All Elite Wrestling All In: Texas Review - "The Feeling" Is Back

A wise man once said, "We're back," and that's more or less the sentiment with AEW after their third stadium rendition of All In. Not only did they stick the landing with "Hangman" Adam Page becoming the new AEW World Champion, but you had a ton of great moments and high-stakes matches, the final three on this card being a candidate for being the most stacked way to end a show in nearly a decade.

While I'd still argue that AEW's best show of the year is Double or Nothing from late May, this was a show Tony Khan had to nail as a booker, and he did exactly that and then some. Now you're on a stretch of PPV events since Revolution in Los Angeles that could be considered one of the best in company history. Enough of that, however, let's get into the action from Saturday afternoon.

The Opps (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Katsuyori Shibata) [C] vs The Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, and Gabe Kidd) - AEW World Trios Championship Match

I was a little surprised to see this match open things up, but the idea of starting and closing out things with the Death Riders falling wasn't a bad one by any means. Not a ton to say or nitpick about this match, however. This was a good, solid way to open things up with some fun stuff, most notably a Will Hobbs powerslam to Wheeler Yuta as a Doomsday Device counter, and most importantly, didn't overstay its welcome, coming just under the 14:30 mark, and ended with the Opps retaining. The post-match Pillmanizer angle with Joe was also a great call to create some level of doubt about the main event very early on in the afternoon.

The Gaffney Star Rating: 3.25 Stars out of 5

Men's Casino Gauntlet Match

What jumps out when you look back on this men's gauntlet is just the embarrassment of riches that AEW has with both their own roster and who they can bring in thanks to their external partners. The first six guys here in order were Mark Briscoe, MJF, Ricochet, Bandido, Konosuke Takeshita, and Mistico, which is as textbook definition of murderers row as it gets. Later entrants like Kota Ibushi, Roddy Strong, Josh Alexander, Brody King, and the Beast Mortos only further cement the fact that AEW's roster is loaded, and that's not even factoring in this match's lone "surprise" entrant, a returning Juice Robinson, who got a fantastic ovation having not been seen since December.

As far as memorable spots, you had no shortage of them here. My two standouts would be Mark Briscoe watching Mistico put La Mistica on MJF, then deciding to join in on the fun with an armbar on the opposite arm, and then the Don Callis Family team-up when Alexander launched Ricochet off his shoulders into a VISCOUS Takeshita knee strike off the second rope. Elsewhere, MVP's commentary here was great (as usual), and him screaming at MJF to do something to Mistico as he was grandstanding at the end of his entrance was a tremendous bit.

The outright finish to this match was excellent as well; MJF stealing a pin from Briscoe after he hit the JayDriller on Roddy Strong. That said, I don't think this needed to be a 35-minute match; some of the gaps between new entrants were very long, and having Max Caster be last out as a gag with no payoff for him being there, never even entering the ring, was a letdown. Still, this was an overall fun match, but not the standout of the two gauntlets.

The Gaffney Star Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5

Adam Cole Forever

If you want to talk about all-time devastating moments in wrestling, this weekend's situation with Adam Cole is right near the top. It was announced by Tony Khan mere minutes after ZeroHour went live that Cole, the now former TNT Champion, was medically un-cleared to wrestle Kyle Fletcher and was being stripped of the title. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful would confirm on Sunday, that its another concussion for Cole. Later that day, Bryan Alverez of the Observer/F4W would add onto that by saying it was via a Kyle Fletcher lariat from the go-home Collision; not from that botched apron powerbomb some weeks prior to that. With the title in limbo, a four way dance between Fletcher, Daniel Garcia, Dustin Rhodes, and Sammy Guevera would determine his sucsessor.

Cole ultimately got to walk the aisle for All In, after missing last year's event due to injury, but this wasn't how he would have wanted. In what can only be described as devastating and soul-crushing, he got the opportunity to talk about his situation as Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong were ringside, and Cole, while in tears, thanked fans for sticking with him across promotions over the years and allowing him to live his dreams as a wrestler, while somewhat hinting that his career may be out of his hands now.

