AEW WrestleDream 2026 Discussion

[Kamran]

AEW is heading to the Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Florida for the PPV.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT AEW WRESTLEDREAM

BUY IT

Amazon Prime / DAZN / MyAEW /  PPV.com  / YouTube

MATCHES

• AEW World Championship - Clockwork Carnage Match: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Samoa Joe vs. "Speedball" Mike Bailey vs. Adam Copeland vs. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Ricochet vs. Darby Allin
• AEW Women's World Championship: Mercedes Moné (c) vs. Thekla
• AEW World Trios Championship - Two Out Of Three Falls Match: Swerve Strickland and The New Level (Austin Creed and Kofi) (c) vs. "Hangman" Adam Page and Brodido (Brody King and Bandido)
• AEW Continental Championship: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Mark Davis
• AEW World Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks (c) vs. Kevin Knight and Kyle Fletcher
• AEW TBS Championship: Persephone (c) vs. Dani Luna vs. Hyan vs. Queen Aminata
• AEW National Championship: Andrade El Ídolo (c) vs. Tommaso Ciampa
• Jericho vs. Nick Wayne

Tailgate Brawl (Pre-Show)

• Best Of Five Series (Match #1): FTR vs. Motor City Machine Guns
• AEW Women's World Tag Team Championship: The Brawling Birds (Jamie Hayter and Alex Windsor) (c) vs. Wrathlander (Harley Cameron and Kris Statlander)

WHAT IS A CLOCKWORK CARNAGE MATCH?

This combines elements of AEW's Casino Gauntlet with an Iron Man-style scoring system:

• Stage 1 – Elimination: Two randomly selected wrestlers start the match, with another wrestler entering every three minutes. Until all eight have entered, anyone pinned or forced to submit is eliminated.
• Stage 2 – Scoring: Once the final wrestler enters, the remaining wrestlers have 15 minutes to score as many falls as possible. Every pinfall or submission earns one point, with no further eliminations.
• The Winner: When the 15 minutes expire, the wrestler with the most falls wins the match and the AEW World Championship.

COUNTDOWN TO WRESTLEDREAM

MATCH POSTERS

POSTERS

Edited Saturday at 10:31 AM by Kamran

[WyattSheepMask]

Surely MJF is coming in last in Clockwork Carnage, completely avoiding the possibility of being eliminated from the match

[Kamran]

Looks like Ilja will debut at WrestleDream:

 

Reminder: The pre-show matches will be on the Tailgate Brawl show on MyAEW but not on the Buy In Show.

The Buy In begins at midnight (same time as Tailgate Brawl) with the main show beginning at 1am:

 

[RedTwoster]

This has the potential to be one of those B-level PPVs that absolutely knocks it out of the park, it’s a superb card. I don’t think it’ll happen since they have a new gimmick match to showcase, but I’d love to see Mercedes/Thekla close the show. 

[Supremo]

Looks like Sheamus’ chin to me.

One day soon, Ilja Dragunov is going to wrestle Darby Allin and it’s going to be the scariest match of all time.

It’s a great looking B show. Exactly what you want coming off All In.

Hoping Moxley loses to Mark Davis, leading to a big Death Riders vs. Don Callis Family Blood and Guts match.

Whilst I’m certain the original plan was for Jericho to get the win back, this  Nick Wayne thing has became such a meme these past few days I think they have to book Nick to win again.

I can’t think of a funnier way for Dynamite to open next week than for him to go bigger and better.

“Nick Wayne beat Chris Jericho…again.”

Edited Saturday at 06:51 PM by Supremo

[The King Of Swing]

Tailgate Brawl, not playing for anyone else? Just getting a black screen. 

Main show working fine. Just started it. 

Edit. 

Watching on MyAEW. 

Edited 20 hours ago by The King Of Swing

[RedTwoster]

So, Wrestledream…

Firstly, Andrade is the worst talented wrestler on AEW’s roster. He’s a WWE gimmick. The repetitive trouser and selfie spots in every fucking match. The stupid catchphrase shoehorned into every promo. An announcer fawning over how ‘cool’ he is as if forced to at gunpoint (for the record, I think Schiavone is saying this because he actually believes it, but it feels like the kind of thing Michael Cole would have said because Vince was screaming it in is ear - ‘REMIND THEM THAT HE’S COOL, GODDAMMIT!’)

The match was good, but I hated it, especially the trouser spot. If Ciampa had followed the ‘kick-out’ up with telling the trousers ‘Andrade wouldn’t have done that’ or something like that it might have worked, but as it was, it was a very odd thing for him to do in the context of his character - and it being a title match; albeit one for a belt no one gives a shit about.

On the other hand, the undisputed highlight of the show was Okada flipping off Takeshita after pinning him, as if he was Eric Cartman. Grinning like a Cheshire Cat, looking like the arsehole character he’s supposed to be - I loved it. He’s fantastic. I really want to see him interact with MJF, putting the two of them in a tag team for a little bit could be heaps of fun.

