Tonight on AEW Grand Slam, Toni Storm looks to capture her record 4th World Title reign against Mariah May. Will Ospreay teams with Kenny Omega in a super-team to take down The Don Callis Family. Elsewhere on the show, Mercedes Mone defends her TBS Title against Harley Cameron, Kazuchika Okada takes on Buddy Matthews and Moxley and Claudio battle Jay White and Cope . Lets get at it!
MUST WATCH Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega vs Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita
An unsurprisingly remarkable opener marred only by a few undeniable missteps in the fundamentals department. Ospreay and Omega have incredible chemistry as a team and played off that chemistry well for some amazingly innovative sequences. The storytelling crossroads of the paths these men have all taken and the combinations of offence was also cool to see, and the match’s length led to the feeling of a really epic clash. The one blight on the match were sadly some second half botches, with a whiffed poisonrana the clearest offender, along with a few other moments that didn’t quite click as intended. Still, the perfect opener for the show and, when combined with the superb tag match from NXT’s Vengeance Day, a perfect advert for tag team wrestling as an art form.
Result: Kenny Omega by Pinfall via One Winged Angel
David Sheldon WR Star Rating – 4.75 Stars
AMAZING Mercedes Mone vs Harley Cameron
A good match between the ropes elevated by an electric crowd. Harley’s rise in 2025 has been amazing to see, and she has proved her doubters (myself included) very foolish. She worked well with Mone, helped by a crowd who would’ve walked through broken glass to see her win. It was the correct decision however to give the win to Mone, as Harley does still have some development in her ring work before I think she can carry a title. This is the best match I’ve seen from Harley bell to bell, but she can still be crisper in the ring which will come with time and experience. I also wish they’d have made Mone more dominant in the match’s first half to give the comeback from Harley more bite. Nonetheless though, this is a match for the crowd and a very good one at that!
Result: Mercedes Mone by Pinfall via Mone Maker
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 4 Stars
Two mouthwatering matches set up backstage, Omega Takeshita 2 for the International Title and Ospreay Fletcher 4 in a Steel Cage. Yes please to both of those.
AMAZING Cope and Jay White vs The Death Riders- Brisbane Brawl
The fun plunder match for the middle of the show, this match was all about Adam Copeland, who the crowd were electrically behind from his entrance music. Copeland took some nasty bumps, including a dive from the top of the rafters. White and Claudio also had some good chemistry. Fun table and chair spots with a logical, if underwhelming finish of Moxley choking out Cope. It does however set up precisely what it means to, that being a good Hope spot for the match at Revolution. This was exactly what was neeeded at this point in the show, featuring some great spots to pop the crowd and a really over star in Cope to root for.
Result: Jon Moxley by Submission via Bulldog Choke
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 4 Stars
GREAT Buddy Matthews vs Kazuchika Okada
This was technically proficient, but to me rushed its high spots and thus felt unearned. It is almost impossible for Okada and Buddy to do anything short of good work and they delivered a fun matchup here, but the Rainmaker kick out from nowhere frustrated me a tad as despite Buddy being the hometown boy, the rarity of Rainmaker kickouts led this to me to feel superfluous. Okada works best with longer matches, and with another 10 minutes this could’ve been a show-stealer. As it was, it was an exciting match with good wrestling, but lacked the investment and psychology to me of others on the card.
Result: Kazuchika Okada by Pinfall via Rainmaker
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.75 Stars
AMAZING Toni Storm vs Mariah May
The aura of ‘Timeless’ Toni carried majestically into her home crowd here as she got a hero’s welcome, and her performance and intensity alongside Luther here was terrific, as was Mariah’s stoic intensity, which broke beautifully into pure anger later on. The action was cleanly worked and really roused the crowd, with the ending erupting into jubilation. My problem lay in the structure of the match itself. With only about 14 minutes to play with, a good few minutes of which was lost to the adverts, they never felt like they fully had enough time, which led to them packing in near falls and finishers in the final few minutes. Spread out across the match that can work okay, but Mariah in the space of just a few minutes hit 3 or 4 Maydays and a Storm Zero and it still wasn’t enough, while 3 hip attacks, a storm zero and a may-day wasn’t enough for Toni. There’s resilience and then there’s overkill, and while that could’ve worked spread at a 30 minute epic, at a sprint it felt rushed and inauthentic, as did the spot in which Mariah rolled from the ring before Toni could pin her, which felt overly choreographed. The work done here was terrific and the performances were top notch, it just felt like perhaps the show had stretched itself too thin, and that an significant overrun would’ve helped give this the masterpiece status of which it was capable.
Result: Toni Storm by Pinfall via Roll-Up
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 4 Stars
Overall…
AEW Grand Slam was a strong TV special, with a rabid crowd, a barnburner of an opening match and strong action across the rest of the card. The show culminated in the feel good moment of Toni Storm winning her record 4th women’s world championship, though outside of that moment there was no other major angle or talking point you would massively miss from this show if you missed it. Instead, we got logical advancements of stories and the correct outcomes throughout, with a show that focused more on delivering excellent wrestling than blowing your mind with high story drama. With that said, the show may have tried to cram a little too much in, with both Okada/Matthews and Toni/Mariah feeling a little rushed, leading to some psychology issues of doing too much too soon, particularly in the latter’s case with an overabundance of finisher kickouts in a short period. Certainly a very enjoyable show though which is certainly worth a watch from start to finish, without a bad match to speak of.
Matches: 0.75/1 Stars
Show Structure: 0.75/1 Stars
Atmosphere: 1/1 Stars
Storytelling: 0.75/1 Stars
Production/Theme: 1/1 Stars
Overall Rating: 4.25/5 Stars
Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling – February 15th 2025
For inquiries about the rating criteria check out the article announcing the new system here :
