Although the summer is beginning to wind down, 2024 is still a hell of a time to be a wrestling fan, and this year's All Elite Wrestling All In is the perfect way to cap things off. As exhausting as the ratings and tickets discourse has gotten, AEW is coming into their biggest show of the year on a stretch of excellent weekly TV (mainly Dynamite, but the Arlington Collisions have been fun).
Even with all of AEW's current faults (Chris Jericho), they haven't had their Men's and Women's World Title pictures this hot at the same time, maybe ever. There's a lot of fun stuff happening in the mid-card. You have some wiley vets in the form of Christian Cage and Jeff Jarrett, who've been great assets especially recently. Not to mention, there are potentially some notable surprises in store (Motor City Machine Guns, Ricochet, Jamie Hayter, SHANE MCMAHON even????).
But to cut to the chase, you have nine Main Card bouts announced ahead of Sunday, plus a mixed-tag team match as your pre-show appetizer. Here's what I think about each and who walks out of Wembley Stadium victorious.
AEW All In (2024)
Kris Statlander and Stokley Hathaway vs. Willow Nightingale and Tomohiro Ishii (Pre-Show)
It feels like a letdown that Willow and Stat end up on the pre-show here after all the great work they've done in 2024, but my hope is they get a ton of time to work a singles at All Out. Here, though, I'll literally take Stokely Hathaway doing anything. Talking, wrestling, tweeting, cooking, anything. He is objectively one of the best/funniest non-wrestling talents in the business over the last five years, and I'm thrilled he's still around pro wrestling after he left WWE. That said, Ishii rag-dolling him will be tremendous content, win, lose, or draw. My guess is that Stat will pick up a dirty win here before putting Willow over clean in Chicago.
Winners: Kris Statlander and Stokley Hathaway
The Patriarchy (Christian Cage, Nick Wayne, and Killswitch) (c) vs. Bullet Club Gold (Juice Robinson and the Gunns) vs. PAC, Wheeler Yuta, and Claudio Castagnoli vs. The House of Black for the AEW World Trios Championship in a "London Ladders Match"
I, for one, would be shocked if this Ladder match wasn't your opener come Sunday. Get a hot crowd into things immediately with an array of fun talent that has done the bulk of the heavy lifting at the Arlington Texas Collision Residency. You could sell me on any of these four teams winning, but it feels evident that there's more meat on the bone with the Patriarchy. Christian Cage is still a delight, and it feels pretty obvious the endgame here is to get Killswitch/Luchasarus over big once things have run their course. Luckily, I don't think that day is here yet, and besides, we've yet to get Christian doing the Kawada All Japan Triple Crown picture with all three of the trios' belts.
Winners: The Patriarchy
Chris Jericho (c) vs. Hook for the FTW Championship
We finally reached the conclusion of a six-month feud that has gone nowhere, benefits/ed no one, and brought the key person (Hook) in said feud's momentum to a standstill. Chris Jericho has been a black hole on AEW programming for the better part of the last 10 months, becoming the undisputed low point of TV long before a great stretch of Dynamite's heading into All In (Can't find anything for Ricky Starks/Hikaru Shida/Lance Archer on TV though!!!). More unforgivably, he also took away any mystique that Hook had going for him once he beat him at Dynasty.
There's precisely one way this match should end: Hook choking out Jericho in less than 10 seconds, moving things along in an orderly fashion. Will that happen? Probably not, but they need to end this feud mercifully, and Jericho needs to go away for a while at the bare minimum (Preferably permanently. He should've wrapped it up with that MJF feud, if we're being honest). I'd imagine you get a quick Taz spot in this match somewhere, but I think Hook wins regardless; the sooner, the better, though; we're already suffering enough with a live Fozzy performance.
Winner: Hook
MJF (c) vs. Will Ospreay for the AEW International/American Championship
While a 60-minute TV match between these two was overkill for me, this is still clearly one of the top three matches on this show. Ospreay has remained scorching hot even after losing the Intl. belt, and some of the verbal wars between him and MJF have been pretty good, especially in Cardiff, where Ospreay gave him the business, probably the best promo outing vs. MJF since Ricky Starks' promo on him in early 2023. All things considered, I'm expecting a great one here.
