ALL OUT is upon us once again, meaning All Elite Wrestling is back in its second home of Chicago, specifically the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates! Since the first ALL OUT in 2019 when Chris Jericho defeated Hangman Page to become the first AEW World Champion, this has been one of the signature events of our pay-per-view calendar, and the 2024 edition is no different!
With five championship matches, a grudge match between Daniel Garcia and MJF, and the Lights Out Steel Cage match pitting Hangman Page against Swerve Strickland, this already looks like an unforgettable night of action on-paper, and AEW's pay-per-view history is testament to the action always going above and beyond expectations!
ALL OUT 2024 gets underway with the ZERO HOUR which comes to fans absolutely free on the official AEW YouTube channel starting at 6:30pm ET/5:30pm CT and hosted by Jeff Jarrett, Renee Paquette, and RJ City. The pay-per-view party officially begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT, and then you can join AEW in Lexington, KY next Wednesday night to experience the fallout from ALL OUT 2024!
AEW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
“The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson(c) vs. TNT Champion Jack Perry
Three years ago at the NOW Arena, in the aftermath of Christian Cage falling to Kenny Omega in their AEW World Championship match at ALL OUT 2021, Jack Perry stood alongside Christian, Luchasaurus, and the newly-arrived “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson to fend off an assault perpetrated by The Young Bucks, Omega, and Adam Cole, a man also making his AEW debut that night. It was one of the most electric nights in All Elite Wrestling history, and that one scene of the most memorable moments of said night, but fast forward to 2024 and the landscape is quite different.
Christian Cage has proven himself to be one of the most revolting humans in the All Elite Wrestling locker room, Kenny Omega is sidelined due to diverticulitis, not to mention being assaulted by the new Elite of Kazuchika Okada, The Young Bucks, and Jack Perry. Perry, since that night three years ago, has undergone a complete metamorphosis. Betrayed by Christian Cage, betrayed by Luchasaurus, he ultimately chose to betray HOOK, to turn his back on the fans who'd supported him since AEW's inception, but after ALL IN: LONDON 2023, Jack felt it was he who was betrayed by All Elite Wrestling as an entity.
After sitting on the sidelines for months, Perry chose to reemerge in New Japan Pro Wrestling, aligning himself with House of Torture, and making it to the Quarterfinals of the 2024 New Japan Cup, scoring victories over Shota Umino and Toru Yano before falling to SANADA in a rematch of their FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 IWGP World Heavyweight Title fight. Jack returned to the AEW stage at DYNASTY 2024 to play a pivotal role in the AEW World Tag Title Ladder Match between FTR and The Young Bucks, costing Dax and Cash the chance to become three-time champions, and positioning himself alongside The EVPs. He suckered AEW CEO Tony Khan into a face-to-face meeting inside the ring on the subsequent DYNAMITE, got TK to reinstate him into AEW, then joined The Elite in attacking their own boss, confident that the iron-clad contracts of the brothers Jackson, and the EVP powers bestowed upon them as a result, would protect Jack from suffering any repercussions for his actions.
That was the path Jack chose, a path that put him and Bryan back together for the first time since the October 6, 2021 DYNAMITE, only this time it was during DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024's Anarchy in the Arena fight, and on opposite sides of the battle. That fight was every bit as chaotic as its predecessors, but the most important part that pertains to tonight's AEW World Championship match is how Jack Perry pinned Bryan Danielson to score victory for The Elite.
Just a few nights later, after learning that Adam Copeland went down with an injury from his TNT Championship defense in Las Vegas, Matthew and Nicholas Jackson attempted to bequeath the vacated title to Jack Perry, but Tony Khan, through Christopher Daniels, reasserted his authority over All Elite Wrestling and set-up a Ladder Match at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 for which each participant had to qualify. Jack, to his credit, played the game and defeated Dustin Rhodes to earn his spot, and parlayed that into being the man standing atop the ladder a few weeks later holding the TNT Title as the new champion.