Seeing a guy like Cole, and one of his close friends, Kevin Owens, while we're here, in similar health spots, is genuinely heartbreaking. To say Cole was a defining talent of the 2010s across PWG, ROH, NXT, etc, would be underselling how good he was by a country mile, and what hurts about this is he just turned 36 last week. He's also one of a very select group of performers I've never seen a soul have a bad word to say about. Hell, CM Punk in his famed brawl-out crash-out called him "a sweetheart".

I think I speak for no shortage of people in saying that Cole's career being taken out of his hands would be immesurably sad given what he's dealt with since Forbidden Door 2022, but if that six-man tag from Thursday was it, no one can ever take away the highs of his work in the late 2010s or the fact he was in the main event of a non-WWE PPV that drew a house of over 80,000. He once famously said that all they had to do for him to make him special was to ring the bell, and for the vast bulk of his career, truer words have never been spoken.

Kyle Fletcher vs. Daniel Garcia vs. Dustin Rhodes vs. Sammy Guevara - TNT Championship Match

As you could imagine, the mood at Globe Life Field changed after that Cole promo, and what was a hot crowd for those first two bouts turned fairly quiet. No fault to the four participants in this title match, but it was certainly a hard match to invest in, given the scope of what had just happened. That said, this looked and felt like a match that was thrown together in under two hours, as you watched for some portions, but by no means terrible, especially in this specific situation.

While a shocker in the moment, I'm going to tell you why the call to give Dustin Rhodes the win here, not Kyle Fletcher, was some savvy booking. No. 1) You just had a crowd-deflating moment with the Cole promo, which understandably bled over into this match. If you wanted to get a legit feel-good moment and get things back on track, this was the best way to do that, giving the elder Rhodes brother his first major singles title win (excluding the WWE Hardcore Title in the 24/7 rules era) since early 1999. No. 2) This now allows you to give Fletcher his moment, but now for sure in a way that turns him from a "cool heel" to an uncaring supervillain in the blink of an eye. He should get in so much offense that said 1-on-1 match becomes uncomfortable to watch. I think Dustin is a great person to be in that spot for an ascending superstar like Fletcher. As for the four-way dance, it's not a match I would seek out months from now, but under the circumstances, these four did what they could, so I can give them some grace.

The Gaffney Star Rating: 2.5 Stars out of 5

The Young Bucks vs. Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay

Much to my surprise, it was the Opsreay Strickland tandem getting the win here, and probably more importantly, this was the best outing the Bucks have had since at least Sting's retirement match. The only thing I could pick at this match for is starting off just a touch slow, but once things picked up, they got into that groove and stuck there.

Everything that was done here, from the accidental hidden blade to Swerve onwards, was nothing short of phenomenal, specifically the non-verbal storytelling of Ospreay refusing to give up after making one of the biggest in-ring mistakes of his career and then getting annihilated by the Bucks before Swerve took the proverbial bullet for him. As stated, the Bucks certainly showed up to play ball here as well. The Nick Jackson superkick to Prince Nana was a nice way to get some quick heat mid-match, and they sold like rent was due from bell to bell. I haven't been super fond of the Bucks' work over the last 10-14 months, so this was a delight on that front. Lastly, the Swerve Stomp-Stormbreaker and House Call-Hidden Blade combos are unreal tag moves and should be applauded as such.

The Gaffney Star Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5

Women's Casino Gauntlet Match

Just as I had hoped earlier in the week, we wasted zero time adding Willow Nightingale into the mix with Megan Bayne and Kris Statlander in the Women's gauntlet, and may I note the reception Ms. Nightingale got?

Of the latter two gauntlets, I thought the "battles inside the battle" were executed very well, as Bayne and Tay Melo, Thekla and Queen Aminata, then Athena and Thunder, all got into the mix against each other in short order. Shout out to Aminata and Thekla while we're here, whose budding rivalry has sneakily been one of the better things on AEW TV as of late, and they went after it here as well. The women's gauntlet also had plenty more to offer on the surprise front as well, with Harley Cameron returning (albeit as a non-participant), Alex Windsor making her full-time debut, plus Syuri, who was confirmed to be sticking around stateside during Friday's Supercard of Honor show.

In the end, it would be Athena hitting the O-Face on an unsuspecting Mina Shirakawa for the win here, and deservingly, she got a monster reception for the victory. Not too far from now, we could be talking about the "Forever Champion" of ROH adding AEW's top women's prize to her collection as well.

