All In London 2024 Preview

This Sunday, All Elite Wrestling returns to the United Kingdom for ALL IN: LONDON 2024 live on pay-per-view from Wembley Stadium! It’s an absolutely stacked card featuring eight championship matches, with the future of Bryan Danielson’s wrestling career hinging on the outcome of his AEW World Championship match with Swerve Strickland! We will also see an AEW Women’s World Title fight between “Timeless” Toni Storm and her former protégé, 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament winner, “The Glamour” Mariah May as well as Mercedes Moné putting her TBS Championship on the line against Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D!

Those three matches alone are enough to make this one of the biggest PPV’s in AEW history, but there is plenty more on tap including TNT Champion Jack Perry risking his title against Darby Allin in a Coffin Match, The Young Bucks defending the AEW World Tag Team Titles against both The Acclaimed and FTR, Will Ospreay coming home to try to end the AEW American Championship reign of Maxwell Jacob Friedman, FTW Champion Chris Jericho fighting 2-Time Champion HOOK in a rematch of their title fight several months ago, and a Casino Gauntlet bout to determine the next contender for the World Title with Orange Cassidy earning the #1 entrant into the fray!

The action begins at 6pm BST/1pm ET/10am PT live on pay-per-view, and fans can get prepared for the action by visiting the official AEW YouTube channel to watch highlights from DYNAMITE, COLLISION, RAMPAGE, as well as all the other action that’s led us to this evening inside Wembley Stadium! It’s the biggest night of the year for All Elite Wrestling, but that doesn’t mean the train stops rolling here, in fact AEW will be right back in action just three days later as we return to Champaign, IL for the first time since December 2019 for DYNAMITE as the focus shifts to ALL OUT 2024 on September 7th! 

AEW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Swerve Strickland(c) vs. “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson

September 9, 2023, COLLISION, the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, that night “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson told the world about the promise he made to his daughter, but he also promised that he would make his last year an epic one filled with kicking people’s heads in. To be frank, the last eleven months since Danielson made that declaration have been an incredible mix of highs and lows; he beat Ricky Starks in a Texas Death match a few weeks later, he beat Zack Sabre Jr. at WRESTLEDREAM 2023, and then earned a shot at TNT Champion Christian Cage at the expense of Swerve Strickland. Sadly he lost in that title bout, but Bryan entered into the 2023 Continental Classic slotted into the Blue League, and though he was an odds-on favorite to win the whole thing, Bryan lost to Eddie Kingston in the Blue League Semifinals. 

Bryan then had the opportunity to return to the Tokyo Dome for the first time in twenty years, taking part in his first WRESTLE KINGDOM in a rematch with Kazuchika Okada after Okada broke Danielson’s arm in their FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 bout months earlier, but it was “The Rainmaker” who left the Tokyo Dome victorious. He defeated the legendary Yuji Nagata on COLLISION, but ZSJ topped him in their NEW BEGINNING IN OSAKA rematch for NJPW. He topped another legend in Jun Akiyama two weeks later, but again lost to Eddie Kingston in their Continental Crown fight at REVOLUTION 2024. He had the opportunity to travel to CMLL for the first time alongside the Blackpool Combat Club, with Matt Sydal subbing for an injured Wheeler Yuta, but that first Arena Mexico experience ended in defeat. Bryan’s CMLL return a few days later saw him live out a dream by fighting, and defeating, Blue Panther, but that high was quickly diminished when Will Ospreay nearly crippled him with a Tiger Driver ’91 at DYNASTY 2024 en route to his victory over Dragon. 

That frightening situation kept Bryan out of action for several weeks, and even after he came back it was initially taking part in tag and trios bouts leading up to his participation in Anarchy in the Arena at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024. In fact prior to the beginning of the 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament, the only singles match Danielson had between DYNASTY 2024 and FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 was against Satnam Singh, and that went south in rapid fashion as Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal, and Sonjay Dutt inserted themselves into the fray.

Quite self-aware, Danielson recognized that the months since his announcement had not been the great run he’d hoped for but he was intent on using The Owen to change all that, especially seeing as how the winner of the annual tournament would earn an AEW World Championship match at ALL IN: LONDON 2024. Danielson had a hard road just getting to the finals, defeating former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Shingo Takagi in the Quarterfinal at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024, then “The Bastard” PAC just three days later on DYNAMITE, before overcoming Hangman Page in the finals with Jeff Jarrett serving as the special enforcer. In the aftermath of Bryan’s victory, as he sat down for an interview with Renee Paquette, we learned a few key things about his immediate future:

An August 1st expiration means he’s entering into Wembley Stadium without an AEW contract, and that AEW’s medical staff did not want Danielson competing at all until his August 25th championship bout with Swerve Strickland. That changed when Jeff Jarrett called him out for a fight, even more so when Jarrett upped the stakes of their DYNAMITE bout to an Anything Goes situation, and kicked off the entire thing by cracking a guitar across Danielson’s skull. Bryan won the battle against Jarrett, though it certainly wasn’t an easy task, and it demonstrated, at least to “The Last Outlaw”, that “The American Dragon” was ready to bring the kind of fight he needs to bring against a wrestler many consider the most dangerous in All Elite Wrestling at this moment: AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland.

