Caption: AEW Revolution 2024 

By Ryan Harless

Ryan Harless is a fourth-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and Professional Wrestling are his primary interests but he is also interested in golf, hockey, and football

March 9, 2024

All Elite Wrestling (AEW) has kicked off a new era in the company with the 2024 Revolution Pay Per View. A truly perfect show that was nonstop fast-paced action from the first bell till the end.  

TNT Championship – Christian Cage (C) v. Daniel Garcia 

The first match on the card was a championship match pitting Cage, a 29-year veteran in the business, against the 25-year-old rising star Garcia.  

The fans have been behind Garcia for months now and were eager to see him win his first ever gold in AEW. Unfortunately for Garcia and his fans, Revolution was not their night.  

A great back and forth battle ensued between the two with Garcia proving that he is just as capable in the ring as Cage and showing that he can be a top guy. Just as Garcia seemed to be getting momentum on his side, Cage’s stable (known as the Patriarchy) interfered allowing Christian to swing things back his way. 

Just before the match looked to be over, Garcia’s friends in 2.0 (“Daddy Magic” Matt Menard, and “Cool Hand Ang” Angelo Parker) came to the ring to take out the Patriarchy and even the odds. However, this wasn’t enough to stop Cage from hitting his signature move ‘Unprettier’ and pinning Garcia to retain.  

This was a great opening match and I think this is the point many wrestling fans will look back on as the start of Daniel Garcia’s first big push.  

Continental Crown Championship – Eddie Kingston (C) v. Bryan Danielson 

These are two of the BEST in-ring storytellers possibly ever, and the chemistry they have with one another is completely unmatched.  

This was the third match these two have had over the Continental Crown in AEW. In the first, Danielson got beat because he didn’t respect Kingston and didn’t believe he could be beat. He got into Kingston’s head and Eddie lost the match.  

In their second meeting, Danielson had even less respect for Kingston. He didn’t shake his hand before or after the match and spent most of the encounter smiling and laughing. Eddie stood his ground and fought like he knew he could and beat Danielson, winning the Continental Crown in the process.  

Now in their third singles contest for these belts, the score was 1-1. In the weeks prior to the match, Eddie said that all he wanted if he won, was respect in the form of a handshake from Danielson. Bryan said that he would never EVER respect Kingston and spent weeks calling him a bum.  

This was an insanely hard-hitting match with Danielson being the best technical wrestler on the planet, and Kingston’s never-say-die mentality making him get up over and over again despite the punishment he took.  

Danielson worked heavily on Kingston’s right hand throughout the match trying to take away his ability to land his finishing move ‘Backfist to the Future.’ This was shown to be smart as Kingston was unable to get the same power behind the backfist as he traditionally has.  

Danielson outclassed Eddie on the mat through most of the match but was never able to pin or tap-out Kingston. Even after landing his ‘Busaiku Knee,’ Kingston managed to kick out and fight back.  

The match culminated with Kingston landing his backfist hard to Bryan’s face but this time with his left-hand showing Kingston’s brains before hitting a powerbomb and pinning Danielson to retain his Continental Crown Championship.  

All-Star Scramble – Wardlow v. Chris Jericho v. Powerhouse Hobbs v. Lance Archer v. HOOK v. Brian Cage v. Magnus v. Dante Martin 

This match was originally promoted as the “Meat Madness Match” and featured Hobbs, Archer, and Wardlow which I was super excited to see. I wasn’t opposed to adding the other five competitors, but I still would have preferred the original three-way.  

The four smaller competitors (Jericho, HOOK, Magnus, and Martin) started out by squaring off with each other before exiting the ring one at a time at the hands of the larger wrestlers to give them their time to shine. 

The AEW fanbase (me included) love to see big meaty dudes beat the breaks off of each other, so when it became clear we were getting just that in this match, the crowd popped incredibly loud.  

Hobbs, Wardlow, Archer, and Cage dazzled with huge clothes lines and punches that echoed throughout the arena for quite some time before the smaller wrestlers made their way back to the ring.  

The rest of this match was centered around Wardlow continuing to be a monster as he pinned Brian Cage after a powerbomb, setting himself up for an AEW Heavyweight Championship match in the future.  

