I Was There: AEW Revolution

By Ryan Joy
Updated: March 6, 2020
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Chapter 6

AEW Revolution

Event: AEW Revolution

Location: Wintrust Arena

Date: February 29

Headline: Chris Jericho vs. Jon Moxley

Miles from Home: 715 Miles

All Elite Wrestling (AEW)

My History with AEW

On July 7, 2018, I watched New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) for the first time. The G1 Special from the Cow Palace featured Kenny Omega defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against the American Nightmare Cody, and I had recently subscribed to New Japan World. Hearing the voice of Jim Ross made the transition to watching New Japan easy. I don’t exactly recall the reason I subscribed to New Japan Wold, but I joined Ring of Honor ‘s (ROH) Honor Club around the same time. G1 Climax 29 started soon afterward, and I got hooked on GREAT professional wrestling.

My Electronic Ticket for AEW Revolution

Don’t get me wrong, I have always loved professional wrestling. Growing up in the northeast, I obsessed over the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). My childhood consisted of Hulkamania and Bret Hart, and I followed the Attitude Era into my teenage years hooked to both WWE and WCW as they battled in the Monday Night War. I went to WrestleMania 23 (2007) and 24 (2008), but something happened shortly afterward and my fandom lapsed. Coming back to wrestling with the 2014 launch of the WWE network, I found myself embracing professional wrestling again.

The Rise of AEW

I don’t know what led me to look elsewhere in 2018, but when my eyes opened up to all the great wrestling in NJPW, I couldn’t get enough. Adam Page and Kenny Omega participated in the G1, so I watched them each wrestle 10 matches over the course of a few weeks. Now, I’m watching hours and hours of great wrestling every single week. I’m also watching the Young Buck’s “Being the Elite” You Tube series every week, and they’re getting ready for the September 1 event in Chicago called “All In.” Like everyone else in the wrestling world (that didn’t buy tickets during the first 30 minutes of the on-sale), I anxiously awaited information on how I could see the event on television. To my delight, New Japan World and Honor Club both streamed the event.

All In lived up to the hype, and I followed the news and rumors of a new promotion closely through the end of 2018. Once the formal details came out about All Elite Wrestling, the professional wrestling world was buzzing. All of a sudden, the AEW talent roster consists of Kenny Omega, Cody, the Young Bucks, Adam Page, SCU, Chris Jericho, and a bunch of other people too. My time invested in NJPW and ROH paid off because I knew all of them. The debut show, Double or Nothing, in Las Vegas absolutely blew it out of the park.

Cody’s matches at All In and Double or Nothing made me an enormous fan of both Cody and his opponents, and that’s after watching his Double or Nothing opponent, Dustin “Goldust” Rhodes wrestle for over 20 years. My cousin, my wife, and I all agreed that we should go to the next AEW show.

AEW All Out

All Out returned to Chicago and this time I did too. I got the VIP Starrcast pass and enjoyed an entire weekend of professional wrestling fun. My fandom had no bounds at this point.

Dean Ambrose left WWE and resurfaced as Jon Moxley at Double or Nothing in May, and then I watched him wrestle in NJPW’s G1 tournament. He got injured before his All Out match with Kenny Omega, and AEW replaced him with Pac. I knew Pac from his incredible matches on WWE’s 205 Live, but I also knew that he went on to do bigger and better things. I believe his match with Kenny Omega was a message to the American wrestling audience that Pac was more than just the “King of the Cruiserweights.” I still love that Justin Robert’s introduces him as “Weighing in at 206 Pounds” because it means he’s too big for the WWE cruiserweight division (205 pounds).

The Lucha Bros vs. the Young Bucks was unlike anything I have ever seen, and the arena’s response to Cody’s entrance was deafening. We even got to see Chris Jericho crowned the first All Elite Wrestling Heavyweight Championship.

Since the All Out show in Chicago, I can’t stop going to AEW shows. I went to the inaugural AEW Dynamite in Washington DC, AEW Dynamite in Philadelphia, and AEW Dynamite in Cleveland. I have plans to go to upcoming AEW Dynamite shows in Rochester, Newark, Philadelphia, and Boston as well as AEW Double or Nothing in Las Vegas over Memorial Day Weekend. All of those trips will be future chapters in this “I Was There” series.

AEW Revolution

One of the great things about All Elite Wrestling is the commitment to developing long plot lines that when eventually paid off leave you feeling satisfied with the outcome.

AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Chris Jericho

I track match outcomes on this website. Jon Moxley went into AEW Revolution with 10 wins and 1 loss in all of 2020. The one loss was in a tag match in New Japan that set up his IWGP United States Title defense against Minoru Suzuki. He went on to win that singles match with Suzuki. His other eight singles victories in 2020 include wins over Lance Archer, Juice Robinson, Trent, Sammy Guevara, Pac, Ortiz, and Santana. Moxley’s total match time was 2 hours 22 minutes and 8 seconds. Over the same time period, Chris Jericho was 3-0 with a singles victory over Hiroshi Tanahashi and two tag victories. His total match time was 48 minutes and 49 seconds.

I point this out because Jon Moxley is on fire. Nobody ever thought Chris Jericho would lose the AEW World Title in less than a year, but Jon Moxley’s rise to prominence was so hot that he really couldn’t be denied. The story of Moxley joining/not joining the Inner Circle and the resulting eye-stabbing made everything Moxley did that much more meaningful. Moxley even carried the eye patch over seas wrestling several matches with the eye patch in Japan. His wounded eye gave Moxley something extra for all his matches and allowed him to look even more badass when he won those matches.

The point of the matter is that fans would have been happy if Jericho won because he is a great champion for AEW, but we were also more than ready to crown Moxley as our new AEW champion.

AEW World Tag Team Championship: Young Bucks vs. Kenny Omega and Adam Page

Jim Ross often says on television that he thinks the Young Bucks are the best tag team in wrestling. You won’t win a lot of wagers betting against him, but it does feel that Kenny Omega and Adam Page have struck gold with their sometimes reluctant partnership. Certainly Page and Omega will never have the longevity of Matt and Nick Jackson, but for this short moment in time, take a deep look at the string of impressive matches from Page and Omega. This tandem has wrestled in some amazing contests this year, and I think they might be the best Tag Team in wrestling. Here’s my analysis:

My Analysis

As of this writing, I have watched 638 wrestling matches in 2020. As long as the match lasts five minutes, I rate it on a scale of 1-10. Of those 638 matches, less than 4% (25 matches) get rated as a 9 and less than 1% get the highest rating (6 matches). The Revolution Tag Team Title Match between the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega and Adam Page is the only tag team match that has received a rating of 10 all year. Nine other matches scored a rating of 9 with four of them being Kenny Omega and Adam Page matches. Although not related to this analysis, it is interesting to note that Kenny Omega also wrestled a singles match against Pac that I rated 10.

Adam Page and Kenny Omega Matches

Below are the Kenny Omega and Adam Page Tag Team Matches from 2020. Together they have an average rating of 9.1 with about 1 hour and 47 minutes of ring time.

Private Party on January 8- Rated 7
Four Way Against Santana and Ortiz, The Best Friends, and The Young Bucks for a title opportunity on January 15th in Number One Contenders Match – Rated 9
SCU for the Tag Team Championships on January 22nd – Rated 9
SCU for the Tag Team Championships on February 12th – Rated 9
Lucha Brothers for the Tag Team Championships on February 19th – Rated 9
Young Bucks for the Tag Team Championships on February 29th – Rated 10 – This Match

Young Bucks Matches

This compares to the Young Bucks that have had 5 matches with an average rating of 8.2 and only 1 hour 5 minutes of ring time. Keep in mind that two of those four matches were against Kenny Omega and Adam Page. Both Omega, Page, and the Young Bucks have had several other multi-man or singles matches, but this analysis just looks at tag team contests.

Four Way Against Santana and Ortiz, The Best Friends, and Hangman Page and Kenny Omega for a title opportunity on January 15th in Number One Contenders Match – Rated 9
Butcher and Blade on January 29th – Rated 7
Peter Avalon and QT Marshall on February 18th – Rated 7
Tag Team Battle Royal on February 19 – Rated 8
Kenny Omega and Adam Page for the Tag Team Championships on February 29th – Rated 10 – This Match

Bottom Line

Your mileage may vary and you may agree or disagree with me on whether Kenny Omega and Adam Page are the best tag team. That is certainly a subjective area to explore. Having said that, the Revolution match was about as close to perfect as I can recall. I really enjoyed how the participants paid homage to each other’s pasts with tribute moves like Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi’s Golden Trigger, Marty Scurll’s Chicken Wing, and even Adam Page’s use of the One Winged Angel. The only other tag match that I can remember being so amped up about is the Young Bucks Ladder Match with the Lucha Bros at All Out.

Other Revolution Highlights

Nyla Rose vs. Kris Statlander

Nyla Rose and Kris Statlander had the weakest match on the card by a very wide margin. It didn’t help that they went on right after the amazing tag match, but it would have suffered anywhere on the card. Wrestling fans tend to carry a ruthless and unforgiving attitude into live events, but this crowd seemed to forgive Rose and Statlander. Everyone was on such a high from the quality of the show that nothing stood a chance of getting in the way of our good time.

