All In Weekend 
In Review

“All In: London 2026”

30th August 2026
Wembley Stadium, London, UK
Attendance: 46,987
Watch On: MyAEW / HBOMax

Review By: Seán O’Brien

Seán O’Brien walks us through “All In: London” on this unforgettable night at Wembley Stadium.

For the fourth consecutive year, AEW ran a major PPV in the UK with their third installment of “All In: London” from Wembley Stadium. For the fourth consecutive year, myself, my wife and our friend made the trip from Ireland to the heart of London for what we hoped would shape up to be the best event the company had hosted in the UK to date. Now I’m not a superstitious man but I am a little stitious, and there were signs we were all in for trouble. The weekend suffered from thunder storm warnings, mass delays across key lines of the London Underground (par for the course with this time of year, it seems) and most alarmingly, no Gregg’s in the direct vicinity of our hotel. With Wembley not having a roof to shelter us from a storm, public transport being delayed and having to pay a surcharge for my steak bake to be delivered, there were major concerns from us all. The question most pressing on everyone’s mind, however, was, much like our Uber Eats rider, could AEW deliver on such high expectations this weekend?

If you read my review of “Forbidden Door 2025”, you may recall that there were some issues with the venue and getting people into the building. Thankfully, the staff at Wembley Stadium once again proved that they are absolutely phenomenal at running a smooth operation. Even those impacted by the travel delays were able to flood in through the turnstiles without issue thanks to the staff who took care of the 45,000 or so of us in attendance. While queuing (and again after the show), I took some time to poll people on what they were most looking forward to. Universally, the main event was the match people were here for. This probably shouldn’t come as a surprise as we were in an ocean of Ospreay jerseys from the moment we were approaching Wembley, but it was good to see that the hometown support was there in full ahead of the show. The other matches people were most geared up for were the International Title three-way and the Women’s World Title match. I think it’s safe to say as a spoiler: the crowd in London were left very happy when all was said and done.

As we were seated, the “Buy In” video package kicked us off in the stadium. As you’d expect, the crowd were behind the babyfaces and most of the heels, too (Mercedes getting probably the loudest boos from this video package). The live crowd didn’t have audio/video on the panel sitting in the stadium so there was the understanding that it was just time to grab your pint/snack and get to your seat and strap in for the show. The Persephone interview, however, was shown for us, but you might not know it from the reaction in the crowd. It would be easy to blame this on a lack of people being in the building yet but this was unfortunately par for the course with women on this show, something I’ll touch on later in more depth. Post-promo, we were treated to our first match, with The Opps taking on Lio Rush and The Rascalz. As an opener on a buy-in show, this was what it was but I had to come to terms with two things during this match that I found personally difficult to reconcile. The first, just like at “Forbidden Door”, there was very little reaction for Shibata. I can understand this from an AEW fan perspective. I guess, you have little reason to see him as more than a third man in a group, but it doesn’t change the fact for me that it’s disappointing to see somebody as talented as Shibata just kind of be there. The other difficulty I had to overcome was to finally accept that this Lio Rush gimmick is working. I am not a fan of spooky gimmicks (if anything, I am likely the type to be more supportive of Lio if he were to transition to a US flag-waving motorcyclist next), and while I think this Blackheart stuff is a bit too silly/forces wrestlers to sell ooze etc, it’s undoubtedly ‘over’ with the AEW audience today, so who am I to say it’s bad? The match itself was a fantastic showcase for the Rascalz, which only raises the question of why they weren’t in that trios match more, but I digress. Myron Reed’s flying cutter to the outside was far and away the biggest spot of the match that unified the crowd’s investment across the board. As soon as it was set up, more and more people stopped being on their phones and posting for social media and locked in to the action in the ring. The finish came with Lio Rush pinning Anthony Bowens in what I can only describe as a solid match that would be perfect on a “Dynamite”/Buy In type show. A good outing and it was nice to have the likes of Bowens and Hook keep their streak of Wembley shows alive. After a video package featuring the Dogs and the Demand (that played to crickets), we were ready for our next match up.

Sisters of Sin vs Wrathlander. There was a good reception from our section for the Sisters of Sin on the night, especially for Skye Blue off the back of her bloodbath at Pro Wrestling EVE the night before. While Harley Cameron isn’t the best bell-to-bell wrestler in AEW, her constant improvement over the past 2 years has been remarkable to me and it’s translated to genuine crowd investment. I had seen some comments online about how she didn’t deserve a spot on this card ahead of Wembley but from the reactions alone, she had more than earned her spot at “All In”. Kris Statlander came out last for the match and to the largest reaction of the women involved, which, to be fair, should be expected from a former AEW World and TBS Champion. This was another quick match with all four women getting plenty of offence in. Far more a sprint than a marathon, they did a great job of waking the crowd up and getting people back in. Despite Wembley Stadium being likely a third full at the time of this match, one thing that we found staggering was how loud Blue was in the match when she would be screaming and hyping herself up, an oddly nice experience which just showed how enthusiastic these women were. The finish came with Statlander committing murder on the outside of the ring with Blue and a backstaber/Sunday Night Fever on Hart to give Wrathlander the win. Ahead of the tag title match later on this show, I think a lot in our area anticipated the heel group winning here so this was a nice little surprise, with the babyfaces going over.

After a quick runthrough of the card, we were set up for Shane Taylor Promotions vs The Hurt Syndicate and Boom & Doom. STP came out with plenty of energy and got a moderate reaction from the crowd. Big Boom AJ and QT Marshall shockingly were well received, too, with people even singing along to their theme (though this is par for the course with UK wrestling crowds at this stage, isn’t it?). Last to enter, The Hurt Syndicate, certainly were contenders for having the most ‘over’ theme song of the night for the crowd. Personally, I think it’s an incredible move for The Hurt Syndicate to evolve their gimmick to the point where they don’t have to pretend to be enthusiastic about the match they’re in. For the vast majority of the match, Lashley in particular seemed like he was just going through the motions of this match, with Shelton turning on the magic for a few moments at least. I appreciate that they probably think they deserve to be higher up the card but the mystery of their booking continues. As for the match itself, this wasn’t much for the live experience other than having something to sing at the wrestlers. The highlights of the match from STP’s shenanigans were things the live crowd simply couldn’t hear. The match itself was only 2 minutes longer than the previous ones so far, but it felt significantly longer. Perhaps this was due to it being a very by-the-numbers match; perhaps it was due to a distinct lack of The Rizzler, who knows? Unironically, Big Justice once again hit a spear better than far too many wrestlers in the business do. Either way, this wrapped up with Lashley getting the win for the team and the four posing in the ring and a giant cheque being handed to the Syndicate. I give this one 3.25 BOOMs.

We interrupted this Buy In for the entrance of Bryan Danielson as he moved to commentary. I would have to imagine a large volume of the crowd were present for him winning the AEW World Title two years ago in the same venue, but it is so hard to explain just how big the reaction was. With Bryan seated, we moved to Persephone vs Maya World. I think the crowning of Maya World was a great move from AEW in trying to catch lightning in a bottle. Her personal hardships being so public, her showing up in big matches in the lead-up to the title win, all of it was just a great ride and it’s great that AEW pivoted from their usual more planned booking choices. With all that being said, I personally was ready for this experiment to come to an end; Maya has a huge ceiling but for me isn’t consistent enough for the pressure of a run like this yet. These two women came out of the gates hot in this match and really showed why they both could well be future AEW World Champions in time. There was a planned spot where Persphone got taken down by a head scissors on the outside and I imagine the plan was for Maya to throw her in to the steps, but this miss sapped the life out of the crowd, many of whom had already stepped out once Danielson sat in the booth. Realising there was about to be an avalanche fall away slam from Maya, the crowd finally got back on track and invested near the finish of this match, though I don’t think there was as much of a reaction for Persphone kicking out of Maya’s finish as the two deserved. Moments later, a hooded person pushed Maya off the top turnbuckle to set up the crucifix powerbomb and secure the win for Persephone to become the new TBS Champion. While I and many around me were anticipating Shida, there was a huge shock reaction to the returning Britt Baker. The reaction was thunderous; and not to be hyperbolic, in our section at the very least the crowd were as loud for Britt as they were Danielson. Like her, hate her, and have concerns about her ability to not stir the pot – but it was excellent to have the crowd invest in a woman on this show for a few moments (something I will circle back to in a bit).

© AEW

In a transition, we got Thekla’s return to the ring, who also got an excellent reaction from the crowd to her credit. This is also where the majority of the live crowd learned that there was a desk set up with a panel talking about the show. There are many things to be said about where a wrestler should be on a card to maximise their crowd reaction. Should you open? Should you close? Thekla rocking up, being an eccentric goblin and knocking back a margarita on a table before acting like a spider might be the new standard. One quick promo with Persephone & Baker, and everyone was ready for the worst kept secret of the night.

The AEW World Trios Roulette Royale, a match I’ve never been more appreciative of hearing the rules for ahead of the bell ringing. In advance of the show, I had asked around and there was a lot of confusion as to how this match would actually be decided, learning it was a simple over the top rope battle royal/gauntlet hybrid made life much easier for all. On a personal note, in January of this year I flew to Japan from Ireland for my honeymoon and was lucky enough to be present at the Tokyo Dome for NJPW’s “Wrestle Kingdom”. There was something quite special about flying 14,500km (that’s 9 times the distance The Proclaimers would walk, for you US readers), to watch one of my favourite wrestlers Hirooki Goto lose in a “get everyone on the card” pre-show trios match. As a big fan of Hangman Adam Page…

First out we had The Bang Bang Gang and The Dogs. One group came out to a great reaction, the other to crickets, and I don’t think I need to spell out which was which. While the crowd got invested in the opening brawls and chants from the BBG, there was a small sense of realisation that there were about 25 minutes from this match starting to the main show starting..something that became a bit comical the further the match went on. The roulette wheel gimmick was a nice touch for the live crowd as The Demand made their entrances. The difference between Ricochet’s last two Wembley entrances were night and day, from huge cheers for his debut in the Casino Gauntlet in 2024, to loud jeers and “bawld bawld bawld” chants from the London crowd. Colten Gunn was the first of several wrestlers who went out very early in this match, but this was swept away with the introduction of The Conglomeration. Kyle sporting a gnarly eye, OC meandering to the ring and Roddy throwing his body at everyone around him, this was a fantastic shot of adrenaline in the arm of this match. The speed of Roddy at his age is something that still doesn’t fully translate on TV, in my opinion, but it was a majorly impressive introduction. Less impressive was the elimination of Austin Gunn moments later, with 15 minutes more to go until the end of the Buy In. The Death Rider introduction simultaneously helped with the energy, but caused havoc at the same time, with people swarming barricades/stairwells/anywhere they could to try and get near the trio. To be fair to a lot of those fans, that’s still an upgrade from the thralls of them camping outside of wrestlers’ hotels this weekend.

