Smark Out Moment

AEW World Championship Clockwork Carnage Match: Will Ospreay (c) vs Samoa Joe vs Mike Bailey vs Kazuchika Okada vs Adam Copeland vs Konosuke Takeshita vs Darby Allin vs Ricochet

When you don't have a creative idea in mind of what to do with your top champion, or you do have something you planned to do but can't pull it off due to something like PAC's unfortunate passing, throwing a bunch of people into a match and saying quantity over quality is an easy call.

Don't misconstrue that sentence to be me saying that there isn't quality here, though. Having great wrestlers competing in a match does equal quality to an extent. I'm talking about quality as far as feuds and storytelling.

There is no story here. Ospreay is the champion and he's going to try to retain while everyone else will try to win the belt. It's no different than any other match other than that there are more competitors, so it follows the same rules as a Triple Threat or whatever where the champion doesn't need to be pinned in order to lose his title.

He just...you know...won't. He'll end up with the most points and he'll walk out with the belt. 

PREDICTION: Will Ospreay retains.

AEW Women's World Championship Match: Mercedes Moné (c) vs Thekla

If the whole plan was to give the belt back to Thekla, she shouldn't have lost it in the first place. This is housekeeping.

PREDICTION: Mercedes Moné retains.

AEW World Tag Team Championship Match: The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) (c) vs Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight

The Young Bucks just won the AEW World Tag Team Championship at All Out. They're not losing the belts this quickly to two people who aren't getting along.

Anyone else bored with the idea that there is only one story ever being told with The Don Callis Family, where you're either a jobber or someone who is there to fill in the ranks, or you're feuding with Kyle Fletcher and arguing with your teammate? They did this with Konosuke Takeshita, Kazuchika Okada, and now Kyle Fletcher? It's time to move on past that, and by that, I don't mean that Fletcher should start to argue with Mark Davis.

Fletcher and Knight lose because they get in each other's ways. Rinse and repeat.

PREDICTION: The Young Bucks retain.

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 (Bandido and Brody King)

There is a chance the titles change hands here. They keep coming back to this when they don't need to, as it should have already been pretty definitively just that Swerve, Kofi, and Creed were the better team and that's it. But since they're continuing to have more matches, that means either Tony Khan really likes seeing it and just wants to keep hitting the "again!" button, or he's doing the rematches because he has nothing else in mind and is killing time, or he's trying to stretch out a switch back to Hangman and Brodido. The first two scenarios lead to the champions retaining more than anything, so that makes me I guess 60/40 in favor of Swerve and The New Level, but I could definitely see that other 33% playing out.

PREDICTION: Swerve Strickland and The New Level retain.

AEW Continental Championship Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs Mark Davis

If Moxley has held this title this long and he drops it to Mark Davis of all people, I'll be annoyed. There's no need for Davis to be the guy who beats him. Davis strikes me as a better opponent for an episode of Dynamite than even on a pay-per-view. It'll be a fine enough match, but I don't think it's going to be a must-see, nor will it likely matter in the grand scheme of things. It's something for these guys to do in the time before Blood & Guts.

PREDICTION: Jon Moxley retains.

AEW Women's World Tag Team Championship Match: The Brawling Birds (Jamie Hayter and Alex Windsor) (c) vs Wrathlander (Kris Statlander and Harley Cameron)

I don't want to just keep repeating myself, but The Brawling Birds just won the belts, and I can't see them dropping them this quickly, especially not to a tag team that is mostly just tossed out there with a feeling of "let's get them on the card and, I don't know, isn't that good enough? Don't you want to see those people wrestle?" That's a good half or more of AEW's booking, and whenever that happens, the champions tend to retain.

PREDICTION: The Brawling Birds retain.

AEW National Championship Match: Andrade El Idolo (c) vs Tommaso Ciampa

I wouldn't mind at all if Andrade lost this belt to Ciampa, who is also great. Andrade has the contract for the title shot, and I don't like doubling things up. That's why you don't often hear me saying someone like Trick Williams and Jacy Jayne should hold the United States Championship and also the Money in the Bank briefcase.

But I don't think Andrade is winning that world title, so keeping the National Championship on him is the smart move to give him something to continue to do other than to hang around and wait for a title shot he'll lose.

PREDICTION: Andrade El Idolo retains.

TBS Championship Fatal Four-Way Match: Persephone (c) vs Queen Aminata vs Dani Luna vs Hyan

I don't see Persephone dropping this belt. This strikes me as the same situation as the Clockwork Carnage match, with no real quality feud being good enough for a singles match, so it's more quantity over quality.

PREDICTION: Persephone retains.

Best-of-Five Series Match 1: FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) vs Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin)

I'm down. This should be great. It ultimately doesn't matter who wins, since this is a series, so it won't matter until the third match, but that's okay.

PREDICTION: Flip a coin. Motor City Machine Guns win.

Chris Jericho vs Nick Wayne (If Wayne wins, Jericho must apologize to him in the ring)

I would much rather see Jericho in a position to have to apologize than for that stipulation to not follow through, which is much less interesting.

PREDICTION: I'm hoping Nick Wayne wins, at least.