The Gaffney Star Rating: 4 Stars out of 5

The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin) [C] vs. The Patriarchy (Christian Cage and Nick Wayne) vs. JetSpeed ("Speedball" Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight) - Triple Threat Tag Match for the AEW World Tag Team Championships

When I imagined how this show could pan out, I don't think I had envisioned liking this match as much as I did. A 19-minute affair that felt longer than it actually was (to me, anyway) accomplished a ton, and I thought both members of JetSpeed and then Shelton Benjamin in particular were awesome in this match. Getting FTR involved on commentary and afterwards was a nice touch here as well, but I think the biggest thing I have to say after this match is this is exactly why I'd like to see Lashley and Benjamin work more. Their matches can be super fun with the right opponents, and this would be a great example of that. I'd imagine for sure we're getting them vs. JetSpeed one-on-one down the pike, but this was a lot of fun for me.

As for the post-match shenanigans, I was absolutely expecting FTR to summon Adam Copeland out of hibernation, but for whatever reason, I was not expecting Nick Wayne to turn on Christian, yet anyways. The decision not to have a set-in-stone E&C reunion the night Cope returns was also a great call. You can definitely slow-burn your way into a Christian face turn, and I imagine they'll do just that.

The Gaffney Star Rating: 3.75 Stars out of 5

Mercedes Mone vs. "Timeless" Toni Storm [C] - AEW Women's World Championship Match

As far as the scope and magnitude, plus the execution of matches, this three match stretch that closed out All In might not be that far off from WrestleKingdom 11 (Shibata-Goto, Tanahashi-Naito, Okada-Omega 1). It was definitely a bit of a risk to stack the card in this manner, but ultimately, it worked out very well, and that started with one of the more important matches in American women's wrestling ever. Both entrances here were spectacular, with Mercedes Mone coming out in a lowrider sporting a cape that had the names of every single person she's defeated post-WWE, on it. Toni Storm meanwhile broke out a new noir vignette, before mixing things up a tad on the entrance video with a filter that only highlighted the color red which was a nice touch.

One thing that I did appricate about this match especially compared to the two that came after was that Storm and Mone kept this one in the ring for close to the entire match. The meteora to Luther (and the snapping of his glasses, which in my head were uninsured), the powerbomb on Storm to the floor, and then the Storm and Luther legal double team move to Mone were estenstially all the extra-circuculers you got out of this bout.

The story going into this one, as told by Storm was that she was unlike anyone Mercedes had ever faced, and that if she made one mistep here, she would "eat [Mercedes] alive." Little did we know that would be in a litteral sense as well as figuretively (I can't believe I'm saying that in context by the way), but I like the novel concept of how that played out in the closing stretch of this match. All in the final two minutes of this match, Mercedes couldn't seal the deal on a cheap pin where she got leverage on the bottom rope, couldn't fully lock in the Statement Maker submission despiting baiting Toni into it, couldn't capitalize off a backstabber, then rolled herself to the corner which setup Storm's coup de grâce: An Avalanche Storm Zero.

What a match, what a moment. Two of the best in the industry putting on an absolute clinic in front of a stadium crowd in the exact kind of match you would've hoped they could put together. Not that this was in question by any means either, but no one looks bad coming out of this either. For all of Storm's pre-game talk about only needing to win, and that Mercedes would have to kill her, Mercedes was good enough here which pushed her to the point of a TOP ROPE PILEDRIVER, in a match where she had already hit two (plus two more which were in tandem with much less effect). How am I supposed to interpert that in any way other than attempted murder? Just a spectacular match that I would absolutely love to see again down the line.

The Gaffney Star Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada - AEW "Unified" Championship Match

A rivalry that had defined what it means to be at the pinnacle of this sport in the 2010s rekindled on American soil for the first time yesterday, and it was a sight to behold. Perhaps not to the level of their four prior meetings, Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega came to play in Arlington, Texas, for a very hard-hitting affair. Like most of Omega's outings this year, this one featured plenty of Okada going after Kenny's mid-section, which was sold beautifully throughout this match, but Omega was getting in some great offense here in his own right. The chops he was throwing in this match were absolutely viscous, and there were some downright nasty V-triggers as well, particularly the one in the corner to the back of Okada's neck.

