AEW Revolution was mostly a good show, featuring the usual mix of good to great wrestling and wacky hijinks from the good folks down in Jacksonville (not to mention a big signing showing up). The main event, Kenny Omega defending the world title against Jon Moxley in an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch, was well on its way to being one hell of a show closer until it ended, as my main man Sean put it, not with a bang but a whimper.
The idea, you see, was that even though they promised the winner would be whoever survived the ring exploding, you could also just win before that. That’s what Omega ended up doing, retaining his title with some help from The Good Brothers in a bit of overbooking that, in this writer’s opinion, hurt the overall match.
But what really hurt it was what came after.
Moxley was handcuffed and left in the ring to explode right along with it as a countdown hit the screen to alert everyone that it would happen in 59 seconds. Eddie Kingston came out to try to get him out of there, then just fell on top of him to shield him from the blast.
What came next was a relatively light pop with some sparks flying out.
And that was it.
No visible damage to the ring. Nothing happened to either Moxley or Kingston, who sold death anyway. Just a small commotion with no immediate sign that anything happened at all. It was bad enough that, after the show went off the air, Moxley got on the microphone to make fun of it:
.@JonMoxley didn’t regain the belt tonight but he regained a friend in Eddie Kingston! King came to save Mox from the final blast, which wasn’t enough to keep Mox & Eddie down for good!
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) March 8, 2021
“Kenny Omega may be a tough son of a b____, but he can’t make an exploding ring worth a s___!” pic.twitter.com/AHJCYVu3pw
It’s almost as funny as Kingston still selling in the background.