9 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW All Out 2023 (Results & Review)

1. Eddie Kingston & Katsuyori Shibata Vs Blackpool Combat Club

Wheeler Yuta Claudio Castagnoli

In the post-All Out 2023 press scrum, Tony Khan suggested that he could no longer keep pace with the weekly ongoing discourse around AEW, which was extremely odd for a man that once seemingly booked directly for those most engaged.

This felt defensive in the extreme, but perhaps he felt he had to bat back the criticism of both All In and All Out in one go, not least after the week he'd had. Is there a match that defines just how correct some of that discourse was more than this one though?

A psychopathically wonderful match graphic in 2021, Eddie Kingston and Katsuyori Shibata teaming up to take on Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta was a common-or-garden Dynamite match here on pay-per-view in 2023, even if the ambition of the the finish - Claudio hit Kingston with a forearm/uppercut so hard that he put 'The Mad King' down and out - was to be admired. At 16 baggy minutes and forced to follow yet another Bryan Danielson epic, this was more an advert for Khan's talent warehousing than something that could live up to the potential of the pairings. Kingston and Castagnoli's never-ending beef is a good laugh too, but this missable offering was yet more evidence that the former is beyond ROH gold if the intent is still to finally strap him up on US soil.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett