AEW All In 2025 Discussion

[Chili]

If you told me that was Juice Robinson, and everyone at AEW told me that was Juice Robinson, and Juice Robinson himself came up to me and said 'alright mate, I'm Juice Robinson', I'd just be laughing at them. From the look he had to that, he looked astoundingly awful. Proper Tucker post Heavy Machinery meets Branden Walker vibes about it.

Edited July 13, 2025 by Chili

[Supremo]

Always loved The Deathriders. Great act. Great run. From the very start, to the very end. Never had any complaints. Perfect.

[d-d-d-dAz]

This is no criticism of AEW or Cole, and I'm fully aware he owes no one anything as relates to his health, but ambiguous health scares terrify me and it really took me out of the entire show.

I'm one of life's great worriers when it comes to health (my own, other peoples) and seeing someone so distraught, with no context, just sends my mind racing to all the worst places.

Poor bloke, hope he gets healthy as quickly as possible.

[Guest]

This was the one.

 

I love AEW, I've been fully invested for years, and I've been counting down the days to this show. Went to the first two, like many here. Also like many here, I was thrilled started at 8 UK time, so I had the opportunity to watch it live. I only managed to start watching at 10, but that was ok, because there were skippable matches in there. Then I got to just before midnight, 4 hours in, and realised none of the main three matches had been on. I physically don't have time to watch a show that's this long. I have a job, I have kids, I'm preaching this morning. My only option was to skip large chunks of matches I really wanted to see, or to watch the show gradually over the course of like a week. This takes me out of the product, makes me feel like disinclined to buy future shows and puts a sour taste in my mouth. This was the one. Way, way, way too long.

 

That said, the bits of the show that I watched I absolutely loved. The main was brilliant, and they absolutely earned that finish. Thrilled for Dustin, gutted for Cole. Swerve/Osprey vs the Bucks was phenomenal, and exactly the kind of match that makes AEW stand out. Great match, great story, generally fantastic. My only massive complaint is Mark Briscoe should've won the Casino Gauntlet. 

[Supremo]

Of course Hangman Adam Page proves to be the one performer who can actually use post-show press conferences correctly and squeeze some worth out of them. This is phenomenal.

When pro-wrestling peaks, it’s the best thing in the world. When AEW peaks, there’s no other company that comes close. When Hangman Adam Page peaks in AEW, it’s as good as it’ll ever be. He is the absolute best. Best actor. Best character. Best storyteller. Best wrestler. Best feud. The very, very best.

I’m over the fucking moon. Timeline restored.

Hopefully in the next five to ten working days this show will actually end and I might write more, but for now, on a show with so many huge moments, arguably the most memorable will be Juice Robinson’s return.

Like when WWE2K updates, glitches and somehow wipes your save, removing all your stats and leaving you with generic gear and no facial hair. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. Did he lose a bet? Is he doing a similar Timeless gimmick to Toni, and he’s been transported back to the start of his Career mode? Are we sure it was even him? Felt like when they got a completely new actor in to play Mick’s son on Brookside, and everyone just pretended it was the same guy.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Great show, just stupidly long, from Renee’s opening to the pre show to JR’s send off the show ran 8 hours. No show needs to be that long, especially with next to no breaks inbetween matches 

Imo they could have moved the TNT title match to Dynamite, given how the Cole announcement seemed to take everyone out of it, and cut the FTR/Outrunners and the Big Boom AJ matches from Zero Hour to make an even 9 match card, shaving 1 1/2 hours off the running time

That said the 3 main events all delivered, with our boy Hanger getting his big moment, I genuinely near teared up when his old theme hit and he came out more like his old self than previous, Swerve handing him the match winning chain then giving the wry smile of pride after the three was the capper we all needed

[RedTwoster]

I’m absolutely gutted for Adam Cole, and I hope this isn’t as serious as it appears to be. I’ve enjoyed him as TNT Champion, but above anything else, Cole seems to be a brilliant human being. He deserves better than the luck he’s had. Although it was horrible to see, I think AEW made the right decision to give him his moment in front of that crowd. 

As for the show itself, I really, really enjoyed it. 

I’m glad they got Nigel McGuinness off commentary relatively quickly though. I usually enjoy him, but last night he was absolutely awful. He ruined the Casino Gauntlet match for me, and his comments about Gabe Kidd watching people drink their own piss at a mental hospital were just plain odd. That said, the bloom may be off the rose slightly for the Casino Gauntlet match, so maybe they need to take a break before running another - or have someone win one quickly just to show it can happen.

