February 9th, 2022
Atlantic City, New Jersey
AEW World Champion: Hangman Adam Page (since 11/13/21)
AEW World Tag Team Champions: Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus (since 1/5/22)
AEW Women’s World Champion: Britt Baker (since 5/30/21)
AEW TBS Champion: Jade Cargill (since 1/5/22)
AEW TNT Champion: Sammy Guevara (since 1/26/22)
Commentators: Excalibur, Jim Ross, & Tony Schiavone
The show begins with Wardlow coming to the ring. He has cardboard cutouts of MJF and CM Punk. He hands Justin Roberts a note with a disgruntled look on his face. The note is a script for how MJF, FTR (w/ Tully Blanchard), and Shawn Spears are introduced to the ring. It’s pretty great stuff and the heat is immense. Everyone got their own entrance, but Wardlow. MJF is carried out on a chair / throne thing with people holding him up. He makes out with one of the women for like 30 seconds. He jumps in the ring and celebrates with The Pinnacle as Wardlow watches on. MJF says he’s the best wrestler in the world and after last week, he’s better than the best in the world. Lots of bragging and shitty comments like usual and it’s great. CM Punk walks onto the stage and says he learned his lesson and he’s not coming out here alone anymore. Darby Allin and Sting walk out to join him. All three of them have bats and Punk says MJF can give him a rematch or he can come beat it out of him right now. MJF makes excuses as to why he can’t and Punk tries to coax Wardlow into turning on the Pinnacle because he’s the only reason any of them win any matches. Dax Harwood speaks up and says Punk, Darby & Sting should be asking for a rematch against them from last December. OK LETS GO. Punk says they’re down for it, but MJF speaks up because of course he doesn’t wanna be involved so MJF pitches the wager —- Punk can get his rematch, but only if he & a partner of his choosing that isn’t Darby or Sting can defeat FTR TONIGHT. OH MY GOD. AEW doesn’t run these type of angles often and with the rumors swirling about tonight, I AM SO FUCKING STOKed to see who Punk picks. I hope it’s Samoa Joe. AHHHHH !!!
Backstage, Andrade El Idolo runs into Darby Allin & Sting. Andrade says he’s happy to have finally found Darby’s boss. Darby says his focus isn’t on him, it’s on the TNT title. Andrade says that’s funny because he wants to be TNT Champion, too..
1) Wardlow (w/ Shawn Spears) vs. The Blade
Very happy to see The Blade on television here. It’s also nice seeing Wardlow in something besides a squash match. This got enough time to have a Picture in picture break during it and was pretty good for what it was. And as said before, a nice chance of pace. Wardlow gets the win after some powerbombs.
Match rating - **1/2
A vignette airs of Penta El Zero Miedo that foreshadows him finding his old, darker self from his Lucha Underground gimmick. Interested to see what this is leading towards.. obviously something with Malakai Black & Brody King, but could we see Penta turn?
Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara & Jake Hager come out for The Inner Circle team meeting. Santana & Ortiz have their own entrance. Santana has a fantastic promo here. Santana builds on the argument that Jericho has held them back and says the only reason he hasn’t dropped Jericho before is because Ortiz stopped him. Jericho says they can blame him if they want, but they had a tag title shot last year and lost. Jericho says with the way they’re acting, he wonders if he chose the wrong members of LAX to join the Inner Circle and asks Hager if he has Homicide and Hernandez’s phone number. Santana charges Jericho as soon as he mutters Homicide’s name which was so fucking hard. Another callback to Punk & Kingston’s feud when Kingston said “don’t you say his fucking name” when Punk mentioned Homicide. Just good, good shit. Basically, Sammy Guevara ends up walking out. Santana & Ortiz will face Jericho & Hager next week. YEAH. I don’t want a feud between these two at all, though, I just want Santana & Ortiz away from them ASAP.
In the parking lot, Trent Beretta & Rocky Romero are here. They finally get their match against The Young Bucks on Rampage this week after it was post poned a few weeks ago due to Covid. The Young Bucks show up and they & Adam Cole jump RPG Vice. Before they can fully finish the job, SWITCHBLADE JAY WHITE WALKS UP. OH MY GOD. JAY WHITE IS IN AEW AND SEEMINGLY ALIGNED WITH THE YOUNG BUCKS AND ADAM COLE. I’m a mark, fuck off. This rules.