Now, I believe it's worth mentioning that Ospreay is, by a WIDE margin, the single biggest betting favorite in any match on this show, but this is the hardest match for me to pick. Keeping MJF with this heel-American gimmick feels like the play, but that would mean all three of AEW's mid-card titles are held by heels. My gut says MJF via Don Callis shenanigans, but I'll go Ospreay against my better judgment.
Winner: Will Ospreay
The Young Bucks (c) vs. FTR vs. The Acclaimed for the AEW Tag Team Championships
Three years ago, this triple threat would've probably been the most anticipated match on this card. Max Caster has some real-deal go-away heat, which is hurting that whole team, and the Bucks haven't had enough bite post-Revolution this year for my liking. I don't love how they're going to the FTR vs. Bucks well (technically) for All In two years in a row, and for whatever it might be worth, the Bucks are a heavy-betting favorite as of Friday Night on BetOnline.
They've been ice-cold for a while now since this whole AEW vs. the Elite story has mainly gone nowhere. Then the CM Punk-Jack Perry footage did them zero favors for them on or off-screen. Personally, I'd like to see FTR win this one, but I think those -700 odds for Nick and Matt Jackson have validity. That said, unless the endgame is a Bucks vs. Motor City Machine Guns match where they drop the belts, I don't see a point in them leaving as Champions two years in a row when they have zero going for them right now.
Winners: The Young Bucks
Casino Gauntlet Match for a "Guaranteed Future AEW World Heavyweight Championship Oppurtunity"
One of the pitfalls of these "Casino"-branded matches is that they don't end up leading to any world title victories for anyone down the road. That said, it's an excellent way to debut and return guys, and things are usually fast-paced with some perceived real stakes with key guys. We don't exactly know yet when this match is since All Out would feel like a waste with so little time to build things up, and then you can cross out Arthur Ashe Stadium since Darby Allin has a World Title match that week.
What we do know is Orange Cassidy is kicking things off, but smart money would be on Ricochet, who Sean Ross Sapp recently confirmed inked an awaited multi-year deal with AEW to kick this one off with him. The two actually have some history on the Indies, and I distinctly remember one of Ricochet's last Indy bookings before going to NXT was set to be against Cassidy before that got canceled.
Others we know will be in this match include Kyle O'Reilly and Mark Briscoe, the latter of whom has been an absolute delight in 2024 both on AEW and ROH TV, The Messiah of the Backbreaker Roddy Strong, and Hangman Adam Page. Assuming Hanger doesn't win this, it'll most likely be to keep him chasing the Swerve dragon for a bit longer and to get a conflict resolution in the Jeff Jarrett feud. The King of the Mountain/Chosen One/MMA Enthusiast/Last Outlaw/Bree Woo Bree Woo guy/Hit 'Em Wit the Gitar guy has been sensational for the last month and a half, and I think a quick feud with the pair can work in the interim before we get to the good stuff. Page is the odds-on favorite in this one (via BetOnline), and I'd imagine we're getting Swerve vs. Hanger IV before the year is out.
As far as any other surprises go, I'd expect to see British Indy Sensation Michael Oku at some point, Konosuke Takeshita, who's coming off a monster outing in the New Japan G1 Climax (their Royal Rumble equivalent/round-robin style tournament), potentially G1 winner Zack Sabre Jr., maybe even Grado?
Winner: "Hangman" Adam Page
Mercedes Mone (c) vs. Britt Baker for the TBS Championship
What started out as a standout mid-card feud has lost momentum after Britt Baker was handed a legitimate multi-week suspension for an incident backstage involving MJF and his partner/AEW backstage interviewer Alicia Atout. Not helping her cause after that was a segment where she went into business for herself and, intentionally or otherwise, made Mercedes Mone and Kamille look bad because she took her sweet time to get to her spots.
