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When AEW held All In London 2023, the expectations were at an all time high for the company. They sold over 70,000 tickets for a show that nobody really seemed that happy with. It ended up a show people talked less about the main event and more about CM Punk having a temper tantrum and getting himself fired.
All In London 2024 would be an improvement on the card quality but would sell a lot less tickets at only a little over 46,000. It was a much better show with a great main event and several strong matches, and at least went through without an old star wetting his pants while his most loyal fans tongue the ground in hopes they can enjoy the drips. The main event, with Bryan Danielson winning the AEW Men’s World Championship after defeating Hangman Adam Page in the 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, was pretty controversial. The biggest match AEW had in their chamber was Page versus Swerve, and they sacrificed having the title on the line for it to instead give Danielson his big moment before retiring from full-time wrestling.
We still got a great match between Page and Strickland at All Out a few weeks later, but it certainly set in motion an uneasy feeling for the company. 2024 was the Dream Match Era of AEW, coined by the Trish and Sarah Podcast, where having great matches mattered more than great stories. Jon Moxley would beat Bryan Danielson for the championship at WrestleDream and set in motion a new era.
It took some time for that era to really get going, a lot of bumps in the road, and a January 2025 so bad it might go down as one of the worst for AEW in terms of vibes and enthusiasm for the product.
That down period was essential for the road we’re now at. AEW President Tony Khan was getting a hard lesson that he couldn’t keep trying to repeat the retirement of Sting with diminishing returns. The worst of which was Jeff Jarrett proclaiming he was going to become AEW Men’s World Champion (he now pretends he never said that and said any title) only to have a terrible match with Claudio Castagnoli and his story with MJF killed without mercy. All of the old stars at the top of the show was a bad sign for the company.
Tony learned the lesson. He moved off of Chris Jericho and Cope. He de-emphasized Dustin Rhodes. Jeff Jarrett essentially disappeared. Focus instead went to the likes of Swerve Strickland, Will Ospreay, and Hangman Adam Page. The way it always should have been.
Meanwhile, the women would get better and better, and decided to pull the trigger on the biggest match they could possibly promote. I do wish it got the main event, even if I understand why it didn’t. During those dark days in January? Timeless Toni Storm was the best part of the show. The one light leading us through a dark time.
The greatest lesson learned was to stop the suffocating heat. I’m sure if you read me on GrapPro (donate if you can!) you are tired of me bringing it up, but there was a booking philosophy at the time in which it was okay if the good guys were beaten down week to week. That isn’t the case anymore. Heels can win, but not to the point where all hope is lost. Maybe it’s the world around us that makes us not want this sort of booking anymore, but the reality is that AEW is better when you have something to believe in. Something to hope for. It’s better when wrestlers in their prime are fighting other wrestlers in their prime. You can’t just throw heat on top of heat. And when you do have a heat segment, like Kenny Omega getting attacked by Kazuchika Okada? It means more if it’s one major segment instead of one after another.
AEW is now having one of its best runs of all time. All In Texas may only draw around 25,000 compared to the shows in London, England, but the vibes going into it are far better than they were for the past two All In events. It actually feels like this is the biggest show for AEW this year because the stories and matches feel the biggest. We’re out of the Dream Match Era. It’s not enough to look good on paper.
Just look at Kazuchika Okada versus Kenny Omega. They could have just written it down and left it at that. Instead, it’s now interwoven with storyline. It’s a continuation of Don Callis trying to ruin Kenny Omega for no longer needing him. It’s Kazuchika Okada not being satisfied with simply beating Kenny. He needs to be the one to end his career. This isn’t just going to be a wrestling match. It’s going to be a war.
Up and down the card are wars. Jon Moxley ended the Dream Match Era. We are now entering the Colosseum of All Elite Wrestling. Moxley and the Death Riders? They won. They changed AEW into a competitive atmosphere. It’s harder to get on the show. You have to be a top wrestler in ring. It’s not good enough to sometimes cut good promos and pose. It’s not good enough to live off your past reputation and have a cool look. The debuts of Josh Alexander, Speedball Mike Bailey, and Thekla present a new standard for AEW. The same standard I talked about when I started GrapPro.
