AEW All In review: The Final Countdown

There’s nothing better than a Bryan Danielson main event match.

The end of this year’s All In at Wembley Stadium saw Danielson, ultimate babyface in physical peril against champion Swerve Strickland, beat the odds by submitting Strickland to win the AEW World Championship for the first time. The show ended with Danielson, his wife Brie, and their two children celebrating in the ring as a gigantic fireworks display lit up Wembley Stadium. It was an incredible main event to cap off a very good show. Although there have been better pay-per-views this year overall, it will be very tough to match the performances of Danielson and Strickland on this night.

It wasn’t just the match that made this an excellent main event, even though the wrestling was pretty awesome. This had everything bad faith ‘fans’ of pro wrestling complain about when it comes to grifting off of AEW disdain: the cool video packages, the big entrances, the great wrestling, and the emotional aftermath. This is how you tell stories in pro wrestling.

I’ll be the first to admit that for some of AEW’s main events, not everything is there, even if the wrestling is out of this world. But this main event felt different than the others. It felt like AEW touching upon things that WWE is known for when they are firing off on all cylinders. No, this can’t match Cody’s championship win, which was built over two years. But it did an excellent job of making me invested in the story they are telling.

Bryan Danielson’s future isn’t clear, as he’s intentionally made his future vague. Despite now being AEW World Champion, he is working without a contract, and is still winding down his career as he transitions to a part-time wrestler. We’ll know more where his future lies this coming Wednesday, where he’s scheduled to appear on Dynamite.

Here’s the rest of the main card:

• Jack Perry beating Darby Allin was more of a backdrop to everything that happened after the match, with Sting coming out to Seek and Destroy and  proceeded to, in fact, seek and destroy The Young Bucks and Jack Perry. The match was fine, particularly made memorable by Allin’s nasty bumps. I would never attempt to fall off the stage with my feet and hands tied together, geez.
• Mechanically, Britt Baker and Mercedes Mone had a fine match. Problem is, the crowd simply wasn’t into this after watching MJF and Will Ospreay. And the finish, where Mone simply threw Baker into the ropes and pinned her with the Mone Maker, didn’t exactly excite me about watching another match between these two down the road. Nothing they did was wrong per se, but this was more about the placing on the card than anything.
• As expected, Will Ospreay defeated MJF in an excellent match, finally hitting the Tiger Driver 91 for the win. I wouldn’t say it was as good as their hour-long match from a few weeks ago, which was a match of the year contender. But you can’t ask more from one of the top matches on one of the biggest shows of the year. MJF doesn’t get enough credit for being a top tier wrestler and Will Ospreay is well on his way to winning back-to-back Wrestler of the Year awards.
• The Casino Battle Royal was probably the best battle royal AEW has put out. Seeing Nigel McGuiness wrestle for the first time in over a decade was damn cool and it was a delight to see him go against the likes of Zack Sabre Jr. and Kyle O’Reilly, showing he can still hang with them. Putting some of AEW’s best talent like Orange Cassidy and Mark Briscoe also helped a lot. The finish was…whatever. I don’t know what is going on with Killswitch and Christian Cage as one week Killswitch is ready to turn and the next minute he’s helping Cage out anyway. This has been going on for nearly a year at this point. Still, the match itself was big win and one of the more fun matches on the show.
• The Tag Team title match was a perfectly fine three-way. I kinda expected a bit more considering who was in the ring, but everyone looked good. Grizzled Young Veterans ran out after The Bucks retained and pretty much made it clear they were in the running for the titles, so that should be a fun new addition to a division that needs some new people in the mix.
• Hook and Chris Jericho was a fine weapons match. I did like the build to the big spot where Big Bill flew off the apron and into the barbed wire table. I also liked the finish, with Taz taking out Bryan Keith, which allowed Hook to score the submission win.
• Toni Storm and Mariah May was pretty good. I thought the right person won as with a Mariah May win, the feud can continue, and this is a feud that still has juice to it. Perhaps a stipulation match on one of AEW’s upcoming big shows. There’s also the Mina Shirakawa situation, as she will probably play a role in the continuing story.
• The London Ladder match to open the show was very good. Not the best out of the 1400 ladder matches I’ve seen this year, but a good opener to kick off the night. I don’t have anything else to add here other than I am VERY GOOD on not seeing another ladder match for the rest of 2024 or even all of 2025 for that matter. The stipulation has been DONE TO DEATH. And it’s not just AEW, as WWE and NXT have both spammed this match like nobody’s business. 

And that is All In 2024. I don’t think this is as strong as other AEW pay-per-views this year as there were other cards that had deeper, better undercards. Regardess, it’s an aboslute thumbs up show with a main event I highly recommended.

Next up for AEW…All Out in two weeks. At least they waited a week this year before another big show.