So, it is safe to say Britt hasn't exactly returned on a great note, but with that said, she did cut a good promo on the go-home Dynamite in Cardiff, and while that isn't a ton in the grand scheme of things, you do have that to work on. I don't expect her to win, nor do I think she should, but a good in-ring showing where she doesn't go rogue would do her a ton of favors moving forward. Mercedes is a good dance partner, and the heel turn was a good call (albeit a late one); we have a decade's worth of evidence she's not that great of a babyface promo, and her entire presentation screams heel anyway. Also, on a side note, I present this without context.
Winner: Mercedes Mone
Jack Perry (c) vs. Darby Allin for the TNT Championship in a Casket Match
Jack Perry was one of the key stories of last year's All In for all the wrong reasons, and much to my surprise, he has built himself back up pretty nicely after his excursion to Japan with the House of Torture. Given how things between these two went at Blood and Guts some time ago, I don't believe that this being Darby's second All In Coffin Match in as many years hurts this match any. The build-up to this one has been great, and I especially loved Darby's cinematic vignette that aired a few weeks back. Given that he has a World Title match on the horizon, though, I think the outcome of this one is a bit obvious, although it should still be fun before Darby potentially wins the big one, which has reportedly been discussed.
Winner: Jack Perry
"Timeless" Toni Storm (c) vs. Mariah May for the AEW Women's World Championship
Before things began to heat up with Danielson and Swerve, I was aboard the Storm vs. May should Main Event All In train. The signs were there the entire time that May would be the one to turn heel, but I was always assuming they would swerve and run her as the babyface here. So, color me shocked when May bludgeoned Storm after winning the Owen Hart Tournament some time ago.
It's not a secret that the three-time AEW Women's World Champion has been on a career-defining run with the "Timeless" persona over the last 10 months. Still, Storm finally got things to click when it came to managing the gimmick while still putting on high-quality matches this year and has become the all-around ace of AEW's Women's division over the last several months. That said, this one feels like it's only ending one way. May has been scorching hot since her heel turn when it comes to talking, and her in-ring ability was already great beforehand. Storm having to do the honors at All In two years in a row stings a bit, but not every Hollywood story has a happy ending.
Winner: Mariah May (Jamie Hayter's music post-match is going to hit like an unprotected chair shot from the Rock in the Attitude Era, I promise you)
Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Bryan Danielson for the AEW World Heavyweight Championship (Title vs. Career)
My expectations for this build-up and match were fairly high, given how phenomenal these two have been to this point, but this has been one of the best World Title builds in the history of AEW. The story, of course, is that Danielson needs to dig deep after putting his career on the line to win his first World Title since late 2018, being verbally challenged to step up by Jeff Jarrett and Eddie Kingston over the last month. This, of course, matches up with a more heelish Swerve Strickland who's vowed to cripple Danielson in front of his wife and kids, seeing as the mere thought of anyone wanting to take the World Title from him as a declaration of war.
Sticking to the Champion, the way Swerve has been used as of late has been fantastic. He's entirely in the flow of being a top guy and is clearly someone people want to cheer because he's a tremendous personality and a phenomenal in-ring talent, but he's sinned (in kayfabe) enough that he can probably never be a full-on babyface. That gives AEW a ton of creative flexibility, and they've taken a great deal of advantage from that in this Danielson angle. Realistically, no one is trying to boo him at this stage of his career, and this hurts Swerve not even a little bit; it might be an advantage here.
We talked earlier about how MJF vs. Opsreay is the toughest match for me to pick, but this one is a very close second. There's no wrong choice for Tony Khan and the creative team here (well...outside of a draw, which I doubt happens on a show this big), and baring something Finger Poke of Doom or Starcade '97 bad, I don't think anyone comes out of this clash looking bad. But this is the kind of match that doesn't come around very often, which makes wrestling so great. There are a lot of fans out there who probably can't make heads or tails of either Swerve dropping the big one or Danielson going out without ever holding it.
But let me end by saying this. After this Wednesday in Cardiff, Wales, Danielson did precisely what he did all those years ago in the lead-up to WrestleMania 30: Make me believe. The American Dragon's days are numbered, but Sunday won't be the end of the line.
Winner: Bryan Danielson
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