Now at the halfway point of the match, we were treated to Roddy vs Marina in the ring for a moment which got a big reaction and laugh from the crowd. I have to say it speaks volumes for Marina where there isn’t pearl clutching from a spot like this, but instead a crowd who think her getting hit with a big move is fair play based on her ability to cause mayhem in a match. While it looked like we were building to a quick elimination of Yuta, instead we had the shock double-elimination of Kyle and Roddy, which really brought the mood down a bit…for a couple of seconds. Enter the World Trios Champions. The Good, the Bad and El Guapo (as they call themselves) came out to a new piece of music for their entrance which went down very well with the crowd; it truly felt like we were in for a gunfight with the atmosphere. (We now have 10 minutes left in the Buy In). As expected: plenty of “Cowboy Shit” chants from the crowd and dog barks alongside it. There was a lot of confusion in a short period of time here, as no sooner had the champions got started but Bandido was spotted on the outside (with that part of the ring being difficult to see, many of us thought we had somehow missed his elimination), which was instantly followed up by the shock elimination of Brody King. AEW is usually quite great at their gauntlet/royales but I have to say the pacing of this match really fell apart at this stage. We were left with 3 babyfaces (with Bandido also laid out on the outside), and 9 heels in the ring. The match lost a lot of steam, a lot of people realised we were waiting for the top of the hour and there were “New Day Rocks” chants breaking out on and off for 7-8 minutes in our area. Orange Cassidy laid out the majority of the wrestlers to a big babyface reaction with a minute left, and as the transition took place from Buy In to the main show, we were treated to all the wrestlers just awkwardly standing in the ring looking at each other not sure what was going on. Justin Roberts hyped the crowd up as we awaited our final entrants. With the cameras focused on Swerve for his entrance, we once again were left with the majority of the wrestlers just standing awkwardly in the ring.

I don’t know if I’ve experienced something like The New Levels entrance before. In a matter of seconds, “New Day Rocks” died out and “New Lev-el” chants replaced it. No confusion, no using the old names, just a ravenous crowd excited for the future this team will bring to the company. The reaction from the crowd and the energy these 3 brought to the ring genuinely made the bizarrely long waits worth it for this moment. After Swerve and The New Level got their stuff in, we finally had a match. First GOA, then Orange Cassidy, we got some quick eliminations. Bandido’s shoulder being heavily taped was certainly a concern, especially with it immediately flying off him. The back end of this match had some fun team ups, with the babyfaces slowly making comebacks until we were finally just down to The New Level, Strickland, Castignoli, PAC and Kidd. Kofi slipping in a “I’m not actually eliminated” spot on his debut was a magnificent touch, and, certainly to me, shows that these are a pair who are coming in and wanting to put on their working boots. As we moved to the finish, we were left with the New Level eliminating the Death Riders to secure the World Trios Championships. The back 15 minutes of this match were incredible, but if you can’t tell from reading this, there were 25 minutes of just kind of being there. With that said, the crowd were beyond invested in The New Level winning the titles on their debut and there was a genuine electricity that from here on this show was going to be going at 100 miles an hour. (Much like you can expect the pace of this review to pick up from here on out, too).

© AEW

AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship Match: Brawling Birds vs The Divine Dominion

On the go home “Dynamite” for this show, Alex Windsor so elegantly sold the match with the phrase, “Two undefeated teams, two beautiful tag titles, and thousands of drunken Brits screaming for us to take your bloody heads off,” and boy, did these women deliver on the expectation that they set. The Brawling Birds came out to an excellent reaction, as expected, and it was fantastic to finally have Jamie Hayter wrestling at a PPV in the UK after missing the opportunity to compete at the previous two (“All In” ‘24 & “Forbidden Door” ‘25) due to injury. The match itself was a fast-paced brawl with the crowd firmly behind the Birds, but your enjoyment of this crowd would boil down to how much you enjoyed hearing “Windsaa” every few seconds from those around you. Much can be said about the AEW Women’s World Tag Titles thus far, with this being just the second time they’ve been defended on the main card of a PPV, but these two truly felt like tag teams competing for the belts. I don’t know what Windsor’s ceiling is in AEW, nor do I know if Hayter will be able to return to the top of the mountain, but they flow excellently together as a unit and have a great balance of riling up the crowd from their action both inside and outside of the ring. As for the Divine Dominion, while their reign has been dominant and I enjoy them together, I can’t help but feel like both women are destined for larger singles pushes over the next 12 months. The Dominion’s run has given them an excellent presentation and showcased them as an unstoppable force, but the payoff of them going back and forth with The Birds was well worth everything they’ve done. The finish to this felt like it came around very quickly, with Windsor making the save for the team and the Birds quickly getting control over Kross before hitting Two Birds with One Stone for the win. The reception to the win was as loud as you’d expect, and personally, I thought this was a great tag match. Here’s hoping this means we avoid relegating these titles to the preshow again and maybe, shockingly, we even have all the women’s titles on the main card some day.

AEW Continental Challenge Cup: Nigel McGuiness vs Jon Moxley

I can’t understate how much this tournament has annoyed me, as the moment Mox started selling his arm, the more telegraphed it was that we were building to “Can England take the cup home at Wembley?”. I’ve been negative, I’ve been a pain to watch the C3 matches with at home, and of course, as soon as Nigel came out to the loud chants, I was invested. Mox emerging through the crowd in the stadium is something that has such a bigger impact in person than on TV and I can’t stress that enough. People swarming pockets of the arena in the hopes just to be nearby him as he walks out, chaos everywhere, it really drives home why security is never far from him. Much can be said if Nigel realistically should have been in this spot; it did have elements of the lower points of WWE’s booking of “older” part-time stars taking up a key spot from younger talent who show up each week, but for this crowd and this moment I find it hard to argue that Nigel wasn’t the right person for this match. McGuiness dreamed of becoming a pro wrestler because of a match he watched in this very building, and for him to finally get a singles match in it must be a fever dream. This match featured a lot of striking and mat wrestling which surprisingly went down well in the crowd. Often segments like these go out and die a death but maybe Zack Sabre Jr was onto something when he talked about this kind of wrestling being like reading a dog Shakespeare to American crowds. The match was a simple trade off with Mox primarily working Nigel’s leg and Nigel working the arm of Mox. This match had Nigel hit his core signature moves, the obligatory Wembley ‘92 callback spot but ultimately told the story of Mox learning Nigel’s strategy and out-smarting him to secure the ankle lock and the victory. The visual of McGuiness being a finger tip away from the rope and having to submit was a very nice touch but as an Irishman in the crowd, this match cemented a Jon Moxley babyface turn by defeating the Englishman in a cup final. In another nice touch, McGuiness was given his flowers by the crowd as Moxley left (forgetting the cup he fought so hard for) and picking the crowd up from the Death Rider’s win.

© AEW/Ryan Loco

AEW International Championship Match: Kyle Fletcher vs Konosuke Takeshita vs Kazuchika Okada

In speaking to people in the stadium ahead of the match the general consensus was “I don’t care who wins this match, I just know it’s going to be great.” Honestly, it’s a sentiment I myself carried into this match but I don’t know if this is an ideal situation for a major PPV and a championship that should be presented as important. Perhaps if we had held off on Okada/Takeshita or Fletcher/Okada, this would have had more investment on one of the wrestlers actually winning this. Regardless, Takeshita made his way out first sporting a robe of sorts rather than his traditional jacket, a kind of presentation that I think suited him far better than the norm. However, Okada emerging in a more traditional “Rainmaker”-style robe scratched an itch in my brain that I can’t fully explain. It might seem strange to say an entrance attire can make an impact, but this combined with the result of this match has really ignited a hope in me that we’ll see more of the Okada that ruled the roost of NJPW for so long later this year, rather than the current (albeit clearly fun) version of The Rainmaker. Lastly, Kyle Fletcher came out to a One Piece themed entrance. This was completely lost on me and I imagine many others in the arena, but it was the perfect kind of style for somebody like Kyle where the theme wasn’t wearing him, he was wearing the theme. It wasn’t until I was looking at my phone the following morning that I understood this wasn’t just something Kyle had come up with himself, it was very fitting for his presentation. The crowd were very into this from the get-go and I think launching straight into Takeshita and Fletcher was the right decision, from a live experience. After a good series of one on ones, the crowd really came to life, with Okada throwing up the 2 fingers post Rainmaker pose, transitioning to flipping off the crowd and Fletcher doing the same to Okada. It felt from this point on, Okada was the crowd favourite with Fletcher and Takeshita battling for second place. Okada sneaking a screwdriver out from the turnbuckles very much brought about mixed reactions, but his claim that he was only retrieving the weapon so Kyle could use it was the exact level of pantomime this crowd wanted. Takeshita’s double bridge pin on both men in response to this spot was probably the largest reaction he got during this, too. After a few more one-on-one segments between the 3 men, Fletcher had the match won after a Brainbuster on Takeshita, but Okada stole the win by hitting the Rainmaker off Kyle and pinning him to become the new champion. It feels more so than ever that Kyle’s reluctance to relinquish the belt and raise Okada’s hand is foreshadowing his turn on the group in the near future, and while that is clearly an important plan going forward, Takeshita becoming an instant afterthought was a disappointment to see. After several months of Takeshita building up to break out of the Don Callis Family, he finally broke out earlier this year to just return to the position he was in prior to joining the group. He then swiftly lost the title (due to commitments with NJPW) only to come back, lost the big match in Wembley and be fully absent from the ring for the big post match segment. Fletcher is clearly a core part of AEW’s future and Okada is a proven star; but, unfortunately, as always the choices with Takeshita’s presentation has left me scratching my head here. A great match, a fantastic experience and match of the night so far, but an interesting decision nonetheless with the result and post match. Time will tell on this one, even if I do agree Okada was probably the right choice here.

Casino Gauntlet Match

This is quite a difficult one to recap, what with no rhyme or reason to entrants or any sense of consistency in this match. In the interest of trying to be fair, this was super fun for us in the crowd with plenty of “oh they’re here now?” moments. Andrade came out to a strong reception as did MJF, even if this “I’m the world champion and I’m going to win a number one contender’s match to prove it” shtick just doesn’t make sense. While I understand the reasons why this match existed on the card, I think if we simply had MJF vs Andrade as the match on the night the crowd would have been far more into it. The crowd were very invested in this as a singles match off the bat with justified “take it off” chants for Andrade. From where we were seated, we were able to mostly see people enter the match but it wasn’t universally great for people like Nick Wayne and Mark Davis, who were hard for many to identify on entry. Speedball being just slotted into the gauntlet feels like a misstep to me personally. There was certainly a championship belt on this card that it would have made far more sense for him to be fighting for but we will come to that shortly.

Ciampa certainly had more sustained reactions than the Hurt Syndicate did, but he is somebody who also absolutely benefits in a UK scene for having a song people just want to have a sing along to. Speaking of which, Chris Jericho was also in this match. To his credit, there was an excitement in the air for Jericho and MJF to lock up which wasn’t something I had anticipated. Mark Davis getting his chance to come in and just kill everyone was a pleasure for me and many in the crowd, too, with the big man somebody I think has come along leaps and bounds in the last year or so. Komander being announced as Místico absolutely did derail us for a period; the only thing more enjoyable than singing a chant was bullying Justin Roberts for messing up the name. Komander handled it like a pro and absolutely got the crowd behind him which was great to see – another strong talent who often at times feels lost in the shuffle. As for Místico’s actual entrance, the volume of people singing along or at least attempting to (mimicking the cadence in lieu of knowing the actual words) was a huge shock and something I’m glad did translate to the PPV feed. Jack Perry was the final entrant and the man I expected to win this match, truth be told (I’m not quite sure why he main evented the go-home “Dynamite”), but Andrade stole the win from MJF and pinned Nick Wayne. As a party match, this was just a lot of fun for the crowd but I think it would have benefited from going on after the following match; which, if I’m being honest, was the biggest disappointment on the show for me.

