AEW WrestleDream 2024 Predictions

AEW WrestleDream 2024 airs tonight on pay per view from the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington.

You can find all previews clicking here.

There’s a lot of things I can talk about on the first pay per view for All Elite Wrestling after the new WBD deal and a looming Fox deal. A looming Fox deal that has people being extremely critical on AEW ratings recently.

I can talk about how they’ve been doing well in walk-ups but there’s still work to be done on advertising in local markets for AEW shows.

I can talk about how this is the end of the Nightmare Mode booking and AEW can finally start to relax a bit, but what they really need is to evaluate all of their wrestlers and current booking and fix wherever fixes are needed.

I can talk about the lack of Kazuchika Okada and Mercedes Moné on the show leave significant championships out in the cold. Wheeler Yuta, Claudio Castagnoli, and PAC will also not be defending the Trios Championship despite significant TV time. The Outrunners are one of the hottest acts in AEW right now and they can’t even get on the Zero Hour for a match.

I can talk about how Jimmy Jacobs was apparently Rasputin controlling Tony Khan to make all the booking decisions you didn’t like for the past year even though according to Tony Khan, Jimmy gets too much blame for creative decisions. Jacobs resigned from AEW yesterday. Maybe he did have some bad ideas that Tony listened to, but that’s… on Tony Khan. Do you think if he listened to bad ideas in the past he won’t listen to bad ideas in the future? Toots Mondt could be in the room to guide him and he’s still going to give Billy Gunn TV time in 2024.

There’s a lot I can talk about critically, but there’s always something in the air before an AEW PPV that feels like we need to rehash absolutely every minute little thing going on and whine and complain. I don’t know if it’s because the card isn’t giving them enough to enjoy (there has been issues with the build up on a lot of matches) or if it’s for something more nefarious, but it does certainly feel like everyone wants to proclaim their STATE OF THE UNION in AEW before this show.

I mean, I could do that. I’m sure someone will claim I’m doing just that. But this isn’t the place for it. WrestleDream is actually going to outdraw what it did last year, though they had a lot more time to build this one up. It still means something with Danielson coming in as champion.

I think the shows have been pretty good but not great in the past few weeks and they absolutely missed the momentum on Hangman Page winning in the main event of All Out. If you’re good with pretty good then you’re probably hyped. If missed potential hurts you more than the good you get? That’s probably why you’re proclaiming a State of the Union and AEW needs to change and please hire me and trying to blame everything on Jimmy Jacobs so you don’t have to confront that we’ve had five years of Tony Khan’s booking and know quite well how it works.

You can focus on the positives and be a homer, you can focus on the negatives and be a hater. Or you can look at it all and see there’s still far more good than bad. That’s why they got renewed. That’s why Fox is interested. 2024 has been far better for the company as a creative product than 2023, and I’d also include being better than the latter months of 2022.

Maybe this isn’t the Wrestling Dream you originally envisioned, but it’s the Wrestling Dream that’s going to last the rest of the decade and beyond. This isn’t broken. It just isn’t shining like you were hoping it to shine.

AEW Zero Hour
Harley Cameron versus Anna Jay

One of two matches announced during AEW Rampage last night. I’m happy for both Harley and Anna, especially Anna to be able to get a bit of a shine on the Zero Hour after her excursion from Stardom in Japan. Harley has worked hard to improve with the TV time she’s got so it’s nice for her to get this spot as well.

It’s still frustrating that they could not find a place on the card for Jamie Hayter, Mercedes Moné, Kris Statlander, Hikaru Shida, and that having two ROH matches didn’t lead to a third including Athena.

I’m sorry but both Zero Hour matches booked last night could only make me think of the matches they didn’t book. I’ll get to the tag matches in a moment.

It’s unfair to Anna and Harley to just talk about wrestlers who didn’t get the position. Harley has been an entertaining heel who makes The Outcasts with Saraya not feel completely dry as an act. When she first came to AEW I was very much in the no thank you for her in QTV and such. She has done a lot to improve as a character and pro wrestler and is likely here to eat a pin. Good work for her.

Anna Jay is interesting. She’s definitely improved after her Stardom run but I don’t know if she’s truly been tried yet to see how much that improvement is. I don’t know if Harley is up to the challenge but it would be nice if she is. I really want to see Anna against someone like Kris Statlander or Mariah May, and unfortunately we won’t get the Stat match because she randomly turned babyface. Now there’s a lack of heels for the women’s division despite both titles held by heels.

