AEW All In Pt. II: Main Event

This is the second of a two-part series recapping AEW All In 2025. For Part I, which covers the pre-show, see here.

Howdy. Welcome to Part II of WWFTX’s two-parter on how Y’All In went. At least for the parts I remember. It was a really long night.

All In

The Opps (Katsuyori Shibata, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Samoa Joe) vs. The Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta) and Gabe Kidd

This match was for the Trios title which… is a little hard to care about. One common criticism of AEW is its lackluster writing, partially hampered by the fact that there seem to be so. many. damn. belts. The Trios title and the stakes in this match fall victim to this. I don’t have any complaints about the in-ring action, but it could have totally been bolstered if scripters had managed to give fans more compelling reasons to care about the stakes. Eh, at least it was the bottom of the card?

Men’s Casino Gauntlet Match

Not to be glib but I kind of slept through this one.

Dustin Rhodes vs. Daniel Garcia vs. Kyle Fletcher vs. Sammy Guevara

Adam Cole vacates the AEW TNT Championship in an emotional announcement, explaining that he will be taking a long, unspecified amount of time away from wrestling due to injuries. What was initially booked as a match between him and Kyle Fletcher for the title turned into a 4-way that was won by Dustin Rhodes–a result that was meant to be a feel-good moment. It’s hard for the match to bring the emotional compulsion that can surpass the shadow of Cole’s address and I don’t really think it approaches that territory at all. Commentary knows that—which is why they devoted some time to recapping Rhodes’ lengthy career, trying to sell us even more on him. Well, I had no problems with Rhodes winning the match, what I had a problem with was that the match felt like too long even though it was only about 15 minutes and the ending wasn’t executed well. For one, you could see Sammy Guevara taking an annoying amount of time and distance rolling off the apron so that the attention could be put on Garcia, who soon put Rhodes in the Dragon Tamer. The sequence in which Rhodes tried to reverse the hold to win the match came to an end too soon, which deflated the build-up almost instantly, not aided by Guevara’s last-minute slide-in in an attempt to stop Rhodes. Seriously man, some urgency earlier would have been great, but seeing him again at the end just pissed me off.

Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay w/ Prince Nana vs. The Young Bucks (Matthew and Nicholas Jackson)

Just cuz we’re out of the pre-show doesn’t mean the fun has to stop and the Young Bucks brought it. A whole boat-load of fun—they made their entrance on a moving boat platform to flute instrumentals and a declaration being read. Since Strickland and Ospreay have never tag-teamed with each other before (though Strickland has previously held the World Tag Team Championship with Keith Lee), their inexperience vs. the Young Bucks’ long partnership was one of the main angles of the match. Strickland and Ospreay started the match out of rhythm, leading to a highly entertaining sequence of the Young Bucks toying Ospreay following an aborted Oscutter. However, the Non-Bucks slowly found their groove and the last half of the match was a genuine nail-biter that felt like it could go either way and the crowd responded in kind—the Bucks picked up their aggression and became more malicious when their opponents started sharing time on the apron. Yes, if you’re not a fan of almost back-to-back highspots and flips and all that jazz, your enjoyment of this will probably suffer greatly. But if you are: a relatively high-stakes match, crowd-pleasing spots, a story about learning to work as a team that builds through the course of the match itself, and the birth of a meme… there’s not a lot left you could really ask for.

Women’s Casino Gauntlet Match: Since I said I slept through the men’s casino gauntlet match, it’s only fair to say the same for the women. Out of obligation to kayfabe gender relations.

The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin) w/ MJF and MVP vs. JetSpeed (Kevin Knight and Mike Bailey) vs. The Patriarchy (Christian Cage and Nick Wayne) w/ Kip Sabian and Mother Wayne

I don’t remember this. Let’s just chalk it up to the fact that the next 3 matches are complete stunners and not the extensive brain damage I've sustained from work.

Toni Storm w/ Luther vs. Mercedes Moné

By this point, All-In was approaching the 4-hour mark (not counting the pre-show) and I was starting to lose feeling in my butt from dumping it on the couch watching this. Admittedly though, it was hard not to be swept along into the huge pop that Mercedes Moné instantly got the moment her retinue of cheerleaders, all wearing a championship belt of hers. This was a great, tightly-worked match that impressed big emotions on me. Maybe I’m just a sick freak but I was laughing my ass off watching Toni Storm’s expressions when Moné had the upper hand in the beginning—it was kind of like watching Steamboat Minnie get tortured, but then Ms. Storm regained some footing and I was completely enraptured in straight, no frills suspense.

