All Elite Wrestling
All In London 2024
August 25, 2024
Wembley Stadium
London, England
Watch: PPV
Steve Case: It’s been awhile since Steve has graced the review scene. He’s been too busy trying to keep up with his wife’s creativity! Whether it’s contributing more frequently to this very website with her wrestling travel website, or creating a children’s book series with a pro wrestling for babies book and a merchandise site, she’s lapped Steve in that department. But when it comes to pro wrestling reviews, Steve is still top of his household (for now). AEW PPV’s, almost always deliver, and most times deliver big. With this card, this crowd, these matches, and THOSE potential/likely surprises, this show should be no different!
AEW All In London 2024 Zero Hour
16 Man Tag Team Match
Kyle Fletcher, Rocky Romero, Kip Sabien, Tommy Billington, Action Andretti, Darius Martin, Dante Martin, & Lio Rush def. Anthony Ogogo, Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh, Marq Quen, Alex Reynolds, John Silver, Ariya Davari, & Isaiah Kassidy
Steve: Well here is your “let’s get everyone on the card” match. Wondering if they will do a women’s match on this pre show as well? This was a fun, albeit kind of sloppy match. Kyle Fletcher continues to look great, which might come in handy with the new Australian show coming next year. Everybody hit their signature stuff, Billington got a British Bulldog pop for his music, and Kip Sabien was weirdly super over. Yes, I know he’s from England, but he’s Kip Sabien. Anyway, Dante Martin picked up the win out of all people with his double between the legs splash. **¾
AEW All In London 2024 Zero Hour
Mixed Tag Team Match
Tomohiro Ishii & Willow Nightingale def. Kris Statlander & Stokely Hathaway
Steve: Stokely’s entrance and costume really popped my wife with the Egyptian imagery. Willow and Ishii both got pretty good pops from the filling building. This was a pretty paint by numbers, kind of sloppy match until Stokely tagged in. Statlander going after Ishii started a sequence that saw Stokely give Ishii a surprisingly great spinebuster that Ishii hilariously no sold. Stokely then did the ten punches in the corner spot that Ishii again no sold and led to a powerbomb. Stokely is the kind of comedy wrestling I enjoy. He’s not over the top, he tries to wrestle, but the facials, mannerisms, and opponents reactions off of him are perfect. I can’t call this good, but the ending sequence was at least fun. **1/4
AEW All In London 2024 Zero Hour
Ten Man Tag Team Match
Dustin Rhodes, Katsuyori Shibata, Sammy Guevara & The Von Erichs (Marshall von Erich & Ross von Erich) def. Cage Of Agony (Bishop Kaun, Brian Cage & Toa Liona) & The Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett)
Steve: You often hear about wrestling matches devolving into car crashes. Some are electric and fun, some completely fall apart. I can’t say that this completely fell apart, but it was much closer to that than being an electric spectacle. Sammy Guevara looked pretty good for the first big show of his punishment/reclamation run. Cage doing a big dive and no one caught him was quite funny. Even the commentators had a chuckle at that. The face team wins after some chaos. Moving on. **
Jamie Hayter returns to AEW
To close the pre-show, Saraya came out to the ring with her family and entourage complaining about not being on the card. JAMIE HAYTER returns to a HUGE pop. Do people still complain about this women’s division? Where’d they go?
AEW World Trios Title London Ladder Match
Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta) & PAC def. The Patriarchy (Christian Cage, Killswitch & Nick Wayne) (w/Shayna Wayne) ©, House Of Black (Brody King, Buddy Matthews & Malakai Black), & the Bang Bang Gang (Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn & Juice Robinson)
Steve: I know it was just the pre show, but I’m not should I’d follow a bunch of wild, chaos filled multiman matches with a wild multiman chaotic match to start the show. Feel like a singles match would have been a better opener for this show.
This was every bit the chaotic car crash it was expected to be. Nick Wayne and Juice Robinson specifically taking some significant bumps. Christian was great as usual in his role, running away at the start until everyone else was down and out. Something just didn’t click for me here though. Maybe it was because of the preshow that came before it, but nothing really clicked for me. The action was good and everyone worked hard, but there was no pop or spark for me. Interesting that PAC and BCC B squad wins. I wonder if the BCC is dead now. ***1/2
AEW Women’s World Title Match
Mariah May def. Toni Storm (c)
Steve: The early story of this match rocked, as an overconfident Mariah just beat the crap out of Toni for several minutes. SHe even kissed Nigel and SLAPPED THE TASTE OUT OF HER OWN MOTHER! EEEEEVVVVVIIIILLLLLLL. Toni got the upperhand with a piledriver on the stairs, busting Mariah open, and it was a war from then on. These two women beat the absolute tar out of each other. This was heading for a satisfying blow off, then we got the DRAMA. The stupid shoe. I know it’s been a part of the story, but to have that kind of match come down to being conflicted over using a shoe? This is the kind of stuff that needs to go away. I went from wanting another match out of these two to never wanting them in the ring together again. A great match ruined by an awful finish. ***1/2
FTW Title Match
Hook def. Chris Jericho (w/Big Bill & Bryan Keith) (c)
Steve: I equally like and hate the fact that the Learning Tree boys got involved immediately, taking advantage of the stipulation, but it really didn’t help the match flow at all. I can’t buy Hook against three dudes putting up a fight, especially when one is Big Bill, who was OVER with the Wembley crowd. They did cricket spots with the stick and balls (I don’t know what they are actually called and I too cringed as I typed that), including one where I think Hook was supposed to drop him on the balls. Problem is, he missed all of them. Later in the match, Hook inexplicably decides to show everyone he can see after allowing himself to be outnumbered and handicapped for 80% of the match. It finally took Taz getting up from commentary to stop Bryan Keith with a Tazmission as Hook taps out Chris Jericho. A nonsensical mess. This is not shaping up as a great show to this point. *
AEW World Tag Team Title Three Way Match
The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson & Nicholas Jackson) (c) def. FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) & The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster) (w/Billy Gunn)
Steve: This was probably the best match on this show to this point, but it still lacked something. There’s no passion, no fire, no heart. Everything so far has felt lifeless, which should be hard to do in front of 50,000 people. This was well worked and everyone looked pretty good, but it was like they laid out a match a step below greatness and met it appropriately. Normally, that would be fine on a loaded show. Not tonight though. The Bucks retain. I’m in a mood it seems. ***1/2
After the match, the Grizzled Young vets confronted the Bucks, but then attacked FTR. Their finish looked GREAT. Hopefully they can inject some life into a lackluster tag division.
