Last night, February, 29th sure seemed like a day that only comes once every four years. All Elite Wrestling or AEW, ran their first big show of the new year/decade. Was it a show that would meet the sky high expectations after they’ve picked up the pace on their weekly, Dynamite show on TNT? Or would it be an overblown and bloated slog with too many piledrivers and superkicks? Let’s find out. We’ll go match by match and see what the overall score is after. We’ll also make some predictions on where we go from here. All I can say is, it won’t take much for them to top the atrocious Super Showdown that WWE put on earlier in the week.
Dustin Rhodes vs. Jake Hager
If there was one misfire on the night, it was the placement of this match. The preshow had a fun tag-team match between The Dark Order and SCU with some pops. It wasn’t much, but it could have enticed more people to buy the show. This feud between Dustin and Hager has been simmering for a couple months now. Hager broke Rhodes’ hand earlier in the year and now it’s time for their first meeting. This happened to be Jake Hager’s in-ring debut also. It was a tense time for all involved, could Hager still hang in the ring?
The answer is yes, he can still hang with the best of them. Someone like Hager should have been booked like this a long time ago. It only took him going to Bellator and kicking ass for someone to finally realize that he’s the perfect enforcer for a group. The match itself had all the hallmarks of a grudge match with the wily veteran in Rhodes trying his hardest to get one over on Hager. It took Rhodes blinding himself with retribution and giving Hager an opening for a low-blow into what looked like a Kimura Lock to get the win. At this point, I’m not sure if the Rhodes family is done with the Inner Circle though. Rhodes put Hager over pretty well here.
AEW: Revolution Grade: B
The match gets a B for being a well booked, story-filled, one that probably shouldn’t have been at this slot on the card. It was slow and didn’t feel like it popped up the crowd too much. There were a couple of other choices that I would have made for this slot. Other than that, the match was solid and showed audiences just what Jake Hager is made of.