The odds leading into the match switched last minute to favor Storm just the slightest bit and it truly felt like it while watching—it could’ve been anyone’s win up until the very last moment. One slight issue that you may have with the is that Storm Zero does not look very impressive—it’s pretty straightforward and not that splashy of a piledriver—but given how good the two ladies were at selling the impact of each other’s moves and their manipulation of ring psychology, the exhaustion and desperation in the ring was practically palpable when Storm hit her finisher. Any move could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back and led to the pin. That’s how tightly-strung Storm and Moné had me. Funny, suspenseful, thrilling… timeless? That’s probably saying a bit much, but it was a good time to be had.

Kazuchika Okada w/ Don Callis vs. Kenny Omega w/ Kota Ibushi

Since All-In, some in the IWC (at least the section that is represented on Cagematch) have said that this was the weakest of all Okada vs. Omega bouts. This is not to say that it was a bad match, quite the opposite actually, but the assessment is completely understandable. Very few things can live up to the hype that has been built around Okada and Omega. Newcomers to wrestling who have yet to watch the pair’s previous meetings may even wonder how it’s possible for the actual Okada-Omega series of matches to live up to the hype perpetuated by the IWC. So… does this actual match live up to expectations?

Keeping in mind that both wrestlers are either approaching The Hill, or already on it, and that their extensive careers make novel, show-stopping spots increasingly harder to implement, I was happy with what we got. Yeah, yeah, I’m too easy of a mark.

I was surprised and impressed by how brutal Okada was willing to be, targeting Omega’s abdomen repeatedly, no doubt due to the man’s past with diverticulitis. The character work was also great—Okada continues to sell nonchalance while he’s mushing Omega’s stomach like Italian winemakers crushing grapes under their feet the traditional way, and he briefly expresses disbelief and frustration at Omega’s determination, before adapting a gloating smile as he lords the new Unified belt over a retreating Omega and Ibushi. Fantastic and amusing heel work. Even if you were rooting for Omega, you could hardly be disappointed given his sheer exertion and the touching, though bittersweet image of Ibushi helping a defeated Omega back up the ramp. The bit with the interference by Don Callis and the swapping of refs felt kind of lame and cheap though—the match seriously doesn’t benefit from that when Okada alone was already putting on such a good show as a heel.

Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley w/ Marina Shafir

Coming into the match, Adam Page was the heavy favorite and for good reason, every storytelling beat seemed to lead up to him taking down Moxley’s reign of terror. So, yeah, that’s what happened.

But how was the wrestling? Well, you know, when I first became interested in professional wrestling, I thought that hardcore matches were a lot more common than they actually are. Imagine my surprise when I found out that wrestlers weren’t constantly beating each other over the head with steel chairs. Thankfully, Moxley’s mighty mushy forehead came to the rescue and saved me from dying of bloodthirst. Within the first 2 minutes his head was already squirting like a sprinkler on a Floridian golf course and it got progressively bloodier and bloodier as the match progressed. Barbed wire, tacks, chairs, a table, bed of nails, plastic bag, crushed glass, chains—practically a whole hardware store’s inventory was up in that ring or had somebody thrown into them out of the ring. And all of it looked like it hurt. And it’s not just the array of weapons that is worth mentioning, so too are the various wrestlers that joined in on the action and who were also put out of action for it.

The few who don’t regard this match as highly point to its excessive violence and pointless cruelty, but like, was it really excessive? Don’t we all wish to bite a workplace nemesis on the head and then dangle him by the throat off the side of an elevated platform? Professional wrestling, like many other art forms, serves as a form of emotional catharsis and one reason why it works so well is because of its explicit acceptance of and enthusiastic indulgence in violence. When you’re gorging on a double-triple-quadruple-what-have-you baconzilloid cheeseburger with extra cheese, part of the satisfaction is derived from letting yourself go, not caring about the grease on your fingers and rubbing all over your mouth and on your cheeks. Sure, in the aftermath, maybe you are left pondering our life plans and hating yourself, feeling directionless—like AEW might find itself in after the conclusion of the Death Riders’ dominance—but in the moment, it’s simply immensely satisfying.

What’s next for AEW?

As we ponder this, so too must the folks over at WWE, who are continuing their strategy of counterprogramming—offering up NXT Heatwave on the same day as AEW and NJPW’s Forbidden Door.

As for AEW themselves, the conclusion of All In has been followed by some talent announcing that they will be taking time off, such as Ospreay, who was carried out of the event in a stretcher. Kenny Omega too, has also been reported to be stepping away from AEW for a bit. The reasoning behind his break, as well as its duration, has yet to be disclosed, but it’s only natural to assume that it is due to his declining health.

But to end on a good note for the AEW-lovers reading, the promotion has announced that the next All In will be a return to London’s Wembley Stadium, August 30 2026. A lot can happen between now and then—chin up, lovers.