Credit where credit is due, Jack pulled off the win on his own without any Elite interference to bolster his efforts. It even seemed that he, unlike his Elite cohorts, would be a fighting champion as Jack laid down the traditional TNT Open Challenge for the COLLISION following FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024. After besting former Jurassic Express ally Marko Stunt in the man's hometown, The Elite barreled towards a Blood & Guts fight against a Team AEW comprised of Darby Allin, The Acclaimed, Swerve Strickland, and ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe, and that's where everything changed.
Handcuffed to the cage, and doused in gasoline, Jack still refused to give Darby Allin the satisfaction of hearing the words “I Quit”, leaving the onus for that call on Matthew Jackson with the added stipulation that Darby be granted a TNT Championship match at ALL IN: LONDON 2024. After that B&G Cage, Jack and The Elite disappeared from AEW TV for weeks, though Jack did drop these video packages ahead of their TNT Title fight, a fight that became a Coffin Match as the Wembley excursion drew closer, a match style that most assumed favored Darby.
That majority were proven dead wrong as Jack, as if in payback for being restrained inside Blood & Guts, taped Darby's hands up, threw him off the stage and down through a table, then zipped him up in a body bag before shutting Allin inside the Coffin. It could have gotten far worse as after the match The Young Bucks came to the ring with a gas can, dumping it on both the body bag containing Darby as well as the exterior of the casket, and it was only the arrival of “The Icon” Sting that stopped Darby from being engulfed in flames.
That same night, with the future of his professional wrestling career hanging in the balance, “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson finally achieved the goal he'd set for himself three years ago when he stood at Jack Perry's side at the NOW Arena and claimed the AEW World Championship. It was a triumphant moment, one Bryan celebrated with his wife and children at ringside, but a question of “now what?” loomed over the moment once the excitement settled. Danielson put any questions about his future to rest the following Wednesday on DYNAMITE, but also opened the door for what tonight presents:
For the first time, “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson will go one-on-one with “Scapegoat” Jack Perry and the AEW World Championship will be on the line! For Jack, this is his third opportunity to become the AEW World Champion, the last taking place fifteen months ago at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2023 during MJF's historic title reign but in the form of a Four-Way that also included Sammy Guevara and Darby Allin. It has been three years and two months since the last time Jack had this opportunity one-on-one, and that took place during Kenny Omega's epic championship run. So for Jack this title match is a long-time coming, but so too is it for Bryan. Prior to his fight with Swerve, it had been 17 months since Danielson's last World Title match, that being the unforgettable Iron Man contest versus MJF, and if he hadn't beaten Swerve Strickland at ALL IN: LONDON 2024, that fifth crack at the most coveted title in professional wrestling would have been his last.
With those previous failures to claim the title from Hangman Page, Jon Moxley, and MJF now in the past, Danielson steps into position as the defending champion for the first time since he joined All Elite Wrestling three years ago. In that way, this has been a long time coming for “The American Dragon” as well, but beyond just fighting for his title tonight at ALL OUT 2024, Bryan's now fighting for his career every single time he puts that AEW World Championship on the line. He has publicly made the promise to the world, and privately made it to his family, that when he loses the World Title so too does his Hall of Fame career come to an end, but just because he made that promise, doesn't mean Bryan is going to lay down and die for the first challenger that steps to his face. It doesn't mean TNT Champion Jack Perry is going to have an easy go tonight when Bryan returns to the site where his career was reborn three years ago. In fact it's likely the exact opposite; Jack is going to have to deal with a man whose resolve cannot be broken, who fought every day of his life for three years to reclaim his career, who came to All Elite Wrestling to reclaim his wrestling soul, and who has battled through a broken arm, fractured orbital bone, and inevitable neck surgery, just to do the thing he loves more than everything save his family.
Bryan has sacrificed it all for professional wrestling, for the longest time he even sacrificed the possibility of having a family, but life brought him to love, to joy, to triumph, to something that actually means more to him than professional wrestling, and in that he's actually become an even better competitor than he was without such attachments. Jack Perry has his anger, his rage, his sense of entitlement, and a TNT Championship that now looks as broken and dark as The Scapegoat's soul has become, but he has no such attachments, no children to care for, seemingly little beyond what happens inside the professional wrestling ring. Some may say that let's him focus more completely on the task at hand, that of claiming the AEW World Championship and retiring Bryan Danielson, while others may think that Dragon having something greater than himself is the true key to success.
