R-EVOLUTION VII - 3/15/2026

[keith_h]

Going to need to rewatch a lot of this show as it was LONG, but overall it was great.

I still think Hangman gets out of this somehow. Maybe he puts his career on the line at Double or Nothing and wins back everything. It’s wrestling… Terry Funk (loved MJFs tights) retired and un-retired 800 times. This isn’t it for Hangman. 

Edited March 16 by keith_h

[Cobra Commander]

the thing is... they ran the "Hangman can never challenge if he loses" stip AFTER the feud where Hangman was facing someone who literally held the belt hostage for a half year... so there had to be more urgency to beat Moxley than MJF, right?

so basically the story is that Hangman got a lot more selfish with the stip this time compared to last summer and the next step is..

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, Craig H said:

I brought it up in the chat, but the whole situation is odd. WB and Paramount are going to merge, Paramount is the home for UFC, Ronda has a “big” fight on Netflix who is the company that’s home to Raw and nearly merged with WB, Ronda just talked a bunch of shit about UFC, and now here she is in AEW where, yeah, she’s not wrestling until after May, but it’s all very weird and twisted given the various companies involved. In a vacuum, it’s just a booking move in AEW, but nothing ever happens in a vacuum.

This is just some the enemy of my enemy is kinda my friend but clearly the lesser of two evils. IMO This MVP (the Jake Paul promotion company, not the AEW one) thing really has 2008-09 Affliction vibes down to the anti UFC thing. Except replace Fedor with Francis Ngannou. Like both Jake Paul and Francis Ngannou were suppose to be major stars for the PFL only to fight a combined one fight so I mean I don't expect an MMA endeavor of this magnitude to last more than one show. The whole Gina vs. Ronda thing just kinda fell into their lap. 

As for press and camps, the press conference and media coverage was earlier last week but from what I gathered was spent mostly talking about how the UFC sucks and how the White House card sucks. So uh, I fail to see how they're help promoting their own thing. With the fight being May 16, the camp should be starting this week if it hasn't already. Problem with being physically involved in wrestling is you can get injured without doing a whole bunch. You roll an ankle or get hardway'd, that's going to push out a fight at least 3-4 weeks minimum. If either Gina or Ronda get injured, they're gonna probably have to postpone or outright cancel the card altogether cause Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins ain't selling out a community theater playhouse let alone an entire arena.

[DreamBroken]

All time great level PPV for me, super enjoyable all the way through, legit surprises, lots of excitement, tons of stuff set up for the future. Loved it. 

BIG Boom always rules. The battle royal was a cluster that looked like the TNA reverse battle royal but I enjoyed Jungle Jack getting the big win. 

FTR/Bucks felt like one of their best matches, wasn't expecting quite the bloodbath. Finish wasn't perfect, but dug it overall. Popped for the post-match return of Cage & Cope joining the mix with these two teams.

Toni/Marina was solid. Love the surprise factor in Ronda showing up. Feel like Toni/Ronda would be amazing fun if it eventually happens. I thought Ronda's one off tag in ROH previously was a blast.

Moxley/Takeshita was killer as expected. I like to see Moxley's reign continue. Welcome back Ospreay, so Elevated! Hard to believe it'd been 6 months already, felt a little weird since Moxley isn't that hated heel he was then, but so down for Ospreay/Moxley in-ring wise.

Marked out for The Divine Dominion becoming the new tag champs! Happy for Lena and felt overdue for Megan to get something, but still sad for Penelope to miss out.

Swerve/Brody was good but almost felt like a comedown spot after all the excitement up to this point. Almost would've preferred a countout win after the cop killer/vertebreaker spot. THEKLA always my highlight.

Wasn't expecting another trios title change so quick, but thought that was an awesome surprise in another super fun match. Mistico is ALL Elite!  Andrade/Bandido was amazing as expected and Paula DeAnda gets the Andrade crowd spot.

Glad to see Orange/Darby/Roderick get the win, felt like them losing would've undermined the epic Roderick return save on Dynamite, another really fun match.