This Momentum Shift has thankfully carried from post-Dynasty to today. It’s all come to the biggest show of the year. Unlike 2023 and 2024, it’s not the biggest show merely because it’s in a stadium. It’s not the biggest show because over 40,000 people are attending. It’s the biggest show because everyone is looking forward to it. It’s built up to be a great show for AEW fans. For the ones who watch each week.
For the sickos.
I feel more confident in the future of AEW than ever before because they now know how what their fans want. They want great wrestlers, great wrestling, great weekly shows, great stories, something to believe in, and something to remember. AEW fans want AEW to be the primary concern of AEW. Not who is counter booking them. Not who left. Not who is a free agent. AEW. The product they watch.
Y’All In Texas feels like Revolution 2020.
Y’All In Texas feels like All Out 2021.
Y’All In Texas feels like Forbidden Door 2023.
But it also feels unlike those shows. It’s not restoring the feeling. It’s creating a new feeling. It’s about AEW in 2025. It finally feels like looking forward means more than looking behind.
AEW All In Texas
Zero Hour
On YouTube
Eight Wrestler Tag
Hologram, Big Boom! A.J., Tomohiro Ishii, and Kyle O’Reilly vs The Don Callis Family
It looks like the Don Callis Family will be Lance Archer, Hechicero, Rocky Romero, and Trent. It’s too bad Josh Alexander wasn’t able to find a way to slip in. Hopefully he will be in the Casino Gauntlet instead.
It’s great to see Kyle O’Reilly faction hopping back into The Conglomeration. That man loves to associate with boomers.
The visuals of Tomohiro Ishii with The Rizzler are just incredible. I mean look at them!
Winner: The Rizzler (or rather, Team Rizzler)
Tag Team Rematch
FTR vs The Outrunners
Should FTR have been added to the three way to make it a four way?
I say no.
I think there’s an important reason FTR isn’t in the match, but The Patriarchy is.
I think FTR works this match, win lose or draw it doesn’t matter. I just figure they are winning because I think they will be AEW World Tag Team Champions very soon.
The point is less about getting them on the show and more about reminding people they exist.
Does this sound like something you do for your future tag team champions? Ideally no, but Hangman Adam Page is in the main event when he wasn’t on Dynasty.
AEW absolutely wants to keep FTR and Hurt Syndicate separate. They don’t want them existing in the same universe. I don’t know if it’s an ego thing or just AEW realizing you can’t have FTR outclassing them in ring, but it’s pretty clear they belong in different worlds.
I think the plan is that the moment Hurt Syndicate drops those tag titles? That’s when FTR comes into the picutre. And they are going to enter it fast. If Jetspeed or The Patriarchy win the tag titles? They will be losing them very quickly to FTR. I don’t know if they even make it to Forbidden Door.
So treat this as a, well, treat. You get FTR mad and boiling they gotta deal with The Outrunners again. Maybe it doesn’t seem ideal, maybe you think I’m making excuses. We will find out soon enough if I’m right.
Winner: FTR
8 Wrestler Tag
The Sons of Texas versus Shane Taylor Promotions
It only make sense to have the Von Erich’s on Y’All In Texas.
Ross and Marshall, with their father Kevin, team up with the ROH Tag Team Champions Sammy Guevara and Dustin Rhodes. Dustin just so happens to also be Six Man Tag Champions with Ross and Marshall.
It’s too bad this isn’t a six man tag match since I would have loved to see Shane Taylor Promotions win the titles. Then again, there’s no way the Von Erich’s are losing in Texas. What am I thinking?
