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.
Mixed Tag Match Zero Hour
Kris Statlander and Stokely Hathaway vs Willow Nightingale and Tomohiro Ishii
There used to be a time where we would beg All Elite Wrestling to try to do more than one storyline with the women’s division at a time. The creation of the TBS Championship at least ensured there would be two. We now have three strong enough to make a pay per view, even if this is on the pre-show.
Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander have had a fantastic feud all things considered. Starting as a tag team of two likeminded powerhouses in the women’s division who both enjoyed time as champion and now needed something new, it made sense to work them against each other.
Kris Statlander’s heel turn wasn’t too surprising, though her affiliation with Stokely Hathaway was. You won’t find a better habitual line stepper than Stokely, who toed the line as a force of positive energy for Willow and Kris until the time was right to cross the line completely and finally drive the wedge between Kris and Willow.
I actually thought the plan might have been something different, like Stokely trying to split Kris and Willow up when in reality he had his own tag team in the waiting to take them out. I just couldn’t figure the vision of Stokely and Statlander together.
Now that we’ve seen it for a few weeks it makes all the more sense. Stokely is needy and annoying but he does it all in subservience to Kris Statlander. She’s still the focus, even if Stokely is using her for his own gain. She’s seen the light (or the darkness) the same way Trent Barreta did when he decided to align with the Don Callis Family. I would be remiss if I did not bring up that it’s pretty clear this was supposed to be Kris and Trent against Willow and Orange Cassidy and when Trent went down, it only made sense to shake it up.
Willow has essentially aligned herself with The Conglomeration, which is in a way the new Best Friends. It’s a bunch of babyface weirdos on the AEW roster coming together due to their strange positive energy. Tomohiro Ishii might seem like a strange addition to that if you only know him as the Stone Pitbull and all of his hard hitting matches in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Anyone who follows NJPW and actually knows the CHAOS faction knows he can be goofy in his own loveable way.
You can’t tell me this isn’t the perfect tag team!
The stakes of this mixed tag match is that the winning team gets to choose the stipulation for the upcoming Kris Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale match at AEW All Out two weeks after All In. If this was Kris and Trent it would be a bit more of a challenge, but Statlander has her work cut out for her in having to constantly protect Stokely Hathaway from the Stone Pitbull.
It’s a situation like this that might put things to the advantage of the babyfaces, but it isn’t hard to imagine that Kris and Stokely are going to prepare for this in some way and put some strategy in place to try to come with the victory.
I think this will generally be more of a comedy match than anything but it’s perfect to warm up Wembley Stadium before the pay per view begins. It also actually helps promote and develop the All Out card, which felt out of nowhere last year. This time we’re going to actually build to something for it.
I do wish Orange Cassidy (who will probably compete in the Casino Gauntlet) and Trent Baretta were in this to continue their story, but I’m sure once Trent is back that will pick back up. I’m still curious as to what Trent whispered to Kris Statlander which helped her turn her back against not just the Best Friends but Willow as well. Maybe there’s a little more darkness to Orange Cassidy we’re not going to be prepared for.
I don’t expect Statlander and Nightingale to be over anytime soon, but I do hope that once it is, we do see Kris Statlander face Toni Storm and Willow face a fresh turned Mariah May in the fall. You’ll notice I didn’t say who would have the AEW Women’s World Championship at that point.
