Wow. Just Wow. That’s all that can be said about AEW Revolution for 2023. This year’s rendition hit all the perfect notes of a four hour solo. Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. Jimmy Page playing Stairway to Heaven. Not enough good things can be said about AEW Revolution this year.
Spoiler alert. I liked it. Let’s talk about it.
Chris Jericho vs. Ricky Starks
The opening contest was, hopefully, the last bout between Chris Jericho and Ricky Starks. The Jericho Appreciation Society were banned from ringside due to their constant interference over the past year. Starks and Jericho had a quality match to get the crowd warmed up for the evening to come.
Starks came out hot, but he still was nursing a former rib injury. The Ocho (Le Champion, Demo God, etc.) obviously began targeting Ricky’s ribs. Has anyone looked into wrestling “rib tape?” Does it actually do anything outside of painting a bullseye on someone?
This match had a lot of cool counters from both combatants. Starks reversed the Codebreaker into a powerbomb, Jericho countered the spear with a codebreaker, and finally, Starks turned the Walls of Jericho into his own version. Jericho being this good over 50 is still amazing.
But he’s still in charge of the Jericho Appreciation Society, which means shenanigans. Towards the end of the match, whoever was stopping the faction from coming to the ring did a piss poor job. Sammy Guevara came down to distract Ricky Starks, except Action Andretti surprised everyone and stopped Sammy. Jericho used Floyd and attempted the Judas Effect, but Starks blocked it and hit the Roshambo for the victory.
This was a good match! Starks blocking the Judas Effect was innovative.
4/5
Final Burial: Christian Cage vs. Jack Perry
Up next was the Casket Match between Christian Cage and Jungle Boy Jack Perry. Oh, wait, sorry, it was a Final Burial Match. AEW renames a lot of their matches so it’s difficult to keep up sometimes. The Final Burial match had one way to win – throw the opponent in a casket and close the lid. This match was amazing on all fronts and began the night’s theme of intense and insane races to a satisfying conclusion.
‘Jungle Boy’ Jack Perry will forever now be known as ‘Big Match’ Jack. He brings intensity to every single PPV. His Full Gear match with Luchasaurus was one of the best of the evening. He will be a champion in 2023.
The match itself felt like a true fight between two heated rivals. It lasted two milliseconds in the ring as they used anything and everything to beat each other. Christian whipped Jack with his own belt, which was amplified by Jack’s family sitting ringside with their Perry family’s glorious hair.
The match inevitably went to the entrance area near where the casket was. They fought back and forth until Jack locked in the snare trap, but used a shovel instead of his arms. It was a crazy visual. Jack then embraced his dark side and hit the conchairto to neutralize his former mentor and win the match. This was wonderful. I hope it doesn’t get overlooked due to the rest of the card being amazing too.
4.75/5
AEW Trios Championship: The Elite (c) vs. House of Black
ANNDDDD NEWWWWWW!!!!!
First things first. This is an AEW trios match featuring the Elite. That automatically qualifies it as good. It’s going to be fast, has a good story, and has crazy athleticism. Now, you add the House of Black into the mix? Three of my personal favorites in the world? Yeah, this followed that amazing theme I was talking about.
This was also impossible to keep up with and would require twenty thousand words to give the play-by-play. The overall theme revolved around The Elite never taking the House of Black seriously. Malakai, Brody (especially Brody), and Buddy dominated the Elite with brutality for a good portion of it. Kenny and the Bucks would string together moves, but the House kept control.
We also need to give a shoutout to Brody King here. He stood out completely aside from his massive structure. It would take all three Elite members to take Brody down a peg. This is someone who desperately needs a singles run in AEW.
The ending came about after Buddy Matthews interrupted the Meltzer Driver with a devastating knee strike to Nick Jackson. Malakai then hit the Black Mass kick and Brody and Buddy finished it with Dante’s Inferno for the victory. House of Black are your new Trios Champions!
4.5/5
AEW Women’s Championship: Jaime Hayter (c) vs. Saraya vs. Ruby Soho
Up next was the AEW Women’s triple threat between Champion Jaime Hayter, Saraya, and Ruby Soho. This match revolved around whether or not Ruby Soho would pick a side in the Outsiders vs. Originals feud. Ruby only seemed to care about bashing the other women’s heads in though.
This was a fun triple threat match. It was constant action, even when they went into the crowd. They all took turns hitting moves and close pinfalls. Nothing crazy happened outside of good, quality wrestling. Jaime Hayter looked awesome as always, Ruby was smooth as silk, and Saraya showed that she could hang.
Ruby also stole the victory towards the end of the match, as she hit the Destination Unknown onto Saraya after a distraction by Britt Baker. Jaime Hayter took advantage, however, and awkwardly rolled up Ruby to steal the victory. It felt a little out of nowhere, but the ending made it make a little more sense. Overall, this was good!
3.5/5
Ruby saves Jaime and Britt right after the match from a beatdown by Toni and Saraya. She then swerves us all by delivering a No Future kick to Hayter and a Destination Unknown to Britt. Ruby Soho officially aligned herself with Saraya’s Outsiders group. She lost the match in a frustrating fashion, leading to the character break. That’s good work right there.
Texas Deathmatch: Jon Moxley vs. Hangman Adam Page
First things first; let’s discuss the content of a Deathmatch. They are goddamn bloody. Death is right there in the name! Obviously, this Texas Deathmatch between Hangman Adam Page and one of the toughest dudes in wrestling, Jon Moxley, was going to be intense. A Deathmatch isn’t my preferred type of match, but this one was one of the best I’ve seen.
