AEW All Out 2026

AEW All Out 2026

Chicago, IL - September 2026

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into the show, Will Ospreay was the AEW World Champion, Mercedes Mone was the Women's Champion, Adam Copeland and Christian held the AEW World Tag Team Champions, the TBS Champion was Persephone, the TNT Champion was Darby Allin, the Continentnal Champion was Jon Moxley, the National Champion was Andrade El Idolo, The Brawling Birds (Jamie Hayter and Alex Windsor) held the Women's Tag Team Championships, Kazuchika Okada was the International Champion, and Swerve Strickland and The New Level (Kofi and Xavier Woods) were the Trios Champions.

The show kicked off with a very good PAC vs. Andrade El Idolo match for Andrade's National Championship. They worked a bit of a start/stop pace in the opening 10 minutes of the match, letting things breathe a bit more than you might see in a typical AEW TV match where the wrestlers are working around commercial breaks and there are greater time constraints. I really liked Marina Shafir's involvement as she has become a great heat magnet. I also thought it was really wise of TK to put this match first as the build-up wasn't particularly memorable and this benefitted from a crowd that was still fresh and very excited for the show. Author's Note: I wrote my review of this match less than 6 hours before I read the tragic news of the passing of PAC. I decided against revising my (admittedly) brief review because I feel like it would be disingenuous to go back and add thoughts and reflection that I did not have "in the moment." I didn't "fix" my rating. The match was good, borderline great. Many PAC matches were. The guy was an incredible wrestler. (3.5/5)

Darby Allin and Steve Borden followed this up by taking on the Don Callis Family's Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight. I try not to skew my ratings towards booking, but its curious to me why Fletcher and Knight have been paired together as a new team when you could run this exact same story with the much more polished pairing of Aussie Open. Anyway...Fletcher continued his streak of very good performances and Darby Allin did the same, taking some absolutely awesome bumps. Darby Allin is a cheat code at this point as he is seemingly incapable of not giving 110% and making a match memorable just with his willingness to take punishment. Unfortunately, this match will be remembered for its non-finish as Steve Borden and Kevin Knight attempted a double coast-to-coast move ala Ricochet and Logan Paul from a few SummerSlams ago. While I'm sure Borden practiced the move, whether it was his nerves, slippery ropes, or just bad luck, he landed hard and seemingly suffered a concussion, ending the match by referee's decision (the W awarded to Fletcher and Knight). I wasn't sure if the injury was legit but 18 or so hours later, I haven't read differently. To be honest, I'm not unhappy with the outcome as I'm not sure Darby and Borden should be challenging for the AEW World Tag Team Championships anytime soon considering how green Borden is. While he throws a good right hand and a decent dropkick, Borden is a work-in-progress while Fletcher and Knight, if they're meant to be a credible, legitimate team, shouldn't necessarily be losing to a comparatively unseasoned pairing. For what this was before the unfortunate accident, this was no less than good simply because of Darby and Fletcher being so reliably excellent over the past few years. (2.5/5)

Persephone, with Britt Baker, came out for her TBS Championship Open Challenge and her opponent was...Dani Luna? I'm guessing that TK was counting on the crowd being "up" after what I presume would've been an Allin/Borden victory, but that was not the case and the Chicago audience - as well as the audience at home - probably expected someone with a bit more of a "name" to be Persephone's opponent. At first, from the entrance graphics, I thought it might be Mina Shirakawa (which also would've been a letdown) and I had heard rumors that it might be a returning Ruby Soho (which may not have yielded a match as good as this one, but probably would've gotten a bigger reaction in the opening minutes), so it being the relative unknown in Dani Luna wasn't exactly the shot-in-the-arm the show needed. Persephone and Luna had good chemistry and delivered a good match, but the lack of crowd interest was noticable and the match's 15-minute runtime felt a bit long. Baker got some good heat on the outside with her interference, but she's got some work to do in terms of freshening her character if this new role is going to work and really make the pairing with Persephone a potential main event act for the division. (2/5)

