The State Of AEW Following All Out

Sometimes, when a lot is on the mind, it’s best to lay it All Out on the table. See what I did there?

Nearly a year removed from the first episode of Dynamite on TNT, I’m happy to see AEW is not only alive and kicking, but surviving and thriving. Much of the hate I see for the product is misguided, as are the people who’d prefer to see the product fail. I don’t know if I can say the industry as a whole is as strong as ever, but we’re definitely living in one of the most intriguing eras of professional wrestling, which is pretty cool. As the great philosopher Ferris Bueller once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

There is much to discuss regarding the future of AEW, starting with All Out – one of the weakest pay-per-views AEW has put on yet. Of course, the company hasn’t exactly helped itself given the high bar past shows have set, but it’s a reality of where the product is at right now.

I’ll start with this point, and I can’t even believe I’m having to type what I am typing right now: We need to cut Jim Ross a little slack.

Of course, Good, ‘Ole JR doesn’t need me or anybody else to defend him or his work, but I’m going to do my best anyway. During the All Out broadcast, JR commented, “Did Anna Jay have a wardrobe malfunction or was that just wishful thinking in my book?” Bad joke? Maybe. Damn him to hell? Hell no.

The truth is JR having heat with the AEW faithful, as well as the internet wrestling community (IWC), isn’t anything new. This feud, now a candidate for Feud of the Year, has been going on well past the days of AEW to when Ross was working with NJPW. One of the big pluses to AEW is how it has succeeded in indoctrinating new fans to professional wrestling. However, this is a double-edged sword. Many of these new fans are really less pro wrestling fans as much as they are “AEW fans,” and these people care not about the history of the craft. If they did, they’d understand what JR’s mere presence alone adds to the broadcasts. They’d understand that while Tony Schiavone (play-by-play) and Excalibur (analyst) can perform their roles to a tee, neither man can bring to a broadcast what Jim Ross can, which is the voice; the voice of all of modern wrestling’s biggest moments featuring its biggest stars. And having JR in the booth brings unquantifiable credibility to the AEW broadcast whether people realize it or not.

Are his best days as an announcer behind him? Of course! He’s old! Father Time is undefeated, and to steal a line from Eli Drake, it is a “fact of life” that we as humans regress with age. Take Adrian Peterson, one of JR’s beloved Oklahoma Sooners, for example. He’s one of the greatest running backs in the history of the NFL. Anybody can tell you that. Today, he’s 35 years old and not the player he used to be. It doesn’t mean he can’t be useful. The Lions sure thought enough of him to give him one more opportunity and what he now lacks in talent he is able to make up for in wisdom and big-game experience. Adrian knows what it’s like to play in a winning organization. He knows what winning looks like and he knows what it takes; what a team needs to do in order to be successful. That’s exactly what Jim Ross brings to AEW.

As far as whether or not the comment was offensive, I’ll take the same stance I took on the Jim Cornette “fried chicken” fiasco. It was a throwaway line, certainly not meant to offend and people need to treat it as such. Wrestling announcers get more “at-bats” than any one contributor to a wrestling show, and especially more than the talent. With more trips to the plate comes more chances to strike out. Not every line is going to hit and oftentimes lines like these are said without any forethought. Sean Ross Sapp asked the question, “what does that add” in regards to the line. The answer, Sean, is probably nothing, but I’m not going to hold JR’s feet to the fire over it. Some people still prefer an edgier product, anyway. I know very little about Anna Jay, but if she wasn’t offended, you shouldn’t be either.

But despite what the New York Post will tell you, the controversy from All Out didn’t end with JR. In fact, the strangeness of the night boiled out of the ring with the Sammy Guevara-Matt Hardy match and into the post-show media scrum. In regards to that, I’ll first say that I love that Tony Khan and AEW set aside time to chat with the media after big shows like this. As a disciple of this field, it seems to magnify the importance of the larger shows, but I could be exaggerating. Regardless, there were complaints on Twitter, one of which came from one of, if not the main writer for Bleacher Report’s wrestling beat, Jonathan Snowden. He claimed that AEW had begun to censor the press, selectively taking questions only from certain news sources that asked only the most basic questions. However, Jon Alba from Spectrum Sports in the local Florida area, had a lot to say about that and he made some excellent points about how AEW’s virtual press time works, the dangers of tribalism and the importance of credibility in this field.

