Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s review of AEW All Out 2025, a show that was main-evented by a 40-minute AEW World Championship match that the WINC staff ... didn't really have any strong feelings about! Sorry! It could have been the overall six-hour runtime of the show and the fact that we were already two matches into WWE Wrestlepalooza, who can say? We do, however, have some very strong feelings about several of the other matches on the show, from Cope & Christian's Toronto homecoming to Kris Statlander's surprise world title win to the heartwarming reunion of The Jurassic Express!
Of course, we're not going to cover the entire show, because that would be literally impossible given our format restrictions, but we'll take a decent bite out of it. If you missed the festivities or just want to read more about something we're not discussing, check out our All Out results page, and keep an eye out for this show's Winners and Losers, as well as Where DoWe GoFrom Here, in the coming days! For those who want to know which parts of the first-ever HBO Max PPV we particularly liked or disliked, however, the wait is over. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about AEW All Out 2025!
Have we considered that Adam Copeland might actually be a WWE sleeper agent at this point? Or at least a rogue Vince McMahon loyalist? I'm not just saying that because of how often he's talked about owing Vince his career I'm also wondering how AEW All Out 2025 gets opened by a match that's a commercial for WWE in like four different ways.
On the one hand, Copeland's tribute to John Cena during this match (in response to Cena's recent WWE TV tributes to Copeland) was very sweet and heart-warming. On the other hand, when you're in a very clear battle with a company that is actively trying to make sure you don't get another TV deal, is it the best look for your crowd to be suddenly chanting the name of one of that company's top stars? In a vacuum, maybe it's fine but we don't live in a vacuum. This was also happening in a match that's pretty much entirely based on Copeland and Christian Cage's history together in WWE. When Copeland does the "You can't see me" taunt, he's referencing WWE, and not just historically; the taunt was best received by those who had also watched Cena's tribute to Edge, namely, people watching current WWE TV. Otherwise known as "people you would presumably rather be watching your TV on this, the day of a counterprogrammed PPV."
And even if you're okay with all that, they then go and top it off by bringing in Beth Phoenix another former WWE star for a big distraction nearfall, struggle on for a few more minutes to get to an awkward and anticlimactic finish, and then essentially re-create the finish from Copeland's match with Finn Balor from WWE Extreme Rules 2022, a show I can promise you is remembered for Bray Wyatt's return and Bray Wyatt's return only. The match had already gone on too long; nobody wanted or needed to see Beth get wrestling fridged again. And even if someone did, wouldn't that simply mark them as a bigger WWE fan than most? Is that the demographic we're targeting here?
Edge and Christian were my first-ever favorite wrestlers, and even I've seen enough. Take it home and close the book, guys. It's painful to watch how poor a fit you are for this promotion.
Written by Miles Schneiderman
Technically it was a given when the match was originally announced, but that did nothing to change the excitement when Eddie Kingston's music played for the first time in over a year to precede his return to the ring against Big Bill. Kingston is an enigma, an everyday-looking man that has gone through his own extensive battles, physically and mentally, treating that journey with such candor and self-deprecation that it is impossible not to feel empathically connected to the story of his struggle within the ring.
He looks like a normal guy, but he isn't, because he wears those flaws and imperfections as armor and still manages to scratch and claw his way to prominence in an industry obsessed with those who look the exact opposite to him. Now, on the face of it, Big Bill is entirely different. The dude is tall, and he is jacked, both things that would and at one point did allure him to the upper echelon of professional wrestling. Kingston's journey has been one of struggle from the off and that continuous battle through setbacks on the way up, whereas Bill was a Vince McMahon-favorite coming out of "WWE NXT," but that in itself is not to say he hasn't had his own struggle.
Bill is another one who has been really earnest and candid in the fact he has had his own struggles, those which threatened to capitulate his life heading out of WWE, and while the focus should be on the wrestling and the wrestling alone it's really hard to not find that parallel beautiful; Bill was wrestling Kingston, who was himself returning from another major setback, and this was Bill's first major PPV singles match since he was curtailing out of WWE. The match itself did what it should have done: it wasn't long and self-indulgent; it was a fight and the pendulum of momentum swung as such.
Bill took the early advantage, but in expending that energy at the beginning he found himself beaten by Kingston after seven minutes, a spinning backfist spelling all she wrote. It was a flash finish, one that didn't feel like a grandiose spot that had been built to and teased throughout, just a solid shot to the jaw and a one-two-three. That's not really the point though. The point is Kingston is back, he's got a win under his belt, and he looked good for it. Nothing to hate and everything to love.
