AEW Revolution was a lot more than some botched fireworks

AEW Revolution has come and gone, giving fans some incredible matches alongside a bit of controversy.

With a stacked card featuring some big bouts, AEW Revolution gave wrestling fans a lot to chew on. Unfortunately, some underwhelming pyro to close out the night became the talk of wrestling internet in the days after the event.

Even though it was quite a visual botch, it shouldn’t have mattered so much. The pay-per-view delivered in a big way. But the way some people talked about it, you’d think that it was the end of AEW if not the entire wrestling business itself.

AEW Revolution’s big main event

The build-up to this main event has been going on since Kenny Omega won the AEW World Championship off of Jon Moxley in December 2020. Their match at AEW Revolution was to be the rematch, the chance for Moxley to get his revenge after being robbed by Omega and Don Callis.

Kenny turned the match into an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch. It was inspired by the legendary Japanese Deathmatches that no wrestler in their right mind would want to participate in. Fortunately, Jon Moxley is rarely in his right mind.

The ring was wrapped in barbed wire with explosives all around it. Omega and Moxley could hardly make a move without getting jabbed by something sharp or setting off some explosives. If that wasn’t enough, the duo kept dragging in more toys to play with.

This bloody affair had one huge caveat. If no winner was declared after 30 minutes, all the remaining explosives in and around the ring would go off. It was an ominous threat, to say the least, one that had everyone wondering how big this explosion would be.

AEW Revolution went out with a fizzle

Unfortunately, the 30-minute mark arrived and all that came with it was some sparklers. Cody Rhodes has bigger, more impressive pyro for his entrances than what happened at the end of this Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch.

Not surprisingly, Kenny Omega needed the help of Don Callis and The Good Brothers to win. But for some reason, his victory didn’t stop the clock. Omega and friends left a beaten and bloody Moxley in the ring to blow up. Only Eddie Kingston came to help his fallen friend.

While Eddie threw his body over Moxley to protect him from the explosion, the clock ticked down. And when it hit zero, a whole lot of nothing happened. Kingston and Moxley were left selling the impact of an explosion that never occurred.

Reputedly, the fault may lie with the third-party company hired to rig the explosives up. Omega was apparently furious backstage, and understandably so. For his part, Kingston deserves an award for selling so well as AEW Revolution went off the air.

AEW Revolution was bigger than a few fireworks

As one would expect, everyone dogpiled on the botched explosives like was the only thing that happened on the entire pay-per-view. In truth, AEW Revolution was a great event right from the incredible Buy-In match that saw Britt Baker and Maki Itoh win against Riho and Thunder Rosa.

There were great championship matches, especially Hikaru Shida defending her AEW Women’s World Championship against Ryo Mizunami in an absolutely epic bout. That was on top of a great Casino Tag Team Royale and an outstanding Face of the Revolution Ladder Match.

Fans also got the Big Money Match between Adam Page and Matt Hardy. Both men brought it, with the Dark Order watching Page’s back. Page got the win, and finally made the right choice by cementing his friendship with the fan-favorite faction.

Simply put, focusing on the dud fireworks at the end of the pay-per-view is a slight to all the other big moments of the night, including the arrivals of Ethan Page and Christian Cage. It can be easy to focus on the bad but there was just too much great to ignore.