REVOLUTION 2025 airs tonight live on pay-per-view from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA! It's the 6th annual edition of this extravaganza and during that time it has featured many of the most memorable moments in AEW history. The epic AEW World Championship reign of Jon Moxley first began at the 2020 REVOLUTION, an event that also hosted the unforgettable AEW World Tag Team Championship clash between The Young Bucks and Hangman Page/Kenny Omega. 2021 saw “The Icon” Sting return to competition for the first time in six years for an historic Street Fight alongside Darby Allin! 2022 showcased a violent Dog Collar Match as well as the birth of The BCC stemming from Jon Moxley versus Bryan Danielson! 2023 put Moxley and Danielson in the forefront as well as the former fought Hangman Page in a Texas Death Match while the latter met MJF in a 60-Minute Iron Man World Championship bout! Then there was 2024, unforgettable for being the night “The Icon” Sting retired from professional wrestling as one-half of the reigning World Tag Team Champions alongside Darby Allin, but also the night “The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay officially joined the All Elite Wrestling roster!
REVOLUTION 2025 begins at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT/5 p.m. PT tonight on a plethora of PPV providers including, for the very first time, Prime Video! This landmark event features six championship battles including “Timeless” Toni Storm facing Mariah May in an AEW Women's World Championship match as each searches for their Hollywood Ending! Plus, “The Rated R Superstar” Cope challenges AEW World Champion Jon Moxley, the AEW World Tag Titles are on the line when The Hurt Syndicate's Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin meet The Outrunners of Turbo Floyd & Truth Magnum, the TBS Title is at stake when “The CEO” Mercedes Moné faces Stardom's Momo Watanabe, and “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega returns to AEW PPV to challenge AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita for his title! But that's not all: AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada is set to fight Brody King, MJF takes on Hangman Page, Swerve Strickland faces Ricochet in a World Championship #1 Contender bout, and Will Ospreay steps inside a Steel Cage to settle his score with former best friend Kyle Fletcher! This is one of the most loaded pay-per-view events All Elite Wrestling has ever presented, and it's just the first one of 2025! Do not miss out on the action as REVOLUTION 2025 comes to you live from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA!
AEW Women’s World Championship Hollywood Ending Match...
“Timeless” Toni Storm(c) vs. “The Woman from Hell” Mariah May
No count outs, no disqualifications, no rope breaks, and pinfalls count anywhere; those are the rules by which AEW Women's World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm and “The Woman from Hell” Mariah May will attempt to give their epic tale its Hollywood Ending. These two women have been bound to one another from the moment Mariah May first arrived in All Elite Wrestling in November 2023, even if Toni Storm wasn't aware of it the first time RJ City held a microphone for Mariah:
Eventually their paths became entwined quite intimately, Mariah May slowly accepted to Toni's bosom almost as if they were flesh and blood, and May was quite instrumental in “The Timeless One” maintaining her hold on the AEW Women's World Championship for the 235 days between Toni defeating Hikaru Shida at FULL GEAR 2023 and 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Women's Tournament Finals when Mariah's twisted plan was revealed:
Whether it was the plan from the moment Mariah arrived in November 2023 or if she formulated it along the way was irrelevant; the poignant fact was that Mariah betrayed the love and trust Toni eventually placed in her, and it sent Storm spiraling. Most likely, in Mariah May's mind, the fight that took place at ALL IN: LONDON 2024 was her ideal Hollywood Ending because it culminated with the AEW Women's World Championship around her waist and “Timeless” Toni Storm wandering off into the streets of Wembley, perhaps never to return to AEW.
Suffice to say that Toni shattered Mariah's fantasy when she returned to the AEW stage at DYNAMITE: WINTER IS COMING 2024, albeit looking far more akin to Toni Storm circa 2022 rather than “The Timeless One” who trotted off into the wilds of Wembley before touring the globe, then claiming she was retiring from wrestling. To be fair, “Timeless” did retire. In fact “Timeless” retired so completely that the Toni Storm who came back on December 12, 2024 was a version who had no recollection of the previous several years of her life, of the relationships she'd developed or the enemies she'd made, or any memory of the accolades she'd already achieved in All Elite Wrestling.
