AEW All Out 2024: Three Things We Hated And Three Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s annual review of AEW All Out, the show where more often than not, hate wins! This year's event was headlined by the Lights Out Steel Cage match between "Hangman" Adam Page and Swerve Strickland, and shockingly, we're going to talk about it — a lot. Between that main event, the Blackpool Combat Club turn, and the Willow Nightingale/Kris Statlander match, we have more than enough to fill an entire column, and while we tried to talk about the rest of the card a little bit, several of the other contests get short-changed here, including the tag title match, the Continental title match, and the TBS title match. Not to worry — you can read more about those by going to our All Out results page, where you'll find a full description of everything that happened on the show, and in significantly more objective language than what you're about to read here. Because this is the part where the WINC staff gives you our opinions.

So, did we appreciate Willow and Stat getting hardcore? Did we find the latest twist in the new Jon Moxley storyline particularly compelling? And most importantly, DID SWERVE AND HANGMAN GO TOO FAR???? (spoiler: yes, and it was awesome). Here are three things we hated and three things we loved from AEW All Out 2024!

Whenever someone criticizes AEW (online, at least), there's a response I see a lot, which is basically that it's ridiculous to say a promotion is giving you too much wrestling. For example, if I say MJF vs. Daniel Garcia was too long, involved too many false finishes, and had an absurdly overbooked ending, you might think what I'm really saying is "I don't like wrestling, I want less of it and I want it to be less good." That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it would have been more impactful if it had been more tightly, efficiently told, like any story. I'm saying if there had been fewer false finishes, the actual finish would have hit harder — especially if it wasn't a mess. I'm saying limits are real, and they're valuable. They're what make things matter.

Look at Will Ospreay vs. PAC. More length. More false finishes, most of them egregious in the amount of belief they're asking me to suspend. What I should remember as an incredible display of athleticism is instead rendered as white noise; instead of being carried away in the magic of the moment, the beautiful violent illusion of pro wrestling, I'm left staring at the screen, unmoved, as Opreay kicks out of another poison rana and PAC kicks out of the Hidden Blade. The battle has no discernible consequences until the actual finish, when suddenly it's time to believe the battle actually does have consequences after all. By then, it's too late. It was too much — and it was also everywhere.

Wrestling is often spoken of in terms of a variety show, but there was no variety at All Out, or at least very little. Most of the matches were about deeply personal grudges, about hatred and retribution, which would be fine if they didn't also play out so similarly in the ring. Finisher after finisher, kickout after kickout; the same basic genre of match being repeated over and over again, just at different volumes. Jack Perry kicked out of the Busaiku Knee; Mercedes Mone won despite taking something vaguely resembling a third Katana; Swerve Strickland actually kicked out after the third Dead Eye. It happened over and over, with really the sole exceptions being the tag title match and the Continental title match, because each of those involved four people instead of two. The singles matches, though, uniformly involved "fighting spirit," or maybe just the power of hatred. Either way, it was too much — from start to finish, from top to bottom. I won't remember any of it tomorrow. I barely remember it now. It's creative mush, it says nothing. It's gibberish.

It turns out I actually do want less wrestling, because I've seen what it looks like when as much wrestling as possible is squeezed in at all times, and I find it tiresome. Everything becomes less valuable the more of it you have. It's only when the supply is limited that it becomes precious.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

This was one of the matches I was most excited to see on the All Out card, and it didn't disappoint, though I was a bit worried about its placement following the great match that Will Ospreay and PAC put on. Thankfully, the fans seemed to still be really in to the blood feud between former besties Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale as much as I was here from my couch, and that extra energy was amazing. I was hooked from the second Nightingale, who I will admit I predicted to win this bout, came out in a more street fight-like look, and even though she still couldn't entirely hide her big ol' smile, she absolutely looked more serious. It was that serious brutality out of Nightingale that really made this match for me. Nightingale using the light tube, smashing it across Statlander and driving off Stokely Hathaway with what was left of it was something I didn't expect from the women's hardcore stipulation match, and I absolutely loved it.

Even though Statlander had just taken a light tube and was down on the stage in glass, she was still able to spear Nightingale off the stage, both women crashing through a few tables set up below. That was an excellent shot, and one of my favorites of the night. When they got back in the ring, the brutality only continued, especially with the thumbtacks. Thumbtack spots never cease to make me cringe and peak through my fingers to watch in morbid curiosity, but when Statlander missed her Scissor Kick and landed on them in a SPLIT, I audibly squealed out loud. Holy ouch, what a bump to take. She might not be my favorite in storyline, but that woman is a bada** and I have a lot of respect for that one, especially when she took a Death Valley Driver into the tacks right after.

