Can pro wrestling be too violent? That’s the main question coming out of the 2024 edition of AEW All Out, which took place Saturday night inside the Now Arena near Chicago. The answer is pretty simple. Yes, sometimes it can.
That’s not a hedge. It’s just the truth and AEW straddled the line all throughout their show. During the Adam Page vs. Swerve Strickland main event, the violence on hand was promoted and hyped, so those guys going the distance to find new ways to torture each other in the ring made perfect sense. The violence was necessary to deliver a match that worked within the build and violent history between Page and Swerve. On the flip side, the plastic bag suffocation angle with Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley lacked the relevant context needed to justify something so deranged.
The discord and discussion around both instances took away from other tremendous matches on the show including Will Ospreay vs. Pac, Willow Nightingale vs. Kris Statlander, and MJF vs. Daniel Garcia. Was it all worth it for AEW? Time will tell.
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.
MJF vs. Daniel Garcia
A strong opener. It was slow to start, but the submission exchange in the back half of the match gave the audience a rooting interest in Garcia. Both Garcia and MJF sold those spots well and that set the tone for the rest of the match. The MJF win was obvious going in, but Garcia still got a lot out of the feud. He didn’t dance in this and clearly used this opportunity to change the direction of his entire act. To that end, Garcia won too.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO 3/4
The Young Bucks vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta - AEW World Tag Team Championship
Fine? I guess? Your standard Young Bucks match, but one without any drama due to nobody truly buying that Castagnoli and Wheeler could win. Not much else to say and that’s not something that usually comes along with Young Bucks stuff.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO
Will Ospreay vs. Pac - AEW International Championship
A classic. Another state of the art match from Will Ospreay. Don’t get me wrong, Pac played his part well too, but it was the Ospreay intensity, creativity, and athleticism that set it apart from anything on the planet. The match was constructed around poison-rana spots and culminated with Ospreay reversing one off the top rope. The only thing the match lacked was drama around who would win and that’s the only reason this isn’t getting five rings.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO 3/4
Willow Nightingale vs. Kris Statlander - Chicago Street Fight
These women had a tough act to follow, but they did it successfully with a match that was entirely different from Ospreay vs. Pac. The violence made sense in this because the feud has gone on for months. It also wasn’t over the top. Thumbs way up and now that Willow is done here, she seemingly is open to moving up the card to challenge one of the heel women’s champions.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO
Kazuchika Okada vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mark Briscoe - AEW Continental Championship
All action, but good action. There were two mini matches happening within this — Cassidy vs. Briscoe and Takeshita vs. Okada. The heels breaking up Cassidy and Briscoe each time it was about to get going was an interesting way to keep them booed throughout. Nothing that people will remember in a few months, but a good match on the show. Thumbs up.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO
Mercedes Mone vs. Hikaru Shida - TBS Championship
The worst match of the night. Something between Mone and Shida seemed off throughout the bout. Spots were disconnected and the audience just wasn’t invested in what was happening. Mone having a bit of a stinker with Shida is concerning given that she’s getting paid what she is to have good matches. She doesn’t have a great character and isn’t the best talker either. Her matches have to deliver and this didn’t.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO
Bryan Danielson vs. Jack Perry - AEW World Championship
The exact match you’d expect from these two. Danielson gave Perry a lot, but in the end fired up and won handily. The match had good action, but like other matches on the show, this didn’t have drama due to the lack of credibility that Perry has as a world title challenger.
Obviously, the angle with Moxley is going to be the biggest takeaway from this match. Moxley suffocating Danielson with a plastic bag was too much. Period. Without context, the turn and spot wasn’t impactful. The audience jokingly chanted “this is murder,” which proves just how much people weren’t buying what they were seeing.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 3/4
Swerve Strickland vs. Adam Page - Light’s Out and Unsanctioned Cage Match
Insane violence. If the needles at the end weren’t enough, both men took bumps on a freaking cinder block. All of that, but with a little barbed wire, some tables, the cage, and lots of blood tossed in as well. I really liked it. It was gross and it was hard to watch at times, but that was the point. Because of what has happened between both men, it had to feel like they were going to kill each other in there. Yes, that was uncomfortable to watch, but of course it was. The context around this match called for added violence and AEW delivered. Page winning tells me that he’s in for a big end of the year in the new heel role. Is it possible he’s the guy to retire Bryan Danielson?
This match and the violent context around it plays better on this show if there isn’t so much other stuff like it on the same show. Danielson getting suffocated minutes before this did take away from what we saw. Tony Khan needs to be careful, smarter, and more calculated with where he uses this type of material.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO
What did you think of AEW All Out 2024? Let us know in the comments!
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I know opinions are subjective but some I don’t agree with at all, such as the Mox turn on Danielson. They chanted this is murder because they saw a man getting suffocated in front of them. This is a good read though.