I’d have liked to have seen Mercedes/Thekla get a bit more time. It was excellent, but for a match between two of the biggest acts on the roster right now, it felt a bit short.

Wayne/Jericho was good, and it’s a rare situation for me in which Jericho putting someone over is actually working. 

The tag title match was great, and Kevin Knight’s star couldn’t be shining brighter right now. Like Okada, he’s very good at making you believe the way he behaves is just how he is. He IS an asshole, and he DOES believe he’s better than Kyle Fletcher, and probably anyone else on that roster. 

FTR/MCMG was good, but the Machine Guns still reek of WWE-stink to me. I don't buy them as a top level act, which FTR absolutely are at this point.

Dragunov felt like a star, well done to whoever came up with his presentation here. I’m looking forward to seeing how he fits in on that stacked roster.

The trios match was OK, but I didn’t really like having a best of three falls match and Clockwork Carnage on the same show, it felt repetitive to me. Still, here’s hoping we’ll get The Bucks vs New Level next, that’s something I really want to see, although I could absolutely see them saving that for All In next year. Please don’t, Tony!

Clockwork Carnage didn’t really work for me as a concept. Given how many kick-outs there usually are in AEW main event matches, having that many pinfalls in one bout actually took me out of the match. Maybe if it had happened over two 30 mon halves I’d have bought it, I don’t know…but as it was, it felt a bit too gimmicky. The match wasn’t bad as such, I just found it hard to believe or get into. 

[The King Of Swing]

Other than a bland period between Osprey and Ricochet, I really enjoyed Clockwork Carnage. 

Overall a solid show. Only match I didn't care about was the TBS match. 

[Chili]

I'll never get bored of Swerve and Hangman catching sight of each other and just immediately fighting like Peter Griffin and the chicken. That little moment Swerve dropped the belt rather than show any contrition to losing to the better team, whilst neither of them stopped glaring at each other. Brilliant.

Edited 15 hours ago by Chili

[RedTwoster]

32 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

Other than a bland period between Osprey and Ricochet, I really enjoyed Clockwork Carnage. 

I think I’d have liked it more if it wasn’t a World title match? Maybe if it was to crown a number one contender or something I’d have liked it, but it didn’t really feel like a main event concept - maybe something that would have worked better as a spot-heavy opener. 

I didn’t think the wrestling was bad or anything, I just didn’t buy the execution or placement.

Edited 15 hours ago by RedTwoster

[The King Of Swing]

19 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I think I’d have liked it more if it wasn’t a World title match? Maybe if it was to crown a number one contender or something I’d have liked it, but it didn’t really feel like a main event concept - maybe something that would have worked better as a spot-heavy opener. 

I didn’t think the wrestling was bad or anything, I just didn’t buy the execution or placement.

Fair point and I agree that it didn't really feel like a PPV main event.

[westlondonmist]

I suppose it's basically a B PPV main event to have fun with fairly big names, in that way it kind of works. 

[The King Of Swing]

Ciampa going full DDT, with Andrade's pants was the highlight of a good but really obvious match.

Real 'Everyone knows I'm losing, so fuck it' energy.

[AshC]

Made an impulse buy after coming in last night and slept through bits, but seemed an entertaining show.

Quite liked the main event concept, although I did think it takes a tank to keep some people down in a regular match and now they're dropping falls left and right. The final stretch was exciting though and I'd like to see it used again. 

The tag title match seemed packed with great action, but I do feel that maybe these kind of matches would be better served under tornado rules, saving the referee from standing like a lemon for minutes on end while people run double-teams. 

Think Nick Wayne has got a lot out of this Jericho thing. I couldn't tell you what he looked like before.

Edited 10 hours ago by AshC

[WyattSheepMask]

What a stupid pair of bumps Nick Wayne & Darby Allin took on those steps. The one Mox took on the Apron wasn’t any brighter.
In theory Wayne should be moving onto something new and higher up the card having now got the better of Jericho, but I’m not convinced that he isn’t just going to get lost in the shuffle.

I’ll hopeful for Dragunov having a good run, but if he’s still having to wear that massive bit of scaffolding on his leg like he was at the end of his WWE tenure then I’d be worried that he’ll pick up a longterm injury 

I don’t doubt for a second that I’m in the minority, but I’m bored of Swerve v Hangman. Hopefully they do t cross paths for a long time after the conclusion of this. 
With New Level dropping the belts, could be time to build them as a Two Man team en route to a match with The Bucks

Just when you thought Ciampa being unable to pin a pair of trousers was the most surreal (and stupid) thing you’d see all nightx Marina Shafir uses We’re Going On A Bear Hunt to motivate Mox back into the match

“Gimmick infringement, no one likes that” - Nigel McGuinness, who stole every move he ever did from World of Sport.

Credit to them for trying something different with Clockwork Carnage and with a bit of tinkering they could have a decent match type on their hands. I’m not sure if having 11 falls in 15 minutes made anyone look good particularly, maybe have fewer people go through to the scoring phase and have that last for longer?