2025 has been yet another banner year of AEW PPVs, featuring once again some of the best top-to-bottom wrestling shows these old eyes have ever seen. And it sure feels like Tony Khan and company plan to close the year with a bang by the looks of this Worlds End lineup.
Side note: How fuckin' cool is this poster? Looks like an Avengers movie.
The third annual Continental Classic is drawing to a close and it was another fantastic tournament, featuring a slew of bangers and one legit Match of the Year contender in Kyle Fletcher vs. Speedball Mike Bailey. Despite the absence of the injured Will Ospreay and the substitution of Jack Perry in place of Darby Allin, they pulled off a helluva tourney. And the semis and finals are still to come on Saturday, including one of the more anticipated first-time matchups in recent memory. But we're also getting a HUGE four-way for the AEW Men's Title, the first defense of the new Women's Tag belts, and a slobberknocker of a Women's World Title match. Let's take a look!
The third annual Continental Classic is drawing to a close and it was another fantastic tournament, featuring a slew of bangers and one legit Match of the Year contender in Kyle Fletcher vs. Speedball Mike Bailey. Despite the absence of the injured Will Ospreay and the substitution of Jack Perry in place of Darby Allin, they pulled off a helluva tourney. And the semis and finals are still to come on Saturday, including one of the more anticipated first-time matchups in recent memory. But we're also getting a HUGE four-way for the AEW Men's Title, the first defense of the new Women's Tag belts, and a slobberknocker of a Women's World Title match. Let's take a look!
Mixed Nuts Mayhem: Toni Storm/Mark Briscoe/Orange Cassidy/Roderick Strong vs. Marina Shafir/Claudio Castagnoli/Daniel Garcia/Wheeler Yuta
This one was just added. You have to respect the super deep cut reference to a mid-90s Christmas movie that flopped hard at the box office. Anyway, this will be a fun clusterfuck. They set up a Toni Storm-Marina Shafir feud on Wednesday in a Marina vs. Mina match where Marina looked more comfortable on her own than she ever has before. She seems to have finally turned the corner as someone who can hold her own rather than just be Moxley's heater. I'll be interested to see this as a one-on-one match. But for now we have a party match full of weapons I imagine. I think the heels take this one to help set up the aforementioned singles match between the two women.
Pick: Death Riders
Continental Classic Semi: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Kazuchika Okada
I'm kinda baffled they didn't engineer this to be the tournament final, but the important thing is, we're getting it, it's gonna be fuckin' sick, and it won't be the last time. I'm actually not sure who to pick for this tournament. I think Okada winning again would be kinda pointless, we've already seen that and I'd rather see someone else elevated by this tournament. My preference for a final would be Takeshita vs. Fletcher, and that could happen, but I could also see Okada beating Takeshita in their first meeting to set up a rematch. Fletcher already beat Okada in the tournament block, so if Okada-Fletcher ends up as the final it seems like Okada probably wins there. Maybe Okada wins the tourney but Takeshita takes the Unified Title off him in March or something. Or, maybe Takeshita wins this whole thing and becomes the new Continental Champion (Okada would remain International Champion) so they can have a unification match later.
Pick: Okada
Continental Classic Semi: Kyle Fletcher vs. Jon Moxley
Wow, this tournament came down to four heels, that's weird. Two of them are on the way to becoming babyfaces, but still. Mox's story of late is that he's compromised and the other Death Riders seem to be getting fed up with their leader's ineffectuality in the clutch. I think Fletcher probably beats him here to continue that story. The question then becomes, if the Death Riders kick Mox out, who's their new general? Claudio is great but not the most compelling talker. Pac is amazing but doesn't look like the leader of a stable. Garcia and Wheeler fit solidly in the "henchmen" role. Anyway, this should be great, and I think Kyle wins.