Once Toni won the GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA Casino Gauntlet Match to earn a title bout with Mariah May, it was only a matter of time before the two women occupied the same space at the same time once more. With that confrontation at COLLISION: HOMECOMING 2025, the truth about whatever happened to “Timeless” Toni Storm was revealed, and suffice to say that Mariah May wasn't the only one capable of machinations and manipulations:
At GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA, when the two stars finally met once again, Toni Storm made history when she defeated Mariah to become the only 4-Time AEW Women's World Champion in history but “The Woman from Hell” did her best to see that Toni's celebration was extremely short-lived and brutally assaulted the new champion just one week after their Brisbane battle.
That brings us to tonight for this third battle between two women who have simultaneously elevated and tore apart one another. They've made and shattered each other's dreams, they've both cherished and broken each other's hearts. They made beautiful friends, yet they've become bitter enemies, but at the core of it all is some semblance of love. Maybe it was pure at one point during all this, but it's no doubt become a blackened, hardened thing barely recognizable from what it was a year ago at REVOLUTION 2024 when Mariah played a pivotal supporting role in Toni's victory over Deonna Purrazzo.
Perhaps therein lies the truth of it all, the answer to the question “Why Mariah why?” that so many expressed last summer after Calgary; Mariah simply grew weary of being cast in the supporting role and craved a starring part all her own. The end of becoming AEW Women's World Champion justified any and all means taken to get there, and Mariah May would've done the same to whomever held the title when she came to AEW. She was just fortunate enough to find a “Timeless” Toni Storm pliable enough to not see the writing on the wall even when it became as large as the Hollywoodland sign.
Yet as pliable as Toni may have been at that moment, she's proven herself even more resilient with turning Mariah's Happy ALL IN: LONDON Ending into fodder for a GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA sequel, and even that red carpet assault isn't going to stop “Timeless” Toni Storm from giving this Trilogy the Hollywood Ending it deserves!
AEW World Championship...
Jon Moxley(c) vs. “The Rated R Superstar” Cope
Jon Moxley's army has fallen, with his last remaining solider going AWOL so shockingly that it warrants a dishonorable discharge from the ranks of The Death Riders. After months of being surrounded by a collection of the most vicious athletes in All Elite Wrestling, of having the quartet of Marina Shafir, “The Bastard” PAC, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta at his side at all times, the 4-Time AEW World Champion is on his own heading into tonight's title defense.
“The Rated R Superstar” Cope promised he would decimate Mox's army and that is exactly what he did over the course of the past several weeks, albeit with a strong assist from Willow Nightingale taking Marina Shafir out of the equation. It means that Cope can fight this fight without distraction, without concern for any outside interference, and without the persistent need to look over his shoulder to see who is creeping up from behind. Yet there's the question of whether this is in fact a positive for the championship challenger; Is having Jon Moxley backed into a corner a good thing?
Winston Churchill once said “Beware of driving men to desperation. Even a cornered rat is dangerous.”, and there is no question that Jon Moxley is both desperate and cornered in this situation at REVOLUTION 2025. There's also no question just how dangerous Mox is under the best of circumstances, so how much more dangerous will he be when times are this desperate for the defending champion? It didn't take an army for Mox to win his first three World Titles here in All Elite Wrestling. As a matter of fact he was the one who battled through an army en route to defeating Chris Jericho at REVOLUTION 2020 in Chicago. Will being without his army force Mox to be the fighter he was before The Death Riders coalesced out of The Blackpool Combat Club? Will it remind Jon Moxley what it was like to stand on his own two feet without four distinct points of assistance surrounding him at almost all times?