I expect a statement win from Anna Jay leading to her going after Mariah May. I think there could be a good story out of the two, even if it’s just an October feud before May gets her rival for Full Gear.

Winner: Anna Jay

MxM versus The Acclaimed

The hottest tag team in AEW over the past month is The Outrunners and they are not on the show at all? Not even Zero Hour?

This is pretty disappointing. I’ve heard that FTR is having some trouble due to the floods and hurricanes in the United States, but they are also fine working the DEADLOCK show tomorrow night against Violence Is Forever? I think you could have had something like FTRunners versus two heel tag teams or something. Heck, maybe it a four way tag match between the teams. It’s just Zero Hour. Just get bodies out there!

Unlike Anna and Harley I don’t feel bad for taking attention away from this match. The Acclaimed is still popular with the live audiences and such but I am beyond done with them. It is a tired act. I’m almost 40 so I’ll try not to call them washed but they are certainly faded. Maybe Tony Khan is reluctant to break them up due to the criticism’s of WWE breaking up tag teams but it’s truly time for Anthony Bowens to get a shot as a singles competitor on his own without the baggage of Billy Gunn and Max Caster.

As for MxM, I’m glad they took things serious last night on Rampage. I hope we see them take it serious in the ring and show they can be a formidable tag team to climb the ranks. Otherwise this time being given to them over Orange Cassidy and Kyle O’Reilly, over FTR, over The Outrunners, over Grizzled Young Vets, over a lot of other tag teams? It’s questionable. It truly is.

I would give the win to MxM just because The Acclaimed do not need a win right now. Oh, and as for the third man? I don’t know. Ashley Remington. There you go.

Winners: MxM

ROH Television Championship
Brian Cage versus Atlantis Jr.

Match Preview

Good to see Atlantis Jr. represent CMLL on the show. He’s not my favourite of the luchadors that have shown up from CMLL (HECHICERO) but he’s still young and skilled and this is a good place for him. Good for him to be able to showcase for the AEW audience on the Zero Hour.

Brian Cage? He could win this match. But he’d honestly be better to go after the ROH Men’s World Championship. I would seriously consider having Brian Cage beat Mark Briscoe for the ROH World and be that gatekeeper between ROH and AEW.

So I don’t really see this match going in his favour, and if it does? I’m good with that too. Atlantis Jr. did a good job representing CMLL and can go back with his head high. That said I think he still has his head high just by winning.

Winner: Atlantis Jr.

AEW WrestleDream 2024

AEW TNT Championship
Katsuyori Shibata versus Scapegoat Jack Perry (c)

Match Preview

I would truly love it if Katsuyori Shibata won this match, but after the Title Tuesday Dynamite and the return of Daniel Garcia? It feels pretty obvious that the match they will be building up to for the TNT Championship is Jack Perry’s TNT Championship.

In both Daniel Garcia Decision and the All Out 2024 Preview of Garcia versus MJF, I noted Daniel Garcia as the perfect person to dethrone Jack Perry for the TNT Championship. I haven’t swayed on that, even if I think Wheeler Yuta did a great job filling in the spot Garcia is supposed to be in as a rising midcard babyface to rally behind.

I expect Perry to win, but they lay the seeds for Daniel Garcia versus Jack Perry to happen either at Full Gear or maybe even something as early as Battle of the Belts XII. I am hoping for Full Gear since Garcia could use a few strong wins to establish himself as a contender for the TNT Championship.

It’s too bad to look beyond Katsuyori. I’ve loved this work in AEW. Would love to see him get one big run in some way before his body can’t handle this comeback. I guess they still have a match against Okada in their pocket any time they want to do it.

Winner: Jack Perry

Open Challenge
Brody King versus Darby Allin

Apparently I forgot to do the preview for this!

On the Collision: Grand Slam 2024 Preview, I spoke about how Brody King hasn’t done much of anything in 2024 after a fantastic Continental Classic showing last year. He continues to be in the shadow of The House of Black instead of being to stand out on his own. By taking this match against Darby Allin, Brody is finally getting to stand out a bit on his own.