The story here revolved around the toughness of Hangman Adam Page. Moxley wanted to prove that he is the Apex Predator of AEW, to which he succeeded for 90% of this match. This included one of the nastiest spots I’ve seen in recent memory where Moxley literally stabbed Hangman repeatedly in the face with a fork. Both guys had blood gushing from multiple places within ten minutes.
Literally, everything was covered with barbed wire, too. Chairs were wrapped in it, a table was covered in it, and Hangman wrapped himself in it. Page went to a dark place in this match, but that’s what Page needed to do to win.
Toward the end of the match, it was Jon Moxley’s match to lose. He hit the Death Rider and sent Hangman’s head into some bricks with a curb stomp. Hangman looked to be down for the count as Moxley had him in the Bulldog choke. Hanger continued to answer the ten count. He would not stay down.
Hangman found something in himself to survive and hit the Buckshot Lariat to level the Blackpool Combat leader. He then hung Jon Moxley off the side of the ring with a giant chain, causing Moxley to tap out for the first time in AEW.
This was fantastic. It had a perfect pace, a great storyline, and just the right amount of carnage. Sunday Bloody Sunday indeed.
5/5
TNT Championship: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Wardlow
ANNDDDD NEWWWWWW!!!
All of a sudden, Wardlow feels like a big deal again. He challenged Samoa Joe for the TNT Championship and, to everyone’s surprise, he won! This was a high energy match between two monsters that have no business being as athletic as they are.
Samoa Joe tried to curtail the explosiveness of Wardlow with a knee focus. He kept striking his knee and using a knee bar to keep Wardog from flying around. This slowed the pace down to highlight how good of a bully Samoa Joe is.
Wardlow didn’t stay down for long though, as he strung together a nice F10 and Swanton. Joe’s cockiness got the best of him by attempting the powerbomb symphony. Wardlow slipped out and passed Joe out with Joe’s own submission, the Read Naked Choke. That was really well done. Wardlow screaming, “DIE!” as Joe passed out was the cherry on top.
3.5/5
AEW Tag Team Championship: The Gunns (c) vs. The Acclaimed vs. Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal vs. Orange Cassidy & Danhausen
Up next was the AEW Tag Team Championship four-way. It was a nice palate cleanser in between all the other intense matches. It was goofy and fun, which is everything this match should have been. The correct team won, despite Twitter’s aggravation with it. It’s a multiman match in AEW; more likely than not that it’s a lot of fun. That’s what this was.
The story here revolved around the bad guy teams working together against The Acclaimed and Cassidy and Danhausen. Outside of that, it was just pure comedy gags throughout. Orange Cassidy and Danhausen had their shenanigans, Sonjay Dutt added his, and The Acclaimed hit the Scissor Me Timbers. The best part of the whole match was when Billy Gunn hit the Fame Asser on Satnam Singh. That old man can still jump!
In the end, The Gunns did what they needed to do, despite Danhausen almost stealing the match. They hit their finishing move (still don’t know what it’s called) to score the pinfall. This was very enjoyable.
3.25/5
After the match, FTR made their triumphant returns to AEW. They want revenge on The Gunns and started brawling.
AEW Championship: MJF (c) vs. Bryan Danielson
If there is any match to recommend from AEW Revolution 2023, it’s this one. If there is any Iron man match to recommend, it’s this one. This AEW Championship Ironman match between MJF and Bryan Danielson will be hard to top for the Match of the Year in 2023.
These two maniacs battled for sixty five minutes with a sudden death overtime that added to the tension. “Greatest of All Time” discussions are incredibly difficult to have when comparing different eras with others, but this very well could be the greatest Ironman of all time.
The story revolved around Bryan Danielson’s experience in long matches and MJF never having one over thirty minutes. That story quickly faded once MJF proved that he could go the distance, albeit whilst trying to cheat. He is MJF after all. He works smarter, not harder.
Around the thirty minute mark, they were tied up at 2-2 after MJF hit Danielson with a low blow and received two straight pinfalls. Not having to reset after every pinfall was cool. They were tied up at the halfway mark, Danielson had a hurt shoulder, and MJF had a hurt knee. The drama was about to unfold!
They both scored one more to tie the game up at 3 with five minutes left. At this point, MJF donned the proverbial CRIMSON MASK, which was a cool sight. I’d possibly say that blood was used TOO much for Revolution, but this match was amped up through the roof with it. That point was the perfect spot for it.
Time ended up elapsing just before MJF tapped the final time to a single-leg crab. The match was restarted by Tony Khan, with sudden death so as to not end in a draw. This is where the true Salt of the Earth came out. MJF tried his damndest to cheat to win. He was so sick of Danielson’s perseverance. MJF was able to clunk Danielson on the head with an oxygen tank, lock in the Salt of the Earth armbar, and Danielson inevitably taps out.
MJF wins a masterpiece 4-3.
5/5
Match of the Night, obviously
So much happened in that match, but the story tops it all. Danielson’s perseverance, MJF having no choice but to start cheating, and both of them having injuries to target just amount to a master class in wrestling story and psychology. *chefs kiss*
Overall
Come on. You know it’s coming. AEW Revolution was a perfect show. Were all of the matches perfect? Of course not, but two of them were. Two matches (three if you include the Final Burial) were the perfect version of their brand of match. Revolution was an all-time great AEW PPV.
Verdict: 5/5