IN LAIMAN'S TERMS #475 – Talking (With Myself) About AEW: All Out 2024

10/09/2024 15:36

IN LAIMAN’S TERMS #475

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Thoughts on AEW: All Out 2024

Hello, Ris. Nice of you to finally make it back.

Hello, fictional gimmick I made up for the sake of this conversation, you’ll have to forgive my lateness. On Saturday, I got off on a much longer hike than intended on the North Shore. The problem with not doing loop trails is when you wander off a solid eight miles through uneven terrain, you have to also walk back that far. It made my AllTrails app happy, but being that far north, it was a three-hour drive back when I had two hours before the show. So, by the time I got home, I was behind, and had to split the watch over two days. Therefore, column late, apologies.

I thought you weren’t going to share anything personal on the column anymore.

If that’s too personal for people, then there are bigger problems than a vague context of my viewing this show.

It also took time for you to process a few things, and that is personal as well, isn’t it?

Yes, but that’s within a wrestling context, and I’m not going into detail. We’ll get to that, antagonistic contrived self person. Can we at least talk about the fun parts first?

Is that possible, considering part of the fun was also somewhat emotional?

After driving three hours and subjecting myself to being within the borders of South Dakota for the minimal amount of time possible to watch a glorified episode of Elevation, I’m happy to have this much to talk about.

You attended the lowest-rated Collision ever, how does that make you feel?

Like they also knew they were going to South Dakota. I couldn’t give to JAShits about the ratings. I’m interested in wrestling, not business analytics. If I cared about that, I would’ve gone further down the campus to Wharton School of Business when I attended university years ago.

When you were still writing this column?

When I was covering RAW in the mid-2010s and rewatching it at the Quad in between classes. Different time.

All Out. A few weeks ago you said that All In 2024 was far superior in both booking and execution than its 2023 counterpart. Do you feel the same about All Out?

Booking-wise, I don’t feel like the extra week was utilized, and not just because I’m bitter that all but the main event of the show I attended had nothing to do with it. I’ll rate that about the same. All Out 2023 was far superior to All In 2023 as well, despite the massive shake-up from events that need no further discussion, so it was a much higher bar to get over. I’ll be damned though, they did it. All Out 2024 was not only superior to All In 2024, but it was one of the most consistent, quality shows I’ve ever seen in my life. Even splitting in half across Saturday night and Sunday morning, I was damn impressed with this show top-to-bottom.

But didn’t you have trouble with some things?

Again, we’ll get there. Those were personal feelings, not a critique of the show itself. But if professional wrestling can make me feel those kinds of emotions after this many years of watching it, not to mention almost 15 years of writing about it, then that is also noteworthy.

Was it weird for you that Daniel Garcia vs. MJF and Swerve vs. Hangman were essentially the same feud with different details?

Only in that those are both professional wrestling grudge matches that were built up well over time. It’s funny how you can have two long-term stories with emotional payoffs in a company that doesn’t tell stories.

The match itself without the snark for the minimal internet chatter you accidentally overhear while trying to do something else?

My column archives can attest, a few years ago when Daniel Garcia was proclaimed as the second coming by many, including Bryan Danielson himself, I didn’t get it. I didn’t think badly of him or anything, but I wasn’t completely on board with the potential that so many people observed.

But now, you are?

The Continental Classic is what really changed my mind, despite his only winning one of those matches. However, what sent it into the stratosphere for me was the beginning of this feud with MJF. Garcia’s match with Ospreay, how invested the crowd was, and how much emotion he was able to conjure; then the sharp contrast with the (official) heel turn by MJF was perfection. Garcia made his triumphant comeback at All In, getting a massive pop by just existing there at the end of the match, but the promo work he did between the two shows was top-tier. MJF, as he is wont to do, reveals just a little bit of that vulnerability amidst the grandiose proclamations and edgelord impressions.

Come on though, another cheap low blow finish?