Even in a loss, this could be great to start establishing Brody King as a midcard singles heel going into Full Gear. There’s a lot of guys he could face going forward. If Daniel Garcia wins the TNT Championship I expect Brody to be one of his first challengers. Garcia’s only win in the C2 was against Brody. I expect Brody to want revenge.

Darby Allin was at one point looking like he was going to walk into Tacoma as the AEW Men’s World Champion. Now he doesn’t have a title shot. Jon Moxley will be in his home state wrestling Bryan Danielson with his title shot. I expect Darby has revenge on his mind, and the best revenge is winning. Start here against Brody King, and build towards facing Jon Moxley.

It was great for AEW to spend 2024 elevating Swerve Strickland. 2025 needs to be about getting Darby to that level.

Winner: Darby Allin

ROH Men’s World Championship
Chris Jericho versus Mark Briscoe (c)

Match Preview

It’s probably time to end The Learning Tree. I probably enjoy it more than others, and particularly like how much darker and evil Chris Jericho has been getting. Even so, I think this needs to culminate in Big Bill turning on Chris Jericho and embarking on a babyface run. Nothing can get that done bigger than taking Jericho out for a few months.

I have been pushing the idea of Mark Briscoe dropping the ROH World Title so he can focus 100% on AEW, and I would be down for Jericho just going to ROH and being the old man holding the promotion hostage. But it might be better if Big Bill is blamed for the loss and just takes it out on The Learning Tree.

Big win for Mark.

Winner: Mark Briscoe

AEW International Championship
Ricochet versus Konosuke Takeshita versus Will Ospreay (c)

Match Preview

This is a difficult match to call. I certainly would have preferred Takeshita facing Kazuchika Okada for the Continental Championship on this card over adding him to Ricochet and Will and doing a three way dance. It’s also dumb that Takeshita is getting a title shot by ruining a title match.

Maybe Okada doesn’t want to lose to Takeshita and they had to change course. Who knows. If Takeshita wins this match that might absolutely be what happened, since it felt obvious for Okada and Takeshita to meet. Then again, it was feeling that way between Hangman and Okada back in the summer. Who knows!

Ricochet winning would be a mistake. It would probably feel a lot like when Sammy Guevara or Julia Hart were the TV champions. It’s too much too soon, and him cutting to the front of the line like this would feel wrong.

There’s a road I see ahead where Ospreay loses this match (probably by not being pinned), Moxley defeats Danielson, and Ospreay is the first guy up to face the heel World Champion. I can see that. I just also think he’s just going to retain here and probably stay International Champion right up to Wrestle Dynasty. I don’t want all my predictions to be influenced by a fantasy booking in my head so I’ll go with my gut.

Winner: Will Ospreay

AEW World Tag Team Championship
Private Party versus The Young Bucks (c)

Match Preview

Private Party don’t have to win this. They just need to show they can more than hang against The Young Bucks. Mistakes need to be kept to a minimum. We need to see well built hot tags and exciting double team moves. Move Private Party to being a serious tag team going forward. If they don’t cut it here? I don’t know what else you do with them.

The Young Bucks at one point had one of the worst title reigns in AEW but the recent matches has reminded people how great they can be. I think this match is setting up the bigger match they will have. I think that match was at one point going to be against Motor City Machine Guns but they retired sadly. Bucks will have to face someone else.

I expect Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi to return at the end of the match.

Winners: The Young Bucks

2 out of 3 Falls Match
Hologram versus The Beast Mortos

Match Preview

Despite my disappointment that this show doesn’t have Mercedes Moné defending her TBS Championship or Kazuchika Okada defending the AEW Continental Championship, I’m also glad we get a match like this to highlight Hologram and The Beast Mortos.

Hologram is undefeated, but the great thing about a 2 out of 3 Falls match is you can eat a pinfall without losing. The Beast Mortos being the first person to pin Hologram, even if he doesn’t win the match, will be good for his progression.

If I didn’t think Tony was so high on Hologram I would suggest The Beast Mortos just winning 2-0 and going towards wrecking a babyface around the top. Despite joining LFI in the ring, some think he hasn’t officially joined. He’s still a mercenary trying to decide his place. Losing this match might make it hard to stick with them, so I wonder how Jake “The Snake” Roberts factors in.

Winner: Hologram 2 Falls to 1

Swerve Strickland Returns

It only makes sense for Swerve to return in Washington state, which unfortunately he couldn’t do as AEW Men’s World Champion.

