Image: AEW
The following is an opinion-based review that reflects the views of the author and not the website.
What a difference a year makes.
A year ago at All In, Will Ospreay slummed it with Chris Jericho, Swerve Strickland was taking the pin as the least important person in a tag team match, and CM Punk was the “real” AEW World Champion. It’s safe to say things have changed for the better in many ways.
Last year’s card, while a historic achievement, was disappointing bell-to-bell with very few memorable moments other than, well, you know. This year, we have significantly less backstage turmoil, Bryan Danielson’s career on the line, and the culmination of the best story AEW has told with Toni Storm and Mariah May. I’m excited, you’re excited, let’s preview All In from London’s Wembley Stadium.
Casino gauntlet match for a future AEW World title shot
There’s much more to say about Hangman Page’s current character, but that is better served for when he gets a showcase match. For now, I’ll say this is the most interesting he’s been in AEW. The transformation from an unsure, anxious, millennial cowboy to an obsessed, spiraling, vengeance-seeking monster has been wonderful. He’s consumed with taking everything from a person whose name he can’t even bring himself to say. I don’t know much, but I do know he shouldn’t win this match so he can continue his slow descent into total madness. My preferred method of him losing would involve Jeff Jarrett, leading a match at All Out.
Prediction: Not Hangman Page
FTW Champion Chris Jericho defends against Hook
No, thank you.
Prediction: Absolutely not
AEW Trios Champions The Patriarchy (Christian Cage, Killswitch & Nick Wayne) defends against House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King & Buddy Matthews) vs. Bang Bang Gang (Juice Robinson, Austin & Colten Gunn) and Wheeler Yuta, Claudio Castagnoli & PAC in a ladder match
Christian Cage, who made his name wrestling in historic ladder matches in WWE, gets another chance to shine on the biggest stage. And what a deserved spot it is. He remains the most bankable performer in AEW. Whether it’s on interviews, pre-tapes, matches, or even refereeing, everything he does is worth seeing. He is remarkably sure and so certain about what his character is saying or doing at all times. I continue to be astonished that the man is 50 and performing at this high a level.
Is this the match that breaks up the Patriarchy? They’ve been planting seeds for a Killswitch, nee Luchasaurus, departure for some time now. Count me as someone who does not give one single hoot about that, but it’s probably time to move that story forward. His turning on Christian will never get a better reaction than it will at Wembley, so maybe it’s time to pull the trigger.
If not the Patriarchy, then who? These titles were never better than with the spooky boys in the House of Black. They’ll win them back Sunday.
Prediction: House of Black
TNT Champion Jack Perry defends against Darby Allin in a coffin match
Some overdue appreciation for the lunatic Darby Allin is in order. I’ve watched him for almost as long as he’s been wrestling, nearly perishing in community theaters in suburbs north of Boston, dingy social clubs, you name it. For a while, I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand why people loved the guy whose job seemed like it was to perish every weekend in front of 87 people. He was young and I was young, and we both changed. The insane daredevil feats began to take on meaning. He wasn’t doing this because it was all he could do to get over, he was doing it because this is who he is. Someone willing to put his body through almost unimaginable circumstances for the love of the game. Well, that and a generous serving of masochism. He has become one of the most reliable performers in wrestling, showing out equally on Rampage and the biggest shows.
All that flowery prose is a long-winded way of saying that there are leagues between Darby and Perry as performers. No matter how hard he tries, Perry isn’t it. He’s missing that extra 5% that makes someone special. Even the residual CM Punk-related heat has dissipated. He’s a generic, replaceable heel on the roster. The easy solution is to put the belt back on Darby, and get it back on TV…except I don’t think that’s going to happen. Young Jack has only defended the title once, against Marko Stunt of all people, and just fashioned himself a new belt. If he’s ever going to be taken seriously, he has to win.
Prediction: Perry retains
TBS Champion Mercedes Mone defends against Britt Baker
A technical masterpiece this will not be, and an attempt at one would serve neither of these two. The appeal of Mone is not so much her tight, clean ring work. It’s her overwhelming desire to bump like a freak for whoever she’s in the ring with. There is no spot she won’t take. She sees the bumps Darby Allin takes and her mind kicks into overdrive trying to think about how she can rag doll herself around the ring. Do you know how insane you must be to do multiple meteoras every match? My body screams and cries getting out of bed half the time and she’s willingly ravaging her knees.
For the record, all of this is meant as a tremendous compliment — she’s one of the best big-match performers in modern wrestling. Her dedication to giving all of her body in every match is part of what people connect with. We don’t connect with a larger-than-life CEO character. The contrary is true; we reject people like that. But what we do connect with is someone willing to push the flexibility of their spine to its absolute limit. The finisher still has to go, though.
This is the match Baker has always wanted and is as big of a women’s match as there is in AEW: the foundation of the women’s division against its biggest star and Baker’s first big match after an extended absence. The crowd is ready to see her again next to the first few notes of Will Ospreay’s theme song and “The Final Countdown” playing for Bryan Danielson.
“The Doctor will see you now” blasting from the Wembley speakers will be the pop of the night. Unfortunately for everyone’s favorite wrestling dentist, she won’t be adding any gold on Sunday.
Prediction: Mercedes retains
AEW Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks (Matthew & Nicholas Jackson) defend against FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) and The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster) in a three-way
The Young Bucks have always been divisive, but regardless of which side of the fence your opinion falls, one thing remained true: they always showed up and delivered. Now? I’m not so sure. They’ve never felt colder and have never felt less like the historical tag team they very much are. Their matches, though often criticized as hollow spot fests, were rarely the empty-calorie kind especially if they were working heel. Few teams were better at being hated and making their opponents look like stars.
