AEW returns to Chicago tonight for All Out from the NOW Arena, and for a card loaded with championships, stipulations and potential show-stealers, everything ultimately comes back to one question: is Will Ospreay truly ready to make the AEW World Championship his championship? Winning it from Kenny Omega at All In: London completed the chase. Defending it against Jon Moxley tonight begins the harder part. Ospreay deliberately wanted the man he has never beaten, the man who helped prepare him for this moment and the man who has spent the last several weeks reminding him exactly how violent that decision could become. Add Christian Cage and Adam Copeland defending the AEW World Tag Team Championship against FTR and the Young Bucks in a three-way ladder match, Swerve Strickland and The New Level defending against Hangman Page and Brodido, Andrade El Ídolo defending against PAC and seven championships being defended across the main card, and tonight has everything required to be one of AEW’s strongest cards of the year. Having the matches has never been AEW’s problem. Tonight is about making everything surrounding them matter just as much.
Here’s everything advertised for tonight’s show
- Will Ospreay (c) vs. AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley (AEW World Championship)
- Christian Cage & Adam Copeland (c) vs. The Young Bucks vs. FTR (AEW World Tag Team Championship Three-Way Ladder Match)
- Swerve Strickland & The New Level (c) vs. Hangman Page & Brodido (AEW World Trios Championship)
- The Brawling Birds (c) vs. Divine Dominion (AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship Chicago Street Fight)
- Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Tommaso Ciampa (AEW International Championship)
- Andrade El Ídolo (c) vs. PAC (AEW National Championship)
- TBS and CMLL World Women’s Champion Persephone (c) vs. TBA (TBS Championship Open Challenge)
- Willow Nightingale vs. Artist of STARDOM Champion Thekla (Winner Earns an AEW Women’s World Championship Match at WrestleDream)
- TNT Champion Darby Allin & Steven Borden vs. Kyle Fletcher & Kevin Knight (Winner Earns a Future AEW World Tag Team Championship Match)
AEW Saturday Tailgate Brawl
- Bang Bang Gang vs. Death Riders & The Dogs
- Jack Perry vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Will Ospreay Has To Beat The Man He Chose
AEW did something smart with Will Ospreay and Jon Moxley: it made Ospreay responsible for putting himself in this position.
Moxley didn’t chase Ospreay around demanding the first major pay-per-view championship opportunity of his reign.
Ospreay wanted him.
That changes everything.
Ospreay finally reached the top by defeating Kenny Omega at All In: London, but instead of looking for an easier beginning to his reign, he specifically wanted the opponent he still hasn’t solved.
Moxley defeated Ospreay at NJPW Windy City Riot in 2022. He defeated him again at AEW Dynasty earlier this year. Now Ospreay possesses the championship that Moxley has helped define throughout AEW’s history.
September 16 showed exactly how ugly this could become.
Moxley, PAC and Gabe Kidd defeated Ospreay, Andrade El Ídolo and Francesco Akira in the Dynamite main event. Moxley submitted Akira with the Bulldog Choke, but winning wasn’t enough. The attack continued after the bell, The Dogs became involved and Ospreay eventually returned to take out Moxley and Kidd with Hidden Blades.
Akira became collateral damage in something much bigger.
Collision allowed Moxley to explain his position. He admitted Akira didn’t deserve what happened to him, but his message to Ospreay was clear: Ospreay wanted this fight, and whatever comes with that decision is part of the responsibility he accepted when he chose Moxley.
Moxley then defeated Zachary Wentz in a Continental Championship Eliminator in the Collision main event, giving him another victory before tonight’s title match.
Then Wednesday finally gave Ospreay the response this program needed.
After teaming with the newest United Empire member, Mike Bailey, to defeat Claudio Castagnoli and Gabe Kidd, with Ospreay pinning Castagnoli after the Styles Clash, Ospreay addressed Moxley directly.
He acknowledged Moxley’s place in AEW. He acknowledged the guidance and punishment that helped prepare him for his championship journey.
Then the dynamic changed.
Moxley isn’t the champion testing an ambitious challenger anymore.
Ospreay is the AEW World Champion.
Moxley is challenging him.
When Moxley questioned whether Ospreay actually felt like the champion, Ospreay’s answer came after avoiding Gabe Kidd’s attempted sneak attack and dropping him in front of Moxley.
Ospreay absolutely feels like the champion.
Tonight he has to prove he can beat the opponent he deliberately selected because beating anybody else wouldn’t answer the question he wanted answered.
Three Great Tag Teams, One Ladder Match
Christian Cage and Adam Copeland against FTR against the Young Bucks doesn’t need much decoration.
Put the AEW World Tag Team Championship above the ring and let three teams with decades of experience and history try to tear each other apart reaching it.
Wednesday’s confrontation gave the final build exactly what it needed. Cage and Copeland, FTR and the Bucks traded words until talking inevitably turned into fighting and security attempted to separate all six men.
This isn’t supposed to be a technical showcase between three teams politely determining who is better.
It’s a ladder match involving three teams that believe the AEW tag division belongs to them.