AEW International Championship – Orange Cassidy (C) v. Roderick Strong 

This was a match that a mere 4 years ago would never have been on the table. Strong was still hopelessly floating around the WWE at the time and Cassidy was still majorly a comedy gimmick.  

In the years since, Strong has reinvigorated his love for the sport, and Cassidy has proven himself as one of the best in-ring competitors in AEW and one of their best champions.  

Cassidy’s story is similar to his first reign as International Champion. He defends the title frequently and has shown that he is starting to break down after weeks of constantly defending his belt.  

Strong’s goal going into this match was to help bring as much gold to the Undisputed Kingdom (the stable he is a part of) as possible. This was also his very first match on PPV since joining AEW in late 2023.  

This in a way was Strong’s coming out party and yet again showed that he is one of the absolute best wrestlers in the world. He fought off all of Cassidy’s offense in the final stretch and was able to pin Orange and take his International Championship.  

I think this will be a great thing as Cassidy can finally take some well-deserved time away from the ring and Strong can continue to build up the Undisputed Kingdome while they wait for Adam Cole to recover from his injury.  

Tag Team Match – FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) v. The Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli)  

These two teams have fought each other countless times in AEW, and they seem to be destined to be forever intertwined. That being said, I feel as if these two have hit a ceiling.  

FTR focus on old-school tag team psychology as well as old-school in ring action actually melds well with the Blackpool Combat Club’s (BCC) brawling style. However, this match just didn’t do it for me.  

Don’t get me wrong, this was a great match. But it just didn’t bring anything new into the fray between these two teams.  

The BCC ended up taking the victory by referees’ decision after both members of FTR were rendered unconscious after receiving vicious elbows from Claudio and Moxley. Hopefully if these teams continue to feud, they can find another element of the story to make it a little more interesting to me.  

AEW Women’s Championship – Toni Storn (C) v. Deonna Purrazzo  

This was one of the matches I was most excited to see on the card. I have absolutely been loving Toni’s “Timeless” gimmick as of late. When she makes her entrance there is a black and white filter making everything look old, she has mastered her over-the-top facial expressions and has more charisma than most people do in their pinky finger.  

Purrazzo was one of Toni’s best friends when they were cutting their teeth in the Japanese promotion ‘Stardom’. Her addition to the AEW roster as well as this storyline is a welcome one.  

I hope that this was only the first of a series of matches these two have with one another in the coming months as this match had me hooked. Toni was able to fight off Purrazzo with the help of her butler LUTHER and prodigy Mariah May as she retained her belt yet again.  

Like I said, I think this match is only scraping the surface of the masterpiece match these two can have. I cannot wait to see where they take this.  

Singles Match – Will Ospreay v. Konosuke Takeshita 

Wow. I’m really going to try and do this match justice but no matter how hard I try; you need to seek this match out for yourself and watch utter brilliance.  

As someone who has been following wrestling for over a decade and has spent countless hours watching matches from all around the globe. From VFW halls to Wembley Stadium, this is easily one of the top three matches I have seen.  

Ospreay has spent the greater part of the last decade carving his path as the best wrestler alive today (possibly of all time but that’s a discussion for another 2,000-word essay). Takeshita has spent the past two years in America proving that he doesn’t care who you are and will hit you so hard in the mouth that you’ll need braces.  

Nearly 22 straight minutes of the best professional wrestling the world has to offer. This was Ospreay’s first match as a full-time member of the AEW roster and served as a welcome home show for him.  

So as not to run the risk of doing this match an injustice, I’m only going to talk about my favorite stretch of the match.  

Ospreay goes for a butterfly suplex on Takeshita, Takeshita rolls out of it, ducks a kick and spikes Ospreay with a ‘Tiger Driver 97’ and parlays that into a HUGE German suplex on Ospreay, who eats the suplex, powers up and hits his signature ‘Hidden Blade’ on Takeshita, and goes for a pin. And then Takeshita KICKED OUT AT ONE!! 

Ospreay would go on to defeat Takeshita, but neither man lost this match. AEW continues to be better than any other major wrestling company at building their stars through their losses. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for both of these wrestlers.  

Takeshita may be my favorite wrestler going at the moment, but AEW gives such a large crop of amazing wrestlers it’s hard to choose.  