Normally, I’d agree with you, Self. However, this one felt like desperation on MJF’s part rather than “I’m a heel, Bangkok bitches!” AEW, despite not being in the doldrums of 4th-quarter 2023, needs to use a few of their tropes a little less often for them to not be groan-worthy when they happen. MJF sneaks away with a win, figuratively speaking, but Garcia is the one who proves he belongs where people have been saying he had the potential to be. The dancing was fun and always worthy of HAM consideration, and I’m sure he’ll bring it back. I still think he needs a stronger theme, but Daniel Garcia: Main Event Star is officially here, and he has the crowd behind him in a way that feels organic and deserved.

The tag team title match, it was a bit forced though, right?

It’s nice to see the Young Bucks remembered that they had titles to defend. It’s also nice to see they’re remembering they had a role on the show they just abandoned for a while, for reasons I can’t quite discern. And hey, it got Claudio and Yuta on the show too, and those two in a PPV match, even with an obvious conclusion, can’t be entirely a bad thing.

The match was good, despite the obvious conclusion, right?

Of course it was. It’s the BCC and the Young Bucks, the former of which was trying to pull a Dustin Rhodes by winning the tag titles so shortly after becoming Trios champions. Alas, there can be only one (no Highlander).

Was it sort of a swan song for the face BCC?

I’m not sure I can call the BCC faces. It always depended on with whom they were feuding, and they didn’t act much differently one way or the other. The Young Bucks retain, which… whatever, it is what it is. It’s hardly what the BCC will be remembered on this show for. We’ll get to that later.

Were you surprised to see PAC vs. Will Ospreay on this early?

Not really, given that Toni Storm vs. Mariah May went on second a few weeks ago, and that was the culmination of the best storyline of the year.

Does Will Ospreay have PPV matches that are not considered Match of the Year contenders?

If he does, I certainly haven’t noticed. And it may be recency bias, but I think this is my favorite of the bunch.

Aren’t you annoyed that PAC consistently loses though?

Yes, although I feel like that’ll play into his sultry attitude even more given what happens later in the night. PAC has lost a lot since coming back, and while he’s not in the Orange Cassidy “can lose without it affecting anything” sphere (because he’s an orange, you see), he’s not far off either. This song was two brilliant artists saying “let’s go show off.” Even with some small hiccups, as it’s impossible to execute moves on that level of speed and difficulty without a little bit of human error sneaking through, this is the quintessential match I believe people envisioned when Will Ospreay first showed up in the company. And somehow, he manages to raise the bar that he also set himself in terms of in-ring performance and storytelling.

Wasn’t Ospreay always going to win though?

Yes, and that’s fine. In retrospect, being the only face who won without something dismal and depressing as a consequence, I appreciate it even more.

What about Ricochet? Does it seem weird to be using him mostly standing around and watching things?

Ricochet will be fine. The slow burn on the story that doesn’t exist, because they don’t tell stories… If I were to guess, that’ll be what ends Ospreay’s International title reign and allows him to chase whoever beats Danielson. Between Orange Cassidy’s workhorse reign and Ospreay fighting for/defending the title in matches like this, the International title feels like what we always wanted the Intercontinental title to be back in the day.

You still think there are too many titles though, right?

Merge the TNT with either the Continental or International at the very least. The Continental’s specific aspects and rules make it distinct from the others. The International title can hardly even be called a midcard belt. I’d get rid of the TNT title, and while I adore Hook, I’d be content with never seeing or hearing about the FTW title ever again. Let it be something ceremonial and be done with it.

Was PAC/Ospreay the most difficult case of “follow that” you’ve seen in recent memory?

It was worthy of that consideration, at least.

Did Willow vs. Statlander end up suffering from that consideration?