© AEW

AEW Men’s World Tag Team Championship Match: Cage & Cope vs The Young Bucks

The entrance video package for The Young Bucks was an incredibly sentimental piece that I think did a really nice job of detailing their career thus far. We’re certainly closer to the end of their careers, as difficult as that is to accept, but this was a phenomenal and rare moment of the Young Bucks being given their flowers. Their gear having lovely homages to so many pieces of their career, the new choice of font for their name being a callback to different aspects of their career, this really had a bit of everything. Cope and Cage didn’t have anything like this but at the same time, they didn’t need it either. There was a deafening response to “Metalingus” for Cope followed by an attempted cheer-along to Cage’s theme (which doesn’t seem to have translated to the broadcast). A lot has been said over the years of Christian being the kind of wrestler everyone wants to be in the ring with and I think his ability to absolutely no sell 40,000 people asking him to be their father really helps that translate. This had been a dream match for the Young Bucks since they were children and for me, something I’d imagined happening in my head in the past, too. While this was a solid match, it really didn’t live up to the expectations, something I think Cope and Cage’s reign thus far also suffers from. I’m not the biggest fan of the Bucks being presented almost as the underdogs in the build here or as them being the young challengers (they’re 41 & 37 years of age respectively here, maybe they’d be the pups in the WWE main event scene but certainly not in this company), nor did I love that the match at times felt like the Bucks didn’t have the same experience as a team as the champions (especially when we’re weighing up a team who have tagged for 16 years against a team who have tagged for, at best, 3). The core crux of this match was around Cope and Cage cutting off the Bucks, slowing the pace down and Nick and Matt trying to get things going on their terms. This was amplified when Nick Jackson drove his foot into the ringpost on the outside and really cut himself off pace wise, highlighted by Nick selling the foot collapsing under his own weight during an attempted TK Driver. With callbacks to Cope and Cage’s most famous opponents and some high flying moments from the Bucks, the crowd were enjoying this match with a 50/50 reaction at points for the champions until there was a feeling that whoever won, the crowd would be happy. The finish, from our section in the crowd, was pretty confusing as the wrench used by Christian Cage wasn’t super clear. Cope and Cage’s win was met with mostly positive reactions, but there was certainly a moment of the air being taken out of the arena. And then it was given absolutely no time to breathe by the arrival of Motor City Machine Guns, FTR, and New Level to the ring to show what’s ahead for this tag division. This was a cool moment, don’t get me wrong, but it very much undercut the match that we had just seen and very much felt like an advertisement for what’s coming next instead. (The match itself felt like things were being held back for what we all now know to be a ladder match at this month’s “All Out”). It felt like the wrong decision on the night for me here for the titles to be retained, and frankly, if the titles change hands at “All Out”, I think there’ll be a lot to be said looking at how somebody in this match seems to only take pinfall losses to people from his former employer…

© AEW/Ryan Loco

TNT Title Match: Kevin Knight vs Darby Allin

This was very good, but a strange match in terms of build. Darby coming off his AEW World Championship run is back in his box chasing the TNT Title, while the obvious match of Knight vs Speedball was burned through months too early. Kevin Knight certainly looks the part and carries himself every bit the champion. Darby, despite my complaints of him absolutely not needing this title match, has always gone above and beyond in the UK (or anywhere else he’s performed for AEW). The match benefited from Darby being split open at the back of his head in the opening seconds, which really set the tone for the car crash style match these two men were looking to set out. We got some spots with a table being used, the announce desk and a gnarly code red onto some chairs before interference from Brian Cage and Jake Doyle. Apparent social media thirst trap Steven Borden (‘el hijo del Sting’ as he is also known) ran down to even the numbers in some way for Darby and truly seems to have a natural sense for what he should be doing in a wrestling ring. One can’t help but wonder what might have been if he had gotten into the business a few years earlier, but maybe there’s something to be said starting later in life and coming into things with a more matured mindset. After Steve was put through a table, Darby cleared the ring as best he could with his hands duct-taped behind his back, before the Don Callis Family members were setting him up in a tree of woe for a coast to coast from Knight, the same move that wrote Darby out of the C2 late last year. Right as Kevin was about to leap, the lights dimmed and I think pretty much everyone in the arena knew what was coming: it’s Sting! I haven’t touched on the presentation of “All In” this year, but to put it as simply as possible, this was the first time AEW have been to this side of the world and presented the show as a major event with their stage, their rampway, their screens and their lighting. In my personal experience, it felt far more similar to the way NJPW staged a major show like “Wrestle Kingdom” than it did prior AEW shows in Wembley and gave that elevated presentation WWE used to aim for with “WrestleMania”. While this was felt throughout the night, it was really drilled home with Sting coming out once again to “Seek and Destroy” by Metallica, a song he famously used in his WCW tenure (and I will be forever grateful that Tony Khan is willing to throw a pile of money to use it for a few moments each time he does). Stinger laid out Cage and Doyle before tossing his bat to Darby, who delivered a few shots before Sting could hit the Scorpion Death Drop on Knight. A genuinely touching and effective torch passing moment took place with the two Bordens on top of a ladder, before Sting shook his son’s hand, left it up to him, and Steve Borden (not to be confused with Steve Borden) laid out the Don Callis Family with a splash off the ladder to the outside, before the father and son duo removed them from the match. Darby, bat in hand, chased Kevin Knight up the rampway and there was a sense that it was time for Darby to do something stupid. Darby choked Kevin out on top of the stage and as he did so, stared up at the rigging on the stage. A nervous, awkward and eager crowd waited with excitement as Darby climbed the stage rigging and dived (for what felt like forever) to deliver a Coffin Drop to Kevin Knight on the stage. I cannot stress this enough, if you thought this looked deadly on the broadcast, you owe it to yourself to see this shot from people in the crowd. This was one of the scariest spots I have witnessed in person and it is a spectacular shot. The finish came seconds later as Kevin Knight was being placed on a stretcher and, just as Kevin did to Darby after he dropped the World Title, Darby delivered a Coffin Drop to Knight on the stretcher before pinning him and becoming the new TNT Champion. Should the most defended TNT Championship reign end with a new champion being made? Maybe. Should Darby be put back into the TNT Title box? Probably not. Did anyone in the arena care about that on the night? I highly doubt it. This match lived up to any and all expectations. Here’s to a series of chaotic defences on tv for Darby moving forward.

© AEW/Ryan Loco

AEW Women’s World Championship Match: Mercedes Moné vs WIllow Nightingale

On any other show this year, I would be demanding this be the main event. In no uncertain terms, this was the best built match for “All In”. Clear lines drawn from the start, consistent motivations, a hotly anticipated rematch in a series, these two did all that you can ask of a main event program. It is just unfortunate that this match is on the same card as our main event of the night. Mercedes made her entrance with a Black Swan inspired entrance as she marched to the ring full of confidence, while Willow entered with confetti “cannons”, something she claimed to be a tribute to the spirit of the likes of Dolly Parton who the world recently lost. Willow’s entrance was preceded by a storybook telling of the build of this match and the motivations of both women in this match. It has probably been written and said a hundred times by now, but the fact that Willow can be the squeaky clean hero week in, week out, and get the fan reaction she gets each and every week is nothing short of extraordinary. The way in which she carries herself is something that simply should not work in 2026, a world where people tend to gravitate to complicated or broody characters; and yet, this smiling and clapping babyface was easily one of the most ‘over’ people on the card. Mercedes, always phenomenal, played into the role she does best by ensuring the majority of the crowd were there to see her lose. This felt like lightning in a bottle, but before I jump into this more, there is a disappointing point that I am beyond frustrated to have to make.

Throughout the night, the common trend was that the moment a female wrestler’s music hit, men got out of their seats in droves to leave for the bathroom/drinks/whatever. Not only is this bizarre and pathetic behaviour to be doing in this day and age, but what genuinely boiled my blood was that there were men taking their sons with them at these moments, ensuring that another generation grows up with the same approach. I do not know what more people could be asking for from the women in this industry to be proving their value in this sport, I don’t understand how these wrestlers can go out week in week out and still have this happen, and I certainly don’t get why there’s zero shame in people treating these talented stars like they did in the darkest periods of women’s wrestling in the sport. It’s not lost on me that I’m a man commenting on this; I hope in some way more women will write/talk/push this, too, but the general treatment of the women on this show by 10-15% of the crowd was pathetic. The only comfort I could take from this was that each time they walked out, they missed out on a few minutes of magic on this show.

Between “All In” 2023, 2024, “Forbidden Door” 2025 and “All In” 2026, this is tied for the second best match AEW has brought to the UK, and even then, Swerve/Danielson is barely hanging on. Mercedes and Willow have such incredible chemistry on the mic and in the ring, that even with a broken hand and broken nose respectively, this match just tore the house down. Mercedes is known for not being a fan of blading in a match and this is, to the best of my knowledge after watching her for over a decade, the first time she has had a crimson mask of sorts in a match. I had always assumed Mercedes avoided being busted open as she was simply the type who wouldn’t thrive under the difficulties it can add to a wrestler’s performance, but this turned out to just be another example of somebody underestimating just how fantastic a wrestler she really is. These two women traded submissions, vicious strikes, fishhooks, insulting each other, and big power moves that looked like they hit hard. Whether it was devastating moves from the apron to the outside or just smacking each other in the ring to the point where you question how they were even still standing, these two women had a fight in this match, which easily stands at the top of their series (thus far). Mercedes targeting the broken hand had a genuine sense of unease but the Spanish fly from Willow to Mercedes in this match brought the crowd to a fever pitch, the crowd so invested in both women’s fight by now that there was almost a 50/50 split. From people leaving the stadium at the start to the loudest reactions of the night up until this point, these two had a world championship match for the ages. After a ref bump, Mercedes removed the cast from Willow and attempted further damage to Willow’s hand on the outside, before Willow turned it up and gave us the rare smart babyface spot of attacking the heel with the championship belt. Unable to capitalize on the momentum she gained here though due to the referee being out, an incredible back and forth ended with Mercedes landing the Statement Maker on Willow and the match being brought to a finish with a new AEW Women’s World Champion. The bell may have been called for earlier than planned but even that can’t take away from what these two accomplished on the night. An absolute instant classic and match of the year contender, the next time these two clash for the AEW World Championship it simply must close the show.

