All Elite Wrestling (AEW) returns to Wembley Stadium in London, England for the third time as it presents the biggest show of its yearly calendar, All In: London. Nine championships will be defended across the over six-hour event, included two of the very best professional wrestlers in the world facing off in the main event for the AEW World Championship, as Kenny Omega defends against England’s own Will Ospreay. In the semi-main event, Willow Nightingale carries a hand injury into her defence of the AEW Women’s World Championship against Mercedes Mone, which is the one title Mone has been as yet unable to claim in All Elite Wrestling. Meanwhile, Adam Copeland and Christian Cage defend the AEW World Tag Team Championships against The Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson, in an inter-generational tag team dream match, while the uber dominant Divine Dominion, Megan Bayne and Lena Kross, defend the AEW Women’s Tag Team titles against the UK’s own Brawling Birds, Jamie Hayter & Alex Windsor. The final of the Continental Challenge Cup is set to take place, as current Continental Champion Jon Moxley battles London’s own, the legendary Nigel McGuinness, and Kyle Fletcher defends his International Championship against both Konosuke Takeshita and Kazuchika Okada in a a highly anticipated triple threat. Rounding out the main card, Kevin Knight defends the TNT Championship against the man he turned his back on some months ago, Darby Allin, in a Falls Count Anywhere match, and there will be a Casino Gauntlet match to determine a future contender for whoever leaves All In with the AEW World Championship.
On the Buy-In pre show, the AEW World Trios Championships are on the line as seven teams of three face off in an Over-The-Top-Rope Battle Royale with random entry order and timing, plus Maya World defends the TBS Championship against Persephone. Plus, three more huge contests to make sure the actions starts early and never stops, live from Wembley Stadium in London, England, for AEW All In: London.
+ Kenny Omega (c) vs. Will Ospreay (AEW World Championship): I am an Omega fan, I am not an Ospreay fan (but I acknowledge he is very good), and this event felt tailor-made for Ospreay to win over Omega. Whether that happened or not I won’t say, of course, but everything, every single thing, from the pre-match videos to the end of the broadcast, was perfect. This is not my personal favourite match of all time, but there was not a single thing which could have been done better for this to be exactly what it was. You have to see this, and you have to include the pre-match stuff. Absolutely perfect
+ Willow Nightingale (c) vs. Mercedes Mone (AEW Women’s World Championship): I’ll get it out of the way immediately; I cannot stand Mercedes as a wrestler, talker, personality or presence. I am a notorious, staunch and proud Mercedes Mone hater. That said… this was perhaps my match of the night. I absolutely loved it, start to finish. Both women had great entrances, and both women had fantastic ring gear, and both women were fighting for this match to be stiff and visually impressive, and they succeeded. Especially as a huge Willow fan, I loved this match to pieces and I put it on par with anything must-see all year
+ Kevin Knight (c) vs. Darby Allin (Falls Count Anywhere Match for the TNT Championship): I expected to hate this, as I do most of these AEW ‘car crash’ matches, but I was thoroughly entertained throughout. Some additions as expected of a no-DQ match were very welcome, Darby is an absolute madman, and the crowd got a few moments to make them blow the non-existent roof off. This was good
+ AEW World Title #1 Contendership Casino Gauntlet Match: overall, this was a lot of fun. Mark Davis is underrated and they gotta start treating my boy better. There were a lot of big names in this one, with arguably the two biggest starting the match off (which we knew were Andrade and MJF). Justin Roberts had a bit of a slip up as ring announcer, but he covered it well and I enjoyed this overall. Kommander looked great, MJF was a good character throughout, Ciampa and Jericho both good great reactions. This was a good break between two big titles matches
+ Kyle Fletcher (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Konosuke Takeshita (AEW International Championship): Kyle Fletcher came out dressed as Donquixote Doflamingo from One Piece, so I was totally hooked, instantly. This had some really good action, with some specific crazy moments, but I will say it felt a bit short. Or maybe that was an intentionally sudden finish, but I would not have hated another five minutes