If they did, nobody noticed. Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander have been building to this for months, and while the women getting a match like this is normally reserved for a Rampage tag match once a year, these two were out to prove something. This wasn’t for a title (even though it was supposed to be), and both have traded wins against each other in different contexts. This, though… I don’t think either one of them came out looking like a loser, and they kept the crowd invested despite following the aforementioned MOTY contender with one of their own. Stat is a badass and deserves her flowers, Willow is delightful but showed she’s willing to fight to the end of all things. One of them had to win, and I think the right person won.

But aren’t you saying the show was full of great matches that the heels won the vast majority of?

I am, and like Daniel Garcia, Willow might’ve lost, but I don’t feel like she lost anything.

You aren’t a fan of the more hardcore types of matches though, right?

It is not my favorite kind of wrestling, and once the lighttubesaber got involved, I admittedly cringed a little harder than I thought I would. But, escalation was necessary. I imagine these two will stay away from each other for a bit, but I don’t think this feud is over. If the main event showed anything, it’s that two top stars in a blood feud can be separated for a few months and then be heated back up again seamlessly if it’s executed as well as that.

Do you think it will be?

Even with Willow’s short title reign and this conclusion, I don’t think she’s sliding down the rankings anytime soon. She’s too beloved, like her Conglomeration counterparts.

Conglomeration counterparts? Easy segue? 

I really didn’t care about those two being involved in this match, not gonna lie.

But don’t you adore both of them?

I do, and Kyle O’Reilly being a consistent HAM contender also brings me great joy, but neither of them was going to win this match. This was about Okada and Takeshita.

Haven’t you been down on the usage of Takeshita recently?

I feel like the incredibly dominant win over Darby Allin early in the year set a tone of which was not followed through. But, I do believe that Takeshita’s place in this match was to ignite the heat between he and Okada, and with the Continental tournament coming up, I can’t say I imagine anyone else winning it. I’ve heard enough about his performance in the G1 to believe that it would be simple to translate that into a Swerve-like run in this year’s version.

Do you think the women should also have this kind of tournament?

Abso-fucking-lutely, I do. Especially with the depth and quality the division has built itself in the last year. At the very least, they need to have their own Casino Gauntlet match, but hell… A women’s Continental Classic with Willow, Statlander, Toni Storm, Jamie Hayter, Deonna, Thunder Rosa, Hikaru Shida, Serena Deeb, Athena, Queen Aminata, Nyla, and Kamille? Sign me up!

The Continental title match?

Yeah, it happened, it was fun. The result was never in doubt, it was a placeholder to set up the inevitable confrontation of Okada/Takeshita. Given the reaction the two got for just staring at each other, it’s going to be great. Another heel victory, which even at this point while watching, I wasn’t sure if it was worth pointing out, but in retrospect it definitely is.

What does Orange Cassidy do from here?

The dark clothes and changing the theme back to the Pixies, which… involving the Pixies in anything can’t help but enhance… there was to be some kind of turn coming. I don’t know if it will be a heel turn, per se, but an alteration in the character and presentation is being slowly executed. I don’t know what it is, but it’s happening.

Is this the second PPV in a row where the Mercedes Mone title match felt off to you?

Not nearly as much as the last one, and if this is the “worst” of the show, that alone is noteworthy.

Then what was the problem with this one? 

At the show I attended, Hikaru Shida won another shot. Yes, I had reached my limit of being at a live show and turned on the Nord to see the ending, but there were implications. Kamille gets banned from ringside, Mercedes says she has some kind of plan.

And there wasn’t one? 

Did you see anything?

I’m watching the same show you did. Literally.

Maybe after months of “I can’t do the Tiger Driver” as well as Toni refusing to use the shoe after a long internal debate, the “oh good JBL I want to use this violent tactic, but oh no I can’t and it immediately costs me the match” annoyed me. But what annoyed me more was… What was this plan? To take advantage of a predictable morality crisis and win cleanly?

It’s Mercedes Mone, she’s not losing anytime soon.

Of course she isn’t. But yet another heel wins. So far, we have MJF, the Young Bucks, Stat, Okada, and now Mercedes on the winning side. Every match has been excellent, but it’s leaning heavy in one direction.

