AEW Revolution (2024)

The 2024 Revolution was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It was the fifth annual Revolution and took place on March 3, 2024, at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina, marking AEW's first PPV to be held in North Carolina. The event hosted the final match in Sting's nearly 40-year career, and was held at the same venue in which he had faced Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at Clash of the Champions I in March 1988, which is considered to be the match that established Sting as a top wrestler in the industry.

Eleven matches were contested at the event, including two on the "Zero Hour" pre-show. The main event was Sting's retirement match in which he and Darby Allin defeated The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson) in a tornado tag team match to retain the AEW World Tag Team Championship, and as a result, Sting retired undefeated in AEW. In another prominent match, Samoa Joe defeated "Hangman" Adam Page and Swerve Strickland in a three-way match to retain the AEW World Championship. The event also saw the return of Kyle O'Reilly, who had been out with an injury since June 2022, as well as Will Ospreay's first match as a member of the AEW roster, defeating Konosuke Takeshita on the undercard.

Production

Background

Revolution is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event held annually by All Elite Wrestling (AEW) since 2020—it was originally held in late February but moved to early March in 2021. It is one of AEW's "Big Four" PPVs, which also includes Double or Nothing, All Out, and Full Gear, their four biggest domestic shows produced quarterly.

The 2024 Revolution was confirmed by AEW wrestler and wrestling veteran Sting on the October 18, 2023, episode of Dynamite. Sting recapped how he had his AEW debut match at the 2021 Revolution, which was a cinematic tag team street fight with tag partner Darby Allin, and then announced that he would have the final match in his nearly 40-year career at the 2024 Revolution. During the November 29 episode, the fifth Revolution event was confirmed to be held on March 3, 2024, at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina, the same venue in which Sting famously faced Ric Flair at Clash of the Champions I in March 1988, which was produced by the National Wrestling Alliance's Jim Crockett Promotions. Flair also confirmed he would be in Sting's corner for the match. This was also AEW's first PPV to be held in North Carolina.

Tickets for the event went on sale on December 15, 2023. According to WrestleTix on X, over 13,000 tickets were sold within the first week. Wrestling journalist John Pollock added that AEW had to revise production plans in order to meet fan demand and the company opened up as many seats as possible.

Storylines

Revolution featured professional wrestling matches that were the result of pre-existing feuds and storylines, with results predetermined by AEW's writers. Storylines were produced on AEW's weekly television programs, Dynamite, Collision, and Rampage, and the YouTube series, Being The Dark Order.

After Sting and Darby Allin's victory at Dynamite: Homecoming on January 10 and with Revolution quickly approaching, Tony Schiavone asked Sting who his final opponent would be. Before Sting could answer, The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) interrupted in their first appearance since Full Gear in November 2023. The two teams subsequently stared each other down, with the commentators implying that The Young Bucks wanted to challenge Sting and Allin for Sting's final match. The following week, The Young Bucks, now preferring to be called Matthew and Nicholas Jackson, said they would be taking their roles as AEW executive vice presidents (EVP) more seriously, and said that while they respected Sting, it was time to say goodbye. Later, Allin recapped that he and Sting were undefeated as a tag team and declared that they would end their story together as AEW World Tag Team Champions. They subsequently won the title on the February 7 episode, but after the match, they were brutally attacked by The Young Bucks, who also attacked Sting's sons Garrett Borden and Steven Borden Jr. After The Young Bucks's tag team victory the following week, they subsequently became the number one ranked tag team. As they were about to attack Schiavone post-match, Allin made the save; Sting was absent due to the previous week's attack. Allin criticized Matthew and Nicholas, stating they no longer cared about the original goal of AEW and only cared about themselves. Allin then accepted that he and Sting would defend the AEW World Tag Team Championship against The Young Bucks, which was scheduled as a tornado tag team match at Revolution.

At Worlds End on December 30, 2023, Adam Cole was revealed to be the man in the devil mask that had been targeting MJF over the prior few months. The devil's masked men were also revealed to be Roderick Strong, Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, and Wardlow. On the following episode of Dynamite, the group dubbed themselves the Undisputed Kingdom and laid out their goals, which included Strong capturing the AEW International Championship. Two weeks later, Strong, Bennett, and Taven confronted International Champion Orange Cassidy after his match. Cassidy offered to immediately defend the title against Strong, who denied and proposed that the match take place at Revolution, which was later made official.

In September 2023, Swerve Strickland and "Hangman" Adam Page entered into a feud which saw Strickland gain victories over Page in a singles match at WrestleDream in October and in a Texas Death match at Full Gear in November. After Samoa Joe won the AEW World Championship at Worlds End on December 30, he appeared at Dynamite: Homecoming on January 10, 2024; Strickland and Page were among those who confronted Joe and laid claim to the title. After Strickland and Page went undefeated through January and were placed first and second in the title contendership rankings, a match between the two was scheduled for the February 7 episode of Dynamite to determine who would challenge Joe at Revolution. Their match went to a 30-minute time limit draw; as a result, both men were declared number one contenders with Joe in turn scheduled to defend the AEW World Championship against both in a three-way match.

On the January 3 episode of Dynamite, former Total Nonstop Action Wrestling wrestler Deonna Purrazzo confronted "Timeless" Toni Storm's associate Mariah May, and officially announced that she was signed to AEW. Purrazzo then made her intentions clear that she was going after Storm's AEW Women's World Championship, talking about how they were friends when they started in wrestling together and even got matching ankle tattoos. Purrazzo then quickly moved up the rankings to become the number one contender to face Storm for the championship at Revolution.

At Worlds End, Eddie Kingston became the inaugural AEW Continental Champion, which also made him the Continental Crown Champion by holding the new title with his ROH World and NJPW Strong Openweight Championships. During the tournament itself, he defeated Bryan Danielson to secure his spot in the final. On the January 20 episode of Collision, Kingston teamed with Ortiz in a losing effort against Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli; after the match, Danielson spit in Kingston's face. Over the weeks, Danielson continued to show Kingston disrespect by flipping him off backstage or immediately coming out for his own matches whenever Kingston was celebrating his own victories, one of which was against Bryan Keith and led to Keith receiving an AEW contract. On the February 10 episode of Collision, Kingston challenged Danielson to a match at Revolution for the Continental Crown Championship, with an added stipulation that if Kingston won, Danielson would have to shake Kingston's hand out of respect.

Event

Pre-show

There were two matches that took place on the Revolution: Zero Hour pre-show. In the first, The Bang Bang Scissor Gang (Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, Billy Gunn, Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, and Jay White) faced Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh, Willie Mack, and Private Party ("Brother Zay" Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen). In the opening stages, The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn performed Scissor Me Timbers on Quen, but Lethal distracted the referee, allowing Quen to deliver a dropkick. In the end, as Singh attempted to chokeslam Gunn, White performed a chop block on him, allowing Gunn to deliver the Fameasser on Singh. White then delivered the Bladerunner to Mack and pinned him to win the match.

In the second and final match in the pre-show, Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale (accompanied by Stokely Hathaway) faced Julia Hart and Skye Blue. In the opening stages, Willow performed a running crossbody on Hart for a two count. Statlander then delivered a back suplex to Hart. Hart performed a moonsault on Statlander, but Nightingale broke up the pin attempt. Statlander delivered a double lariat to Blue and Hart, while Nightingale performed a pounce on Blue. Statlander dropkicked Hart out of the ring and Nightingale performed a Doctor Bomb and pinned Blue to win the match.