Coming into this fight, Swerve’s fifth title defense since defeating Samoa Joe at DYNASTY 2024, the AEW World Champion has won his last fourteen singles matches, as well as his last seventeen bouts overall. Among those wins includes title defenses over Will Ospreay, Christian Cage, Roderick Strong, and Claudio Castagnoli, as well as victories over AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Konosuke Takeshita, and Kyle Fletcher, not to forget that Swerve also fought alongside Team AEW inside Blood & Guts just one month ago. 

There is no one in AEW on a stronger roll than Swerve Strickland is right now, and no one more willing to do whatever it takes to keep that momentum going, to keep that World Championship around his waist, and to remain at the top of the food chain in All Elite Wrestling. The fans may be behind Swerve, they may appreciate his tremendous in-ring abilities, but when it comes down to brass tacks, Swerve is going to do whatever he feels necessary to whoever he deems necessary in order to keep what he’s earned. He did it to Hangman and his family on the road to becoming AEW World Champion, and he did it just two weeks ago when he defeated Wheeler Yuta in their match, when he brought Bryan’s family into the conversation after the match, and when he delivered a House Call to Danielson’s head while Dragon’s back was turned and focus was on Yuta’s condition. 

While that attack was absolutely about reinforcing the message that Swerve won’t hesitate to take advantage of a situation, perhaps Swerve is also done seeing the flowers Bryan’s being given before he’s even left the stage:

Bryan certainly learned a lesson from Swerve with that House Call, which is why when Danielson hit the ring on Wednesday night in response to the World Champion’s threats, he immediately hit the Busaiku Knee and sent Swerve running to the floor. Prince Nana did his best to keep Swerve from entering back into the ring, and who knows what would’ve happened if he had gotten back in there with Bryan, instead he had to listen to Bryan and the fans share their last words on the subject:

So the stage is set, the future of Danielson’s professional wrestling career is on the line against the future of Swerve Strickland’s AEW World Championship reign. If Bryan loses, there is no transition to part-time competitor as he once planned, there is only permanent retirement, and Swerve has designs on making that the only option available to “The American Dragon”. He seems intent on not just beating Danielson at Wembley Stadium, but on ending his ability to ever again step inside the squared circle. Swerve doesn’t want to leave any glimmer of possibility that Bryan could ever step into the ring again, Swerve wants to end “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson as definitively as possible and do so before the eyes of the wrestling world, but more importantly, in front of the eyes of his family. 

The mistake Swerve was making, that any person questioning Bryan was making, was in thinking his attitude about ALL IN: LONDON 2024 was any indication of levity about the situation or a failure to realize its gravity. Unlike the vast majority of the men and women competing in AEW, Bryan has already seen the end of his career once before. He had to find a way to make peace with it then in order to survive, but he simultaneously fought against how unceremoniously it was ripped away. Bryan said every day since he clawed his way back has been a blessing, and those aren’t words spoken by a man taking this all lightly, but by one who has been here before, knows what it all means, and is at peace with the possible outcome of his decisions. 

But being at peace doesn’t mean just letting it happen, being at peace doesn’t mean just laying down for something that is far from inevitable, and that peace isn’t something easy to come by either. It’s twenty-plus years of traveling the world, living the dream, being a champion, finding the person who changes everything for you, creating the family that gives it all purpose and meaning, and discovering within yourself the place the ability to let that original dream go. “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson achieved that and thus found the ability to make peace with the possibility it could all be over tonight inside Wembley Stadium; so perhaps that makes him the most dangerous man in All Elite Wrestling right now because he’s reached that point in life that very few actually achieve. Yes Bryan wants to hold the AEW World Title before the sun sets on his wrestling career, it was the goal he first came into AEW with three years ago, but it doesn’t define him in the way it once did. He found like-minded souls in the Blackpool Combat Club, influenced countless individuals around the world both within the wrestling world as well as outside of it, and inspired a generation of wrestlers to try chasing their dreams. Most importantly, he’s made a family for himself, and they are his everything. 

All Swerve has that means anything to him is that World Championship; Christian Cage went after Strickland’s family ahead of their title fight and it really didn’t faze the champion, it didn’t change his willingness to do the same to others, it just illustrated that it’s not the weakness for Swerve that it is for others. That’s because the World Title is what he cherishes above all else, and that fundamental difference between Bryan Danielson and Swerve Strickland may be the only thing that keeps the career of “The American Dragon” alive beyond August 25, 2024…

AEW WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

“Timeless” Toni Storm(c) vs. “The Glamour” Mariah May

“The liar’s kiss that says I love you, but means something else. You’re good at giving such kisses.” – Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Gaby Rodgers’ Lily Carver character spoke those words to Ralph Meeker’s Mike Carver seconds before shooting him in the gut, but they as well have been spoken by Toni Storm to Mariah May just before “The Glamour” struck her with the Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament title belt she earned for winning the field. Each strike to Toni’s head with the heel of her own shoe was another betrayal by Mariah, a lie ripping apart each moment they’d shared since Mariah’s arrival in AEW late last year. The question was of course asked if this was Mariah’s play from the moment Toni Storm finally let her in, especially given that it took many months for the AEW Women’s World Champion to treat May as something more than just a fangirl. Mariah chased after Toni, a living embodiment of every fan stalking the hotel and waiting for acknowledgment by their favorite wrestler, while Toni treated her as as annoyance, so much so she couldn’t be bothered to watch Mariah’s initial matches inside the AEW ring. 