Written by Max Everett
There's a reason Riho was the inaugural AEW Women's World Champion.
At Saturday's "All Out" event, Riho tried her damndest to pump the brakes on the Mone Train, and while she ultimately came up short in her AEW TBS Championship ambitions, she gave Mone a run for her money with a technical masterclass. From shaping the match's narrative with her signature Foot Stomps to creating innovative counters to Mone's already diverse playbook, Riho shone. Whether you know her from her two decades of in-ring experience or have never seen a Riho match until this point, it's clear that AEW has one of Japan's finest in their ranks.
Riho showed her in-ring mastery from the opening bell, when she stumped the established Mone with a quick grappling sequence that saw the TBS Champion become flustered with her challenger's fast dodges and smart counters. Throughout the entirety of the match, you can tell how much control Riho has over her body. Such control is one of the hardest challenges to overcome in wrestling: you are asking your body to contort in the most unnatural ways, all while making such feats of flexibility and calisthenics look natural. For Riho to so seamlessly, so quickly, get the best of Mone in the grappling department speaks volumes about the amount of body control she has, which only comes from intense, long-term in-ring study.
Riho's expertise didn't just stop at her standalone grapples. Her experience shone in her rope-based offense as well. While she definitely had some awkward moments and hiccups with Mone, it's clear she knows what she's doing. From a simple trapped arm hold to a beautiful Tiger Feint Kick, Riho's more agile moves continued to look seamless, and she continued to look like a bonafide professional as the match progressed.
Riho's Foot Stomp is one of her signature moves, and she pulled it out at multiple points in the match. Where other wrestlers risk triteness from relying too heavily on a signature move set, Riho continued to switch up the context in which she delivered her Foot Stomp to not only keep the move looking fresh, but to punctuate the match's first, second, and final act, with the move increasing in its risk and complexity each time. She moved from an apron Foot Stomp, and escalated until she finally nailed the Foot Stomp while Mone was suspended in a Tree of Woe position. The move existed in the crossroads between consistency and innovation, which itself can be seen as a mini symbol for her own nearly-two decade long career.
There are some other small shouts, like her gorgeous Crucifix Bomb on Mone, or a minor critique about her lack of selling. The point, however, is such: Riho is a gem who, even 19 years after her debut, feels fresh. She might not have won the TBS title, but AEW would be stupid to not take this match as a sign to push this fluid, technical master every week.
Written by Angeline Phu
I will fully admit that I am not the biggest Darby Allin fan, but I am a huge Jon Moxley gal, so I was looking forward to this coffin match as someone who also likes a good hardcore stipulation. The tables & tacks match wasn't exactly for me, so I thought maybe this would be something exciting with Deathmatch Jon Moxley in a bit more hokey stip. Sadly, that's not what I came away thinking, and the backstage angle after the match (well after the match, I feel like it should be noted) didn't help, either.
To start with, I didn't love the build-up to this match in the first place. I don't know if that's because I didn't see some of it due to it being on "AEW Collision," but I also thought too much of it centered around Allin's Mount Everest climb, which I'm already pretty sick of hearing about. I get it, that's dangerous and hardcore, but it didn't really fit in here during a Moxley feud. Ithought this match also might have been a victim of yet another overbooked AEW pay-per-view that ran too long with too many matches on the card. Between the tables & tacks match and the excellent four-way ladder match for the AEW World Tag Team Championships after this, the coffin match kind of got lost in the shuffle.
That's also probably why the return of PAC didn't feel as exciting. Outside of him changing up his look a little bit and I was initially unsure of who he was, it just didn't feel big or special. That could also be because his return happened after the plastic bag spot, where Bryan Danielson on commentary, who promised Allin he wouldn't get involved during a pre-taped interview segment on "Dynamite," still passed him a gym bag with the plastic in it, which Allin accepted without question. Or, maybe it's because there are so many others in the Death Riders, that PAC's return just feels kind of inconsequential.
Later on in the night there was a backstage segment that showed Allin getting out of the coffin. Moxley ended up in a body bag anyway, which I also have not really been a fan of, and Allin also attempted to light Moxley on fire. So, despite Moxley going through all of that and beating Allin at his own game, with PAC making his surprise return for it all, Moxley and his crew still kind of ended up losing anyway, kind of undermining the match.
This all just wasn't for me overall, and I highly doubt that the Death Riders are done with Allin, and I'm just not excited to see more.This match would have benefitted from a few more weeks of build on "AEW Dynamite," and possibly a better spot, higher up on the card of the next pay-per-view.
