The loudest cheer I have ever heard was when Kenny Omega kicked out in 1.
It was during the tag team match that pitted Omega and Hangman Adam Page against the Young Bucks. The show was the 2020 edition of AEW Revolution, which also happened to be the last pay-per-view with a full crowd before COVID.
The match was built on the shared history between the four men: their friendships, their previous associates, and the moves they had used in the past.
As the action unfolded, the Young Bucks started heeling it up. At one point, as they picked on Omega in a 2-on-1 situation, they hit him with a “golden trigger.” This gestured to Omega’s previous work in the “Golden Lovers” tag team with Kota Ibushi. In that sense, it was meant to be disrespectful.
Omega kicked out at 1 and did so with an incredible demonstration of defiance. Almost like a kid throwing a tantrum, Omega shook his head and yelled and punched the mat. And the crowd erupted to their feet.
The story of a wrestler digging deep and finding something extra in the moment when he or she kicks out at 1 is adjacent to the stories we tell about super heroes. Or maybe regular heroes when they are fueled by adrenaline or desperation. But it’s mostly super heroes, I think.
And it‘s fun to allow ourselves these moments, in a world where we are already willing to suspend disbelief, to cheer like hell for the good guys.
In today’s AEW notebook, I’m interested in three trends from this past weekend’s 2026 Revolution show:
- Kicking out at 1
- Stars making big returns
- Full grown adults biting each other
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Pro wrestlers love a good callback. Nick Jackson provided one on Sunday night during the Young Bucks’ match with FTR for the tag team titles.
In a similar setup to that moment at 2020’s Revolution show, the two FTR boys had Nick isolated. They proceeded to hit him with his own finishing move: the EVP trigger, which happens to be pretty much the same thing as the golden trigger that Nick and his brother Matt hit Kenny with once upon a time.
Nick kicked out at 1. It might not have been as loud as the pop I experienced in 2020, but it was still a big reaction from the crowd. Even if the Bucks were to eventually lose (which they did), at least they stood up to the jerks in that moment when they were being especially jerky.
These kick-outs can mark important moments in how we understand the story of a match. Part of their impact is their rarity in the grand scheme of things.
It’s supposed to be an extraordinary display of resilience and guts and all that. In that sense, it probably shouldn’t happen very often.
Two matches later, Konosuke Takeshita had the crowd fully behind him in his grueling match with the always-great Jon Moxley. If we jump to the end of the story, Takeshita lost but came out of the battle looking like a total badass (not to mention a total babyface).
In order to pull that off, Takeshita had to sell people that he had survived and almost won in a match where his opponent beat the hell out of him. One moment that drove home his fortitude was a kick-out at 1. Takeshita yelled his defiance. Moxley was shocked. It worked.
Fast forward another few matches in this excellent show, and fans were treated to a compelling match between Swerve Strickland and Brody King. The premise of their fight was that each claimed to be the most dangerous man in AEW. The winner would claim that title.
Brody King is huge. He is meant to come across as a monster in all of his matches. He does so effectively and in a far more interesting way than a lot of big dudes in professional wrestling companies.
You can probably see where this is going. Swerve won the match, but Brody still came off as one tough and dangerous dude. And one of the moments to tell that story involved him kicking out at 1.
You might guess that I’m going to come down on these wrestlers for having too many of these kick-outs in one show. I’m not! I popped for each of them, or at least I smiled from the couch where I sat watching. But I do think it’s interesting to consider how the pieces of a big show like this come together.
I think of AEW Revolution as one big, sweeping story with a bunch of short stories contained within it. If each of those individual stories are meant to stand on their own, then each can have their own way to deliver a big moment. That can be true even if there are lots of big moments on a show and if some of those big moments are similar in their setup or payoff.
Wrestlers kicking out at 1 wasn’t the only trend that revealed itself within the stories of AEW Revolution. Let’s talk about another one.
Some of the most exciting surprises in professional wrestling have followed a familiar formula: the lights go out, the crowd murmurs with excitement, and then somebody’s music hits.
Maybe it’s a debut. Maybe it’s a return. Always it’s a big pop from the crowd.
Well, almost always. Sorryhausen.
When a wrestler has been gone for a long time, a pay-per-view or destination show can be the perfect moment to announce their return. It just so happens that AEW had four big-name stars ready to return when this year’s Revolution show rolled around.
In order: we saw the return of Cope and Christian to confront FTR. We saw the return of Kenny Omega to confront Swerve Strickland. And we saw the return of Will Ospreay to confront Jon Moxley and the Death Riders.
All of these returns happened in the first half of the show. I cannot prove that in terms of the exact math of the hours and minutes, but I can tell you that’s how it felt watching it. If nothing else, it was three huge returns in fairly close succession.
Just like the feat of heroic strength in each of the times that a wrestler kicked out at a 1 count, each surprise return ought to be able to stand on its own. It’s not like people get tired of the anticipation when the lights go out at a wrestling show. It works as long as each return makes sense within its own story.
Each of these did, although there’s a conversation we could have about diminished returns on the man formerly known as Edge. We’ll table that one for another day.
I found it interesting that AEW held a major show that contained these trends. It raised the question about when it gets to be too many times, or if the repetition lessens the impact.
I thought each one of these stood on their own. And I thought the show was awesome. As long as each angle and story knows what it’s supposed to be, I think they can keep pulling it off.
There is one other trend that happened throughout Revolution, and one that seems to recur in every AEW show these days.
Guys, they keep biting each other. They bite each other so much. They bite foreheads and fingers and feet. Toni Storm bit a boob. In the follow-up Dynamite, there was a tripe dick bite.
There’s so much biting.
I suppose any fan’s mileage might vary, but I’m not ready to place the biting alongside the early kick-outs and the surprise entrances in terms of sustained effectiveness. It would be all good with me if these weirdos took it easy with the biting.
Some random thoughts to wrap up this notebook:
- In terms of my own gut feeling, I’m not sure AEW has a bigger star than Will Ospreay.
- I’m not sure AEW has a better wrestler than Kyle Fletcher.
- Toni Storm is performing on such an incredible level. She can carry any story, any angle, and any match. In the time since I started this notebook, news broke that she’s out for a long time with an injury. That one’s a gut punch.
- I joked about only watching part of the Texas Death Match between MJF and Hangman Adam Page. Having been warned, I watched none of it except the finish. Not here to dog on the wrestling others like, but that stuff is not for me.
Hayden Kane
- I am both excited and nervous to see where Brody King goes from here, because that big fella has a lot of momentum right now.
- Fuck ICE, btw.
- I am so happy about how special AEW pay-per-views feel these days.
I’ll be there live in St. Paul for AEW Dynamite this week. I will not be cheering for all the bites. I will be cheering for the match that I still can’t believe I get to see live on a Wednesday night: Kenny Omega versus Swerve Strickland.
To quote every athlete after a big play in every slo-mo reaction replay of the last five years: let’s go.
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