You can check out his full take on it here, but I couldn’t second his comments any more if I tried (I, too, hate when reporters call a coach, “coach.” Shout out to my old boss, Tim McManus). Subsequently, Snowden deleted all of his previous tweets and set his Twitter account to private, which speaks volumes about his, you guessed it, credibility. Hopefully, this puts to bed the idea that AEW is anything but fair to the people who publicize it.

Believe it or not, some wrestling did occur at All Out. I can’t speak enough to how big of a get Thunder Rosa (and the NWA Women’s Championship) was for AEW. Her match with AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida barely scratched the surface of how important she could end up being to the future of the AEW women’s division. The match was solid, don’t get me wrong, but I want to focus more on how Thunder Rosa can be the shot in the arm this division desperately needs.

Having been introduced to Thunder during NWA Powerrr, it’s very apparent that she takes her craft very seriously. From bell-to-bell, it seems like she has improved even since her first set of NWA tapings and the desire to be great is apparent. It’s the type of attitude needed from the top stars of any division in any company. Moreover, she has a very unique look, and I don’t just mean how we conventionally rate someone’s “look.” Of course, she’s one of the few women in wrestling I’d simp for any day, but that’s besides the point. She can also be quite menacing, and believably menacing. She has that third and fourth gear that we don’t see quite as often in women’s wrestling and has struck an excellent balance between her real life and “stage” persona. Don’t believe me? Check out this thread,which features her shamelessly putting down one of our former writers back in June for describing her as a “cowardly heel,” while he also insisted she be brought into AEW as someone’s heavy.

I liked the way she debuted in AEW and having the NWA Women’s Championship at her side only adds to her (word of the day) credibility. Speaking of which, did you know she is the only woman in wrestling to have also had at least one sanctioned mixed martial arts fight outside of Ronda Rousey’s stable? Meanwhile, she also cuts a mean promo.

She is maybe the first five-tool player in the AEW women’s division. The only criticism I can really offer up has to do with the booking. Part of it may have to do with the fact she is on a pay-per-appearance contract right now, but her debut against Serena Deeb (also Deeb’s debut) should have been more of a squash. Additionally, I’d have smashed her over at All Out to give her both belts, but perhaps her day in the sun is coming soon. Thunder said herself that there is nobody on the AEW women’s roster that’s quite like her. I tend to agree with that sentiment, and I don’t think there’s any limit to what she can accomplish moving forward.

As for the rest of All Out, it was a very mediocre show. The critics got it right, although, remember all the negativity the Moxley-Omega match got from Full Gear last year? Yes, it was gruesome and reeked of excess, but at least both guys, as professional as can be, were able to come out of it largely unscathed with the exception of some nicks and bruises. I never saw that match as a cause for concern, but I cannot say the same for the Matt Hardy-Sammy Guevara Broken Rules match. Luckily, Matt is doing well after the sick bump he took and I’m glad to see he’ll be taking a short break to ensure he retains full possession of all his faculties.

The Mimosa Mayhem match, meanwhile, was not my cup of tea and I’m not sure how to feel about Lance Archer getting the next title shot. The main event did deliver bell-to-bell, and as I predicted, we happened to learn a great deal about MJF and how great he can be in big matches. All that said, I thought very little of the finish. I don’t see the logic in creating a move-banning stipulation only for the babyface to win by that very move in the end and not give the challenger an immediate rematch. What gives? Results and booking aside, it’s apparent to anyone who watches Dynamite that an MJF title run is an inevitability at this point. The only question is if it happens before or after an equally inevitable Michael Wardlow face turn.

What say you? Agree? Disagree? I enjoy a take of any old kind over on Twitter (@jackgoodwillie) where I look forward to continuing the conversation.