AEW All In 2025 Discussion

[tiger_rick]

23 hours ago, FLips said:

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.

Not going to cry about this criticism because most of us have spent the last 20 years dipping into products we clearly don't like just because we really would like to. I massively disagree though, particularly the highlighted parts.

There were a couple of matches that could have disappeared off the card quite easily but to call the wrestling plain for "6 or 7 hours" is just wrong. The top 4 matches were all incredible, brilliantly built, maybe with the exception of Omega/Okada, and highly anticipated. The matches were wrestled to satisfy the anticipation and intrigue, and were all very good to absolutely superb. The gauntlet matches were far from plain, being the constant array of entrances they are and the tag title match and aftermath was wild. The opener was bog standard and the TNT Title match was pointless but the rest was a great showcase.

I can't agree that the roster is at all "vanilla". They had a fairly weak couple of years post All Out 2022 and I either dipped out or watched through desperation and even then, when the backstage nonsense was killing them, when the booking was inconsistent and when they hired that dirty cunt Ric Flair, I could never call this roster "vanilla". Always one of the biggest frustrations was how shit things got, in spite of having the most talented, varied and dedicated wrestlers around. The past year, as they've patiently and cleverly booked consistent, brilliant shows, they've done a much better job of showcasing that talent. It's a multi-cultural roster, it has most of the best talkers in the business, it has 10-15 unbelievably talented women, the top men and women are all cool and contemporary, the entrances, the themes, the ring gear - there's so much work put into everyone because they're invested in themselves. I can't think of a more brilliant and varied roster since late 90s WCW. And I'm not just saying that because both rosters have 857 people.

Respect your opinion but I think this is miles off.

[Chris B]

29 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

The last Hanger reign wasn't great. That's all that will harm this outcome when we look back in years to come.

The Bucks recently talked about one of Hangman's virtues as a wrestler being his patience with storytelling - and I still feel like we got robbed of the final act of his title run, which would have led to it being regarded much more highly.

For me, the whole story was meant to be him growing into becoming a real champion - his feuds were mainly about him growing (like with the texas death match stuff). But he never really got that defining feud as champion, as plans suddenly changed for reasons we all know about.

He needed something like that Mox feud he had immediately afterwards during it, and that must have been part of the plan at the time - that he grows in confidence, taking on serious challenges, then loses to MJF cheap shots.

I honestly felt it was just getting going and got cut off and I'm still disappointed about that.

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Chris B said:

The Bucks recently talked about one of Hangman's virtues as a wrestler being his patience with storytelling - and I still feel like we got robbed of the final act of his title run, which would have led to it being regarded much more highly.

For me, the whole story was meant to be him growing into becoming a real champion - his feuds were mainly about him growing (like with the texas death match stuff). But he never really got that defining feud as champion, as plans suddenly changed for reasons we all know about.

He needed something like that Mox feud he had immediately afterwards during it, and that must have been part of the plan at the time - that he grows in confidence, taking on serious challenges, then loses to MJF cheap shots.

I honestly felt it was just getting going and got cut off and I'm still disappointed about that.

I think I missed this. What happened?

[Chili]

4 minutes ago, Duke said:

I think I missed this. What happened?

Punk.

[FLips]

20 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Not going to cry about this criticism because most of us have spent the last 20 years dipping into products we clearly don't like just because we really would like to. I massively disagree though, particularly the highlighted parts.

There were a couple of matches that could have disappeared off the card quite easily but to call the wrestling plain for "6 or 7 hours" is just wrong. The top 4 matches were all incredible, brilliantly built, maybe with the exception of Omega/Okada, and highly anticipated. The matches were wrestled to satisfy the anticipation and intrigue, and were all very good to absolutely superb. The gauntlet matches were far from plain, being the constant array of entrances they are and the tag title match and aftermath was wild. The opener was bog standard and the TNT Title match was pointless but the rest was a great showcase.