© AEW/Ryan Loco

AEW Men’s World Championship: Will Ospreay vs Kenny Omega

Here we go. This is, for my money, one of the worst built matches AEW has had for a PPV main event in a long, long time, and while that shouldn’t be forgotten, it’s also completely irrelevant to what happened that night. The video package recapping their feud did a tremendous job of putting together a coherent story and almost made you forget. What absolutely made everyone forget the awful build was those first few notes of The Who’s “Baba O Reily”, a song synonymous with big sporting moments in the UK. A tremendous video package for Will Ospreay was what we were given next, narrated by his own mum. This endearing voiceover from his mother, the footage from Will’s time on the UK independent scene, his rise in NJPW, his matches in the US and of course his rise in AEW to this moment. Detractors of AEW often say the company needs more video packages, and while this isn’t what they mean, this is what AEW should absolutely try to do more often for their biggest matches of the year. We went backstage and saw Ospreay linking up with Henare, Akira and Newman from NJPW, three members of United Empire, the group that he founded during his time in Japan. As The Who blared through the stadium and the four men made their way to the ring, Ospreay first walked past Zack Sabre Jr, followed by Michael Oku and Amira Blair, in a loving nod to his time in the British wrestling scene. Next, he got the look of approval from Ricochet, a dance partner that helped put Ospreay on a more global map in both the UK and his time in NJPW, before pausing for a moment with Swerve Strickland, a longtime friend and foe from the same era. Coming through a tunnel, he was stopped by Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher, two of his former United Empire cohorts and people who were unquestionably tied to Ospreay for many years. Around the corner, one half of the new AEW Women’s World Tag Champions, Alex Windsor, embraces her husband ahead of what was unquestionably about to be the biggest match of his career. And last, right at the curtain, Moxley emerged to present Ospreay the flag of the UK before walking away, nodding with a smirk. As “Elevated” hit the venue, the building became so loud that I’m sure you would’ve been able to hear this crowd halfway across London. The hometown hero, the clearly chosen one for this crowd in this match, Ospreay completed his entrance. This was big, this is what the other major wrestling companies tend to do so well, but for my money, this was better. The announcement of this show in this venue was, for many, the telegraphing of Ospreay being crowned AEW Men’s World Champion, but showing that hand paid off, as the crowd waited with baited breath for this moment to be realised.

Ospreay’s entrance has been spoken about a lot in the days since Wembley, but if you’ll indulge me for a moment, I think what was done for Kenny Omega here was even better. That might sound maddening from somebody in the building for this match, but as somebody who literally would have packed in my love of this sport and would not be sitting in front of this screen in the middle of the night writing this piece if not for Omega, this cut deep. I appreciate that for some, Kenny using music and voice over from the anime series My Hero Academia was something that was lost on them but if I’m being honest, I hadn’t seen five seconds of that show at this point. I’m sure those who know the characters of MHA got more out of it, but purely as a commentary on where Omega is in this stage of his career and life, I thought this might have been the most beautiful video package of the entire night. Showing footage from his time in DDT, in NJPW and AEW, this was a love letter to the career of Kenny Omega. “There are stories about every hero. How they became great.” Words that set the tone for the footage that followed. As we were shown footage of his highest highs and literal lowest moments, the voice-over spoke about how Kenny was a hero to fans and wrestlers alike, how things were natural to him and how he grew from each match. Commenting on his near-death experience and return to the ring, the point that broke me personally was the acknowledgement that there isn’t much time left in his career, but his job is not yet done. This package felt as much of a hype video for the crowd and those watching at home as it did something for Omega himself to listen to so he could turn that clock back one more time and deliver one more unforgettable match in his career to cement Ospreay at the top of the world. When Omega won the AEW Men’s World Championship, I couldn’t help but feel as though that this may be the last time he holds a promotion’s top championship, and with this video package, I stood there and believed that was what we were about to witness – his final entrance at the top of the mountain. I hope more than anything I am wrong, but the more time passes the more the emotions on that night feel like reality, and if this is the final time we see Omega as a world champion, he could not have done more. Don Callis famously said the heavens cried the day Kenny Omega left New Japan, and on this night, as the song “You Say Run” faded away and we heard those first notes of “Battle Cry”, Kenny Omega looked to the sky and the heavens once again opened and rain crashed down for a fleeting moment on Wembley Stadium. Accompanied by the Young Bucks, Michael Nakazawa and Brandon Cutler, Omega walked down to the ring to meet Ospreay and bring this show to a close.

I can’t pretend otherwise: this was the greatest wrestling match I have ever had the privilege of seeing live in person. The only time I’d seen both men against each other in person prior to this was an incredibly fun trios match in front of about 2,000 people in Over The Top Wrestling back in 2017 and suffice it to say, this match was a bit of a step up from that. If the Women’s World Title match was an instant classic, I don’t know what to define the Men’s World Title match as. The crowd were 95% behind Ospreay throughout the matchup, with him feeling more naturally as the babyface than he ever has in his career. Omega, while still beloved by the crowd, used everything in his arsenal to ensure that when the moments called for it most, the crowd wouldn’t give him a moment of support. Omega came in early targeting the neck of Ospreay, starting strong and behaving like a shark simply playing with its food. Ospreay, fighting from the bottom, constantly played to the crowd as if to ask them to rally behind him and give him the strength to keep going. The two played off their knowledge of each other excellently in this match, perhaps best shown with Omega’s you-can’t-escape sequence being interrupted by Ospreay’s cheeky Nandos spot. This is the type of match where you could break down each and every move that took place and appreciate the nuance of it, or you could just let the emotion (and at times, brutality) wash over you and treat it like an almost Lynchian experience. The tone of the match really changed with Omega smashing Ospreay over the skull with one of the announce desk monitors, causing blood to pour out of the freshly bleached hair of Ospreay. The subsequent Ligerbomb onto the table on the outside did just enough to put some doubt in the minds of many in the audience as to whether or not Ospreay could go on. Prior to the show, Tony Khan had repeatedly said that this show would finish on time at 10pm local time, so with a bloodied Ospreay struggling to stand and barely more than 5 minutes left before our assumed cut off, there was a genuine sense of urgency for Ospreay to make it back into the ring. I don’t believe anyone thought this would end on a count out, but naively, many of us did think Khan was being sincere when it came to timing a show for once in 2026.

Ospreay barely climbed back into the ring before being drilled with one of the most impactful V-Triggers of Omega’s career so far. Tapping back into a side of himself that we haven’t seen since his NJPW days, Kenny continued a brutal and barbaric assault which only garnered more and more support for Will. Omega won the crowd back for a brief moment with a Terminator dive, and while he may not clear those ropes as much as he used to, his approach and landing is still an absolute thing of beauty. As Ospreay struggled to stand, seconds before a top rope dropkick to the back of his neck, it really became clear to us all just how bloodied Ospreay really was at this point. His bleached blonde hair now looking a dark red, it was nothing short of a sight of carnage in the ring. The avalanche Croyt’s Wrath to Ospreay was an incredibly deadly looking spot, though thankfully both men had the sense to avoid the avalanche dragon suplex instead. With Omega readying a V-Trigger to take the match home, Will lunged and gripped the ankles of Omega to huge cheers before having his body driven into the mat with knees and strikes over and over again. This crowd, this arena, both of them were the perfect setting for this spot as all this did was rally those in attendance behind the home hero more. When Ospreay landed the hail mary Hidden Blade counter, the stadium came to life as if they had been quiet for the previous six hours. This led to the second match in a row where the heel got busted open the hard way, and it only amplified the intensity of the match. Ospreay’s bloodied head and face was a monstrous look, but Omega looking as though he was down to one eye at that exact point in the match made you feel like the challenger was right back in the fight. As the two traded devastating blows and big moves against each other, you could feel that this match was drawing near its conclusion. This led to the seemingly most controversial moment of the night – Ospreay becoming the second man to kick out of the One Winged Angel. While I personally am not a fan of this spot, it’s not my wrestling move. If Kenny wanted to give this rub to Will to cement this win even more then that’s his right to do so. It took away a core part of Kenny’s history for me as a fan, but again, if this is what he wanted to do then who was I to argue? I say this as maybe the only person who was silent in this moment in the stadium.

As both men struggled back to their feet, the crowd were disgusted at the idea of Omega getting the upper hand once more. When Ospreay delivered the second Tiger Driver 91 of the match, it felt as though we were going home. The crowd screaming “this is awesome” was an incredible sound, but as I often struggle with Omega, I legitimately couldn’t tell if his arm was damaged from this point on or if he was just telling a perfect story with Ospreay (or if the two were somewhere in between). Ospreay mounted his comeback at this stage and was firmly in control when he threw out a One Winged Angel of his own, only for Omega to kick out at one to a huge uproar from the crowd. Ospreay quickly hit the champion with a Hidden Blade and Storm Breaker, only for the champion to kick out at one again. Tying into the video package at the opening of this match, Omega rose to his feet but clearly was out, the body moving without the mind thinking. As he collapsed to his knees from exhaustion, Ospreay slowly brought himself up so the crowd knew what was coming. One final Hidden Blade, three seconds on the mat, and your new AEW Men’s World Champion, Will Ospreay. Post-match (and apparently post broadcast?), Ospreay and Omega embraced in the ring with Omega struggling to lift the championship onto Ospreay’s shoulders. To take us home, we were left with the image of Will along with the Young Bucks helping Omega to the back and the symbolic torch being passed as intended. A moment, a match, a feeling that will live in the minds of all those who were attending on the night – this was a main event for the ages and, as a frequent fly-in for these UK shows, this was undoubtedly the biggest event AEW has brought over here.

How do you sum up a show like this? How do you wrap up a live report for something like this? That’s the question I’ve been trying to answer for the past ten minutes sitting here. First and foremost, if you’ve made it this far, thank you for sticking with us. I sincerely hope that the joy that was felt in Wembley Stadium on this night bled through your TV screen and into your home. If for some reason you haven’t checked this show out, cancel your plans for this weekend and just check it out; it was a must see experience. In a world where attending professional wrestling shows is becoming more and more difficult financially, the value you get at each AEW show they bring to town is unlike anything I’ve experienced. Sure, the merchandise available might not be amazing still but the ticket price is incredible, the experience is phenomenal and it’s certainly something that’s more accessible than, say flying around the globe to experience NJPW live. AEW live PPVs are destination shows and if you have the opportunity to experience them for yourself, I strongly urge you to do so. In terms of “All In” 2026, though, there have been several moments in this still young company’s history where people have compared a show to WWE’s “Wrestlemania X7”, but I think we’ve evolved past that by now. This was without a doubt for me, one of the top 5 shows AEW has ever run, probably in the top 3 if we’re being honest. Time will tell where it will really sit, but the truth of the matter is that those two main events will stand the test of time and, I hope, inspire a generation of future wrestlers. It took one night for a young Nigel McGuiness to watch a show in Wembley Stadium for him to decide he wanted to be a professional wrestler. After tonight, I can’t help but wonder how many more wrestlers emerge from the UK in the coming decade because they saw this one.

© EVE/Chris Gannon

“All In” Weekend Diary

By Chris Gannon

After months of the biggest heatwave the UK has seen since records began, AEW refused to break tradition by bringing the rain for the fourth annual drizzly weekend, and their third time at Wembley. Admittedly that might have more to do with El Niño than Tony Khan who, despite his elite billionaire status, most likely doesn’t have access to a weather machine. At least that’s what his legal team has asked me to make clear to anyone reading this. As has also become an annual tradition, several indie companies took the opportunity to put on shows whilst London was flooded with thousands of extra wrestling fans, including yours truly.