The Infantry already lost to the Sons of Texas (Dustin and Sammy) at ROH Supercard of Honor so what’s one more loss anyway? It’s too bad because I like Shane Taylor Promotions and really think it’s time to give them some shine in ROH. Lee Moriarty does have the ROH Pure Championship and has been having what I feel, aside from Athena, is the best reign in the promotion. But I’d like to see Shane Taylor with The Infantry win that Six Man Tag gold.
That said, this will be more about paying tribute to the Von Erich legacy, and likely also tribute to Dustin Rhodes, who signed a six year extension with AEW. It’s great to see him stay with the promotion, but after Texas? It’s time for the Sons to drop those titles. You get your moment in the sun here and then it’s over.
Winners: The Sons of Texas
AEW All In Texas
Saturday, July 12
Globe Life Field, Arlington, Texas
Only on PPV
Women’s Casino Gauntlet Match
Winner Receives Future AEW Women’s World Championship Match
Click Here to Read the Match Preview
You know what would make me the happiest AEW observer?
The return of Riho.
I don’t know if she’s 100% yet or if she’s also having VISA issues but gosh I miss Riho.
I’m sure there will be other returns in this and maybe a debut or two (if Tony Khan told me I had to sign a free agent that was recently in WWE? I’d go with either Isla Dawn or Jakara Jackson) but the focus on this match will probably end up on Thekla, Athena, and Alex Windsor. I’m assuming all three will be in the match.
Thekla hasn’t set the world on fire in her debut but she has been a decent addition to the roster. There’s no real need to push her straight to a guaranteed title shot and she’d work better in earning it. Alex Windsor will get a very good set up but as a babyface I don’t see her facing Toni Storm down the line. That’s why I think this ones ends up going to Athena, who can get a big win in her home state of Texas and properly transition to the AEW main roster again. I was hoping Thunder Rosa beat Athena for the ROH Women’s World Championship so Athena could focus 100% on AEW after winning this, but honestly? Don’t know why I care so much. It’s not like Bandido hasn’t been able to work both promotions fine.
Winner: Athena
Men’s Casino Gauntlet Match
Winner Receives Future AEW Men’s World Championship Match
Click Here to Read the Match Preview
I expect there to be a bunch of returns here instead of debuts.
Again, if Tony Khan is twisting my arm and telling me to pick a guy to debut, and I can’t just go with the guy I’ve wanted in AEW for quite some time (Fabian Aichner, since he wouldn’t get much of a reaction at all and instead should sign to ROH) I would go with Eddy Thorpe. I think enough AEW fans would know him as Karl Fredericks in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
But what about the returns? Oh there’s so many. You got Adam Copeland, Keith Lee (Texas native), Jack Perry, Orange Cassidy, Jay White, Juice Robinson, Brian Cage, Wardlow, HOOK, Ortiz, Matt Sydal, heck maybe even Eddie Kingston!
But there’s one guy everyone is expecting to return. His name is Darby Allin. And he might return here, or he might return in the main event. Either way? I don’t think he’s winning.
I think this match will be for Maxwell Jacob Friedman to win. He can then go into the trios division with the Hurt Syndicate until it’s time to cash in that title shot against the next AEW Men’s World Champion. Get his rematch. Try to avenge his loss. And finally, finally, give us the match we were supposed to get at All Out 2021.
Winner: Maxwell Jacob Friedman
AEW World Tag Team Championship
3 Way
The Patriarchy versus Jetspeed versus The Hurt Syndicate (c)
Click Here to Read the Match Preview
I’ll lay some of my cards out right now.
I can absolutely see Jetspeed winning this match without Bobby Lashley or Shelton Benjamin pinned. Specifically, I can see Christian Cage getting pinned.
Due to him getting pinned, I can see The Patriarchy turning on Christian Cage for losing the match. I also see FTR coming out to destroy Christian Cage. And it’s that loss that leads to Adam Copeland running out and saving his estranged friend. And that leads to Cage and Cope as a tag team for one last run, to take on Patriarchy, before taking on FTR at All Out 2025 in Toronto.
