AEW is hitting its best stride to date following successful Revolution

Things have been going well for AEW on a multitude of fronts lately, but following a smash hit pay-per-view offering with Revolution Saturday night, the upstart wrestling promotion has reached arguably its best point so far.

AEW has been known to deliver on its pay-per-views in the company’s short existence, but last night’s Revolution event was one for the ages by many accounts with countless marquee matches and storylines taking shape or progressing for the future.

The way the stories were being told heading into Revolution for several matches were some of the most compelling angles pro wrestling has had in a while, and for the most part, all of those stories were taken to a better level after last night’s show.  Looking at the issue with the members of The Elite, this storyline got better last night.

Despite capturing the AEW World Tag Team Championship, a noticeable rift has been forming between Hangman Adam Page and Kenny Omega with fellow Elite members Matt and Nick Jackson, The Young Bucks.  The issue has been with Page, who has tried to distance himself from The Elite and has been in a very standoffish and unhinged way as of late.  These two teams would have a chance to figure things out last night in a tag team title match.

Page and Omega vs. The Young Bucks wasn’t only the match of the night, but many are calling it the match of the year thus far and one of the greatest tag team matches of all-time.  The in-ring action was second to none and the storytelling was a thing of beauty in a match that went just over 30 minutes in duration, but in the end, Page and Omega retained their titles and the potential of Page turning heel is still as evident as ever.

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This match was the best depiction of how great pro wrestling can be when everything works.  This wasn’t the only big angle taking shape last night, however.  The storyline between Cody Rhodes and MJF has taken off since November’s Full Gear pay-per-view when MJF turned his back on his former best friend.  Cody has had to jump through ropes to get his hands on the cocky and brash MJF, but he got his chance last night in what turned out to be a great old-school type of match.

MJF has developed into arguably the best heel in AEW and it was on full display at Revolution.  He used seemingly every trick in the book, capping it off by using his diamond ring to hit Cody and back into a cheap win after it looked like Cody had the match won.  This only further develops MJF into an excellent heel and things should only get better from this point on between these two.  The final major storyline surrounding Revolution main evented the show in a big way.

Chris Jericho had been the only world champion AEW has ever had, but the edgy Jon Moxley had his sights set on dethroning Le Champion.  Jericho knew this and tried to get Moxley to join the Inner Circle, but Moxley wasn’t having any of it and the issues between himself, Jericho, and the Inner Circle grew from there.  These two squared off in the main event last night with the AEW World Championship on the line.

As expected, Jericho’s Inner Circle tried to aid Le Champion to victory in about every way conceivable, but after the referee finally kicked them out of ringside, it was down to the one-on-one match everyone wanted.  Jericho gouged the eye of Moxley a few weeks back with a spike and since then, Moxley had been wearing an eye patch.  But when Jericho appeared to have injured the other eye of Moxley, things looked really bad for him.

However, the shrewd challenger was playing possum the whole time and after hitting Jericho with a paradigm shift, Moxley removed the eye patch and sent the message that he could see the whole time.  And after hitting an even bigger paradigm shift on Le Champion, Moxley got the win to dethrone Jericho and become the AEW World Champion before cutting a great shoot-like promo after the match.

There are so many positive things to take away from Revolution.  The biggest storylines heading into the event are still present and they all took pretty drastic shifts at Revolution.  Not only that, but several other competitors left the event in a better position than they were before.  Jake Hager had his first match in AEW and defeated Dustin Rhodes.  Hager will likely be a much bigger force moving forward alongside Jericho and the Inner Circle.

Darby Allin is quickly developing into one of the most over wrestlers in not only AEW, but the entire wrestling industry and he had a very impressive showing against the Inner Circle’s Sammy Guevara.  Allin is rising quickly and could find himself in a much bigger position sooner than later.  Say what you will about the women’s title match last night, but Nyla Rose continued to look like a dominant champion in her title defense against Kris Statlander.

And then there was the last-minute addition of Pac vs. Orange Cassidy, a match that will go down as a turning point in the career of the man who’s freshly squeezed.  Cassidy has been getting super over in the past few months alongside Best Friends with his comedic gimmick that the AEW fans can’t get enough of, but in his first singles match in AEW, he showed just how good he can be.  Cassidy got Steve Austin-like crowd reactions at times and really impressed even in defeat.

Simply put, things are clicking in AEW right now creatively and in the ring.  It’s refreshing to see a pay-per-view go so well as Revolution did last night.  The types of compelling storylines within AEW right now are must-see TV and in an era where storytelling is seemingly a lost art, AEW’s process of slow-building, subtle at times storytelling harps back to the way things used to be and the fans are buying in.  There is so much to look forward to in the coming weeks and months.

Revolution was a success and if last night’s results were an indicator of things to come, it’s about to be an exciting time in AEW.