© Chris Gannon

Thursday, 27th August

After dropping my luggage at my hotel, I rushed over to Lambeth for my first show of the weekend: Pro Wrestling Ceasefire’s “Almost In”. I arrived in time just to participate in the UK’s true national pastime: queuing. I got lucky queueing twice, both to get in and then to buy a couple of drinks at the bar before the show started. The show had sold out months in advance, and by the feel of the crowd, it was extra sold out that night. A common theme of this weekend was going to be sold out shows with mystery cards and crowds that were hot both in terms of their reactions and the temperature. I believe I lost about 10kg through sweating this weekend. My scale disagrees.

Pro Wrestling Ceasefire is a company dedicated to raising money for humanitarian relief in the Middle East, and it was the show with the most authentic British indie presentation of the weekend, taking place in a community hall in Lambeth, with a bar run by the crew on the show and the most British wrestling show event of them all: a raffle. The raffle featured some choice items donated by various friends of the company, including a copy of an AEW DC comic signed by Toni Storm and Will Ospreay. It also had a unique top prize where the winner would get to be the ring announcer for one match that night.

The show kept up the company’s tradition of kicking off the weekend with a strong four match card and a rabid crowd – as well as being finished by 10pm, because this was one hard out that couldn’t be negotiated.

After the show a few of us decamped to The Tankard to decompress and chat about the show before scattering to our various hotels.

© Chris Gannon

Friday, 28th August

After spending the day visiting a friend, I met up with some more friends – including a few of my colleagues from the Social Suplex Newsletter – at The Big Penny in Walthamstow to get some dinner, some drinks and to watch my most anticipated show of the weekend: “EVE x The World 2”. It was another show that was as sold out as sold out could be, with extra security having to be hired because several people who couldn’t get tickets said they were going to try and get in anyway.

For my money, EVE has the best production quality of any British indie, and that was on full display with an entrance for Marina Shafir that took advantage of the roller shutter door and a smoke machine to give it the real Death Riders vibe. Wrestlers representing seven countries were on the card to make it feel like a truly international affair that lived up to the name, with every match delivering something different. Plus there was a burlesque act based on John Hammond and the T-Rex from Jurassic Park, so what’s not to love?

© Chris Gannon

Saturday, 29th August

Post-EVE, I enjoyed some of the Big Penny’s excellent selection of beers, and was back about ten hours later for Mystery Wrestling, which had been the first show of the weekend to sell out. Somehow the room was even hotter than the night before, with several of the wrestlers sweating bullets before the bell even rang for their match. It was my first experience of Mystery, which started with a local flavour of what can only be described as a Progress-offer four way match between Charles Crowley, Kid Lykos, Gene Munny and Nathan Black, who for some reason undid my sandals when he was out on the floor. From there it was a mix of British indie stars, Mystery regulars and some special guests from AEW. And the Create-A-Wrestlers from the WWE games.

After surviving potential heat stroke, and pin attempts by the wrestlers in the Falls Count Someone match, we headed over to Wembley Arena for RevPro’s “14th Anniversary” show, making it just in time to see Will Ospreay making a surprise entrance for a match the night before he was about to headline the Stadium a few hundred metres away. Suffice it to say, Ospreay put in an incredible shift of work over the weekend given he also produced the EVE show the night before.

Honestly, of the five shows I attended, this was the one I was anticipating the least, but I had a great time in spite of my antipathy towards Wembley Arena as a venue. It probably helped that there was no interminable Thunderbastard match unlike the previous wrestling show I attended at this venue, by a company that shall remain nameless. Despite the show going longer than the advertised 10pm end time, which would repeat the next night, I enjoyed all of the matches with another hot crowd. Although this show didn’t come close to selling out the venue, it did draw a respectable-sized crowd, the second biggest of the weekend.

Sunday, 30th August

Finally I was ready for the big day, starting with an unofficial Social Suplex Newsletter crew meetup at the Green Man pub a short walk from the Stadium. After a few drinks and a catchup, we ambled down to Wembley, eventually figuring out the entrance we needed to take. I can safely say that, of the three “All In” shows I’ve attended, this was the best one. There was no backstage drama overshadowing the show, the main event was one of the greatest matches I’ve ever seen, supported by an excellent semi main event and the ratio of men to women on the card was approximately 5:1. That might not sound impressive, but it’s down from 11:1 on the 2024 show. Once again, the crowd was excellent, at least in my section. I’ve got to give a particular shoutout to the kid who sat by us who was a big Ricochet fan and was just generally a delight throughout the night. I even managed to resist the urge to disdainfully call him a mark for joining in on the “we want tables” chant. Yes, I can be a judgmental prick at times, I just hate that chant.

After the show, we met outside the Stadium and a few of us went and grabbed some drinks at a local pub to avoid the insane queues at the station and to chat about the show.

Monday, 31st August

On the final day of the bank holiday weekend, I attended my only non-wrestling, albeit wrestling related, show: Mick Foley’s “40 Years of Foley” at the Clapham Grand. After nearly, in the words of the promoter, “Final Destinationing Mick Foley” with a broken stool on the stage, the show got underway, with Foley telling stories from throughout his career, somehow managing to give new details on even well known stories like that of his Hell in a Cell match with the Undertaker in 1998. This was the final show of his tour, and he mentioned how he was retiring the stories that he was about to tell, which included an incredibly moving one about a match with Terry Funk in Japan set after a barbed wire death match where the both of them, covered in blood, hugged each other in front of an appreciative crowd of 150 people. The ending of the story was an incredibly wrestling thing, but Foley tells it better than I ever could. Foley announced that his next tour would be his last, and would probably happen in 2028. I’d highly encourage attending.

Wrap Up

I’ve attended “WrestleMania” week in New York in 2019, “Wrestle Kingdom” in Tokyo three times and “All In” weekend in London three times. I can safely say that nothing matches that week in Tokyo, but London is a great place to visit for these weekends. If you book early enough, you can get a decent price on a hotel, the transport system is extensive and gets you to a lot of places faster than driving would, and it has numerous fantastic restaurants and places to attend after any shows you go to. With no announced return date for Wembley and “Dynasty” announced for Liverpool in February, we can’t be sure the next time that AEW will run a PPV in London, but here’s hoping they do soon as I definitely need another weekend like this.

© Chris Gannon

EVE: “EVE x The World 2”

28th August 2026
Big Penny Social, London, UK
Watch On: MyAEW (PPV) / YouTube (Subscription)

Review By: Peter Edge

A packed Big Penny Social with 600 tickets sold would welcome EVE: Riot Grrrls of Wrestling and The World for “EVE x The World 2” as “All In” weekend started off. The queue was long, though they started early (whoever had 5:52 in the sweepstake for first person standing near the door wins the prize) to the annoyance of everyone else, with doors opening at a quarter to 7pm to make sure everyone was in by the 7:30 start.

As people were flying in, the fans in attendance would see Will Ospreay, the co-producer for EVE for the first time. The traditional Ospreay instructions to the fans on what to do if wrestlers come near them (run for your life) showed the difference between the regulars at EVE and the non-regulars.

Us regulars – when Will came to us at the Splash Zone seating area, named so because that’s where the wrestlers get thrown to – just acted like he was Staff Member Bill when he chatted to us, but the adjacent section marked out like I did when I saw John Pollock at the pub on “All In” afternoon.

Yes, you can judge me for the above statement.

Once the opening credits hit, the crowd was buzzing as Apollo 440’s “The Future’s What It Used To Be” blared out over the speakers.

The start would be fast as Session Moth Martina’s open challenge for her EVE Championship would enter its third chapter and the person to take up the challenge (I’m still trying to get it confirmed if an online form is needed to be filled for this) would be Kris Statlander.

People were happy to see Stat but people weren’t ready to see Martina lose her title – and with Stat acting very heelish with her mocking antics of Sesh, Stat was primed to be booed and she was. But it wasn’t a rejection of the booking. Martina is so beloved by the EVE crowd that whoever was going to dethrone Martina had a good shout of being a heel going forward.

Statlander would take a sprint of a match by finishing off Martina with a double tombstone, with the second iteration having a Gotch grip on it.

© Chris Gannon

The second match saw Abi Cartwright brought out as the special guest ring announcer, in a segment that concluded her search to find Amira Blair an opponent for “EVE x World 2”. In fact, Abi found Amira two opponents and a partner – and it seems that in EVE canon, Abi really likes watching Australian wrestling.

The opponents for Amira were Aysha and Frankie B, and her partner was Kingsley from the Backslide Girlz. Why it was just Kingsley and why there was no Shay Kassidy at the Big Penny, we don’t know. Maybe Abihas a strong opinion on who the ‘Shawn Michaels’ and ‘Marty Jannetty’ of the Backslide Girlz are?

The match will also hold a record for the shortest match in EVE history, according to Cagematch (though to be fair, Cagematch isn’t to be trusted considering that Kingsley was a bloke from Nottingham on the event page on the site for a few days, which would break the unique selling point of the company), as a mere four seconds after the bell rang Will Ospreay got on the mic and said on the spot that we were going to have EVE’s Got Talent 2.

48 hours after this segment, Will’s mum Sue – in the midst of that epic montage and walk out segment – talked about Will wanting to be a wrestler from the age of 16.

I don’t believe that. I genuinely believe that Will Ospreay secretly desires to be a talent show judge, because for the second time in 9 months he has put himself to be one on an EVE show.

Ospreay would judge the dancing of Aysha & Frankie B and the singing of Kingsley and Amira – and while the First Class Dolls’ dancing was really impressive, there was only one winner as Will let the crowd decide and the crowd picked Amira and Kingsley.

© Chris Gannon

The match itself once it restarted wasn’t to the level of the 15.75 classic of Amira and Harley Cameron at “Wrestle Queendom 8”, but I give it a solid nine stars which makes it better than Omega/Ospreay IV on Sunday, which I personally gave 5.

The big hook of the match was whether Amira would be impressed enough with the match Abi booked for her to hire Abi as her assistant. The fact Amira hit Kingsley and Abi with Stunners and walked off says that the answer was no.

Match 3 was the Party Match© of the night. The Hyperactive team of Safire Reed and Anita Vaughan teamed with Hollie Barlow and surprise guest star Maya World to face French Art and Rhio and Alexxis Falcon.

© Chris Gannon

It was frenetic, chaotic, and Cory Zero for some reason really wanted to do harm to herself with her flying. Her first injury scare of the weekend happened with an Orihara moonsault that saw the French Artists bounce into the chairs, with Cory Zero hurting her shoulder but she managed to plough through. Rhio would also have to grit her teeth and deal with a hurt shoulder as the final stretches of the match happened, which saw Maya pin Alexxis to cap a fun match even if I was concerned for the welfare of two people by the end.

The star of the match was Maya World. I’ve been on the “Maya World has something about her” train before she stepped foot into the TonyVerse, but sitting in the front row and seeing how fantastically smooth Maya was was something else. If you heard someone purring in a Brummie accent during this match…that was me.

Maya’s popularity was such that when she was added to the Meet and Greet roster on the night, her batch of M&G’s sold out quickly, with only Skye Blue coming as close to selling out her Meet and Greet.