As for the Hurt Syndicate? I’m sure they go terrorize the Trios division for a bit and step up to The Opps, which wouldn’t be the way I’d want to see the Trios division going but it’s the way it probably will if Hurt Syndicate does drop here.
Would Jetspeed be the best tag team in AEW? No, but I think they lose those titles quickly to FTR, who is the best tag team in AEW and the world right now. This is all about getting it from Hurt Syndicate to FTR.
Winner and NEW AEW World Tag Team Champions: Jetspeed
TNT Championship
Kyle Fletcher versus Adam Cole (c)
Click Here to Read the Match Preview
I honestly already laid it out in my Match Preview. Kyle Fletcher should win the TNT Championship from Adam Cole. Fletcher should then proceed to defend the TNT Championship every other week on Collision or Dynamite. The weeks he doesn’t should be the week the TBS Championship is defended. Fletcher is more than capable of handling that schedule, and I hope he gets the opportunity to.
I’m happy for Adam Cole, but it’s time to go back to doing what you do best: trios matches with Paragon. The trios division needs you more than the TNT.
Winner and NEW TNT Champion: Kyle Fletcher
AEW Trios Championship
The Opps vs Death Riders and Gabe Kidd
It makes sense to run this at AEW All In but until PAC returns? This should be the end of the Death Riders in the Trios division. Gabe Kidd is a very good replacement since it can work into Forbidden Door and whatever Gabe ends up doing representing New Japan Pro Wrestling.
However, I have far more excitement thinking about how once this program is over? We can actually have Trios matches on TV that can matter. Trios Championships that actually get defended.
I discussed earlier my hope for the TNT and TBS Championship. Essentially, one week is a TNT Championship match and the other week is a TBS Championship match. Let me go one further. TNT and Trios should usually be defended on Collision. So the week that there’s a TNT Championship match? There should be a Trios match on Collision to decide the next contender for the Trios Championship. When the TBS Championship is being defended on Dynamite the next week? The team that won the week prior gets their Trios shot on Collision.
So essentially, every Collision has a championship bout either opening or in the main event. Every week it’s either the TNT or the Trios.
This will allow a plethora of teams to get time on TV and get a Trios shot. Paragon, Shane Taylor Promotions, Ricochet and the Gates, The Conglomeration, potentially three Don Callis teams, Dustin Rhodes and the Von Erich’s, the newly formed Sky Flight, Hurt Syndicate, Planet Jarrett, Dark Order, Bang Bang Gang, The Learning Tree, The Patriarchy, Garcia and 2point0, LFI, MxM Collection with Johnny TV, heck give The Frat House a shot too! Okay maybe not.
You get the point. I just named 19 trios teams that could potentially be on TV to either lose a contender match or get a shot at The Opps. And, oh yeah, Opps are winning this match. It’s time AEW start utilizing it, and utilize them on a regular basis.
Winner: The Opps
Tag Team Match
EVP Status versus One Year of Shots
The Young Bucks versus Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay
Click Here to Read the Match Preview
Boy, this one can surely go either way can’t it?
If the Young Bucks lose the EVP status it doesn’t really mean much to their careers. They just lose a gimmick that’s a bit long in the tooth anyway. I much prefer the Founding Fathers gimmick and aesthetic and hope they keep that up instead. I also think they need to start thinking about working as babyfaces down the road.
Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay are top babyfaces in the company, and taking away their ability to wrestle for the AEW Men’s World Championship would be a good way for one of them to instead move into trying for the AEW Unified Championship. Would they stick together as a tag team? Would they break up in feud? Who turns heel? Tough to say.
Most seem to be leaning to them losing the match and losing their shot. I’m going the other way. I think they win in an incredible match, which keeps the Young Bucks out of the top of the tag division, and allows Will and Swerve to still stay in the mix. It just makes no sense to me for Swerve to turn heel on Will Ospreay and be a heel who can’t face his ultimate rival for the AEW Men’s World Championship. It also wouldn’t make sense if he was just moping about for a year about it while Ospreay just rides the train to the title at All In 2026 back in London, England. That’s a lot of losing for Swerve to do.
