AEW Redemption 2026 Discussion

[abucalves]

I agree, I feel it has really cooled him off for what should be the biggest match of his career. Like I know they still have a month, and I'm sure they will do an emotional video before the match which will help turn it all around, but it has been bizarre. 

[LaGoosh]

39 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

I still can't get my head around why they thought this approach to Ospreay was a good idea. His ascent to the title should've been one of the easiest, clearest paths they've had. It's not like he's a guy who struggles to get the crowd behind him so they needed to manufacture some sort of support or anything. If anything they've absolutely diluted him by all this shit. Such a weird journey.

Yeah, it's a bit weird. Surely the easiest and best option for the All In build would have been "Ospreay comes back from injury, murders the Death Riders one by one, wins the Owen". I don't understand why they didn't just do that.

[tiger_rick]

8 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Yeah, it's a bit weird. Surely the easiest and best option for the All In build would have been "Ospreay comes back from injury, murders the Death Riders one by one, wins the Owen". I don't understand why they didn't just do that.

Because it's pretty much the same story they told a year ago? I think they've told a convoluted story because it's different. It's nothing like Hangman. It's not like Sami Zayn. It's not like the best ever example from Royal Rumble 1991. It's a misstep, I reckon, but I think I see why.

[abucalves]

I saw people speculating it was more of that Rocky 3 stuff that Moxley wanted to do with CM Punk, which I wouldn't have minded if we got some proper training montages, Will Ospreay running around Rainham with Moxley. 

[I Bent My Wookie]

Coming off this, are Kenny and the Bucks heels again? Is that where this is all heading now, so that Cage and Cope get the babyface reaction at Wembley and the crowd isn't as split for Kenny and Will? 

[Chili]

1 hour ago, I Bent My Wookie said:

Coming off this, are Kenny and the Bucks heels again? Is that where this is all heading now, so that Cage and Cope get the babyface reaction at Wembley and the crowd isn't as split for Kenny and Will? 

Nah, well not with Omega. That was more Kenny especially punking Ospreay felt like him going "ok cool, but fuck off for dicking about with Moxley when I kept telling you" and not happy being mugged off a bit.

The crowd will be pro Will obvs, and Kenny will lean into the heel part but not with an outright turn possibly. I don't think it needs it actually.

[Supremo]

I doubt Kenny will play outright heel, but it did feel like a hard reset for them to go in the direction they always should have - a babyface vs. babyface generational match with both guys bringing the dickhead energy. They should do a New Japan-style press conference. Both guys shine in that environment. 

Frankly, this whole thing with Moxley has been such a counterproductive waste of time that I hope both Ospreay and Omega act like The Death Riders never existed. Don’t even bother having TV matches with any of them.

Will Ospreay had always been a babyface. He’d always hated the Death Riders. Kenny Omega was actually angry because Will Ospreay ripped a plastic bag in half, and Kenny is a keen environmentalist. They’re 40p a pop in Asda, Will! 90p if you splash out on a Bag for Life! You can’t be ripping them up and not expect to be hit with a One Winged Angel!

Edited July 27 by Supremo

[gmoney]

Jesus Christ, I wish they'd have done anything that didn't involve Moxley and Ospreay ACTING at each other for 3 hours in the ring. Unbearable. I found this show a slog. Loved to see Willow win the belt, but aside from that I struggle to think of any other highlights. A lot of wrestling that washed over me and some terrible overcomplicated booking and acting. 

[RedTwoster]

8 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Jesus Christ, I wish they'd have done anything that didn't involve Moxley and Ospreay ACTING at each other for 3 hours in the ring. Unbearable. I found this show a slog. Loved to see Willow win the belt, but aside from that I struggle to think of any other highlights. A lot of wrestling that washed over me and some terrible overcomplicated booking and acting. 

It’s definitely the weakest AEW PPV I can remember and it’s a shame, because that made it harder to appreciate the stellar match between Fletcher and Bandido. 

If they’d trimmed some of the matches from the card until they were left with a 3-hour show, I think the narrative would be very different, and you’d have a higher tier B-show on your hands.

[HarmonicGenerator]

It won’t make Twoster feel any better but my guess is they wanted to close the show with setup for the All In main event, and for that to happen they needed to have Kenny and Kevin on last.

I have found a headcanon that makes this whole stupid Ospreay-Moxley stuff work a bit. It’s been an amnesia angle this whole time. Will lost his memory when the Death Riders murdered him last August, and completely forgot that the murder happened. He also forgot about Forbidden Door in London, which is why he hasn’t watched the show back to see his new mates trying to kill him. Oh, also he forgot that he already wrestled in high profile matches twice at Wembley including one where he won a title which is why he’s been going on about how just wrestling at Wembley is his lifelong dream and not main eventing specifically.

