AEW All Out predictions & preview: Getting up for the letdown

The following is an opinion-based preview and reflects the views of the author.

What if I told you that you could spend 50 American dollars to watch an episode of Dynamite? Does that sound like something you might be interested in?

I will not bury the lede here: Sunday’s AEW All Out (8 PM Eastern from Chicago on PPV) is not a good show on paper. The fact that it’s even happening is another example of AEW’s continued short-sightedness. There was no compelling reason to run another major show a week after the biggest show they’ve ever run.

This isn’t revisionist history either. When this run of shows was announced, anyone with an internet connection wondered how this would work. And the answer is that it just isn’t working. Running this schedule requires an insane level of logistical planning and luck to go off without a hitch. I don’t know how closely you’ve been paying attention, but planning and luck are two things that remain sorely lacking in AEW. So bear witness, cats and kittens, to AEW’s first official B-level pay-per-view. It took a while to get there, but we’ve finally arrived.

Even though I am on the verge of AEW exhaustion, I will not abandon you, my dear readers. Come with me as we preview the extremely lackluster card. Please note this includes everything announced as of Saturday morning.

You can also hear me talk about this card and All In on this week’s Josh Nason’s Punch-Out.

Kenny Omega vs. Konosuke Takeshita (w/ Don Callis)

Few things are more alluring than the main event version of Omega. Even though his match against Will Ospreay at Forbidden Door wasn’t the official main event, it was still a major attraction. The clock is ticking on his peak, and if we’re being honest, it’s ticking on his career. How many more chances will he have to put on a vintage Tokyo Dome-level performance for AEW? With only a handful of major shows a year, they should be using this as a chance to make a star. And what better star to make than Takeshita?

Takeshita is the goods, the truth, the future — he’s everything. Whatever a company could ever want in a wrestler exists in this 28-year-old. He moves like a top 1% athlete. His hands are cinder blocks; his forearm to Ishii at Forbidden Door almost gave the entire announce team a stroke. This is as special of a performer as there is in pro wrestling. He pinned Omega at All In, nd nothing would do more to establish him as a GUY in AEW than another win on Sunday. If they have a direction in mind, this is the time to pull the trigger.

Prediction: Takeshita

TNT Champion Luchasaurus (w/ Christian Cage) defends against Darby Allin

This is Luchasaurus’s best role: a stand-in for someone with star power. He’s great/good/perfectly fine as a big heater with, and I’ll be generous here, an interesting look. But Christian is the star of this pairing and one of the two or three best things in AEW proper. His ongoing war on dads should win feud of the year on this website. His turtlenecks should win best gear — a category invented by me just now. The man will be 50 in November and is doing the best work of his entire career. The benefit of having someone like him on the roster can’t be understated. Someone who can sell a feud, who knows how to ad lib in front of a crowd, and who can generate surface-of-Mercury level heat is well worth whatever Tony Khan is paying him.

Allin remains one of the most consistently booked wrestlers on the roster. He almost always has something meaningful to do on a relatively important place of the card. It’s allowed him to grow and has conditioned the audience to know that when he’s on screen, something important is happening or a gruesome apron spot or both! The title means more to Allin than it does to the combination of Christian and Luchasaurus, and a title change needs to happen somewhere on this card. This is the place, even though I hate it.

Prediction: Allin wins the title

ROH Tag Team Champions Adam Cole & MJF defend against Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver)

I love it when guys drop the kneepad. Their kneecaps look so tiny and cute. It’s supposed to be this big dramatic reveal, but all I can think about is how small they look. Every time Cole reveals his baby knee, I just chuckle. It can’t possibly hurt anyone — it’s too tiny! All of this is to say, that there isn’t much to write about here. Dark Order won Friday’s battle royal on Rampage and earned the privilege of being rolled over by Better Than You Bay Bay. The crowd just eats this pairing up and, even though this match doesn’t make any sense, they couldn’t run this show without Cole and MJF getting TV time.

I didn’t need to update this after the winner of the battle royal was announced as the opponent simply did not matter. It’s a kangaroo kick, double clothesline, and the 1-2-3.

Prediction: Cole and MJF retain

Miro vs. Powerhouse Hobbs

It’s so good to have Miro back and cutting angry promos about higher powers and flexible wives. He’s still a little directionless, something unfortunately not unique to him, but this match is a great way to remind the audience just how good he is in the ring. For years, we have lamented about Miro’s unrealized potential. It’s time to let him show the world what he can do.

Hobbs is still doing the Book of Hobbs thing and seems like he might be getting another push. At some point, AEW needs to make up its mind about what to do with him. He and Ricky Starks have had more pushes started and abandoned in the last 18 months than most wrestlers do in their entire careers. Hobbs’ last push was confusingly derailed by a partnership (?) with QT Marshall (???) and QTV (?????). On the bad decision scale that’s up there with either Blockbuster opting to not buy Netflix and all of Game of Thrones’ 8th season.

