AEW Revolution 2022
March 6, 2022
Addition Financial Arena
Orlando, Florida

Watch: PPV & FITE (Non-US)

Meet our Previewers: 

Jeremy Sexton: Who’s got 2 thumbs and is pumped for this fire pape? This guy. I’ll also be in attendance, so there’s that too. I’ll be wearing a CM Punk shirt and keeping a keen eye out for the most money-making man in Switzerland. You can find me on Twitter at @jeremysexton.

Suit Williams: This has the makings of an all-time great PPV, and I’ll be enjoying it in a movie theater. I’ll be watching CM Punk and MJF bleed on the silver screen, the way God intended. Check out my Brock Lesnar retrospective series, The Brockumentary, on this very website. Toss me a follow on Twitter as well, @SuitWilliams.

Pre-Show
HOOK vs. QT Marshall

Jeremy: HOOK! That’s how you get people to tune in for this Pre-Show, you give the people HOOK. It’s too bad they’re not doing this on a Dynamite, as it’s a fun little program they’ve got him in. Feels a little cheap to pay it off on the Pre-Show. I guess you could argue more people will see it this way. At any rate, it’s going to be a fun match, QT will feed for him well and the crowd’s going to love it. Prediction: HOOK

Suit: The hottest thing since sliced bread is coming to PPV. HOOK has been handled perfectly up to this point, and QT Marshall is the perfect goober for him to truck through. I expect QT to get a bit more offense here than HOOK’s other victims, but the result will remain the same. The Cold-Blooded Handsome Devil scores the win here. Prediction: HOOK

Pre-Show
Kris Statlander vs. “Legit” Leyla Hirsch

Jeremy: Look, I wasn’t expecting to have any interest in this, but their promos on Dynamite have legit been kinda good. I thought the one on the go-home Dynamite in particular was strong. Not to mention Statlander just leveling her by telling her it was obvious why her parents gave her up. Yikes. At this point I’m not even sure who the babyface is anymore, but I’m down to watch them fight. Will it be good? Probably not, but maybe it will! I choose optimism. Prediction: Leyla “2 Legit, 2 Legit 2 Quit” Hirsch

Suit: I don’t get why people are up-in-arms about Statlander coming at Hirsch with her comments. If someone jumped me with a chair after weeks of being annoyingly passive-aggressive towards me, I may say some things that could be considered out of pocket. That aside, I can see this one going either way. It depends on where they want to go next with their women’s titles. I think it’s more likely that Statlander wins and challenges Jade Cargill for the TBS Title, as opposed to Hirsch winning and challenging Thunder Rosa. Not a lock, but I’ll lean Stat. Prediction: Kris Statlander

AEW TBS Championship
Jade Cargill © vs. Tay Conti

Jeremy: Speaking of matches that probably won’t be very good! This one is going to be interesting though, because both of these women have unreal charisma. Jade’s is obvious on screen, while Tay’s comes through on tv, but really comes through live. Sometimes that’s enough if the match is put together in a way to raise the floor. Given their inexperience, they’re going to need all the help they can get. Prediction: Jade Cargill

Suit: It’s iffy putting Jade Cargill on PPV with Tay Conti. Jade is inconsistent with her performances lately, although a constant is that the matches get worse the longer they go. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not selling any stock in her yet. Jade has all the potential in the world and the confidence in herself to stay the course. These are just some of the growing pains that come with the territory of becoming a big-time wrestler. Tay’s improved by leaps and bounds over the course of her AEW run, but I don’t know if she’s “help lead Jade through a live match” good. Keep it under say…10 minutes and things should be ok. Jade retains. Prediction: Jade Cargill

Tornado Trios Match
AHFO (Andrade El Idolo, Matt Hardy, Isiah Kassidy) vs. Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara & Sting

Jeremy: Is it just me or is there no enthusiasm for this match? I certainly don’t feel any. Anything with AHFO for me is just a turn off. I don’t like Sammy as a babyface. I’m just not jazzed about this at all. I think I’m also dreading this going way too long. If it’s kept short and there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors, some fun high spots from Quen, Andrade, Sammy, and Darby, it could be fun. Let’s hope that’s what we get. Prediction: Darby, Sammy, Stingy