It wasn’t until Mariah began changing her appearance to one as identical as physically possible to Toni Storm’s classic look from before she even arrived in All Elite Wrestling. Mariah’s willingness to sacrifice herself for Toni’s success also drew them closer, and perhaps made “The Timeless One” comfortable enough to actually embrace Mariah’s presence in her life. The first time Toni Storm summoned Mariah May to her bosom it felt as if the distance Mariah had been kept at for the last several months was finally fading away. Then Toni Storm threw in the towel on Mariah’s behalf when she faced Serena Deeb, and that was not the happiest of moments as the winner of that match was set to face Toni Storm at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 in a title fight. The situation was nearly reversed on that pay-per-view when Mariah attempted to throw the towel in to save Toni Storm, but Luther (who’d always watched Mariah with a side eye) stopped it from happening, though to Toni the optics looked as if he was the one preparing to give up the ghost on Storm’s behalf.

Then there was the Mina Shirakawa situation, and that more than anything was the impetus for Toni Storm truly embracing Mariah May as her surrogate daughter. Seemingly afraid of losing Mariah to her former Stardom partner, Toni became the cheerleader for Mariah that she’d never before, encouraged her entry into The Owen despite it meaning the possibility of them fighting over the World Title down the line, and even begrudgingly worked with Mina, her FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 opponent, ahead of their title bout. In the run-up to that pay-per-view event, there even seemed to be a reversal of the power dynamic as it was Mariah summoning both Toni and Mina to her bosom, and the three women actually left UBS Arena together after Toni defeated Mina to retain the title.

After the stressors of possibly losing Mariah to Mina, of possibly losing the title to Mina for that matter, with Toni retaining the title and Mariah defeating Saraya to advance to the semifinals of The Owen, it seemed everything in the Timeless camp was copacetic for the first time in months. Mariah was being treated with the respect she deserved by Toni, looked upon as an equal rather than a subordinate even. Then AEW traveled to Calgary for The Owen Finals, and everything turned to bloody betrayal for the AEW Women’s World Champion…

What has been the most disturbing thing about the last six weeks since Mariah made her violent choice is how “The Glamour” has talked about the entire situation. She has genuinely expressed love for Toni Storm, appreciation for everything Toni Storm taught her, and that all of this is just the culmination of the lessons learned from Storm’s successes, the culmination of Mariah’s intent from the very beginning. It was never a matter of “if” but rather one of “when” this would happen, and Mariah made the most of the opportunity she created by winning The Owen. It shattered Storm’s heart, she didn’t even have the life in her to fight back during the assault, but in the weeks since there has been plenty of fighting, plenty of violence, and more than a fair share of emotional outpouring. Mariah telling the word in as cold a fashion as possible about her love for Toni while an emotionally eviscerated Storm openly weeps on stage while promising to end May’s life if that’s what it takes. It even exploded on Saturday during the ALL IN: LONDON CELEBRATION at Boxpark Wembley as Renee Paquette and RJ City interview “The Glamour”:

It all comes to a head today at ALL IN: LONDON 2024, the death of friendship, the rise of animosity, the violence and the pain and the tears and the heartbreak; at the core of it all, the 281-day AEW Women’s World Championship reign of “Timeless” Toni Storm. One year ago she left Wembley Stadium empty-handed, failing to dethrone Hikaru Shida as champion and instead watching Saraya achieve that dream, will Toni again fail on AEW’s biggest stage, or will this be the biggest blockbuster night of her career as she gets her revenge on “The Glamour” Mariah May?

AEW WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

The Young Bucks (Matthew & Nicholas Jackson)(c) vs. The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster) vs. FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood)

Since becoming AEW World Tag Team Champions at DYNASTY 2024, The Young Bucks have defended their titles exactly one time, just a week ago on DYNAMITE, despite having held the titles since April 21st. Though The Acclaimed were on the precipice of claiming the tag team championship for the second time, an attempt by FTR to actually help Caster and Bowens in the face of Elite cheating went south thanks to Dax Harwood’s temper. Matthew Jackson isn’t stupid, after all this time spent fighting one another, he knew Dax Harwood wasn’t going to respond well to being spat upon so that’s exactly what the EVP did to protect his title.

The #1 Contender match between FTR and The Acclaimed that went down on the subsequent edition of COLLISION was proof of why All Elite Wrestling boasts the greatest tag team division in professional wrestling, but its time limit draw finish did nothing to establish just who would challenge The Young Bucks at Wembley Stadium in a title bout. So the decision was handed down by AEW CEO Tony Khan that both FTR and The Acclaimed would have the opportunity at ALL IN: LONDON 2024. Now the last time the World Tag Team Titles were defended in a multi-team match was at FULL GEAR 2023 when Big Bill and Ricky Starks bested three other teams in a Ladder Match to retain. The last Three Way Tag Title bout went down almost two years ago when The Acclaimed defeated Private Party, as well as The Butcher & The Blade, in the very first defense of their 140-day reign, and The Young Bucks actually have some AEW experience in this situation, albeit not a positive one, as their second World Tag Title run ended after just twenty-eight days when Swerve In Our Glory defeated them in their first defense, a Three Way that also featured the Ricky Starks/Powerhouse Hobbs duo.

