Wrestle Review: AEW Revolution
As advertised, AEW Revolution managed to stir the pot in the wrestling world with the company's first PPV of the decade. While it is hard to see through the horizon of ten years if such quality content is to continue, perhaps the upstart company is here to make waves for the long haul. It's easy to see why Revolution is a fitting start for the company's year, after a slew of strong episodes of Dynamite.
However, how did each match do individually? There was a great hype train under the MJF-Cody feud, a flavor of redemption to the World Title match between old foes Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley. The under-card looked equally strong with a particularly on fire Tag Team Title match between the members of the ELITE.
With all that and more, a whopping eight matches on the card, gave AEW both a quantitative and qualitative advantage to deliver. The brilliant thing is, with more events to come on the road particularly the Double or Nothing anniversary show; AEW has left enough in the bag. At the same time with the space for the build, it was expected for AEW to give Revolution the fire it needed to begin what the title suggests for the Elite company.
So did AEW Revolution truly and wholly deliver? How about we find out!
The Production and Presentation
Before we move on to the matches and segments built on the show, we must discuss one of the elements of AEW that has been a welcome throwback to the glory days of wrestling. AEW has been aesthetically unique in it's approach to PPV events, giving each of it's super-shows a unique look.
While nowhere near as wild and fascinating as the likes of Double or Nothing (with its giant poker chips stand), Revolution leaned perfectly into the digital stylization of its paraphernalia, particularly when it came to the cool sea-green color of the lights and production. At the same time, that subtlety was matched with a deceptively plain entrance area until one notices the LED screen on the top of the ramp. This was beautifully synced with LED bracelets on the hands of fans in the arena that perfectly light up and sync with entrances.
Shout out to the video production crew as well, though at the time they missed key moments, for the most part the camera and editing work found the perfect balance with high impact moves and storytelling moments. Similarly the commentary was solidly on point, including JR who seems to be embracing his occasional follies with a slightly heelish gusto. However, the coming stand out is the team of Excalibur and Taz who could headline a second weekly show soon for AEW, like they did the Buy-In last night.