Suit: I find it interesting that Isiah Kassidy has been getting so many big spots lately. He had a TNT Title match against Guevara, followed by the excellent Keith Lee debut, and now he’s in this all-star trios match. Keep an eye on that. Anyway, this felt like a way of getting Darby and Sting on the show until I realized that Jeff Hardy should be coming in some time soon. It probably won’t be on this show, since his 90-day no compete wouldn’t be up yet. However, it does expire in time for next week’s Dynamite. So the babyfaces will win here due to Matt screwing something up, the heels will turn on him, which will leading to Jeff coming in for the save some time after that. Sounds like good business to me. Prediction: Guevara, Allin, Sting

AEW World Tag Team Championship
Jurassic Express © vs. reDRagon vs. The Young Bucks

Jeremy: So, obviously, Jurassic Express wins here because the Bucks and reDRagon collide in some way. The road there should be fun because how could it not be? All three of these teams are great. It feels like people are maybe a little cool on this one too, probably because Kenny’s absence seems to put a limiter on the progression of the Bucks/reDRagon story. It is in those spots where the Bucks are down card, though, that they seem to pull out yet another incredible performance and remind everyone exactly who they are. JR’s going to be insufferable here, if it’s not tornado rules (or even if it is, as we’ve seen before) but I won’t be listening to him, so y’all can have fun with that! Prediction: Jurassic Express

Suit: The Young Bucks vs reDRagon vs a third team for the tag team titles. Is this Revolution or New Beginning in Osaka? The feud here is between reDRagon and the Bucks, with Jurassic Express here just to get another defense in. If I had to put odds on these teams winning, I’d have the champs as the favorites. The heel teams getting in each other’s way will make it easy for the Express to score a fall and get out of there. If the titles are to change hands, I think reDRagon would be the ones to win them so the Bucks can chase. But that feud doesn’t need the tag titles, especially with trios titles all but confirmed by Tony Khan to be coming once Kenny Omega returns. Champs retain in what should be a barnburner. Prediction: Jurassic Express

Jon Moxley vs. Bryan Danielson

Jeremy: LET’S GO! This is, far and away, the match I’m most looking forward to on this show. I’ve said before that Jon Moxley is one of my favorite technical wrestlers because the stuff he does actually looks real. I don’t need fancy schmancy holds that wouldn’t actually hurt. Give me Jon Moxley’s vicious basic submissions any day. Bryan Danielson is another one who executes in a believable, violent way. Throw in the way these two throw strikes and their reckless approach to their own safety, and this match is shaping up to be pure brutality. The ceiling for this is legitimately my favorite match of all time. I’m going to be spending the next couple days lowering expectations, but man is it ever difficult. Prediction: Jeohhhhhhhhhhhn Moxley

Suit: Unless these two hold something back for a hypothetical rematch, this has a ceiling of a Match of the Year Contender. Moxley is one of the most consistently great talents in the company. The man has had a really good match with almost everyone in the main event scene. Meanwhile, Bryan Danielson has been on a level unto himself since debuting for AEW, having more MOTY contenders in six months than most wrestlers ever will. The man is on another plane of existence when it comes to wrestling, and he’s promised to bring Moxley the violence he’s been asking for. The quality of the match is of no concern to me, these two will deliver. The questions lie in the story. Will Mox join up with Danielson after this match for a tag team run? I’m leaning no. After Danielson’s actions on Dynamite reminded people that he’s a heel, I think Mox will stay on his own path. Now that doesn’t mean that Danielson can’t find someone to take him up on his offer of making a shooter unit, but that someone won’t be Moxley. Prediction: Jon Moxley

Chris Jericho vs. Eddie Kingston

Jeremy: Eddie Kingston vs Chris Jericho. There’s so much negativity in the world, sometimes you have to stop and appreciate the things that are truly wonderful, such as this match and the fact that it is happening. I would’ve loved one more promo out of Eddie to build to it, but what we got was great. Jericho looks like he’s in the best shape he’s been in in a long time. This should be just a great pro wrestling match. Hopefully there’s no shenanigans in the finish or anything, I’d love to see them just go out there and fight. Save PnP’s interplay for after the second bell rings. Prediction: Chris Jericho