Tonight at ALL OUT 2024 we will all learn which man's fight bolsters him to leaving the NOW Arena as the AEW World Champion. Will the Age of the American Dragon end before it even really got to begin? Are about to enter the Scapegoat Era of AEW and see Jack Perry become the first man to hold two AEW singles titles simultaneously? What would it mean for AEW to have another title fall into The Elite camp? There are so many questions swirling around what this AEW World Championship fight will mean for the future of so many...
LIGHTS OUT STEEL CAGE MATCH...
“Hangman” Adam Page vs. Swerve Strickland
“Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.”
The words of Robert Frost from his poem “Fire and Ice” seem fitting for all that we've seen go down between “Hangman” Adam Page and Swerve Strickland since their first conflict at WRESTLEDREAM 2023 last October. The hate that has slowly built up between these two former AEW World Champions is akin to the inferno in which Hangman Page engulfed Swerve Strickland's childhood home this past Wednesday night on DYNAMITE. It started as Swerve questioning the fortitude of Page on the 9/6/23 edition of DYNAMITE, then hitting a now-familiar tune by bringing Hangman's family into the conversation, only to use Brian Cage as the heavy to lay out Page when he laid hands on Swerve. Their path quickly turned dark and violent as they headed towards WRESTLEDREAM 2023, but it was Swerve who left Seattle that night the victor thanks to an assist from Prince Nana, and it was that night the embers were first stoked:
But the issue wasn't done, not by a long shot because of how Swerve chose to secure that victory in their first singles match, and when Hangman saw the same crime about to occur during Swerve's TNT Title #1 Contender's bout with Bryan Danielson, he made a point to stop Nana from screwing over Bryan the same way they did him. That choice by Hangman fanned those small flames into a white-hot fire, and led Swerve to go above and beyond with his nefarious visit to Hangman's home. Swerve has never claimed to be a good man, just a supremely talented wrestler willing to do anything it takes to get where he wants to be:
Never was that more evident than in the bloody Texas Death Match that took place at FULL GEAR 2023, a war won by Swerve Strickland, but not because he pinned Adam Page or made him quit, but rather because the former AEW World Champion was unable to answer the ten count, though both Prince Nana and Brian Cage insinuated themselves in the bout. Still, that wasn't enough to quell the hate between the two men, in fact it only further fanned the flames burning within Hangman Page, leading to Swerve making the challenge for a third match, with the winner moving on to REVOLUTION 2024 to face Samoa Joe in a World Title fight. With fan support building behind Swerve with each passing, the two ended that rubber match in a 30-minute draw, much to the chagrin of Swerve and the happiness of Hangman. To Page that meant he'd successfully blocked Swerve from challenging for the title, an accomplishment more important to Adam at that moment then actually fighting for the title, but his notion of success was quickly squashed when it was declared that Samoa Joe would face both Swerve and Hangman in a Three-Way match:
Again the mania of Hangman Page was underestimated as he chose, while trapped in Samoa Joe's choke, to tap out thus allowing the champion to retain while robbing Swerve of any opportunity to win the AEW World Title that night in Greensboro. In the aftermath of that pay-per-view event, The Young Bucks suspended Hangman indefinitely, thereby opening the path for Swerve to operate unobstructed, and finally score his AEW World Championship victory over Samoa Joe at DYNASTY 2024. Without Hangman Page in his orbit, Swerve turned away challenges from Claudio Castagnoli and Christian Cage, Roderick Strong, and Will Ospreay, all the while feeling the groundswell of support grow day-by-day despite the actions he'd taken to get to that point.