Between their two title reigns, FTR never experienced a Three Way defense, but what they do have is plenty of experience dealing with the defending champions over the last four years. From arriving on the scene back in 2020 to actually assist The Young Bucks to seeing their first title reign ended by the brothers Jackson at FULL GEAR 2020. In 2022, with FTR in possession of both the ROH World and AAA Tag Titles, Dax and Cash put both belts on the line during the April 6th DYNAMITE and managed to even the series with Matthew and Nicholas. It would be another sixteen months before the four men clashed in another tag team bout, and that AEW World Tag Team Championship match took place on the biggest stage All Elite Wrestling had ever presented, ALL IN: LONDON 2023! In front of the 81,035 fans in attendance, and countless more watching around the world, FTR defeated The Young Bucks in their rubber match, leading the brothers Jackson to walk out when Dax and Cash extended their hands in a sign of respect. 

That petulant act should’ve been a sign of things to come, but it would be several more months before fans saw Matthew and Nicholas Jackson for who they really are at their core, and that revelation, them finally embracing, then abusing, their status as EVPs within the company, that was who stepped into the ring at DYNASTY 2024 with FTR. That night, in their fourth tag team bout to date, The Young Bucks were able to climb the ladder to claim the vacant AEW World Tag Team Titles because that was the night “Scapegoat” Jack Perry returned to the fold and threw his lot in with The Elite. FTR has been chasing that fight ever since, entering into Anarchy in the Arena at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 to get their hands on The Young Bucks, and their spirits were willing to throw down inside Blood & Guts but their bodies were not quite up to the task at that moment.

That’s when The Acclaimed stepped up to the plate in defense of All Elite Wrestling, and though they’d been in the ring with The Young Bucks in the past, it had been three and a half years since their only tag team bout. All it took for Max Caster and Anthony Bowens to fall on the wrong side of The EVPs was for “The Greatest Wrestler Alive” to mention them in his raps, then suddenly they were cut from TV despite being on their way to the ring for a match, they were fined, but ultimately it led to The Acclaimed beating The Young Bucks in an Eliminator Match on the June 19th DYNAMITE, just unfortunate it took two months, a Trios fight at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024, and a Blood & Guts Cage match in order for Bowens and Caster to get what they’d earned. All that is what made the end result inadvertently caused by FTR all the more frustrating.

Then there’s the history of FTR and The Acclaimed; it’s not rich, by no means anywhere near the level of The Young Bucks and FTR, but they’ve been both ally and enemy during the course of their AEW careers. They stood together in opposition the mutual enemies in The Gunns and Swerve In Our Glory, but they also fought over the AEW World Tag Titles, then held by Bowens and Caster, and the defending champions left Cash and Dax quite frustrated that Boston evening. That’s all, just those two matches in the last two years, but what really lit the fire between these two teams was FTR questioning The Acclaimed’s ability to compete inside Blood & Guts. That was the point of escalation, and if the intent was to light a fire under Anthony Bowens and Max Caster before that violent spectacle, then mission accomplished, but it also raised the temperature between the two championship caliber teams, and created the hostile situation we’ve got on our hands heading into tonight’s AEW World Tag Team Championship Three Way. 

ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe was spot-on when he told both teams that them fighting is exactly what The Young Bucks want, and they really didn’t have to do much to make that happen. The egos and emotions of the two challenger teams has done all the work for them, but the question is if there will be rewards for The EVPs to reap at ALL IN: LONDON 2024, or if The Acclaimed and FTR can realize the common ground upon which they fight and take the brothers Jackson out of the equation before turning the fight to one another.

This is the best opportunity anyone has had to get the AEW World Tag Titles away from The Young Buck, away from the camp of The Elite, and to put them back into circulation where they belong. Be it FTR or The Acclaimed, if either of those teams win than a redemption tour for the tag titles will no doubt follow; they won’t be kept safe, secret, far from any possibility of being lost, but rather they will be defended, showcased, and presented as they should be given all the work teams like SCU, Hangman and Omega, FTR, The Acclaimed, and even The Young Bucks in their first reign, put into making them the most coveted tag championships in wrestling today. 

Wednesday night fans watched as FTR got a bit of a leg up when they, along with Darby Allin, defeated The Elite in Trios combat, but the arrival of The Acclaimed following the match demonstrated that even though they have a similar enemy in The Young Bucks, the animosity between FTR and The Acclaimed still runs deep, so if Cash Wheeler, Dax Harwood, Anthony Bowens, and Max Caster cannot get it together to focus on said common goal, then it may be another 100+ days before we see another World Tag Title match in All Elite Wrestling!

TBS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Mercedes Moné(c) vs. Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D

D.M.D versus CEO; that’s what we have today at ALL IN: LONDON 2024 with the TBS Championship in the mix as well, but it’s also so much more than that. These are two women who have been definitive forces in the landscape of Women’s Wrestling albeit in different fashions. Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D was the first woman signed to AEW five years ago, she can reasonably claim to be the face of the Women’s Division for much of that half-decade, a former Women’s World Champion in her own right, and involved in some of the most memorable matches in AEW’s history.