FTR and the Young Bucks are both attempting to become four-time AEW World Tag Team Champions. Cage and Copeland have no interest in becoming another chapter in somebody else’s championship history.
The question isn’t whether this match can deliver.
It should.
The bigger question is what the tag division looks like when it’s over, especially with Darby Allin and Steven Borden facing Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight tonight for a future championship opportunity.
Swerve And Hangman Can Never Completely Escape Each Other
Hangman Page and Brodido earned tonight’s AEW World Trios Championship opportunity by defeating the Conglomeration on September 16.
But there was still one variable.
Swerve Strickland, Austin Creed and Kofi had to survive The Demand.
They did exactly that Wednesday.
Swerve and The New Level retained the AEW World Trios Championship, officially locking in tonight’s championship match.
Then everything came back to Swerve and Hangman.
That’s unavoidable.
Hangman doesn’t trust Swerve, and he made it clear that Bandido and Brody King might not completely understand who they’re dealing with.
The New Level pushed back because their experience with Swerve has been completely different.
That’s what makes the match interesting.
Swerve and Hangman aren’t simply carrying an old rivalry into another program. Their history affects how everybody around them views the other.
Tonight isn’t another chapter of their blood feud in the traditional sense, but pretending that history disappears because four other men are involved would be ridiculous.
It hangs over everything.
Andrade And PAC Are Done Talking
Andrade El Ídolo successfully defended the AEW National Championship against Daniel Garcia on Collision.
Then PAC and the Death Riders attacked him.
PAC wanted the championship.
By Wednesday, this stopped feeling like another title defense being added to a crowded pay-per-view.
PAC defeated Ace Austin and refused to release the Brutalizer after the bell, triggering another confrontation involving the Death Riders, The Dogs and Bang Bang Gang.
Then Andrade arrived.
He went directly after PAC, and the fight spilled into the crowd.
That’s exactly what this program needed.
Andrade has been building the National Championship through successful defenses. PAC doesn’t need weeks of manufactured hatred to feel dangerous. Give him a championship he wants and somebody standing between him and it.
Tonight should feel less like a title exhibition and more like a fight.
Okada Finally Gives Ciampa What He Wanted
Tommaso Ciampa wanted Kazuchika Okada.
Okada treated that request like it was beneath him.
Ciampa responded by making himself impossible to ignore.
After defeating Jake Doyle Wednesday, Ciampa called Okada out again.
This time Okada gave him his answer.
Ciampa will get The Rainmaker tonight, while Okada intends to prove Ciampa isn’t on his level.
This program hasn’t received the television time of Ospreay and Moxley or the established history surrounding the ladder match. Pretending otherwise would oversell it.
Its biggest selling point remains the match itself.
Sometimes that’s enough.
Tonight we find out whether Ciampa can turn a dream match into something much bigger by leaving Chicago with the AEW International Championship.
The Chicago Street Fight Actually Makes Sense
The Brawling Birds and Divine Dominion haven’t needed much subtlety.
Alex Windsor and Jamie Hayter took the AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship from Megan Bayne and Lena Kross.
Divine Dominion hasn’t exactly accepted that result.
Kross defeated Hayter on September 16 after Bayne distracted the referee and Kross used a hidden pipe.
Wednesday’s final confrontation didn’t calm anything down.
Bayne and Kross presented the champions with a tea set and crumpets. Windsor and Hayter weren’t interested in tea. The confrontation became physical, and Divine Dominion eventually left both champions down on the stage.
So forget regular rules.
Tonight’s Chicago Street Fight removes the excuses and gives both teams exactly what their rivalry has been moving toward.
Willow And Thekla Are Fighting For Mercedes Moné
Willow Nightingale and Thekla aren’t fighting tonight simply because they don’t like each other.
The winner gets AEW Women’s World Champion Mercedes Moné at WrestleDream.
That makes this one of the most consequential non-title matches on the card.
There is history here, too.
Thekla won their first meeting in July 2025.
Willow defeated Thekla for the AEW Women’s World Championship at Redemption two months ago.
Tonight is the rubber match.
Willow is also still wrestling through the hand injury that helped cost her the AEW Women’s World Championship at All In: London.
Thekla sees that vulnerability differently. Her argument has been built around durability and the belief that she should be the champion.
Wednesday brought them together one final time before tonight. They exchanged words and nearly came to blows.
Tonight somebody gets to stop arguing.
The winner gets Mercedes.
Steven Borden’s Test Gets Bigger
Steven Borden’s involvement could have easily become a nostalgia exercise built entirely around his father’s name.
AEW has avoided that so far.
Borden and Darby Allin have already proven they can function together. Borden made his televised in-ring debut alongside Darby on Rebel Heart Dynamite before the two scored another significant victory in the September 16 eight-man tag alongside Christian Cage and Adam Copeland against FTR, Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight.
Borden ultimately pinned Dax Harwood after combining his Scorpion Death Drop with Allin’s Coffin Drop.
Wednesday, Fletcher and Knight defeated the Outrunners and made their position clear.
They don’t think Borden belongs at their level.
Knight pointed directly to Borden’s lack of experience.
Darby turned that criticism around.
If Borden is entering only his third match, losing to him would be considerably more humiliating.