I can't agree that the roster is at all "vanilla". They had a fairly weak couple of years post All Out 2022 and I either dipped out or watched through desperation and even then, when the backstage nonsense was killing them, when the booking was inconsistent and when they hired that dirty cunt Ric Flair, I could never call this roster "vanilla". Always one of the biggest frustrations was how shit things got, in spite of having the most talented, varied and dedicated wrestlers around. The past year, as they've patiently and cleverly booked consistent, brilliant shows, they've done a much better job of showcasing that talent. It's a multi-cultural roster, it has most of the best talkers in the business, it has 10-15 unbelievably talented women, the top men and women are all cool and contemporary, the entrances, the themes, the ring gear - there's so much work put into everyone because they're invested in themselves. I can't think of a more brilliant and varied roster since late 90s WCW. And I'm not just saying that because both rosters have 857 people.

Respect your opinion but I think this is miles off.

You’re taking my first point a little out of the context I mean it. I meant that the card could have done with more gimmick matches or rule changes as aside from the two battle royals (which aside from the format don’t offer anything particularly exciting) and the main event, the rest of the card were standard rule wrestling matches. I won’t suggest a ladder match as I know people’s opinions on them here, but there could have been something to freshen up the halfway point. With all due respect to the Casibo matches, the pacing is awful and they’re not exactly the Royal Rumble.

On the second point I suppose I’m being overly critical but there is still quite a lot of duff on the roster. I don’t expect everyone to be an Orange Cassidy or Max Caster, but is there really any need in the likes of Roderick Strong to still be there?

Bear in mind I haven’t watched since Wembley 2023 so a lot of this roster is either leftovers from then, like half the women’s casino match that have somehow regressed, or they’re new and simply didn’t stand out in any way to me or get enough time to show what they do have. 

[King Mal the Glorious]

Copying and pasting my notes from elsewhere so apologies if the formatting etc is iffy.

Pre-show: Nothing much of note. FTR/Outrunners wasn't as good as the one from last week but still decent. Other highlights were a child being bigger than Rocky Romero and Trent then pie-facing said child.

Trios titles: Decent. Hobbs reversing a Doomsday Device into a powerslam was class. Wonder if they're writing Joe out for a bit, if so maybe Hook comes back?

Men's gauntlet: Too long and nowhere near as good as the last one. Juice needs to grow his beard back ASAP but nice to see him and the Gunns back. They should stick to doing the Me Muero entrance in countries that actually speak Spanish. Far too much "everyone lies down on the outside while two guys fight" non-action. Expected MJF to win, I'd imagine him and Briscoe will have a big match soon.

TNT title: The Adam Cole crack was sad and (understandably) killed the crowd. Would have preferred either dropping the match or having Fletcher/Garcia, but I can understand wanting to give the crowd a nice moment with Dustin winning. Seen a few people they might not have told him he was winning beforehand, hence the emotional reaction and it *did* look like Garcia properly hooked into the pin so there couldn't be a kickout.

Will/Swerve vs Bucks: Banger as you'd expect. Finisher spam did get a bit much towards the end and I don't usually mind that. Thought the Bucks would win so the result was a nice surprise and they can move on to doing something other than the EVP gimmick.

Women's gauntlet: Better than the men's, still too much lying down while two people fight shite. They announced Syuri was coming soon on ROH but didn't expect her to appear here. Thekla giving a cheerful sounding "FUCK YOUUUUUUU" on a dive to the outside was probably the funniest spot on the show. Glad Athena got the win.

Tag titles: Paid very little attention to this, should have been on Dynamite. Only spot of note was Shelton yeeting Speedball out of the ring with a German Suplex. Edge coming in for the save but still taking the time to pose for the crowd and do his pyro etc was the second funniest moment. Assume we're getting E&C vs Nick/Kip before E&C vs FTR in Canada.

Women's title: Very good. Wasn't sure on the result going in but as it went on I thought Mone was winning, so I popped for Toni getting the pin. Too much finisher spam again, kicking out of 3 straight Storm Zeros was too much.

Unified title: Obviously was never going to be as good as their previous matches but I did think this was a bit *too* slow for a lot of it. Both have had much better matches this year with others IMO. Still very good but I was knackered by this point which may have dulled my enjoyment a bit.

World title: Hell yeah Ghost Town Triumph is back! This was pretty much exactly what I expected and it ruled. Proper bloodbath, loads of outside shenanigans, the GOAT Danielson came back, Swerve did the right thing and Hangman got the big win. 10/10.

Overall: Great show, but I'd have cut time out of most of the matches or moved 2-3 of them to Dynamite. All the winners were the "correct" ones and the ending was probably top 3 in AEW ever along with Hangman's OG title win and Danielson winning last year.

