Match Spotlight: Powerhouse Hobbs Vs. Miro, AEW All Out 2023

Powerhouse Hobbs' time in AEW recently came to an end as his contract with the company expired in January 2026, and is now a member of the WWE roster. Hobbs spent over five years in All Elite Wrestling, winning both the AEW TNT and World Trios Championships along the way, and with his run with the company now over, we wanted to look back on a moment in his career that looked to be the launching pad for bigger and better things for him, his match with Miro at AEW All Out 2023.

The event itself is a pivotal one in the short history of AEW as it took place less than 24 hours after CM Punk was fired from the company for his backstage fight with Jack Perry at AEW All In London a week earlier. It didn't help that All Out was taking place in Chicago, Punk's hometown, with a number of fans voicing their opinions about the situation at the show, and the fact that all the focus had gone into making the record breaking All In London event at Wembley Stadium one week earlier as big as it was. All Out 2023 was a show that was treated like a bit of an afterthought, but the talent that was booked for the show were going to make sure that those who bought tickets and purchased the show at home got a lot more than just good value for money.

Everyone on the show was wrestling as if their rent was due, and as a result, a show that had the least amount of hype out of any AEW pay-per-view turned into one of the best wrestling shows of the entire year. In fact, if you ask any AEW fan what their favorite AEW pay-per-view is, All Out 2023 will usually get more than a handful of mentions due to the sheer quality of the wrestling on display.

Heading into All Out, Hobbs was in a bit of a weird spot as he was knocked out of the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament by former partner Ricky Starks in July, and left the QTV stable to focus on writing "The Book of Hobbs," with the latest chapter being about redemption. Enter "The Redeemer," who had only been back for a couple of months after missing nine months of action for various reasons, and Miro's first pay-per-view test since coming back to AEW in June 2023 was making sure that Hobbs' chapter about redemption had a happy ending for him. With all that said, let's shine a spotlight on one of the meatiest matches in AEW history.

This match has lived on in the minds of AEW fans thanks to one simple word, meat. If you've ever heard the AEW fans chanting "MEAT" at the top of their lungs whenever someone like Hobbs, or anyone who is deemed a true heavyweight, is dishing out large amounts of punishment, this is where it started. Miro and Hobbs had a difficult task of following the AEW TNT Championship match between Darby Allin and Luchasaurus, and with only a couple of weeks worth of build, it was something of an uphill struggle to get the crowd invested.

The match is really a tale of two halves. The first half is what Jim Ross on commentary liked to call a "Super Heavyweight Slugfest" and he was right. Both guys are throwing big bombs at each other right from the start, clubbing blows, massive throws, and making the match feel like the ring might not be able to contain the two men. Miro is the clear fan favorite, but he's on the backfoot for a lot of the first portion of the bout to allow Hobbs to get the majority of the shine, and you can even hear him leading the match as some of his conversations with Miro are picked up on the ringside cameras. It's explosive, but the eventual bangs don't blow anyone in the crowd away and it kind of seems like they are trying to get into it, but only see it as a good television match...then it happens.

As Miro is making a comeback after being worn down by Hobbs, they get into a strike exchange that would usually result in the crowd going "BOO" and "YEAH" for the face and heel, However, the crowd doesn't do that, the crowd starts chanting "MEAT" for every blow landed, and it's here that the entire structure of the match completely changes. It's not been confirmed if what the match ended up being was completely called in the ring because of the crowd, but if that is what happened, then it's the best decision they could have possibly made as Miro starts playing into the chants and all of a sudden, seemingly in the blink of an eye, the crowd can't get enough of this match.

A good crowd can take a good match and make it great, and that's what happened here. Miro and Hobbs fully lean in to the "meat forever," "that was meaty," "holy meat," and any meat related chants the crowd could think of and it breathed a different energy into the match. The strikes felt harder, the bombs felt bigger, and the conclusion where Hobbs taps out in the Game Over after already escaping from it once earlier feels earned and right. It's a match that has been overshadowed by what happens later on in the night, but this match earned the standing ovation it got at the end, and both men should be immensely proud of what they achieved.

Perhaps another reason why this match has taken on a life of its own outside of the meat chants is that this was really the last hurrah for Miro in AEW. 

After All Out 2023, "The Redeemer" would only wrestle three more times for AEW. His final months on screen would revolve around his wife CJ Perry, who made her AEW debut in the aftermath of her husband's match with Hobbs as she attempted to make the save for Miro from a post-match beat down courtesy of Hobbs. She managed Andrade El Idolo through the inaugural Continental Classic tournament in the final months of 2023, leading to a match between Miro and Andrade at the Worlds End pay-per-view on December 30, and that was that for everyone involved in the match. Andrade's contract expired on New Year's Day 2024 and he returned to WWE at the Royal Rumble, Perry would also leave AEW in 2024, and Miro would remain inactive for 13 months before finally being released from his AEW contract, allowing him to return to WWE as Rusev after WrestleMania 41.

As for Hobbs, his story in "The Book of Hobbs" had its own twists and turns, but ended up having a much happier narrative than "The Redeemer." He would join The Don Callis Family in October 2023 and be a featured player on AEW programming, even being booked in a "Meat Madness" match for AEW Revolution 2024 that was eventually turned into an All-Star Scramble match. However, Hobbs would suffer a serious knee injury in April 2024 which kept him out of action for seven months, but he didn't let that slow him down. When he returned, he was immediately back on TV feuding with the likes of Chris Jericho, The Don Callis Family that had abandoned him while he was injured, and eventually Jon Moxley and the Death Riders when he became a member of The Opps with Samoa Joe and Katsuyori Shibata.

Now Hobbs and Miro are in WWE together as Royce Keys and Rusev respectively, and while it's unclear if they will cross paths in their new workplace, given the success of their All Out 2023 match, they will certainly want to run it back. Hobbs called the bout with Miro the best big man match in AEW history, and if they get the chance to bring that same meatiness to WWE, they won't turn it down.