AEW Revolution review: Mox & Cope do their match

The most annoying thing about Sunday’s AEW Revolution was that up until the main event, this was a surefire show of the year contender.

And you know what? Even after that nonsense, I am still going to consider it a top notch show anyway because a match like Jon Moxley vs. Adam Copeland isn’t going to drag me or this show down.

To be fair, Cope and Mox had to follow a steel cage match where Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher did literally everything under the sun in one of the craziest cage matches in recorded history. Their situation was a tough one, to be sure. But even taking that into account, I can’t understand why a match like this ended the show where the last two or three matches before it would have closed things on a high note. But that didn’t happen as Mox and Cope went out there, did their match, and it wasn’t particularly good.

After weeks of Copeland hunting down most of Mox’s crew, he proceeded to have a technical wrestling battle with Moxley. And by battle, I mean Mox sat there and did holds. Cope then sat there and did holds, and vice versa. For a match that had been built on Cope taking every single member of the Death Riders down so he could get his hands on Mox, going out there and simply doing a wrestling match felt off psychologically.

Then there was the ref bump and, what do you know, Wheeler Yuta came out. On the last episode of Dynamite, it was teased that Yuta was tired of being yelled at by Mox and it was implied he wasn’t going to help him Sunday. (Never mind this was at least the second or third time they’ve teased Yuta might turn on the Death Riders and Cope looked like an utter fool for letting him go.) So wouldn’t you know it, shock of all shocks, when the time came, Yuta in fact did not turn on the Death Riders and proceeded to lay out Cope. Wow. What a shock.

As usual with the Death Riders storyline, Suddenly A Bunch Of Stuff Happened. Jay White came out and interfered but accidentally struck Cope with the briefcase. Then Christian Cage came out and cashed in his anytime, anywhere title shot that he won back in August. And after all these months of teasing his cash in, here’s how it ended: Christian hit a spear and a Killswitch but Mox came to and put Christian in his bulldog choke. Christian cutely attempted to cover Cope, but Mox pulled him off and Christian submitted, the end. The Death Riders live on.

Swerve Strickland, who won a number one contender’s match earlier in the show, took out Mox with a dive off a balcony to end the show, so that’s kinda cool but it didn’t erase the last 30 minutes.

The ending to Revolution reminded me of those WCW shows in 1997 where you would get a great undercard but a totally abysmal main event. This wasn’t as bad as some of the worst WCW main events but, boy, was it a flat ending to an otherwise excellent show.

Here’s a rundown of the rest of the card:

• Two things can be true about the steel cage match that took place between Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher. This was a brutal, violent, amazing spectacle full of incredible spots, something that won’t be forgotten for a long time. The problem was once they hit the high point, they continued and did so many crazy nearfalls that it bordered on parody. Once Mark Davis ran in for a second time in this cage match where there can’t be any interference, I was beginning to wonder what the finish was going to be. Would it be the really cool Oscutter off the cage? The Styles Clash onto the thumbtacks? The (multiple) screwdriver stabbings? The crazy Spanish fly off the cage? No, but all of that happened for some very close nearfalls. The answer? After all of that, Fletcher was pinned with a Tiger Driver 91. There were a lot of cool things, and I want to stress that overall, I thought the cage match was great, but there was A LOT going on, probably too much by the end.
• Like the main event, Kenny Omega and Konosuke Takeshita had to follow a really violent spectacle in the Hollywood Ending, but unlike the main event, I thought they did a good job. I wasn’t expecting this kind of match where Omega sold and sold and sold for a long time, but they did a good job building toward the end and I enjoyed the crucifix finish. I didn’t imagine Omega winning the title but it does make sense as Takeshita got the win in their previous match.
• Toni Storm and Mariah May had their Hollywood Ending and I must say, it was one hell of a brawl and maybe the best thing on the show in terms of overall execution. This was a fast-paced, brutal spectacle full of violence. Both women bled buckets, especially Toni. There was tons of glass and using that glass to spill more blood. Lots of piledrivers and big moves on surfaces that were not a pro wrestling ring. The aftermath of the bout where “THE END” was shown on screen as Storm continued to lie next to her former friend I thought was also a nice touch. This story kind of dragged in places, especially when Storm vanished for months, but now that it’s all said and done, I thought it was a very well done story. Who would have thought All About Eve would inspire a wrestling storyline in the 2020s?
• The Hurt Business defeating The Outrunners was nothing special. I don’t really have anything to say about it other than The Hurt Business is probably not losing for a long time. Next!
• There wasn’t much to Kazuchika Okada defeating Brody King either. Nothing wrong with it, I thought it was a good hard-hitting match, but it’s one of those bouts that gets lost in a sea of really great matches. Okada won, just biding time until they do the Omega match in July.
• Swerve Strickland gained revenge over Ricochet in what I thought was an excellent back and forth match, probably the best bell-to-bell wrestling match on the show. Ricochet has found his footing as a heel and it’s helped out his matches a ton. Swerve is one of the best in the world and showcased it here yet again. Swerve is next for Moxley and while this may just be me ready to move on from the Death Riders storyline, I’m all for him to win the title again next month.
• Momo Watanabe failed to win the TBS title from Mercedes Mone. These two had a very good, hard-hitting match. And when I mean hard-hitting, I mean Watanabe kicked Mone repeatedly. Hard. It didn’t seem fun, but Mone picked up the win after a hard battle. I’m kinda at the point where I’m wondering what the endgame is for Mone’s run with the TBS title, but she’s been consistently good so there’s no rush either, I guess.
• Hangman Page defeated MJF in what I thought was an excellent opener, probably right there with Ricochet and Swerve. MJF’s petulant behavior, jealous over Page’s popularity, played out in full force here, particularly near the end when he started throwing a fit. Also, that Angel’s Wings spot towards the end looked like it HURT. This ended up being a very well-worked match, and with Page’s victory, he should get a World title match sooner than later.

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