Kazuchika Okada vs. Tommaso Ciampa for Okada's International Championship was next. The crowd was super hyped for this, which is somewhat surprising considering Okada's AEW run has been a bit uneven and Ciampa has never been a "main event" guy outside of his rightfully-adored feud with Johnny Gargano 10ish years ago (?). But, in front of this Chicago crowd, this was a "dream match" and it delivered exactly what it needed to, including a wonderful moment in which Ciampa's daughter gave Okada double birds. Hard-hitting, some excellent false finishes, lots of good counter-wrestling...it was all there. My only slight criticism may have been that the second half outshined the first, but that's not unccommon for an Okada match and I wouldn't consider the first half "bad" or boring. I also really liked the little nasty details they threw in with Okada grabbing Ciampa's beard and, later in the match, Ciampa biting down on Okada's finger. Another very good match, maybe just a bit short of "must watch." (3.5/5)

The Divine Dominion (Megan Bayne and Lena Kross) challenged The Brawlin' Birds (Alex Windsor and Jamie Hayter) for the AEW Women's Tag Team Championships in the next match. At All In: London, the Birds won the titles in front of a crowd that was primed for "feel good" moments involving their hometown heroes. I criticized the title change and thought the match wasn't too great, a bit too "back-and-forth" and formless. This match also leaned heavily into the parity of the teams, but added a metric ton of ridiculous bumps and weapon shots, so much so that I wondered how the "CLT match" later in the night could possibly top the violence that was on display here. Megan Bayne once again had a stand-out performance, the kind that makes me hopeful she'll get a sustained push as a singles star in the near future (though, with Persephone and Thekla also doing such good work recently, the division seems a bit overloaded with heels). Highlights included a great table bump on the outside, a barbwire board getting smashed through, thumbtacks being used for the finish, and Megan Bayne looking like the victim in a horror movie with all the crimson she was sporting. Thoroughly entertaining. (3/5)

The next match was the Trios Championship bout - Swerve Strickland, Austin Creed, and Kofi vs. "Hangman" Adam Page, Bandido, and Brody King. Not much to say here aside from this match being darn good. As always, Swerve and Hangman had incredible chemistry. Bandido did some insane strength spots on top of his usual awesome high-flying. Brody King did Brody King things. Austin Creed looked like he was having a blast, working the frenetic and frantic pace that I'm not sure he was ever allowed to do in the WWE where the pace tends to be slower and "video game wrestling" with lots of logic-defying spots and false finishes tend to be reserved for just the main event. The crowd was electric for this. I'm not sure what else these two teams can accomplish against each other because this match set such a high bar, but I wouldn't mind them doing a whole series of matches because this was a great fireworks show and I'd love to see what they might come up with to differentiate this match from future matches (whether that's building the match structure around an injury angle or going the No DQ route or putting it in a cage or whatever). I wasn't as high on this match as the fans over at Cagematch, where this one sits with a strong 9.33 rating, but I thought this was very strong if maybe a tad bit too "ridiculous" with some of the cooperation needed for some of the spots (for a couple examples, when Brody King essentially German Suplexed his own partner, who was also suplexing Kofi and Creed, there was an audible "count" before they hit the spot and, later on, Brody kicking out of a pin when he had all three of his opponents pressing down on him). (3.5/5)