The winners receive a future AEW World Tag Team Championship opportunity.
For Borden, tonight represents another significant test of whether this can become his story rather than simply an extension of Sting’s legacy.
Who Answers Persephone?
Persephone successfully defended the TBS Championship against Hyan Wednesday.
She didn’t exactly do it cleanly.
Hyan attempted a sunset flip, Persephone sat down on the pin and grabbed the ropes outside the referee’s view to steal the victory.
Afterward, Persephone presented herself as a fighting champion and issued an open challenge for tonight.
There is one major catch.
Hyan, Thunder Rosa and Maya World are specifically excluded.
That leaves AEW with the only genuine mystery opponent on an otherwise established main card.
Who answers?
More importantly, does the answer become the beginning of something meaningful for the TBS Championship or simply a one-night surprise?
The road to tonight hasn’t been equally strong from top to bottom, and there’s no reason to pretend otherwise.
The strongest story is obvious.
Ospreay chose Moxley because becoming AEW World Champion didn’t erase the losses that came before it. Moxley represents the question Ospreay couldn’t answer simply by beating Kenny Omega at Wembley.
September 16 made that conflict physical and dragged Francesco Akira into the consequences.
Collision allowed Moxley to explain what he believes Ospreay asked for while adding another victory before tonight.
Wednesday finally allowed Ospreay to change their dynamic and remind Moxley that this time Moxley isn’t standing above him holding the standard.
He’s challenging Ospreay for it.
Elsewhere, AEW used the final stretch effectively.
Hangman Page and Brodido earned their opportunity before Swerve Strickland and The New Level successfully defended the AEW World Trios Championship against The Demand, allowing the history between Hangman and Swerve to become the final hook.
Andrade defeated Daniel Garcia before PAC attacked him. Wednesday, PAC defeated Ace Austin before Andrade came looking for him and their fight spilled into the crowd.
Ciampa kept pushing until Okada finally gave him the confrontation he wanted.
Divine Dominion continued finding ways to leave the Brawling Birds down, making the Chicago Street Fight feel earned instead of randomly attached.
Fletcher and Knight continued building credibility as a team while treating Steven Borden like somebody who hasn’t earned the right to stand across from them.
Willow and Thekla have a championship opportunity hanging over their rubber match.
Persephone created a mystery AEW can cash in tonight.
And Cage and Copeland, FTR and the Young Bucks really don’t need AEW to manufacture history between them.
The weakness is that not everything received the same depth.
Okada and Ciampa are relying heavily on the appeal of the matchup. The TBS Championship open challenge depends significantly on who walks through the curtain. Some of tonight’s programs came together much later than others.
The strength is that almost everything now has a reason to exist.
That’s important because another card filled with excellent wrestling isn’t enough by itself anymore.
AEW has conditioned its audience to expect excellent wrestling on pay-per-view.
Tonight needs consequences.
Ospreay and Moxley need to change the AEW World Championship picture.
The ladder match needs to establish where the tag division goes next.
Swerve and Hangman’s history needs to affect what happens around them instead of simply being referenced.
Willow or Thekla needs to emerge from Chicago feeling like Mercedes Moné’s next legitimate threat.
Andrade and PAC need to continue establishing the National Championship as something wrestlers desperately want.
Darby and Borden against Fletcher and Knight needs to produce an actual next challenger for whoever survives the ladder match.
That’s the difference between a great collection of matches and a great pay-per-view.
Final Thoughts
AEW All Out returns to Chicago tonight with nine matches on the main card, seven championships being defended and enough talent that complaining about the wrestling lineup would be difficult.
But the standard should be higher than that.
Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley has history, stakes and an actual question underneath it.
Can Ospreay finally beat the man he deliberately chose because beating everybody else wouldn’t answer what he wanted answered?
Christian Cage and Adam Copeland, FTR and the Young Bucks have every ingredient for chaos.
Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page are incapable of sharing a story without their history becoming part of it.
Andrade El Ídolo and PAC have finally stopped circling each other.
Kazuchika Okada and Tommaso Ciampa could steal the show simply because of who they are.
Willow Nightingale and Thekla have a future AEW Women’s World Championship match riding on their rubber match.
There is plenty here.
But tonight should be judged on more than match quality.
AEW already knows how to put great wrestlers in a ring.
All Out needs to make what happens in that ring change what comes next.
The AEW Saturday Tailgate Brawl begins tonight at 7 p.m. ET on TNT and HBO Max before AEW All Out begins at 8 p.m. ET on HBO Max PPV from the NOW Arena in Chicago.
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I’m the quiet one until the bell rings then I’ve got takes. I live for WWE NXT and TNA, I want every promotion to succeed, and I will absolutely roast the bad decisions on sight (because someone has to). Anime taught me to respect long-term storytelling; wrestling taught me that sometimes the plan is “we panicked” and called it “unpredictable.” The Miz got me into all of this, so yeah I appreciate confidence, commitment, and the art of talking like you’re already the main event. Now I bring that same energy to the page as the main writer for Late Night Crew Wrestling because if you’re not here to be must-see and tell the truth, why are you here?!