And that's what burned up Hangman Page more than anything; sitting back during his suspension and watching the AEW faithful choose Swerve Strickland time after time, even as far back as WRESTLEDREAM '23 they were voicing their support for him over Hangman. The fact they continued to do it even after he violated Hangman's home was just too much too take, and eventually it broke Page enough that he took The Elite's offer to compete in the 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Men's Tournament just to try and get a shot at Swerve:
“They chose him”; just three words but they carry so much weight, so much power, when placed under the microscope of how the last year has gone down for Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland. The AEW faithful chose Swerve Strickland regardless of the sins he committed so Adam Page chose to side with The Elite inside Blood & Guts just to get his hands on Swerve, he chose to make his presence felt at ringside during Swerve's defense against Bryan Danielson at ALL IN: LONDON 2024, and just three days ago, Hangman chose to impose on Swerve the same violation that Strickland did to him nearly a year ago. One could say there's a difference between home invasion and arson, but the latter was done to a home whose only occupants were childhood memories while the former was committed upon a house whose occupants slept peacefully in their crib. In fact, one could argue that Page was simply following in the footsteps of Swerve in terms of the response being louder than the initial actions; how Strickland took Page preventing Nana's cheating in that TNT Title Contender's match and turned it breaking entering while Hangman took Swerve again questioning his gumption and turned it into arson.
These are two broken men, of that there is no doubt, but the difference is one embraced his broken pieces a long time ago and is thus able to justify everything he's done since walking into AEW at REVOLUTION 2022. The other spent so much time trying to become a better man, to learn from his mistakes and foibles, but was dragged back into the worst parts of himself by the actions of a man whose conscience died a long time ago. As fitting as Robert Frost's words may be to this situation, perhaps it's the words of Nietzsche that are more apropos: “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”
That abyss has led Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page to a point where All Elite Wrestling has disavowed whatever may happen between the two on Saturday night at ALL OUT 2024. While AEW is providing the space for them to fight, and setting up the cage in which they will wage war, this Steel Cage Match will be the first Lights Out one in All Elite Wrestling history! There have been eight Lights Out matches in AEW's existence, none since Adam Cole fought Chris Jericho at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2023, and all have seen their fair share of violence, but what will take place tonight at the NOW Arena is likely to put them all to shame.
For as deep as this hate runs, is there anything that can possibly bring an end to it, or are Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page locked in perpetual battle that may never end as long as the two occupy the same space in the same time? Tonight in the greater Chicago Area, we are going to see two men absolutely try...
TBS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Mercedes Moné(c) vs. Hikaru Shida
***KAMILLE BANNED FROM RINGSIDE***
Since the inception of the TBS Championship on January 5, 2022 there have been three former AEW Women's World Champions who've attempted to become the first to hold both All Elite Wrestling Women's Championships. Nyla Rose was the first, Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D was next, and Hikaru Shida was the third. Rose has challenged three of the TBS Champions in an effort to hit this historical milestone, Baker has challenged two, and they share both Kris Statlander and Mercedes Moné in those challenges. Obviously neither was successful, just as Hikaru Shida failed in her first effort to dethrone “The CEO” prior to ALL IN: LONDON 2024, but the other thing Baker and Shida have in common is that both can point to “The Brickhouse” Kamille as pertinent factors in why neither stands today as the reigning TBS Champion. It is with that in mind that, for this title fight taking place at ALL OUT 2024, Moné's bodyguard will be banned from ringside!
Will Kamille being eliminated from the equation be enough to balance the scales and turn the 3-Time former AEW Women's World Champion into the 6th TBS Champion? Or will Mercedes Moné continue to etch her name in the history books and build her claim to being the “Face of AEW”?
AEW INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
“The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay vs. “The Bastard” PAC
It has been 59 days since “The Bastard” PAC won the Global Glory Four-Way over Claudio Castagnoli, Kyle Fletcher, and Tomohiro Ishii to earn a future International Championship match. Given when PAC earned this shot, he possibly assumed it would take place at ALL IN: LONDON 2024 but MJF managed to jump the line, get his shot at Will Ospreay before PAC, and squeak out a title victory at the 59:58 mark of a 60-minute match to dethrone “The Aerial Assassin”.