Thekla vs. Willow Nightingale was next in a match to determine the Number One Contender for Mercedes Mone's AEW Women's Championship with the match scheduled for WrestleDream in October. This was the right kind of sloppy early, the kind where not everything is hitting but that lack of flawless execution makes it feel like a genuine fight. Highlights included Thekla hitting a double stomp to the back of Willow and then mocking her entrance, Willow applying a perfect cloverleaf that looked like it was bending Thekla in half and then turning it into a powerbomb (a spot that Excalibur noted was a shout-out to Andy "The Butcher" Williams RIP, Thekla working over both of Willow's hands (including the injured one, which was taped up), and Willow's cannonball to the floor followed soon after by a beautiful crossbody by Thekla that should remind people that you don't need to flip or flop to be a great high-flyer. The Chicago crowd was fairly split but it's obvious that Thekla is a borderline babyface at this point as, no matter how vicious she is, the crowd just loves the character. There were some small moments of telegraphy, but this was beautiful otherwise and they cut an insane pace without underselling any of the big moments. Willow bridged out of Thekla's spear, which led to Thekla doing the Spider pose in another great moment. Julia Hart showed up with Skye Blue right behind her, but Hart inadvertently struck Thekla with the belt for a very close nearfall. Willow couldn't get Thekla up for the Gut Wrench Powerbomb and then ate a stomp to her injured hand and then the back of her neck to end the match. This needed 4-5 minutes to be a show stealer but it was very, very good for what it was (and one has to assume that Willow's legitimate injury likely played a role in this only going 13 minutes. Mercedes Mone showed up afte the match in Chicago Bulls inspired gear (and a ludicrous mask). Terrific match for what it was. (3/5)

The 3-Way "CLT" Match - AEW couldn't promote it as a TLC match due to WWE owning the copyright - between Adam Copeland and Christian Cage, The Young Bucks, and FTR followed. FTR came out wearing custom "ceremonial" belts for some reason, which was odd and kinda confusing. Cope and Cage got a massive response from the Chicago crowd, who, despite the show entering its 4th hour - more if you include the "Tailgate" maches - were still super excited at this point. Anyway...this was loaded with table spots, ladder spots, and chair spots that were "almost like the ones in the 90s if you squint." I'm not advocating a return to unprotected chair shots but I'm not necessarily a fan of guys having to pause and aim for someone's back when it would make so much more sense to clobber them over the head. Fortunately, we know get to see guys getting put through chairs or crotched on the back support part but it is a bit obvious. Maybe they should just replace chairs with gimmicked trash cans? Cash Wheeler may have been the match's MVP because he flew into and through a whole bunch of furniture. Stokely's bump through "two" tables (he completely cleared the first) was another highlight. Really liked seeing Christian and Dax get some color to get over the grittiness of this match. Liked Adam Copeland sending the Bucks into the ladders the way he used to go into them back in the day. Just an overall very good, very entertaining match, but one that I did feel was missing some of the "nostalgia spots" that I went into it expecting and I think would've made it feel more historic and legacy-defining. (3.5/5)

Main event time - Will Ospreay defending the AEW World Championship against Jon Moxley. This was never going to live up to the all-timer that Ospreay and Omega put on at All In, but it was more about the story and the drama than the action. Moxley dominated the first half, punishing Ospreay with piledrivers and his usual violent tactics, targeting Ospreay's neck. He was forcing Ospreay to bring out the "killer" inside and when Ospreay did finally turn things around, the match's intensity peaked. Having the Death Riders interfere and then get taken out by the United Empire didn't have the same Avengers-esque feel as when we saw a similar crescendo of gang warfare at All In: Texas 2025, but that show was built so much more around Hangman's story of redemption/revenge against a dominant heel faction while this was more about Mox, whose now a pseudo-face (?), "passing the torch." I can see why people didn't love the histrionics of Mox essentially welcoming the Hidden Blade towards the end, but I wasn't as put off by it. The ref bumps and false finishes were a little bit more eye-rolling to me. This wasn't as bad as some of the previous Mox main events in 2024/2025, but it wasn't as good as Ospreay's better matches against opponents or the match they had at Dynasty earlier in the year. (3/5)

With a very respectable Kwang Score of 3.05-out-of-5, All Out 2026 didn't reach the heights of the previous month's All In show, but it was consistently good and most of the matches delivered. The unfortunate injury suffered by Steve Borden cut short a match that might've stolen the show while Thekla/Willow was just too short, period. 

FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote in Hand