AEW All In 2023 is coming up this Sunday and before the event takes place, let’s run down everything you need to know about the upcoming pay-per-view.
Who is scheduled for the card? How interesting does the show seem? What’s going to happen with all the matches?
Here is a full preview of AEW All In 2023.
PPV EVENT INFORMATION
Date: Sunday, August 27, 2023
Start Time: 12 p.m. ET (Zero Hour pre-show), 1 p.m. ET (main show)
Location: Wembley Stadium in London, England
MATCH CARD, PREDICTIONS & HEAT INDEX ANTICIPATION LEVELS
(as currently advertised; card is always subject to change)
Temperature Scale = Scorching > Hot > Lukewarm > Temperate > Chilly > Cold > Freezing
Heat Index is my assessment of how interesting the segment is, including how excited I am for the match and how intriguing the feud has been. The hotter, the better. Scorching translates to not being able to wait to see it, while Freezing means I couldn’t possibly care less and think it will be awful.
ZERO HOUR — TAG TEAM MATCH FOR THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP:
Aussie Open (Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher) (c) vs. Better Than You Bay-Bay (MJF and Adam Cole)
Heat Index = Temperate
Prediction: Aussie Open wins.
Thoughts: Aussie Open is a talented group, but in the sense of “generic good wrestler” territory. They don’t do anything for me as far as hype. I’m not looking forward to this match for the in-ring work, but for the storyline implications and fallout for MJF and Cole for later in the night. If this were Davis and Fletcher against just any tag team, like The Hardy Boyz, I’d be putting this at Cold. I’m imagining Aussie Open retains due to miscommunication from Cole and MJF, leading to more frustration for their main event.
SINGLES MATCH FOR THE AEW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP:
MJF (c) vs. Adam Cole
Heat Index = Hot
Prediction: Adam Cole wins.
Thoughts: Yup. I think Cole is winning the title. The most interesting outcome I can think of is Cole turning on MJF with Roderick Strong and The Kingdom all leaving celebrating together as heels, while MJF has to win the title back at All Out (if he even does), after losing it via some b.s. that can justify a rematch. If it’s just MJF being the one to turn, it’s not impossible for it to be done in a fun way, but I do think it’ll be a little “back to square one” with all of this.
FOUR-WAY MATCH FOR THE AEW WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP:
Hikaru Shida (c) vs. Toni Storm vs. Saraya vs. Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D.
Heat Index = Cold
Prediction: Saraya wins.
Thoughts: What do you do when you don’t have enough built-in star power for a singles match angle to sell itself? You toss more people into the match to offset that. Quantity over quality. That’s something happening here. The AEW women’s division has been struggling for almost its entirety, and the past year and a half has been entirely coasting and doing NOTHING of any real interest for me. I’ve seen Shida, Storm, Saraya and Baker involved in matches and segments for what feels like a year+ now. When they continue to keep copying and pasting the same few names, my excitement and interest level goes down more each time. We’re at an all-time low for me being intrigued about AEW’s women’s division, and it doesn’t matter at all to me if the title changes hands here. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say I’d be shocked if Saraya doesn’t win the championship here just for the pop and then immediately drop it at All Out. I’d rather Saraya have the super short title run than Cole if AEW was planning on doing either of those, but obviously, if Cole’s the plan, then the Saraya thing gets thrown out the window.
SINGLES MATCH:
Chris Jericho vs. Will Ospreay
Heat Index = Hot
Prediction: Will Ospreay wins.
Thoughts: Will Ospreay is just so good. Obviously, this match won’t be as amazing as if Jericho were still in his prime, but with his high in-ring IQ, I’m sure they’ll cook up something special. This is one of the few matches that genuinely feels big enough for this event, and not something thrown together that’s “good enough.” Give the win to Ospreay. He’s on a roll and it will mean so much more to him. Jericho doesn’t need a victory here by any means.
TAG TEAM MATCH FOR THE AEW WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP:
FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) (c) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)
Heat Index = Hot
Prediction: The Young Bucks win.
Thoughts: All the way up to Cash Wheeler’s arrest, I was going with FTR winning this match. Now that that happened, I can certainly see Tony Khan wanting to take the tag titles off them to make sure those don’t get held up in any kind of legal complications. To be fair, it wouldn’t shock me if FTR still did in fact win this match, though. Young Bucks as my prediction isn’t something I’m 100% set on. This match will be great regardless of the outcome, though. That, I’m sure of.
TRIOS TAG TEAM MATCH:
The Golden Elite (Kota Ibushi, Kenny Omega, and “Hangman” Adam Page) vs. Bullet Club Gold (Juice Robinson and Jay White) and Konosuke Takeshita (with Don Callis)
Heat Index = Hot
Prediction: The Golden Elite wins.