“The Rated R Superstar” knows what that's like; though he's had allies here in AEW since he first arrived on the scene at WRESTLEDREAM 2023, they've almost all been for that moment, for that fight, and many aren't here to have his back any more. Sting is retired, and Darby Allin hasn't been heard from since Moxley and The Death Riders tossed him down the fire escape at Hammerstein Ballroom. He has formed a bond with FTR whose roots grew from their shared North Carolinian habitat, and he's found another in “Switchblade” Jay White based in their mutual desire to wrest the AEW World Title from Jon Moxley's grasp. However none of those were bonds forged around the idea that they were there to insure Cope victories. In that way he's been alone from the second he set foot in AEW, and thus Cope earned the 10 consecutive singles victories he's carrying into this fight the hard way.
That should work well for Moxley though right? That's the ethos he's preached since forming The Death Riders, if not as far back as The BCC's birth two years ago in San Francisco at REVOLUTION 2023: the idea that every ounce of success needs to be fought for, that it must be earned through violence, and that only through those wars can the individuals who comprise All Elite Wrestling become the best versions of themselves. Hasn't he said repeatedly that the purpose of The Death Riders is to force the rest of AEW to become better than they are now?
If Moxley actually believes the words he's spewed the last several months, then he should consider tonight's AEW World Championship bout with Cope the culmination of The Death Riders' mission because he will be the one forced to step up or get stepped on by “The Rated R Superstar”!
TBS Championship...
“The CEO” Mercedes Moné vs. Momo Watanabe
At New Japan's CAPITAL COLLISION 2024 event on August 30th, Mercedes Moné successfully defended her NJPW STRONG Women's Championship against Momo Watanabe in a nearly 20-minute battle. It was The CEO's first defense of the championship after winning it at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024, and though Mercedes clearly moved on from Momo without a thought, the same can't be said for the multi-time Stardom champion.
Fortunately for Momo the opportunity to come at Mercedes became possible at WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025 when, as the representative for Stardom, Watanabe defeated ROH Women's World Champion Athena, AEW's Willow Nightingale, and CMLL's Persephone in the International Women's Cup Finals. To the winner of that four-way went the right to challenge a champion from any of the represented companies, but it wasn't until after GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA and GLOBAL WARS 2025 that we learned the H.A.T.E co-founder selected “The CEO” and her TBS Title.
In the weeks since Momo made that choice she's been a thorn in the side of Mercedes, even enlisting a little help from former ROH Women's World TV Champion Billie Starkz after Moné was tremendously rude to the young athlete. That interaction between Billie and Mercedes even resulted in some heated social media back-and-forth between the TBS Champion and the ROH Women's World Champion that has fans salivating at the idea of a fight between the two champions. If that ever does come to pass, will Mercedes still be sporting four belts, or will we see Momo Watanabe take the TBS Championship back to Stardom with her? The woman is highly decorated in the Stardom ranks as a 3-Time Artist of Stardom (Trios) Champion, a 3-Time Goddesses of Stardom (Tag Team) Champion, and a former Wonder of Stardom (“The White Belt”) Champion. She was the victor in Stardom's 2018 Cinderella Tournament, the 2018 and 2020 Goddesses of Stardom Tag League , and of course the aforementioned International Women's Cup. Momo has also fought many competitors who've graced the AEW rings such as Toni Storm, Deonna Purrazzo, Mina Shirakawa, Alex Windsor, Megan Bayne, and Mariah May. Momo's an aggressive competitor and that baseball bat she carries isn't just for show; go ask Athena about that given how the International Women's Cup Finals went back in January.
Mercedes Moné has faced high-level threats from the moment she won the TBS Championship from Willow Nightingale at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024, including three former AEW Women's World Champions and a former TBS Champion, but she's managed to retain in all 14 defenses to date. Can Momo Watanabe succeed where the other 12 women have failed, or will she be another failed challenger ran over by the Moné Train?
AEW World Tag Team Championship...
Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin) vs. The Outrunners (Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd)
They are AEW's overnight success story decades in the making! They are the pair that came out of nowhere to explode on the tag team scene, and by nowhere we mean the hard-traveled roads of the territories! They've felt the wear and tear of grueling car rides through the bleak hours of the night, they've slept in those proverbial alleys where they've dined on pork and beans, and through it all Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd have run hard and hot to get where they are tonight at REVOLUTION 2025!
