AEW All In Pt. I: Zero Hour

This is the first of a two-part series recapping AEW All In Texas 2025. For Part II, which covers the main event, check back later.

AEW’s biggest event of the year, All In, took place last week in front of ~25,000 to ~29,000 fans at Globe Life Field. So anyway, how’d it go?

All In: Zero Hour - The Pre-show

In retrospect, the length of the pre-show was foreshadowing for how long the rest of the evening would be. The pre-show card included 3 tag-team matches, listed below with accompanying commentary.

Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes. Marshall and Ross Von Erich, and Sammy Guevara) w/ Kevin Von Erich) vs. Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor, Lee Moriarty, Carlie Bravo, and Capt. Shawn Dean) w/ Anthony Ogogo and Trish Adora

Lamely put: this was an OK match to start the evening. The actual wrestling itself wasn’t anything to write home about, but the emotional beat underlying the match was sweet without veering into corny territory. The Sons of Texas’ win was clearly a homage to the host state and Kevin Von Erich, who signed a legends deal with AEW recently, performing the Iron Claw was a nice spot that got a big pop from the crowd. That being said, I’m not sure how to feel about seeing the Claw done by Non-Erichs. If you hated this match and found it boring, you will at least appreciate the fact that it was short. 

Big Boom AJ & The Conglomeration (Hologram, Kyle O’Reilly, and Tomohiro Ishii) w/ Big Justice and The Rizzler vs. The Don Callis Family (Hechicero, Lance Archer, Rocky Romero, and Trent Beretta) w/ Don Callis

I don’t feel guilty about liking professional wrestling at all; I don’t think anyone should—free love or whatever. However, I should probably feel guilty about knowing all the words to “We Bring the Boom” by Big Boom AJ and Big Justice, thanks to it being their theme for the night. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t devolve into a total meme match, given the absurdity of who was booked. Many will have issues with professional wrestlers having to sell a spear by Big Justice, but it’s not totally unbelievable—I mean, his name isn’t Small Justice, ya know. If that doesn’t convince you of the merits of this match, haters can at least appreciate that one of the TikTok children got hit in the face gleefully by Trent Beretta.

FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) w/ Stokely vs. The Outrunners (Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd)

This is the most highly rated match from the pre-show on Cagematch and it makes sense. The Outrunners got a decent pop for the debut of their Marlboro Newport tights. It was a straight tag-team match that was good, but not particularly special. The charisma of everyone in the ring kept the match enjoyable and there wasn’t anything to complain about with regards to the actual wrestling, so it served well enough as a transition between a lighthearted, feel-good pre-show to the main event.

That's all for now. Check back in a bit for Part II, which will cover the really good stuff. And the stuff I didn't really care for, but was in the way of the good stuff.