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AEW Proves Again at All Out that the Company is Not Afraid to Push the Limits

How does Tony Khan weigh the risks vs. the rewards?

Rick Ucchino

Lee South-All Elite Wrestling

In the moments after Bryan Danielson defeated Jack Perry to retain his AEW World Championship, you could feel something impactful was about to happen. The tension in the air was thick and when Claudio Castagnoli swung a massive uppercut in the American Dragon's direction it was like he connected with every single person inside the NOW Arena.

What happened next was one of the more despicable acts of violence performed in a wrestling ring in recent memory as Jon Moxley wrapped a plastic bag around the head of Danielson and suffocated the man until he was unconscious.

The stoic expression on Moxley's face remained steady throughout the entire encounter. Even as a screaming Wheeler Yuta was held back from stopping the onslaught by his new trios partner PAC, Moxley remained cold and calm. The look of a man trying to decide what type of milk to buy at the grocery store as he attempted to axe (?) one of his closest allies in AEW.

John Moxley
Lee South-All Elite Wrestling

Give Moxley all the credit in the world, he played his role to perfection. It was absolutely psychotic, but was it a step it too far over the line?

The answer to that question is really up to the individual watching in the stands or at home on television. This is subjective entertainment and everyone's threshold for what they deem appropriate or acceptable is different.

AEW has never been afraid to push the boundaries, especially if the storyline deems a daring act of brutality to be necessary.

"You saw, in my opinion, the best professional wrestlers in the world go out there." AEW CEO Tony Khan said during the post All Out media scrum. "You saw so many different things, different kinds of matches, different kinds of rivalries, different kinds of results, and different kinds of emotions. And it was a roller coaster and I felt like it was a fantastic show tonight and I felt really great about what we put out there."

I remember sitting inside the Greensboro Coliseum this past March. Watching Darby Allin fall off the top of a ladder during Sting's retirement match at Revolution, and come crashing down through a pane of glass. At the time, it was the damnedest thing I'd ever seen performed live during a wrestling match. I'm not sure it would crack the top five of what happened Saturday night in the suburbs of Chicago.

The Lights Out Steel Cage Match between Hangman Adam Page and Swerve Strickland delivered a level of hatred and violence that was honestly needed to bring this heated rivalry to a satisfying conclusion.

Both men told fans what was coming and some people were still not ready for what they witnessed. A staple gun, barbed wire, and a sharpened shard of Swerve's burnt down childhood home were all utilized as tools to inflict pain. Nothing hit as hard for the fans than when the cinderblock came into play.

Each man took a no doubt excruciatingly painful bite of that apple as they each performed a vertabreaker and powerbomb to one another on top of the block.

The match's conclusion saw Hangman Page stick a needle into Swerve's mouth, presumably full of some kind of sedative, and then bash his head in with an unprotected chair shot circa Rock vs. Mankind at the 1999 Royal Rumble.

The night was perfectly summed up by AEW host RJ City, who said what many of us were thinking with his opening line for the All Out Post Show.

"All I can say is...that was f-----. I just do not know what to say after the last two matches."

The TakeDown at SI had the chance to ask Tony Khan during the abbreviated press scrum about how he weighs the risks vs. the rewards when it comes to giving the greenlight to maneuvers like fans witnessed at All Out.

In the end, Tony Khan is more often than not going to put his trust and faith in his talent, coaches and staff whom he says are among the smartest in the pro wrestling industry.

"Having the best wrestlers, the best staff and and the best fans in the world. That's how we were able to put out a product tonight. And it takes everybody working together, the wrestlers and the fans and the staff all coming together to do something as special. This was a very ambitious effort to say the least."

It's crazy to think that Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander also went through an absolute war in a Chicago Street fight just an hour or so before the stunning events that closed the show. They deserve a ton of acknowledgement for the show they put on for the crowd.

Statlander Willow
Lee South-All Elite Wrestling

The competition for headlines is strong within this company, and at the very least AEW knows how to get people talking.

Whether the style of wrestling is your cup of tea or not, AEW has built a reputation of being the alternative. You can trust that the performers will never be afraid to test the limits of what professional wrestling can be as an artform. They certainly did so at All Out. An event that was truly a spectacle... through and through.

You can follow Rick Ucchino on X and on Instagram: @RickUcchino

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Rick Ucchino

RICK UCCHINO

Rick Ucchino has been covering professional wrestling since 2019, but his broadcast career has spanned over 15 years. He can be heard every weekday morning on 700WLW radio in Cincinnati, OH. You can also read his work over on SI's Cincinnati Reds Talk. Follow Rick on X and Instagram: @RickUcchino

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