First gracing an AEW ring during DARK: ELEVATION #28 in September 2021, Truth and Turbo have fought their way up the tag team ranks in All Elite Wrestling to earn this World Tag Team Championship fight against Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin. They've danced with Butcher & Blade, Dark Order, The Acclaimed, Sting & Darby Allin, Top Flight, even FTR, and through it all demonstrated the grit that years on the road creates. However it wasn't until they scored that victory over Grizzled Young Veterans on the 10/5/24 COLLISION that things began to slide into place, and the AEW faithful fully embraced the Outrunner experience. With victories over MxM Collection and Top Flight, Truth and Turbo earned their way into the FULL GEAR 2024 4-Way Tag Team Title match, and they've demonstrated a willingness to stand up for what's right in battles with The Death Riders, The Learning Tree, and The Don Callis Family.
Their most impressive feat though was finding a way to overcome the Murder Machines team of Brian Cage and Lance Archer to earn this title fight. There's no denying that the arrival of The Hurt Syndicate during the match opened the door for Turbo Floyd to score that O'Connor Roll pinfall on Lance Archer. It was also clearly a play by MVP, Shelton, and Lashley to avoid fighting the only other men on the AEW roster who may match The Hurt Syndicate in brute force and instead lean towards men they seem to view as easy pickings:
There's no question Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin are the most dominating champions who've ever held the World Tag Team Titles. That's not a statement made regarding the tenure of the reign or number of defenses, it's all still too fresh for that, but rather one about their physical dominance inside the squared circle. As great as The Young Bucks, Hangman/Omega, and FTR were as champions, none of those teams carried themselves how The Hurt Syndicate does, nor were they capable of sheer physical control over their opponents.
It's going to take every weapon Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd have in their arsenal to win this bout, but if The Outrunners can dethrone Lashley and Shelton as champions it would no doubt be the greatest Cinderella story in AEW history!
AEW International Championship...
“The Alpha” Konosuke Takeshita(c) vs. “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega
It has been 477 days since Kenny Omega last competed on an All Elite Wrestling pay-per-view, the longest stretch of his AEW career since the 296 days between FULL GEAR 2021 when he lost the AEW World Title to Hangman Page and ALL OUT 2022 when he and The Young Bucks became the 1st AEW World Trios Champions. That night he and unlikely partner Chris Jericho earned a World Tag Team Championship match when they beat The Young Bucks, but it was an opportunity they never received because less than a month later Omega was forced out of action to deal with his diverticulitis.
Omega returned to the AEW stage on the January 8th DYNAMITE following his return to in-ring competition with a victory over Gabe Kidd at WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025, and though so many things were different from the moment he was forced to step away, one thing proved to be a constant: Don Callis. The most-loathed human being in all of AEW couldn't just stay away from Kenny for one night, he couldn't let Omega have just one night to celebrate a homecoming, but clearly Omega wasn't about to just stand there and listen to Callis ramble on. For Kenny, Callis' mere presence has become an on-sight situation, meaning if Kenny lays eyes on Don, he's going to try to punch him in the face.
The unanticipated side effect of Callis' persistent need to meddle in Kenny's life has been the bond forged between the former AEW World Champion and “The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay. It's shocking given the fact that Ospreay was brought to AEW at one point by Callis specifically to end Omega and that it was Ospreay who took the IWGP United States Heavyweight Title from “The Cleaner” at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023. So the fact that Callis, in his need to wreck each of their lives, inadvertently pushed two of the greatest professional wrestlers of all-time into an alliance is quite amusing. Don has been hoisted on his own petard one may say, and that was quite evident in how well the two men gelled as a team at GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA:
That pin on Takeshita put Kenny Omega in a prime position to challenge for the AEW International Championship tonight at REVOLUTION 2025, AEW just sweetened the pot and provided two other men an opportunity to get in the mix with the REVOLUTION International Championship Series. Roderick Strong and Orange Cassidy kicked it off on the 2/19 DYNAMITE with the winner advancing to 2/26 for an International Championship bout against “The Alpha”. OC was able to avenge his REVOLUTION 2024 loss to Roderick in Phoenix, but wasn't able to become a 3-Time International Champion when he faced Takeshita in Oceanside, CA the following week. Takeshita's victory cemented the fight with Omega for tonight's pay-per-view event, a rematch of their ALL OUT 2023 battle won by “The Alpha”, itself a follow-up on their ALL IN: LONDON 2024 trios contest where Takeshita also pinned Omega.
