10 Match Star Ratings For AEW All Out 2023
2. FTR & The Young Bucks Vs. Bullet Club Gold
So ambitious that it was almost undone, this was still great.
It bordered on the astonishing at times, when, for example, Matt Jackson and not Cash Wheeler completed the Shatter Machine unbeknownst to Dax Harwood. It was a match that sought to achieve two outcomes: set up a rematch between FTR and the Gunns, and maintain the idea that the Bucks and FTR cannot be separated to almost have the fans demand a fourth match to find out once and for all who is better.
On that ambition, one unbelievable and very complex sequence fell apart at the last second. A breathless salvo of double, triple and quintuple team spots lost the thread when Nick Jackson missed his moonsault on Juice Robinson completely.
Watching FTR unleash superkicks was a strange delight. The idea that the two teams respect one another so much that they are willing to betray their own code is such a neat way of developing what can be a bland all-babyface dynamic.
Again, special praise must be reserved for Jay White. His positional skill and timing was the glue in this match. Few are better at directing traffic.
Messy, exhilarating, and compelling for reasons within and beyond the control of the performers - that Young Bucks reaction was something else, and they luxuriated in it - if this was a little bit more lean and tight, it could have been an all-timer of an AEW "party" match. As it happens, it was merely excellent.
Star Rating: ★★★★