21 Woman Casino Battle RoyaleGrade: D+
The biggest problem AEW faces with these battle royals is they feel a need to let everyone get their shit in. One example would be that Leva Bates doing a "Kofi Kingston spot", despite being a mediocre athlete, comes off as corny. When you're a great athlete, "Kofi spots" come off as cool feats of athleticism, even if contrived. When you're a bad athlete, it seems more like a low budget action movie you might see college students do. This is a big budget promotion acting like a bad PWG show.
The winner, Nyla Rose, is not a strong choice in my opinion. She's a cookie cutter traditional female wrestling archtype. I don't think a serious female wrestling promotion should lean so heavily into stereotypes.
Like with the Male Casino Battle Royale from Las Vegas, there are a lot of girls they used in this match that, should they never show up again, won't be missed.
This match was loaded with botches that never seemed to end. Some of the weaker performers really dragged down the quality of the match.
- My Thoughts On All Of The Participants:
GIRLS TO KEEP (OR ACQUIRE):
Priscilla Kelly She showed potential I didn't know she had in this match. She has a unique look. Keep her around.
Nyla Rose She's too heavy to be asked to be doing all that lifting for that long. She was very gassed by the end. Unfortunately, she's not strong for her size, and Mercedes Martinez did a much better job doing power spots. Nyla is athletic and has potential. A title reign at this stage would be a Nia Jax level mistake.
Penelope Ford She has a magnetic presence and she's a decent athlete. She has similar potential, or more, than Mandy Rose or Liv Morgan, both of whom I am higher on than most.
Sadie Gibbs Obviously a better athlete and stronger than she has been able to translate into the ring. With practice it should come.
Big Swole She almost has an Adam Page in 2017 type quality where it's clearly not put together for her as a performer but she has a confidence like it is. I think it'll come for her. I think in a couple of years she'll be a strong performer if she gets the right opportunities.
Britt Baker No one on the AEW roster is as polished an all-around performer for the North American audience as Britt Baker. I get that they need somewhere to go, but if we're crowning a first champion on merit I don't get why it's not Baker.
Ivelisse In the back end of her athletic prime, Ivelisse Velez is a "win now" type performer. She might not have any room to develop in any significant way, but she's a solid middle of the lineup hitter.
Bea Priestley If Britt Baker has qualities that make her innately likeable, Bea Priestley has the opposite. A natural polar force that will bring real heat in the wrestling ring, Priestley's passable wrestling makes her a solid building block for the future of AEW's women's division.
Brandi Rhodes She's drop-dead gorgeous and a solid athlete with a background in competitive figure skating. I don't understand why WWE wouldn't let her try wrestling.
Allie Her last decade of development has put her into a solid class of performers, and I think she has untapped potential as a babyface. She has such a unique look, and she's taller than half the male wrestlers on the roster.
Nicole Savoy Her background in martial arts and her size should make her a slamdunk for the roster.
Mercedes Martinez Very few American female wrestlers pull of a convincing intimidating look with power offense as well as Mercedes Martinez. If AEW wanted a monster heel to start as the champion on merit, this would be the one.
GIRLS TO MOVE ON FROM:
Awesome Kong She can't move like a wrestler needs to anymore. A run in every now and then seems reasonable. Full matches have probably ran their course. A role backstage would be smart.
Faby Apache I don't think AEW is interested, but she's nothing special and on the wrong end of the age spectrum for development as a performer.
Jazz If she had equity with a large portion of fans it would make sense as a career achievement award type run, but she never really gained footing with the national audience. A role backstage would be smart.
Leva Bates This might come off as mean, but was Leva Bates ever really more over with the audience AEW covets than Jinder Mahal? The blue pants meme is long dead, and she's the epitome of a mediocre performer. Doing spot shows for the company seems safe, but I wouldn't advertise her on the roster going forward unless she was strong for morale.
ODB I didn't even understand it in TNA. The "Look at me, I'm crazy" gimmick has never worked for me, and adding the redneck angle and the boobs didn't help.
Tenille Dashwood Sour grapes? Probably. But she sat out the last six months of her ROH contract with a skin issue that cleared up when her contract ran out, and now after signing with Impact she's already thinking twice about moving to AEW. She's an average wrestler with a good look, but has no presence and no talking skill. I don't think she's worth the issues. She didn't elevate anyone in the ROH's women's division, and couldn't carry subpar performers either.
TOO SOON TO TELL:
Shalandra Royal She's called "The Rookie." I couldn't pick her out of a lineup if she shot me at pointblank range.
Shazza McKenzie She seems fine. I have no strong opinion.
Teal Piper As the daughter of Roddy Piper you'd think she would have potential, but her limited role today didn't clear up the picture for me.
