
September 1st, 2018, Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks put on All In, leading to the launch of AEW. July 11th, 2025, the second most important moment in AEW History, Talent Alone Predicts All In Texas. That’s right, folks, it’s another prediction (one of two for the weekend). This month, AEW is running AEW All-In from Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. I looked up some fun Arlington facts for this article. Did you know the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is in Arlington Cemetery? I didn’t know they had two of those!
The PPV (as god intended) has 8 Matches, including 5 titles, 2 casino matches, and 1 random stipulation that tips the pitch on a match. Mike and I are in the midst of our year-long predictions contest, with Mike coming out of Money in the Bank with a 10-3 (3-1 at MITB) record to compare to my 6-7 record but hey I’ve been in the workshop grinding tape and I know how to make up the difference here, by killing Mike (editor note, please remove joke about killing Mike).
With that, let’s get into it and see who goes All-In and who splits sevens when the dealer is showing a face card.
AEW All In Texas Predictions
Women’s Casino Gauntlet Match
MIKE: As of the current match listing, TBD seems to be the favorite in this match. TBD has appeared for a lot of companies, but rarely actually ever wrestles in the matches they are listed for. How do they keep getting work? The winner of the world title match later definitely plays into who wins this match if you think about potential matchups. However, I’m still waffling on who I think wins that match. So to be transparent, I have no clue who to bet on here. I’ll go with Thekla. The company made a big deal out of her signing and debut. Let’s follow that up with a strong push instead of having another newcomer that just merges into traffic with everybody else and loses momentum.
THEKLA
ADAM: I outlasted Mike to the deadline so I get to predict based on what happened on Dynamite. Check. Mate.
KRIS STATLANDER
Men’s Casino Gauntlet Match
ADAM: This is filler text until we find out the whole lineup on Wednesday
MJF
MIKE: I don’t think you’re allowed to do that. Darby Allins finally finished climbing Mount Everest. Totally jobbed out that jabroni mountain. I pick him to make his big return, possibly by hang gliding into the arena all the way from Everest.
DARBY ALLIN
ADAM: Stealing my Darby Allin bit for the whole internet to see smh smh.
The Young Bucks vs Will Ospreay & Swerve Strickland
MIKE: Oh boy, Rip Rodgers is going to hate this match. The stakes are that if Ospreay and Strickland lose, they can’t challenge for the world title for one year, but if the Bucks lose, they will be stripped of EVP titles. Can’t say either of those really strike me as interesting. I usually hate the “can’t challenge for the world title” stip, because it usually feels unlikely to actually happen, and if it does happen, you’ve booked yourself into a corner with something you’ll have to figure out how to walk back. However, adding the “for one year” twist to it makes it slightly more believable that it could happen. I still doubt it, though. Strickland and Ospreay are two of the company’s biggest stars. I can’t imagine a world where they want to write them out of a title match for the next 365 days. It’s easier to just kayfabe strip the Bucks of their EVP status on TV. Or strip them for real because I’m still not entirely sure what kind of EVP work they actually do.
Swerve Strickland & Will Ospreay
ADAM: I do love it when Mike is wrong after he goes first. Swerve and Hangman have some… uh…. History and the prevailing thought is that Hangman’s first challenger will be Swerve (or maybe Ospreay), but if they can’t challenge for a year, Hangman has the opportunity to fully complete his post-Punk rebuild and have a real run as champ before we get to the big feud. It also lets us get to the tension, wondering if Swerve will help Page in the main event DESPITE being barred from a title match for a year.
THE YOUNG BUCKS
AEW TNT Title Match: Adam Cole (c) vs Kyle Fletcher
ADAM: I am maybe ignoring past evidence of Tony Kahn’s booking, but I’m ready for Adam Cole not to hold the TNT Title. Adam Cole has never really done it for me, and even now, I’d rather give a shot to a young Aussie with a real chance to be something in pro wrestling.
KYLE FLETCHER
MIKE: This match is my pick for going longer than it needs to, while also having an unnecessary amount of kick-outs in an attempt to make it something more epic than it needs to be in the ecosystem of the PPV. Don’t get me wrong, the match should be good, but it’s a mid-card title match that needs to be a good, exciting ten minutes to keep the crowd up and momentum moving along, and not an attempt to burn the crowd out for the next match. I’ll go ahead and go opposite Adam here.
ADAM COLE *pavlovian response kicks in* BAY BAY!!
AEW Tag Team Titles Match: The Hurt Syndicate (c) vs JetSpeed vs The Patriarchy
MIKE: Probably going to come in under the required character count on this one. It’s The Hurt Syndicate. They win. It makes no sense for them to drop the belts now. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
THE HURT SYNDICATE
ADAM: Well, now I have to try to beat Mike’s character count while being more eloquent and intelligent than he is. Ah Fuck that used up a lot of characters didn’t it? Hurt Syndicate Good, JetSpeed bad.
THE HURT SYNDICATE
AEW Unified Championship Match: Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada
ADAM: I’m kind of surprised Mike didn’t engineer this entire company and website just to format this article so he could make his pick first on this match. Everyone is saying Kenny this and Okada that, but what if this match doesn’t live up to the history? Is everyone gonna be okay? That being said, I would like to do something I’ve never done before and thank a Kahn for a smart sports decision. AEW has had too many belts for a minute, and it’s good we’re paring them down. I can see a case for going either way in this match, but when in doubt, go with the guy who is 4 years younger and less injury prone.