AEW World Title #1 Contendership Casino Gauntlet Match
Christian Cage def. Roderick Strong, Mark Briscoe, Orange Cassidy, Kyle O’Reilly, Adam Page, Kzuchika Okada, Nigel McGuinnis, Jeff Jarrett, Ricochet, Zack Sabre Jr., and Luchasaurus
Steve: Man, that pre-show felt like it took forever, huh? What a gauntlet match. This was loads of fun. About as star-studded a match you could possibly ask for. The Ricochet debut, Nigel coming back, Zack fresh off his G1 win squaring off with Nigel, Hangman coming out and wrecking everyone. So many great sequences and moments. The finish with Christian winning due to Luchasaurus fell a little flat, but it keeps Christian at the mega heel gatekeeper he’s perfect at. Go watch this match. Start the show at this match. ****1/2
AEW American Title Match
Will Ospreay def. MJF (c)
Steve: Max’s career arc is fascinating to me. He is completely incapable of just being himself. He tried to be Flair. He tried to be Punk. He tried to be Adam Cole. Now he’s trying desperately to convince everyone that he’s a better Will Ospreay. It’s a terrific career long story even if the execution doesn’t always land (see Cole, Adam). The thing is he’s now trying to be better than the best wrestler in the world and he just simply can’t. He had to cheat to win the Dynamite match using the ring. He tried to one up WIll in this match so many times and he couldn’t, so he resorted to cheating over and over again. This time, one of his loose ends came back to bite him in a GREAT spot for Daniel Garcia to come back. The match itself was excellent, but well below the level they reached with the Dynamite match. This was a story match in the best ways. These two likely are likely done for awhile, but not forever. ****
AEW TBS Title Match
Mercedes Mone (w/Kamille) (c) def. Dr. Britt Baker DMD
Steve: This was a weird match. These two are known for some sloppiness in their work. That’s not a bad thing, as it gives their matches an element of danger and realism to them. The problem is, they need a partner who can keep things from going too far off the rails. When you put these two in there together, there’s no one holding things together. That all said, they both worked very hard and that sort of made things compelling, but the chemistry just was not there to make this memorable. All of this on top of the fact they just following the gauntlet match and MJF/Will, so the crowd did not care at all. I’d say these two have a better one in them if it were shorter, but I really don’t know if they do. Mercedes wins with her weird looking finish. ***
AEW TNT Title Coffin Match
Jack Perry (c) vs. Darby Allin
Steve: Well, that was definitive. These two crazies did some wild stuff, but Jack Perry essentially squashed Darby Allin. This was short, sweet, and to the point. Darby took some wild bumps as usual and this really made Perry look like a sadistic killer. ***¾
Post-match, the Bucks tried to light the casket with Darby in it on fire, but DAD’S HOME! Sting returned to a HUGE pop to save Darby from cremation. Metallica blared, and the crowd approved.
AEW World Title Vs. Career Match
Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Bryan Danielson
Steve: PRO WRESTLING. My god what a match. The work was outstanding, the drama was heavy, both wrestlers were in peak form, and this crowd was OUTSTANDING. Swerve was a brutal killer exactly how he needed to be. The dude is a MADE MAN. People will complain about the Hangman spot, but they never touched, he never got in the ring, and it didn’t lead to the finish. It protects Swerve in a way that he can say he had Danielson beat and with good reason, but he’s got to eliminate Hangman now to get back there. The crowd was into this the whole way, from screaming the Final Countdown, to every soul in the building standing in awe of what they were seeing, to losing their minds when Swerve tapped out. Great job Wembley.
Let’s talk about the greatest professional wrestler to ever lace a pair of boots. Many say, including me, there is too much drama in today’s pro wrestling. It gets too heavy handed and too community theater. This goes for all companies. But when you have an absolute master of this at work, that is using the physicality and struggle of the match to show the enormous bleeding heart that will not die, you get sucked in. This match was about love. Bryan Danielson’s love of pro wrestling, sure. But moreso, the love of his family. That love pouring into his heart and soul for his family would not let him die. Commentary mentioning that his family told him they don’t want this to be the end and that they want Bryan to be the one to make that call only drove that point home. Bryan Danielson, dripping in blood, taking some heavy kicks to the chest as he stares at his family yelling how he loves them, man. How can you not get behind that?
This match wasn’t about moves, though there were great ones. It wasn’t about aggression, though it was there in abundance. It wasn’t about spectacle, though it doesn’t get much better. It was about love. A man loving wrestling. A man loving his family. His refusal to quit because of it. And it was glorious to watch. *****