Moné is nine years and three days removed from one of the most important matches in Women’s Wrestling history, a Brooklyn bout that many look to as a game changer, that helped set the course for the near decade that’s followed. In the years since Mercedes has been engaged in many of the most memorable women’s matches in modern women’s wrestling, she’s expanded her name into the acting world, but the focus has always been on the wrestling. She has traveled around the country, and into Japan, to hone her skills, and when the opportunity came to expand her professional wrestling horizons, Mercedes arrived in New Japan Pro Wrestling at WRESTLE KINGDOM 17, eventually winning the IWGP Women’s Title and reigning as champion for 64 days before falling to Mayu Iwatani. She entered into the NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship tournament where, in the finals against Willow Nightingale, she suffered a serious ankle injury that played a part in Nightingale defeating her to become the first NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion.

That led to a nearly year out of action recovering from that injury, a time during which she officially joined All Elite Wrestling at DYNAMITE: BIG BUSINESS on March 13th. Her signing on with AEW had been speculated about ever since Mercedes was shown at ALL IN: LONDON 2023 watching the event, and it finally became reality in her hometown of Boston. Her arrival sent shockwaves through the Women’s Division, and two months after her debut “The CEO” captured the TBS Championship from Willow Nightingale, evening the score for their NJPW STRONG contest a year prior. Moné proved herself a fighting champion, defending the belt against Skye Blue just a few days after DON ’24, facing CMLL’s Zeuxis shortly after that, then defeating Stephanie Vaquer in a Title versus Title bout at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 to, at long last, take ownership of the NJPW STRONG Women’s Title.

It felt inevitable that the original face of the AEW Women’s Division would collide with “The CEO of Women’s Wrestling”, and after Mercedes’ victory at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024, that moment came to pass. But it was just a moment, the first real confrontation between the two took place during the subsequent DYNAMITE, and despite Mercedes saying it wasn’t going to happen, their fight was destined to come to fruition. Perhaps a concern about Baker’s ability to defeat her is what prompted “The CEO” to bring “The Brickhouse” Kamille to her side, an addition that has left the Good Doctor battered and bruised several times over the last few weeks. She certainly helped Mercedes defeat Hikaru Shida to insure “The CEO” was going to Wembley as the defending TBS Champion, and there is no doubt her presence at Mercedes side today at ALL IN: LONDON 2024 has the potential to sway the fight in The CEO’s favor.

At the biggest event of AEW’s year, this is one of the biggest fights that could possibly be presented to the AEW faithful, and it has rapidly turned into one of the most heated rivalries we have seen. It’s as much about the future of the Women’s Division as it is about claiming the TBS Championship!

TNT CHAMPIONSHIP COFFIN MATCH…

“Scapegoat” Jack Perry vs. Darby Allin

August 27, 2023 could not have been a more different experience for Jack Perry and Darby Allin. The latter got to stand at the side of “The Icon” Sting and battle it out with Christian Cage and Swerve Strickland in a Tag Team Coffin Match. The former failed to defend the FTW Championship against HOOK during ZERO HOUR, but that loss was overshadowed by far bigger concerns, issues that left Jack Perry absent from professional wrestling from August 28th until January 13th when he made his debut on the New Japan stage by assaulting Shota Umino. 137 days without a single match, but it would be another 98 days before the newly christened “Scapegoat” returned to the AEW stage, crashing the aforementioned Ladder Match between FTR and The Young Bucks to essentially hand the World Tag Team Titles over to Matthew and Nicholas.

Jack left an angry young man, one who felt frustrated by his failures and betrayed by the spotlight they’d fixed on HOOK rather than him, but he returned with a grudge against the whole of All Elite Wrestling, insistent that he and The Elite were the only ones willing to make the necessary sacrifices for All Elite Wrestling to be the best it could possibly be. In their minds that meant assaulting AEW CEO Tony Khan, it meant running roughshod over any wrestlers who challenged their authority, and when Adam Copeland went down with injury after retaining the TNT Championship at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 in a Barbed Wire Steel Cage Match, they also thought it meant simply bequeathing “The Scapegoat” the title without him having to earn it.

Luckily Tony Khan had other plans, and through Interim AEW EVP Christopher Daniels, it was communicated that FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 would host a Ladder Match to determine a new TNT Champion, but all six participants involved would have to win a qualifying match to participate. For Jack Perry that meant defeating “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes to earn his spot, and then actually earning his first AEW singles championship through hard work. Would the Ladder Match have had a different outcome if Darby Allin weren’t on the injured list at the time of FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024? That’s a hypothetical we will never be able to answer, but given the love Darby has for that particular championship, it’s safe to say he would’ve done everything in his power to make sure he was at least in the fight to claim it.

While he may not have been ready for that fight, Darby Allin was ready to jump into the fray at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 and compete alongside FTR and Bryan Danielson as they faced The Elite in Anarchy in the Arena. As exciting as it was to see Darby back in action, as much as Jack Perry suffered for it by being lit on fire, it was Allin who suffered the most as he was strung upside down and superkicked in the skull while The Young Bucks wore thumbtack-laced Reeboks. Darby was already dealing with a broken nose from being hit by a car while recovering from the broken foot sustained months earlier, and that vicious assault by Matt and Nick put him right back on the injured reserve for another two months.

Then came Blood & Guts, then came The Elite arrogantly laying out the challenge for Team AEW to meet them within those walls, thinking no one would step up to the plate given what had been done to Eddie Kingston, and how FTR had been taken out of the equation. Instead they got ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe stepping up, they got AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland defending his house, and as previously mentioned, they got The Acclaimed with their designs on The Young Bucks, as well as a desire to show they’re a far tougher team than they’d been given credit for. All that was left was the fifth man, and suffice to say it came as quite a shock when Darby Allin borrowed a page from his friend Sting’s playbook and descended from the ceiling to join Team AEW against The Elite.

