By Will Pruett, ProWrestling.net Co-Senior Staffer (@itswilltime)
For the last month, the build to AEW All In has been uneven and odd. When looking at the top two matches for the Men’s and Women’s World Championships, we see misaligned heels, faces, challengers, and champions. After nailing the build to All In 2025 one year ago, AEW took a step back when promoting All In 2026. When it came time to execute All In 2026, AEW did the impossible – they created magic and captured perfection out of an imperfect build. For Mercedes Moné, Will Ospreay, Willow Nightingale, and Kenny Omega, immortality was achieved on the biggest stage despite imperfect conditions. This is the magic of professional wrestling and of myth-making behind major events.
Let’s start with our champion as the main event began – Kenny Omega. I have spent the last year since All In 2025 wondering what gear current Kenny Omega could get to. I have spent hundreds of words in this very space questioning myself. Am I selfish for wanting to see the 2017 version of Kenny who gave so much of himself for us? Does that version of Kenny currently exist? What about the “shell of himself” version of Kenny from 2023 that still gave us classics? After the match with Kazuchika Okada at All In 2025 did not live up to my lofty expectations, I have been regularly questioning my expectations and Kenny himself.
Add in that Kenny Omega did not win the AEW Men’s World Championship until July and defended it just one time in a match that was fine. Kenny entered All In with expectations lower than they should be and with pressure on him to deliver. Omega and Ospreay had truly epic matches in 2023 to live up to as well.
Kenny Omega found a way to turn back the clock on this night. At All In 2026, from the video package preceding his entrance to the moment the bell rang to end the match, we saw a version of Kenny Omega I thought we could never see again. The quick snap of his movements, the reactions, the way Kenny projects emotion in a match – suddenly the master was at work again. Omega was less himself from his AEW Men’s World Championship reign in 2020-2021 and more the IWGP Heavyweight Champion of 2018.
Willow Nightingale never should have been a champion entering All In. At AEW’s biggest show of the year, we tend to see our protagonists accomplish their dreams – not enter already at the height of them. Sadly, for Willow, injuries at odd times this year took her out of the “childhood dream” at All In coming true department. Willow Nightingale was already champion coming into this event. It’s hard to be both the underdog and the champion.
Willow was dealt another blow by a horribly timed hand injury. Now entering the biggest match of her career – the first singles match Willow would have at All In – she had to deal with a broken hand. Much like the brave knight presented in Willow’s pre-entrance promo, Willow did not let this stop her. As her music played and Willow walked to the ring clad in confetti cannons, she projected the confidence and smile we know of Willow. She gave us a glimpse of the emotion of the moment and fought through those feelings for the fight ahead. And what a fight it was against Mercedes Moné, a wrestler Willow has seen often in singles competition, but who felt fresh for her on this night. Willow was able to bring her best – and this was the best match of her career – even when the conditions were imperfect.
The best match of a wrestler’s career does not happen alone and in this instance, Mercedes Moné was as big of a player as Willow when it came to creating something perfect in the middle of the ring at Wembley Stadium. Ideally this build would have seen Moné as the long term AEW Women’s World Champion looking to defeat yet another challenger at AEW’s biggest show of the year. Moné plays the confident champion well and has had two of the greatest matches in WWE’s history doing so (vs. Bayley at NXT Takeover Brooklyn in 2015 and vs. Bianca Belair in the main event of WrestleMania 37 night one).
Mercedes found herself in the unfamiliar role of challenger for one of these matches, but also found herself needing to be meaner, tougher, and better than she has ever been. The best big match performer in wrestling over the last 11 years stepped up and proved why she deserves to be called this again at Wembley. She took a scenario that could have turned her into a babyface battling for her first AEW Women’s World Championship and made sure she was as hated as ever. She also took an early match broken nose and, instead of performing below expectations for the next twenty minutes, kicked into high gear, not just selling the injury but allowing the presence of blood to enhance and make this match. Mercedes proved in this match of the year contender that perfection is never far off when you’re as good as she is.
Finally, our hero going into All In’s main event was Will Ospreay. I have written a lot about Ospreay not being as likable or as tough as I wanted him to be during this build. He was not the self-assured hero I felt this build needed. Since his return from a neck injury, the Ospreay we have seen on screen has not appeared confident. He has not appeared to know who he was. We were told the story of Ospreay returning to form, but we were told it through the lenses of Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega – two men fighting to mentor Ospreay into their perfect champion.