Main event felt like an all time incredible spectacle to top it all off. 45+ minutes, blood, barbed wire, glass and everything else. Loved the dog collar bit giving MJF "Revolution flashbacks".  Ending was a combination of somewhat shocking, disappointment for Hangman, but still somewhat earned for MJF. Hangman's final fall and then the blood splatter hitting the camera was a spectacular visual. Going in I felt MJF wouldn't lose this early in to his reign but also that Hangman wouldn't/shouldn't lose with that stip in his gimmick match. Wild feeling of not knowing what comes next. As long as the show was, I felt it flew by and never really stopped the momentum. This felt like an AEW is on fire type of show, love it.

Media scrum set up Gabe Kidd vs. Darby in an unsanctioned Coffin Match for Dynamite in addition to Toni/Marina II in no holds barred. 

Edited March 16 by DreamBroken

[Go2Sleep]

Really good show, despite being obscenely long.

FTR/Bucks was a lot better than I was expecting. It felt like a total Bucks style match the whole way plus some early blood. 

Mox/Takeshita was great and there aren't too many better than Mox when it comes to making a face look better in a loss. Looking back at the Wheeler joins the DR match, The OC streak-ender, and this, it just seems like something Mox really excels at when there isn't any interference BS.

I liked the idea of Megan and Lena pretty much squashing Willow and Harley to kind of break things up, even if the execution could've been better. Lena is a downgrade from Penelope in the ring, but her team with Megan has a lot more aura, plus the name Divine Dominion is a hell of a lot better than Megabad. Megan getting a belt is long overdue.

Swerve/Brody another good slugfest where it took a lot to keep Brody down, but didn't seem like overkill. Extremely surprised to see Kenny back since I thought he had prior commitments and that's why they didn't run Swerve/Kenny here.

Toni/Marina was easily Marina's best non gimmick match. Toni leaned into those kicks and Marina sold the hip attacks in kind. Ronda being back is whatever, but it will get AEW some buzz.

The trios title booking was weird, but in a good way. A lazier company would've just had Hangman relinquish his belt and Mistico would pick it up with no heat. Instead, they got a nice little mini-arc for Kevin Knight and Jet Speed comes out looking a lot better overcoming some adversity and ending up in a team where they aren't overshadowed by a partner who is hardly seen with them.

Thekla/Stat was good despite the lame finish. I think it might have worked a little better if the first and third falls were reversed with Skye and Julia being ejected early. Friend I was watching with who doesn't watch AEW every week was impressed by Thekla's character.

Andrade/Bandido took a bit to get going, but they had a hell of a finishing run. Bandido should be using that prone/deadlift version of the 21 plex full time. I was stunned how much better that looked.

Dogs/Conglomeration was a lot of fun. The Dogs feel like they're filling the void of the original Bang Bang Gang. The current BBG is just sad with Juice looking like Mean Mark Callous and having two guys named Austin.

Oddly, the main event was the match I dug the least out of the big ones. Didn't feel like there was anything novel as far as the violence goes and the structure felt like more of a spotfest than a war of attrition. The Deadeye off the apron through a table and the tombstone off the apron through a table in quick succession stood out in a bad way. The finishing bump with Hanger bonking the camera was good, though. I'm not worried about the long term booking since there are a bunch of ways to weasel out of it. The best would be in a year or two to have a generous naive babyface (like Ospreay) say Hangman deserves a title shot and challenges Hangman, rather than the other way around. Then Hangman turns heel resorting to desperate dirty tactics knowing it's his last shot.

 

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

2 hours ago, Go2Sleep said:

I'm not worried about the long term booking since there are a bunch of ways to weasel out of it. The best would be in a year or two to have a generous naive babyface (like Ospreay) say Hangman deserves a title shot and challenges Hangman, rather than the other way around. Then Hangman turns heel resorting to desperate dirty tactics knowing it's his last shot.

