All Elite Wrestling
All Out 2026
September 26th, 2026
NOW Arena
Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Watch: HBO MAX / Prime Video / MyAEW / YouTube / DAZN / & more!
Instant Reaction LIVE (Flagship Patreon)
Meet our reviewer:
Sean Sedor: It’s been a pretty busy Saturday for Sean. He spent a couple of hours at the Bloomsburg Fair (the closest thing Pennsylvania has to a State Fair), watched the first half of Penn State’s game today vs. Wisconsin (still ongoing as I type this), and now he’s ready to check out AEW All Out! You can find Sean on Twitter @SASedor2994 and on BlueSky @sasedor2994.bsky.social. If you’re interested in some of Sean’s other escapades, you can watch him play the Formula 1 games on YouTube (just search his name and you’ll find the channel), and you can also go to the Be The Booker forums if you’d like to check out Sean’s EWR Diary, where he plays as WCW (started in 1998, currently in January 2005).
Tailgate Brawl
Jack Perry def. Katsuyori Shibata
On recent episodes of AEW television, Jack Perry issues a challenge to Samoa Joe, but The Opps responded by saying that Perry would have to go through Katsuyori Shibata first (these two previously had a match for the TNT Title back on WrestleDream 2024). Perry got in some aerial offense early before Shibata cut him off and sent him to the floor. Back in the ring, Perry tried playing Shibata’s game by exchanging hard strikes with him, to….mixed results. A close nearfall for Perry off a Tiger Bomb led to a close nearfall, but Shibata responded with a massive chop that knocked Perry flat on his back. A few more exchanges led to a choke attempt by Shibata, which was countered by Perry for the winning fall. This was a perfectly fine, yet easily forgettable match that gave us the result we all expected. It simply existed to get to the next step of this little story, as Samoa Joe did indeed make his return in the post match. Perry would egg on Joe as he demanded a handshake, and Joe simply responded with a headbutt. With WrestleDream only three weeks away, I can easily see them holding off this match until that PPV, and it should be pretty good. Joe vs. smaller guys is always an excellent dynamic. ***
Tailgate Brawl
The Sisters Of Sin (Julia Hart & Skye Blue) def. Mina Shirakawa & Queen Aminata
A late addition to the Tailgate Brawl saw Julia Hart and Skye Blue get the win over Mina Shirakawa and Queen Aminata. The babyfaces had the early edge until Julia grabbed Mina’s leg, allowing Skye to go on the offensive right before the commercial break. Aminata and Mina would fight back with a cool little double-team as the latter had Skye locked in the Figure Four while the former came off the top with a double stomp. There was a bit more back and forth before Skye just….hit the Code Blue on Mina out of nowhere, and got the pin. The result was a tad surprising in the moment, but they did give the hometown wrestler the pin, and The Sisters Of Sin were probably overdue for a win (no issues with them in their current roles as loss posts for Thekla, but you do need to give Julia and Skye some wins to keep their credibility). If you missed this match, there’s really no need to go back and watch it. Nothing special. **1/2
Tailgate Brawl
The Bang Bang Gang (Jay White, Ace Austin, & The Gunns with Juice Robinson) def. The Death Riders (Daniel Garcia & Wheeler Yuta with Marina Shafir) & The Dogs (Clark Connors & David Finlay)
Before this match, we got a fun backstage interview segment with Mick Foley talking to “Coach” Juice Robinson and the rest of the Bang Bang Gang. The Dogs came out with a keg, while the Death Riders came out with their own custom football gear, which was pretty cool. All four guys also got little graphics at the bottom of the screen (sort of like what you would see on Sunday Night Football) where they listed some very funny places of origin. David Finlay was from Big Dog Dogiversity, Daniel Garcia was listed as Homeschooled, Clark Connors was from Straight Out Of Your Girl’s Crib, and the best of all, Wheeler Yuta was listed as being from Jon Moxley’s basement. The Bang Bang Gang also got a big football starting lineup introduction.
