Welcome to the AEW All Out 2024 PPVPreview presented by GrapPro.com
We will be previewing all matches from the pay per view this week as they are announced.
To find all AEW All Out PPVPreview’s click here.
To find the AEW All In 2024 PPVPreview’s click here.
Chicago Street Fight
Willow Nightingale versus Kris Statlander
Pretend for a second you were a babyface wrestler who was betrayed by her best friend and has been beat up for weeks. These attacks have kept you from trying to get back into title contention, either revenge against Mercedes Moné or avenging your loss in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament final against Mariah May.
What stipulation would you choose for your big grudge match?
I don’t ask this to criticize the choice of a Chicago Street Fight necessarily. Willow Nightingale isn’t a dumb babyface. But there are… issues with choosing a street fight. Primarily the fact you are facing a heel in Kris Statlander with a devious manager in Stokely Hathaway. You even know they are big meanies.
Going with a no disqualification match against a heel when you’re not really an aggressively violent wrestler yourself kind of puts you in a disadvantage. Maybe Willow has a plan? Maybe she has The Conglomeration close by to make sure Stokely and Kris don’t pull anything. I would hope so because opening things up to the arena (and maybe outside the arena if they want to!) could spell trouble for Willow.
This match and stipulation comes out of the Zero Hour match at All In where Tomohiro Ishii and Willow Statlander (Team Hello Kitty) defeated Stokely Hathaway and Kris Statlander. However, the feud comes from Stokely Hathaway spending months trying to drive a wedge between Willow and Kris.
It was hard to tell what his true plan was. I thought he was looking to turn against both of them and maybe debut a tag team to face them (I was thinking Brickhouse Kamille would have been part of that) that more fit Stoke’s heel tendencies. Stokely raged on Willow after she lost the TBS Championship to Mercedes Moné which led Statlander to shove him down. Statlander carried Willow up the ramp only to turn around and whip her into the ramp.
Kris Statlander then removed a friendship bracelet and threw it down at Willow Nightingale. What is it with 2024 and friendship bracelets?
According to Stokely, the impetus about the feud is due to a four way match which Kris Statlander wanted to be the number one contender for the TBS Championship but Willow won the match. Statlander felt like she’s always just around to protect people instead of anyone having her back. Stokely having her back (to a degree) is essentially why she’s now listening to him and turned on Willow.
Hopefully this match is the final between the two because both do need to move on to new programs. I for one am quite glad AEW gave this program so much time and effort with no women’s championship revolving around it, and I hope the reward is for both to get said title shots in the near future. While it doesn’t work for Statlander to get a shot against Moné or Mariah to do all being antagonists, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time for a babyface to win one of those championships and for Kris to be front in line to knock them down.
As for Willow, she’s done the dance with Moné at Double or Nothing and she lost to Mariah May in the Owen Hart. I do think out of the two, Willow facing Mariah May for the AEW Women’s World Championship at something like WrestleDream sounds like a good way to go.
It’s also great to see that Stokely and Kris have good chemistry and Stokely’s finally found his spot as a heel in the company. I’ve been a fan of Stokely for years and thought it was a travesty how NXT used him as Malcolm Bivens. He’s had a bit of a shaky start in AEW, from the Matt Hardy feud to The Firm to his role as a Ring of Honor Board Member but being Statlander’s manager is exactly what he is meant for.
Looking forward to this match and where both go afterwards.
