AEW ALL OUT 2021

AEW ALL OUT 2021

Eddie Kingston vs. Miro
This was a mean fight between one brute monster of a man & one true street dog. I liked it very much. Great selling, especially in some little moments by both guys, badass offense + staying more-than-true to their compelling characters. It all makes up for a hot-hot opener! ***1/2

Jon Moxley vs. Satoshi Kojima
Kojima usually always delivers nice effort in big singles match spotlights like this. I thought the match was a pretty fun little exhibition. Nothing very memorable, but both guys did their thing & put on a pretty well spirited bout. **1/2 

Britt Baker vs. Kris Statlander
Thought that this was pretty rough & awkward in many moments, and overall it kinda failed to capture my full attention at any point. I did dig the Curb Stomp on the outside though, and the last few minutes were solid, I guess. *3/4

The Young Bucks vs. The Lucha Brothers
This was the usual Young Bucks vs. Lucha Bros spot-heavy craziness, but now with the promised extra violence of the Steel Cage stip added. I thought it was good. Their matches don't hit the same after you've seen them what-feels-like a million times, but there's still those sequences & moments that get me good. And I sure love The Bucks as heels w/ their ridiculous looks & thumbtack-Jordans, so yeah this was a good time. ***1/4

Casino Battle Royale
Ruby Soho's debut with the banger Rancid theme was fun. Other than that, this was a very generic battle royale; a bunch of nothing, but easy-to-watch & a solid way to kill some time.

Chris Jericho vs. MJF
This was rock-solid. Good performance from underneath by Jericho & a pretty strong showing by MJF as well. The restart deal was done really well, and actually brought the match up a notch, as everything afterwards was red hot. ***

CM Punk vs. Darby Allin
The match I was most looking forward to on this card for obvious reasons. Right from the get go, there's a real big match feel-- first of all I must say that major kudos to AEW for letting the entrances BREATHE here, as usually they don't let them do that. The image of Darby sitting in the ring awaiting CM Punk's entrance to begin was very, very cool. The match itself was good, I thought. At points it was boring & dragged, but for the absolute majority of it? Roooock-solid. Played well off of CM Punk's obvious ring rust & look, with Darby Allin you just aren't gonna get a match that isn't at least SOMEWHAT entertaining. He's the man. The Bret Hart spots were fun & fit the match extremely well given the whole dynamic of the thing + contrast in styles between the 2 men. It gets an obvious lil' boost by nature with it being Punker's return match, but as implied, I thought it was pretty darn good anyway. ***

Kenny Omega vs. Christian Cage
I really liked their first match against one another on Rampage. This one felt like a waaaay less spirited version of that. Felt about twice as long, too. Some cool singular moments here n' there, but ultimately, very dry & left me with nothing. Not bad, but disappointing. **1/4