It was great to see Jojo Offerman - fair play to AEW for giving her that opportunity, and I hope we see her again. The tag match was great, and I’m pleased to see the EVP gimmick come to an end. I’d been convinced that The Bucks would win this one.

Toni/Mercedes may have been my match of the night. I was shocked to see Mone lose, and I hope she’s not on her way out of the company or anything like that. I hope that AEW locks her down for the remainder of her career - since moving there, she’s been one of the best in ring performers in the world. Athena wouldn’t be a bad choice to take the belt from Storm either, though. 

Having Dustin Rhodes win the TNT Title was probably the right choice, after the devastating news about Adam Cole. But I think they should get the belt on Fletcher quickly - perhaps even as soon as the next Dynamite.

Omega/Okada was good, and I hope Tony Khan’s comments about the belts not really going away were misinterpreted. And I’d be completely fine with them wrapping the lineage of the TNT belt up in this one too, if they’d like to have Okada defeat Dustin rather than Fletcher. 

It was great to see Jim Ross back after all he’s been through. I thought he did pretty well on the desk, all things considered. 

The main event was fantastic, and I cheered along with the live crowd as soon as the familiar notes of Hangman’s original theme tune hit. I absolutely bought into the match, and the idea that Hangman might lose - he didn’t of course, and it was magical. I’d initially thought Ospreay was the right person to end Moxley’s run, but I was wrong. Hangman was the only option and deserved this brilliant moment.

I think history will look more kindly on Moxley’s title run than we all did at the time. There were missteps for sure, but on the whole, it achieved a special moment that I won’t be forgetting in a hurry.

[FLips]

My first AEW show since All In Wembley 2023 where, for reasons I can't remember, I just got burnt out with the product and stopped watching it for two years. I've kept up a little bit with clips and storylines but mostly only the Swerve/Hangman stuff, so the rest of the card and stories were all relatively new to me.

I skipped the Pre-Show because I was at a BBQ, which looking at the state of the pre-show I made the right choice. Real AEW Dark shit.

Some general observations before I go into the matches - Barring the latter half of the show this crowd, whether that be through them or the sound issues or the open arena setting, were awful.
The card is way too long. I started watching at 8.20pm and expected to get to bed for maybe 1am. I made it to the end of the the Three-Way Tag match and realised we had three matches left and one of them was Okada vs Omega and so I called it a night and tapped out until this morning. Something like 7 hours long is it? Absolutely stupid.

The Opps vs Death Riders
The Opps will forever be a rubbish name, and I thought it was Joe, Hook and Ishii? Why is Hobbs there, and Shibata? Maybe I'm mistaken. Either way this match was rubbish. Never got out of first gear, the crowd were silent for it and it didn't deserve to be on the card and certainly didn't need 15 minutes.

Men's Casino Battle Royale
MJF is still winning these things? 35 minutes long? Maybe the worst match on the card. Juice Robinson looked like what Bischoff and Hogan thought Sting did at Starrcade 97. One of the worst looks of all time. Bad shit from start to finish.

Four Way TNT Match
I'm in the same camp as Daz here, leave it out with the vague illness announcements. While technically you don't owe the fans anything when it comes to your personal life, I don't think it's out of the question to be up front as to why you're vacating a belt and leaving. Roman Reigns told everyone about his cancer, or when a wrestler has a spinal injury or whatever they tell you. Coming out and bawling your eyes out while your mates bawl their eyes out and speaking as though you might be dying and then leaving, is a pretty shitty thing to do to your fans in my opinion. 

The match itself was bang average. Glad Dustin won but this wasn't needed on the card at all and was deflated by a sad Adam Cole before it.

Swerve and Ospreay vs The Bucks
I was invested in this due to the ramifications of the potential Hangman stuff later, but the whole spotfest/kick out of finishers for 15 minutes thing has completely ran it's course for me. The Bucks entrance was kinda funny but undermined the stakes of the match completely. If you like this sort of match it delivered that style in spades, but at this point it had been hours of straight wrestling and I was over it. The right team won.

Women's Casino Battle Royale
A lot of new faces here. Megan Bayne and Thekla especially look the business, and Willow Nightingale is perfect and we must protect her at all costs. That being said the match was god awful and it boggles my mind how the likes of Kris Statlander, Julia Hart, Tay Melo and Sky Blue are actually worst in the ring now than when I last saw them two years ago. Any other company where some of them have been there something like 5 or 6 years and haven't improved would have sacked them ages ago. I've seen people go on about the strength of this women's division but personally I don't see it, this was a poor showcase for nearly all involved.