Angelico and Jack Evans vs Private PartyGrade: C-
Private Party is as green as goose shit and their attire looks like it's what they were wearing making $5 a night on the indies. AEW needs to get them some gear that looks professionally made ASAP. AEW needs to tell them to slow down until they can comfortably get to all the spots they're trying to do.
Angelico and Jack Evans are really strong performers with the right opponents but this highlighted their weaknesses as leaders in tag team matches. They didn't take control, they just tried to let them get their shit in as best they could.
This resulted in a lot of botches.
And despite the botches, this came off as highly choreographed. Right now Private Party is the kind of team that would benefit from multi-team matches so they can get their shit in and get out of the way. I worry that AEW is trying to do too much too soon with them because of the optics.
I don't think this helped Private Party get over. I don't think the post-match heel turn made Angelico or Jack Evans get over. At the end of the day, if your match is a net even on the perception of the person , people, or angle you're trying to get over, you're just wasting time. It didn't hurt anyone, but it didn't help either.
So Cal Uncensored vs Jurassic ExpressGrade: C
I don't remember the last time Christopher Daniels had a very good match as a babyface. Daniels and Kazarian made their bread as heels and don't have the same effect when they're trying to get cheers. Kazarian is still at the top of his game, but Daniels isn't, and Scorpio Sky might be, but his peak doesn't compare to his immense potential.
As individuals, none of the Jurassic Express have much potential, but A Boy And His Dinosaur has huge potential as a babyface tag-team act. Marko Stunt is like Cheeseburger but obnoxious - not a strong babyface act.
I'm not sure what the goal of this match was, but it was fine.
Kenny Omega vs PACGrade: B+
This was exactly what I expected from start to finish. It was a fine match but not up to Kenny Omega's standards. PAC winning keeps Omega out of the title reign (and seemingly free to continue his feud with Jon Moxley when he returns,) while establishing PAC as a major heel in the company. This was solid. There were some mistakes, like letting Justin Roberts calling Pac "The Bastard" and a few minor hiccups. No major mistakes or concerns for me.
Darby Allin vs Jimmy Havoc vs Joey JanelaGrade: B
This was a modern contrived "hardcore" wrestling match. It was fun, but it was more like a mediocre action movie than a wrestling match. All of the participants came out looking better than when they started, because moments of the match stick out. The match as a whole was mediocre and not worth significant praise.
Like any hardcore match, the "match" part is secondary to the spots. They did very memorable spots here.
Best Friends vs The Dark OrderGrade: F
The Dark Order has a job and a push because The Young Bucks are mad Jim Cornette didn't let them do more in Ring of Honor 7 years ago. Their work is average, their look is horrendous (It's been described as extremely gay S&M, and they're not gay) and the fan backlash is widespread. Still, The Bucks double down on them as an act because they think they can work their fans.
I don't think they can, but I suppose we'll see.
After the match, Orange Cassidy aligned with Best Friends. Orange Cassidy is like Yano Toru, but without the traditionalist Japanese audience to work and without the highly serious foundation of other wrestlers. AEW wants a character composition similar to a children's Saturday cartoon. Maybe they're not all full-on comic relief, but very few are serious characters. Whatever the natural lifecycle of a meme is how long I think the Orange Cassidy love will last.
A team no one likes won a match people expected them to win = No heat = No benefit. Orange Cassidy aligning with Best Friends is hardly a benefit. This wasn't much.
Hikaru Shida vs RihoGrade: B
Solid. No botches, a little flash, and a lot of substance. The winner, given the circumstances, makes sense but also isn't a strong pick. Hikaru Shida vs Britt Baker would have been a lot better in my opinion than Riho vs Nyla Rose.
Cody vs Shawn SpearsGrade: B
This was excellently booked, but I'm surprised Shawn Spears didn't win. They could have established him as a solid heel for the company, but they obviously went another direction.
The work was solid. The post match subtleties built tension. This was a very strong effort.
Lucha Brothers vs Young BucksGrade: C
Disclaimer: I like the Young Bucks.
This was a stereotypical Young Bucks match if you hate the Young Bucks. It was movez for the sake of movez. It was a shameless spot fest. It was a "PWG" structured match with nothing you've never seen before from either team.
It came off as highly choreographed and corny at times. When the grittiness of reality set in on botches to Nick and Matt Jackson you didn't feel invested in the stakes of the match, but rather the health of the performers.
And at the end of the day, what did it accomplish? It set the stage for a debuting LAX, which was the only lasting moment from the match aside from when we all were at least a little worried Matt Jackson or Nick Jackson died.
Adam Page vs Chris JerichoGrade: A+
This was perfectly crafted by Chris Jericho. Page looked like a million bucks, the fans got a strong main event, and Jericho rightfully is crowned the AEW World Heavyweight Champion. If the goal was to establish Jericho as a strong champion, they nailed it. If their goal was to make Adam Page look on the level of a Chris Jericho, they nailed that too.
Subject: Ian's Review of All Elite Wrestling's All Out 
