7 Ups & 7 Downs From AEW All Out 2022

6. The Overbooked Opener

Sure, it's hard to bash AEW for opening with the all-action 'Casino Ladder' fray, but the whole exercise did make workers like Claudio Castagnoli and Andrade El Idolo feel unimportant. Everyone just sort of bumped around for no reason before Stokely Hathaway and gang cleared the way for MJF.

It was also very obvious that this was MJF.

AEW didn't want to unmask the heel right there and then though, so there was a fair stretch of awkward silence as Hathaway, W. Morrissey, The Gunn Club, Ethan Page and more hijacked the bout to pre-empt the 'Joker's' entrance. This was a kinda confusing start to the pay-per-view, being honest.

Was it dreadful? No, not really, but it is sad to see something so obvious happen. The masked gimmick also came across as more RETRIBUTION from WWE than anyone would care to admit, and it's gonna be a tough sell to present...whatever this faction is as something more than nWo 'B' squad.