AEW World Championship – Samoa Joe (C) v. Swerve Strickland v. “Hangman” Adam Page 

One of AEW’s best done stories ever in my opinion has been taking place between these three men.  

It started with just Page and Swerve feuding over their spots in the company. Swerve felt that Page had been given too many opportunities and had never capitalized, and had HE been given those chances, Swerve would’ve been champion by now.  

Swerve played mind games by breaking into Hangman’s house while he wasn’t there and leaving a shirt in his baby’s crib. Since that moment, Hangman (understandably) has made his sole objective to ruin Swerve’s life and will stop at nothing to make that happen.  

Samoa Joe won the belt from MJF in December at AEW World’s End and has proven that he is still at the height of his abilities in the ring and on the mic. Despite that, Joe has almost taken a backseat in his own world title feud as he has constantly had to interrupt Hangman and Swerve to remind them, they have to beat HIM.  

The three competitors in this match took turns teaming up and destroying the odd man out at different points. Brilliantly paced hard-hitting sequences helped show that Swerve and Joe were willing to put their bodies on the line to become and stay champion.  

Hangman, however, seemed mainly set on inflicting punishment on Swerve throughout the match.  

The end of the match saw a super cool twist that I hope AEW builds on. Joe caught Hangman in his ‘Coquina Clutch’ and before Swerve was able to do anything to break it up, Hangman tapped out.  

Hangman willingly tapped out in order to ensure there was no way Swerve could win the belt. Hangman has become the ultimate final boss of hating and I love every second of it.  

After the match Swerve was nearly in tears as he kept asking Hangman “Why?” over and over again. Yet another great AEW Championship match. 

AEW Tag Team Championship / Sting’s Last Match – Sting & Darby Allen v. The Young Bucks (Nicholas & Matthew Jackson) 

Sting began his in-ring career on the 25^th of November 1985. 13,979 days later he wrestled his last match ever. Before I talk about the match, I want to put that into some more perspective.  

Sting wrestled 2,157 matches in his career. He main evented a show in the WWE, AEW, TNA, NJPW, and Pro Wrestling NOAH among others. In 1988 alone, he wrestled 235 matches. In July of that year, he wrestled 30 different matches.  

Sting wrestled professionally for 38 years.  

Many people expected his career to be over after he was injured by WWE’s Seth Rollins in 2015. This injury took Sting out of action for all of 2016-2020. 

When he made his return to action for AEW in 2021, no one knew what to expect. Could Sting still go? Would he even be able to wrestle?  

In the three years Sting spent with the company, he proved that not only could he go, but he could also be the highlight of any card he was on. Sting spent the final three years of his career jumping off ladders, scaffolding, and really anything he could find a way to climb. He is truly a legend the likes of which we will likely never see again.  

Before Sting made his final entrance, the lights went out and out stepped someone dressed just like Sting did in the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s when he was “Surfer Sting”. Then from the other side of the ramp, out stepped late ‘90’s “Wolfpac Sting” wearing long black hair and red face paint and gear. And then out stepped the Icon Sting.  

The two men who accompanied Sting to the ring were his actual sons who just happen to be carbon copies of their father. 

In this contest, Sting’s tag partner throughout all of his AEW tenure took one of the gnarliest bumps I’ve ever seen when he leapt off a 20-foot ladder that was in the ring, through two plates of glass that were propped up on chairs on the OUTSIDE of the ring.  

Darby was attempting to land on the Young Bucks, but they moved just after he jumped. Darby’s back and arms instantly were covered in blood, and he actually spent over half of the match recovering from that and being looked at by the medical team on hand.  

Sting battled the Bucks by himself for most of the remainder of the match, eating their flurry of superkicks only to beat his chest and land a double clothesline like no other before locking in his ‘Scorpion Death Lock’ and forcing a tap out victory.  

Confetti rained down from the rafters and there wasn’t a dry eye in the building. Sting finished his career exactly how he should’ve. On the top of the mountain as the Icon and holding championship gold.  

In Conclusion 

I’m going to keep this short. This was my favorite PPV of all time. I truly believe if you aren’t a fan of pro wrestling, you need to seek this out and try again. We are entering a new era of AEW, and I can’t wait to see where owner Tony Khan takes us next.