*By Request*
“I think All In is Wrestlemania for AEW. Now that Wrestlemania is done, I think there can be more focus on what AEW is doing. What do you think they need to do at All In to make the show as big as it can be? I like WWE but I would love to see AEW gain more space in the wrestling business, and I hope this is their chance to do it.”
At one point, AEW was pushing Double Or Nothing as their biggest show of the year, but yeah, those times are behind us. All In(nit) and (Y’)All In have definitely become the biggest events, both in storyline focus and in attendance.
AEW returns to Wembley Stadium in London after one-year away thanks to Coldplay booking Wembley for August Bank Holiday weekend. The latest ticket information from WrestleTix says that the current setup for the show will feature 36,249 available seats. It’s going to be another big show for the company, held in front of what is usually their rowdiest crowds anywhere, all year long.
As the request goes, I want to look at All In(nit), and see about making the show as big as possible, in hopes that it helps to gain more space in the wrestling market for AEW. It’s one show, and I’m aware that one show isn’t going to change the game overnight, but it’s still a major opportunity for the company if they can play their cards right.
For the most part, this will be listed in no particular order, but I will save my main event choice for the end. It just seems fitting, you know?
Let’s have some fun.
Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness: Okay, okay… I know that the odds of this happening are probably slim-to-none, but we’re having fun here. Getting Danielson back in the ring would be a huge deal for AEW. Outside of an eight-second dark match against Max Caster after an episode of Collision in June 2025, the last time Danielson wrestled was on October 12th, 2024 when he lost the AEW World Title to Jon Moxley at WrestleDream. He has been very clear that the match with Moxley was the end of his full-time wrestling career, but has continued to keep the door open for a one-off or a “special attraction” run.
Nigel is also in the tail end of his career, doing the occasional match here and there. He has wrestled in England on three occasions for AEW… he beat Wheeler Yuta on an episode of RoH Honor Club in December 2025, lost to Zack Sabre Jr. in an IWGP Heavyweight Title match at Forbidden Door 2025, and his surprise return to the ring as a participant in the Casino Gauntlet Match at All In(nit) 2024. The Casino Gauntlet Match took place at Wembley Stadium, but Nigel has never had a marquee singles match at Wembley in his career, and giving him one seems like the type of thing that Tony Khan would be more than happy to do.
The main reason I’m listing this here, though, is that All In(nit) 2026 happens in August. August 2026 marks the 20-year anniversary of one of the most legendary matches in Ring Of Honor history, and perhaps in the entire history of independent wrestling. On August 12th, 2006, RoH held a show at the Liverpool Olympia in Liverpool, England. The main event of that show? RoH World Champion Bryan Danielson taking on RoH Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness in a Title Unification Match.
If Danielson is physically able to perform again, even if it’s one final time, this just makes sense. It needs to happen.
Thekla vs Mercedes Moné: I really like the job that Thekla has been doing as the AEW Women’s Champion. She’s awkward as all hell, but it also helps her to stand out, and her presentation is also unique in the world of women’s wrestling. I think it benefits everyone involved for her to remain champion, building her reign up with defense after defense.
If you’re talking pure star power, there is no bigger woman in all of AEW than Mercedes Moné. It doesn’t matter if you like her, her character, or her in-ring work… she’s a star, and everyone knows it. I’ve seen a lot of the online sentiment about Mercedes change in recent months. There was a lot of eye rolling and snide remarks when she was involved in her “Belt Collector” phase and winning championships from promotions all over the world. However, once she started dropping the titles, one by one, people began to realize how valuable she was to the overall AEW product. Now that it has been four months since her last AEW match, fans are itching for her to return.
I’m not sure that she WILL be out of action for this much longer, but I think a great way to bring Mercedes back to AEW would be for her to answer Thekla’s reign of terror. If Thekla holds the AEW Women’s Title until All In(nit), that would put her reign at the six-and-a-half month mark. By then, she would’ve beaten a lot of the top competitors in the AEW women’s division. It’s a tale as old as time, but having her come out on television and basically say that she has beaten everyone, only for Mercedes to make her long-awaited return, is something that writes itself.
It’s the unstoppable champion taking on the biggest star in the division. To make it even better, the AEW Women’s Title is the one championship that has escaped the clutches of Mercedes for all this time. That plays in to everything that would be going on. I like this. Book it!