+ Jon Moxley (c) vs. Nigel McGuinness (AEW Continental Title Continental Challenge Cup Final): from the very beginning, this was an absolutely fantastic match. I still get a lot of joy from seeing Nigel wrestling, even though he’s been around in AEW for a couple of years now, but this was probably my favourite of his so far. Moxley is hit and miss with me, as recent AEW reviews would show, but I loved this match a lot. I especially loved the finish. Really good stuff
+ Adam Page & Brodido (Bandido & Brody King) (c) defend the AEW Trios Championships: I am sorely tempted to list this as a negative, just because of the pacing and timing issues throughout this match. This made absolutely no sense to me to be an over-the-top rope battle royale to determine champions. The selling point was fine (“Who will Swerve Strickland’s partners be?!”), and there were a few specific great moments, but the overall pacing and far too many specific timing moments was totally wrong, and it made me not enjoy this. I understand the concept of getting as many people on this show as you can, but this could and should have just been a Trios Title match between the obvious opponents and saved me some headaches, with a separate number one contender’s battle royale or something. Still, the obvious was done well and in a sense that’s all pro wrestling should be
– Cage And Cope (Adam Copeland & Christian Cage) (c) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) (AEW World Tag Team Championships): I did not dislike this, but a lot of it felt weird. The crowd went from near silent to mic-peaking loud a few times, but the finish fell completely flat after some mid-match moments which even got me exclaiming out loud. This was not bad, but it was very weak on a show of otherwise (generally) quite good stuff
– Divine Dominion (Lena Kross & Megan Bayne) (c) vs. The Brawling Birds (Alex Windsor & Jamie Hayter) (AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championships): I was shocked when I looked at how long this match actually went, because it felt like an eternity. I was bored, despite my enjoyment of (Lena Kross specifically, but) all four of these women. I hated the finish of this match in a huge way, but I was glad to see this match finished with so I could move on. This was far and away the weakest match on the show, and that’s a real shame
– Maya World (c) vs. Persephone (TBS Championship): I have grown to very much appreciate Persephone over her recent matches in AEW, and she was far and away the better of the two in this match. I am not a Maya World fan, and I do not think she is good enough to be a singles champion; thankfully this time at least she was relegated to the pre-show. The aftermath of this was more exciting than the match itself
– Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor, Lee Moriarty, Carlie Bravo & Capt. Shawn Dean) (with Christyan XO and Trish Adora) vs. Boom & Doom (“Big Boom!” A.J. & Q. T. Marshall) and The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin) (with Big Justice): the only thing I can possible say about this match is that I absolutely LOVE that spot where the bad guys do an abdominal stretch and all hold each other’s hands for “more pressure”. That is peak professional wrestling. Also, goodness, Trish Adora was looking fine. Otherwise this was a mess to get a lot of people on the show, and I hate that concept. Lashley and Shelton should be in a way bigger spot
– Sisters of Sin (Julia Hart & Skye Blue) vs. Harley Cameron & Kris Statlander: I am really not a fan of other-company-champions, as Hart/Blue are, being in relatively meaningless pre-show match. I love Harley Cameron (the Australian… for some reason) and Statlander, but this felt like a throwaway match for two of the three Artist of STARDOM champions in the Sisters of Sin
– The Opps (Hook, Katsuyori Shibata, Anthony Bowens & Action Andretti) vs. Lio Rush and The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier, Myron Reed & Zachary Wentz): I love custom ring announcements, and Lio Rush has been getting those lately. The Rascalz did a sick triple dropkick I’m not sure I’ve seen before. This was overall fine, but in front of a still-filing-in crowd and with nothing on the line, it’s a hard match to recommend. The Rascalz are super underrated, and I hope to see more of them
> I don’t recall hating the ‘Casino’ gimmick as much as I have on this show, specifically the concept of random intervals for the matches. That makes no sense, and in-universe I would hate it
Should you watch this event: Aside from the few ‘AEW specific’ issues I have, such as the length of the shows and the often far too brief downtime between matches, this was an excellent show. I was most let down by the two tag team title matches, but everything else on the main card was must see. Go out of your way to see those last matches. I’m still buzzing from them.
MoshFish Reviews 