All eight guys charged at each other out of a three point stance to get this Tailgate Brawl…on the Tailgate Brawl….started. From there, it devolved into the chaos that you would’ve expected. The heels ran a play that led to Finlay and Connors bowling their way through some of the members of the Bang Bang Gang on the floor. After getting suplexed on a cornhole board, Ace Austin kicked off a big comeback that swung the momentum in his side’s favor. This included White hitting a swanton onto the pile on the floor (can’t tell you the last time I’ve seen White do any sort of dive like that). Eventually, the two coaches…Juice and Marina…got into a brawl after Juice threw the challenge flag following Marina’s interference. We then got a quick flurry of spots before White pinned Yuta with the Blade Runner with just under a minute left in the show. It seemed like they were on the verge of carrying this match over to the main card, but they got it done just in the nick of time. I had an absolute blast watching this one from start to finish. They did a really nice job with the football theme, and the actual match was a ton of fun (way more entertaining than the women’s Tailgate Brawl from last year’s All Out). Is this the kind of match that’s going to fill up your notebook? No, but it was enjoyable for its spot on the card, and managed to walk that line of being silly at points, without going too over the top with it. ***1/4
AEW National Title
Andrade El Idolo (c) def. PAC (with Marina Shafir)
An interesting choice to kick off the PPV proper. PAC issued this challenge to Andrade on a recent episode of Collision when The Death Riders attacked the AEW National Champion following a successful defense against Daniel Garcia. This seemed like it was going to get off to a slow start, but then both guys went right after each other, with PAC nailing a big German Suplex, while Andrade quickly responded with his nasty back elbow. Things got into a more normal rhythm from there, with PAC gaining control after things spilled to the floor (partly due to interference by Marina Shafir). Andrade did manage to respond with his fakeout moonsault, and it became a more even affair from there. We eventually got to the spot where Andrade took off his pants, and a great point was brought up by the announcers. Why doesn’t this guy have tearaway pants? He’s been to New Japan enough times this year….can’t he get some pointers from Taichi?
At one point, Marina got sent into the crowd by Andrade, and this paid off in a cool way where she returned from the dead to choke out whatever girl Andrade was taking pics with at ringside. This led to a flurry of aerial offense from PAC, but Andrade went back to that back elbow to give himself some breathing room. An attempt to follow up on the floor led to PAC just destroying him with a belly-to-belly into the barricade. Once they returned to the ring, we did get a rather silly finish, as Andrade nearly lost after falling for Marina’s offer of a kiss (a distraction so obvious that even a blind person could see it coming). PAC connected with a poison rana and a big lariat, but an attempt at the Brutalizer was countered into a pin, and that was it. This had a ton of really good action throughout, and if things had played out differently, it could’ve started off the PPV on a super high note. Unfortunately, some of the shtik did get in the way/drag this one down a bit. I didn’t mind the spot with Marina choking out the girl at ringside, but the kiss offer from Marina that set up the finish just made Andrade look like the biggest idiot in the entire world. Even though I’ve been super impressed with Andrade on the whole since his return to AEW, his character stuff has gotten progressively more annoying. There’s nothing wrong with necessarily, but the issue currently is that he’s dialed it up to eleven when it needs to come back down to like….a seven or eight. Again, the wrestling itself was fairly strong, though the issues I mentioned prevented it from being even better. ****
#1 Contender’s Match
The Don Callis Family (Kevin Knight & Kyle Fletcher) def. TNT Champion Darby Allin & Steven Borden
I really like what they’ve done with these two teams in the build towards this PPV, as they’ve gotten wins over the two challenging teams in Three-Way Ladder Match for the AEW World Tag Team Titles later in the night (helps set up various potential bouts based on the outcome of that one). It’s been amazing to see Steven Borden get thrown into the deep end this quickly into his pro-wrestling career, but there’s no doubt this would be his biggest test thus far. The match started off with Borden doing some basic spots during his initial exchanges with the Don Callis Family (including hitting his super impressive dropkick), but Kevin Knight and Kyle Fletcher soon gained the advantage, which included Knight sending Darby Allin right into a powerbomb from Fletcher on the steps. Then, like some of the other bouts involving Steven Borden thus far, the heels isolated Darby until we ultimately got the hot tag (they did add a wrinkle this time as they did the “babyface gets the hot tag, but the referee doesn’t see it” spot). The match broke down after Borden missed a Stinger Slash in the corner.