 

Holy shit that's brilliant and I can't believe I didn't think of it.  I believe Hangman said he'd "never challenge" not "never accept an invitation"

I honestly didn't know which way it was gonna go.  I convinced myself we were getting a happy ending after FTR won the opener.  Especially with everything going on in the world right now.  Then again, the show was full of crowd service and big moments and returns, nobody should leave that show too disappointed.  And I'm not surprised that TK is revisiting the Cody booking.  It was obvious to me he always had an out for that and it was a longterm story, just now we'll see it play out with a different protagonist

Just finished most of the show.  Longer thoughts in a bit, need a smoke to get my brain limber after all that madness.  Pretty great show, they packed a lot into one night

[HumanChessgame]

I've been kinda ambivalent about AEW lately, and this show overdelivered for me.

"Fuck them kids"

-FTR

Not looking forward to FTR trying to get something out of E&C but I guess that was inevitable.

Toni/Marina was what it needed to be. Rousey showing up at the end surprised me as I didn't think they'd want to work with her given her public perception. I wonder if this was just a one-off appearance or favor to Marina.

As much as I'm not a fan of Moxley, he and Takeshita have had some really good outings and this was no exception. My only issue is that Take should have won.

I liked the story they told of Willow being able to win her singles match but not make it through unscathed only for her injuries to result in the eventual loss in the tag match.

Swerve/Brody was solid.

The trios match was a fun spectacle. 

I like both Thekla and Stat a lot and enjoyed this match, but was starting to doze off during the end of it.

When Bandido/Andrade started to kick in I woke up a bit and am glad because it was probably my favorite match of the night. These guys just clicked amazingly well.

Fell asleep during the six man match but don't think I missed anything. This could have been saved for Dynamite, but I get they needed a cooler match.

This morning I watched the main event and while AEW "death matches" are typically lame, this one worked a lot better than I was expecting. The end is pretty much the outcome I expected, though I figured someone else (possibly Swerve) would end up costing Page the match.

[hammerva]

Seems that the only reason they brought in Rousey was to give TKO another middle finger.   If they were serious about using her, they wouldn't have just done that one off about a year ago and then absolutely nothing.   The short term buzz might be fine but the fan base doesn't seem to happy with this

[SovietShooter]

I was really down on the Hangman stip when it was first announced, and I still think it may be a bad idea from a business metrics perspective.  However, I think the point of this, from a booking standpoint, is they are going to do the angle that Cody wouldn't do, where Hangman turns heel by going back on his word. 

[hammerva]

I would like that although I don't know if you should have Swerve AND Hangman turn heel so close to each other.   Maybe in a year or so but not now.  Especially since the face side of things in AEW is really weak with Omega being so inconsistent in when he shows up

My only negative on the Texas Death match was trying to make it feel like a comedy match in the beginning.   It eventually got to the level of hate it deserved but in the beginning it was a little goofy.  Well also the syringes.   Need to get rid of that dumb shit.   Kind of surprised nobody has told AEW about gusset plates because that is the new sick shit that is over done in death matches but extremely effective

 

 

Edited March 16 by hammerva

[porksweats]

If Hangman's gone for a while after this, it'll make him not being able to challenge again much easier to stomach

It'd be a different story if he's here every week going forward still (and not going the Midnight Rider route).

[porksweats]

12 minutes ago, hammerva said:

I would like that although I don't know if you should have Swerve AND Hangman turn heel so close to each other.   Maybe in a year or so but not now.  Especially since the face side of things in AEW is really weak with Omega being so inconsistent in when he shows up

My only negative on the Texas Death match was trying to make it feel like a comedy match in the beginning.   It eventually got to the level of hate it deserved but in the beginning it was a little goofy.  Well also the syringes.   Need to get rid of that dumb shit.   Kind of surprised nobody has told AEW about gusset plates because that is the new sick shit that is over done in death matches but extremely effective

 

 

I was hoping for some terracotta tiles or pots, that's the most recent Deathmatch Innovation that I've seen lately.