Speaking of…

Skye Blue rules. She really rules. She was insanely brilliant on “EVE x The World 2” as well as what became the inaugural match for the Spirit of EVE Title that debuted on this night. To summarise the belt and its distinction – it’s a Death Match title, a No-DQ title, a stipulation title. Essentially, it’s a championship where matches have just a time-limit with no other rules. The competitors in the Triple Threat match were Lucy Sky, Emersyn Jayne and Skye Blue.

Skye had gotten a place in the hearts of the EVE regulars after her match with Emersyn in June which was a crazy match that saw blood, table spots that didn’t break the table, and green shirt staff members getting bullied by Skye – and when Skye said she would be back in August, people in the Big Penny were happy but even the highest expectation couldn’t have have expected her to exceed it as much as she had.

Within minutes, Skye was busted open and her face was a crimson mask. There was more blood on her face than there was when she ran the blade at “Blood and Guts” last year. A lot of that blood went onto the rest of her body and it ended up looking like a scene from Carrie within a few minutes.

© Chris Gannon

But Skye wasn’t taking the rest of the night off. She was the biggest protagonist in the violence. She used the Artist of Stardom Title’s point end on Emersyn’s cut and made the best use of darts since the Phil Taylor vs Raymond Van Barneveld World Championship Final in 2007 when she pierced Jayne’s mouth with them to make her look like she had fangs.

Skewers made their way in the match, a table was broken (a first at the Big Penny since I’ve started to attend EVE), and of course we had had thumbtacks.

The symphony of violence would end when Lucy hit Emersyn with a weapon (there were so many that I’ve forgot which one it was) while she was on the ropes readying to hit something on a prone Blue on a table, with Lucy replacing Emersyn and hitting her frog splash onto Skye through a table to take the 1-2-3 and the title.

It was a big moment for Lucy Sky, who has been shown tons of trust by EVE in being Willow Nightingale’s opponent for her eagerly anticipated debut for the company, and this title is a further endorsement. It is also a further change in what EVE is now. The “Spirit of EVE” is something that was the title of the rule book for all matches in the promotion in its 16-year history.

Matches were given significant leeway, so long as all competitors in the match were consenting. Low blows and foreign objects were not automatically grounds for disqualification, and there were no count-outs – with disqualification only occurring in the event of outside interference, attacking the referee, or disobeying the referee’s instructions, conveniently happening when Oscar Harding was ref, it seemed.

But now, all matches aside from the Spirit of EVE Title matches are subject to the regular ruleset that you see all over the wrestling world, with a 20-count applied to wrestlers that are outside the ring. It was something that you could see in all the other matches during the night.

After intermission, we would get what was the first defence of a AAAW sanctioned title to ever occur outside Japan, with Marvelous’s AAAW Tag Team Champs Nightshade and Nyla Rose defending against NyteSkye (Skye Smitson and Violet Nyte).

Nyla seemed one of the most affected by the humidity inside the building (apparently Mystery Wrestling the next day in the same venue was worse, which is unimaginable in my sweat glands) as she needed a break at one point and needed shenanigans from the heels NyteSkye to give her time to get her bearings back. But in all, it was a decent match that helped further the storyline with Smitson and her former Team SASSY teammate Nightshade.

After the 1-2-3 and Nightshade and Nyla’s win, Nightshade offered a handshake to Smitson and she accepted and also got a hug. With Violet, annoyed with the developments following Smitson to the back, it left the AAAW Champs to be part of a big announcement.

It was announced that “EVE x Marvelous” will happen in January and will feature Senka Akatsuki and the Spark Rush duo of Takumi Iroha and Sareee, which got a big pop from the patrons.

But the joy for Nightshade and Nyla was short-lived when Smitson came back out with Violet to attack them in a long beatdown.

With two matches left and the only announced match-up of Miyu Yamashita vs Kay Lee Ray yet to happen plus the also-announced Marina Shafir yet to turn up in the big hall, when Chantal Jordan came out, my first reaction was “that’s a good opponent for Marina”. But the packed room was here for Marina and got a massive surprise when Jon Moxley was seconding Shafir.

© Chris Gannon

It wasn’t a surprise to me, though, because I turned up at the Big Penny at half 4 for food and 15 minutes later, Shafir turned up with her mentor Mox and within minutes of arriving, Moxley was 20 feet from me, having a coffee.

The match did threaten having Marina railroading Chantal as she was so dominant, but the Brummie got more offence in and it turned into a really fun match. Marina got the win with Mother’s Milk, but the 23 year-old Jordan, in her biggest match to date, did herself a lot of credit as she played her part in the match we saw, with Moxley giving the Brummie a “great job” dap as he departed the scene.

And then it was time for the main event. The International Title showdown between Kay Lee Ray and the champ, Miyu Yamashita.

As much as I like to bring my voice and cadence of speaking to these reviews to make it feel like a realistic experience for you, the reader (yes, I’m really like this 24/7), I do try not to swear because we’re trying to be a family friendly publication (that reviews a company that is an 18+ rated show). But it has to be said, it was really fucking hot on Friday night at BPS. If you don’t believe me, Kay Lee Ray said it was “really fucking hot” to the front row. KLR has gone on to say that it was one of the hottest buildings she has ever worked in and the deliberate pace showed that the heat was insane.

© Chris Gannon

Despite this, it was a really well worked match with Miyu being Miyu and hitting hard. (Kay said that that was the hardest she’s ever been hit.) The layout of the match saw both Yamashita and KLR survive the finishers they have in the revolver by rolling out to the floor. Aubrey Edwards, who was ref for the match, would take a bump after KLR dodged a Miyu kick and Aubrey took the full force of it to the chest. There was also a gorgeous dive from Kay which saw me on the front row end up as a cushion for Miyu on that spot.

The finish saw Yamashita hit her Skull Kick and fall on top of Kay for the 1-2-3 in a good match. However, it deserves a sequel in a building where conditions aren’t the equivalent to Satan’s Storm in 1960 in the state of Texas.

But while reaction to the main event was mixed (harshly so, in my opinion), you can’t say anything negative about the blistering post-match angle.

Kris Statlander with her EVE Championship round her waist came to the ring and, in keeping with her attitude in the dethroning of Martina at the show, showed contempt for KLR, brushing past her with force. And while Kris and Miyu were teasing a showdown, Kay came back to the ring and she and Stat got into it, with Miyu very comically saying she wanted no part of the shenanigans. But the fun and games from Miyu were quickly over when Marina Shafir came from the back to jump Yamashita, put Mother’s Milk on her and declare her intention to challenge for Miyu’s belt. To quote Dann Read on commentary, “Miyu Yamashita now has a Problem”.

In all, “EVE x The World 2” was a good show with the fun vibes you would expect from a “big show” from EVE with the cameos from the top tier companies that come in for these “big shows”. But its biggest plus point from the night was its ability to leave first-time viewers of EVE with the ability to purchase this show on PPV on myAEW with a hook for the future.

The set up for Kay Lee Ray vs Kris Statlander and Miyu Yamashita vs Marina Shafir was executed brilliantly, and if I was actually a betting man, I’d put money on both those matches being on “Elite Encounters 2” in November in Wolverhampton.

Yes, another indy show on this weekend did seven times the amount of fans than EVE, but the feeling coming out of both The Big Penny and Wembley Arena for Rev Pro’s show was that the latter might have hit its final destination but EVE has plenty of bullets in the chamber to use going forward.

© Chris Gannon

“Mystery Wrestling 28”

August 29, 2026
Location: The Big Penny Social, London, England UK
Attendance: 600 people live in venue (sold out)
Watch On: Twitch.TV, Mystery Wrestling Patreon

Review by: Hillary

Welcome to my very first Mystery Wrestling review! Related, it’s also my first time watching this independent promotion, and by gosh, this show did not disappoint in terms of sheer entertainment! For those not familiar with Mystery Wrestling, this is a promotion run by Evil Uno (of AEW Dark Order fame) and presents the simple thesis that comedy wrestling is in fact, wrestling. Some people prefer hyper realism in their matches, others prefer flippy maneuvers. Comedy wrestling is another flavor in the multitude of what wrestling can be and another avenue for how it may be enjoyed. As this was my first ever show, I did not have the knowledge to understand if there were any longer term plot lines, but that did not lessen my enjoyment.

As an indie show, it was unsurprising that the production values were lower, but the absolute joy of watching the majority of talent creatively overcoming that added to this show’s charm. But I do need to note that the very beginning started with a microphone technical error that meant for a false open. So if you watch, don’t be alarmed; it’s not your tech, it’s theirs, and they resolve it quickly. The commentary on this show absolutely makes it. In some shows, one might want to mute the commentators, do not do that here. Per Uno, he had invited Ron Funches to come to the show by offering him a free ticket, but Ron asked if he could be on commentary instead. Evil Uno and Ron are hilarious, and bounce riffs off each other throughout. The show had 7 matches over the course of about 2 hours and 45 minutes. Please see below for match by match reviews.

Four Way Dance Match
(Charles Crowley vs Nathan Blake vs Gene Munny vs Kid Lykos)

This match started the show off hot (given the repeated commentary on how hot this space was this is not an intentional pun…those may come later). Crowley was the only man not obscured in a culty black robe. This was the silliest match of the night (to me), and exerted a delightful manic energy that surprised me by its inclusion of in-ring storytelling in addition to its balloon props. Each wrestler had an opportunity to show off here. Nathan Blake, who is a Canadian comedian, started the match by attacking the others with his comic barbs to get in their heads. Kid Lykos took time to do push ups and fun yoga moves. Charles Crowley, who had a kind of magician vibe going on used a wave attack (literally it was the wave) and a surprise reveal fist in a hat. Gene Munny came out with Xs taped across his nipples, this was of course solid foreshadowing for his big nipple twisting moves. Don’t worry, readers, he did get his comeuppance and that tape was ripped off in divine nipple justice as part of the match plot. I think my favorite gimmick in this match was not any of those above (though I popped for all of them), but the usage of the power of helium (as our commentators put it) to prevent several pins. The balloons, of course, lifted the wrestlers’ shoulders off the mat repeatedly, until they were killed (the balloons, not the wrestlers) one by one in hilarious ways.

The commentary for this match really played into the gimmicks at hand, with quotes like “It’s a lot like mario kart, there is only one left” in reference to balloon murder, and “You cannot stop the wave, it’s too powerful.” I hope you all listen/watch – would be incredibly curious as to which quotes others preferred.

Falls Count Someone Match
Man Like Dereiss vs Cecil Nyx – featuring 24/7 Attack Championship Match Shenanigans (Create-a-wrestler Green (c) wins after many many pins of many competitors)

Note from Cagematch: The 24/7 Attack Championship changed hands in the following order: Man Like DeReiss, Ravie Davie, Cecil Nyx, Big Strong Man, Man Like DeReiss, Melissa Fierce, Cecil Nyx, the ATTACK! 24:7 Championship itself, “Top Dog” Franklin Mayer, Cecil Nyx, Ron Funches, Aubrey Edwards, Aubrey Edwards officially vacated the 24:7 Championship due to being a referee official, Vacant (who was portrayed by Create-A-Wrestler Red after Aubrey vacated the Championship) and Cecil Nyx

As you can see from the Cagematch note above, I was not the only person who gave up trying to count the number of title changes in this match. That said, the title changes were not the point of the match. A delightful by-product? Yes. Fun for run outs? Also yes. Also kind of an amazing gag for those of us who hate when there’s too much running out in a match, creating problematic and messy finishes. It did not matter how many people ran out, the match would continue until “someone” was pinned. I actually loved this play when I realized the match would have to continue as the cavalcade of extras came out to pin each other. Aubrey’s win was due to low blowing Ron Funches, and this occurrence came up frequently in the rest of the show to hilarious commentative results.

