AEW put on its biggest show of the year on Saturday when it invaded Globe Life Field in Arlington for All In Texas. There was a lot of pressure for this show to not only deliver, but deliver in a big way. All In Texas was the biggest show All Elite Wrestling had ever held in North America, and the lineup was stacked with all of the company's biggest stars in matches that predicting a winner was no easy chore. When the smoke cleared on Saturday night, AEW All In Texas not only produced a new AEW World Champion but also the company's best show to date.
Ladies First
The women of AEW came to play at All In Texas. The women's casino gauntlet match displayed just how strong the AEW women's division has become. Big names such as Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter, Hikaru Shida, Ruby Soho, and Deonna Purrazzo were not even involved in the match. Yet, there were no fewer than five women who would have made sense to win the match and earn a shot at the AEW Women's World Title coming out of All In Texas. The match was well-paced, featuring some great spots, and all participants had the opportunity to stand out. The ending was excellent as well, with Athena, a Texas native and one of the most talented women going today, picking up the pinfall win and setting up a very interesting future program with Toni Storm. Hopefully, this win leads to us seeing a lot more of Athena on AEW television going forward.
We also need to take a moment to celebrate just how outstanding bothMercedes Mone and Toni Storm are. Show after show, these two stars put on matches that elevate not only themselves but their opponents and the entire women's division as well. At All In Texas, they shared the ring, and their match was an absolute treat for anyone who enjoys excellent pro wrestling. The contest went back and forth, with near-fall after near-fall keeping the crowd on the edge of their seat, not wanting to miss a thing. The near falls and both Mone and Storm kicking out of the other's finishers were both great components of ring psychology at work, showing just how badly both of these amazing competitors needed to win. In the end, Toni Storm retained the title, but Mercedes Mone and anyone who watched this match walked away winners as well.
Unpredictability and surprise returns
One of the things that AEW has gotten much better at recently is setting up pay-per-view matches that do not have predictable outcomes. Other than the Hurt Syndicate rightfully retaining their AEW Tag Team Titles, none of the match outcomes at AEW All In Texas were locks. Most people probably expected MJF to win the Men's Casino Gauntlet Match, but there was always the shadow of Darby Allin and/or Jay White coming back in this match and spoiling MJF's possible win. Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada unified the Continental and International Titles in a match that could have gone either way. Dustin Rhodes becoming the TNT Champion out of nowhere after Adam Cole had to vacate the title due to injury was nothing short of a feel-good shocker.
Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland putting their ability to challenge for the AEW World Title for a year against the Young Bucks' EVP titles created a lot of doubt and intrigue for their contest. And while most fans wanted "Hangman" Adam Page to end the show hoisting the AEW World Title over his head, the booking of the past few months did a great job of creating doubt about just how long Jon Moxley would remain the AEW Champion. Having a match card full of intrigue and unpredictability elevates any card. And AEW All In Texas did this better than any AEW card has done in the past.
The only thing that matches the fun of unpredictable match cards is surprise returns. And we got a number of them on Saturday at All In Texas. Throughout the night, the crowd was treated to the return of Colten and Austin Gunn, Bryan Danielson, Juice Robinson, Cope, Darby Allin, and Harley Cameron, scattered throughout the night. The impact of the returns varied, but it always adds to the excitement of the show when someone you aren't expecting, or just plain missed, makes their return. And All In Texas had this in spades.
The perfect payoff to a long term storyline
AEW topped off its excellent show with the perfect ending to the main event, which pitted Jon Moxley defending the AEW World Title versus "Hangman" Adam Page.
From the very inception of the Death Riders faction, it was painfully apparent that whoever was taking the title off of Jon Moxley was going to need to have some backup to get the job done. So, when "Hangman" defeated Will Ospreay in the finals of the men's Owen Hart Tournament, it was hard to see how Page, a man that has very much walked alone recently, was going to be the one to defeat Jon Moxley, especially when the match was transformed into a Texas Death Match, where anything goes.
As it turned out, Page was able to get most of the help he needed from wrestlers who had been taken out by Moxley. Both Bryan Danielson and Darby Allin showed up at All In Texas for the sole purpose of making sure Moxley would not leave as the AEW World Champion. While Page relied on the adage of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" to help keep the Death Riders at bay, the biggest help came from the most unlikely of places. The move that sealed the win for Page was when Swerve Strickland made his way down to the ringside with a chain. Swerve proceeded to slide the chain into the ring, which "Hangman" used to hang Moxley, forcing the incumbent AEW World Champion to tap.
This was such perfect storytelling. First of all, the people who came to aid Adam Page in this match, not one of them touched Jon Moxley. They simply were there to even up the odds and give "Hangman" a fighting chance. Second, it was Swerve Strickland's help that was the deciding factor in Page winning the AEW World Title. Swerve and Page have spent the better part of the past two years trying to destroy each other and make sure the other was never able to become AEW World Champion. So, Swerve being the one that provided what was needed for "Hangman" to get the job done was poetic justice. Time will tell if Swerve's actions were a peace offering to Page or if he is trying to leverage his way into a future title match. Add that to the fact that MJF will be floating around with a contract for an AEW World Title match, and AEW All In Texas did a great job of setting up their main event scene for the second half of 2025.
At the end of the day, you can look at other AEW pay-per-view cards and pick matches you liked better, or surprise returns or debuts that shocked you more. But when you add up everything in total, the amazing talent booked, the unpredictability of the match card, the number of returns and feel-good moments, along with the pure quality of matches, AEW All In stands alone as the best show in the promotion's history.