AEW WrestleDream 2026 Discussion

[Doog]

I think the other issue with Clockwork Carnage happening at this PPV is that its pretty obvious Ospreay wouldn't be losing the title this early, so that hurt the jeopardy of the match. Even subconsciously, I dont think anyone actually believed Ospreay would lose so it hurt the match a lot.

At another time, deep into a title reign or whatever then yeah, it works as a main event, but not here.

Good show mind, stayed entertaining throughout with the TBS title match being the only "dull" point. Loved the Bucks/Fletcher and Knight match, looks like Fletcher and Knight will split now which is the right way to go.

Moxley was as great as ever. Also really hope MJF returns soon as I feel hes been missed , it'll be nice to have some 1 on 1 matches at a PPV where there isn't a title on the line also, appreciate with so many titles that's difficult, but only one match on this show not being for a belt is crazy.

Also, a small thing that I noticed last night, they should let entrances breathe a little.bit before hitting the opponents music, literally as soon as one entrance music stops, the other starts, like no break inbetween. I mention it because Thekla's entrance was fantastic, made her look big as fuck...yet the second her music stopped Mones hit, not saying dwell too much but leave a bit of a gap for crowed reaction as Thekla would've got that big time.

Good show though all in all, hoping for a good Full Gear card and really interested in who will main event as Ospreays next big challenger, MJF return on Dynamite hopefully. 

[Chili]

It's not been brought up but Bandido doing that double fall away moonsault slam on BOTH Kofi & Creed was an absolutely mental bit of business. It looked incredible. I'm glad the Trios belts are really fun and more importantly the title reigns don't seem to be too long now, which I actually want from the Trios belts. 

[Kamran]

They added a couple of extra matches to the tailgate show:

• Jake Doyle, Josh Alexander and Wardlow vs. Alex Breeze, Papi D and Rhys Maddox 
• Jay White, Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, Orange Cassidy, Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong vs. Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia, Gabe Kidd, Wheeler Yuta, David Finlay and Clark Connors

The crowd were hot through most of the night, Wardlow got a great reaction in the squash match. I was surprised to see Jay return so soon, I was fully expecting him to be out for a while.

I really enjoyed the 10-man match too, they've got so good at those.

9 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

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. 

I think as long as they're getting a crowd reaction, they'll keep doing them. If Andrade turns heel then there's a good chance he'll stop a lot of this but until that happens, I can't see it changing. Ciampa did a similar spot to the trousers with that chicken toy during his match with Brisco; he calls himself a psycho, so attacking inanimate objects is kinda funny to me and sort of fits the character.

9 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

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.

I really enjoyed their match, I can't say I watched much of their WWE run so I don't know if that helped. They will need to try and show more of their personalities off though

Overall - I thought it was a good show, really enjoyed the majority of the matches. The TBS match was okay and I agree with the criticisms of the main event; it was fine but pretty forgettable. 

 

 

[LaGoosh]

Fun B-show. Clockwork Carnage was a good laugh with a thrilling final few minutes, Bucks/ProtoJet was the perfect version  of that kind of match and Mox/Davis was unexpectedly epic. 

One thing I noticed a lot was lots of long sections where the camera shot wouldn't cut and they would stay close to the action and it resulted in some thrilling sequences. There was a bit outside the ring during the Bucks match which felt like an incredible single shot take from a martial arts movie. The talent level of this company that they can stay for so long and so close on their work without needing to hide gaps with camera cuts shows how good these guys are in ring.

Overall it feels to me that AEW this year have settled into a pattern of reliably consistent and almost guaranteed highest quality matches on every show. However they've also not really taken any creative swings or done very many big stories either. So it's been a year that I've really liked but not loved.

Edited 22 hours ago by LaGoosh

[Supremo]

4 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

However they've also not really taken any creative swings or done very many big stories either. So it's been a year that I've really liked but not loved.

Looks like they kickstarted a Toni Storm whodunnit storyline at Wrestledream, handing out cassette tapes to content creators.

Cool stuff. If there’s anyone I’d trust to deliver on something like this, it’d be Toni Storm. She’s a creative genius.

With the way AEW often understate their storylines, it'll be interesting to see how - if at all - this bleeds over to television. That’s half the problem with AEW sometimes. They trust that their audience know and follow everything and don’t feel the need to spoon feed or endlessly hit fans over the head with stuff.