Of course there's the fact that Omega was the man who brought Takeshita to All Elite Wrestling in the first place back at THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS event on April 9, 2021, an invite stemming from their own series of matches for Japan's DDT promotion between 2012 and 2014. Across their 13 years of history, Omega and Takeshita have fought one-on-one three times and though “The Alpha” won the most recent, it is Kenny who holds a 2-1 advantage in that series. Add in their Three-Way battle from DDT's 9/8/13 event and it bumps Kenny to a 3-1 lead in their clashes, then expand it across the entire breadth of their battles, and Omega has a commanding 14-4-1 lead over Takeshita. That being said, Omega hasn't dealt with the monster Konosuke Takeshita has become over the course of the last year. He hasn't faced the man simultaneously holding the AEW International and NEVER Openweight Titles, the one who has won his last 14 singles matches over competitors such as Tomohiro Ishii, Powerhouse Hobbs, Orange Cassidy, Shingo Takagi, and Adam Cole, and who has been poisoned by Don Callis for better part of the last two years.
It's been a long, hard road back for Kenny Omega and tonight he will be tested more than in any of the other three bouts he's had since his return to action. That's no disrespect to Gabe Kidd, Brian Cage, or the Takeshita/Kyle Fletcher tandem. It's simply that this is far more personal than any of that with far more at stake given the International Championship implications. It's about the relationship between “Uncle Don” and Kenny that thrived for years before Callis decided to slide the knife into Omega's back. It's about Takeshita, Kenny, and their decade-plus relationship that evolved from rivalry into a mentor/mentee dynamic before Don poisoned the well. It's about Kenny Omega becoming the first Grand Slam Champion in AEW history, meaning the first to win four different titles, by adding the International Title to the World, Tag, and Trios reigns he's already enjoyed.
For Takeshita it's about a second, definitive, statement-making singles victory over Kenny Omega that puts “The Cleaner” on the injured list permanently and ending Kenny's career to appease the whims of the sociopathic Don Callis. Will Kenny's return to AEW pay-per-view also be his last time competing on AEW pay-per-view? It will be if Don Callis has his way...
AEW Continental Championship...
“The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada(c) vs. Brody King
On the other side of the championship spectrum is this Continental Championship match between “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika and Hounds of Hell's Brody King. Though it may be coming on the heels of Okada defeating King's brother-in-arms Buddy Matthews at GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA, it isn't grounded in some personal issue dating back years or in twisted family dynamics the way the Omega/Takeshita title fight is. This is about the Continental Title, the disrespect Okada demonstrated towards Brody and Julia Hart at the start of the March 1st COLLISON, and the subsequent unprovoked attack from “The Rainmaker”:
During the tag match between Brody/Swerve Strickland and Okada/Ricochet this past DYNAMITE, the Continental Champion and his challenger took each other out of the equation ahead of Ricochet using Okada's belt to score the victory. However tonight is just about Okada and Brody King, no tag partners to affect the outcome of the match, just two of AEW's best fighting it out over the right to be the Continental Champion! Is tonight the night Brody King claims his first singles championship in All Elite Wrestling, or will Okada get one day closer to reaching the one year mark as AEW Continental Champion?
Steel Cage Match...
“The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay vs. “The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher
Much like Omega and Takeshita, the Steel Cage Match between Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher is a fight wrapped up in so much personal history. Just within the auspices of All Elite Wrestling, the first time Kyle Fletcher and Will Ospreay appeared on the AEW stage was together, alongside Mark Davis, as United Empire. We watched them fight together in trios matches on the road to FORBIDDEN DOOR 2022, and witnessed them participate in the inaugural World Trios Championship Tournament ahead of ALL OUT 2022. They battled together ahead of FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023, and stood side-by-side in The Don Callis Family when Ospreay returned to AEW in 2024 as a full-time member of the roster.