It turns out that uneven build and character did not matter, as Ospreay had everything he needed to be a hero in one long walk. Ospreay’s presentation at All In began with a video package charmingly narrated by his mom (AEW is a wrestling promotion that loves and treasures moms; see Trent’s mom, Sue). This package alone had me deep in my feelings about Will Ospreay on this night. This was the lens he needed to be the hero we cheer for. This continued on through Will’s long walk to the entrance stage. On his way, Will walked through different eras of his career. Friends and foes from those eras stood as Ospreay passed them. Each one seemed to say “this is it” through their actions. Ospreay walked solemnly, nervously, feeling the weight of his own history as he passed each man. His wife gave him a kiss. His friend and foe Jon Moxley gave him his flag. It was Will’s time, and the weight of the moment hit all of us as The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” played.
Will Ospreay’s traditional entrance music hit, and the emotion of the crowd took over. The uneven moments in the past did not matter, the perfection of this moment had superseded them. In this match, Ospreay was fighting from underneath against a truly unstoppable foe. Kenny Omega may have channeled his past self, but Ospreay had to find himself in the moment. Under the bright lights and high expectations of Wembley Stadium and the torch of a company being passed, Ospreay morphed into the hero he was always capable of being. As his past and his present looked on, Ospreay set a path for his future.
Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay found perfection together in the ring at All In. It was beautiful to watch Kenny become the man that Ospreay idolized once again, and Ospreay find a way to defeat god himself. When Ospreay hit that last brutal, bloody Hidden Blade and the referee counted to three, a changed man emerged. Ospreay could not be made in the last five months since his return from injury. Will Ospreay could only be made through battle with the man who has defined excellence in professional wrestling for the last decade.
Mercedes Moné and Willow Nightingale found perfection together beneath the arch of Wembley Stadium. The circumstances did not hand them an easy road or a ready-made story. Their past matches showed them capable of some very good performances, but never hit the heights they saw on this night. Willow Nightingale – the fallen knight still smiling and still fighting – found herself looking up at Mercedes, but this loss makes Willow even stronger. Mercedes Moné, often the bridesmaid when it came to the AEW Women’s World Championship, now finds herself holding one title. These two created beautiful bloody magic together and left plenty of room to go back for more when the time is right.
In wrestling, a back-to-back match run as we saw at All In is nearly impossible. A perfect 90 minutes to end a pay-per-view feels almost too great to imagine. At All In, AEW created magic in the way only this promotion can – through genuine emotion. Characters and humans crossed in both of these matches in the way they can only cross in professional wrestling.
When I remember AEW All In 2026, I’ll remember these matches. I’ll remember Willow’s fighting spirit. I’ll remember the night Kenny Omega’s legend lived again. I’ll remember Mercedes finally winning the big belt. I’ll remember Will Ospreay’s career retrospective walk to the ring. These were perfect stories painted on the Wembley Stadium canvas in sweat and blood.
And now, because I always have thoughts and exactly 10 of them, here are 10 thoughts on AEW All In:
– Wembley Stadium looked and sounded great on this show. AEW production outdid themselves when it came to the entrance set, the crowd mic’ing, and the overall feel of this major stadium event. AEW has gotten better and better at shooting shows like this, and their skill was on display in this one. This show had everything from big entrances, pyro shooting in and outdoors, massive choreographed camera sweeps and movements, and more. This was the best-produced show AEW has ever put together. Their production team should be proud.
– My other favorite match on this show, ranking below the final two matches to close out the night, but just barely, was the AEW International Championship match between Kazuchika Okada, Konosuke Takeshita, and Kyle Fletcher. This was my most anticipated match of the evening, and it delivered both in action and in the ongoing drama within the Don Callis Family. Okada choosing to pin Fletcher even after taking out Takeshita was a hilarious choice for our favorite comedy wrestler to make. I know this is not over, and we should see singles matches between all three of these men in the coming months. This brings a bigger smile to my face than Okada gets when he says “bitch.”
– At various points on this show, you could feel wrestlers speeding from moment to moment and spot to spot. This was most apparent in the Casino Gauntlet Match, eventually won by Andrade El Idolo. I did not hate the number of abbreviated entrances or the way the action in this match seemed to speed along. Last year, over an hour was dedicated to this Gauntlet at All In; this year, less than 30 minutes. The wrestlers worked hard to keep this one moving from place to place. Andrade as a future AEW Men’s World Championship challenger should be really fun to see. He is not an obvious opponent for Ospreay, but when I think of them together, I think it could work.