A “Shorter” Show: Look, if you’re TRULY talking about ways to make AEW bigger, one of the key things that needs to be looked at is the length of their pay-per-views.
While I truly appreciate the fact that you always get your money’s worth with AEW pay-per-views, I think that can also be achieved with shows that don’t last forever and a day. Last year, (Y’)All In was a SIX-HOUR main show, with a TWO-HOUR pre-show to go with it. There is no reason in the world that someone should clock in for a full shift at work when an AEW pay-per-view begins, clock out at the end of that full shift, and have the AEW pay-per-view still going on.
Again, I love that AEW always wants to overdeliver on these shows, but you’re not going to grow your audience with shows like that. You don’t need to go with the WWE model of having five matches on the card, but less matches, or at least less matches that are given “main event time” in a single show, can go a long way. At (Y’)All In, the tag match that saw Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay defeat The Young Bucks went a total of 25:50, and it was only the fifth-longest match of the night.
Go with something like ten matches, and maybe even less, for the entire main card. As for the duration of the show, the pay-per-view itself needs to be in the four-hour mark to hit that sweet spot. That allows for plenty of in-ring action, which the AEW fan base desires, but isn’t going to burn people out as they watch. It will even help by not getting the live crowd exhausted like they always end up somewhere around halfway or two-thirds of the way through the show, and they’ll go dead for a match or two before picking up again for the main event.
What a weird “complaint” to have. Oh, you’re giving us too much action, AEW! It’s all factual, though.
A Tag Team Title Ladder Match: So, it appears that AEW will be going with FTR defending the Tag Team Titles against Adam Copeland and Christian Cage in an “I Quit” Match at Double Or Nothing, with the added stipulation that Copeland and Cage can no longer challenge for the titles if they lose. If that’s the case, I would make the assumption that we’ll be getting new champions.
Getting from Double Or Nothing on May 24th to All In(nit) on August 30th is an interesting trek. There’s only one pay-per-view between those shows (Forbidden Door on June 28th), but what do you do here? (Writer’s Note: Since I wrote this, it has been rumored that AEW will be announcing a brand new pay-per-view for July, but my point remains.) Does FTR go to the back of the line if they lose at DON? What about the tag teams that can be made out of the 1,922 members of the Don Callis Family? The Rascalz? What about The Young Bucks? There are a lot of things that can happen.
Again, if we’re going with the biggest possible card we can put together, then I think the right choice is to have Copeland and Cage defend the Tag Team Titles in a Ladder Match. My first thought was having them defend the titles against The Young Bucks, who have also made quite the career for themselves in Ladder Match situations.
However, I also love the idea of adding FTR to that match, making it a Three-Way Dance. The different styles in that match would make for something entertaining, and it’s not like FTR has never been involved in a Ladder Match before. They’ve crushed it in those instances.
Shoot, you could add whatever teams you want. Every year, when people are fantasy booking shows like WrestleMania, you’ll always see “Six-Pack Tag Team Title Ladder Match” and things along those lines. That wouldn’t bother me. Sure, there might be more of a focused story if it’s just Copeland & Cage vs Bucks, or at least Copeland & Cage vs Bucks vs FTR, but we know Tony Khan is all about getting as many people on the show as possible, so throw one or two or even three more teams on here. As long as it’s Adam Copeland and Christian Cage defending the AEW Tag Team Titles, and there are a bunch of ladders involved in the match, then we’re good to go.
(Writer’s Note Part Deux: Well, hot diggity daffodil… when I typed all of this up, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were still under WWE contract. With the shocking news that Kofi and Woods have mutually agreed with WWE on their releases, AEW could very well have another candidate for the greatest tag team of all-time fall directly into their laps only a few short weeks before All In(nit). If you’re going to have the match I pitched here, Tony Khan needs to trip all over himself to make sure that he signs Kofi and Austin Creed so they can participate in it. Also, no offense to any of the other teams in AEW, but Copeland & Cage vs Bucks vs FTR vs Kofi & Creed is enough for this to be a smashing success. No other teams needed.)
Bandido vs Brody King: Okay, okay… technically, this falls more in the “matches I really want to see” category than the “matches that would make the show as big as possible” category. Sue me.