This all led to a spot where Borden and Knight both went for a simultaneous jump from opposite corners, setting up a mid-air collision. Unfortunately, it appeared that Borden had a very hard landing on the mat, and after Borden was checked on by the doctor, the match was called off, and The Don Callis Family was awarded the victory. The fact that they never showed Borden on camera after this seemed to indicate that it was indeed a serious situation with a legitimate injury (likely a concussion). The announcers, to their credit, did a very nice job handling the situation on their end. Obviously the number one priority is making sure that Borden is ok, and tending to whatever injuries he had, so I have no issues with stopping the match here (and in hindsight, it’s pretty insane that a guy with such little experience was trying a spot like that). It did occur at a weird point in the match, because I doubt it was going much longer than when it was called off. I suppose time will tell whether Fletcher and Knight winning was the original plan or not (I would’ve picked them to win going into this show, since they recently beat The Young Bucks, who I feel have a strong shot of winning the tag team titles later on in the PPV), but again, the only thing that matters in this moment is the health of Steven Borden, so all the best to him. You hate to see a guy who has shown such promise have an injury like that. ***
TBS Title
Persephone (with Britt Baker) (c) def. Dani Luna
Dani Luna was one of the leading contenders to be the mystery challenger for Persephone’s TBS Title here, so her showing up wasn’t a total shock. Given what went down in the previous match, these two were in a very tough spot, and it was evident through the majority of this title bout that the crowd was still reeling from what had happened a few minutes earlier. They did a fine job in the early going showcasing Luna’s power, but the crowd really wasn’t into this one until Persephone hit a nasty German Suplex on the apron. Luna would respond a few moments later with a deadlift German Suplex off the ropes, which got the biggest reaction of the match up to that point. Britt Baker would get involved a few more times after that point, which eventually did lead to the finish, as Persephone hit the Razor’s Edge to score the win. These two did as good of a job as they could have given the circumstances. The crowd was not into this one for a decent chunk of it, but they managed to get them back a little bit towards the end. The big issue with this match specifically is that because they had already announced/promoted a tag team encounter on Dynamite this week (Baker and Persephone against Hyan and Thunder Rosa), the chances of Persephone facing an opponent that had a serious shot at beating her were pretty low. So the goal here was to just showcase Luna before she lost, and I thought they did a solid job. From a depth standpoint, she’s a damn good addition to the women’s division. ***
AEW International Title
Kazuchika Okada (c) def. Tommaso Ciampa
Tommaso Ciampa made his debut in AEW back in late January/early February, and he’s already done so much in this company that it feels like he’s been here for well over a year instead of like….eight or nine months. This dude just hit the gas pedal as soon as Tony Khan tweeted out that “Tommaso Ciampa is All Elite” graphic, and he hasn’t slowed down. It’s also amazing to just see the contrast of how Ciampa has spent most of 2026 compared to his longtime tag team partner Johnny Gargano, who spent most of this same period doing a gimmick where he was planking on a box, completely comatose. Following the opening exchanges, Ciampa nailed Okada with a series of knee strikes, but Okada was quick to respond with a flapjack to gain control, specifically targeting Ciampa’s neck (which Don Callis Family member Jake Doyle worked over during his match with Ciampa on Dynamite this past week). After dropkicking Ciampa to the floor, Okada followed up with a draping DDT right in front of Ciampa’s family, which led to an incredible spot where Ciampa’s young daughter gave Okada the double bird (with permission from her mom, of course) after Okada put a middle finger in her face.