2) Isaiah Kassidy (w/ Marq Quen & Matt Hardy) vs. Keith Lee - Face of the Revolution Qualifying Match
As if I was even able to breath after seeing Jay White, it’s followed up by this.. the debut of Keith fucking Lee. He gets a monumental reaction and immediately feels like a bigger star than he ever did in WWE. He deserves this and I almost wanted to cry. Kassidy is the perfect opponent
Match rating - ***
3) CM Punk & Jon Moxley vs. FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood)
So, the forbidden door stuff is over by this point in the show, but Moxley being revealed as Punk’s surprise partner did not feel flat in the slightest. If anything, it really did feel like a surprise because we all expected someone from outside the company and when we got Mox, it was like oh okay fuck yeah. It just worked. And then the match began and man.. it more than worked. I’m starting to think that I just want Moxley in a tag team for the next year because just like last year when he & Eddie Kingston faced The Young Bucks in one of the best matches of the year, Moxley plays his role to extreme perfection. Punk handles the selling and being the face in peril, and Mox gets the hot rags and handles business. He sells too, though! Everything about this just absolutely ruled. FTR was FTR once again, and I mean that as a good thing. Quick tags, old school tag team wrestling as they broke down Punk. This was just fucking phenomenal stuff, I really can’t quite put it into words. Things break down in the final 5 minutes or so, but it never feels like a spotfest, it feels like the climax of a classic heel vs. babyface tag team pro wrestling match. Punk might be the wrestler of the year so far and FTR might be tag team of the year so far. Phenomenal stuff that will probably make my end of the year list. Punk & Mox win after hitting their finishers at the exact same time. Oh, also, random note, they HIT A FUCKING DOOMSDAY DEVICE HERE AND IT WAS SO AWESOME. Anyways, yeah. The babyfaces triumph and Punk gets his re-match with MJF any time, any place, and any where.
Match rating - ****1/4
Backstage, The Young Bucks are weird about Adam Cole seemingly having something to do with Jay White showing up earlier. Cole says they shouldn’t worry because if you’re Bullet Club, you’re Bullet Club 4LIFE and that they can trust him.
4) Jade Cargill (c) vs. AQA - TBS Title Match
This might be my favorite Jade Cargill match so far. She’s still rough around the edges in the ring, but you can see the improvement with every match. AQA has a great showing in her debut, hitting a beautiful shooting star press and attempting a second. Things sort of fell apart down the stretch, but the improvement from Jade was still very present and the first half of things were awesome. Jade retains with JADED.
Match rating - **1/2
5) Serena Deeb vs. Katie Arquette
SQUASH.
The Gunn Club are getting a tag team title match on Rampage on Friday and they are pretty stoked on it. Also on Rampage: RPG Vice vs. The Bucks, Bryan Danielson speaks, and Hook & Britt Baker in action.
6) “Hangman” Adam Page (c) vs. Lance Archer - Texas Death Match for the AEW World Championship
After such a monumental night, Adam Page and Lance Archer went out here and beat the damn dog shit out of another. The match starts backstage and Page tosses Archer through a glass window thing to start things off. No pinfalls here or only knockout (ten count) or submission. Page has an insane flurry to start, even nailing a buckshot lariat in the opening moments following the glass spot that almost clenches him the victory. After this, Archer, who was busted open from the glass, takes control and we get Page struggling from underneath which leads perfectly into his awesome comeback. Page takes a lot of rough spots around this point in the match, though, and he gets busted open WAY WORSE than Archer.. I’m talking a gusher. Arguably worse than the one he had against Danielson. The worst spot of all, though, is Archer tossing Page onto the steel steps while they are sideways and upright. Just a brutal bump. Anyway, Page wins with an insane buckshot lariat off the apron that plants Archer through a table on the floor. Hangman is still your AEW World Champion.
Match rating - ***3/4
After the match, Adam Cole comes down to confront a bloody Hangman. He hands Page the AEW Title, but makes it clear that he wants it. Looks like we are getting Hangman vs. Cole at Revolution!
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