One of the final things that I loved about this match was the fact it set up a rematch. Or, I suppose another match in their lengthy feud, but it doesn't seem like it's been too much between these women or two many matches between them. Statlander got a dog collar-like contraption (thankfully it wasn't a dog collar exactly, I don't know why, but the optics of a dog collar around a woman wrestler's neck just doesn't seem great) and secured one end around Nightingale's wrist, then the other around her own, before they started beating each other up again. There's another match there, whether it be a strap match, bull rope match, or whatever you. And that's without the fact Statlander and CMLL World Women's Champion Nightingale could have a sanctioned match for that title. There are still so many things these women can accomplish together, and I'm looking forward to seeing where things go between them on "Dynamite" this week.

Written by Daisy Ruth

It's been made clear for weeks that I have not been on board with the brief cryptic teases made by Jon Moxley in recent weeks. But it's the pay off that truly matters, and although there are still glaring issues with the build-up to Saturday night's moment, I thoroughly enjoyed the breath of fresh air the Blackpool Combat Club received in Chicago. Bryan Danielson and Jack Perry had just finished their great title match, and another cool moment followed as Killswitch emerged in the ring. There were layers in the interaction, he was clearly there at the behest of Christian Cage, he who holds a cash-in contract for the world title. But he was face-to-face with his former "Jungle Boy" and both clearly demonstrated the reluctant scanning of the much-changed former AEW tag champs, staring one another down before Killswitch's focus was broken by Cage's music.

That's when the BCC emerged in its entirety, including Mox – who had been noticeably acting weird in recent weeks – they stood together in solidarity with their stablemate to repel Christian. He was endorsing Perry despite the fact he was outwardly looking to retire Moxley's stablemate, ransacking backstage alongside Marina Shafir, but it seemed like there was a deliberate space being given between him and the rest of the faction. It seemed as though the BCC, specifically Danielson, were ignorant to the circumstances pertaining to Mox and no such questions were given anything close to an answer. Saturday we got the answer, with it actually being Claudio Castagnoli to pull the trigger with a surprising European uppercut to the World Champion. PAC held Wheeler Yuta back, crying as he watched one mentor asphyxiate the other with a plastic bag, and hammering home the treachery afoot within the group.

This show answered a lot of questions that niggled at the faction until this point, including the sudden additions of PAC and Marina Shafir, clearly brought into the fold by the scheming Castagnoli and Moxley. Maybe Danielson had been willfully ignoring the dissent, hoping for it not to be true against all hope. It didn't completely make up for a lot of the confusion that still lingers from the teases on TV. One might even argue the moment would have been more impactful if Moxley hadn't been shown to be going rogue beforehand. But in a nutshell, this was an excellent moment, breathing life back into the "Purveyor of Violence" and re-directing the BCC following a spell of stagnancy as a group. New blood, a new focus, and new leadership, the stage has been set for a Moxley-Danielson title program, and it's a fresh one with all-new dynamics. I just don't know how, why, and to what end Darby Allin will factor into this. That's a pondering for another day. For now, this was a moment of brilliance and layered storytelling, and I'll take it.

Written by Max Everett

Here's a situation for you, one I'm sure most, if not all wrestling fans have been in. You're showing someone who isn't really into what you're watching and they are pointing out all the flaws that you regularly ignore due to knowing it's all part of the act. But you're not necessarily getting embarrassed, you're not even getting sad that you haven't converted someone into a new fan, instead, you're getting angry, frustrated, and really wish that the person would simply just stop talking. That's how I felt during Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page's main event.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Jim Ross, as are a lot of people, he is an integral part of most people's fandom. However...his commentary in the main event was something else. Did no one explain to him that the match was unsanctioned? Did no one explain that the whole point of the match was for it to be uncomfortable? Did no one think to tell him that in AN UNSANCTIONED MATCH that the referee cannot simply step in? Granted, Paul Turner did call it off because Strickland may have actually died, but Jim...please...would you stop?

In a way, I totally get the angle JR, Tony Schiavone, and the rest of the commentary team were going for. They wanted to stress the fact that this match is brutal to the point of being uncomfortable to watch, but it gets to the point where it actively takes away from what you're watching when the crowd's chants of "this is awesome" and "you sick f**k* are drowned out by Ross and Schiavone squirming in their seats by saying "ahhhhh help," "someone stop this," and the ever present "this has gone too far." What's even more of a shame is Ross has praised many a bloodbath over the years, even if it was from a far. Ross even went from saying how much of a disgrace the match was to the business to talking about growing up on a farm. Like sure, you're trying to say these two men are like caged animals that can't be contained, but also, THIS IS A BLOOD FEUD, STOP TALKING ABOUT FARMS!