There‘s a fine line, I think. And as with most things, it often feels like WWE and AEW are at the opposite ends of the spectrum, neither finding the sweet spot.

Never forget WWE’s QR code campaigns. Always makes me laugh remembering their attempt at subtle, alternative reality game storytelling. See if you can spot the tiny, hidden details onscreen!

[BomberPat]

that QR code thing was for Bray Wyatt, wasn't it? I think what took me out of it more than anything was imagining the work the Bray Wyatt character would have had to do to make it happen, getting annoyed that he'd used his monthly allowance of free QR codes and debating whether he's going to pay up for the full package on bit.ly, then spider-walking backwards into the production truck to sneak them into a live broadcast - all for none of it to ever lead to anything or even get mentioned when he actually returned. STORY. CINEMA. ETC.

 

As for WrestleDream, I've not watched all of it yet, still have Mox/Davis and the main event to go - had the results spoiled, so will just get to them when I have time.

AEW have fallen into a comfortable pattern of having reliably great pay-per-views - pretty much every month there's at least one, usually more, matches to absolutely rave about, though on something of a B-PPV like this one you're kind of left wishing there was something else, something to hook you to watch Dynamite or keep you guessing. I always think we were kind of spoiled by the unpredictability of early AEW, this sense that anything could happen and anyone could show up, that there's still a part of me that feels disappointed when a show doesn't have some big mad surprise, and that's no fault of AEW's. 

I agree about Andrade being too gimmicky; he's an incredible wrestler, but the catchphrase stuff needs to be toned down. He could still be a cool ladies' man without having to do the exact same bits in every match - once he'd been jumped from behind by people in the crowd while posing for a selfie, that spot should be done, because short of using it to actually debut a new character it's been exhausted. A friend of mine got really annoyed at All In that Andrade does the trouser removal bit, but wears complicated trousers rather than easy tearaways, so I got a big pop out of him being cut off because he was struggling to get his trousers off over his kneepads. Which, again, should be a sensible point to end that gimmick and move on. It all feels very WWE to have something fun get over organically, and then insist on doing it again in every single match.

[Supremo]

How it’s going to feel when the Toni Storm Tapes confirm Willow Nightingale as the culprit, revealing she was a heel this whole time.

Still hoping it’s Ronda Rousey. Their confrontation was electric.

[RedTwoster]

5 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Overall it feels to me that AEW this year have settled into a pattern of reliably consistent and almost guaranteed highest quality matches on every show. However they've also not really taken any creative swings or done very many big stories either. So it's been a year that I've really liked but not loved.

I've said it a few times, but I think it's been their best ever year probably because of that consistency. I suppose you're right when it comes to big creative swings, but there have been some brilliant storylines - my favourite being the Willow/Mercedes feud, but you've also had Ospreay's quest for the title, the trios division miraculously becoming red hot, the rises of Thekla and Kevin Knight, the slow unravelling of the Don Callis Family, Moxley's Continental Title run/the Death Riders in general, MJF and Darby Allin having two of the best World title runs in AEW history - there's been so much to love this year, and any time I've had a negative to raise about the company it's been nitpicking, nothing more. 

And you can kind of see set-up for big stories down the track. Hangman's inability to challenge for the World title will lead somewhere, Swerve and the New Level - and the warnings that Strickland can't be trusted, Moxley's emotional breakdown, the dynamic between Okada, Fletcher and Knight. 

8 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Still hoping it’s Ronda Rousey. Their confrontation was electric.

I really, really love this tape stuff, it's so much fun. And I totally agree with this, I want to see Rousey/Storm so bloody much. But fuck, just having Storm back will be brilliant. 

[BomberPat]

I will say that the only surprise in the results for Wrestledream was that I figured the Trios champions would retain, and certainly didn't expect it would come down to Bandido beating Swerve clean - if I had to guess, I would have thought Hangman and Swerve being too focused on each other would cost one of their respective teams the match, and while that was a story running through the match, it didn't really play into the finish at all.

My assumption when Swerve & New Level won the Trios belts was that it would eventually get to Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks vs. Swerve & The New Level for the Trios belts, which would be a massive match. I wonder if them dropping the Trios titles is a move towards setting up New Level vs. Young Bucks as a tag title match, which would be arguably even bigger for being more focused, though I'd have thought Kenny Omega would want to be part of the mix against Austin Creed at some point too. Particularly with FTR and the Motor City Machine Guns tied up in a  Best of 5, keeping the Bucks busy with New Level means having two really big tag programmes running alongside each other.

