Clockwork Carnage has come and gone. Will Ospreay remains AEW world champion in a buzzer beater finish. WrestleDream (Oct. 17, 2026) also featured Jon Moxley pushing through, new trios champions crowned, Mercedes Moné trapping the Toxic Spider, the debut of Ilja Dragunov, and and more from Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Florida.
Let’s break down WrestleDream from top to bottom. Get full play-by-play from Claire Elizabeth.
Clockwork Carnage for the AEW World Championship: Will Ospreay (c) defeated
Konosuke Takeshita, “Speedball” Mike Bailey, Ricochet, Darby Allin, Kazuchika Okada, Adam Copeland, and Samoa Joe to retain the title. AEW’s newest concept was a combination of the Casino Gauntlet and the Ironman match. Stage 1 had eliminations. The order of entrance is the same as listed above in the result. The drama was fairly tame with just cool moves and the pop of finding out who enters next. Then, there were two eliminations on the back end. Bailey was victim to Raging Fire from Takeshita. When Takeshita lifted Copeland for Raging Fire, Okada snatched the Alpha to unload the Rainmaker for an elimination. Okada eliminating Takeshita was a nice touch to revisit their feud.
That left six wrestlers for the Stage 2 scoring period. A blaze of excitement ignited with several pinfalls.
The pace slowed in the middle, then the action exploded again with Copeland scoring two spears for pinfalls. A handful of wrestlers had 2 points heading into the final minutes, in particular Ospreay and Copeland. Cope ducked the Rainmaker from Okada, then he nailed a spear. The victory was within grasp. Cope crawled on top of Okada for the pin, then Ospreay blasted the Hidden Blade to pin Cope. That gave Ospreay the lead with 3 points as two seconds remained on the clock. Ospreay won the match on a proverbial buzzer beater. Afterward, Copeland made his intention known that this isn’t over. Cope is coming for the world title.
So, was Clockwork Carnage good? I’d say yes and no. The concept lends itself to popcorn theater with the countdown clock for entrances, the rapid pace of action, the tension building in the scoring period, and the drama in the final minute. The start of the scoring period was a roller coaster. There was a lot of creativity in the moving parts to hit crazy moves. The finish electrified the crowd. The problem is that the booking felt manufactured to a fault.
One big thing that bugged me was Joe as a dumbass. He spent a long time squeezing the air of Ospreay on the Coquina Clutch. Commentary debated whether the smarter move would be for Ospreay to preserve himself and tap quickly. Ospreay hung on until he tapped. You would think Joe would capitalize for more pins or show urgency for a finisher to rack up points. Those tactics were already established earlier in the scoring period. Instead, Joe strut, taunted Ospreay, and wasted time. It made Joe look stupid with a complete lack of awareness.
Copeland also looked a little goofy when he hit Impaler DDTs a few times and never went for the pin. He sold his fatigue to the extreme trying to rise up for spears and crawling too slow for pinfalls. I’m guessing part of the issue was trying to time it so Ospreay could get the final pin with a few seconds left. In my eyes, Cope’s struggle came off as hokey.
All in all, I’d like to see Clockwork Carnage return as a special attraction. There are a lot of elements to enjoy as long as it doesn’t get overly dramatic. I’m not sure about it being a staple for the world title. With the way AEW built the prestige of the world championship, it doesn’t feel right to have a title change in a fluky gimmick match. For the first Clockwork Carnage, the win fits for Ospreay, and seeds were planted to feud with Copeland. If Copeland will be in the world title scene for his retirement tour, this works smartly to push him up the ladder. Cope legitimized his position by nearly winning Clockwork Carnage, and he has the claim that the win was ‘stolen’ from him, albeit fair and square.
AEW Continental Championship: Jon Moxley (c) defeated Mark Davis to retain the title. The theme of the match was that the only way out is through. The emotion was high from the start when the Death Riders did their circle jig around PAC’s empty chair. Davis bloodied Moxley early and put a beating on the man.
When Moxley’s determination appeared to be fading, Marina Shafir and Daniel Garcia provided a crucial pep talk.
Moxley found his mojo to continue the hard-hitting affair. Mox won by choking Davis unconscious. The Death Riders rallied around their leader to celebrate the victory.
The story of this match was a great example of why the Death Riders are a family. Moxley was vulnerable, and they picked him up when he needed it. Moxley repaid their support by gritting through for victory. Davis was fantastic as a beast in the ring. He cemented his spot as a legit threat to everyone on the roster. Maybe that could have already been said. I think taking Moxley to the woodshed puts him on a higher level now.
Ilja Dragunov is All Elite. The free agent made a surprise appearance introduced by Renee Paquette. Ilja played the maestro to his theme sing and pumped up the crowd in the ring. He felt like a star.