Not much of a surprise, but there were some Callis shenanigans in this one, pulling referee Bryce Remsburg out of the ring after Omega hit his only One Winged Angel in this match, before curbstomping him to avoid a DQ. The ref pull out of the ring spots aren't typically my favorite, and while this wasn't my cup of tea, it protected the OWA, and taking Remsburg out before he could call for the bell was about the only way this would've been passable for me. Not too far after, Okada landed his second Rainmaker lariat, and that was good enough to put things away. Even though this wasn't an all-time classic like matches 1-4, it was still a very satisfying bout, especially considering Callis's antics playing a part in the closing stretch. Here's to hoping we can get the level of output we've gotten out of Okada in this match and in the Ibushi Dynamite match more often, because he was once again fantastic here.

The Gaffney Star Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5

"Hangman" Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley [C] - Texas Death Match for the All Elite Wrestling World Championship

Coming out of this weekend, I don't know how you could argue this isn't one of the greatest plunder matches in the history of pro wrestling. Right up there with Austin-Bret (enough weapon usage there that I'd count it), Briscoes-FTR Dog Collar Match, TLC2 at Mania 17, and whatever else you'd want to consider. This was an absolutely special match that never felt truly derailed or paused by the interference that you knew was coming, and really got weaved in great, while the straight up Hanger-Mox action stood out on its own and then some.

Really, the great thing here is that we wasted zero time getting to what we came to see. Essentially going straight from Hanger carving out a canyon in Mox's chest cavity, to the reveal that both guys had forks on them, and getting an insane amount of color on the then-Champion right away was a great tone setter. You're allowed to think Mox blades too much, but you're wrong, you hate fun, and I'm taking this Mox over the Josh Barnett fanboy we had from December to early April in a heartbeat. This meant something to me, dammit.

As far as weapons, you got a little bit of everything here beyond the forks: regular chairs, chairs adorned in barbed wire, tables, tables adorned in barbed wire, even standalone barbed wire!!! Shards of broken glass, metal chains, the whole nine yards. Somewhere, Atushi Onita and then the late Justice Pain saw this and said, "This is the game that I love."

The single best part of this match, however, is how they factored in the run-ins. Not a single non participant in this match got an official entrance which made everything feel much more seemless and natural with run-ins. The full list of interferees in order were Will Ospreay, who was Pillmanized for our sins, Bryan Danielson equiped with a Blue Panther mask (he'll now say thats the best thing he's ever done knowing him), Darby Allin via rappel from the top of the stadium, the Bucks, Prince Nana, then finnally Swerve Strickland who had the metal chain Hanger left him after Dynamite. The only thing you got was the video that Allin recorded quite literally at the peak of Mt. Everest, proclaiming that he's coming to take everything from Mox; to which I'd probably stop and look at to if I caught it in the corner of my eye.

Ultimately, they didn't stray the Revolution 2023 ending, going with a Moxley tapout due to being hung from a chain, but only after he took a Buckshot Lariat into a bed of spikes, and when I tell you this is mabye the single best lead-up to a tap out spot I've ever seen, know that I'm being honest. Moxley, the big bad of AEW since last fall, had no one left at his side to help him and "died" a coward's death: flailing like a fish out of water with genuine fear in his face and eyes up until the moment he surrendered. And that, kids, is how "we" won the war. "The Feeling" has been restored for the first time in a long time.

The Gaffney Star Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Other Notable Star Ratings From This Weekend

Hechicero vs. Michael Oku (Supercard of Honor): 4 Stars

Thunder Rosa vs. Athena (Supercard of Honor): 4.5 Stars

Konosuke Takeshita vs. Bandido (Supercard of Honor): 5 Stars

Outrunners Newport Gear: 6.5 Stars

Ricky Saints vs. Ethan Page, Falls Count Anywhere (NXT Great American Bash): 4.25 Stars

Bill Goldberg vs. Gunther (WWE Saturday Night's Main Event): 3 Stars

Women's IC Triple Threat (WWE Evolution): 4.25 Stars

Iyo Sky vs. Rhea Ripley [vs. Naomi] (WWE Evolution): 5 Stars

Main Image via All Elite Wrestling