With the off-the-charts advance sales for “All In,” Tony Khan didn’t need the year of build that Vince McMahon uses for his WrestleMania shows to get the butts in the seats.
Khan, though, did need a show worthy of the stadium.
The card that he’s put together is worthy of the 80,000-plus that will be in Wembley on Sunday.
Top of the card
Starting at the top: MJF will defend the AEW world title against his tag-team partner, Adam Cole, with us having really no idea how the booking will go.
I mean, I’m expecting MJF to retain, because it seems to stand to reason that Khan wants to get us, eventually, to MJF-CM Punk.
But how we get there – does MJF turn on Cole, his new life-long buddy; does Cole turn on MJF, maybe reform the Undisputed Elite with Roddy Strong, perhaps a returning Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish?
The finish for Punk-Samoa Joe seems like it would trend toward Punk, for the reason stated above – that Khan has to see his big-money match down the road being Punk-MJF to unify the world titles.
These guys met on “Collision” a few weeks ago, and the finish was a letdown – a rollup pin by Punk.
They can do better this time out.
The other match that has the bulk of my attention, and this one could be the match of the night – the match of the year – is the rubber match in the FTR-Young Bucks series.
I’m expecting the Bucks to put themselves over, perhaps with some sort of heel turn, to set up a rematch at the Sept. 3 “All Out” that would see them put the belts back on FTR.
The idea that FTR could perhaps go over with outside interference – cue Punk igniting an on-air feud with The Elite – is the wild card here.
Jewels in the midcard
I’m not a fan of three- and four-way matches. That said, I’m a fan of each of the participants in the four-way AEW women’s world title match, the champ, Hikaru Shida, and challengers Toni Storm, Britt Baker and Saraya.
The popular idea is that Saraya, the hometown favorite, will walk out with the belt.
I’m not so sure I’d go that way, personally.
Saraya is barely getting TV time. Things need to be working toward Storm vs. Baker eventually. They’re the stars of the division.
The other highlight match at this level is Will Ospreay vs. Chris Jericho.
Would much rather have seen Ospreay-Kenny Omega III here, obviously.
This one has to be Jericho exercising his backstage political power to get a featured bout.
Fillers
The best of the popcorn-bathroom matches is probably Sting/Darby Allin vs. Swerve Strickland/AR Fox.
However this one goes, we need to be moving in the direction of Strickland being a featured singles guy eventually, because that’s his fate.
The great heel tag team of Juice Robinson and Jay White (teaming with Konosuke Takeshita) are being wasted in a six-man match against Omega, Adam Page and Kota Ibushi.
That one will compete with the Stadium Stampede spotfest with the Blackpool Combat Club and mystery partners against The Best Friends et al for the match where you catch up with your social media feeds.
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Chris Graham