Orange Cassidy vs. Pac

Orange Cassidy made his singles debut against Pac. Coming off a 10 rating for his match three days prior, Pac found himself in a completely different type of match with Orange Cassidy. The two put on a great show considering AEW fans waited close to six months to see Orange wrestle.

Cody vs. MJF

Cody had his weakest pay per view match against MJF. The match may have suffered from a case of too much anticipation. The story leading up to Revolution carried so much great drama that the match just couldn’t live up to all the hype. The silver lining here is that the story can’t be over. It left us wanting so much more. They can build for a return match at Double or Nothing, keep us waiting until All Out, or settle it all at Blood and Guts.

Unrelated to the match, Cody’s neck tattoo seems to be all anyone wants to talk about. I say good for him. He’s marked himself with his own brand and that takes self confidence. It also means that no matter what happens long term with AEW, nobody can ever repackage the American Nightmare into something else.

Cody also came to the ring to a live performance of his theme music by Downstait. While it didn’t come off all that great on TV, it was better in the arena. I think the problem is that the crowd didn’t know the live performance was coming, and we missed out on the line “Wrestling has more than one royal family,” which is an iconic part of Cody’s entrance.

Sammy Guevara vs. Darby Allin

I am typically critical of short matches to the point where I won’t rate them if I don’t feel like there is enough material. While this match only went 4 minutes 58 seconds, I made an exception and provided a rating of 8. Before Justin Roberts could even finish announcing, Darby had already hit Guevara with an insane suicide dive at full speed. Darby Allin consistently delivers the most intense suicide dive that I have ever seen. Some wrestlers look like they want to be caught. Darby looks like he couldn’t find anything to throw, so he pretends to be a rock and throws himself at his opponent. Sometimes that leads to a rough landing, and we saw that here.

Sammy Guevara hitting a 630 splash from the top turnbuckle to the floor while slicing through Darby Allin and a table on the journey has left an impression on my mind. In 20 years when AEW creates their documentary about this first year, the clip of that 630 will make the highlight reel.

Revolution Results:

Recommendations and Tips

AEW Merchandise

As mentioned in my previous post from AEW Dynamite Cleveland, you have to hit the merchandise stands if you’re interested in getting event exclusive items. Below are the event shirts that I managed to get at the Revolution show. All of the T-shirts have the “I Was There” wording on the back with the date and arena. The Mox shirt became available only at the end of the show (once Mox won the title) causing additional long merchandise lines. The sweatshirt is not an event-specific item, but it is Chicago specific and not available on-line at Pro Wrestling Tees. Otherwise, like all things, the regular AEW shirts and merchandise are cheaper on-line.

Eating

This post is already running a bit long, and I will certainly make a return to Chicago sometime later this year. When you’re in Chicago though, you have ample options for pizza. I stayed at the Hotel Chicago on State street and found that I could easily walk to Pizzeria Uno, Lou Malnati’s, Gino’s East, Pizzeria Due, and Giordano’s. That pretty much covers the entire well-known deep dish establishments in the city. Without question there are a thousand more, but most people know those ones. In order to provide a solid recommendation for you (right. . .I did it for you), I ate at Pizzeria Due, Gino’s, and Lou Malnati’s. I should note that I’ve eaten at Giordano’s and Uno before too. Out of all of those places, my recommendation is Lou Malnati’s. If you end up liking it the way I do, then you can have frozen pies shipped to your house. In fact, I have three in the freezer right now. Just remember though, it often takes 40 minutes or more to make a deep dish pizza, so don’t come starving.

Venue for AEW Revolution – Wintrust Arena

If you need to arrive by public transit, the Green Line train gets you within a 10 minute walk of the arena. My Lyft from downtown only took about 10 minutes, but traffic could be an issue so give yourself more cushion time. There is also parking in the area of the arena if you’re driving in. As for the arena itself, it was more comfortable than the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, but they were not staffed appropriately for a sold out pro wrestling crowd that wanted to eat, drink, and raise hell. The lines for food and drink were incredibly long every time I went out in the hall. When I saw the bathroom lines, I also decided to hold it. If you’re going here in the future, plan for these lines.

View From My Seat for AEW Revolution

I sat in section 124, Row P, Seat number 10. As a rule, I don’t go for floor seats unless I can get front row. For your reference, I found these seats to have an excellent view of the entrance and the ring.