It wasn't until Ospreay parted ways with The DCF that the cracks in their relationship began to show; Fletcher certainly didn't want Will to walk away, though appeared amicable at the moment if not entirely contingent on Ospreay owing Don Callis a future favor, and Will didn't particularly want Kyle to stay enmeshed in Callis' machinations either. Eventually Callis came calling though, and demanded that favor from Ospreay come in the form of “The Aerial Assassin” teaming with Fletcher in the Tag Team Casino Gauntlet ahead of DYNAMITE: GRAND SLAM 2024. Though it was rough at first, Kyle and Will ultimately won the gauntlet to earn a World Tag Team Title shot at The Young Bucks, but came up short in the actual championship challenge.
In the aftermath of that, it seemed there was a possibility that Fletcher would choose allegiance to Ospreay over fealty to Don Callis. However at WRESTLEDREAM 2024, when “The Protostar” cost Ospreay the AEW International Champion in his Three-Way defense against Takeshita and Ricochet, Kyle's heartbreaking decision couldn't have been clearer. He chose The DCF, which in turn led to Kyle victory over Will's at FULL GEAR 2024, and set the stage for Fletcher's amazing performance in the 2024 Continental Classic. His path to the finals seemed fated, but Ospreay's victory over Brody King put him in second place in the Gold League which meant a Semifinals clash with Blue League winner Kyle Fletcher.
Ospreay garnered a measure of redemption at WORLDS END 2024 when he defeated Fletcher in that battle, but the damage “The Aerial Assassin” sustained in their fight played a direct role in his loss to Kazuchika Okada in the tournament finals. Then came 2025; it was the dawning of a new year, as well as the return of Kenny Omega to All Elite Wrestling, but it was still Don Callis haunting the lives of both Omega and Ospreay. The entanglement of Ospreay and Omega as allies against The DCF has already been discussed, but perhaps more shocking than that development was the Steel Cage challenge Ospreay made to Fletcher after GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA
So now we are on the precipice of Will Ospreay entering into a Steel Cage Match with Kyle Fletcher tonight in Los Angeles, the first time Kyle has ever entered into such a structure in the entirety of his career. This isn't just the final nail in the coffin of the United Empire as it pertains to these two men, it's the death of a friendship that ran deeper than professional wrestling. They were family, and that was all rendered asunder by the forked tongue of Don Callis speaking into the ear of “The Protostar”. Still, while it was Callis spitting the poison, it was Fletcher who allowed it to permeate his system and destroy the bond that existed between he and Will Ospreay.
When the bell rings to signal the end of this match, when any hope of salvaging the relationship between Kyle Fletcher and Will Ospreay has died, will that finally be the end of The Don Callis Family's incursion into the life of “The Aerial Assassin”? Can Ospreay ever be free of Don Callis, or is his perpetual presence in Will's career the punishment Ospreay must endure for ever allowing Callis in in the first place?
Grudge Match...
MJF vs. Adam Page
In so many ways Maxwell Jacob Friedman and “Hangman” Adam Page are the foundation upon which All Elite Wrestling has been built. The very first match in AEW history was the inaugural Casino Battle Royale during the ALL IN 2019: BUY-IN (https://youtu.be/jGoMmEaBAOY?si=N_IjtJ1TOzmiy_mD&t=1680) and it came down to Page and MJF as the last two in the ring. Well, to be frank, it came down to MJF hiding until Hangman was the last one in the ring then trying to sneak in from behind to score the elimination. It backfired on Max; instead he ate a Buckshot Lariat from Page, got dumped out of the ring, and had to sit back as Hangman moved on to ALL OUT 2019 and the very first World Championship match.