Suit: The way this story has turned in the past two weeks feels like they’re setting up for a big Eddie push. Jericho brought up the Players Tribune article and brought up how Eddie feels like he can never succeed in life. The only reason you do that is for Eddie to overcome that and score that big win. The only question is, does Kingston get it here? I can see Jericho cheating to win and going heel for a while before putting Eddie over in a big rematch. There’s the Santana and Ortiz aspect of this as well, where they now seem to be cool with Jericho after Eddie convinced them that Jericho was the problem. Do they play a role in the match itself? Are they luring Jericho into a false sense of security, or have they put their problems to bed? We’ll find out. Eddie will win the feud, but I think it’ll be more interesting if Jericho wins this first match, and it’ll be even more interesting if he wins with shenanigans. Prediction: Chris Jericho

Face of the Revolution Ladder Match
Keith Lee vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Ricky Starks vs. Wardlow vs. Christian Cage

Jeremy: Keith Lee, Powerhouse Hobbs, Wardlow… HOSS LADDER MATCH BABAY! This is going to be at the very least different than other ladder matches, in that it should include a fair amount of dudes just whacking on each other with ladders and less setting up elaborate spots of doom. I’m assuming Christian Cage gets that last spot, but I’m not sure it matters. I think this show has 2 stories running through it, one is the separation of the Bucks and Adam Cole, the other is the liberation of Wardlow. Either he wins here, or Spears costs him the match. I think I’ll go with the former. Prediction: Cleveland’s own, Wardlow

Suit: Let’s do this one by order of elimination. Christian hasn’t wrestled at all this year, plus he feels a little higher than the TNT Title even though he’s mostly been a manager lately. Team Taz and Keith Lee seem to be having issues lately, so we’ll say they’re programmed together and won’t be dealing with the TNT Title. Orange Cassidy is here to fill up the numbers, so he’s out. Which leaves the War Dog. They’ve done a great job heating him up with the Powerbomb Symphony, and his issues with Spears and MJF feel like they’ve come to a head. MJF is having his blow off match with Punk, so spinning into the Wardlow feud feels like an easy next step for him. Sunday should be WARDLOW DAY. Prediction: Wardlow

AEW Women’s World Championship
Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. © vs. Thunder Rosa

Jeremy: This feels a little colder than I expected it to, even though it’s been built for what, a year at this point? Britt’s title run has surprisingly not been all that memorable, but especially has been light on great matches. I really enjoyed the match with Statlander at All Out, but aside from that… If absolutely nothing else, this should be a really good match. I would love for it to also be the end of Britt’s current reign, but I’m not quite sure that will be the case. Prediction: Dr. Britt Baker, D. M. D.

Suit: There have been some complaints that AEW hasn’t heated this match up to where it was after the Lights Out match. I would tend to agree with that, but that doesn’t mean this match hasn’t been built up. The Mercedes Martinez angle was smart, starting that feud with Rosa before pulling back the curtain to reveal that Britt brought her in specifically to take Rosa out. Rosa’s gone through her, she’s pinned Britt on Dynamite, and I think she’s beating her here. Will the feud end here? I don’t think so, nor do I think it should. Maybe they decide to literally go Double or Nothing in May and have a big stipulation match, but this is the time for Thunder Rosa to get her win and get the title. Prediction: Thunder Rosa

Dog Collar Match
CM Punk vs. MJF

Jeremy: What a fascinating build this has been. It appears that most people loved the MJF promo from a couple weeks ago. I… am one of them. Holy smokes it was fantastic. It does add this new layer to the MJF character and to this match, though. It’s hard to hate him so vociferously when you hear about this anti-semitic bullying that he experienced growing up. It needed an angle that would thread the needle of keeping that complexity in an interesting way (and potentially sowing seeds for a face turn in the far, far future), while making MJF fully hateable for this match so you’d want to see Punk kill him, while ALSO not making last week’s promo feel cheap.

