disappointed in it being Cole, which worked as him being a heel. Then got even more excited by Danielson showing up. Brief let down to get me more excited. I’m excited for spazzy Elite promos about Cole’s moment being ruined. It all leads to the best going forward.

Mox vs Kojima was excellent. Kojima came across like a legend. Suzuki coming out was nuts and far from expected. I can’t wait for him and Mox to Murder each other.

Darby vs Punk was a smart match. Darby needing to go fast and dangerous, but risking his advantage constantly while Punk methodically took advantage and picked him a part. Teasing the G2S early with Darby flying at him and getting out of the ring got both characters across. Then the first G2S destroying Allin but leading to him collapsing to the outside showed that it is the finisher to end the match at any moment (which it finally did). Punk grounding Darby got the crowd behind Allin when it was a clear CM crowd. Got him over without winning. 

I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff, this was a packed show and their most impressive yet.

[EVA]

39 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

 

2. Kenny falling on his ass trying the barrier moonsault

 

But then immediately came back and hit a more difficult version of the moonsault. An all-time face save.