– Kevin Knight and Darby Allin worked their Falls Count Anywhere match for the TNT Championship at a true breakneck pace as well. This match seemed to rush from big set piece to big set piece, finally culminating when Allin and Steven Borden looked to be in peril and Metallica’s “Seek and Destroy” played for the spiritual father of Darby and actual father of Steven, Sting. This was the stunt show style match I expected from these two, with the kind of climax I expected as well. Darby Allin has never met an entrance stage he does not want to fall backwards off of. This is both admirable and dumb (complimentary).
– Adam Copeland and Christian Cage surprised me by retaining the AEW Tag Team Championships against The Young Bucks. The match, much like this feud itself, never got into a high gear, but was fine. Matt and Nick Jackson continuing to challenge for and not win the titles has to be leading to a major moment in AEW storytelling. Christian being the one to cheat, while Copeland seemed to look on, is intriguing and a further development of their characters. I hope to see Copeland and Christian have more matches against more wrestlers – something this post-match set up.
– The true story of the tag title match was the aftermath of it, which saw The Motor City Machine Guns, FTR, and The New Level (more on them in a minute) come out to confront both Cage and Copeland and The Young Bucks. These five teams in one ring at one time is a wild sight for fans of tag team wrestling. I hope we are going to see either some banger TV tag matches between these wrestlers (much like the AEW Men’s World Championship booking earlier this year) or a tournament of some sort also featuring The Dogs, Death Riders, and Brodido. AEW is rich in tag team talent, and now is the time to make big matches with these wrestlers before time runs out.
– The New Level, Austin Creed and Kofi, debuting as partners for Swerve Strickland and as this show went on the air was a very fun moment in AEW. Yes, we all expected this and could tell something like this was being set up, but seeing Kofi and Austin Creed wrestle in an AEW ring was still a delight. I did not enjoy a fair portion of the Trios Roulette Royale and still question having major characters fans care deeply about sidelined when it came to selling major matches on this show (Swerve and Hangman Adam Page, if you’re wondering), but the debut of The New Level made for a big moment to kick this show off and make it feel special.
– Jon Moxley vs. Nigel McGuinness for the AEW Continental Championship and the Continental Cup was a major missed storytelling opportunity. I wrote last week about this show lacking some of the personal feuds that made the build to All In 2025 work, and this was a match that needed a personal feud, not a weak tournament. Moxley and McGuinness have a deep history with each other and are wrestlers AEW fans care about. Why not give fans a clear-cut story about McGuinness defending himself or others against Moxley’s heinous actions? The match was better than Nigel’s other efforts in the tournament, and I appreciated what he put into it and the emotion of the moment for him. For Moxley, this felt like putting another wrestler fans have strong feelings for in a match where those feelings do not matter.
– The Brawling Birds winning the AEW Women’s Tag Team Championship felt like a nice moment for Alex Windsor and Jamie Hayter, but still like a consolation prize. I am glad neither of these women were in the World Championship picture for this show, but still wonder if there is more to accomplish with the two of them. I also wonder which heel tag teams we will see challenge these two. Does AEW have the women’s roster and time to put together some compelling matchups here?
– We talk often about the length of AEW shows and, while I don’t see it changing much when shows are based in the U.S., the relative brevity of this show was appreciated. While we could feel certain moments being hurried along, the big moments had their time to shine (looking at you, Mercedes and Will celebrating) and the major matches still felt important. This was a four-and-a-half-hour show instead of a six-hour show last year and, when you’re discussing shows of that length, I will always choose the tight four-and-a-half hours. I understand why AEW shows are as long as they are and, while I disagree with the philosophy, I get why Tony Khan has it. I believe this show felt more special because it did not drag on.
Is there more to say about the biggest wrestling show of the year? Probably! Will I be saying it? Probably not! I spoke with Jason Powell and Jake Barnett after this show for Dot Net Members (including our Patreon patrons), and we ran down the full thing. If you want more thoughts, I promise I had them on that podcast.
Will Pruett writes about wrestling and popular culture at prowrestling.net. To see his video content, subscribe to his YouTube channel. To contact, check him out on Bluesky @itswilltime, leave a comment, or email him at itswilltime@gmail.com.
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