Swerve and Will get the win, we kill the EVP gimmick forever, and the company can go back down the road of embracing The Elite instead of hating them.
Winner: Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay
AEW Unified Championship
Winner Takes All
Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada (c) versus International Champion Kenny Omega (c)
Click Here to Read the Match Preview
I’m choosing Okada to win.
I’m not just choosing him to win because he’s one of my favourite guys. I’m choosing him to win because I don’t think Kenny Omega can handle the schedule of a top tier champion anymore.
Maybe this is his swan song in that regard, and that would make sense. His one last run before being a part-time wrestler. But if that was the case? I’d rather he lose and challenge Hangman Adam Page while Page is champion to get that one last big match between them.
Instead, I think Okada becomes Unified Champion, building his aura even greater in questioning just who can possibly stop him as the Unified Champ. If the AEW Men’s World Champion is soon to be the top babyface? Only makes sense to make the secondary title held by a top heel. That said, as I’m now aware, winning the Unified Championship doesn’t stop you from being Continental and International Champion. All the more reason to go with Okada, who can handle the Continental Classic in November.
Winner and NEW AEW Unified Champion: Kazuchika Okada
AEW Women’s World Championship
Mercedes Moné versus Timeless Toni Storm
Click Here to Read the Match Preview
It’s so tough to choose a winner here.
Do you go ahead and make Mercedes Moné the champion of everything? Give her all the gold so she can slowly drop it all? Or do you have her get this close to the top of the mountain, this close to being the champion of everything, only for Timeless Toni Storm to stop her in her tracks?
You can really go either way. I think Toni deserves the opportunity to build something up against someone other than Mariah May, and in losing this it’ll feel like she goes back to square one. Mercedes can still go back to the TBS Championship, and quite possibly another championship (someone needs to face Sareee at Forbidden Door right?) should she still want gold. You can also have this loss slowly unravel Mercedes to where she has no gold. Mercedes is fantastic as a heel, but one day she should be the babyface AEW Women’s World Champion.
My prediction was Athena winning the Casino Gauntlet, and I think she could face either woman after. But I still lean Timeless to win here.
Winner: Timeless Toni Storm
AEW Men’s World Championship
TEXAS DEATH
Hangman Adam Page versus Jon Moxley (c)
Click Here to Read the Match Preview
I was never as pessimistic as other AEW fans. I didn’t think it was impossible or unlikely for Hangman Adam Page to get back to the top of the company.
I guess I just never thought he’d do it like this. As a babyface. As the face of the company again. I always thought it’d have to be as a heel.
The plan was for this match to be Darby Allin climbing to the top of the mountain in AEW and facing Jon Moxley. The one AEW Original who has never got to the peak and gets there by beating his toughest opponent. It was a perfect story. Unfortunately, personal life got in the way. Fortunately, personal life got in the way.
I still think Darby Allin will be AEW Men’s World Champion soon, but it’s now Hangman’s time. It’s absolutely his time. The way the crowd is connecting to him, the way they turned him from evil to good, the way he found redemption.
In a funny way, I see Hangman Adam Page’s win here to be less like his win in 2021 and more like Jon Moxley’s win at Revolution 2020. Only this time there’s no pandemic to keep the people away. Hangman is graduating from the first time champion to the battle tested face of the company. This is, in some way, Jon Moxley passing the torch to Hangman Page to be the leader of the company.
I said a lot about Moxley’s reign in the preview but I want to give him credit for pivoting from the suffocating heat of January. Moxley tried to force an 80s classic heel heat of just piling it on and on and the crowd wasn’t having it. He didn’t keep forcing it. Instead, Death Riders started to take losses, and started giving their opponents hope before taking it away. And now, we have a situation where Mox has lost all of his tricks. He has only fate to face.