I really enjoyed this concept, basically, instead of falls count anywhere, it’s a play on falls only count for the person who must be pinned, and no one knew who that was initially. Create-a-wrestler (green) then came out with a sign that said “Someone” on it, after Dereiss and Nyx started pinning fans.

Remember how I mentioned earlier that wrestlers got creative on their entrances? Man Like Dereiss came out and rapped his entrance. I only knew about this wrestler because of his friendship with the four English grannies he met on the way to an indie show he was booked for in Vegas at “WrestleMania” week, but to be honest, I was so excited to see him because of that feel-good story and I was happy to cheer for his win.

(Editor’s Note: A fun game to play is to try and identify how many emotes and wrestling moves that Create-A-Wrestler Green and Create-A-Wrestler Red steal from other very famous wrestlers throughout the course of this match. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed. It was delightful.)

© Chris Gannon

Eight Man Tag Team Match
Hyperactive (Anita Vaughan & Safire Reed), Kingsley & Serpentico vs Dreya Mitchell, Orange Cassidy, Rhio & Session Moth Martina

The main conceit of this match was that Orange Cassidy forgot timing and his team had to call him in the ring to get him to get there. They were down a person as he called for directions because got lost on the way to the venue. The reveal that it was OC was fun, as he of course showed up “fashionably late” and we were all glad he could make it. The next story beat in the match was whether or not he and Moth could complete a Best Friends hug, which Moth wanted an unhealthy amount. Sadly, despite multiple attempts, no hug was attained by the two during the match. After one aborted attempt, Hyperactive hugged each other, while Funches commented “Awww…that’s not the hug we want”. The continuation of solid comedic commentary truly enhanced the match for me. The match ended when OC pinned Serpentico for the win, and he finally got his hug.

Interim MLP Canadian Title Three Way Match
Stu Grayson (c) vs Brian Cage and London Lightning

This match was more solid wrestling, and less on the funny side for me, but it was good wrestling, and unobjectionable. As Brian Cage came out, the “Fuck Don Callis”/“Fuck ICE, too!” chants came with him. It’s nice to see that remains a global outcry. In other BritWres chanting news, the Roy Kent chant has now been bestowed on Brian Cage, apparently? I don’t know why he earned that, nor how, but I did enjoy it, in no small part as I just finished season 2 of Ted Lasso. Although I had less to say about this match, I don’t want anyone to think it wasn’t great, ‘cause it absolutely was – it just had fewer gimmicks, which overall is not a bad thing.

© Chris Gannon

Singles Match
Cara Noir vs Dalton Castle

I loved this battle of plumage. Cara Noir, the black swan vs Dalton Castle, our party peacock. Aubrey, who also reffed this match, came out as one of Dalton’s “boys”…which does raise some questions about her neutrality, but this was another opportunity for Funches to note he recognized one of the boys as having hit him in the balls, and I am in fact a teenage boy at heart, and that did bemuse me beyond reason. The story of the match was of a depressed Noir who felt he was not beloved by the audience and had been replaced by a bird with brighter plumage. Aubrey had to check on his mental health, which was called out as good reffing, but he was distraught by his lesser popularity throughout. Noir played this role excellently, and the audience chants that he would be ok were great. Dalton even tried to convince him to hug, but that started the actual wrestling with a lock up, which, as commentary noted, is the hug of professional wrestling. I would caveat that this note is only true when Orange Cassidy is not in the ring. His professional wrestling hugs remain hugs. The plot of the match was fun, and I hope for a rematch of bird brawling sometime down the line.

Tag Team Match
Fresh Air (Junior Benito & Macrae Martin) vs Sinner And Saint (Judas Icarus & Travis Williams)

This was overall just a solid tag team match up. Both of these teams come from Canada, and both seemed ready to perform at a high level for our entertainment. My favorite moment in the match was when the Sinner and the Saint started yelling at Martin if he wanted to meet the man, and he finally shouted, “Who is the man?”…the man was their knuckles. This led to the ending where he overcame them with his partner for the win. It is worth an out-of-ring mention that this is the point where the commentary desk started stripping, and remained shirtless for the rest of the show. It was apparently quite hot in the space.

© Chris Gannon

Mystery Wrestling Title Match
Johnny Mystery (c) vs Psycho Mike

This main event was a lot of fun. Psycho Mike and Johnny Mystery (formerly TV, formerly Elite, formerly Mundo, formerly – you get the picture) had great chemistry, as well as some amazing bits to round out the show. Psycho Mike is apparently known for body slams, and the will-they-won’t-they of his attempt to do his move was a great plot throughline, leading to Johnny rolling about the ring and Mike outwitting him to get to the ropes, only to get a boot in the face when he attempted the move. The three also had the opportunity to pose multiple times with Aubrey for the camera, in a bit that repeatedly popped me. Perhaps my favorite moment of the match was the men chasing each other outside the ring with Aubrey choosing to follow them in chase, ostensibly to tell them to return to the ring. The gags in this bit included Psycho Mike getting blown up and choosing where to sit repeatedly (on various audience members) only to be kicked by Johnny, Mike being gifted a drink by Johnny only to be then beaten up with it, and Mike then dribbling Johnny’s head like a ball on the ring, whilst trying to keep a straight face. The entire scene is worth the watch, and quite funny. The match ended when Psycho Mike got distracted by arguing with Aubrey, allowing Johnny to sneak up behind him to low blow him for the pin.

Overall, the show was a lot of fun to watch and felt like it went by quickly. I was in it for the lighthearted humor, which is why I had less to say about the quality wrestling where I missed gimmick insertions. That all said, I liked all of it a lot, and I thought the plethora of promotions allowed to participate in the show was incredibly cool. It was a lighthearted and fun show that is absolutely worth checking out and absolutely showcases one of wrestling’s many styles, and one that is too often derided out of hand, that of comedy wrestling.

© RevPro

RevPro: “14th Anniversary”

29th August 2026
Wembley Arena, London, UK
Watch On: MyAEW (PPV) / RevPro on Demand (subscription)

Review By: Peter Edge

After months and months and months and months of hype, the Road to Wembley ended and it was time for Revolution Pro’s “14th Anniversary” show to take place.

The attendance number given by Andy Quildan, as of 3pm on the day of the show, was that 4,500 tickets were sold. Speculation on whether Progress’s number (4,750) was beaten for “Hello Wembley!” at the Arena right next to Wembley Stadium in 2018 has circulated on certain wrestling media outlets. But I’m confident that isn’t the case based solely on that Rev Pro haven’t announced that they beat Progress’s number from that night in the week since “Anniversary”. Something which I’m sure Andy Quildan, promoter for Revolution Pro, would love to do, to get one up on Progress.

But the number announced is the record attendance for a Rev Pro show, surpassing that of “11th Anniversary”.

The masses – which took their time getting into the OVO Arena because of a) the horrendous weather in the late afternoon (it wouldn’t be “All In: London” weekend without the rain teething down on a Saturday) plus b) AXS deciding to be AXS and have their app play silly beggars meaning the poor people at the box office had a busier day than expected – were more preoccupied with getting drink and food than getting to their seats, meaning that by the time Francesca did her introductory spiel for the live crowd, there were more people in the concourse than there were sitting in seats in the arena.

The pre-show match saw The Death Riders pin-eaters…I mean young boys, Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta, actually win a professional wrestling match against Zander and Leland Bryant in a very basic but also easy match to watch. Interference shenanigans from Marina Shafir at ringside – who was really fun to see live, reacting to everything in the ring – led to Garcia using the feet on the ropes to pin one of the Bryants and win the match for the Death Riders.

The show proper got underway at 6pm and as advertised, it would be CPF and Callum Newman vs. Trew, Lacey & Kaven and Ricky Knight Jr. But as it was about to start, Sha Samuels – serving a suspension in storyline for beating up Dave Bradshaw, the lead commentator for Rev Pro – would come out and say that he had been reinstated and was now in the match. All Newman and CPF needed to do was find a partner. When “Elevated” hit, the pop was huge as people realised that Will Ospreay was the fifth man for Team CPF.

Ospreay turning up was a huge surprise, as the idea that Tony Khan would let Ospreay – on the night before one of the biggest cards in AEW history – take part in a match with 9 other bodies seemed inconceivable. But in 2026, inconceivable and wrestling go together very well.

Luckily for everyone involved, we got the closest thing we’ll ever see to a Will Ospreay house show match – and after 14 minutes that really didn’t feel like 14 minutes, Ospreay hit Sha Samuels, someone that Will has only faced 1 vs. 1 once before in 2014 at “1PW: UK”, with the Hidden Blade to win the match for Team CPF.

The post-match saw Will apologise to Callum for being a Death Rider (mate, I had to watch that storyline every week for two months – me and my friends want an apology, too!) and asked him to second him the next night, which was accepted.

Luke Jacobs vs PAC was technically really good but until PAC hit a belly-to-belly from the top rope, it wasn’t interesting at all. That suplex would ignite the match as it entered the second half with a bunch of near falls dominating the final stretch.

It would be a decisive win for Luke after a piledriver and lariat saw PAC kick out, but a choke out from Jacobs would take the honours for the Mancunian over the Geordie.

The “Scramble” match to determine a contender for the British Women’s Title would see Cory Zero, Emersyn Jayne, Kay Lee Ray, Rhio, Lucy Sky and Myla Grace compete, in a match that would have been better if it was given more time than the 10:03 it was given and also given more to do than the usual spot fest associated with scrambles.

With a No-DQ stipulation associated with the match, you’d hardly know that was the case, with just a kendo stick spot with Myla and Lucy using the No-DQ element making the match a G-rating compared to the NC-17 fest the night before at EVE in the match involving Lucy and Emersyn.

Lucy Sky would take the win in a match that was overshadowed by Cory Zero’s second “Ohihara Moonsault Gone Wrong” of the weekend, but this time it was something more serious as the ringside paramedic was needed to attend to Cory. It would turn out that Cory did damage to her knees (yes, knees in plural) with severe bruising on them.

I have read write-ups on the match saying that the match might have been cut short because of the Cory injury, but you need to remember that this is the women’s division and Rev Pro. This match was always going to be shorter than all the matches that went on before and after.

Leyton Buzzard vs. Nino Bryant would be overshadowed by what looked like a legit injury to the champ Buzzard. The paramedic, who might have been the major character of the night with all the bodies falling as the night went on, attended to Leyton’s leg and from then on we saw shortcuts aplenty with his Leyton’s Top Tier teammates, James Ellis and Josh Holly, running interference often. But as they were sent to the back, the finish would come quickly after as Nino’s attempt at a splash saw Buzzard hook on a guillotine choke and Bryant pass out in the hold for the second ref stoppage in three matches.