That spot set up a big offensive flurry from Ciampa, both on the floor and in the ring, but it soon became a back-and-forth affair once Okada was able to respond. An attempt by Okada to use the Don Callis screwdriver led to an insanely close nearfall where Ciampa avoided a dropkick and leveled Okada with a massive knee strike. Another attempt at a knee strike was avoided, and that set up the final sequence that led to Okada putting Ciampa away with the Rainmaker. This was an awesome bout on the whole. Easily the match of the night up to this point. Okada’s effort levels in AEW has been a talking point for a large chunk of his run (deservedly so), but he has shown on multiple occasions that he can still deliver when the situation calls for it. Even though this was far from his best PPV outing in AEW, he absolutely brought it here against Tommaso Ciampa, who continues to have just a stellar 2026 (he and Mark Davis both have been two of the best wrestlers in AEW this year in terms of just being guys who wrestle very frequently on TV and PPV, giving you quality performances every time out). The closing stretch of this match was very strong, and the interactions between Ciampa’s daughter and Okada was a really nice touch. ****1/4
AEW Women’s World Tag Team Titles – Chicago Street Fight
The Brawling Birds (Alex Windsor & Jamie Hayter) (c) def. Divine Dominion (Lena Kross & Megan Bayne)
In a quick update, Penn State ultimately lost their game against Wisconsin (losing at home….in your homecoming game….after being up 17-0 at one point is nothing short of a massive disappointment). This one got started on the entrance ramp as Divine Dominion went right after The Brawling Birds (kudos to Alex Windsor and Jamie Haytor for being appropriately dressed for a Street Fight). The defending champions had the edge during this early skirmish, but Bayne and Kross quickly turned things around after Windsor got a chair tossed at her head while Hayter got put through a table. Divine Dominion worked a now bloody Windsor until Hayter finally managed to recover and mount a comeback. Bayne then got busted open (much more severely than Windsor) after a DDT onto a barbed wire chair.
The two sides continued to just beat the crap out of each other until Divine Dominion introduced a barricade into the mix, though it ultimately backfired as Hayter and Windsor suplexed Kross onto the barricade. Windsor took a hard slam through some chairs a short time later, which led to a barbed wire board getting introduced. Much like the barricade, however, they ended up getting the worst of it, as Hayter slammed Bayne through it. The champions then followed up with Two Birds, One Stone on Kross into a pile of thumbtacks for the win. I’ve said for years now that hardcore matches are THE signature match of the AEW Women’s Division, and these four women proved that to be true once again. This was a violent match in more ways than one. Not only did we get blood (mostly from Bayne, but from Windsor as well) and plenty of weapons, but a ton of physicality as well, as they just brutalized each other in between the various weapons spots. It was a fight in every sense of the word, and when the dust settled, it totally delivered. I don’t feel it’s near the tippy top in terms of women’s hardcore matches in AEW (it wasn’t even the best women’s hardcore match that’s happened in this arena), but for what this was, they knocked it out of the park. It’ll be interesting to see where Bayne and Kross go from here, since….in theory….they should be out of the tag team title picture following this loss. ****
AEW World Trios Title
Swerve Strickland & The New Level (Austin Creed & Kofi) (c) def. “Hangman” Adam Page & Brodido (Bandido & Brody King)
The New Level’s run in AEW has been off to a good start after winning the AEW World Trios Titles alongside Swerve Strickland at Wembley Stadium. They’ve had a number of really solid title defenses on Dynamite over the last few weeks, but here they face their biggest challengers to date in the form of former World Trios Champions “Hangman” Adam Page and Brodido. This one got started with a fun exchange between Bandido and Kofi before Creed had his chance to go at it with Brody King. Then things completely broke down for a moment as Swerve and Hangman just went to town on each other, which managed to give the opening for The New Level to take control of the match. The champions worked over Bandido for several minutes until he finally fought back (this included an amazing spot where he popped Swerve up feet first onto his shoulders before delivering a cutter) and made the tag to Brody. He ran wild for a bit before both Hangman and Swerve were tagged in. The crowd exploded as the longtime rivals traded blows. They remained fired up with some of the spots that followed, including dueling moonsault fallaway slams from Bandido and Hangman, which was followed by Bandido slamming all three of his opponents at once before hitting a massive moonsault to the floor (Bandido rocks, I don’t care what anyone says). More exchanges between the two sides followed, culminating in Swerve flipping out of a 21 Plex attempt before hitting Big Pressure to score the victory. This was an excellent trios match from start to finish. There was plenty of strong action throughout, with all six guys working their butts off. It was easily the best New Level outing thus far in AEW, as they continue to show that they can more than hang with some of the best this promotion has to offer. They also did an awesome job here continuing the story between Hangman and Swerve, as the crowd came unglued for all of their interactions. When you put six guys of this caliber out there and just let them do what they do best, you’ll usually get some amazing results, and that was certainly the case here. ****1/2