For a while now, I’ve been calling for Tony Khan to push Brody King as a top-tier singles competitor, but it certainly seems like there’s something of a “ceiling” on him. He gets a ton of singles action, but he’s in that position where he can beat all of the mid-level wrestlers, but he’s losing title matches and bouts against the true main event guys. Obviously, that’s something that can change in the future, but for now, it seems like the AEW main event scene is crowded enough that it’s difficult for anyone new to break through and join the mix.
I’d love to see some sort of story where Brody begins to feel down about his lack of success. Along the way, someone is there to support him… his friend and former tag team partner, Bandido. Over time, Bandido can get the big man believing in himself again, and they could even agree to some friendly competition. That’s where this match comes in. I don’t want to see either of them turn heel, either during the build or at All In(nit) itself. Just let these two tear the house down for 20+ minutes, and that’s all you need.
No Darby Allin In The Main Event: Look, I like what Darby Allin brings to the table as a member of the AEW roster. He’s more of a daredevil than Evel Knievel and Matt Murdock put together. That’s cool and all, but I just can’t buy him as the AEW World Champion. I’ve tried, and I’ve tried, but I just can’t do it.
I’m not one of those people that is on the “he’s too small” bandwagon, because I have zero issue with guys like Rey Mysterio being a World Champion, but Darby’s combination of a lack of size and the way his matches are put together don’t work for me.
Wrestling matches tend to be controlled by heels, no matter where you are, and it gets followed up by a comeback from the face, and that can take us to a back-and-forth before we reach the final stretch of the match. A big comeback from a super strong face like John Cena is believable. The same goes for a face that can shoot like Kurt Angle. Darby doesn’t really fall into any of the categories that make “face is beaten for almost all of the match, then comes back to win after a move or two” believable.
“But he uses his body as a weapon!”
Every wrestler uses their body as a weapon.
Time and time again, we’ve seen Darby take an ungodly amount of punishment, only to turn things around at the end, hit a Coffin Drop, and then pick up the victory. It doesn’t make sense in a tag match or in a midcard match, and it damn sure doesn’t make sense in main event World Title matches.
If Darby’s World Title reign continues, I’d love to see what television viewership does once the NBA and NHL playoffs are over. Dynamite viewership is down a ton since Darby won the title, but the show has gone up against the aforementioned NBA and NHL playoffs, which could explain things a bit. Based on a lot of the reaction I’ve seen online since Darby became the World Champion, though, it wouldn’t surprise me if the viewership doesn’t bounce back very much, because people are really upset about him becoming the champion. Even Dave Meltzer, who has defended everything AEW does, even if he has to make up complete lies to do so, has said that the company made a mistake making Darby their World Champion.
If AEW truly wants All In(nit) to be viewed as “their WrestleMania,” and to be the biggest show it can possibly be, then Darby cannot be involved in the show’s main event. By that, I don’t mean he should defend the World Title somewhere in the middle of the card. No, I mean that he shouldn’t be the World Champion at all by that point. There are probably a dozen people you could have him lose the title to before All In(nit) and it would instantly make things better, and there are probably a dozen more people you could have him lose to and I’d be willing to listen to arguments about how it made things better.
Main Event Bruv: This is such an easy, no-brainer decision to make. Will Ospreay is someone who many feel is the best in-ring performer in the entire wrestling business today. He is also someone who was born and raised in London, where All In(nit) just so happens to be taking place. From the moment he made his AEW debut in June 2022, and especially from the moment he officially signed with AEW in February 2024, fans have basically assumed he was going to be the company’s World Champion.
In his time with the company, he has challenged for the AEW World Title once, unsuccessful in taking the championship from Swerve Strickland at Forbidden Door 2024. What better time for him to receive his next shot at becoming THE guy in the company than at their biggest show of the year, in front of his hometown crowd that will be rabid for him?
As I said in the previous entry, I wouldn’t have his shot come against Darby Allin. I’m not saying that Darby vs Ospreay would be a bad match, but come on, there are bigger matches that you can make. MJF vs Ospreay would be bigger. Kenny Omega vs Ospreay would be bigger. Swerve Strickland vs Ospreay would be bigger. The list goes on and on.
I’d even take things a step further. Not only should Ospreay be competing for the AEW World Title at Wembley Stadium, but he should capture the title there. This can, and should, be a very special moment at what can, and should, be a very special show.
Make Ospreay the top guy in the entire promotion, and see what he can do there. Simple.
