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AEW Revolution 2022 Reaction: 6 Thoughts

By Joel McIntyre • Published 7th March 2022
aew revolution bryan danielson jon moxley

AEW Revolution 2022 was a pretty good show from All Elite Wrestling. It was better all around than All Out last year, but I think it was a tad below Full Gear 2021.

One of my main issues is the length of the show. If you have twelve matches on your Pay Per View, you have a bloated roster. Especially when three of the matches consisted of a total of eighteen competitors.

We didn’t fight for years to get rid of eight-hour WrestleMania’s just so AEW can give us five hour Pay Per Views every three months. You need to cut about an hour and a half off of that total. Staying up until midnight on a Sunday is not an ideal situation. With that said, I did gather some newsworthy items from the show (check out the John Canton review here).

#6: WARDLOW IS THE FACE OF THE REVOLUTION

This was telegraphed really from the beginning that Wardlow would win this match. I thought Ricky Starks, Christian, Keith Lee, Wardlow, and Powerhouse Hobbs all did a great job here. I could’ve done without the Orange Cassidy and Danhausen nonsense. Wardlow now has a TNT Title shot that he may win. I have a feeling he might lose it due to MJF since Wardlow is a babyface now. I feel like the split takes center stage on Dynamite. Wardlow was a good choice. I would’ve been okay with any of them winning except Cassidy and Christian Cage. Good job by Wardlow. Based on the reactions, you can tell he is going to be a big star. He’s improved a lot in just over two years.

#5: JURASSIC EXPRESS RETAIN THE TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

In what was a great match, Jurassic Express retained their AEW World Tag Team Championship over reDragon and the Young Bucks. Anytime you have the Bucks and reDragon, you know it is going to be a good match. I was surprised Jurassic Express won. Their tag title reign has been lackluster and they’ve felt like an afterthought in this rivalry. I would’ve given the belts to reDragon or the Bucks. We’ll see how it plays out over the next few months. I imagine Kenny Omega returns imminently and we get that split happening. Jungle boy needs to pack on about 20-30 pounds of muscle and work on his promos and break away from Jurassic Express. He’s one of the “Pillars of AEW” so he’s past the point of needing the dinosaur in his corner. Let’s see what he can do on his own.

#4: SWERVE STRICKLAND IS ALL ELITE

This was a badly kept secret. Pretty much everybody knew Swerve was coming to AEW and he arrived here to sign his contract. I like Swerve and I think the sky is the limit for him in AEW. AEW is flawless when it comes to making debuting superstars feel special. From the way they’re brought in to the commentary. Everything is done to make it feel like a big deal that they’re here. AEW is also equally as inept at following up on those debuts with any significance. Look no further than Jay Lethal. He was THE guy for years in Ring of Honor. He can’t even get on television in AEW. Swerve can be a major player in AEW. It’s up to them to treat him that way and not have him on Dark for months after his initial feud.

#3: CM PUNK DEFEATS MJF

This appeared to be the culmination of their rivalry which is why I’m bothered. MJF has had four big feuds since AEW opened its doors. He’s lost three of them. He defeated Cody Rhodes in their only encounter. He lost a World Title match to Jon Moxley at All out 2020. Then he had nearly a year long feud with Chris Jericho in which he lost the blow off match. Yes, In know he beat Darby Allin. That wasn’t a big enough feud because they’re on the same level. The other four were guys of higher stature than him that could’ve put him over.

MJF beats CM Punk on a random edition of Dynamite and then loses the blow off match at Revolution. It was all to set up the Wardlow babyface turn which was perfectly executed. However, they could’ve done that on Dynamite. MJF needed to give Punk a clean sweep. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The match was great. I just wish MJF would win some of these blow off matches or people will start to wonder if he can.

#2: WILLIAM REGAL IS ALL ELITE

Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson tore the house down as expected but it was the end of the match that got the most attention. Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson still wanted to fight when William Regal came out and slapped them both in the face. It was a great moment as he convinced both to shake hands. It seems as if Regal will be the one to unite Moxley and Danielson into a team. Out of all of the signings AEW has made over the last year, William Regal is probably the best one outside of CM Punk. Not because of what he can do on screen but behind the scenes. He was just as instrumental into molding NXT into a success as Triple H was.

We’ve heard guys like JR, Mark Henry, Billy Gunn, Dustin Rhodes all suggest that the young guys in AEW should probably listen a bit more to the direction of the veterans. I agree. When you have guys like that as well as Jerry Lynn, Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho, etc., you need to take full advantage of that knowledge. If you can’t, you don’t need to be in this business. Not every match has to be a car crash or a blood bath. Psychology is a major issue in a lot of AEW matches. Regal can fix that. If they listen to him.

#1: “HANGMAN” ADAM PAGE RETAINS AEW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

The right Adam won in my opinion. Adam Cole will get his due but I don’t think a potential feud with Kenny Omega needs the Title. Adam Cole wasn’t done any favors when he was inserted right into the World Title scene right after he lost to Orange Cassidy. Whether it “counted” or not is irrelevant. I saw him lose on my television. Whether it goes on his record or not isn’t the point. I thought the match was great. Page has put on consistently good matches as Champion. I just wish he was seen as more of a big deal. He’s definitely not considered as big as Omega was as Champion and his reactions have fallen off a bit recently. Hopefully he picks it back up because I’m a huge fan of Hangman.

Final Thoughts

That will wrap this up. Great show as usual, but can we please cut it down to 3.5 hours? What’s the reason for cramming twelve matches going five hours? What did the Buy in accomplish? You could’ve done away with those three matches and inserted Jade Cargill vs Tay Conti, AHFO vs Sting/Darby/Sammy and you would’ve been just fine at 3.5 hours and been done by 11:30pm EST. It can be done. There’s no excuse for a wrestling show to go Five hours. Great show besides that.

Thanks for reading. Check out my TJRWrestling writing archive here. I’m on Twitter @GiftedMoney talking about wrestling among other things, so feel free to message me on there with any thoughts or comments.