AEW All In 2025 Discussion

[Supremo]

I know cinema has become a dirty word in pro-wrestling, but this shot is so fucking beautiful. Mad that I thought we peaked with his original 2021 chase for the belt, with the Dark Order entrance and then eventual win over Omega. This was leagues above it.

However, any plans I had of immortalising it onto my Sky Plus for all eternity have been scuppered. Despite originally being advertised for ITV4 tonight, All In Texas has now vanished from the schedule!

No confirmation yet, but all signs suggest that ITV once again do not deserve pro-wrestling.

 

[300]

That is very annoying. 

[Kamran]

3 hours ago, Supremo said:

However, any plans I had of immortalising it onto my Sky Plus for all eternity have been scuppered. Despite originally being advertised for ITV4 tonight, All In Texas has now vanished from the schedule!

No confirmation yet, but all signs suggest that ITV once again do not deserve pro-wrestling.

 

Apparently they've rescheduled it:

 

[wordsfromlee]

[The King of Old School]

Will they be able to wait 13 months before pulling the trigger on Ospreay as World Champ?

Be interesting as I was convinced they were losing to The Bucks this year with Wembley next year in mind.

[Tennessee Moltisanti]

9 hours ago, The King of Old School said:

Will they be able to wait 13 months before pulling the trigger on Ospreay as World Champ?

Be interesting as I was convinced they were losing to The Bucks this year with Wembley next year in mind.

It's definitely possible. Tag Team title run with Swerve until after the Continental Classic to keep them away from the World Title scene, maybe a month or 2 in Japan to do Wrestle Kingdom/Dynasty. Throw in a feud for Revolution, then win the Owen and then on to Wembley!

[Kamran]

Reminder - All In starting on ITV 4 from 9pm.

[Ro_y Disco]

Had no idea this was on ITV. Staying in a hotel and put this on, got a message that it's a Barb telly!

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

Dynamite moved to 9.50 tomorrow evening 

[The King Of Swing]

One last thing I wanted to add.

I've probably been one of the most negative people on here, when it comes to Mercedes. But imo, she finally looked like the star people say she is, at All In. 

[JLM]

AEW All in 2025

PRE-SHOW

Renee chatting to Moxley in their car was excellent! Initially jarring to see Mox driving about with the wife while still the leader of the Death Riders, but the content was brilliant. "I have nothing personal against Hangman, he didn't burn my fuckin' house down." The reason he can't stand Hangman is because, although he respects Hangman's relatability and how the fans see themselves in Hangman, Mox doesn't see himself in Hangman at all. Liked this a lot.

RJ Interview with Statlander - Seeing how comfortable Stat is with RJ compared to how she was on commentary on Collision is night and day. This was the best take on a heelish Stat I've seen so far, where she isn't being pantomime villain evil, just has a massive chip on her shoulder.

Briscoes documentary trailer was amazing. Definitely have to make time to watch that.

Swerve/Ospreay interview was good stuff. Weird seeing cyborg interview gnome Josh Matthews on my screen in 2025.

Hangman/Jarrett sit down was heartwarming. It's like when people in AA have to make amends with all the people they hurt as part of their path to recovery.

 

Shane Taylor Promotions vs Sons of Texas/Von Erichs

They did things for a few minutes so Kevin Von Erich could do the Iron Claw in the big stadium in Texas. Nice pop for it.  That was that. .

 

Hologram/O'Reilly/Ishii/Big Boom AJ vs Lance Archer/RPG Vice/Hechicero

People like Big Boom AJ and he does the power moves he's meant to do competently. I can't stand him or his annoying child and I can hardly bear to look at The Rizzler. It's OK though, not everything has to be for me. What WASN'T OK is that Hechicero and Hologram botched almost everything they tried together. Really disappointed by that as I thought Hologram getting the big stage outing back in Arlington was cool and I love Hechicero. Alas they were not on the same page. I liked it when Trent Berretta pushed the Costco child and when Ishii hoisted up Lance Archer. That's about it.

 

Outrunners vs FTR

After their Collision banger this was a very well earned pre-show main event for The Youngest Men Alive. Unfortunately thiis had more sloppy moments and a less interested crowd than the first one. Still had everyone on board for the closing stretch and the crowd was suitably furious with the finish though. Hopefully they'll do this again after a bit of a break; Outrunners getting a win over them would be an amazing moment and it was a shame this couldn't come close to capturing the magic of the Collision match.

