9 Match Star Ratings For AEW Revolution 2021

7. Tag Team Casino Battle Royale

Sting AEW
AEW

For a while and too frequently, this put the 'sh' in 'shindie'.

The Royal Rumble format equalised the problem with the old, overcomplicated Casino format but created a new one: the wait-around-while-the-new-entrant-does-their-sh*t trope was all too glaring. Long, repetitive, contrived and rushed, this was amateurish at its worst but still fun at its best. Watching Stu Grayson do his thing is still immensely fun, even if that's all he's doing.

The Butcher looked fantastic in a much-needed cleaning spree, but, and while there's a bit of undercard potential in his team with Peter Avalon, Cezar Bonini's sh*t looks piss-weak. Those respective power-guy spots underscored the uneven quality of a match that was too nice to be really good. There's potential in this format: it just needed one more FTR and four fewer teams to reach it.

But then, people, including your writer, have probably spent too long bargaining about these 'Casino'-prefixed matches. It might be time for AEW to thoroughly reexamine and overhaul its approach to multi-man bouts because they are weirdly not excellent at them for a so-called spot-fest company.

This was legitimately degenerating into below-average territory before an incendiary finishing sequence elevated it. The last five minutes captured the brilliant essence of the battle royal format by creating two mini-dream matches, neither of which is the dream match that everything functioned to build.

PAC Vs. John Silver needs running back on Dynamite. That was a frenzied banger of a sequence.

Fénix Vs. Jungle Boy - a stupidly inspired pairing of the two most electric emerging babyfaces - needs running back on Dynamite. Insanely well-worked and dramatic, that lucha-tinged blitz of a closing salvo could have saved the 2015 Royal Rumble.

PAC and Fénix Vs. the Young Bucks needs 20 minutes on Dynamite. At a minimum.

Star Rating: ★★★½

Contributor
Contributor

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 surefire Undisputed WWE Universal 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!