The Opps. Will Ospreay. Unable to trust the Young Bucks or Gabe Kidd. No PAC. Marina Shafir won’t stop Adam Page like she has stopped others. TEXAS DEATH takes away playing around the rules. The only question mark I have, the only way I could see Jon Moxley surviving this? Is if Swerve Strickland still isn’t over Hangman Adam Page costing him at All In 2024 in London, England.
Moxley wanted an Original to step up. An original has stepped up. In defeating Jon Moxley, Hangman Adam Page can become what Moxley was for AEW back in 2020. He can be that shining light to get them out of a dark time. That’s what passing a torch is all about. It doesn’t end the Death Rider Era either as I’m sure going forward Page will be championing stories and conflicts over on paper dream matches.
Winner and NEW AEW Men’s World Champion: Hangman Adam Page
Road to Forbidden Door 2025
If this show goes the way I hope it goes? It will feel like a new era for All Elite Wrestling. And this time? It won’t just be a cheap slogan.
Having Timeless Toni Storm and Hangman Adam Page stand tall as the top two champions of the company will truly feel like a new era for AEW that’s all about sticking to the plan, being your true self, and connecting with the audiences. It didn’t start July 12. It started post Dynasty, and has been going on since. We’re in that era now. All In 2025 just establishes it permanently.
There’s a lot of work that went into changing the momentum of the company from where it was early in the year. There’s also still a lot of work to do. The Trios division and Tag Team divisions both still need some work. We need to see the TBS and TNT Championships defended on a regular basis again. As wrestlers return from injuries and hiatuses they need things to do. As some get cycled out, they need to still be given something to do to not feel lost in the shuffle.
It’s kind of funny to me because a lot of people dismiss 2021’s momentum as being about the debuts in the end of summer. Dismiss is the wrong word. I just think not enough give credit to what AEW had been building prior to CM Punk, prior to Bryan Danielson, prior to Adam Cole.
That progress was built off the back of Kenny Omega versus Hangman Adam Page. It was a strong heel who had essentially hijacked AEW and was protected by layers of grunts. It was all about the babyface looking to rise to the occasion and finally topple the Best Bout Machine and take the AEW Men’s World Championship. Here we are, four years later, and we’re seeing it again this time with Jon Moxley as king of the land and Hangman once again the liberator.
But we know what happened in 2021. AEW was riding an incredible high, brought in big time names, and that high didn’t continue. It didn’t continue because they got distracted by all the new things they had instead of sticking to what got them all that momentum and progress.
Now in 2025, there’s no real fear of that. The company has a pretty established roster. There’s no big names to jump over really. They know who their stars are going forward. Maybe they screw up some storylines or lose themselves in other ways, but I don’t think the problems of 2021/2022 are here to be repeated. If there’s issues? They will be new issues to learn from.
After Globe Life Field and Y’All In Texas, AEW will be leaving domestic and going back to London, England only this time for Forbidden Door. It felt like we might get Katsuyori Shibata versus Hirooki Goto for the IWGP World Championship but Goto went down to injury. It’ll be interesting to see how that changes, and what matches we end up getting. Can NJPW and AEW repair the fractured relationship between Kota Ibushi and New Japan? Does Mercedes Moné, after losing to Toni, switch gears and try to become IWGP Women’s Champion again and face Sareee in a dream match?
I’m sure the fact they are in London will mean we get big matches involving the Brits like IWGP Global Champ Gabe Kidd, IWGP World Champion Zack Sabre Jr., and Will Ospreay. I’m curious if they go the route of someone like David Finlay facing Hangman Adam Page, or if they do something spicier like Yota Tsuji or Shingo Takagi taking on Hangman.
A lot of fun choices could be made. Then we’re off to All Out, no longer in Chicago, and instead in Toronto. Pretty pumped since I’ll be at All Out.
In the words of Ian Riccaboni? Happy Wrestling everyone.