[Dolfan in NYC]

1 hour ago, SovietShooter said:

I was really down on the Hangman stip when it was first announced, and I still think it may be a bad idea from a business metrics perspective.  However, I think the point of this, from a booking standpoint, is they are going to do the angle that Cody wouldn't do, where Hangman turns heel by going back on his word. 

That sounds like exactly what they're doing

 

[SovietShooter]

1 hour ago, hammerva said:

I would like that although I don't know if you should have Swerve AND Hangman turn heel so close to each other.   Maybe in a year or so but not now.  Especially since the face side of things in AEW is really weak with Omega being so inconsistent in when he shows up

I'd say let this play out. Hangman isn't coming out on Wednesday as a full heel and challenging of the title ASAP.  I think Swerve is going to win the title, and that will be too much for Hangman to handle, since he cannot win it from him. 

[Craig H]

I still wonder what happens when he turns face again. Do they just forget about the stip entirely at that point?

Aside from that...Sometimes it takes listening to someone completely irrational and hyperbolic to come to your senses. I like Bryan. I like Bryan way more than Dave. But sometimes, more than sometimes, Bryan is too fucking dramatic. I'm listening to him talk about the main event and from how he described it, you'd think it was the most barbaric match of all time and after he gets to the end of the match and he starts talking about how Tony always takes things too far into sicko violence right as he's on the cusp of turning everything around, which just alienates his audience. This wasn't the best Texas Death Match, BUT IT ALSO WASN'T THE MOST VIOLENT. Swerve vs Hangman and Moxley vs Hangman (the second one) were way more violent. In each of those you had in the first 5 minutes Hangman drinking Swerve's blood and spitting in the air like he's HHH and in the first two minutes taking a fork and stabbing Moxley in the head so hard that Moxley is literally spraying blood.

Each of those had a far better narrative through the match whereas the one from last night felt like spot to spot to spot to spot to spot. The biggest criticism is that it was too fucking long and really, that's where the focus needs to be. It didn't need to be 46 fucking minutes long. Not because it was a long night, which I don't think this was anywhere close to being as long as other AEW PPVs, but because it was 46 minutes where so much of it was spent doing jack shit. MJF laid on the mat fucking dead for like 3 minutes while Hangman setup a table. That's like, uh, a lot of 10 counts depending on how slowly the ref is counting.

He then went into a diatribe about how AEW never goes back on their stips and blah blah blah. Dude has watched wrestling for about forever. There are creative ways out of this. Some mentioned in this thread, on this page no less. This wasn't Tony backing himself into a corner. I really think with Cody that he and Cody both thought it wouldn't matter if Cody could never challenge for the world title again because they'll introduce a secondary title or whatever the fuck or give Cody his own booking universe within AEW or whatever the fuck. This feels like way more of a plan. You don't have Hangman acting so confident and cocky and not have an answer at a press conference when asked what does he do if he loses if there isn't a bigger plan. So hearing someone incessantly whine because one of their favorite wrestlers lost or because the show went on too late for them even though they're on the fucking west coast made me think, yeah, I'm being a little bitch being all sad and shit that Hangman lost. Time to see what's next.

[Craig H]

6 minutes ago, SovietShooter said:

I'd say let this play out. Hangman isn't coming out on Wednesday as a full heel and challenging of the title ASAP.  I think Swerve is going to win the title, and that will be too much for Hangman to handle, since he cannot win it from him. 

My thought was Wednesday starts with a rabid Hangman just destroying the ringside area and ranting and raving about MJF and beating up security and AEW officials, which leads to him being suspended. 

[SovietShooter]

I can see doing a suspension angle or whatever, but I think it needs more of a slow build. I'd just have him be the usual Hangman, just pissed and depressed for awhile. Then maybe have him win the Owen again, and then remind him that even though he win, he doesn't get a title shot, and then he starts to go off the rails. There is no reason to rush this. 

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

Bryan was insufferable on that show.  He was bringing the worst out of Dave too.