Fast forward a few months to November 27th and the very first Dynamite Diamond Ring match between Hangman and MJF. That night Max was the victorious one, the first of six consecutive wins that have kept that ring firmly on MJF's finger, and it would be the last time the two faced one-on-one prior to tonight. They were mutual entrants in the 2020 Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale, and fought in a trios battle on the 12/30/30 DYNAMITE that served as a Celebration of Mr. Brodie Lee, but that has been it.
No tags, trios, battle royales, gauntlets, nothing, and yet based on the last several weeks of engagement, as well as the thoughts MJF shared when the two stood face-to-face on the February 19th DYNAMITE (https://youtu.be/9gNoW0VpuXo?si=bQcrpGtucbSiEwkW), it's clear that MJF has harbored some serious resentment towards Adam Page for the last five-plus years. It would take years to analyze the psychological intricacies of everything MJF said to Page that night, but suffice to say Friedman has a distinct lack of self-awareness and a knack for pointing his finger at everyone else for his problems.
How does that old adage go about three fingers pointing back at you?
What's interesting about these two men is how much they mirror one another, and yet how cracked said mirror has become. Both men have worked themselves to the bone to get to AEW in the first place, but it could be argued that once MJF got here that work stopped. Hangman went through one personal crisis after another as he struggled his way to the top, at times losing friends because of his own flaws, and at times losing them because they flat out betrayed him. He could've very easily broken, but instead Hangman found the inner strength to become a better man, to fight his demons every day, and eventually that fight brought him to the AEW World Championship. Eventually that fight brought reconciliation with the friends he'd driven away, though sadly those friends, specifically The Young Bucks, would toss him aside as they got drunk on their own EVP power. Page fought that fight for himself, for his family, and for the people who supported him through the trials and tribulations, which is why he broke so completely when he heard those same people cheer for the evils committed by Swerve Strickland over the course of their violent war. Feeling betrayed by the fans, the only ones he felt he could truly trust, that's what broke him but at least he could admit what he'd done, and own up to the evils he'd committed. That's why people hold signs that say “Hangman did nothing wrong” because, even with his worst sins, Page owned up to his actions and fans could understand why he committed those acts.
On the other hand, MJF wanted the keys to the kingdom handed to him from day one. He used up whoever he could at every opportunity, and tossed them aside when he felt they were of no further use. He fought as little as possible, holding out for big pay days and marquee battles, and even flat out walked away from the company for three months in 2022 until he got the big paycheck he demanded. Yet somewhere along the line, the fans began to cheer for the man despite being an utter scumbag. Perhaps its because he was unapologetic about it, perhaps its because he is actually a phenomenal talent once the bell rings, perhaps its because once he became AEW World Champion, he finally started to put in the work that showed he deserved the position he was in and the title he held. He showed it two years ago at REVOLUTION when he went 65 minutes with “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson, and when he defeated Darby Allin, Jack Perry, and Sammy Guevara in a Four-Way title defense at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2023. He showed it by defeating New Japan's Ace Hiroshi Tanahashi at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023, and then he really showed something to the world when he opened up to Adam Cole. During those months with Cole at his side, MJF revealed his truth to the fans in a way he never had before and made himself vulnerable for the first time in his career. The fact that he paid for it in such brutal fashion at WORLDS END 2023 could've been a moment that showed MJF the error of his ways, but instead it proved fuel for the monster that we see today. MJF could've seen that situation as one of his own making, of all his sins being returned ten-fold, but instead he lashed out at the fans for making him vulnerable, for embracing men like Will Ospreay in his absence, all while completely tone deaf to the fact that when he returned to AEW at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024, the fans still cheered his name and chanted “You're our scumbag”.
That's why we are here today at REVOLUTION 2025 ready to witness MJF and Hangman Adam Page tear into one another for the first time in over five years. MJF sees what he could've been in Adam Page if he only had the capacity for self-reflection and self-awareness. Tonight that animosity that MJF has held onto towards Page since 2019, the anger he feels towards the AEW fans, it all comes out when the bell rings and the two former World Champions lock up. The disdain between the two is palpable, the animosity is perhaps a close second to what exists between Swerve and Hangman to this day, and yet this battle here could change the direction of one man's career if they allow it...