Lately, it’s as if they’re going through the motions, something that started at the last All In. Their match with FTR was a serious disappointment and with the exception of Sting’s retirement match, they haven’t been the Bucks of old in a while. Maybe it’s years of working such a high work rate and physical style catching up to them, maybe they’re just bored, or maybe (hopefully) it’s just a down period. Whatever it is, they’ve never been less compelling.
I don’t think the audience is clamoring for this match. In fact, I don’t think there’s much clamoring at all for tag team wrestling in AEW right now. Considering some of the best matches in company history are in this division, this is a shocking fall-off. No one represents that fall-off like The Acclaimed, who remain in frigid limbo desperate to reclaim the organic love they earned years ago.
This gimmick always had a definitive shelf life and is now collapsing on itself. It carried Max Caster as long as it could, but he’s just not good enough in the ring to thrive without it. Without it, he’s been exposed as someone not compelling enough to move the needle. Anthony Bowens can move it, though. He’s crisp in the ring, excellent on promos, and he continues to shine even as their reactions get quieter and quieter. Maybe through the force of his will, he can return The Acclaimed to prior heights, but a full reset is likely needed here.
It might be strange to say that a match between the two best tag teams of the modern era doesn’t matter, but this really doesn’t. I’m guessing the status quo holds.
Prediction: The Young Bucks
AEW American/International Champion MJF defends against Will Ospreay
It’s a hell of a choice to run a nearly 60-minute match that ends in horsesh*t. Pulling the rug out from your audience with a silly finish in an impromptu Iron Man match is, by any objective measure, bad. Getting them to think they’re seeing something special only for it to end the same way every MJF match ends? Bad! This felt hollow and something that happened purely to be talked about, not because it meant anything.
It was the ultimate representation of the maximalist pro wrestling style that is too often present and far too lovingly praised (derogatory). Breathlessly promoting something as the best thing ever betrays its impact. We, the audience, should not need to be told something is “all-time.” We should feel it deeply. We should just know.
Look, this MJF gimmick is terrible for a many number of reasons. The jingoism, the not-so-veiled racism, and of course, the trademark terrible MJF insults. It stinks and it’s just lazy, and lowest common denominator-type junk. From a wrestling perspective, it also doesn’t work. It doesn’t work when the heel is doing elbow drops through tables and top rope destroyers. MJF should be grounding the match so the face can get their shine. For it to click, he needs to tone the moves down and turn up the chicanery. No big spots, no “moments,” just smarmy tactics and some standard cheating. It’s quite simple. Max cutting out the largess would go a long way toward making this match good.
There is almost no chance that Ospreay will take another loss to MJF, especially in his backyard.
Prediction: Ospreay wins the title
AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm defends against Mariah May
This is the best story AEW has told by a wide margin: a nearly year-long program layered with obsession, devotion, love, greed, and selfishness. It’s made the “Timeless” character go from insufferable to an undeniable (sorry, Cody) high point. It was all worth it to get to this moment. This feels like a literal blood feud, and I hope we get some more color during the show. The only issue is the crowd loves Toni way more than they hate Mariah. Surprisingly, the boos aren’t louder considering how much they’ve come to love Toni. Mariah certainly deserves all of their scorn. Hopefully, the London crowd shows out for this one and provides it.
This doesn’t seem like the end of something, more like just the beginning. A story this long isn’t going to end after one match. I’d love to see them run it back in the near future with a nasty stipulation (AEW’s first-ever First Blood match, anyone?). For that to happen, Mariah needs to win. They didn’t spend all this time building her up just to cut her momentum off at the knees.
Prediction: May wins the title
AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland defends against Bryan Danielson in a title vs. career match
The best to ever do it gets to do it on the biggest stage one more time in the ultimate culmination of a legendary career. How perfect that ten years ago, Danielson reached the top of WWE at WrestleMania 30 and now is in a position to do the same thing in AEW at All In. All that’s left to cap it off is to win the AEW World title. Even at the height of his powers in WWE, he was still never pushed like a true, long-term top guy. Sure, he was getting the biggest reactions, but it took an unprecedented groundswell of support for him to get that spot. Even then, it felt fleeting. Ever since he came to AEW, they have thrown all of their support behind him, making him the biggest deal possible. Even through all the losses, he remains the ultimate measuring stick. If you wrestle Danielson on a major show, you’re someone worth paying attention to.
Swerve keeps leveling up. With each program and with each promo, he shows more and more. Every match gets a little crisper and his moves a little tighter. Danielson frequently brings the best out of everyone he dances with, and this should be no different. Swerve is approaching his frightening peak as a performer. He’s someone who checks every box, including and especially ‘other’. This will be big and emotional. I cannot wait.
I’m conflicted about what to predict here. Danielson has shown an almost freakish delight in losing just about every big match he’s been in since he started in AEW. But you know if Tony Khan has his way, he will send him out on top like he did with Sting earlier this year. There’s a world where Bryan wins at All In and wrestles his last match as a full-timer at WrestleDream in Washington later this fall. There’s also a world where August 25th is the end of his career.
That’s a world I’m not ready for. When the curtain goes down and the confetti falls at All In, the American Dragon will stand alone at the top where he’s always belonged. Yes, yes, yes.
Prediction: Danielson wins the title
