A Card Built on Borrowed Time

AEW at Wembley is always a spectacle, but the 2026 edition feels completely different. We aren't talking about the honeymoon phase anymore.

Tony Khan is staring down a massive challenge. The early rumors about the All In 2026 card suggest a promotion caught between pushing its future and clinging to its past.

Swerve Strickland versus Will Ospreay is the obvious, undeniable main event. It's the match everyone wanted the second Ospreay signed his contract.

Putting them in the main event at Wembley is a guaranteed 40-minute classic. But pulling the trigger on it means the entire undercard has to over-deliver, and that's exactly where the booking starts looking incredibly shaky.

You can't just rely on two incredible athletes to carry a four-hour stadium show. The supporting matches need actual heat. Right now, the rumored lineup looks like a collection of dream matches thrown into a blender without any real narrative glue.

The Ghosts of All In Past

We all remember the absolute disaster that was the CM Punk and Jack Perry altercation in 2023. It completely overshadowed the biggest paid attendance in wrestling history.

You would think AEW would have learned to tightly control the environment at their most important show. Yet, whispers of bringing back a chaotic, unstructured multi-man Stadium Stampede match feel like tempting fate.

Booking a 10-man brawl inside Wembley is a well-worn crutch. It's a lazy way to get everyone on the card without actually building meaningful, personal feuds.

The Elite defending the trios titles against Death Triangle and The Acclaimed sounds great on paper. In execution, it's just going to be 25 minutes of superkicks, completely ignored tag rules, and spots we've seen a dozen times on free television.

That is the fundamental flaw with Tony Khan's recent booking strategy. He relies entirely too heavily on match quality to excuse non-existent storytelling.

You cannot just throw Kenny Omega into a random six-man tag match and expect 80,000 fans to care like they did three years ago. The audience has evolved, but the booking patterns have remained stubbornly static.

If we get another Casino Gauntlet match that drags on for 35 minutes just to pop a surprise debut, it will be a massive waste of time. We need focused, intense rivalries, not just empty calories disguised as "fun."

The Tag Team Division Deserves Better

Let's talk about the absolute state of tag team wrestling in AEW right now. For a company that built its entire early reputation on having the best tag division on the planet, the current situation is frankly depressing.

The Young Bucks are doing their corporate heel schtick, which has had severely diminishing returns for months. If All In 2026 is going to feel special, we need a genuine tag team classic.

FTR against the Motor City Machine Guns is the obvious choice. We never got to see it on a massive stadium scale. FTR always rises to the occasion when the lights are brightest.

Giving them 25 minutes to put on an old-school wrestling clinic would be the perfect palate cleanser between all the high-spot spectacles. Instead, I fear we are going to get another disorganized ladder match.

Tony Khan loves a ladder match at a pay-per-view. It's a guaranteed way to pop the crowd with crazy stunts, but it does absolutely nothing to build long-term value for the belts.

The titles need to mean something again. A straight, two-on-two wrestling match with actual stakes is far more compelling than watching six guys wait around outside the ring to catch somebody jumping off a piece of furniture.

The Women's Division Needs a Real Anchor

If there is one potential bright spot on the rumored card, it's the chance for Mariah May to finally get a marquee singles match that doesn't rely entirely on Toni Storm's shadow. A clash against Jamie Hayter is the absolute money match.

Hayter's return from injury has been handled surprisingly well. The British crowd would treat her like absolute royalty.

But even this deeply anticipated feud has glaring problems. The women's division still suffers from the exact same start-and-stop booking it always has.

We get three weeks of excellent, focused television, followed by a month where the champion barely gets two minutes of screen time to cut a backstage promo.

If AEW truly wants All In 2026 to make history, they need to give Hayter and May the exact same television time afforded to the top male stars. No more shoving the women's title match into the death slot right before the main event.

Give them 20 minutes to work and an actual video package that explains why they hate each other. There is also the looming question of Mercedes Moné.

Her run so far has been wildly uneven. Putting her in a high-profile match against Britt Baker again would be a massive mistake. Their previous encounters lacked the necessary chemistry, and the fans practically rejected the feud outright.

Tony Khan needs to pivot immediately. He should put Moné in there with someone who can match her pace, like Kris Statlander.

Is the Wembley Magic Gone?

Look at the undeniable success of the very first All In in London. It was built on the sheer impossibility of the event. The novelty of a non-WWE promotion running a massive European stadium was the main draw.

Now, it's just another August pay-per-view on the calendar. The shiny new toy syndrome has completely worn off.

If AEW actually pulls off Kazuchika Okada against a returning Jon Moxley, that is a genuine, undeniable draw. But even that relies heavily on Moxley staying healthy and Okada finally finding a character that truly clicks with the American TV audience.

So far, Okada's run has been fine, but hardly the world-beating, legendary reign we expected when he jumped ship from New Japan Pro-Wrestling. We need more than just "fine."

We need the Rainmaker, not just a guy who shows up to hit a clothesline and say a funny catchphrase. A violent, bloody brawl with Moxley might be exactly what Okada needs to wake up his American run.

All In 2026 cannot just be a good wrestling show. It has to be a massive, undeniable statement. If the card ends up looking like an oversized, slightly more expensive episode of Dynamite, Tony Khan will have a serious problem.

He might find out the hard way that British fans will not pack Wembley just for the three letters on the marquee anymore. They need a real reason to believe in the product again.