The outcome of B&G came down to whether or not The Elite would sacrifice Jack Perry to a gasoline-fueled future or give Darby Allin a TNT Championship match as well as utter the words “I Quit” to give Team AEW the win. Turned out there are some things The EVPs weren’t willing to sacrifice, Darby got his title shot, Team AEW got the win, and The Elite disappeared from our TV screens for weeks. 

Darby stayed on his gring however, winning Royal Rampage two days after B&G to earn a World Title match at DYNAMITE: GRAND SLAM 2024 on September 25th, defeating Hangman Page on DYNAMITE one week after the cage, teaming with Hologram on COLLISION, just generally keeping in the fight while Jack Perry stayed away from TV and made videos. That is until last week on DYNAMITE when The Elite returned en masse… 

A Coffin Match: to date there have been four in All Elite Wrestling and all four have involved Darby Allin. He defeated Ethan Page on the 7/14/21 edition of DYNAMITE: FYTER FEST, on the 4/20/22 episode it was Andrade El Idolo he locked into the pine box, then on DYNAMITE: QUAKE BY THE LAKE four months later it was Brody King’s turn. Then, of course, there is last year’s tag team affair at ALL IN: LONDON 2023 that ended with Swerve Strickland trapped inside the coffin. History in these matches tilt very strongly in Darby’s favor, as does the limited match history between the two given that in both their singles matches, one of which took place under the auspices of AEW, it was Darby Allin who got the win. 

Yet those matches were not against the Jack Perry who stands in the ring today, those were against Jungle Boy, those were against a kid still quite bright-eyed in the wrestling landscape, not the man who viciously betrayed by both mentor and best friend, not this man who once buried Christian Cage at REVOLUTION 2023, not this “Scapegoat” who believes AEW betrayed him when he needed AEW the most, and who has convinced himself that he is the only one willing to sacrifice everything for what he believes AEW should be. The Young Bucks might say it, but it truly feels that Jack Perry believes it. 

So that being said, what will Jack sacrifice to keep the TNT Championship around his waist? We know Darby Allin will sacrifice his mind, body, and soul for that title, and for All Elite Wrestling, but what will Jack Perry give up to walk out of Wembley Stadium this year as a champion and not a pariah?

AEW AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

MJF(c) vs. “The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay

Two seconds; that’s all the time that was left on the clock when Maxwell Jacob Friedman pinned Will Ospreay at DYNAMITE 250 to claim the AEW International Championship. Just as he did at REVOLUTION 2023 when he defeated Bryan Danielson in their Iron Man Match, MJF found a way to pull victory from the jaws of defeat at the last possible moment and beat an opponent when most assumed he had no chance of victory. If it was any other human, or if it was done in any other fashion than how Max did it, it would be admirable to watch him overcome the odds. Instead it’s deplorable and worthy of derision as opposed to celebration, but that’s MJF in a nutshell, as talented a professional wrestler as we’ve seen, but one who repeatedly makes the choice to take the low road.

Just look at how he’s conducted business since defeating Will Ospreay; out of nowhere MJF turned into this ultra-jingoistic individual draping himself in the American flag, rechristening the International Championship as the American Championship, and essentially engaging in a smear campaign against England, Mexico, and anyone associated with “The Aerial Assassin”. To MJF’s credit, he was the first man in the history of the International…American…Championship to take it to Mexico and defend it, beating  Templario at CMLL’s SUPER VIERNES event on August 2nd. He also took the title to RevPro’s SUMMER SIZZLER 2024 event on August 11th in London, the first time the title had been defeated out of North American in six months, and bested Michael Oku. All of this just reinforced what we’ve always known about MJF, fantastic wrestler but terrible human, and his insistence on denigrating everything outside of the United States has just made him that much worse. It’s not as if Will Ospreay is running around trashing the ills of the USA like 1997 Bret Hart reincarnated, quite the opposite in fact as he’s shared with the world everything he loves about this country and why he chose an American-based wrestling company as the place to ply his trade. Ospreay loves America with the same fervor he loves his home country, with the same fervor he loves professional wrestling, whereas MJF is just using this faux-patriotism the same way he’s used everything and everyone else, save Adam Cole, throughout his career. 

Perhaps it’s Wembley that’s brought out this increasingly terrible aspect of MJF’s already distasteful personality, perhaps it’s the memory of embracing Adam Cole at the conclusion of 2023’s journey to London and all that brings up, the thought of how Cole played MJF for months and ultimately gave Max a taste of his own medicine. It’s not a place of celebration for MJF like it is for All Elite Wrestling, like it is for Will Ospreay, it’s a place where Max experienced his greatest joy only to find out it was not real, and we’ve all suffered for it since he came back into our lives at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024.

There’s a thread of redemption running through tonight’s event; The Acclaimed and FTR with the World Tag Titles, Darby Allin with the TNT Title, and that is the case here as Will Ospreay looks to salvage the prestige of the International Championship from MJF’s American Championship mockery. Unlike The Elite, MJF has been a fighting champion, albeit with a reign fueled by spite and arrogance, he hasn’t mothballed his title the way The Young Bucks, Kazuchika Okada, and Jack Perry have done since winning theirs, but he’s certainly spat on the legacy built by PAC, Orange Cassidy, Ospreay, and the others who’ve held the International Championship. So before the eyes of the world, on the biggest event of AEW’s year, “The Aerial Assassin” aims to restore the International Championship and bring MJF’s run to a bitter end!   

