11 Ups & 0 Downs From AEW All Out 2021

7. Literally Everything There Is To Love About Professional Wrestling

Lucha Bros
AEW

The greatest Tag Team Title run in pro wrestling history ended with one of the best AEW matches ever.

Measured against every criteria, this was impossible to dislike in good faith. The Young Bucks Vs. The Lucha Bros. encapsulated the full breadth of all that is awesome and meaningful about professional wrestling.

A fight and insane dream match hybrid worked across that spectrum with a seamless brilliance, the pace was blistering, relentless early. The unreal speed at which this was worked was just breathtaking. Fénix in particular entered an outrageous performance even by his standards, using the cage as a springboard for his impossible aerial offence and as the brutal weapon a cage should be. But Penta, who is the most overshadowed incredible worker of all-time, formed the emotional core of this masterpiece. With his mask torn, and his face shredded and bloodied, he convinced one of pro wrestling's loudest ever crowds to stand up and refuse to sit down until his team put an end to the Young Bucks tyranny.

The pace slowed deep into the match as the heat became incendiary. In a stunning callback to the Buck's most infamous moment of a controversial indie run, Matt Jackson wore a thumbtack-covered shoe and blasted the Lucha Bros. with it. When that PWG video nasty failed to put the babyfaces away, Matt Jackson kicked Fénix right in the dick. Fénix refused to die, and the fans refused to let him.

A nerve-shredding war, this claret-soaked, hate-fuelled, mind-blowing match delivered the most acute of saves elevated by the most keenly-felt desire for justice.

Blood, emotion, excitement, innovation, anxiety, catharsis: this is the match you show a non-fan to make them realise that wrestling isn't a fake pursuit for children.

Pro wrestling is emotionally unbearable art, until it becomes an exhilarating and just morality play.

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Contributor
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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!