Written by DaisyRuth
"Timeless" Toni Storm presented "All Out's" four-way match as a can't-miss blockbuster to close out the summer, but in this writer's humble opinion, this should have stayed as a straight-to-DVD film.
Saturday, Storm defended her title against Jamie Hayter, Thekla, and Kris Statlander in a wild four-way match, and while the in-ring action made it one of the more energetic bouts of the night, I just can't let that excuse this film's near-infuriating ending. Storm, who is, to date, the only person to get a singles win over the unstoppable Mercedes Mone Storm, who got a win over the longest-reigning Ring of Honor Women's World Chamber Athena had her record-setting fourth AEW Women's World Championship reign ended via flash pin, courtesy of "I always move forward" Statlander. What are we even doing?
First of all, this is no hate towards Statlander. I'm sure she's as shocked as the rest of us, and, even though this is a debatable creative turn from the AEW writers' room, she has an amazing opportunity set before her. I'm sure that she will do what she can to make this inaugural title reign a great one. That being said, I am still confused and annoyed at the sequence of events that led to her title victory, due, in part, to my respect for her, for Storm, and everyone Storm has overcome before.
People, as of late, have found that Storm's timeless reign has become a little stale. This is a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with, but we can't just end title reigns overnight because they've become a little stale especially when Storm's current reign began in one of AEW's most successful and compelling storylines, male or female, to date. I don't need to sit here and give you out-of-ring examples about unsatisfying endings or disrespect to tell you that this finish was both unsatisfying and disrespectful. It's disrespectful to Storm, the incredible work she's put in, and her recent proud show of AEW loyalty. It's disrespectful to competitors like Mone, Athena, Megan Bayne, and Mina Shirakawa, because now all of their hard work both from a storytelling sense and an in-ring sense seems wasted. It's disrespectful to Statlander, because Statlander was robbed of a potentially career-defining feud with Storm if the plan was for Statlander to go over this entire time, then why not give us a reason to be happy for her?
This decision feels like it was made for shock value. It doesn't make sense from a backstage perspective (I admittedly don't have as good of an insight to that as I'd like, but I wasn't born yesterday). It doesn't make sense creatively, since Statlander seems to be shacking up with Wheeler Yuta and the male-dominated Death Riders. It doesn't make sense, period. Again, glad for Statlander, but she deserves to be champion because she deserves to be champion. I hate that her feud is already marred with Tony Khan's trigger-happy, rash booking. She deserves better.
This film scores 0% on my Tomatometer.
Written by Angeline Phu
If you had told me heading into this weekend that I would have a positive word to say about the return of Jack Perry, I genuinely would have chuckled and said something to the effect of, "I'm not going to hold my breath." But when all was said and done and he had returned to the fold, I was very happy with what it had achieved.
The story of Jack Perry has been an unfortunate one, wherever one believes blame should be directed. While obviously not everyone's cup of tea, Perry was an exciting young talent during his initial run as "Jungle Boy," a classic babyface underdog styled as 'What if Tarzan was real?" juxtaposed really well with his surprisingly nimble heater, Luchasaurus.
Naturally their act got stale after a period of success followed by never quite reaching that same level, and they split as Luchasaurus became Killswitch, Christian Cage's heater. On paper, it's not like they had entirely dry spells as singles stars; Killswitch became TNT Champion, although he wouldn't hold the belt per se, and Cage quickly saw to it that he would be the official champion too. Perry became FTW Champion, got into a very publicized altercation with CM Punk, and eventually when he returned from that debacle he become TNT Champion though if truth be told he never quite felt the same.
His return sought to remedy that, or at least it looks like that, with Perry coming back to confront the Young Bucks after they made it clear they wanted nothing more to do with him. He attacked them, got quickly outdone by the numbers game and in the position for a BTE Trigger, only for him to smile and indicate that something was afoot. The lights went out, a package played to show Perry exhuming someone from the ground, that someone being LuchaKillswitch, and then snap back to the ring where the masked monster stood. Perry gestured to his friend (pet?) to relinquish the belt with Killswitch written on it, which he did, and then they embraced as "Tarzan Boy" played.
That means Killswitch is now Luchasaurus, a worthy retcon since AEW went seemingly above and beyond to ensure he didn't become the next Kane, and they are back together as Jurassic Express. What kind, though? That's the important hook coming out of this, are they going to lean into the nostalgia of their babyface run? Or are they going to present a new, edged, version of their tandem? Jurassic World or Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, that is the question. And it's one that leaves me interested in something to do with Jack Perry going forward, wouldn't have said that was possible before Saturday and I can't not love the fact that it is.
Written byMax Everett