Three-Way Tag Match
The Hurt Syndicate are the business and definitely needed to retain here. Nick Wayne has grown since the last time I saw him and looks to have improved so good for him, but Kip Sabian, like Penelope Ford, are still robbing a living. Never heard of JetSpeed but they didn't leave any impression on me. Mike Bailey's Kung-Fu gimmick is lowercard rubbish.
Some impressive stuff here though, mostly from Lashley and Benjamin. With better opponents they could put on some classics I bet.
I forgot Edge was called Cope, one of the all-time worst names. "Go Find Yourself" made my toes curl. Cringe shit, though I am open to an Edge and Christian final run.

Timeless Toni Storm vs Mercedes Mone
Up to this point the match of the night, which in my opinion on the matches before it barring maybe The Bucks match, really isn't saying much. It was good though, and Timeless has came on leaps and bounds with the gimmick. She's really fun, way better in the ring than last time I saw her and feels like a fully fleshed out character you can get behind. Glad she beat Mone, who also seemed better than last time I saw her and unless I missed it no longer does that awful spinning gory bomb finisher thing?

Okada vs Omega
Like The Bucks match if this is your sort of thing you'd have probably been in heaven, but this was more spots and kickouts but 6 hours into the show. I just couldn't get into it at all, to the point I kinda watched it in the background as I played Elder Scrolls Online. I'm sure someone loved it, but it wasn't me. Did not need this type of match this far into the card.

Hangman vs Moxley
This was everything I needed, not just from the match but also the card. A long long road of pure wrestling with no gimmicks to get to this stage so the hardcore rules were a very refreshing and welcome change. The story was perfect, the spots were absolutely gross (fork to the head, bed of nails, was that REAL glass?!) and the finish was perfect. A full redemption arc for my cowboy, with all his friends and former enemies coming to even the odds for him. It was AEW's Cody vs Roman and it paid off beautifully. I legit welled up when A Fistful of Dollars transitioned into Hangman's face theme, and then again when he broke down crying opening the briefcase for the belt. I love him, he's the best, and if I had the energy he would have been worth the 7 hours it took to get to this point.

Overall worth the £15 I paid to watch the Hangman match alone, but the rest of that card while it had it's moments was pretty brutal. Plain wrestling for 6 or 7 hours straight is a crime and I feel real sympathy for those who sat through the pre-show as well. 
I got a free trial of AEW Plus to get the low price on the PPV so I'll maybe catch Dynamite this week, but can't see me hanging around after that. Other than a few people who have gotten better since last time, the rest of the card is pretty bland and brutal. This felt like a big Wrestlemania refresh though so maybe the stories will be enough to keep me around outside the vanilla roster.

 

[Gus Mears]

Watched the main and it was the brilliant catharsis that nothing manages quite like a well booked storyline. Hangman Page is possibly the best actor I have ever seen in wrestling. He conveys everything necessary without you ever feeling like you need to roll your eyes. The contrast between the world champions of the two big promotions is remarkable in that regard: Page, who makes everything seem so real, and heel Cena gurning like he's shat himself and fannying about with his tea towel.

Edited July 13, 2025 by Gus Mears

[RedTwoster]

11 minutes ago, FLips said:

Four Way TNT Match
I'm in the same camp as Daz here, leave it out with the vague illness announcements. While technically you don't owe the fans anything when it comes to your personal life, I don't think it's out of the question to be up front as to why you're vacating a belt and leaving. Roman Reigns told everyone about his cancer, or when a wrestler has a spinal injury or whatever they tell you. Coming out and bawling your eyes out while your mates bawl their eyes out and speaking as though you might be dying and then leaving, is a pretty shitty thing to do to your fans in my opinion. 

To be fair, it sounds like the diagnosis here, whatever it may be, is pretty fresh, sudden and raw. We’re all different when it comes to our health and what we feel comfortable with sharing - and perhaps Cole isn’t ready to share specifics at this stage, or simply hasn’t had time to digest whatever is going on.

[Chili]

I felt bad for the guys in the TNT match because, well the obvious (poor Adam Cole is seemingly the nicest bloke with absolutely no luck), but they all worked really hard and it was one of those cases where they weren't at fault and neither was the crowd. They were a bit taken aback.

BUT Dustin Rhodes, 56 years old, bawling tears in his hometown after becoming a triple title holder and a singles, tag AND six man title holder at the same time after THREE matches in just over a day. Loved it, I enjoyed hearing the crowd start to roar at the sight of Dustin in the corner after the match. It felt like a nice ending to an unforeseen circumstances and a well deserved moment. Don't care if he loses the belt on Dynamite, or has some last gunslinger open challenges to dropping it in a month or so. Just delighted for him, always been a favourite.

