Sting said that he wanted to have a last match that would be remembered forever and he got pretty darn close. Sure, it took Darby Allin having a near death experience and his own 65-year-old body crashing through a glass window to get it done, but in the end Steve Borden got what he wanted.
Really, that was the theme of the 2024 installment of AEW Revolution on PPV Sunday night — give Sting a proper send off that he’s proud of heading into retirement. Well, mission accomplished. Tony Khan and company did that, so everything else that happened on the show was icing on the cake.
Here are my Brass Ring Ratings for the event and here’s how they work … I call it like I see it. Period.
Christian Cage vs. Daniel Garcia - AEW TNT Championship
A very good opener. Cage being the heel that he is set the table perfectly for Garcia throughout the match. The audience was firmly against Cage, so all of the Garcia near-falls and kick-outs played well and popped the crowd. Greensboro was invested in Garcia finally getting that elusive first singles title win in AEW. The spot of the match was a perfectly executed piledriver by Garcia on Cage. It was a two and 3/4 count right after, which had the audience planted at the edge of their seat. I’m surprised we didn’t see involvement from Adam Copeland, but clearly there is still unfinished business there that they’ll likely get to sooner or later. Daniel Garcia lost the match, but has a journey now and one that the audience wants to see play out. Here’s hoping Tony Khan doesn’t lose sight of that. He has something in Garcia and it’s organic.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO
Eddie Kingston vs. Bryan Danielson - AEW Continental Crown Championship
The match of the night. It was tremendously exciting and the perfect match to put a bow on the Kingston vs. Danielson rivalry. Both guys beat the tar out of the other and the result was drama that oozed out of the ring. There was an intensity here that played like a real fight, too. Kingston getting the win and then Danielson shaking his hand was poetic and the only way to book the finish. Danielson has been swimming upstream as a heel and this show of respect to Kingston is an easy pivot back to being a babyface full-time.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO 1/4
AEW All-Star Scramble Match
Exactly what you thought it would be, but sloppier. A variety of different talents in this match botched setups and spots throughout. It lacked crispness and really any story at all due to the nature of things moving from spot to spot to spot without any rhyme or reason. Not my cup of tea. Wardlow desperately needed this win and got it. He now has a date to lose to Samoa Joe sometime very soon.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - O 1/4
Orange Cassidy vs. Roderick Strong - AEW International Championship
Good match. Commentary did a nice job framing Cassidy as a fighting champion, while also calling out that he was in rough shape medically because of all the successful title defenses. It worked as the bulk of the match itself was rooted in Cassidy taking a beating and selling. Credit to those involved for not loading this match with shenanigan interference, but I was surprised to see Strong go over clean nonetheless. The Undisputed Kingdom is dead in the water right now as a faction. Wardlow winning earlier and Strong winning a title here clearly was done to try and wake them back up. Time will tell if it actually can.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO
FTR vs. Blackpool Combat Club
Both teams picked up right where their 30-minute draw from a couple weeks ago left off. A very fun match. There was blood, brutality, and pure violence that only these two teams could provide. Smartly, the violence differed from what we’d end up seeing in the main event with Darby Allin and Sting. BCC getting the win mattered I guess? Kinda? Ehh, the audience having a rooting interest was a problem for this match out of the gate, which is why the W simply didn’t matter. This was about the fight only. With Darby and Sting vacating the tag titles, look for both of these teams to be clamoring for a title shot soon.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO 1/2
Toni Storm vs. Deonna Purrazzo - AEW Women’s World Championship
A giant disappointment. Storm and Purrazzo cooked up a nice little feud for themselves and this didn’t pay any of it off. They had a nice grappling chain to start the match, but then the action flattened out before things ended out of the blue. They deserved more time in theory, but the women didn’t do much with the time they were given either. A miss, but one that won’t linger too long with Big Business and Mercedes Mone on the horizon.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - O 3/4
Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita
A spectacular display of 2024 pro wrestling in AEW. The action was insanely paced and brutal with both Ospreay and Takeshita taking dangerous bumps as the audience roared in approval. It was a perfect showcase for Ospreay, as he got to show-off his style against an opponent perfectly suited to bring out the best in him. Now, neither guy considered it important to sell much of anything, but it didn’t matter. The crowd wanted to be fed spoonfuls of sugar one after the next and both Ospreay and Takeshita were happy to oblige. The lack of an angle between Ospreay and Don Callis was surprising. Ospreay needs to shed himself of that group immediately. The guy embodies what AEW is and people will tune-in to watch him do his thing. Protecting Ospreay, featuring him as a star, and leaning the company on his shoulders as it’s top star needs to be a top priority for Tony Khan this year now that Ospreay is in his company full-time.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO 1/4
Samoa Joe vs. Swerve Strickland vs. Hangman Page - AEW World Championship
This had an impossible task to follow Ospreay vs. Takeshita. I’m glad they didn’t try. It wasn’t the best wrestled match on the card by any means, but it was the most effective. Page and Strickland both definitively completed their turns in this match and did so in ways that the audience bought into. The crowd hummed as Swerve denied using a foreign object to try and win. On the flip side, they booed mercilessly as Page beat up referees to make sure Swerve wouldn’t win the world title. All of it was sold well on commentary, too. Samoa Joe was the benefactor of the rest of that stuff happening around him. He looked vicious when he needed to and simply won the match when Swerve and Page couldn’t get out of their own way. Strickland is on the traditional babyface journey to the world title now. It’s a simple story, but the right one to tell at this point in time.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO 1/4
Sting & Darby Allin vs. The Young Bucks - AEW World Tag Team Championship
Total madness and utterly violent. Look, it was Sting’s night without question, but Darby Allin leaping off that ladder and crashing through glass to the floor should live forever in AEW lore. Like Mick Foley being tossed off the top of Hell in a Cell in 1998. The Allin bump was scary. In the obvious ways, but also in how the camera caught the blood seeping through Darby’s skin as he laid in a pool of glass. Tony Khan owes it to Darby’s body to make sure the spot isn’t forgotten.
Now, back to Sting. He walked up to the line of being too dangerous, but didn’t cross it. The guy is nearly 65, so the sheer reality of him simply being in this match at all is too dangerous when you think about it. Sting hung. He hit his spots, was where he needed to be, and fired up when the moment called for it. As a last outing, the guy looked great and will look back on this fondly once his body heals up.
Props to The Young Bucks. They knew their role in the match and played it well. They sold when they needed to and dished out some brutal offense when they needed to. They played punching bag for Sting and that was the job. Well done across the board.