Just stop reviewing shows already Bryan.  Christ.  He mentions how great the show was and then spends the entire time bitching about it.  Too long, main was too violent etc. etc. waaaahh waaah waaaaah.  This show was nothing out of the ordinary for AEW.  There was blood in the first match!

Bryan and Dave both don't like death match wrestling.  I get it.  IT'S TEXAS DEATH MATCH.  Hangman said in the press conference you will see the most extreme things you've ever seen in professional wrestling, so it's not like they didn't warn the audience and It's not like it's the first one AEW has done.  They were acting like it was going to get AEW canceled by an army of upset schoolmarms

I swear my next post will contain actual thoughts on this awesome show

Edited March 16 by ExcellenceofAirPollution

[Craig H]

I honestly thought that Texas Death Match was pretty mild compared to past ones. Aside from the syringe spot, which, yeah, that's gross, but they've also done it before IN A FAR MORE VIOLENT TEXAS DEATH MATCH. I don't think I'm necessarily desensitized to violence, but if you're going to bitch about a match being too violent, then that ain't the one to complain about.

There was nothing more violent about that match than Moxley vs Takeshita which they heaped tons of praise on despite each guy beating the other one's brains in. They had a whole fucking sequence where each guy kept dropping the other on their head. But that's ok. A fucking prop window that looked like it belonged in my beginning theater class in high school? Oh, that's way too far. 

[Technico Support]

1 hour ago, SovietShooter said:

I'd say let this play out. Hangman isn't coming out on Wednesday as a full heel and challenging of the title ASAP.  I think Swerve is going to win the title, and that will be too much for Hangman to handle, since he cannot win it from him. 

To build on that idea: this new heel Swerve is more evil, violent, and dangerous than ever.  He wins the belt and just kills all the faces.  Nobody can handle Uber Swerve.  Hangman then has to go back on his word because we need him to.

Edited March 16 by Technico Support

[NoFistsJustFlips]

What. A. Show. My only legitimate complaint is if the show is going to be that long can we please run it on a Saturday? Almost 1am is pretty late for a ppv to end when I gotta be up for work early the next day.

-FTR and The Bucks fucking killed it. That whole opening of the PPV through the E&C return was as good as can be.

-Im a low voter on Mox just based on my own tastes, but it's undeniable how good that match was. I was expecting a Takeshita win, almost reversing roles / titles with Okada.

-Swerve & Brody felt weighty and violent in the best possible way.

-Trios Title match was great.

-Andrade & Bandito was fucking great too. Motivated Andrade may be the best in the world. The 21-plex off of the grounded Andrade blew my mind.

-Main was violent and of all the big matches may have been the most underwhelming. But thats not a knock it was still really well done. Im not a fan if the never challenge again stip, but Im sure they have a plan.

Had Hanger won and we maybe trimmed the War Dogs six man tag this would be in contention for best AEW ppv ever. But very heel heavy and long.

Regardless I got wayyyyyyy more than my monies worth.

Edited March 16 by NoFistsJustFlips

[Cobra Commander]

3 hours ago, porksweats said:

If Hangman's gone for a while after this, it'll make him not being able to challenge again much easier to stomach

It would make sense for at least one of the people in a 45 minute death match to take it easy for at least a week after that match

Meanwhile, just imagining if AEW had a Texan heel around to scoff at the idea of a dude from Virginia trying to make the Texas Death Match his thing

[JLSigman]

Zero Hour
not sure about the tag match, I don't know enough of those guys
--Fun comedy tag match, perfect way to open the show

Willow retains, but she's going to be hurt/exhausted for later
--Lena Cross has some great new solo entrance music. Willow barely manages to win.

Ricochet's gotta drop the title here
--I missed basically all of the intros, so half these dudes I barely or didn't recognize, especially the weird ones. We need more of those weird guys on TV! Pretty obvious conclusion once we got the Jungle Jack feels promo, but that's OK. Now we just need to get Jack some new opponents; maybe those weird dudes? Or Rush? 