 

MAIN SHOW

Yuta/Claudio/Kidd vs Hobbs/Joe/Shibata

Samoa Joe doing a big stadium entrance to The Opps theme is beyond criminal. Disgusting. Other than that this was a decent opener, though nowhere close to many of the multiman belters we've seen on Dynamite in recent months. Still had hard hitting action, good shine for all three babyfaces and Yuta getting the beating he deserves. Kidd headbutting Shibata was a real scumbag move, what a bastard! Hobbs powerslamming his way out of the Doomsday Device was spectacular. Couldn't even process what he'd done in real time, had to go back and watch it again. A very memorable highspot in an otherwise OK opener.

Taking Joe out of the main event equation early in the show was interesting. Gave me more hope for a bit of Danielson at the end of the night. They'd better not have The Opps vacate the trios titles though, last thing those belts need.

 

Men's Casino Gauntlet:  The Pride of Professional Wrestling, AEW's Five Tool Player, The Scissor King, First of his name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now, The Molly Wop Madman,, Formerly of The Acclaimed, The Wind Beneath your Wings, The Apple of your Eye, Bully's Special Prize, The Beast under your bed, in your closet, in your head, Anthony "FIVE TOOLS AND ONE RULE" Bowens

VS MJF vs Bandido vs Brody King vs Josh Alexander vs Juice Robinson vs  Konosuke Takeshita vs Kota Ibushi vs  Mark Briscoe vs Max Caster vs Mistico vs Riicochet vs Roderick Strong vs The Beast Mortos

I had fun with this match but it wasn't in the same universe as the 2024 edition. Thrilled to see Juice Robinson back but what the FUCK is that new look? Unbelievably bad. Even MORE thrilled to see the Gunns! I really thought they'd been disappeared prior to leaving like Mariah May, I am hoping this means they're sticking around. I'm also hoping the response for Brody King was noted somewhere; it has to be time to do something properly with him. LOVED Max Caster stepping over Bowens on his way to the ring, and everything he did generally. Fun interactions with Takeshita/Bandido. Not enough MJF and Mark Briscoe considering that was the main build. I wanted MJF to be hunted by Briscoe for the whole match, with Briscoe fighting through other guys to get to him. Instead he seemed to almost forget about him as soon as more guys turned up. Mortos getting some shine was lovely. Mistico sing along was a bit of a dud. It was in Texas but I guess quite a lot of fans there were not from Texas too. Didn't love how many times they did the laziest Rumble trope of "everyone lays out while new guy does his bit". Considering how incredibly intricate some of the multiperson matches and tags can be in AEW and how creative the matches can get, I see no excuse for this. Put your Anarchy in the Arena energy into the layout of these matches, they should be a thrill ride, don't want them to descend into tired formula.

But yeah, lots of guys I like, very welcome returns and some fun spots and interactions, but lacking the magic this type of match at the biggest show should always bring.

 

Adam Cole announcement

This was utterly heart-breaking. Man cannot catch a break. I hope he doesn't have to retire, but I also hope he doesn't refuse to retire and put his health and life at any further risk. As much as I've been ragging on him lately, he has always come across as a great guy and I have been a fan of his in the past. Regardless of that though, it's just a horrible situation and I feel awful for him and hope he'll be OK. Got a bit choked up for that massive Adam Cole bay-bay.

 

Kyle Fletcher vs Danny Garcia vs Dustin Rhodes vs Sammy Guevara

Fletcher has to be livid about this whole situation. Wins a number one contenders match for a singles shot at the TNT title, ends up in a four way match instead along with the guy he beat to become number one contender. Fun little match for a last minute addition. Loved the decision to put it on Dustin. This match felt like a formality to get the belt onto Fletcher, but I think Fletcher's win should be something more definitive than a replacement match. A lovely feel good moment for Texas and Dustin and, more importantly, Kyle can win the title in a much  more villainous fashion by murdering Dustin. 

 

Swerve/Ospreay vs The Bucks

All of the entrances here were u brilliant. The exploding "Ospreay! Ospreay!" JoJo belting out Chaka Khan, Justin Roberts doing an even longer Bucks Founding Fathers intro than last time. This was when the show started to really feel like an All In, from the production values to the stakes to the energy levels of the crowd. The Bucks have been in outstanding form since their return and this felt like the culmination of the run they've been on. Spectacular action, great twists and turns and the feelgood ending everyone wanted. The Swerve/Ospreay super team up is so joyous, but also serves the double function of providing great footage for the inevitable video packages when they're fighting each other for the world title. Anyway yeah, this was excellent and I'm very interested to see what Post-EVP Bucks look like.

