Damn. For a B-level show, the AEW Redemption PPV delivered about as a good as possible. The action throughout the night was crisp and exciting, which was important to see due to the fact that many match outcomes simply didn’t have much uncertainty around them.
As for the ones that did, the eventual outcomes were a nice surprise, but logical, which made for the feeling of watching something special, which AEW PPV’s are.
Here are my Brass Ring Ratings for the event and here’s how they work … I call it like I see it and grade accordingly. Period.
Straight action and lots of it. In that regard, this was one of the better ladder matches in recent AEW history. It was packed with unique spots, but also worked really hard to tell the story of eventual winner, Mike Bailey. Strong psychology on that front. The match captured the audience because they were invested in Bailey winning.
Excellent match. Excellent story. The outcome of this very much tied into the angle at the end of the show that concerned Ospreay, The Death Riders, and Kenny Omega. This match was the table setter for that and it delivered. From a straight match perspective, this was a classic Young Bucks style tag match. Loads of spots and movement. It also featured strong selling by The Bucks — Nick Jackson in particular. He wasn’t available for the early part of the match and the announce team noted it. Ospreay and Moxley took advantage and got heat on Matt Jackson during this time. The story here was Moxley taking things too far, Ospreay standing up to him, and it costing them the match. This was well told with each storyline stroke making sense. Credit Moxley. He was laying in his unnecessary shots on The Bucks that Ospreay didn’t like and very much came across as a damn lunatic.
Wow. If I smoked, I’d have had a cigarette after this one. Need I say it again? Bandido doesn’t have bad matches in 2026. Hell, neither does Kyle Fletcher. Hence, why this was the match of the night. There were plenty of near-falls and finisher kickouts during this, but they felt earned because of the selling and the work early in the match. It was a war of attrition and the action helped articulate that narrative. Commentary was excellent. Their exasperation around the action and the will to survive regarding both men helped drive home the story of the match.
A fine hardcore match that featured the chains, but a bit of a comedown match from the opening three contests that were absolute sizzlers. The Death Riders got involved in this match and I’m still not exactly sure why. They played a pivotal role in the finish that saw Bang Bang Gang take the loss, so look for a rivalry to build between those two teams. Don’t forget about The Dogs, though. They won this one, but I don’t get the sense their position in the company is changing all that much — especially with the losing team heading for a rivalry match with another top faction in the company.
A good match, but one that took a bit to get rolling because the audience was tired. The announce team did a very good job explaining how Shida went from crowd favorite to hated heel. This helped move the audience fully onto the side of Maya World. World played the underdog in this one and she’s great in that role. There wasn’t a big future for the TBS Championship while it was on the waist of Shida. We’ll see what World can do with it, but she very much can define herself in the company with this run.
This one lacked momentum and the main reason for that was the lack of a story going in. Plus, there wasn’t a real scenario in which The Death Riders would win the titles here, which made it difficult for any drama to be built. Other than that, it was a standard tag match that could have been on television. Heat, hot tag, boom. Not bad, but not memorable either. As for the announcement of The Young Bucks vs. Copeland and Cage at All In for the tag titles? Hell yeah. That’s a great match and another dream match for that show.
Yikes. This thing was bloody as hell. Your blood and guts match of the night and if you like that kind of thing, you’ll enjoy this one. Not for me. For one thing, the feud didn’t really get to level where this type of insane violence felt earned. Second, I despise when there is comedy added to these crazy hardcore matches. The stuff with the hockey pucks and Montreal Canadiens logo went too far in that direction. Jericho won the match, which wraps this feud up.
Well, Andrade El Idolo had to get the victory here and he did. AEW got the important part right. The match itself was fine, but the crowd was tired. Like, real tired. Overall, the show needed to be cut by about an hour or more and this would have been the perfect match to chop off.
A strong match with a cool swerve as the finish. As soon as Skye Blue ran out and got involved in the match, my brain was telling me, “it’s over.” For Nightingale and Thekla to juke the other way was a nice touch and surprised the audience. Now, a couple things. First, the finish execution in this was nearly identical to how Maya World won the TBS Championship. Why not change this up? The out of nowhere rollup win gets an underdog over, so it made sense for World. Nightingale isn’t an underdog at this point and if the title was moving her way, a more definitive win would have been helpful for her as a means to establish the title run right out of the gate. It’s a disappointing loss for Thekla. She’s held the AEW women’s division on her shoulders for most of 2026 and is the fresher match for Mercedes Mone at All In. Thekla had near-perfect facial expressions throughout the match. Don’t be surprised if the Nightingale and Mone match turns into a triple threat for All In because of Thekla’s rematch clause.
The match was fine, but Knight came across as a tier below Omega in terms of star power. Good action, but almost zero drama because of Omega’s inevitable showdown with Will Ospreay at All In. As for the post-match angle, excellent stuff. Look, it nearly went off the rails when the audience was chanting for Ospreay to crush Kenny Omega with the chair. By the end, Ospreay’s emotion and the introduction of the plastic bag pulled the audience to his side. Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley will be a television stop on the road to All In. That can work very nicely, but AEW has to remember that the match they are building is Ospreay vs. Omega. That appeared to be front and center by the end of the show with Omega taking Ospreay out after he helped him. Smart booking and a thread to pull on in the coming weeks.
What letter grade do you give AEW Redemption? Let us know in the comments!
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