Thoughts: A bunch of talented people in the ring together. That’s all you’re really getting here, so the only thing to really say is that I’ll enjoy it and it might end up going a little too long, but I’m sure if I were to say that when it happens, people will jump down my throat, say that I somehow hated the match because I didn’t give it 11 stars, and consider me a WWE brown nose. Yes, I’m jumping ahead of this one. But that also means I’m already considering it one of the potential best matches of the night that could steal the show. Ibushi, Omega and Page against White, Robinson and Takeshita? Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s not going to suck. Win goes to The Golden Elite to maybe round out this story.
STADIUM STAMPEDE MATCH:
Eddie Kingston, Penta El Zero Miedo, and Best Friends (Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor, and Trent Beretta) vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta), Santana and Ortiz
Heat Index = Hot
Prediction: Blackpool Combat Club wins.
Thoughts: Please don’t play Wild Thing for 10 minutes. The joke didn’t even work the second time around. This feels lesser than the other Stadium Stampede matches we’ve had, but at least we know that the promise of a hardcore environment should make this an entertaining segment. This match was definitely hurt by changes to the card. I still imagine whoever the extra member of the BCC team was going to be will pop up here, get involved and be the difference maker to give that team the victory. For that matter, I could very well see Moxley taking that International Championship away from Cassidy soon and this being part of the reason why he gets that title shot.
TAG TEAM COFFIN MATCH:
Darby Allin and Sting vs. Christian Cage and Swerve Strickland
Heat Index = Temperate
Prediction: Darby Allin and Sting win.
Thoughts: It’s interesting to me that this angle revolved around AR Fox, but he’s been booted to the side and replaced with Christian Cage to act as a sort of teaser for All Out that will follow. I know that just having Christian here will intensify people wondering if Edge is going to appear, even though I think you’d better not hold your breath. I do expect interference from Luchasaurus, Nick Wayne and/or Fox. Let’s go with Allin and Sting winning to make it seem like the TNT Championship is in jeopardy, only for Luchasaurus to retain at All Out with some help from Cage. If not, and this goes the other way, then I could see the opposite happening for the TNT title match as a result. At least this is a coffin match and not just a regular tag team match. That and Christian’s involvement stopped this from going lower than Temperate.
“REAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP” MATCH:
CM Punk (c) vs. Samoa Joe
Heat Index = Chilly
Prediction: CM Punk wins.
Thoughts: Meh? If this were 10 years ago and if they hadn’t already had the match in the Owen Hart Cup tournament, then I’d be more excited for it. Now, at this event, it feels a bit too much of a copy/paste replacement. Maybe they had something else in mind, like Punk vs. Bryan Danielson, and when that couldn’t happen, Punk requested Joe to work with. Maybe this should’ve been the blowoff of the Ricky Starks feud instead. Whatever the case, I’m just not thrilled, and I don’t think it’ll blow the roof off the place outside of Punk’s entrance being the hottest part of the segment. Punk retains the title that means nothing because he’ll certainly defend it at All Out.
AEW WORLD TRIOS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
House of Black (c) vs. The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn
Heat Index = Temperate
Prediction: House of Black wins.
Thoughts: As much as I want to like this more, this is one of those feuds that feels like it’s been milked too long for me to have the same excitement level anymore. The Billy Gunn retirement thing didn’t land too well with me, either. I don’t think he’s going to be wrestling on a regular basis, but I don’t think he’s entirely done, either. With that in mind, I can’t see him and The Acclaimed winning these belts and having him go on a title run. House of Black wins, but Gunn gets a nice bow. I think his ultimate final match will somehow involve his true sons and isn’t happening here.
OVERALL PPV:
How excited am I for the event as a whole?
Heat Index = Hot
Thoughts: There’s no doubt this isn’t the 100% best card that Tony Khan could have come up with or wanted to do. Injuries and other issues have gotten in the way of that. Maybe I can’t judge it too harshly without knowing the ins and outs of the backstage problems, so I’ll go with Hot instead of my gut reaction, which is Lukewarm. In a bubble, some of these matches mean virtually nothing to me, if I’m being honest. But there are still some big segments to make this feel important, so I’m hoping it goes down in history as a great event with a big time feel, and not just a huge audience for a C+ pay-per-view that everyone tries to convince themselves was better just to not feel as bad about all their puffery heading into it.
What do you think is going to happen at AEW All In? Which matches are you most excited to see? Keep the discussion going in the comments below!
