The Big Picture
The Elite’s executive vice presidents are stirring the pot again, with Matthew and Nicholas Jackson explicitly promising massive bouts for All In 2026. As reported by Wrestling Inc, the Bucks are setting extremely high expectations for the upcoming stadium show.
"Former AEW Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks suggest that a number of dream matches could become a reality at All In 2026 and beyond."
Talk is cheap in professional wrestling, and AEW has a bad habit of promising the world and occasionally delivering disjointed multi-man scrambles instead. If the promotion wants to make good on this specific promise, the card needs to be ruthless. Here is how the event must look if AEW wants to actually deliver the generational dream matches they are suddenly so eager to tease.
10. Kazuchika Okada vs. PAC
The Rainmaker has spent way too much time dealing with mid-card comedy acts since his full-time arrival in America. Okada requires a serious, technically flawless opponent who can match his pacing and bump like a maniac for the Rainmaker lariat. PAC has been a reliable utility player for AEW but rarely gets the marquee singles spotlight on the biggest stage.
Putting the Bastard against Okada guarantees a 20-minute clinic that elevates both men immediately. It gives Okada a legitimate athletic threat rather than just another character to bounce catchphrases off. PAC's sheer aggression and Black Arrow precision would force the Japanese legend to abandon the smirking heel routine and fight for survival.
9. Mercedes Mone vs. Jamie Hayter
The women’s division desperately needs a foundational, blood-feud singles match that does not rely on outside interference or convoluted heel factions. Mone has the star power and the presentation, but her in-ring run has occasionally looked a half-step slow compared to the frantic pace of AEW's top tier. Hayter is the absolute antidote to that problem.
She hits incredibly hard, works incredibly fast, and has a grounded, physical style that would force Mone to wrestle a grittier match. This is the exact clash that defines a championship reign and silences critics. AEW badly missed the boat on this when Hayter was injured last year, and booking it for 2026 is the only way to correct that glaring error.
8. MJF vs. Will Ospreay
This is the ultimate clash of in-ring ideologies. You have the grounded, old-school heel who wins by any means necessary standing across from the high-flying, crowd-pleasing workhorse. MJF’s character work has occasionally bordered on cartoonish lately, and he desperately needs an opponent who grounds him in competitive, athletic reality.
Ospreay is the undeniable golden boy of the hardcore fanbase right now. Watching MJF systematically dissect Ospreay’s neck and ground his Hidden Blade offense would generate absolute hatred from the live crowd. It is the classic story of the arrogant technician trying to clip the wings of a spectacular athlete, and it practically books itself.
7. The Young Bucks vs. Motor City Machine Guns
The Bucks essentially built their modern style by watching and iterating on what Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin were doing in TNA and Ring of Honor over a decade ago. We have simply never seen this matchup on a stage of this magnitude. While the Guns might have lost a fraction of their blinding speed, their ring psychology and tandem mechanics remain completely elite.
Matthew and Nicholas Jackson owe a massive stylistic debt to Shelley and Sabin. Putting them together in front of a massive stadium crowd is a brilliant history lesson disguised as a 15-minute sprint. It ranks higher than other tag matches because of the pure historical weight it carries.
6. Swerve Strickland vs. Bryan Danielson
Swerve has definitively proven he can bleed, brawl, and carry a promotion on his back through sheer force of will. What he needs now is a definitive submission classic against the absolute best technical wrestler of his generation. Danielson may be actively winding down his in-ring career, but he can still drag a five-star match out of anyone willing to match his psychotic intensity.
Strickland's ruthless aggression mixed perfectly with Danielson's precise limb targeting creates a compelling, violent narrative. It forces Swerve to wrestle a disciplined, tactical match instead of relying on weapons, staples, and chaos. A clean tap-out victory here would permanently cement Swerve's legacy as a main event fixture.
5. Toni Storm vs. Mariah May II
The fallout from their first encounter at All In 2024 was genuinely visceral, but the storyline deserves a final, definitive chapter. Storm’s descent into pure cinematic madness needs a grounding force, and May has evolved into a vicious, unforgiving striker who commands the ring. Their first match relied heavily on the raw emotional betrayal of the angle.
A rematch in 2026 needs to be a pure, violent, blood-feud contest to settle the score once and for all. AEW often struggles to follow up on great angles, letting them quietly fizzle out. Committing to a high-stakes sequel would prove they can tell long-term, satisfying stories without losing focus.
4. Darby Allin vs. Jack Perry
Two foundational pillars of the company are currently operating on completely divergent paths. Allin remains the reckless, beloved underdog who will throw his body off any steel structure to get a reaction from the crowd. Perry has leaned fully into the entitled, deeply irritating corporate heel persona that fans legitimately despise.
They represent the two absolute extremes of AEW's original youth movement. Letting them tear each other apart in a brutal, unsanctioned environment would be a fitting, violent climax to their parallel journeys. It is a marquee match built entirely on homegrown equity, something AEW desperately needs to showcase right now.
3. Hangman Adam Page vs. Jay White
The tangled history of the Bullet Club is a mess of betrayals, power struggles, and unresolved tension. Page and White represent two entirely different eras of that faction’s global dominance. White’s tenure in AEW has been maddeningly inconsistent, often trapped in endless, repetitive multi-man feuds that heavily dilute his star power.
Putting him in a high-profile singles program with Page forces the Switchblade right back into the main event picture where he undeniably belongs. Page’s wild, brawling style is the absolute perfect foil to White’s constant stalling, counter-wrestling, and deliberate psychological warfare. White hitting the Blade Runner out of a Buckshot Lariat attempt is an instant highlight reel moment.
2. FTR vs. The Lucha Bros (Two out of Three Falls)
Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler consider themselves the undisputed saviors of traditional tag team wrestling. Pentagon and Rey Fenix represent everything FTR loudly claims to despise about the modern, choreographed era of the sport. We have seen them clash before, but never with the absolute stakes of a two-out-of-three falls stipulation in a stadium setting.
The contrasting styles—FTR’s methodical, grinding pacing and isolation tactics against the Lucha Bros' chaotic, high-risk offense—create completely perfect dramatic tension. It is the purest distillation of tag team wrestling’s current ideological divide and guaranteed to steal the show. It misses the top spot only because our number one entry is a generational singles bout.
1. Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay III
Their previous matches at Wrestle Kingdom and Forbidden Door are already permanently etched into the wrestling history books. A third and final encounter on AEW soil, with absolutely no promotional politics getting in the way, is the biggest match Tony Khan can possibly book. Omega’s long-term health remains the biggest, most terrifying question mark hanging over the promotion.
If he is cleared and capable of moving at even 80 percent of his prime speed, this is the undisputed main event. Ospreay needs a massive, signature victory over Omega in an AEW ring to fully and permanently solidify his position as the new ace. Anything less than an hour-long, absolute classic with multiple One-Winged Angel kickouts would be a major disappointment.
Honorable Mentions
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Samoa Joe deserves a spot on any card. It is a pure, hard-hitting heavyweight fight that requires absolutely no complex storyline to sell. Just two bitter veterans trading stiff European uppercuts and incredibly heavy lariats for fifteen minutes.
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Orange Cassidy would be the ultimate, hilarious clash of complex British submission wrestling and infuriating American apathy. It would provide the perfect palate cleanser between heavy, blood-soaked grudge matches.