 

[Callum1993]

Saw someone say that was Dustin’s first major singles title win since the Intercontinental Title in 1999 if you don’t count the Hardcore title in 2002…incredible really. 
 

I thought the big matches on the show absolutely delivered. Mone/Storm and Hangman/Mox were excellent in particular. There are still issues with the length of the PPV shows. Not every match needs 15/20 minutes plus. You arguably could have cut the pre-show matches and done the Trios Title and TNT Title matches there. I think there’s also something to be said about match placement like when you get to the final 3 matches and they are your 3 biggest you know you have a minimum of 2 hours left which takes you out of it. Overall though a very good show and let’s hope they can keep the momentum going. 

[Kamran]

6 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

This is no criticism of AEW or Cole, and I'm fully aware he owes no one anything as relates to his health, but ambiguous health scares terrify me and it really took me out of the entire show.

I'm one of life's great worriers when it comes to health (my own, other peoples) and seeing someone so distraught, with no context, just sends my mind racing to all the worst places.

Poor bloke, hope he gets healthy as quickly as possible.

The cynic in me did wonder whether they kept it deliberately vague to steal some headlines about his possible retirement. With all the talk of how WWE wanted to 'control the conversation' etc this weekend, it would be one of the bigger talking points. Although saying that, it did come out of the blue, it does feel genuine.

1 hour ago, RedTwoster said:

I’m glad they got Nigel McGuinness off commentary relatively quickly though. I usually enjoy him, but last night he was absolutely awful. He ruined the Casino Gauntlet match for me, and his comments about Gabe Kidd watching people drink their own piss at a mental hospital were just plain odd.

That was based on the below:

 

I did wonder how long the show would go on for, with it being moved to earlier in the day, TK didn't have the worry about the curfew time like with Wembley.

Some random observations:

- The stadium looked fantastic, and it felt like there was a lot more than 25,000 in there.

- I heard they were going to close the roof due to the heat. I'm assuming if it was left open we would have had the usal fireworks but I thought they did well with the pyro.

- The crowd didn't really get going until the final few matches but I don't think there was that much to cheer about to be honest.

- The audio/sound was terrible in places but then good in others. I'm not sure if that was because of the singers or whether it was technical. It was awful during the Hurt Syndicate entrance but then sounded good with JoJo, Kenny and Hangman's entrance.

- I thought it was strange they did the Samoa Joe injury angle here, it got the event off to a more subdued start. All 6 men are talented but it never felt like the match got going. I was fully expecting Hook to come in to make the save.

- I didn't like the men's gauntlet; the women's was better. They had a lot of wrestlers just standing around outside the ring, they could have played that up more on commentary as strategy, as someone would always go in to break the pinfall attempts. Nigel got on my nerves with his constant mention of surprises, I love Juice and The Gunns but I was expecting a bigger name.

- Speaking of Juice, OMG! As others have said, he looked like a generic CAW, did he lose a bet?

When we had this!

- Hated FTR on commentary, I would have preferred if they just did a run in at the end

- I was wondering how they were going to get Cope/Cage back together, I thought that was done well, I liked the 'GO FIND YOURSELF' line.

- I was surprised to see Dustin win, it was a nice moment but I'm hoping we get to see Fletcher be the one to take that title from him (brutally). 

- The Women's Gauntlet was better, I'm happy Athena won.

- The Young Bucks vs. Swerve/Osprey took a little while to get going but once it did, I loved it.

- Bryan Danielson spoke about how WWE told him he couldn't do the YES chants in AEW anymore during Starrcast, I'm assuming that was a lie as he initiated them here ?

- The final 3 matches were excellent.

It was a slog to get through but there was some very good stuff there.

 

Edited July 13, 2025 by Kamran

[air_raid]

5 minutes ago, Callum1993 said:

Saw someone say that was Dustin’s first major singles title win since the Intercontinental Title in 1999 if you don’t count the Hardcore title in 2002…incredible really.

It’s true, but the storyline surrounding winning the tag titles with Cody and what winning them from The Shield had been built up to mean, made it a far bigger achievement than winning either the ICT or UST at the same time would have meant, more than 10 years more recently. I think this is one of those context cases where the bare facts don’t actually tell you the whole story.

[Liam O'Rourke]

Totally missed it live and haven't seen anyone mention it, but on a rewatch, Hangman's entrance where the camera is set on the heel entrance way, then moves to the face entrance way where he comes from is just delicious.

Edited July 13, 2025 by Liam O'Rourke