AEW Revolution 2020 Results: Reviewing Top Highlights and Low Points

When All Elite Wrestling formed, it helped recharge the professional wrestling business. It only makes sense that AEW kicked off its second year with the Revolution 2020 event.

Heading into this show, all the titles were on the line. MJF and Cody were set to clash, and Jake Hager was finally ready to wrestle his first match for the company.

There was a lot of potential for this to be amazing, but nothing is ever guaranteed. Now that it's finished, was it mostly a success, or did some matches fail to live up to the hype?

Let's assess the damage and pinpoint some of the standout pros and cons of the night.

Presented in order of appearance, here are the highlights and low points of AEW Revolution 2020.

Tune into TNT on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET to catch all the action of All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite.

AEW Revolution 2020 results

• The Dark Order defeated SoCal Uncensored by pinfall.
• Jake Hager defeated Dustin Rhodes by submission.
• Darby Allin defeated Sammy Guevara by pinfall.
• Adam Page and Kenny Omega defeated The Young Bucks by pinfall to retain the World Tag Team Championship
• Nyla Rose defeated Kris Statlander by pinfall to retain the AEW Women's World Championship.
• MJF defeated Cody by pinfall.
• PAC defeated Orange Cassidy by submission.
• Jon Moxley defeated Chris Jericho by pinfall to win the AEW World Championship.

The feud between SoCal Uncensored and The Dark Order continued during the Buy In with an interesting start when Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky told Christopher Daniels to stay back.

This teased a possible heel turn to come, which added tension to the match.

The in-ring action was fine for a pre-show—just enough to whet everyone's appetite—but the big highlight came after Dark Order claimed victory.

Their post-match attack was momentarily spoiled by a surprise run-in from Colt Cabana, which the Chicago crowd ate up. Then, the robed figure and potential Exalted One reveal was subverted as Daniels stayed true to his word and helped Sky and Kazarian fight off the cult.

This was a good means of pushing the story one step forward without having to resort to cutting to the chase and revealing who The Exalted One is.

As this was Jake Hager's first match in AEW, it had the burden of setting the tone for his credibility. For months, he's been positioned as a monster enforcer, and now was the time to show that off.

Unfortunately, Dustin Rhodes put up such a tough fight that this was pretty much an even affair.

In a bubble, that's OK. Some will argue it's better to see a competitive match than a squash. But for Hager's clout, this was a downgrade, not a step in the right direction.

It's been obvious since his first match that Rhodes is not here to be a big star, but to be a veteran who makes others look better. But giving Hager that much of a struggle means he isn't as dominant as was once thought.

He did still win, so it's not the end of the world, but a more one-sided fight would have been better for Hager's future than having to work for it.

In the past year, both Darby Allin and Sammy Guevara have proven themselves as two of AEW's best talents to bet on holding down the fort in the company's future.

They're consistently fun to watch, and this match was no exception.

Starting off with a brawl outside the ropes gave Allin a chance to excel in the more hardcore aspects of wrestling, as well as a spotlight moment with Guevara's 630 senton through a table.

That was already good enough for this segment, but after the bell rang, the rest of the action was just as fun to watch.

Allin scoring the win was a good call, as was Hager saving Guevara from a post-match assault. The score hasn't been settled, but Allin has had some measure of revenge.

How could anybody watch the AEW World Tag Team Championship match and consider it anything but a highlight? This was an amazing match, arguably one of the best AEW has put on since the company's creation.

There was an extremely successful blend of story and athleticism. Every time the action was the focal point, the audience was in shock. When the tension between The Elite was at the forefront, fans were clearly biting their nails.

By the midpoint, each near-fall could have been the finish, and it would have made sense. Finally, the fan-favorite cowboy got the crowd on its feet with the win.

The cherry on top was the post-match uneasiness. This story isn't over, even though this chapter has come to a close.

Any segment following the tag-team title match was doomed to look worse in comparison. To match or surpass that would be too tall of an order for anyone, including Nyla Rose and Kris Statlander.

To clarify, this isn't a low point in the sense that it was atrocious just because it was a step down.

But weighed against other parts of the night, this was one of the weaker matches. It had its moments, but none of them were memorable.

It's good Rose won and that Statlander put up a fight, but they both came out of this looking about as strong as they did going into it instead of leveling up.

The live performance notwithstanding, the start of this match was filled with potential. This was a feud brimming with momentum.

But, as unpopular as they may be, given the hype for this match, something was missing.

All the elements were there. In fact, that may have been one of the problems in that it was overbooked with more quantity than quality.

Cody had an entire support crew to escort him to the ring like this was a main event. MJF threw a drink at a fan. Arn Anderson took a bump. Brandi got involved multiple times. Wardlow helped MJF here and there. The referee perpetually ignored all this and looked foolish for not banning everyone from ringside.

MJF bit Cody's injured foot. The match had a low blow and a crimson mask and even a diamond ring to the face.

But none of it was as good in execution as it was on paper. Perhaps with the bitter nature of this feud, this would have been better as a brawl than a wrestling match.

Some people undoubtedly loved this match, which is perfectly valid. But overall, it was just OK, not the epic confrontation it could have been.

Given Orange Cassidy's nature as a comedic character, this could have easily been a quick squash as a buffer between two bigger matches. Instead, it was a nonstop joy.

You wouldn't think of it with his laissez-faire demeanor, but Cassidy is one of the most deceptively athletic performers on the roster. He's proven that in short bursts before, but this was a chance to see if that translated in an actual match.

Thankfully, he held his own against PAC and even had The Bastard on the ropes a few times. That just gave Cassidy a major boost in credibility so that the next time he's in a singles match, he won't be underestimated.

It was also smart for PAC to win with The Brutalizer, as that submission move feels more dangerous coming out of Revolution.

While Cody's entrance was a downgrade, Chris Jericho's choir singing Fozzy's "Judas" was an amazing touch to showcase how full of himself Le Champion is. Likewise, Jon Moxley's entrance of "zero Fs given" showcased his character.

The Painmaker brought the pain, and Moxley was true to his word in bringing a paradigm shift, as he is now at the top of the food chain for All Elite Wrestling.

It took nearly a year to go from Moxley attacking Jericho at Double or Nothing to come around to this point, but it feels right.

The match put over Jericho as a dastardly heel and Moxley as perhaps the toughest wrestler on the roster and a worthy champion to hold that title in 2020.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.