10 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Revolution

Downs...

2. The Wrong Opener?

Jake Hager vs. Dustin Rhodes had its warts, the biggest of which was the faulty face/heel dynamic. You may not have been able to discern who was supposed to be the good guy if you went into this cold and with no knowledge of the story. The constant cuts to Hager's worrying wife painted him as an oddly sympathetic figure when Rhodes was in control and as well as being grossly outdated in 2020, Dustin's forced kiss spot amplified this flaw. Less of that going forward, please.

'The Natural' brought his customary fire and the live crowd were totally into cheering him and hating on Jake, though this wasn't the bruising, impactful performance we perhaps needed from 'The Big Hurt.' His heat spots were plodding. Hager has some sharp offense (his Vader Bomb is tremendous), but the pace was stuck in treacle at several points during his control sequences. This is partly down to the layout, as he would've benefitted from a more dominant showing and a shorter runtime, though there were (admittedly understandable) holes in his work in his first big match in years. A lack of rotation on Dustin's Code Red near-fall made the move look overly cooperative.

Not a bad match, but not the right choice to open the pay-per-view either. Revolution should've started with a shot of adrenaline. Instead, it commenced with an opener that was only intermittently exciting, despite the tremendous job these guys did on the Countdown special earlier in the week.