What are some of the things you would do at All In(nit) to make it the biggest possible show? You don’t have to give me a match-by-match rundown of the entire card if you don’t want to, but I’d like to know at least some of the things you think AEW should focus on in August. As always, feel free to hit me up in the comments section below, on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), or on Bluesky (@aaronhyden.bsky.social), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Now, let’s switch things over to my Weekly Power Rankings before closing it out with the list of songs I was listening to as I put this column together.
Weekly Power Rankings
Jack Perry vs Mascara Dorada: Not that I was expecting this to be a bad match or anything, but I found myself being VERY pleasantly surprised by what it ended up being. Imagine how good this could’ve been if anyone on the planet thought Dorada had even a sliver of a chance of becoming the new AEW National Champion here. Both men still did a great job of drawing the fans in and getting them invested in everything that took place.
Kevin Knight vs MJF: The rise of Kevin Knight’s profile in AEW continues. At this rate, would it surprise any of you if he was seen as a legit main event talent before too long? No matter how you do it, you’re making big noise when you defeat MJF.
Kazuchika Okada vs Ace Austin: Okada’s mission to wrestle everyone on the AEW roster continues. No matter what the company has him doing, he’s successful. He’s just that good.
Darby Allin vs Brody King: Come on, Tony Khan… just push Brody as a legitimate main event singles wrestler already.
Becky Lynch vs Iyo Sky: Two old pros having their first singles match against each other in over three years, and that match from 2023 was the only other time they’ve squared off in singles competition. That helped make this even better, as it felt very fresh and almost new.
Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz, Myron Reed, Dante Martin & Darius Martin vs Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Pac, David Finlay & Clark Connors: AEW is good for at least one of these “turn your brain off and enjoy all the spots” matches every week. Here’s this week’s version of it.
Charlotte Flair vs Jacy Jayne: I think Charlotte worked well with Jacy here, giving her a ton to work with, letting the main roster newcomer look like she belonged in the ring with someone of Charlotte’s stature. Fatal Influence continues to look strong in their early days as members of the Smackdown roster.
Penta vs Rusev: This was another match that could’ve been viewed in an even better light if the outcome was ever in question. Nothing against Rusev, but he clearly wasn’t going to beat Penta to become the Intercontinental Champion here.
Bayley & Lyra Valkyria vs Roxanne Perez & Raquel Rodriguez: A big win for the women of Judgment Day, and on their home turf, no less. Raw was in Laredo, Texas, and that just so happens to be where Roxanne was born and raised, while Raquel is from a two-ish hour car drive away.
Myles Borne vs Saquon Shugars: Borne continues to look strong in his reign as the NXT North American Champion, and the drama within DarkState also continues, with the group seemingly heading for an implosion soon. Effective television.
EVIL: They did the thing where a wrestler debuts in NXT and isn’t mentioned by name, so I’m sure he gets called something else soon, but for now, I’m still calling him EVIL. When he was in New Japan, his matches were almost always marred by the constant interference and shenaniganery from his House Of Torture stablemates. Now that he is away from that, I am very interested to see what his time in NXT holds. He had a bunch of title reigns in New Japan, including one reign as the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, so he has shown that he is capable of finding tons of success. Will that continue stateside?
This Week’s Playlist: “Just A Little Bit” by Mya & Too $hort… “Sunset Vet” by Big K.R.I.T… “Pressure” by Micah G, Kaipo & Ras Bird… “King” by Micah G… “Can’t Wait” by Micah G… “Construct” by Sevendust… “Blast If I Have To” by E-A-Ski… “Blame It On The Youth” by Mayday Parade… “Hollow” by Stuck On Planet Earth… “El Scorcho” by Weezer… “Pink Triangle” by Weezer… “Keep Fishin” by Weezer… “Say It Ain’t So” by Weezer… “Beverly Hills” by Weezer… “This Is Such A Pity” by Weezer… “Heart Songs” by Weezer… “Africa” by Weezer… “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Weezer… “Take On Me” by Weezer… “Happy Together” by Weezer… “Brain Stew” by Green Day… “Friday I’m In Love” by The Cure… “Misery Business” by Paramore… “The Only Exception” by Paramore… “Want You Bad” by The Offspring… “Gone Away” by The Offspring… “Landmines” by Sum 41… “Between Angels And Insects” by Papa Roach… “Like A Stone” by Audioslave… “You Could Be Mine” by Guns N’ Roses