 

Revolution
Young Bucks over FTR 
--First major wrong prediction here. I really thought, especially with all the long ass pre-match reels, that the Bucks were going to win. Really feels like AEW is spinning their wheels in this division. Adam Copeland looks terrible, haggard and grizzled, and Christian just looks old. 

Toni Storm over Marina Shafir
--Not gonna lie, this wasn't doing much for me even before they had Rounsey out. They're going to have a no holds barred match Wednesday which should've been the PPV match.

Takeshita beats Moxley
--Wrong again, and I'm kinda meh about this. Apparently Takeshita is going back to Japan in for a while soon? But while this was pretty good for them, it wasn't great. Then Ospreay comes back and the crowd absolutely goes wild, and I'm cringing at him flinging himself off the top ropes so soon after his neck problems.

Megabad beat Babes of Wrath
--Divine Dominion should use Lena Cross's new music, this weird wailing thing is painfully bad. They told the story from the pre-show, and we have new tag champs. Be interesting to see how badly Harley takes it. Brawling Birds vs. these two should be fun.

Swerve over Brody
--Another one that should've had some stips on it, especially considering what got pulled out in the main event. Great hard hitting stuff, Swerve deadlifted Brody at least twice which is impressive as hell considering how big Brody is. Those Housecall kicks were so precise. Afterwards Prince Nana struggles to pick up a cement block, and Kenny Omega comes running straight from the airport to make the save. 

Thekla pin, Kris pin, then Thekla pin
--Pre-match promo had Thekla speaking her native German, and we need that way more often. This was not as good as their previous stuff; just felt real mushy in the middle, like they weren't communicating. I think it would've worked better if Kris had gotten DQ's for the third pin after the ref came back.

Don Callis family beats Mistico Jet Speed
--Wrong #3, which in hindsight was a bad call on my part. Missed most of this due to technical difficulties and personal stuff. I will go back and look for a replay later, these guys all really worked together well. Nice emotional post match stuff with Mistico being All Elite. 

Bandido beats Andrade
--*sigh* I know, I know. The spot where Bandido got tangled trying to take his pants off as smoothly as Andrade about killed me. If it was unintentional, I'm sorry, but I was crying laughing. Great stuff from them as expected, Bandido is an incredibly strong short king and Andrade is El Mejor Tranquilo. Lots of moves where I went, "The FUCK was that?" in a good way.

really not sure who's winning the tornado trio match
--Fatigue was setting in here. As much as I like looking at Clark Connors and Dave Finlay, I am beyond done with Orange Cassidy and Darby Allin. Can we please move on?

Hangman wins, but it's a hella pyrrhic victory
--This went way too long. The exploding whatever spot was way too contrived. My phobia of needles just about made me quit watching. I don't mind MJF winning too much, because now maybe we can do something more interesting with Page as he circles the champ and makes his life hell.

[NikoBaltimore]

Fun show but it's too bad MyAEW only works on one device.  I went to stream it last night and with me having people over I didn't know about this limitation until the message came up.  Might impact my long-term use of the site/app but thankfully Triller was still an option.

I'm having a hard time processing how a company like AEW would have Ronda with them.  For what the company represents her presence is pretty jarring.  On top of that TK had glowing things to say about her in the scrum which was disheartening.  I get how she can be seen as a nice and charming person but surely one has to know brining her in is a bad idea.

This is the first time where I feel compelled enough to contact them somehow and voice my displeasure.  This should not stand and my hope is if enough people do the same it might make a difference.

Edited March 18 by NikoBaltimore
Rephrased my point a bit even if the person calling it out is a fool.

[Technico Support]

2 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

Meanwhile, just imagining if AEW had a Texan heel around to scoff at the idea of a dude from Virginia trying to make the Texas Death Match his thing

Nowadays, aren't most Texans apt to be more "all hat, no cattle" than guys from anywhere else?  All I can think of (because I'm watching a Bin Laden documentary) is Bush Jr's cowboy bullshit ("we'll smoke em out!"..."we have a saying in Texas...").  That dude had a lot of John Wayne bluster for a nepo baby from New England.