AEW announcer Tony Schiavone has shared his thoughts on the recent All In pay-per-view from Arlington, Texas, calling the show a major success. He praised the storytelling in the main event and singled out Tony Khan’s decision to have Dustin Rhodes win the Casino Gauntlet match as an “absolutely brilliant” move.
A “Brilliant” Surprise
The show featured a major change when Adam Cole was pulled from his match due to injury. In response, Tony Khan booked Dustin Rhodes to win the Casino Gauntlet match for a shot at the TBS Championship later that night. Schiavone praised the last-minute creative decision as one of the best things Khan has ever done.
“To me, the story of the night was still Dustin. And I say that because, you know, Tony Khan has come up with a lot of great things. And I say that honestly, not just to try to kiss the boss’s ass, but he’s come up with a lot of great things, the casino gauntlet the Timeless Toni Storm character… He came up with that on the spur of the moment. And I told him, I said, ‘That was brilliant. That was absolutely brilliant.’ Because when the four-way was put together, everybody thought that Kyle Fletcher was going to win, I think, and to have Dustin win it in Texas Stadium unexpectedly, was just… That’s wonderful that there was legitimate tears. Dustin was just broke down.”
The “Great Story” of the Main Event
Schiavone also had high praise for the bloody and chaotic Texas Death Match main event between Jon Moxley and “Hangman” Adam Page. He particularly enjoyed the surprise appearances from Bryan Danielson and Darby Allin, which he did not know about beforehand.
“The main event was my favorite, by far, the emotions involved, the emotions involved, and I guess because, and I told him afterwards, I told Jon Moxley, I said, ‘Man, I thank Jon Moxley. I thanked Hangman.’ I went to them separately, and thanked them both for putting their body on the line to give us a great main event, because they did… that was my favorite match, I think, the fact that Danielson got involved, the fact that Darby got involved, and it looked like that… it made it look like which I think was great that they hadn’t hangman had no help, and the death riders are just surrounding him. And then everybody came into play, Prince Nana, of course, at the end. And then, of course, Swerve, which I think is great for that swerve Nana storyline. So I just thought that was my favorite match.”
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