AEW World Title #1 Contender’s Match...
Swerve Strickland vs. Ricochet
Speaking of people who, in many ways, brought evil down upon themselves; Swerve Strickland is poised to go to war with Ricochet tonight at REVOLUTION 2025 with a future AEW World Championship opportunity on the line. The last time these two men went one-on-one, it was Ricochet who left Georgia with the victory, and then just this past Wednesday night on DYNAMITE he scored another pinfall on the former World Champion in their tag team battle. Yet as important as that victory was to this fight here tonight, it was the words Ricochet shared with Swerve and the AEW faithful that really hit home.
Ricochet pointed out how it was Swerve's disrespect from the moment he entered into AEW that pushed things to this point. That it was his mockery with the toilet paper shower in New York City and at WORLDS END 2024 that brought Ricochet to this point, much in the same fashion that Swerve's invasion into Hangman Page's home pushed that man to the point where he felt arson was a reasonable response. Swerve made the bed, but he did it with the purpose of showing the world who Ricochet is at his heart, and was thus willing to accept the consequences for his actions. He may not have expected Trevor to respond by driving golden scissors into Swerve's skull, but he was more than willing to respond in kind as demonstrated at the end of their contract signing. Swerve may not have expected Ricochet to abscond with Prince Nana's robe, symbolic of Nana's heritage and gifted to The Embassy's Crown Jewel lineage that first began 21 years ago, but he's willing to fight for his family with every fiber of his being to see Nana's property returned.
Though their engagements date back over a decade, this is the most important fight to ever take place between these two men and not just because a future opportunity at the World Championship is at stake. It's because for Swerve this is about family, and because for Ricochet it is about respect. It's about the legacy of that Embassy robe and the legacy Ricochet intends to build in AEW off Swerve's battered body. Swerve intends to be World Champion once again, Ricochet intends to see that no one ever disrespects him again the way Swerve did at the tail end of 2024.
-ROH World Championship...
Chris Jericho(c) vs. Gravity
-Eight-Man Tag Team Bout...
TNT Champion Daniel Garcia & The Undisputed Kingdom (Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, & Roderick Strong) vs. Shane Taylor Promotions (ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty, Carlie Bravo, Shane Taylor, & Capt. Shawn Dean)
-Trios Battle...
Big Boom! AJ, Mark Briscoe, & Orange Cassidy vs. Johnny TV & MxM Collection (Mansoor & Mason Madden)
-Tag Team Bout...
ROH World TV Champion Komander & Hologram vs. “Big Shotty” Lee Johnson & Blake Christian
REVOLUTION 2025 is jam-packed with six championship battles including AEW World Champion Jon Moxley defending his title against “The Rated R Superstar” Cope and “Timeless” Toni Storm putting her AEW Women's World Championship on the line against “The Women from Hell” Mariah May in match where Falls Count Anywhere and all rules are thrown out the window! Plus AEW World Tag Champions The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin) put their championship on the line against The Outrunners, TBS Champion Mercedes Moné takes on Stardom's Momo Watanabe, and AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita welcomes “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega back to AEW PPV in their title fight! Wait, there's more: AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada will take on Hounds of Hell's Brody King, Hangman Page and MJF's violent rivalry explodes in their first singles match since 2019 while Swerve Strickland fights Ricochet in a World Championship #1 Contender bout, and a Steel Cage traps Kyle Fletcher inside the ring with Will Ospreay!
ZERO HOUR begins at 6:30 p.m ET with trios action as Mark Briscoe, Orange Cassidy, and Big Boom! AJ face MxM Collection and Johnny TV, then the pay-per-view prior gets underway at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT/5 p.m. PT! Fans around the world can catch the event live on a plethora of PPV providers including, for the very first time, Prime Video! This all-star extravaganza is undoubtedly one of the most stacked pay-per-view events All Elite Wrestling has ever presented, so you do not want to miss a moment of the action when REVOLUTION 2025 emanates live from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA tonight!