 

Edit: just realised the majority of what I've written is the same as @BomberPat, could have saved myself some effort ?

Edited July 14, 2025 by King Mal the Glorious

[BomberPat]

In terms of people on that show, I agree that the Casino Battle Royals could have been improved by having a bit more colour and character in there. But even then, the men's match had Brody King, MJF, Mark Briscoe, Beast Mortos and Max Caster, who are all character-wise a cut above "bloke who wrestles good", along with Bandido and Mistico; I'd say the only duffs in terms of character work there would be Roddy Strong and maybe Josh Alexander, and I think that's pretty representative of the roster as a whole these days, the guys who are more straight-laced wrestlers with minimal character work are in the minority compared to where AEW arguably were a couple of years ago. It can't be reiterated enough that they've managed to find a wellspring of entertaining character work in Ricochet.

[RedTwoster]

20 minutes ago, FLips said:

On the second point I suppose I’m being overly critical but there is still quite a lot of duff on the roster. I don’t expect everyone to be an Orange Cassidy or Max Caster, but is there really any need in the likes of Roderick Strong to still be there?

Strong is one of my least favourite wrestlers - he actually does have a character; although it simply boils down to him shouting people’s names.

21 minutes ago, FLips said:

Bear in mind I haven’t watched since Wembley 2023 so a lot of this roster is either leftovers from then, like half the women’s casino match that have somehow regressed, or they’re new and simply didn’t stand out in any way to me or get enough time to show what they do have. 

I can certainly understand the cynicism about the women’s division given how insignificant it was made to look during the early years. Having said that, in 2025, the division has been one of the best things in wrestling. You’ve had Toni Storm, Mercedes Mone, Statlander, Athena, Willow Nightingale, Aminata, Mariah May (now gone, of course), Harley Cameron, Mina and others pulling out the stops to put on phenomenal matches all while doing great character work (some more so than others)

The women’s division has been a real success story as of late. 

[Chili]

In a way, if Dustin wasn't aware he was going to win and they all decided to surprise him, I think that makes that result even better. Said prior but it was legit one of my favourite moments of the show. Rhodes just blubbing in the corner probably realising at the moment what they did and why as the crowd what happened and started to pop. Brilliant. I almost love how obvious that Kyle Fletcher will gain even more from winning the title but doing it by ruthlessly battering Dustin up, which will be even better. A tremendous way to get a moment out of a situation from the issues with Adam Cole that is just really incredibly unfortunate. 

Edited July 14, 2025 by Chili

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, FLips said:

You’re taking my first point a little out of the context I mean it. I meant that the card could have done with more gimmick matches or rule changes as aside from the two battle royals (which aside from the format don’t offer anything particularly exciting) and the main event, the rest of the card were standard rule wrestling matches. I won’t suggest a ladder match as I know people’s opinions on them here, but there could have been something to freshen up the halfway point. With all due respect to the Casibo matches, the pacing is awful and they’re not exactly the Royal Rumble.

The Royal Rumble has been the same for most of the last 20 years. I think it's a fair comparison. The casino matches don't have anything like the cache but I think the pacing, the action and the surprises all compare. They're fun, throwaway matches from which almost nothing bar the winner really matters afterwards. Regardless, I don't think you can suggest they're all "plain" matches when two are massive schmozzes like the gauntlets. IMO anyway.

I don't think any of the matches would have been better with a gimmick. Either because they completely delivered or because the couple that were pointless didn't need or earn one. 

1 hour ago, FLips said:

On the second point I suppose I’m being overly critical but there is still quite a lot of duff on the roster. I don’t expect everyone to be an Orange Cassidy or Max Caster, but is there really any need in the likes of Roderick Strong to still be there?

Yes, that's a fair point. There are probably 30 or 40 people you could cut from this roster without anyone noticing. There are probably another 10 not on TV right now that I haven't even noticed. Those 30 to 40 people though are people who generally only appear on TV to lose. So while loads of them are nondescript, they're not being featured above their station. The Paragon, god bless them, are the biggest exception for me. I wouldn't enjoy them as TV jobbers, let alone an act that held a major belt and takes up 20 mins a week.