So PAC had to sit patiently by as the the International/American Title situation between MJF and Will Ospreay was sorted out, nearly robbing him of an opportunity (for the second consecutive year) of competing at Wembley Stadium for ALL IN: LONDON. Thankfully for “The Bastard”, he found a way into that pay-per-view extravaganza fighting as partners with Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta to claim the AEW World Trios Championship from The Patriarchy. It was a tremendous moment for PAC winning gold in front of his home country, albeit some 280 miles from his home in Newcastle-Upon-Tyme, but understandably not the same as the International Championship match he anticipated when he won Global Glory on July 10th.
British author Violet Fane once wrote “All hoped-for things will come to you who have the strength to watch and wait”, and “The Bastard” PAC maintained that strength for nearly two months after earning his shot, but when he witnessed Will Ospreay attempt to address Ricochet on last week's DYNAMITE as opposed to their impending match, that strength to wait was sapped. Yet it wasn't PAC who paid the price for that, it was Ospreay who “The Bastard” brutally dropped with a Poisonrana on the AEW stage. For a man whose submission finish is dubbed “The Brutalizer”, PAC managed to find a way to injure Ospreay that looked even more brutal than said submission hold.
So it will be tonight during ALL OUT 2024 that these two warriors meet in their first singles match in over 2,000 days! February 15, 2019 at RevPro's HIGH STAKES event was the last time they went one-on-one, a bout whose outcome ended in an inconclusive thirty minute draw. In the five years since, the two men have met only four other times, the first just two months after their draw but in a Four-Way that also included Aussie Open's Mark Davis, and the subsequent three all under the AEW banner. It was Ospreay's United Empire trio that eliminated Death Triangle from the original AEW World Trios Championship tournament in 2022, and PAC took part in the FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 Casino Gauntlet won by Ospreay that led to Will's title fight with Swerve Strickland.
Their third meeting under the AEW banner took place this past Wednesday night, the trios match pitting PAC and the BCC against Ospreay and The Conglomeration, and culminated in the International Champion and his ALL OUT 2024 challenger brawling to the back while the BCC secured the victory for their team. As seen in the video clip embedded at the top of this section, it was “The Bastard” who walked out of Milwaukee under his own power while Will Ospreay was left tending to a neck still feeling the effects from his ALL IN: LONDON 2024 fight with MJF.
The lineage of the International Championship finds its origin around the waist of “The Bastard” PAC as the All-Atlantic Title. Will this be the night it returns to the body it first called home or will “The Aerial Assassin” be able to dig deep, fight through the damage incurred over the past few weeks, and maintain his status as AEW International Champion?
AEW WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
The Young Bucks (Matthew & Nicholas Jackson)(c) vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta)
Perhaps due to the strife existing between The Acclaimed and FTR, The Young Bucks were able to escape ALL IN: LONDON 2024 still the AEW World Tag Team Champions. Perhaps Matthew and Nicholas Jackson thought that meant they'd be able to take another four-month break from actively defending those titles against any opponents, especially after putting them on the line twice in a matter of eleven days. Thankfully that is not the case and after Wednesday night's loss to Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, and PAC, it looks like The Young Bucks will be defending their titles once again against Blackpool Combat Club!
Now the brothers Jackson and Claudio Castagnoli are no strangers, in fact their history dates back to 2010 Ring of Honor events where they faced Claudio and Chris Hero, collectively known as The Kings of Wrestling, as well as to a superb PWG World Tag Title match at BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES 2011, saying nothing of their 2023 AEW engagement during Anarchy in the Arena and inside the Blood & Guts cage. Nicholas and Claudio even faced one another in a Three-Way International Championship #1 Contender's bout last September that also featured Brian Cage and was won by the Jackson brother.
Last night we witnessed Wheeler Yuta pin Nicholas Jackson's shoulders to the mat to win the All-Star Eight-Man Tag on COLLISION/RAMPAGE, so will that be the momentum need to make this the night the Young Bucks third championship reign comes to an end? Will we see Claudio and Yuta walk away from NOW Arena with two titles in their possession, or will the reign of The EVPs continue unabated into the autumn months?