AEW World Trios Championship: Hangman Page & Brodido defeated Swerve Strickland & New Level (c) to win the titles in 2 out of 3 falls. Fall 1 went New Level’s way with combo offense to pin Bandido. Fall 2 evened the score on a Brodido monkey flip splash.
Fall 3 crowned new champions. Swerve flipped out of the 21 Plex. When he lifted Bandido for the Big Pressure driver, Bandido reversed for a roll-up to win.
This match was a lot of fun. The action flowed smoothly with creativity, such as Bandido’s double moonsualt slam to New Level at the same time.
The question was how would Hangman and Swerve control their hatred for one another. For the most part, they harnessed that energy to focus on the match. AEW set it up for a big pop when they were both tagged in as legal men to throw blows. The aftermath was revealing. Swerve sat in shock at the loss, like he was having a mental breakdown. I love the twist of Bandido getting the pin on Swerve to add surprise value. I predicted the correct result, but I never would have predicted the finish to be Bandido over Swerve. That gives Bandido some more swagger. Back to Swerve’s breakdown. New Level handed their title belts over to Brodido like good sports. Swerve created more tension by dropping his belt at Hangman’s feet in an act of disrespect. That has me very curious to see Swerve’s next move in AEW. Well played.
AEW National Championship: Andrade El Idolo (c) defeated Tommaso Ciampa to retain the title. Even though there was great action in the ring, this match will be remembered for the comedy elements. The story was Andrade’s pants. He tried a few times to remove his pants, but Ciampa wasn’t having it. Andrade got his pants half way down, and Ciampa attacked. Andrade hit his double moonsault with pants around his knees.
Andrade did eventually disrobe to his trunks. How you know. Ciampa also removed his trunks to reveal trunks underneath saying, “I just know.” The comedy got carried away when Ciampa stomped the pants, pinned the pants, then the pants kicked out. That was a step too far. The finish was a sweet wraparound to the feud. Ciampa played tricks to distract the referee with foreign objects. Andrade beat Ciampa to the punch for a DDT onto the title belt. The DM scored the win.
The action played out as expected. Ciampa was excellent as a contender for a rowdy fight. AEW shot their wad on Ciampa’s title matches (two PPV losses in a row), so he’ll have to regroup to go on a win streak. Andrade’s star power continues to captivate the crowd. His hot streak should only get hotter until it is contract cash-in time.
TBS Championship: Persephone (c) defeated Dani Luna, Hyan, and Queen Aminata to retain the title. Nice showcase for all involved. It was every woman for herself for the most part. The challengers enjoyed teaming up on Persephone on occasion. The finish cleared out contestants like dominoes. Luna slammed Aminata on a Blue Thunder Bomb. Hyan slugged it with Luna and got the upper hand for a double chickenwing facebuster. Persephone landed a frog splash onto the pinning pile. The brunt of the impact appeared to be on Luna’s ankles, which looked painful. Persephone handled Hyan for a fireman’s carry slam and a moonsault for victory. It’s interesting to note that Perse won without the help of Dr. Britt Baker DMD. Baker was there before and after the match. The result is as it should have been. Time to build up real contenders to challenge Persephone.
AEW World Tag Team Championship: Young Bucks (c) defeated Kyle Fletcher & Kevin Knight to retain the titles. Holy moly. The highlight reel for this match will be epic. Knight jumped for a shotgun dropkick to his opponent sitting on Fletcher’s shoulders. The vertical height was amazing. Another fun sequence was Fletcher lawn-darting one Buck into the other in the corner, then Knight connected on a coast-to-coast dropkick to the Bucks. Not to mention all the crazy offense as usual from the Bucks.
The challengers had me biting on the prospect of new champions when Fletcher executed a buckle bomb to Nick Jackson and Knight landed the UFO splash. Matt Jackson tackled Fletcher onto the pinning pile for the save.
The question was if the Callis Family would have issues of ego. The answer was yes, and that was their downfall. Fletcher was sizing up a corner attack. Knight tagged himself in for a springboard leap, and the Bucks superkicked him out of the air. The Bucks superkicked Fletcher into oblivion, then they baited Knight into colliding with Fletcher. A BTE Trigger on Knight sealed the deal.
The result became a story of a tag team versus selfish singles wrestlers. Knight’s tag threw his team’s momentum off. The Bucks were in lockstep as a cohesive unit to take advantage. That’s the story most expected, and it still played out in an exciting manner.
Nick Wayne defeated Chris Jericho. Wayne outsmarted Jericho in the end. They called back to the low blow shenanigans from Wayne, but Jericho was wearing a cup to protect his groin. Jericho used his cup as weapon to bop Wayne on the head, so the referee confiscated the object. Jericho took advantage for a low blow of his own. Wayne ducked the Judas Effect to counter for a roll-up to win the rubber match. Wayne rubbed it in on the mic, and Jericho smirked with appreciation for the bravado.