#1 Contender’s Match
Thekla def. Willow Nightingale
The winner of this match will challenge Mercedes Moné for the AEW Women’s World Title in three weeks at WrestleDream. This one got off to a fairly quick and unexpectedly nasty start, as Willow appears to land right on Thekla’s head as she connected with a senton. A series of flash pin exchanges followed before Willow sent Thekla flying with a pounce. Thekla would respond by sending Willow crashing to the floor, and then began to work over her broken hand. Both women then exchanged dives to the outside before the action returned to the ring. Thekla appeared to be on the verge of winning after a double stomp and a spear, but Willow managed to kick out with a bridge, seemingly mocking Thekla. Willow’s attempt to fight back from there was thwarted by interference from Julia Hart and Skye Blue, which led to a series of double stomps (both to the face of Willow and to the broken hand) from Thekla for the win. This was easily on track to being better than the match these two had at Redemption back in July, but the interference at the end definitely took it down a notch or two. I get that the interference was a trademark of Thekla’s title reign (as good as her title reign was, a lot of her matches did feature interference), though I don’t think it was needed here. You already had the story with Willow’s injured hand, so she could’ve easily lost clean here (and I don’t think losing clean would’ve hurt her in this instance) with that serving as the excuse. Needing your lackeys to help you beat an already injured wrestler just makes you look weak by comparison. Regardless, with that result, Thekla will be challenging Mercedes Moné at WrestleDream for the AEW Women’s World Title, which should be a very fascinating match from the standpoint of it being a heel vs. heel match. ***1/4
AEW World Tag Team Titles – Ladder Match
The Young Bucks def. Adam Copeland & Christian Cage (c) & FTR
Well…the Ladder Match (really a TLC Match, but they can’t call it that for copyright reasons) that we’ve all known has been coming for the last six months or so has finally arrived. In an alternate (and hopefully much better) universe, Jay and Mark Briscoe are also in this match, and it’s properly called a Ladder War.
This one got off to a very violent start, as a series of chair spots left both Christian Cage and Dax Harwood busted open (the latter’s cut was right above one of his eyes). That part of the match culminated with a pair of dives to the floor by Cage and Copeland before all three teams made their first attempts at climbing a ladder. All three teams took turns using some of the smaller ladders as weapons before Copeland introduced the first large ladder into the match. It was used to set up a bridge, which Copeland ended up getting suplexed onto courtesy of Dax. A few minutes later, we started to get a series of table breaks, which started with Cash taking an insane backdrop over the ropes and to the floor, and concluded with an attempted Impaler DDT from Copeland on one of The Young Bucks not breaking one of the tables (honestly made the spot look way more nasty). Stokely Hathaway then tried to get involved and get the belts himself, but he got sent off a ladder by Copeland, crashing through a pair of tables on the floor. In real time, they showed that crash from a low angle on the floor, which honestly added a ton to the spot, as it made it seem likely Stokely came down at a tremendous rate of speed.
Back on the floor, The Young Bucks dove off one ladder to put both Copeland and Dax through tables, while Cash dove through that same ladder to put Cage through a third table. All six guys then started battling on a trio of ladders before eventually getting knocked off. The guy who took the scariest bump of all was Cash, who took a back body drop off the top of a ladder right to the mat, with his legs crashing into the ropes on the way down (that was actually quite scary). The Young Bucks then raced up the ladders to hit a BTE Trigger on Cage before they pulled down the AEW World Tag Team Titles. They are now the first four-time AEW World Tag Team Titles. This was a complete and total car crash from beginning to end, and honestly….I had a blast watching it. Everyone involved worked their asses off here, and each person had their chance to take one crazy spot after another (including Stokely). Cash and Copeland in particular deserve a ton of credit for some of the nasty spills they took in this one. I don’t know what it is, but The Young Bucks in a Ladder Match always lands with me. They always deliver in these situations, and this match was no exception. I’m sure it didn’t land quite as well with others, and that’s ok. I totally get the fatigue some people have with these types of matches. With me though, when you get the right combination of teams together, and everything clicks, the match just works for me in a way that nothing else really can. It was a dangerous and brutal affair, and when the smoke cleared, The Young Bucks are now back on top of the AEW tag team mountain. ****1/2
AEW World Title
Will Ospreay (c) def. AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley
While Jon Moxley had his normal Death Riders entrance, Will Ospreay’s entrance was much more elaborate (that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise). It featured a video package with footage from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, and a voiceover from the main character of that game. Then, with the help of Francesco Akira and Mike Bailey, he burned a Death Riders flag before making his way into the arena.