Boy, did it ever succeed. This segment on Wednesday was an absolute home run. Punk was incredible, the way he wrestled with his feelings about the whole thing after learning this, bringing up his photo with Steve Austin, something I’d completely forgotten about, and tracing how he was told the same exact things about Steve “taking his ball and going home,” and how he handled it all and how he did terrible things, but now is trying to be better. He extended the olive branch to MJF to help him be better, too. MJF, the snake that he is, beat him bloody for it. It was incredible. MJF came off thoroughly evil and the match feels red hot. I unfortunately expect a lot of interference in this, but that shouldn’t keep it from being excellent. Prediction: CM Punk by way of interference backfire

Suit: A feud like this is why it is so important to have a second high-level television wrestling promotion. Something like this could never happen in WWE for a number of reasons. One, this feud is way deeper and way more nuanced than anything WWE has done on purpose in years. MJF bringing up the anti-semitism that he faced as a child, guilting CM Punk into feeling bad for him, only to make him pay for it the second he let his guard down is an incredible way to build heat on this match. It’s something that takes patience and trust in your performers from a promoter’s standpoint, and it takes next-level talent from said performers to pull it off without crossing a line into distasteful or corny territory. MJF walked that line with brilliance, while CM Punk was perfect as the conflicted babyface who didn’t want to trust the heel, but felt bad that he let him down. MJF was somewhat justified in his anger at Punk, but was also still a selfish bad guy by not understanding that Punk needed to leave wrestling before it killed him. It’s a story that grew more layered as the weeks went on, peaking at exactly the right time to get you to pay $50 to see the conclusion.

The second reason this would never happen in WWE is because this match is going to be a bloodbath. After the go-home angle with MJF covering Punk in the crimson mask, they made the statement that there will be blood, and a whole lot of it. These two are going to do the Dog Collar match justice, and they will do Piper and Valentine proud.

Now onto the winner. For the longest time, I thought MJF would get the win and move on to challenging Hangman for the title. But then he beat Punk in Chicago. TWICE. If MJF wasn’t a made man by then, he certainly is now. Now, this is more than about making MJF. It’s about Punk getting his revenge. Punk will win here, and I think he should. Prediction: CM Punk

AEW World Championship
Hangman Page © vs. Adam Cole

Jeremy: Just a couple Adams going out and having an awesome wrestling match for the top title in the company, that’s what I expect here. It’s not a particularly complex story for this one. Hangman has shiny thing, Cole wants shiny thing, Cole smash Hangman to try to get shiny thing, Hangman smash back. No blood feud, just enough heat from Undisputed Era being jerks that it gives the match some life. The downside here is that for as relatively straightforward as the build has been, I expect all sorts of tomfoolery in this one. If reDRagon, the Dork Order, and probably even the Young Bucks aren’t involved in this, I will be SHOCKED. But, AEW hasn’t exactly been judicious with their interference in the past and there have been many great matches in company history that overcame it and I expect nothing less here. They’re going on last, they’ve got a lot of pressure on their shoulders, and I think they can deliver. Prediction: Hangman Page

Suit: This is a simple story compared to the other big matches on the card, which has it feeling colder than those matches. But these guys hear all the chatter about how this match is cold. They hear people talking about how Punk/MJF or Rosa/Britt should be the main event. These two are going to go out there following Danielson and Moxley and Punk and MJF and Eddie and Jericho, and they are going to want to show the world that they were the right choice to main event this show. I have no doubts about Cole in this spot. The man has been main eventing pay-per-views for nearly a decade now, he’s gonna be fine. If these two can come through in this spot, I’ll be done doubting Hangman as a true blue top guy. AEW built the first three years of their existence, literally since the very first press conference, building up to Hangman Page being the World Champion. They know this guy can come through in the big spot, and I think he will make a lot of believers in this big spot on Sunday. The winner isn’t in doubt. Hangman should win, he needs to win, and Cole loses nothing by losing. The only way he wins if we get reDRagon/Bucks interference, and even then, the tag match from earlier will more than likely have those two teams on different pages. The Hangman will ride out of Orlando still AEW World Champion. Prediction: Hangman Page