Women's Casino Gauntlet

This was good fun. I'm a big fan of the women's division at the moment and it was great to see this colourful cast of characters with their interconnected mini feuds all overlapping. Still overly reliant on "everyone lays out and two people fight", but some more fun multi-person spots towards the end and I was more interested in a lot of the undercard pairings. I haven't seen Supercard of Honor yet aside from the main event, so Syuri was a really nice surprise. Great to see Windsor debut too and their exchange was very cool. Harley getting the big return pop was a nice moment too. They surely have to align Thekla with Julia and Skye Blue sooner rather than later. Too much upside down flirting going on for it not to happen. Thekla and Aminata's burning desire to destroy each other is consistently entertaining too. Athena is a brilliant choice of winner, so happy to see her at this level after languishing in ROH for far too long. It's made her what she is today but maaan did we have to wait for her to come back! A

 

MJF vs JetSpeed vs Christian/Nick Wayne vs The Hurt Syndicate

Bobby and Shelton's ring gear was beautiful. Was funny seeing everyone dressed in their All In best and Christian rocking the signature sleeveless turtleneck. MVP being the only man rapping on time during the THS entrance was unfortunate. Lashley's spot where he hauls a guy from the ring to the floor while stood on the apron is glorious. Was hoping that time he did it to Mascara Dorada the other week wasn't a one-off spot. Shelton german suplexing Speedball clean out of the ring was wonderful. Enjoyed this match, great showcase for JetSpeed and Shelton looked incredible for the duration. Loved Christian leapfrogging the spear at the end as a little callback to the Copeland match. Lashley pie facing Dax also got a little "ooh" out of me. The tag division could be healing, guys.

I was buzzing for the post match. The only things I want to see Cope doing at this stage are Cope Open type matches to elevate talents OR working with Christian Cage. I bloody loved their AEW feud and I am all about that one last tag run. The Wayne turn has been set up very effectively and I love that Copeland is going to make Christian work for this reunion, as well he should. I liked "go find yourself" and I loved how excited the stadium was for the reunion tease.

 

Toni Storm vs Mercedes Mone

INCREDIBLE video package for this one, as I knew it would be. There were still about 50 Toni quotables they could have used that didn't make the cut, but what they did include was gold and highlighted how great both have been, how great the booking for both has been and how MASSIVE this match is. Magnificent entrances for both, megastars the pair of them.  Easy match of the night up to this point. Brilliant tension, impossible to call. The triple Storm Zero was a superb and well earned near fall for a finisher that's reasonably well protected, Mercedes' near fall with the rope-assisted small package was terrifyingly close as well. Excellent match to round of a great feud. Fascinated to see what Mercedes does after the loss. What an incredible run she's had over the past twelve months, putting on bangers all over the world against all kinds of opponents. Toni contending with Athena next will be a lot of fun. Beyond thrilled that she retained here; she is the best. 

 

Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada

Excellent video package for this  as well. This was great. Kenny now has the same story baked into every match until he calls it a day and I don't think that's a bad thing at all. Okada did a brilliant job targeting it throughout the match, cutting Kenny off at all the right moments as is his specialty. I particularly loved the tombstone counter where he ended up with Kenny over his shoulder for a powerslam and instead did a sort of gut buster onto the shoulder instead.

Probably the most exertion we've seen from Okada in AEW but, like the Speedball and Ibushi matches, he still didn't do THAT much. A couple of bigger bunmps and a couple of extra high gear sequences, but mostly the same as the rest of this run; doing the minimum and making every action count. I've said this a lot while working through the AEW backlog (coming soon!), but I think he's phenomenal, just an incredibly smart wrestler who understands the little things and wrings the most out of the least. 

I can see why people have been let down expecting  this incredibly dynamic super worker who had the hour long spectacles, but I find him extremely engaging to watch. He's given Speedball his best AEW outing so far, he helped Ibushi to a better comeback match than any of us could possibly expect. He was the best opponent for Omega in their respective primes but, similar to Ibushi, this Okada is the best opponent for Kenny NOW. Effortlessly putting on quality matches all while being lazy and washed up and stealing 4 million dollars an hour or whatever he's meant to be on. The fact that he's also revealed himself to be a comedic genius as well has only sweetened the deal.