I have all the love and respect for JR, and Schiavone as well, but their commentary missed the mark in the show's dramatic closer. Keep JR on the matches that are athletically spectacular contests where he can truly put guys over, because when he sees someone getting thrown on to cinder blocks, stabbed with needles, and hit with unprotected chair shots, he strays too far from the path he helped carve over the past five decades.

Written by Sam Palmer

"Hangman" Adam Page and Swerve Strickland somehow managed to step up the sadism in their third chapter in Chicago, a barbaric steel cage match with the added 'Lights Out' stipulation as AEW declared it wouldn't be sanctioning the match. While Page and Strickland stayed true to their word, however, the match didn't transpire to be as unsanctioned as it was portrayed. At several points in the match did an AEW official, Paul Turner, get involved to stop things from going too far, serving only to undermine the concept of the bout at every turn.

Turner at one stage physically prevented Page from using a steel chair, the same chair that would continue to be used alongside a cinder block, tables, and even a hypodermic needle. For some reason, he remembered the stipulation when those instruments came into play, but the steel chair was where he drew the line. The very fact he got involved distracted from the action by provoking the question, what about the match was unsanctioned? There was still an AEW referee injecting himself into the affair, and in fact he also called for the match to be stopped. Why didn't he stop the match when Strickland had his back bent over a cinder block? Why not when Page started putting a needle through his cheek? These are questions about a referee's actions in the supposedly unsanctioned match.

The very fact that these questions exist is an issue, Page and Strickland put there all into making this feud what it is and following through on their promise with the match. Only for the referee to make a series of awkward interjections throughout the match to become the unwanted third wheel in a blood feud. The cage was designed to keep all those who would interfere out, AEW made the call to wash their hands of the match, and then changed its mind when it got to the best bit. It was melodrama for the sake of melodrama, and the fact of the matter is the 'Lights Out' stipulation was a needless promise.

Page and Strickland staged a fantastic performance, and there is nothing that can never really be posited in a negative light for this writer as far as the wrestling itself went. It was a clinic in staged masochism, somehow unique in their saga of violent matches and moments, and it needs to be known that the criticism before purely extends to the way AEW went about hyperbolizing the already violent stipulation to no avail. It would be like staging a Hell In A Cell Inferno Match, there are just too many powerful ingredients in the pot and it confuses the palate.

Written by Max Everett

I think most fans went into All Out 2024 thinking "oh my, we are going to see some incredible wrestling tonight," and that we did. But could you imagine showing someone this show as their first experience in wrestling because THERE WERE SO MANY CRIMES! Not only did Jon Moxley try and suffocate Bryan Danielson with the one thing the American Dragon hates more than anything; non-recyclable plastic, but Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland crafted one of the most sinister and barbaric matches in recent memory.

Blood was mandatory in this match, but it wasn't a bloodbath in the sense of neither man hit an absolute gusher like Eddie Guerrero at Judgment Day 2004. Instead, it was more a match where both men were trying to survive each other. Right from the jump they tried to get each other crushed by the cage being lowered, violence wasn't enough for Swerve and Hangman, near death was the only option, and by the end of the match, we might not have seen a murder, but we saw two men's lives being shortened in real time...which is exactly what this should have been.

Both men were dropped on a cinder block stiffer than forearm from a Tomohiro Ishii, with Swerve at one point looking like he genuinely had trouble standing up because his back was dumped on a piece of concrete. They both tried to stab each other with a burnt piece of Swerve's childhood home, which was surprisingly the second most chemically dangerous weapon in the match because a hypodermic needle was introduced (it was probably sanitized, but still). After all that, we got the crescendo, the thunderous unprotected chair shot to the head that left everyone gasping for breath.

Did they go too far? Of course they did. But if they didn't go as far as they went, it wouldn't have lived up to the billing of the most violent match in AEW history. For a match filled with this much hatred, I don't want to see a "wrestling match" where they exchange holds and counter each other's counter, I want to see a final showdown between two men that are willing to die in that cage if it means the other man dies in a much more gruesome fashion. Is it for everyone? No. Do I condone unprotected chair shots to the head? No. But if any situation called for a conclusion like the one Swerve and Hangman produced, it was this one.

Written by Sam Palmer