Pick: Fletcher
Continental Classic Final: TBD vs. TBD
As I said before, if this comes down to Okada vs. Fletcher I think Okada likely gets his win back, but I'd like to see Takeshita vs. Fletcher so one of those two guys can get the feather in his cap. To me Takeshita makes the most sense to set up a title unification match, particularly since he's the IWGP Champion and has to put over Yota Tsuji huge next week.
Pick: Takeshita
Darby Allin vs. Gabe Kidd
This one kinda came out of nowhere but I ain't mad about it. These two maniacs are gonna beat the shit out of each other. I'm glad Darby's injury from a couple weeks ago was a minor one. I think Darby probably wins.
Pick: Darby
AEW Men's Tag Team Championship Chicago Street Fight: FTR vs. Bang Bang Gang
This is the one I'm least looking forward to but it should be fun. I don't see FTR losing the titles this soon, nor is the temporary BBG tandem likely to win them. Now, Juice Robinson and Jay White? That could be another story.
Pick: FTR retains
AEW Women's Tag Team Championship: Babes of Wrath vs. Mercedes Moné & Athena
The inaugural champs have their first title defense and it should be a fun one. Originally I was in the camp of "Toni and Mina should be the first champions to give the belts credibility," but Willow and Harley will accomplish that goal as well I think. Both are super over, likable babyfaces and if they have a good solid run that will establish these titles as something special (unlike what WWE did with their version in 2019). To that end, the champs need to retain here; Mercedes can continue her unfortunate losing streak as she slowly goes insane. You have to wonder who will eventually dethrone Mercedes and Athena....
Pick: Babes retain
AEW Women's World Championship: Kris Statlander vs. Jamie Hayter
Love this pairing and can't wait to see the two of them lay into each other. Both are hard-hitting, powerful women with great athletic ability. Should be a helluva fight. I think it's too soon to take the title off Kris, so she probably keeps it.
Pick: Kris retains
AEW Men's World Championship: Samoa Joe vs. Hangman Page vs. Swerve Strickland vs. MJF
This is a really tough one to predict. Joe just won the title last month so it could feel premature to take the belt off him already. On the other hand it was too soon to take the title off Hangman last month. On the other hand it was too soon to take the title off Swerve at All In 2024. On the other hand, MJF is turning over a new leaf and doing things the hard way instead of taking shortcuts. You could make a case for any of these guys to walk out with the belt. From a business standpoint I think Hangman should be the champion for a good long while because he draws PPV buys when he has the title. Full Gear was up significantly from All Out and WrestleDream, and that's likely because Hangman's match was pushed as the most important one. There's money in the chase too of course, but I feel like too many wrestling companies rely on that trope more than is necessary. It's been a long time since anyone did the "babyface territory" thing really well. WWE hasn't excelled at it since the Austin/Rock era; Cody as the top champion has been largely a bore, thanks to a slew of unconvincing challengers. AEW had/has a chance to make Hangman one of the great modern babyface champions and I think they'd be crazy not to take it. But MJF could also end up winning the belt back, setting up Page and Swerve (and possibly Bandido if he wins the Diamond Ring) as challengers. I'm not all that excited about another MJF run yet, unless they really take his character somewhere else (which seems to be the goal, it's just a matter of whether they can pull it off). Swerve doesn't really need the belt just yet since he's just returned as well and is still adjusting to the extra muscle he put on. Joe and The Opps are in danger of becoming Death Riders 2.0, so a short title run for Joe is probably wise (not to mention he's 48 years old). And keep in mind, Will Ospreay is hoping to be back by next year's All In, which would be the perfect time to pull the trigger on his first AEW Title win. All this to say, this match could go in any direction, honestly. I'd like Hanger to get the title back and keep it till August but I have a feeling MJF is getting it.
Pick: MJF
Soo yeah, this show should be pretty kick-ass overall. Like last year it will have three excellent CC bouts and a 4-way main event, but this Joe-Page-Swerve-MJF should easily top last year's main. There's a chance this will be the best Worlds End show to date.
No comments:
Post a Comment