Welcome to the AEW All In 2024 PPVPreview presented by GrapPro.com
We will be previewing all matches from the pay per view this week. On the day of the show I will do an all encompassing predictions as I have done in the past.
AEW American Championship
Will Ospreay vs MJF (c)
The moment Will Ospreay signed with All Elite Wrestling, many expected him to main event Wembley Stadium this year to win the AEW Men’s World Championship.
I wasn’t one of those to expect that, due to the fact that nobody goes to the top of AEW that fast. I didn’t see how it made sense for Will to do this but Jon Moxley would have to wait almost a year. Kenny Omega took two years. CM Punk even took eight months before he couldn’t deal with the fact he wasn’t the champion. Yet Ospreay is just going right to the belt? What has he accomplished that those men have not?
It seems All Elite Wrestling agreed with this, or rather the fate of the AEW landscape, as Ospreay instead would win the AEW International Championship at Double or Nothing against Roderick Strong. He would get a shot at Swerve Strickland and the AEW Men’s World Championship but it would instead be at Forbidden Door.
Strickland defeated Ospreay, with much of the story being about the fact that Ospreay, no matter how talented he is, he isn’t ready for the pressure of being AEW Men’s World Championship. He’s too much in his head. He’s allowing his apprehension of using a wrestling move keeping him from finishing contests. He isn’t ready to give up his life for the championship like Swerve was.
The International Championship is a different level of pressure, but even that he couldn’t keep due to his own personal hangups. It was something that Maxwell Jacob Friedman took advantage of, a man who spent 2023 as AEW Men’s World Championship only to watch it crumble out due to his personal relationships and stretching his physical body too thin.
MJF essentially broke into pieces being AEW Men’s World Champion. He tried to do too much in too little time. Defending the biggest prize in the company as well as the ROH World Tag Championship with Adam Cole took a toll on his body. It eventually took a toll on his mental state as Adam Cole revealed himself to be The Devil that was messing with him in his feuds with Jay White and Samoa Joe. Joe would end up beating him for the AEW Men’s World Championship and MJF took months to heal.
Once MJF returned, he returned wearing a leather denim jacket similar to what Triple H wore in his return to WWE before Royal Rumble 2002. For anyone who knew the meaning to the denim jacket and Triple H in 2002, it meant more than just a wink or an Easter egg.
Much like HHH not getting over HULK STILL RULES ruining his big babyface run and him taking it out on Shawn Michaels, MJF couldn’t get over Will Ospreay essentially replacing him in the hearts of AEW fans and took it out on Daniel Garcia. We still don’t know if Garcia will ever return to an AEW ring.
MJF’s heel turn was certainly telegraphed and expected, but it was also the right decision. MJF needed to be a heel again, and he does it extremely well. There’s plenty of criticism valid for Max in terms of low hanging fruit and pushing the line of decency, but he’s one of the few wrestlers actually trying to be a bad guy today.
Whenever I hear people complain about MJF’s antics, they never really come up with better heels. Sure, they will name a heel, but then they tell me how the heel does things they like. YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE THE HEEL. The heel is supposed to be disliked, despised, hated, and rejected. The moment you’re giggling at their jokes and celebrating them every week? They are not a heel. It’s just an asshole you like.
MJF is doing everything he possibly he can in 2024 for you to not like him and then pay to see someone punch him in the face for it. And in this program? You’re paying to see Will Ospreay break his neck with a Tiger Driver 91.
The Tiger Driver 91 storyline has been quite divisive with fans. On one hand, it’s a pro wrestler not wanting to win matches using a move when he has 100 other moves that could risk injury to a pro wrestler. It’s a bit ridiculous to get this emotionally busted over a move that might not even win you the match and never actually took Bryan Danielson out of the business.
On the other, the crowd absolutely eats it up. They know what the double underhook symbolizes, and they’ve been salivating at Will Ospreay finally hitting the move on someone. That someone is going to be MJF, and that place is going to be Wembley Stadium.
Friedman’s jealousy of Ospreay came out on Wednesday when he accidentally admitted his whole issue was that jealousy. The fans picked Ospreay over him in his head. He can’t live in a world where they cheer him and he has to wonder if they love him more. Max’s jealousy and fear is what ultimately drives him to be hated. It isn’t to be a “Proud American”, he’s really doing that all just because he hates Will Ospreay and Ospreay is British. It isn’t to even be International Champion, temporarily renamed the American Championship, since he’s only holding it because he took it away from Will.
MJF is absolutely engulfed in jealousy with Ospreay, and it’s building what could be the best match of the night. Both men are healthy and wrestling at their highest level. I have no doubt in my mind that both men will absolutely knock this out of the park and present one of the best championship matches we’ve seen this year.
I also don’t think it’s the last we will see the two men clash in the near future. Maybe MJF will have a returning Daniel Garcia on his ass following the pay per view, or maybe Adam Cole finally returns to say hi Max. Remember me? There’s a lot of people MJF has wronged that will be coming for his head, but once his schedule clears? I could see Ospreay going right back in his sights. Eventually both will head back after the World Championship.
As for Ospreay winning the AEW Men’s World Championship at Wembley? It might not be happening this year, and it can’t happen in 2025, but in 2026? It definitely will happen. It might not be his first run with the belt, but it’ll absolutely be the big moment to cap off the evening. When he wins it, he won’t just be a new superstar in AEW riding a high. He will be a dyed in the wool All Elite Wrestling star.