Oh hey, a heel didn’t win this next one, did they?

And I never thought in a million years he would. The one member of the Elite who didn’t win tonight, Jack Perry held his own. It made logical sense that the guy who got the pin over the now-champion in the Anarchy in the Arena match got a title shot, but with potentially a very small amount of matches left with Bryan Danielson (I honestly don’t know how many part-time matches he will really do after this run ends, if the conditions are as bad as indicated), this was not high on my list of matches I wanted to see. However, I think they did a good job of rationalizing it and adding the element of the “you debuted at this show, now I have my shot after my reinvention” aspect to it.

But the match isn’t what you’re going to remember about this, is it? I can finally talk about it?

Yes, I can, Self. Why the Pacpool Combat Club stood up to the Patriarchy and the Elite before what they did, I can only guess it was to really drive home the contrast of what happened next. Mox has been weird since his return. He changed his theme, he wasn’t around for All In, and he’s been pulling Lance Archers with Marina Shafir. Telling Jack Perry he’s a sweet kid also indicated something was up. I did not expect Claudio and Pac to be involved though, and the crowd reaction of that bait-and-switch uppercut was legendary.

Of all the people to make you feel feelings in wrestling, did you think it would be Wheeler Yuta?

It happened once before. His audition match for the BCC where he was begging for more and was finally accepted by Regal set a precedent that unfortunately had very little execution to follow it, as he more or less became the guy who loses for the BCC. And yes, while I thought the turn was coming because of the aforementioned Mox behavior, this went to a level I never could’ve imagined.

Why though? What made this different than other comparable heel turns?

First of all, that it wasn’t a clean, unified turn. Had Yuta just been with the rest of the BCC, it might not have stood out as much. Had a plastic bag not been used, which gave me another kind of personal feeling that is not fit for writing on this column, it might also not have been as different. The crowd chanting “This is Murder!” a few days after we got “This is Arson!” with the ending of Dynamite, wrestling sure escalated quickly in the last week, didn’t it?

If that wasn’t what it was, what was it?

Wheeler Yuta deserves recognition for what his presence added to this moment. As I said, Danielson being turned on by his years-long allies is one thing. The specificity of the plastic bag being the instrument of strangulation evoked more than a wrestling storyline, at least from me, but that is also one thing. Wheeler Yuta having a panic attack and flailing against a completely stoic PAC though… That is the image that overrules all the others in the memory banks for me.

Why though? What was it about his performance that made it stick with you so much?

It would’ve been one thing if Yuta wasn’t in on it and the BCC just beat him up too. PAC just holding him back while he screamed and tried to escape though, that is an image that is haunting. If you had told me he didn’t know that turn was coming, that he was completely left out of the plan and reacted genuinely in that moment, I would’ve believed you. The authenticity of the guy, how he kept trying to get to someone he clearly cares about while his supposed other friends took someone out hitman-style… I’m still picturing it several days later. I don’t know where this is going. I don’t know why this is happening. I don’t know if Wheeler ultimately sides with the rest of the BCC, or whatever Mox is turning it into. I’m intrigued to find out, but the emotion of that moment, of what Wheeler Yuta was able to convey without any real decipherable dialogue, that is the prevailing image of All Out 2024 that is going to stick with me much longer than anything. It may be impossible to follow up on, or match levels with, or to go over that bar, but if Mox is at the front of it, I have faith that the odds are in their favor.

So, a face broke the heel winning streak, but…

Did it really feel like he won there?

No. It didn’t feel like anything was won here. 

I agree. And then we have the main event.

Swerve was 2-0-1 going into this match. Was it obvious that Hangman wasn’t going to lose again under such circumstances?

Probably. And yes, we have another heel coming out on top. This one after literally committing arson too. It’s an escalation from Blowtorch Darby a little while back, and I have to give credit to both people involved here for commitment to the bit. Legit buying the house, legit burning it down, as I have been made to believe it was, that’s a deep level of devotion to the business.