CHICAGO STREET FIGHT...
CMLL World Women's Champion Willow Nightingale vs. Kris Statlander
Their relationship began over five years ago at the NYWC promotion on Long Island, but unlike the majority of their AEW tenure where they fought alongside one another, their time at the NYWC Sportatorium was spent as opponents with just one singles match (won by Willow) occurring on January 26, 2019. Fast forward to August 2023, a little over one year ago, and the two women decide to combine forces in the face of Diamante and Mercedes Martinez. Though their initial outing as a team against those two does not go as well as hoped, with Martinez scoring the winning pinfall on Willow, the two gelled well together, but sadly their team did not remain intact at that time. It's a safe bet to say that Skye Blue's presence at that moment in Willow's life was a large reason why, and when it came to the TBS Title fight between Willow and Stat at BATTLE OF THE BELTS VIII, they tore into one another like the fiercest of enemies. Perhaps that's what did it though, perhaps Nightingale needed that kind of fight to avoid slipping into the darkness the way Skye did after her exposure to Julia Hart's mist, because after Statlander defeated her, despite the protestations of Skye, Willow shook hands with the TBS Champion.
Theirs became a powerful union, taking down Diamante and Martinez in an epic Street Fight on the December 16th COLLISION, falling to Julia Hart and Skye Blue in another on the March 20th edition of RAMPAGE, and in-between supporting one another through the trials and tribulations. Despite what Statlander may believe, Willow had her back against Julia and Skye, and supported Kris after Hart took the TBS Championship from her. In fact, it's not too far off the mark to say that Nightingale had guilt about that fact as she was the one who failed to stop Julia from getting the FULL GEAR 2023 title match in the first place with their Eliminator match just eight days prior.
So the question is when did it first start to turn sour for Kris Statlander? Was it after their WORLDS END 2023: ZERO HOUR singles match that Nightingale won? Everything seemed fine after that as the two women would go onto defeat The Outcasts in tag team action, and defeat the Julia Hart/Skye Blue tandem during the REVOLUTION 2024: ZERO HOUR. Even at the March 27th DYNAMITE, where Willow earned her shot against TBS Champion Julia Hart at DYNASTY 2024, Statlander seemed happy for her friend despite the fact Nightingale's victory in that Four-Way meant Kris didn't get a championship rematch. There seemed a feeling of genuine support between the two women no matter what they were going through, and then DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 happened and Willow lost both the TBS Championship and her supposed best friend in the same night.
What was different in May 2024 from December 2023? Unquestionably it is the presence of one Stokely Hathaway that's made all the difference in this dynamic. It's not as if his presence was initially wanted by either Kris or Willow, in fact he was downright rude to Nightingale every chance he had and blatantly tried to convince both women to dip into his bag of underhanded tactics to get their victories. While neither caved to that, both eventually warmed to his presence in their world, Statlander letting him in first then Willow giving Stoke an opportunity as he seemed to be changing his ways to better suit theirs.
Clearly that was all a ruse and Stokely was the snake whispering in Kris Statlander's ear, convincing her that all her troubles should be laid at Willow's feet and that Willow was not the supportive friend. He said the right words to convince Statlander that Willow was in the wrong for pursuing the TBS Championship in the aftermath of Kris' loss to Julia Hart, and that her actually beating Julia was a betrayal of their friendship. Now it's not as if Kris Statlander is some weak-willed human in need of direction from another person, it seems it was simply a matter of Stokely exploiting the fears and anxieties that already existed within Statlander's mind.
The fact that Willow beat her in their 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Women's Tournament Semifinal match did not help matters, nor did watching Nightingale compete for, and win, the CMLL World Women's Championship. The only balm on those injuries was beating Nightingale in their Eliminator Match to earn a title opportunity, but then having the wound ripped back open when it was Nightingale who earned the right to name the stipulation by virtue of her and Tomohiro Ishii's victory over Stat and Stokely during the ZERO HOUR before ALL IN: LONDON 2024.
