0.Dark Order vs SCU(Kaz,Sky) **3/4
1.Dustin vs Hager **
2.Guevara vs Darby ***3/4
3.AEW Tag Titles: The Elite(Omega,Page) (c) vs The Elite(Young Bucks) ****3/4
4.AEW Women's Title: Nyla(c) vs Stratlander **1/2
5.Cody vs MJF ***
6.PAC vs Orange ***1/2
7.AEW World Title: Jericho(c) vs Mox ***3/4
Thoughts:
Cody said that he could see Revolution becoming AEW's version of Wrestlemania. I'll say the hype heading into this was pretty high, helped heavily by how strong Dynamite has been of late alongside the fact that the brand in general has simply been noteworthy since launching. I personally was very excited, so let's dig in!
The Buy In was a solid way to kick the show off. Adding the clip of Kazarian and Sky telling CD to stay in the back was a nice move. Did Taz say, "Bad Uno" as a pun or on accident? The world may never know. They put in for a good match and it good the crowd excited. Not much to complain about there, though the finish was a bit wonky.
Cabana being brought in Chicago was smart. He's signed with the company now which could be fun. When properly motivated and booked, the dude can be far better than most seem to know. The tease of CD was nice, and I love the continued red herrings and general teasing they are doing with the reveal.
The proper show opener was okay, but felt more like something that should have been a television match than a ppv match. The production early on was pretty iffy, too. The sexual assault spot was tacky as fuck and the entire thing was too cheap for my taste and neither came off looking very good as a result. Layout issues were not exclusive here.
Note that the fans were given interactive wrist bands which was a cool touch you could see throughout the show.
I loved the reveal of the special, Blood & Guts episode of Dynamite featuring...well, Wargames! Remember that Cody owns, "The Match Beyond".
The second match was great. I have a soft rule about leaving out pre and post-match stuff from ratings but made a rare exception here. Sammy looked good in defeat, Darby came off like a true star, and they worked their asses off. This should have opened the show.
Up next, we got a true MOTYC and one hell of a banger. The storytelling was awesome and the action was amazing. They played up the civil war angle well, leaving tons of breadcrumbs for us hardcore fans to pick up on, too. Page is so fucking over than him acting like a dick is getting pops, too. I applaud all four men in this one for one hell of a show and the post-match tease was super well done. I was iffy about them playing slow ball with the Page story, but I was wrong.
Making Kris and Rose follow that one was a bad call. Kris was still noticeably not 100% and they just didn't gel super well here. As a result, we got a throwaway title match that felt like something I'm sure I'll forget about in a few days. Both are far better than this, but the stars didn't align tonight.
JR and Excalibur have a rather weird chemistry, don't they.
Time for one of the best built up matches of the card. Cody's live entrance felt...off. BUT, I absolutely LOVED seeing the Green Arrow at his side during the walkout. I also seem to be one of the few people that like Cody's new tat. Now, for the match...they had a lot of things they tried to do here but very few of them landed as strong as they likely wanted and the entire thing felt overbooked as a result. It was good, but it's hard not to be disappointed a bit with how this played out. The right dude won, at least.
In the semi spot, Orange and PAC had a very entertaining, pretty good showcase. PAC got to be a true bastard, Cassidy got to show off his style better than he has in those quick spots he's mostly known for in AEW, and the entire thing deserves a Orange style thumbs up. It was pure fun. They also found a way of getting the Lucha Bros involved, even if it did set up a cheap finish, which is a plus.
The main event was great, though it was indeed overbooked and full of smoke and mirrors. It was also entertaining and told a good story, the right dude won, and the eyepatch reveal was better done than expected. In all, it just felt satisfying and I'm left excited to see what's next.
I feel like there might have been something planned after, but I could be wrong. Either way, the era of Mox is here.
Expect a massive review dump sometime this week if everything plays out properly. In the meantime, if you missed Revolution know that it was far from perfect, but was still an overall enjoyable event worth checking out.
See ya'll soon and thanks for reading!
Overall Rating: 75/100%