Just like his blood rival Adam Page, I don’t think they want Swerve going back to the title immediately. It definitely feels like there’s a plan to give him an obstacle to overcome before then.

That obstacle is likely Bobby Lashley, joining Shelton Benjamin and MVP as a Hurt Business again.

I completely understand people rolling their eyes as a former WWE act coming into AEW as that former WWE act to jump the line against a top star. Understand completely. I‘ve watched Shelton Benjamin recently and while he can still wrestle? He wrestles as a third of the speed he used to.

Bobby on the other hand? I have a hard time not being in his corner. His Impact Wrestling run in the mid 2010s was one of my favourite runs in the business at the time and kept me interested in wrestling at a time when I was an all time low. He looks ageless, pretty much how he’s looked for the past 20+ years.

I do have interest in a Swerve versus Bobby match, and maybe Swerve can make amends with his old friend AR Fox and face Shelton and Bobby, but after that? Swerve needs to move back to the main event. Bobby and Shelton would be a good addition to the tag team division. Much as I like Bobby and am happy he’s likely coming to AEW and he seems like an ageless statue? He was still born in 1976. He isn’t in his prime. Let the wrestlers in their prime lead this company.

Switchblade Jay White versus Hangman Adam Page

Match Preview

I’ve said pretty much everything I could in the match preview. I highly recommend reading it for the history of Jay and Adam.

I can see either man winning. My thought is if Page wins, you can do the rematch at Full Gear where Jay White wins. You then enter both men in the Continental Classic at opposite ends and have them face in the final at World’s End in the rubber match.

I can also see Jay White winning and proving he still has the Cowboy’s number and making Hangman that much angrier at him to win the rematch. Again, could go either way.

I just hope they give this the right amount of time and consider how good these two will be against each other. I think this will be the best match of the night.

Winner: Hangman Adam Page

AEW Women’s World Championship
Willow Nightingale versus Mariah May (c)

Match Preview

I’m going against my own words and suggesting it might be good for AEW to have a surprise title change here. As much as I want patience for Mariah May, I think she needs a new rival. New adversity. Something to make her have to work harder.

I could definitely see Mina Shirakawa or Toni Storm costing Mariah this match, and that allows for her to do something other than be a spot holder at the top of the women’s division. Willow doesn’t have to be a long term champion. You can even have Mariah get the belt back at Full Gear. But have a win here to just give the title a fresh champion and a fresh perspective.

Winner: Willow Nightingale

AEW Men’s World Championship
Jon Moxley versus Bryan Danielson (c)

Match Preview

Let me lay out two things for everyone.

If this is the Final Countdown of Bryan Danielson’s full-time career? All Elite Wrestling absolutely blew this.

This has been rushed. This doesn’t feel like the culmination of an incredible career ending in his home state against one of his greatest rivals in the company (and greatest partners) but instead feels like just quick building up a heel out of a betrayal for a typical monthly pay per view defence.

If this is the first match in a series of several to get to a true Final Countdown situation for Danielson?Say at World’s End? Then I would understand. Danielson can survive this but have Moxley still on his heels, winning matches and beating everyone who tries to get in the way.

This doesn’t make sense to be the end of Bryan Danielson in AEW as a full-time wrestler.

But it does make sense for Jon Moxley to win the AEW Men’s World Champion.

AEW needs a heel right now at top. They need a guy like Moxley to face the likes of Swerve Strickland, Darby Allin, Jay White, Orange Cassidy, Kyle O’Reilly, Samoa Joe, and Wheeler Yuta. There’s far better choices than if a babyface is champion, where it’s mostly Adam Page, MJF, Christian Cage, and Kazuchika Okada. Heck, Christian Cage might still face Mox but turn face doing it.

Moxley feels right to win the championship by name, even if he doesn’t have the kind of wins you’d want your Men’s World Champion to have before winning it.

If the plan is to put the title back on Swerve or on Darby for the first time? They should be beating Jon Moxley and not Bryan Danielson.

So yes, I completely see how Moxley triumphant on this night makes sense, and opens far more doors. I just don’t feel like playing Final Countdown in Spokane, Washington is all you need to make this as important as it was for Sting at Revolution earlier this year.

The Dragon will fight another day. Maybe.

Winner: Bryan Danielson

In the words of Ian Riccaboni? Happy Wrestling everyone.

Photos by All Elite Wrestling

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