As the match got underway, it’s worth noting that this match has the same feature that was part of the Omega/Ospreay match at All In, in terms of having seconds at ringside for the big World Title match like they usually do in Japan (Akira and Speedball are with Ospreay here, while Garcia, Yuta, and Shafir are with Moxley). The first few minutes of the match featured some grappling exchanges between the two before Ospreay hit a high cross to the floor. Moxley responded with a DDT into one of the turnbuckles that busted Ospreay open. From there, Moxley was in firm control as he worked on the open wound and the previously injured neck of Ospreay. After getting hit with a piledriver, Ospreay tried for his corkscrew kick off the ropes, but Moxley managed to counter it into a STF. Ospreay finally managed to fight back with some of his typical offense, though Moxley did not relent as he continued to work over the neck with moves like a Sleeper Suplex and a Gotch-Style Piledriver.
Ospreay completely shrugged off an attempted double stop from Moxley, and continued to mount his comeback. Unfortunately, things took a turn when Paul Turner got taken out by Ospreay by accident as he was trying to break up an argument between the seconds. This broke down into a big brawl, with the United Empire (including Andrade, who made the save after PAC tried to get involved) largely countering the Death Riders. More involvement from Marina Shafir led to The Brawling Birds (who are also in the United Empire now) coming out to run her off. We then got some….”acting”….from Moxley as he appeared conflicted when mulling over hitting Ospreay with a briefcase, which he ultimately did. Moxley poured on more offense from there, but Ospreay wouldn’t stay down. A Hidden Blade, a Stormbreaker, and yet another Hidden Blade followed, and that was all she wrote.
The first two thirds of this match was worked at a very methodical pace as Moxley was working over Ospreay’s neck. While I felt that part of the match seemed on the slow side at points, I figured it was all building to an exciting closing stretch. To an extent, we did get that, but not really in the way we were expecting. Instead of featuring hard-hitting action and super close nearfalls, the closing stretch of this one turned into a run-in fest that seemed more focused on setting up future matches than focusing on the task at hand. Now I should clarify that I don’t necessarily hate the idea of a heel unit getting involved in a big time match, only for the babyfaces to chase them off. One of my all time favorite matches in New Japan (AJ Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki from the 2015 G1 Climax) featured a referee bump and attempted interference by the heels that was thwarted by the babyfaces. It can work if it’s done well. Here….it did not work quite as well. Had the interference stopped after Andrade prevented PAC from getting involved, I would’ve been more ok with how that played out. However, Marina Shafir’s continued involvement (and then the involvement of Alex Windsor and Jamie Hayter) felt like overkill to me. What also didn’t help was the WWE style storytelling where Mox was conflicted about using the briefcase that PAC had introduced, and doing a WWE style mid-match promo along the way. None of that was necessary. It just dragged the match down to WWE’s level (which is never a good thing). The good news is that they at least got the finish right, as Ospreay exercised the demon that was Jon Moxley, who (in an interesting twist) showed respect to the World Champion after the match. This match had an incredibly high ceiling on paper, but what we ended up getting was something that was far below my expectations (even though it was still a very good match). People in wrestling tend to overthink things to a frustrating degree, but I offer a four word phrase that people in the wrestling industry should abide by: Keep It Simple, Stupid. ***3/4
Final Thoughts
All Out 2026 was, on the whole, another strong PPV outing from AEW, though it wasn’t without its faults. The early portion of the show did feature a lull, though it was due to an incident completely out of the company’s control with the injury to Steven Borden. From the Ciampa/Okada match onward, the show bounced back very well, with three matches in a row that I felt really delivered. The Ladder Match delivered the spectacle we were all expecting, and while the main event did deliver some really good action, the way the final third of the match played out definitely knocked it down several notches. Was this the worst AEW PPV this year? Absolutely not, but I feel there were a number of PPVs this year that were far better than this one.