[tiger_rick]

59 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Josh Alexander

I'm guessing in the US that calling a bloke a "walking weapon" doesn't mean the same thing as it does here? It's absolutely hilarious that the fella describes himself as a bellend.

[BomberPat]

speaking of Paragon, I love that in the last couple of weeks they've decided that The Conglomeration exist again, and then had Kyle O'Reilly wrestle as one of them in the pre-show tag, but wearing a Paragon T-shirt. Make your mind up Kyle!

I'm not as down on them as some are, though it's annoying that they've done the same schtick across every promotion imaginable now. Roddy Strong showed signs of a good character during the MJF/Cole programme, as a needy and pathetic hanger-on, but that's just been reduced to him shouting people's names, rather than understanding the context of why he kept shouting after Adam Cole and why it was funny. 

Obviously it's up in the air with Adam Cole out now, but in a healthy and regularly booked Trios division, Paragon could be a real asset, and there might still be something to Strong & O'Reilly as a tag team. During the Conglomeration days, I thought O'Reilly had a really good dynamic with Mark Briscoe, but Briscoe doesn't work tag matches.

I know a while ago there was a "who would you keep, who would you cut" thread for AEW, and looking through the roster now there's far fewer people I would cut, but more I'd want moved around into other roles. The frustrating ones are teams like CRU and Top Flight, who are treated as significant for two weeks and then vanish, but we're still expected to care when they show back up.

If I were tasked with cleaning up the AEW roster, it would look something like this (leaving out some people who are predominantly booked on ROH anyway, though I would like to see Angelico actually get booked). I think they're in a much better position with less dead weight than they've had in the past.

CUT:

Spoiler

Alex Abrahantes
Aaron Solo
Premier Athletes - there's a spot for them as jobbers du jour in the tag division, but if I'm being ruthless, they're done.
Brandon Cutler
Colt Cabana
Griff Garrison
Jay Lethal
Lee Johnson - he's probably a good candidate for a repackage too, I just can't think of anything I would do with him
Matt Sydal
Peter Avalon - checking the website is how I learned he still works there
Preston Vance

REPACKAGE/REFOCUS:

Spoiler

CRU - either book the tag division with more depth than "champions vs. challengers of the month", give them a third man to become a Trio (and book that division better), or give them a personal issue to get their teeth into; a midcard feud with JetSpeed, or, to get somewhat back on topic, with a Paragon team of O'Reilly and Strong.

Anthony Bowens - what he's doing isn't working. Either find one point of this gimmick to focus one rather than trying to do six things at once, go back to the drawing board entirely, or get him back in a tag team with someone.

AR Fox - Turn him heel, make him either the third man in CRU or a henchman for Ricochet. He has a rare something as a heel high flyer that stands out more than when he's a face, and his work as Swerve's heel lackey is the best he's been in AEW, so go back to that well.

The Infantry/Shane Taylor Promotions - actually getting booked in the Trios division would be a start.

Top Flight - again, Trios division. They're always finding third dudes to wrestle with them, most recently Scorpio Sky, but never actually challenging for Trios belts.

Jeff Jarrett - actually follow up on his one last run angle, and do something with him.

Nick Comoroto - should be a big Bruiser Brody type.

The Butcher - either a heel hired gun, or a babyface bruiser, doing more than they're doing with him. Would like to see him work with/against Brody King.

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Chili said:

Punk.

Yeah I know that Punk became champion, but I don't remember Hangman's title run getting cut short because of him.

[Chris B]

So much for trying to sidestep that a bit...

While there will be Punk's side and everyone else's, the story is that Punk insisted on getting hotshotted into being champion and having the company built around him. He didn't see Hangman as a main eventer (or saw him as a threat), and with Collision, etc, he thought it needed to be on him. Hangman's run was hotshotted onto Punk as a result.

[The King of Old School]

10 minutes ago, Chris B said:

While there will be Punk's side and everyone else's, the story is that Punk insisted on getting hotshotted into being champion and having the company built around him. He didn't see Hangman as a main eventer (or saw him as a threat), and with Collision, etc, he thought it needed to be on him. Hangman's run was hotshotted onto Punk as a result.

Not sure the timelines add up for that, Punk beat Hangman in May 2022 for the belt, Collision started in June 2023.