Based on her history with the stipulation, Willow chose the Chicago Street Fight to settle this score, but this is the first time she's entered into such a match by herself, the previous three instances were all in tag team competition, and two of those the aforementioned matches with Statlander as her partner. For Stat, her Street Fight experience consists of those two matches she and Willow split, but in all instances both of these women proved more than capable of digging into their violent tendencies. It's been over two years since the only other singles Street Fight in the Women's Division, one of the Philadelphia variety between Serena Deeb and Hikaru Shida in April 2022, and that one did not indulge in the kind of chaotic plunder seen in the tag team counterparts involving Statlander and/or Willow.
The difference between that Philly Street Fight and this Chicagoland version is that one wasn't as steeped in personal issues and betrayal. Deeb and Shida were not friends, it was simple professional jealousy on Deeb's part that sent them down that path, this one is about a shattered friendship as well as a championship title. So what sort of path will this emotionally-charged rivalry head down? Will it be laced with barbed wire and blood, or lean more into the fight part of Street Fight? Fisticuffs or tacks? Kicks or chains? Will the CMLL World Women's Champion be the one left standing, or will Stokely Kris Statlander get the vengeance she feels is owed?
AEW CONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Kazuchika Okada(c) vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Konosuke Takeshita vs. ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe
“The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada has held onto the AEW Continental Championship for 171 days now, first defeating Eddie Kingston on March 20th, and since retaining the title on four occasions. His first success was against PAC at DYNASTY 2024 on April 21st, his next came over Dax Harwood on the May 15th DYNAMITE, and then the man who'd been such an amazing champion for New Japan Pro Wrestling, that man disappeared into the wind and instead AEW found itself with a Continental Champion who did not defend his title for three months. It's not as if he was forced to step up either, rather choosing to hide behind whatever authority Matthew and Nicholas Jackson carry as EVPs for All Elite Wrestling. Okada did step up to compete in DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024's Anarchy in The Arena alongside the rest of The Elite, as well as inside Blood & Guts two months after that, but in the interim he did not lay that Continental Championship on the line a single time. Sure he won an Eliminator Match with Ultimo Guerrero, but that's not the same as risking the gold, and sure he went head-to-head with then-AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland but neither title was on the line and The Elite made sure Strickland's victory was a pyrrhic one achieved via disqualification.
When Okada finally did put his title on the line again, it had been more than three months since his last defense, and he only did so because Claudio Castagnoli won a #1 Contender Match, leaving “The Rainmaker” very little choice in the matter. Unfortunately for the BCC member, the 20-minute time limit expired before he could secure a victory, allowing Okada to escape with the Continental Title still in The Elite camp. In stark contrast to his layoff after the Dax Harwood title bout, Okada wasn't given much respite, instead put into another championship fight, this time against Kyle Fletcher who earned the bout after defeating Okada's former CHAOS stablemate Tomohiro Ishii. Okada was also able to escape that fight with the Continental Championship still around his waist, but it took a blatant low blow behind the referee's back to make it happen. Perhaps Okada thought he'd get another break after that victory, but it looks like AEW CEO Tony Khan has had enough of The Elite's political garbage because not only did he sign the aforementioned AEW World Tag Title match for ALL OUT 2024, ie was also announced that Okada would defend the AEW Continental Championship tonight against THREE challengers!
Can Okada survive three challengers simultaneously, or has this Elite member ran into a problem for which even he has no solution? Will we see the crowning of a new Continental Champion tonight at the NOW Arena? Mark Briscoe has his history with Okada dating back to nearly a decade to matches in both ROH and NJPW where they stood as both friend and foe, Orange Cassidy has been ally to Okada in the past here in AEW, leaving only Takeshita sharing no history with the defending champion. Takeshita has some recent history with both OC and Mark Briscoe, and obviously those two are bonded as members of The Conglomeration. So all those threads coming together tonight make this Continental Championship bout quite the interesting conundrum for Kazuchika Okada!
GRUDGE MATCH...
