Best and Worst Booking Decisions of 2023 AEW Revolution Results

AEW Revolution has come and gone, leaving a handful of booking decisions that are likely to be reviewed and debated for weeks to come.

Some were good, elevating some of the talent involved while solidifying their position in the industry; others, not so much as they failed to do right by those in play or their division.

What were those decisions and how might they affect All Elite Wrestling on the heels of a momentum-building event like Revolution?

Find out with this review of Sunday's pay-per-view.

Best: MJF Enters Best in the World Conversation After Thriller

Credit: All Elite Wrestling

MJF not only proved he can hang with a future Hall of Famer for over an hour Sunday night, but he also kicked down the door to the conversation for Best In the World by way of his performance against Bryan Danielson in their AEW World Championship 60-Minute Iron Man Match.

Anyone shocked by what The Salt of the Earth was able to accomplish in Sunday's main event has not been paying attention to his in-ring work over the past two years.

MJF has repeatedly exhibited an ability to have a great match with anyone booked against him, regardless of size, style or background. He almost stole the show at Double or Nothing 2020 with Jungle Boy and has not looked back since.

A more cerebral wrestler, his in-ring work regularly features the sort of layered storytelling you do not get elsewhere on the card. A throwback to the likes of Ric Flair, Nick Bockwinkel and Triple H, he is a clear student of the game and takes as much pride in being smarter than his opponent as he does in beating them.

As if stealing shows through smartly worked matches is not enough, his devotion to his persona and the little things he does throughout the course of his in-ring stuff is next-level.

Is he diving through the air with reckless abandon? No. Is he throwing a ton of strikes and naming finishers after his favorite writers? No, but nor does he have to. He tells stories and captivates audiences through some of the best character-driven ring work since Naitch was at his peak.

Is that a comparison? Absolutely not, but if MJF continues to evolve at the pace he is, they will follow.

Worst: AEW Reliance on Blood Threatens to Overshadow Performances of Top Talent

Credit: All Elite Wrestling

The more you do something over and over again, the less impact it has. That is the case with AEW's overutilization of blood.

Sunday featured no less than three matches that went heavy on its usage (Christian Cage vs. Jungle Boy, "Hangman" Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley, and MJF vs. Bryan Danielson) and only one of them really needed it.

Beyond that is the weekly gushing for Moxley, who earns as much scrutiny for wearing the crimson mask as he does applause for his matches. Rather than a tool used to create drama and build emotional investment, it is becoming the butt of jokes on social media.

When you have a main event that was as dramatic as what MJF and Danielson put together Sunday night, the use of blood is diminished by the fact that fans had seen it on two other occasions earlier in the night. There is either an overabundance of it or those in power are not keeping an eye on who is and isn't including it in the layout of their matches.

It is a problem because, at some point, it stops being played or having a dramatic effect and, instead becomes the subject of humor by fans.

Worst: Gunn Club's Win Puts Tag Team Division in Turmoil Despite FTR Return

Credit: All Elite Wrestling

The Gunn Club are hardly the issue with the AEW tag team division right now.

Austin and Colten Gunn have carried themselves appropriately and are doing everything in their ability to justify the push given to them by Tony Khan and the AEW creative forces.

Unfortunately, though, they were crowned champions way before they were ready to be and ended the reign of a genuine breakout act in The Acclaimed in the process.

That put a lot of stink on them and only enhanced a glaring issue with the tag division: A stubbornness on the part of the guy with the book to utilize the experienced teams in the locker room.

Orange Cassidy and Danhausen were paired on Sunday. Not their fellow Best Friends, Chuck Taylor and Trent Berreta. Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal were on the card, but not Aussie Open's Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher.

The Acclaimed were the only actual tag team that made the contest at Revolution, despite the company having enough teams to hold two Battle Royals to determine the challengers to the champs.

The return of FTR in aftermath of Sunday's tag title bout sparked excitement among fans, but they should proceed cautiously.

Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler were around at the start of the questionable tag team booking and there is no reason to believe things will suddenly change for the better, especially given some of the former's recent podcasting.

The past suggests Khan has not always utilized the former AEW and Ring of Honor champions to their fullest potential, often leaving it up to the duo to forge a connection with the audience through their in-ring exploits.

There is every reason to believe that will again be the case as Khan attempts to make sense of the mangled mess of teams, and lack of forethought, that has gone into the tag team division.

It is unfortunate, too, because FTR are as beautiful and organically over as any other act in AEW and that can be traced back to the fact that fans relate to them because Harwood and Wheeler are fans themselves.

Best: Wardlow's Definitive Win Over Samoa Joe

Credit: All Elite Wrestling

If anyone on the AEW roster earned a defining victory Sunday night, it was Wardlow.

The War Dog watched his previous push crash and burn, thanks to things beyond his control. Then, in December, he had his hair cut by Samoa Joe in a segment that felt like a demotion as well as his defrocking as a face of the future.

His comeback has been anything but stellar, but there was an opportunity to rebuild him into the destructive force he was prior to the creative hiccups that plagued him over the second half of 2022.

The big man seized it, working a hard-hitting match that concluded with him defeating The Samoan Submission Machine with his own Coquina Clutch to regain the TNT Championship he probably never should have lost.

The insult of beating a legend with their own move may have been overused Sunday, but Wardlow did it first, scoring him a defining win that has the potential to rekindle a push that once had him looking like the future face of all things elite.