FTW CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

“The Learning Tree” Chris Jericho(c) vs. HOOK

Five months ago Chris Jericho first approached HOOK about taking him under his wing and serving as a mentor to the young man. Knowing the history of the original AEW World Champion, “The Cold Hearted Handsome Devil” approached the offer with his guard up but actually gave Jericho an opportunity to prove himself. They successfully teamed up to defeat Gates of Agony on March 13th at BIG BUSINESS, as well as scoring a win over Shane Taylor Promotions on the April 6th COLLISION, while in-between the two events they faced off one-on-one in match actually won by HOOK.

Then the April 10th DYNAMITE came along; after Shane Taylor welcomed Anthony Ogogo into STP at the expense of HOOK and Jericho following that COLLISION loss, it fell on LionHOOK (as Jericho nicknamed their pairing) to get a third man to even the numbers. Katsuyori Shibata stepped up to the plate, much to the chagrin of Chris Jericho, and his displeasure with HOOK not only choosing “The Wrestler” , but actually deferring to him over Chris led to Jericho costing his trio the match. 

Then it really unraveled; Jericho got a rematch with HOOK at DYNASTY 2024, this time with the FTW Title on the line, and put his trusty baseball bat to use in order to take the title. Re-branding the FTW as For The World, Jericho once again showed the world his true colors, declaring himself “The Learning Tree”, bringing both Big Bill and Bryan Keith under his branches, and subsequently labeling them “The Redwood” and “Bad Apple” respectively.

Because of Big Bill he defeated Shibata to retain the FTW Championship, because of Bryan Keith he retained at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 against both Shibata and HOOK, and it was through their assistance that HOOK, Shibata, and Samoa Joe were all put on the shelf over the last two months. HOOK and Shibata have made their way back to competition while Samoa Joe remains out of action, but after seeing how the 2-Time FTW Champion handled his business with Big Bill last night on COLLSION, its clear he’s ready to rip the title away from Jericho today at ALL IN: LONDON 2024 the same way he reclaimed it from Jack Perry last year. 

On the other side of the coin, Jericho aims to redeem his 2023 experience at Wembley Stadium where Will Ospreay handed him a loss in front of 81,00+ fans. It’s that, as well as showing HOOK he made the wrong choice in not staying under the canopy of “The Learning Tree” and becoming a proud branch like Big Bill and Bryan Keith!

AEW WORLD TRIOS CHAMPIONSHIP LONDON LADDER MATCH…

The Patriarchy (Christian Cage, Killswitch, & Nick Wayne)(c) vs. Bang Bang Gang (Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, & Juice Robinson) vs. House of Black (Brody King, Buddy Matthews, & Malakai Black) vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta) and “The Bastard” PAC

Last night on COLLISION the pieces of this AEW World Trios Championship match finally fell into place as Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, and “The Bastard” PAC earned the fourth position in the bout with a victory over Lio Rush and Top Flight. Since the AEW World Trios Titles came into existence at ALL OUT 2022 when The Elite won the inaugural tournament over Hangman Page, Alex Reynolds, and John Silver, it has only been contested in a Ladder Match one prior time.

The January 11, 2023 DYNAMITE saw the Best of Seven Series between The Elite and Death Triangle culminate in the second Escalera de la Muerte Ladder Match, and that was wildly chaotic with just two teams involved! Today at ALL IN: LONDON 2024 we have four teams involved in this fray, twelve men all fighting to ascend a ladder and claim the World Trios title belts for their unit. The House of Black have been there before, in fact it was ALL IN: LONDON 2023 when their 175-day reign was brought to an end by The Acclaimed & Daddy Ass, The Gunns were 2/3 of the title holders until they were stripped of their status due to Jay White’s injury a month ago, and as already mentioned, PAC was 1/3 of the championship unit as part of Death Triangle. 

So there is a great deal of Trios Championship experience in this situation, every time has some level of familiarity with it, it’s only the BCC/PAC unit that has zero familiarity with each other fighting together as a trio. BCC welcomed “The Bastard” as an ally inside Blood & Guts in 2023, but that’s a whole different animal than a trios bout, much less one contested as a Ladder Match with three other teams involved!

Will this be a night of redemption for House of Black after last year’s London loss? Will it be one for Bang Bang Gang as they seek to reclaim the titles they never lost? Or will it be the nascent BCC/PAC trio’s night to ascend to the top of the trios mountain? Of course there is the scenario no one save Christian Cage, Killswitch, Nick Wayne, and Mother Wayne wants to see happen in The Patriarchy retaining, but the odds are most certainly no in their favor in this situation…

AEW WORLD TITLE # 1 CONTENDER CASINO GAUNTLET MATCH…

ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe vs. Adam Page vs. Evil Uno vs. Kyle O’Reilly vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Roderick Strong vs. ????