I am a little surprised that Wayne won the series. It makes sense to elevate the youngster, but the legend of Jericho is still strong. As much as people want to clown on Jericho, the crowd reaction was super hot for him to beat Wayne. That also shows how Wayne did a good job as an insufferably arrogant heel.
AEW Women’s World Championship: Mercedes Moné (c) defeated Thekla to retain the title. Even though this was heel versus heel, the fans were fully engaged with rooting interests. Mercedes was crafty by snatching Thekla from the spider pose to lift her up, deliver high knees to the face, and hit a lungblower. The addition of high knees was deviously funny.
Thekla scored a near fall that had me believing. After Moné reached the ropes to escape the spider submission, Thekla didn’t waste time for a curb stomp. Mercedes reached the ropes with her foot to break the count. This is where Mercedes reached into her bag of tricks. She took off her mask that was protecting her broken nose and used it as a foreign object to hit Thekla. The challenger countered the Moné Maker into a roll-up, and the champion kicked out. Mercedes dodged a curb stomp and countered for the Moné Maker to win.
This clash of aura delivered the goods. As if this needed to be said, Mercedes and Thekla are stars. Thekla leaned into her Toxic Spider character for taunts. Thekla’s flexibility was in full use dishing offense and getting stretched in submissions. The counter game was on point for both wrestlers for nifty sequences. Mercedes was the boss with her persistence for the Moné Maker. It took a few tries to execute the finisher, then it came in a flash to close the match. This didn’t feel like the end of their feud, so hopefully we get more with them and Willow Nightingale too
MCMG defeated FTR. Match 1 in the Best of 5 series. The action started on the pre-show and bled over into the PPV. The pre-show half had nothing special, so the match as a whole felt long for the sake of being long. The PPV half rocked hard. The Motor City Machine Guns hit the Skull and Bones finisher, but Cash Wheeler barely placed Dax Harwood’s foot on the ropes for the break. I bit hard on that false finish, and so did MCMG. They thought they won.
The action continued for another false finish where I bit hard again. FTR executed the spike piledriver on Chris Sabin, but he kicked out on the pin. In the end, FTR talked trash setting up the Shatter Machine. Sabin dodged the attack, then MCMG cleaned house with kicks. MCMG finished Wheeler with a teamwork double pumphandle slam to win.
Match 1 was an exciting start to the series. MCMG winning is the right call to give them momentum as the fresh faces in AEW. As dramatic as the PPV half was, I think there is a lot still left in their bags of tricks to produce four more matches of this same quality. I say four, because I’d be shocked if it doesn’t go to the fifth match.
Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, Daniel Garcia, Gabe Kidd, David Finlay & Clark Connors defeated Jay White, Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong, & Kyle O’Reilly. This pre-show match marked the surprise return of Switchblade from injury. White didn’t do anything important in the fight. The pace was 12-man tag team chaos. In the end, the Gunn Club eyed 3:10 to Yuma on Claudio. Marina Shafir interfered to pull Austin out of the ring. Claudio seized the moment with an uppercut to Colten, then he launched Yuta for a flying splash to win. The melee continued after the match.
Enjoy Claudio swinging Cassidy for over one minute.
Josh Alexander, Jake Doyle, & Wardlow defeated Alex Breeze, Papi D, & Rhys Maddox. Pre-show squash. Alexander was a wrecking ball, and the Callis Family fed the jabrones to Wardlow for a powerbomb symphony. It’s been so long that I forgot the powerbomb symphony was a thing. That’s the Wardlow that the world needs.
Divine Dominion defeated Sisters of Sin. Pre-show bout. The style was was power versus scrappy. Julia Hart and Skye Blue did well with offense that made sense against their taller opponents. In the end, Hart went for a tornado maneuver on Lena Kross. Megan Bayne blocked Hart to stop the move in its tracks. Divine Dominion hit a double chokeslam, and Kross pinned Hart for the win. I like the detail that Kross wrestled with extra anger to dish out payback for the black mist incident from Dynamite.
Stud of the Show: Jon Moxley
The only way out is through.
Match of the Night: Young Bucks vs. Kyle Fletcher & Kevin Knight
Sweet tag team action at its finest for that style.
Grade: B+
Great wrestling as always. There were several false finishes that hooked me. The PPV had a quick build, and I think it suffered a little in a sense that most results were too predictable based on the matchups. For example, curiosity for Clockwork Carnage was higher in the concept itself than who would win. The trios title match is the one that has me eager to see what’s next for all involved.
Share your thoughts about AEW WrestleDream. Who stole the show? Which match was your favorite? Are they any results that you would flip the other way?