A possible pointer to Leyton’s injury was the body language post-match and the curtain call he took, which was very much unlike the ego-centric character he has portrayed since turning heel a few months back.

Many people’s match of the night would be next. FTR and Cowboy Way’s match for the Rev Pro Undisputed Tag Titles was worthy of that conversation. The match had a structure that was very FTR-shaped. The two duos were split into two separate match ups. Dax & One Called Manders and Cash & Thomas Shire. FTR would be faces on the night, as illustrated by FTR slapping hands on the entrances, and Cash would be playing the face in peril (or playing ‘Ricky Morton’, to use a Southern Wrasslin’ phrase). Dax got the hot tag and did the ‘fists’ thing he did in his babyface run in AEW. The final third would see the match hit a home run.

Dax was isolated as Cash was being seen by the paramedic – who is the resident medic at Rev Pro shows and can give off main character energy at times, especially in angles and “working injury” moments like I was certain Cash’s shoulder injury was on this occasion.

Thomas Shire got busted open and ended up looking like Wolfpac Sting by the end of the match, an end that came at 17:18 after the Shatter Machine downed Manders.

While it was very ‘Babyface Big Match FTR-coded’ in its structure, a lot of this match also saw Mid-South in its DNA. It was a very enjoyable match.

© RevPro

Next was the battle of the Slaters: Liam (the coach) versus Leon (his protégé) would see Liam powerbomb Leon early but Leon got the advantage after a dive and did 10 punches in the corner and hit an enzuigiri.

The pair would trade moves until Liam hit a front suplex onto the ring apron, leading to an Irish whip into the turnbuckle and Leon hitting hard into the buckle.

Leon hit a Styles Clash, Helluva Kick, Spinning heel kick, crossbody, backbreaker and big boot, but Liam grabbed Leon’s leg which led to corner shenanigans and Liam dropping Leon stomach-first to the top turnbuckle.

Liam put an abdominal stretch on Leon which Leon got out of, and then the pair tried to suplex each other but ended up suplexing each other to the outside from the ring. However, both landed on their feet and then Leon suplexed Liam onto the apron.

Both beat the 10 count. Liam hit running strikes but was interrupted by a heel kick. Liam begged for forgiveness. Leon turned his back and Liam tried a low blow which was blocked. Leon hit another heel kick and then hit a Springboard 720 DDT and then his Swanton 450 to win the match.

Post match, HMD – a Liam protégé – attacked Leon but Jody Fleisch (a legend of the 00s) made the save and Leon and Jody celebrated afterwards.

You’re probably wondering whether or not I got hit in the head and now I think I’m Dave Meltzer – but ummmm, there’s a reason I went so deep into the weeds for this match in describing it. If you bought this show on myAEW on PPV, you didn’t see the Battle of the Slaters…the stream cut to hype packages for other matches on the show after Dave Bradshaw said that they were taking a break, but they showed the match on Rev Pro’s OnDemand service.

When what was going on came to light as the event was going on, the public perception was that Carlos Silva was being Carlos Silva and being a cuck to WWE, but it turned out that Andy Quildan, according to the Wrestling Observer, made the call to cut the match from the myAEW broadcast.

In my opinion, this is poor from Andy. If it’s an attempt to be Switzerland and play nice, I am very confident that this won’t be reciprocated by TNA. Heck, TNA have pulled Leon Slater from shows multiple times and I’m convinced that they played shenanigans in Ricky Sosa pulling out of “High Stakes” in Wolverhampton earlier in the year, and to pull the match from a PPV broadcast took the mickey out of the buyer on a night where they were dressed to impress and as of writing, Rev Pro’s promise that the Slater match would air on YouTube has not been met.

Did the myAEW viewer miss out? Yes, it was very good. Leon is Leon and you know his quality, even if he is affiliated with a Death Star linked promotion, and Liam not wearing knee pads really annoys me but he is very technically sound. The problem with this match was that the crowd didn’t care. They entertained themselves with “Let’s Go Slater, Slater Sucks” chants because remember British wrestling fans are hilarious (spoiler – they are not) and while the action was fun, the whole controversy surrounding the match left a bad taste at the end.

The Revolution Gauntlet Match, Rev Pro’s version of the Casino Gauntlet Match that AEW has invented almost lasted as long as the version of the match that we saw at “All In” in 2025.

At 27 mins, it was long, and we also saw two matches going on at the same time. David Francisco, TK Cooper, JJ Gale, Joshua James and Leon Cage had a Revolution Pro lore match while Drilla Moloney, Robbie X (both announced) & Gabe Kidd, Francesco Akira and Henare (surprises) had a New Japan faction warfare match, with most of that NJPW match being on the outside.

Highlights included TK Cooper and Henare – both New Zealand Maoris – exchanging spots before headbutting each other and hugging it out, Robbie X and Leon Cage doing Robbie X and Leon Cage things and Isaac Murray – the Contender – being a piñata for the other wrestlers at times.

But the main highlight was when Jeff Jarrett came out. A debate between me and friends who attended “Anniversary” was: who got the bigger pop? Ospreay or Jarrett? And it’s not crazy to say that the prodigal son coming home got out-decibled by Jeff Jarrett.

The pop Jeff got was loud and the fans had a good time with it. Too much of a good time as Double J songs dominated the soundtrack of the rest of the match, with no other entrants post-Jarrett. It was a sign that a large percentage of the attendees probably haven’t watched much Rev Pro, or any in 2026.

Jarrett would clear house with his trademark Tennessean punches and he would really endorse Drilla by doing the Fargo Strut with him (I mean, JJ Gale was in the room). Moloney won the match after hitting Leon Cage with the Drilla Killer while Cooper had Francisco in a submission, with David tapping out shortly after the 3-count. (I guess that means the feud must continue.) Jarrett endorsed Drilla again after the match.

I wonder if Jarrett is now a member of Unbound Company. Knowing Jeff he’ll probably try to join the AEW version of United Empire.*

*(Editor’s Note: Don’t put this evil on me, Ricky Bobby.)

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The now annual Zack Sabre Jr. Rev Pro appearance at “Anniversary” would be accompanied by the band Mass Line playing him out with their song, “Young Punks”. The patrons weren’t impressed with the fact that the time it took Mass Line to get ready felt longer than the duration of the women’s “Scramble” match.

The match between Zack and Jay Joshua was good, but it was also the least good of the last four “Anniversary” show matches ZSJ has had. Part of it was the atmosphere. A lot of people there probably didn’t know who Jay was and in the process thought he had no chance of winning. Heck, I’ve seen Joshua wrestle in a British Legion Club in Stourbridge and I didn’t think Jay had a chance and that’s what made the finish, which saw Jay winning via Emerald Flowsion and Lariat, so good in my biased eyes – but the fact it came out of nowhere was also a detriment.

With the match building up, seeing Jay’s arm and Zack’s ribs as focal points of offence, we hadn’t got to the near falls section of the match and then Jay hit his two big moves to beat Sabre Jr. While that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, fans were expecting the match to ramp up and it just didn’t.

The match just didn’t get into a higher gear like Jacobs vs PAC did and therefore didn’t have the vibes of the Hechicero match at “12th Anniversary” and Zozoya at “13th Anniversary” last year. For the record, Ricky Knight Jr. was Zack’s opponent at “11th Anniversary”, but no match that RKJ has ever had has had ‘vibes’ – no matter how technically sound it was.

With Jay and Luke Jacobs getting wins over big names wrestling for the two biggest companies in the world that aren’t the Fed, it’s very obvious that Andy Q is making the pair his ‘push to the moon’ project for the next year, and understandably so. They are both very good wrestlers. It’s just a shame that the matches they had on this night didn’t hit the high ceiling they had in potential.

Kanji’s title coronation went exactly how it was planned out, built as good vs. evil with the Women’s British Champion Alexxis Falcon delving into the Disney villain bag of tricks throughout her reign and Falcon’s entrance really playing into her villainous persona.

By the time Kanji came out it was 21:40 British Summer Time and we had been in Wembley Arena for 4 hours already. We were all tired. The Rev Pro regulars were trying to get behind Kanji, a popular player on the Rev Pro circuit, but the crowning of the new queen of the women’s division fell a little flat through no fault of the pair in the ring, as it was a very solid match with good callback to their months-long feud. But people were just tired from the non-stop action during the card with no variety in the action – a constant complaint from some about the company and its in-house style. But credit to the main event, they got the fans back (even if quite a few left beforehand because of last trains leaving before Connor Mills and Michael Oku entered the ring for their British Heavyweight Title match).

© RevPro

In my critically acclaimed preview (ok, some people slipped into my DMs to say “good job”) of “All In” weekend, I said that the chances of Oku-Mills becoming the standard 30-minute “Michael Oku epic” was high. Well, I was wrong and I’ve never been more happy to say I was wrong. This ruled.

Sure, Mills bleeding like a man who is on a diet of bloodthinners helped with my opinion – but the match, built as one between two men who hated each other, was wrestled as one where it looked like both men hated the other, unloading forearms on each other and within four minutes both were bloody. Connor especially saw Skye Blue’s crimson mask the night before and went, “Watch this!” But Skye didn’t run to the paramedic to bandage him up though, unlike Connor who did.

That might be unfair to Mills to be honest, because it was more like shades of Eddie Guerrero at “Judgment Day 2005” (to compare how gnarly the blood was). But away from the blood it was great. Oku hit all his big moves with two frog splashes and his newly established finisher, Final Destination (a re-named Made In Japan), on Mills. But Mills kicked out to a huge pop.

Despite looking like he had been hit by a bus, Mills still put out all of the stops with a big spot, which saw the traditional insanity bump from Michael when Connor hit a Ki Krusher from the top rope onto the turnbuckle and then Mills locked on his ankle lock finisher. With Oku struggling to get to the ropes, he pleaded with his ally Isaac Murray to hand him a chain but Amira, the valet and partner of Oku stopped Murray in his tracks – and with a leg grapevine added, Oku tapped out to see a new champ in Connor Mills.

The post-match saw Jay Joshua celebrate with Mills and Oku put the belt round Mills’s waist, in a callback to a key moment in their feud when Mills did the same with Oku, only for Oku to kick him in the head seconds later. But this time Oku left the ring in peace.

“Anniversary” was a show that was good with a couple of belters (Oku/Mills and FTR/Cowboy Way) and with some matches that didn’t fill its potential (Jacobs/PAC and Sabre/Joshua), but the main event left the fans with a pleasing leaving reaction. But there are more questions than answers coming out of Revolution Pro’s biggest night.

This show really felt like a final destination for the Road to Wembley that has been the theme of the company in 2026. Not many threads have come out of the show, with a lot of end games in feuds that were built up to the show with no real justifiable rematches for the title matches on this night.

But also with the questions about Oku’s future in Rev Pro, as Michael feels like a fit for the AEW version of United Empire, the main event scene needs to be built up, and those wins for Jacobs and Jay Joshua look like a concerted effort to build that scene at the top of the card. But Rev Pro hit their greatest heights in the wrestling economic world with their greatest ever attendance. The question is, what next?

Well, if I knew the answer – I’d have been able to buy tickets for the front row for “All In” this past bank holiday weekend.