[RedTwoster]

10 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

My assumption when Swerve & New Level won the Trios belts was that it would eventually get to Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks vs. Swerve & The New Level for the Trios belts, which would be a massive match. I wonder if them dropping the Trios titles is a move towards setting up New Level vs. Young Bucks as a tag title match, which would be arguably even bigger for being more focused, though I'd have thought Kenny Omega would want to be part of the mix against Austin Creed at some point too.

I think you brought this up before, and I was really excited for that idea - and I still think it's possible. If the trios division is to remain hot, I think you need to have trios feuds/matches that don't involve the titles; much as you have FTR/MCMG right now. This could act as built towards a Bucks/New Level match for the tag titles, whilst also giving us something absolutely brilliant along the way. 

[Supremo]

Seeing all the compilations online left me wondering, did Samoa Joe ever do the, “NOPE,” spot in NXT or WWE? All the (brilliant!) clips seem to be exclusively from ROH, TNA and AEW. He must have done at least one in a Fed ring, surely?

Trying to figure out what might be next for Will Ospreay also got me thinking; how many singles ladder matches have Ospreay or MJF had?

Assuming they’ll want to eventually do a big pay per view match together to unify the belts, a Wrestlemania-10 style ladder match feels the natural direction.

It would fit with Max’s pattern of having arguably the greatest examples of specific stipulation matches.

The best Dog Collar match of all time, against CM Punk. The best Iron Man Match of all time, against Bryan Danielson. The best what-the-fuck-is-that-on-his-neck match of all time, against Cody Rhodes.

Ospreay vs. MJF in a ladder match certainly has that potential. Max has probably already got the HBK-inspired tights ordered.

[RedTwoster]

56 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Seeing all the compilations online left me wondering, did Samoa Joe ever do the, “NOPE,” spot in NXT or WWE? All the (brilliant!) clips seem to be exclusively from ROH, TNA and AEW. He must have done at least one in a Fed ring, surely?

 

I hadn't been aware of it until he started doing it in AEW, I had no idea it pre-dated that!

Edited 15 hours ago by RedTwoster

[The King Of Swing]

5 hours ago, Supremo said:

Seeing all the compilations online left me wondering, did Samoa Joe ever do the, “NOPE,” spot in NXT or WWE? All the (brilliant!) clips seem to be exclusively from ROH, TNA and AEW. He must have done at least one in a Fed ring, surely?

Trying to figure out what might be next for Will Ospreay also got me thinking; how many singles ladder matches have Ospreay or MJF had?

Assuming they’ll want to eventually do a big pay per view match together to unify the belts, a Wrestlemania-10 style ladder match feels the natural direction.

It would fit with Max’s pattern of having arguably the greatest examples of specific stipulation matches.

The best Dog Collar match of all time, against CM Punk. The best Iron Man Match of all time, against Bryan Danielson. The best what-the-fuck-is-that-on-his-neck match of all time, against Cody Rhodes.

Ospreay vs. MJF in a ladder match certainly has that potential. Max has probably already got the HBK-inspired tights ordered.

They should have the greatest lumberjack match of all time, just to annoy Seth. 

[Statto]

Just finished up the show. Echoing a few of others' thoughts here but my take on Clockwork Carnage was:

- I think it's got potential as a gimmick match, but doesn't feel suited to a PPV main event for the World Championship

- the "scoring period" could do with being 30 minutes to give it a real endurance test feel

- they did exactly what I feared they'd do by shoehorning 11 falls into 15 minutes. That's too many falls for your main event guys to be taking (even to other top guys). On that note...

- why was everyone suddenly so easy to beat? You normally have to half kill & tie up Darby Allin to get a pin, here he took two off a standard Muscle Buster barely 5 minutes into his match. In the preceding match Moxley didn't even get counted out after taking a piledriver on the apron (a move that should put you on the shelf for at least a couple of weeks). If he'd have been in this he'd probably have laid down for a kneedrop.

- it would have been a much more interesting long-term story for Copeland to have remained scoreless.

- if they do it again, please don't have the winner suddenly go ahead in the final 3 seconds like always happens. The best finish to an Iron Man match remains AJ Styles vs James Tighe in the FWA, where AJ took the lead with about 2 minutes to go and spent the remaining time doing rope-a-dope ole's as Tighe desperately tried to get a hold of him.