Kenny is also working around his own limitations brilliantly. Obviously the real life issues being well known has tempered expectations, but the man's selling is out of this world. Like presumably his guts aren't ACTUALLY about to explode if he takes a punch there, but by god he makes you believe that they might. He looked like he was fighting for his life all the way through this and it made for amazing drama without either of them having to kill themselves trying to roll back the years.

It wasn't a 7 star marathon but it was two masters putting on a masterful performance. Loved it.

 

Hangman vs Moxley

Oooh Boy Hangman's entrance was something special. The crowd in complete, respectful silence for the Fistful of Dollars whistling performance, erupting immediately into "Cowboy Shit!" the second it ended. Spine tingling. Then of course Ghost Town Triumph. Maaan I am gutted we didn't get All In over here this year. I don't know if anything live will top Swerve/Danielson for me, but to be in the crowd for this  would have been magical. Then the beautiful monologue from Excalibur that was about more than pro wrestling. The camera swinging round to find Hanger in the glorious gear. Perfection.

This was as close to perfect as it gets really. The violence and hatred was there, the heat was there. One small note is that every Deathmatch could be improved by having someone like Marina doing ringside admin. They don't even have to be a second for one of the guys. It's a small thing, but Mox having her there to hand him the plunder and set things up removed a ton of the plodding moments you always get in matches like this. Her overall performance was great here too, showing the appropriate levels of increasing fear for Moxley and the realisation that it was all coming crashing down. I don't know what you do with her Post-Death Riders, but her addition to this group, her booking throughout and her performances have all been a roaring success as far as I'm concerned. 

Anyway, yeah, magic The fork stabbing made me wince, but other than that it felt like a real low down dirty scrap rather than a stunt show, and that was appropriate. There were high spots but it was mostly gross, nasty shit. A cornered and desperate Moxley vs Hangman with that psychotic determination. He has made his way closer to the light again, but all of the change in him caused by the Swerve feud remains. He is forever changed, he's just channelling it in the right direction for now. Such a brilliantly fleshed out and complete character. I've said this about Swerve vs Hangman and Hangman generally before, but at his best it feels bigger and better than pro wrestling, or  at least pushes the boundaries of how good it can be. 

Darby with a pre-taped promo from the top of Mount Everest was glorious, Danielson in the Blue Panther mask!!! Maybe it's for the best I wasn't in the crowd as that might have finished me. Then of course Swerve plonking that chain in the ring. Actually went "yeeeeah!" out loud to nobody, in my room, weeks after the show happened. What the chain represents in their rivalry, the fact that Swerve didn't get in the ring at all either, he simply evened the odds and gave Hangman the tools he needed to go and fulfil his destiny. 

Hangman's timing on getting to his feet at 9 in this match was something else. Edge of the seat stuff every time. Moxley completely spiralling as the match went on was great too, initially confidently calling the win very prematurely, by the end howling with despair as Hangman refused to die yet again. Mox's selling of the finish was some of the best I've ever seen in a pro wrestling match. He 100% looked like he was about to die and was fucking TERRIFIED. Stunning visual and a suitably memorable end for the final boss. 

Then we had Swerve's little smile, the ROAR when Hangman got the case open, Roberts with the big call. It was brilliant. If I'd been in the stadium I'd have cried. 

My second favourite AEW match of all time. after Swerve and Danielson. A perfect ending. 

 

Overall... AEW have put on many better shows top to bottom. It was too long, but I have kind of made peace with that and watch AEW PPVs in multiple sittings. It doesn't negate the criticism, but I'm past the point of harping on it as I don't think it's going to change any time soon. Definitely some TV matches on the undercard, the men's gauntlet was nowhere close to the thrill ride I'd hoped for. However... the women's gauntlet was a great celebration of a division that has come alive over the course of this year, Swerve/Ospreay vs Bucks was everything it set out to be, and I absolutely loved all three of the top matches. For B-Shows I look at the card in its entirety with a bit more scrutiny. For All In, it would be better if restraint was shown and it would be better if the undercard hit from top to bottom. However, more so than any other show of the year, the headliners are what need to knock it out of the park, and for me they definitely did that. So, so happy it's back in London next year! 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lorne Malvo]

JLM's almost caught up, guys. Nature is healing. 

[RedTwoster]

EDIT: Damn, posted my Collision thoughts in the wrong thread - sorry if you saw this and had something spoiled!

Edited August 1, 2025 by RedTwoster