MJF vs. Daniel Garcia
Much like the fans of All Elite Wrestling, Daniel Garcia made the mistake of thinking Maxwell Jacob Friedman has a genuine bone left in his body. Maybe he briefly did before December 30th at WORLDS END 2023, but Adam Cole giving MJF a taste of his own medicine clearly pulverized that one remaining earnest bone. Though upon his return at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 MJF presented as the same individual who left AEW after WORLDS END 2023 to heal his battered body, it didn't take long for him to show the world he'd reverted to type, and let the world feel the full bore of his bitter, entitled, angry, jealous nature. Nothing had changed since the day he won the AEW World Championship from Jon Moxley, MJF learned nothing from Adam Cole's machinations over the course of 2023, and sadly it was Daniel Garcia who paid the price for giving Max even an ounce of his trust.
At least the fans did not have to wait long for MJF to show himself, they didn't have to continue wasting their emotional energy caring about someone who has zero regard for their existence, much less the well-being of a single individual in the AEW locker room. After that assault there was a very real concern about if Daniel Garcia would be able to return to action, or if that tombstone piledriver was the death knell of Garcia's wrestling career.
Guess everyone forgot that this is the Buffalo Kid who fought to get back into the ring after a potentially-fatal car accident, who fought to get back into the ring after breaking his right femur as well as both his left fibula and tibia in that accident, and yet five months later was back in the fight once again. Garcia wasn't going to just fade away because Maxwell Jacob Friedman wished it so, if anything Danny was going to come back at MJF twice as hard as before, and make sure he experiences every bit of pain and suffering that Garcia endured over the last two months recovering from that assault. Garcia got the upper hand on MJF at ALL IN: LONDON 2024, playing his part in getting that AEW International Championship back around Will Ospreay's waist where it belongs, and again on the August 28th DYNAMITE. Unfortunately the third time was not the charm for Daniel Garcia, and this past Wednesday he was left bloodied and battered by MJF, in part due to AEW's security trying to keep them apart giving Max an opening to shatter a glass bottle across Garcia's skull; not the best way to head into a huge match-up like the one set to occur tonight.
The last time Daniel Garcia and Maxwell Jacob Friedman met one-on-one was ten months ago during MJF's World Championship reign, and that night in Portland, OR Max was able to beat Garcia clean in the middle of the ring with his Salt of the Earth armbar. MJF even extended his hand to Danny after the match, a gesture which Garcia would've accepted if not for Matt Menard and Angelo Parker physically taking him away from the situation. If Menard had trusted those same instincts when MJF insinuated himself back into Garcia's orbit upon his return, perhaps Garcia wouldn't have ended up in the position he was the last two months, but that's the past, it cannot be changed, and Daddy Magic's regrets won't do anyone any good. What matters is the present, this fight, ALL OUT 2024, and Daniel Garcia giving Maxwell Jacob Friedman the beating he's had coming since July 3rd!
-Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, & Roderick Strong) vs. Action Andretti & Top Flight (Dante & Darius Martin) vs. The Beast Mortos & Shane Taylor Promotions (ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty & Shane Taylor)
ALL OUT 2024 comes to you this Saturday night from the NOW Arena located in Hoffman Estates, IL beginning at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on pay-per-view! Five championship matches are on tap including Bryan Danielson defending the AEW World Title against TNT Champion Jack Perry, Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada facing four challengers, TBS Champion Mercedes Moné putting her title on the line against Hikaru Shida, and AEW World Tag Champions The Young Bucks facing Blackpool Combat Club of Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta! That's not all; we will also see CMLL World Women's Champion Willow Nightingale meet Kris Statlander in a Chicago Street Fight, a grudge match pitting Daniel Garcia against MJF, and a must-see Lights Out Steel Cage match where Hangman Page takes on Swerve Strickland!
Hosted by Jeff Jarrett, Renee Paquette, and RJ City, the ALL OUT 2024: ZERO HOUR begins on the official AEW YouTube channel at 6:30pm ET/5:30pm CT with the pay-per-view kicking off at 8pm ET/7pm CT, and then fans can follow AEW to Lexington, KY for next Wednesday's DYNAMITE featuring the aftermath of ALL OUT 2024!