This is why he became mates with the Death Riders and never once brought up what they did to him or the fact that he’s having to train up his neck with them is because they’re the ones who broke it in the first place. This is why he’s looked so nonplussed or puzzled when Kenny Omega and even his own wife have been unhappy about his team up. He lost his memory. He didn’t remember.

And then he saw Kenny in the same position he was in less than a year ago, and BAM! It all came flooding back. He remembers everything! And he finally does what he should have done his first night back and dispatches all the Death Riders handily instead of going 50/50 with Blake Christian.

And, in a fun meta touch that AEW is often fond of, the wrestlers, commentators, and company themselves all forgot to mention they’ve been doing an amnesia story this whole time.

Think of it like that, it all makes sense.

Best I’ve got, anyway, and better than reality which is “they fucked it, but maybe they’ve just about got time to claw it back”.

[WyattSheepMask]

I’m watching in blocks because of course the show is 5 bloody hours again. We’ve jokingly speculated that Tony lurks on here, but Tony if you are reading this, not every PPV has to be 5 bloody hours!

I’m really not fussed about Ladder matches anymore and Mox had it fucking easy as he did bugger all for the majority of his match.

I want to like Bandido, but Christ they make it hard to care about him when it comes to PPV. He hasn’t won a singles match on PPV other than beating Jericho last April for the ROH belt, a match that until Excalibur mentioned it in the entrances I’d completely forgot even happened. Even teaming with Brody he hasn’t won on PPV since last October. 
It didn’t help that this, Match 3 of 10, went nearly half an hour for a belt that Fletcher was never going to lose because he’s only just won the dam thing 

The Dogs are up next and I’m already falling asleep at the thought of having to watch David Finlay 

Edited July 27 by WyattSheepMask

[BrodyGraham]

I quite like The Dogs, but fuck me that might be the most boring AEW PPV match ever. I've never been the biggest Jay White fan either but he's looked bloody awful since he came back. I dunno whether it's that he's come back not in his previous (admittedly phenomenal) shape, his decision to wear not quite baggy enough trousers or a combination of the two but he's burned through the goodwill of his return in fairly short order.

AEW had been much better formatting their cards this year but the decision to put that second block of three matches all together (chain match, TBS and Tag Titles) was tantamount to promotional malpractice.

There was some good stuff on this show but yeah, it's fairly obvious that pretty much everything on it was a compromise from stuff they'd originally planned.

[LaGoosh]

I watched Jericho/Ciampa - a bit too long but pretty fun. As much as I'd like Jericho to fuck off forever I do respect that he's still going full on. He could easily rest on his arse and do nothing for a TNA legends type payday but he's doing thumbtack bumps and blade jobs - it's clear he still really cares.

Silly hardcore matches are the only thing he can do reasonably well these days. They might as well just create a Hardcore title belt and leave him to do wacky gimmick matches every week. It's the only fun thing I can think of to do with him.

[Ironic Indie Lad]

8 hours ago, BrodyGraham said:

AEW had been much better formatting their cards this year but the decision to put that second block of three matches all together (chain match, TBS and Tag Titles) was tantamount to promotional malpractice.

I didnt even make it that far as I found the first 3 matches completely exhausting.

I had already seen 2 moonsaults off of ladders, a canadian destroyer off a ladder and through another, a piledriver on the outside, a brainbuster on the apron, a brainbuster off the top rope, numerous dives, countless false finishes...

I know its a PPV and everyone (clearly) is given free reign to go out and do the absolute best match they possibly can. I just found this show in particular way too much though. Maybe they felt pressure to over-deliver as it was a pretty week and inconsequential card on paper. 

Hopefully Wembley is way better paced. 

[Richie Freebird]

On 7/14/2026 at 11:13 AM, BomberPat said:

Part of me thinks that the Death Riders try to do the plastic bag gimmick to Kenny after the World Title match, and Will stops them because he's not prepared to go that far. But that makes Will look like an idiot for trusting them in the first place. So maybe it's that the Death Riders try to make Will do the plastic bag thing and he has a crisis of confidence and stands up to them, or the Bucks and Hangman come out and talk him out of it, leading to Death Riders vs. Ospreay + The Elite, but that still makes Ospreay look like an idiot for going along with the Death Riders only to be shocked that they would do what the Death Riders do.

What a call that was!