There have been two other Casino Gauntlet matches in All Elite Wrestling since it’s inception back on the April 24th DYNAMITE when an International Championship bout at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 against Roderick Strong was on the line. Will Ospreay emerged from that gauntlet as the #1 Contender and went on to defeat Roddy in Las Vegas on May 26th to claim the title as his own. Among the men who’ve already expressed their participation in ALL IN: LONDON 2024’s Casino Gauntlet, only Kyle O’Reilly was involved in this first-time around.

The second iteration of the Gauntlet took place on the May 29th DYNAMITE, the winner of that would earn an AEW World Championship bout at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 against Swerve Strickland, and once again it was “The Aerial Assassin” who scored the win. However unlike the first go-round, Ospreay was unable to win the championship that night on Long Island. Of the individuals definitively slated for today’s Gauntlet, only Orange Cassidy was involved in that Gauntlet at the KIA Forum.

This third dance, both Kyle O’Reilly and Orange Cassidy will be involved in the Gauntlet, with “Freshly Squeezed” earning the #1 spot thanks to his victory over O’Reilly and Roderick Strong. As discussed during the course of their three way bout, those first two spots are the most advantageous in the Casino Gauntlet because this match can end at anytime. Whether there are two people in the ring or 20, regardless of if everyone slotted to participate gets to the ring, the match can end and to winner goes a future AEW World Championship match. As happened in April, Roderick Strong could again find himself standing behind the curtain and watching as the match ends without him ever having a chance to step between the ropes or maybe this time fans will actually get to see every entry get into the ring and vie for the title bout!

With little advanced knowledge of who will be involved, and no certainty of just how much time will pass between each entrant, the Casino Gauntlet is unquestionably one of the most exciting matches ever introduced into the AEW landscape and it comes to Wembley today for ALL IN: LONDON 2024!

Kris Statlander & Stokely Hathaway vs. Willow Nightingale & Tomohiro Ishii

The path to this mixed tag is fraught with betrayal since Kris Statlander, following Willow Nightingale’s TBS Championship loss to Mercedes Moné at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024, chose to attack her supposed best friend while she was already down, essentially choosing to stand by the side of Stokely Hathaway rather than support Willow in her time of need.

Statlander had justifications and rationalizations for her behavior, but the bottom line was that Willow wasn’t there for Kris with her TBS Title loss so why should she be there for her? Initially Statlander avoided the fight with Willow, choosing flight over fight during their FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024: ZERO HOUR tag match where Statlander united with Momo Watanabe while Willow was joined by Tam Nakano. Running became an impossibility though as Willow’s quarterfinal victory over Serena Deeb in the 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament and Statlander’s over Nyla Rose put them on a collision course.

The July 3rd DYNAMITE at Chicago’s Wintrust Arena was host to their first singles match in AEW as opposition rather than friends, and it saw Nightingale in her spot in the finals opposite Mariah May with a victory. Though Statlander’s action were not directly responsible for Nightingale’s loss a week later in Calgary, she and Stokely Hathaway did their best to play a role in Willow’s eventual defeat. Statlander assaulted her in the backstage area to not-so-subtly push Nightingale towards a CMLL World Women’s Title Eliminator Match while a chain-assisted Discus Lariat gave Stat the victory and a future title opportunity.

Well we know that their championship bout will go down at ALL OUT 2024 on September 7th, but before we get to the NOW Arena for that contest, the two women will be on opposite sides of a Mixed Tag match whose outcome will directly affect that championship bout! Willow got the math made, but Stokely got the stipulation added that whoever wins gets to pick the match style for ALL OUT 2024! With all the animosity here, the ZERO HOUR is going to be home for one red hot tag team battle!

-ROH World Tag Team Champion/ROH World Six-Man Champion Dustin Rhodes, ROH World Six-Man Champion Marshall Von Erich, ROH World Six-Man Champion Ross Von Erich, ROH World Tag Team Champion Sammy Guevara, & Katsuyori Shibata

Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) and Cage of Agony (Bishop Kaun, Brian Cage, and Toa Liona)

With eight championship fights and the wild potential of the Casino Gauntlet Match set for ALL IN: LONDON 2024 as well as an intriguing mixed tag scheduled for the ZERO HOUR, this Sunday evening is set to be the most exciting night of AEW’s calendar year to date!  We could see the end of Bryan Danielson’s legendary career or we may bear witness to the Age of the American Dragon dawning on All Elite Wrestling! That’s just one of the monumental matches going down today at Wembley Stadium; fans will also see Jack Perry and Darby Allin fighting over the TNT Title in a Coffin match, The Young Bucks facing The Acclaimed and FTR in a World Tag Title fight, Will Ospreay attempting to wrestle the AEW American Championship from MJF’s hands, Dr. Britt Baker and Mercedes Moné clashing over the TBS Championship, Toni Storm and Mariah May vying for the AEW Women’s World Championship, and so much more!!

The pay-per-view begins at 6pm BST/1pm ET/10am PT live on pay-per-view, with the ZERO HOUR kicking off at 4pm BTS/11am ET/8am PT , and everyone can get ready for the show with a visit to the official AEW YouTube channel to watch highlights from DYNAMITE, COLLISION, RAMPAGE, and more! The biggest event of All Elite Wrestling’s year comes your way from Wembley Stadium, but the show never ends because AEW returns to the States with a DYNAMITE return to Champaign, IL for the first time since December 2019! After Sunday night it’s all about ALL OUT 2024 on September 7th, and everyone fighting for their spot at the NOW Arena!