KAZUCHIKA OKADA
MIKE: I’ve been a huge fan and defender of both of these men for years now. I still consider Okada one of the greatest wrestlers in the world who just understands how you build a match to take the crowd on that up and down ride. Their series of matches in New Japan still stands atop my Mount Rushmore as some of the greatest of all time. It sounds like I’m glazing them as a pretense of criticism, but ooohohooo boy I am not. Hell yeah! Let’s f’n go! It’s Okada Omega IV baby!
Enough time has passed for this match to feel fresh and like an epic rematch. You can say what you want about Omega when it comes to how he comes across on a weekly TV basis. However, no man turns it on when he steps through the curtain for a big-time match like him. We’re not getting AEW Kenny here. We’re getting the cleaner, the best bout machine, the god of professional wrestling, Kenny by god Omega! And Okada always carries himself with the presence of a star and one of the best in the world. You want aura? These boys got aura!
I agree with Adam that AEW cutting down its number of titles is a good call. My guess is the loser of this match will go on to build up a list of wins over the next couple of months as they shift over into the world title picture. Okada hasn’t been a part of that scene at all since he arrived in AEW, so I think now’s the time to get him involved. Meanwhile Kenny can’t continue that hot run he’s been on since returning from injury, has great matches against a fresh lineup of opponents, and continues to build the legitimacy of a secondary title by having a star of his level carry it.
KENNY OMEGA
AEW Women’s Championship Match: Toni Storm (c) vs Mercedes Moné
MIKE: This is hands down the biggest women’s matchup AEW could book outside of Britt Baker vs getting booked for TV. As I mentioned earlier, this one is a really tough call. Storm is still super over, and having her be the first to beat Moné would work, but I’m leaning the other direction. Maybe it’s because Moné is doing the whole belt collector gimmick and I’m a sucker for someone holding a crap load of championships. An aspect of myself I completely blame on that time in 2007 when Kurt Angle held all the TNA titles and the IWGP world title at the same time. The other reason behind my picking the wrestler FKA Sasha Banks is the opportunity it opens up. It gives AEW a chance to create a new star by building up someone to eventually be the one to end Mone’s undefeated streak. Storm won’t lose any momentum by dropping the belt here and can continue to be a draw for the company with whatever she does outside of the world title picture.
MERCEDES MONÉ
ADAM: Yeah, Mike has the right of it here. Timeless Toni Storm started as a funny gimmick, then it went on too long, then it came back around to being great because it lasted so long (big props to Luther on a major piece of this), but Mercedes is primed to be the head of the women’s division and I’m damn sure she’s paid to do it.
MERCEDES MONÉ
AEW World Championship Texas Death Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs Adam Page
ADAM: Not a lot of people know this, but a Texas Death Match means a normal match in an area that is supposed to have a funded system to warn about flash floods. Too Soon? Mox has been walking around with the belt in a briefcase for 1000 years in a bit that started like his “Hey this crowd smells bad” gimmick and just got worse. Maybe Mox shouldn’t be a heel. On the other hand Hangman has turned into a superstar both in the ring and out of it and has gone from Anxious Mellenial Cowboy to full blown bad ass. This match should have a lot of blood (o/u on 90.5 seconds from bell to color) and a lot of interference, but I think it will be a lot of fun and have the Swerve moral decision I alluded to above. Probably worth the price of admission alone, right?
HANGMAN ADAM PAGE
MIKE: Too soon, bro, too soon. Smh.
Like Adam alluded to, the evolution of Hangman Page from an anxious millennial cowboy into what he is now has been arguably the best story in AEW. It’s one of those rides that I didn’t realize I was on until it started to reach its apex, and then I realized I had been on it for the past year. It reads to me as saying that Hangman wasn’t ready for the world title and all that came with it the first time, but he’s grown up, he’s changed, he’s confident, he’s a badass, and this time he’s ready. That’s why I can‘t see any good excuse for him losing here. The death riders have run their course. Time to put it out to pasture and give Mox a break after once again being asked to carry the load for the company when they were in a weird time of transition. I’d like to see a matchup with no interference. It would be a breath of fresh are considering the recent trade, both AEW and WWE are doing a lot of run-ins during their world title matchups over the past couple of years. However, I realize that when you consider the factor of Mox’s stablemates, along with Swerve and Ospreay’s involvement in this story, it’s inevitable to get somewhat overbooked. The hope for the company is probably that this will be their WrestleMania 40, where in the main event, everybody and their mother interfered as Cody Rhodes ended Roman Reigns’ years-long dominance. For posterity’s sake, I was in the minority that thought it got a little carried away. Still, it was widely well-received. Time will tell if this match can create the same epic feel that one did. Either way, the World Championship has finally changed hands.
As an aside, how wild would it be if Page opens the briefcase and it’s just full of skyline chili?
HANGMAN ADAM PAGE
7 Matches, 5 Disagreements and 64 hours of wrestling over the weekend. Although Mike walks in with the lead, I may never have a better chance to close the gap this year than I do this weekend. Enjoy All-In and Great American Bash and Saturday Night’s Main Event and Evolution and Super Card of Honor, and New Japan Soul at Korakuen Hall.