This should show us who is in line for a big push moving forward. I say “should” instead of “will” not to cover my bases, but because who knows if it will actually lead to anything of substance.

Prediction: Miro

AEW Tag Team Champions FTR & The Young Bucks vs. Bullet Club Gold (Jay White, Juice Robinson & The Gunns)

A show like this wouldn’t be complete without a Teddy Long SmackDown Special, aka the “Can they coexist?” combo platter. There is no earthly reason for FTR and the Bucks to ever team up, let alone agree to a match MINUTES AFTER they just wrestled their rubber match at Wembley Stadium.

Since so much of the card doesn’t make any sense, I’ll throw logic out for this one. This has a chance to be a really fun house show match. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bucks kept the t-shirts on for this one and let FTR do most of the leg work. Bullet Club Gold has been great at the lighter moments and this entire match should be a lighter moment. Despite itself, this should work and be a decent amount of fun. For this card, that’s a huge win.

Prediction: Bang Bang Gang

ROH TV Champion Samoa Joe defends against Shane Taylor

God, how good is Samoa Joe? He is, of course, a spectacular talent in every facet of pro wrestling. Whether it’s in the ring, on the mic, or in the commentary booth, he’s as good as it gets. A friend of mine said Joe is firmly in his top three favorite wrestlers of all time. He presented it like it was a hot take, and while it’s certainly on the warmer side, I couldn’t find myself disagreeing. 

He’s only had two World title runs, one each in ROH and TNA/Impact, which is astounding. He capped out in WWE with both the NXT and U.S. Championships. It’s a testament to his excellence that he can be so revered, and such a legend without a ton of formal ‘top of the card’ success.

Prediction: Samoa Joe retains

Eddie Kingston & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta)

Imagine having Shibata on your PPV and announcing it on Twitter at 10:30 at night four days before the show. What, and I can’t stress this enough, are we doing here? Every match Shibata has is a miracle and should be a special event. It should be heavily promoted as the big deal it is. It should not be relegated to a Twitter announcement.

The real draw here, though, is another interaction between Kingston and Castagnoli. The two can barely be in the same city, let alone ring, without wanting to kill each other. The power of their hatred could reignite a dying star. I hope that this is the beginning of the long-awaited end to this feud. It deserves a proper blow-off and I don’t mean at Final Battle. It should be on the biggest stage it can be with as many eyes on it as possible. TK, my boy, I don’t ask for much, but please put that on Wrestle Dream or Full Gear instead of relegating it to one of the ROH properties.

Prediction: Kingston and Shibata

TBS Champion Kris Statlander defends against Ruby Soho

Statlander came back, beat Jade Cargill, and then…just kind of hung out? A multi-year undefeated streak ended, and the (more than a) woman who ended it, feels just like she always has. This was one of the easiest opportunities to make a star. The whole point of a streak like that is to immediately make someone and rocket them to the main event level. Statlander was a perfect pick for that. They nailed the hard part, which is picking the star, and to not capitalize on it is, at best, negligent, and, at worse, is yet another reflection of where the women’s division stands in the eyes of the AEW booking team.

This match should be very good. It’s a nice mix of styles and Soho has more TV wrestling experience than just about any woman on the roster. Statlander always works best with a stable, veteran presence that can take the lead in a match. That’s exactly what Soho is great at. She’ll make Statlander look like the star she should be. Hopefully, this reignites her momentum and gets her ready for more than just the TBS Championship.

Prediction: Statlander retains

AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy defends against Jon Moxley

This is one of the few matches that belongs on a Sunday pay-per-view and not just a special episode of Dynamite. Their resumes speak for themselves. Up until this year, Moxley was the forever MVP of AEW. Whenever they needed someone for something, for anything really, Mox was always on speed dial. It kind of became a joke that he’d never be able to take a long overdue vacation.

But during all that something funny happened. Cassidy won the International Championship and made it mean something. This is a serious title now thanks entirely to him and the work that he’s put in during his reign. There have been many times when I thought he’d drop the belt, but it hasn’t happened. What has happened is that Cassidy is, without a doubt, on the shortlist for wrestler of the year, and if we voted today, he would have my vote. Week in, week out regardless of opponent, he is putting on main event caliber matches while having main event caliber injuries. He’s the MVP of AEW. 

MJF might be at the top of the card, and others might have more name recognition, but somehow a guy who wrestles in denim joggers and doesn’t have a catchphrase, became the most important performer in the entire company. Whenever he loses the title, he deserves the vacation that Moxley still hasn’t taken.

As good as this title reign has been, it’s missing one signature defense. A win over Moxley would cap off one of the best runs with a title in AEW, and firmly establish Cassidy as one of the actual pillars of AEW.

Prediction: Orange Cassidy retains