Like the street fight earlier, was this a little much for you?

I don’t know if it’s that or what we saw with Danielson that tempered the crowd reaction for a bit. We watched perhaps the most beloved champion in wrestling get suffocated with a plastic bag, and then we got to see violence with cinderblocks and hypodermic needles. The abrasion that Hangman had on his back from the edge of that cinderblock made me cringe, but a needle getting involved was a next level “covering my eyes” moment. I have to believe that they implied that there was some kind of tranquilizer involved that helped keep Swerve down, and if that’s the case, it makes sense. Although, Hangman demanding Swerve to beg for mercy, only for Swerve to smile and laugh before collapsing… that was a badass moment in defeat. Swerve has now lost two PPV matches in a row after an extremely successful title reign. I know this one doesn’t “count” in the stats (that AEW has an on-again, off-again relationship with using), but like Willow earlier, I don’t think he loses anything with this result.

But, it was a little much?

There was no blood drinking involved, so that’s something?

Seriously…

Seriously. And yes, it was a gimmicked steel chair that was planted over Swerve’s head for the conclusion, but that still bothers me on a level I can’t explain. I know it’s used sparingly, I know they both had to agree with it, I’m glad they took the extra precaution of it not being a standard steel chair to the head, but there is still so much associated with that. It’s hard to process, it’s hard to witness, and while it is certainly their decision to make and it’s their own agency to decide what they wish to do with their own story, I still am not obligated to enjoy that detail.

So, on a night of the heels winning pretty much everything, this was the capstone?

Special recognition has to be given for the performance of Adam Page here. While I can’t consider him one of my top favorites, what he was able to evoke after all the storyline and emotion that led to that moment… It’s up there with Yuta’s performance tonight. The range of feelings, the complicated nature of how he felt in that moment against what he proclaimed it would be through both words and actions over the past year-plus… it’s haunting. And brilliant.

That’s why it was a bit complicated to write about?

Yes. It was one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen, but it was also incredibly emotional in complicated ways. The fact that wrestling is able to create such an empathy factor for me after how long it’s been, I have to give it credit. I’m definitely not dead inside, to say the very least. But it’s also very David Lynch-ian, the more I think about it.

You’re bringing up David Lynch in a column about wrestling?

It’s the best comparison I can think of. Horrendous shit is happening to people with whom you empathize. There are moments of beauty surrounded by absolute mental and physical torture happening to characters that work very hard to gain your emotional attachment, and then the wringer through which they are put just tears you up inside. There may be happy endings down the road, but this self-contained show? Well, to keep the theme of the comparison up, BOB wins, he has Cooper, Laura Palmer is dead, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

Does that mean WrestleDream will be Fire Walk With Me? 

Is it cheating to say that I both hope so and hope not at the same time?

Yes.

Well then, I’m a heel who won tonight. So be it.

Is there a HAM?

I’m struggling to decide that. There certainly were over-the-top performances tonight, but I feel like calling them a HAM for it would be a disservice for what they were able to do. I have to give a bonus HAM to the “PAC weirdly smiling” graphic they used for one match this past week and then realized that was too terrifying for television. I didn’t even see the preshow, but MxM was involved. Hold on, something about the way they watched the television screen?

Go look it up really quick.

Does it count if it’s on the preshow?

It’s your award. You’ve been giving it away since 2011, save for that one week early on where you decided maybe you shouldn’t and were overwhelmed with comments saying “No HAM this week?!” I think you get to decide who wins and why.

MxM wins. On a show where everything was amazing and yet had depressing as hell implications, MxM are emblematic of why I created the award in the first place, and not just because I miss my favorite wrestler and character, the Timeless one.

I’ll see you all again soon, please forgive the length of this one, but I had a lot to say and it took me two days to find a way to say it. And if you don’t like it, well… you’re the one who read this far, so that’s on you.

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