During a media call this morning (Aug. 27), AEW head honcho Tony Khan booked a match for Sunday’s All In PPV that a lot of folks have been anticipating. It’s a title match, but that’s not why it’s been circled since it was set-up. No disrespect to the Trios belts currently around the waists of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly team of Bandido, Brody King, and Hangman Page, but it was a tease of Page’s frequent dance partner Swerve Strickland joining the match that got the speculation machine firing
on all cylinders.
While it doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense to debut a pretty-beloved act like The New Day with a heel like Strickland, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were bad guys when they left WWE. That (and another similarity between the performers that pro wrestling loves to build factions around) was enough to fantasy book the duo’s expected AEW debuts in a Trios titles match.
Heading into the media call, All In’s trios match was still in flux. At least per Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Radio earlier today, who said:
“Well, what I can tell you is there’s still a lot going on with that match.
“There is still a lot to be decided. And so that’s why they didn’t announce anything, because there is a lot still to be determined.”
And that still applies after Khan’s announcement that Page and Brodido will defend their titles in a Trios Roulette Battle Royal. That match will involve the champs defending against six other teams, but Khan is still working on the sixth…
- The Dogs (The Dogs (Gabe Kidd, Clark Connors, and David Finlay)
- The Demand (Ricochet, Toa Liona, and Bishop Kaun)
- Death Riders
- The Conglomeration
- Jay White & The Bang Bang Gang
- TBD
The Trios Roulette Battle Royal will start on the free Buy-In pre-show for AEW’s return to London’s Wembley Stadium. That detail would usually make me think it’s less likely that two of the biggest free agents in the business will debut there, but Khan only said the Trios title bout would start on The Buy-In. Since AEW PPVs came to HBO Max, matches have started on the pre-show and finished on the main show.
There would undoubtedly still be criticism of debuting New Day that way, but it would be a more understandable promotional play.
With the new match, the All In line-up now looks like:
AEW Men’s World title: Kenny Omega (c) vs. Will Ospreay
AEW Women’s World title: Willow Nightingale (c) vs. Mercedes Moné
Continental Challenge Cup final: Jon Moxley vs. Nigel McGuinness
AEW Men‘s Tag Team championship: Christian Cage and Adam Copeland (c) vs. The Young Bucks
Casino Gauntlet for a future Men’s World title shot: MJF and Andrade El Ídolo start; Chris Jericho, Mark Davis, and others entered
AEW Women’s Tag Team championship: Divine Dominion (c) vs. The Brawling Birds
TNT championship: Kevin Knight (c) vs. Darby Allin
AEW International championship: Kyle Fletcher (c) vs. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Kazuchika Okada
Trios Roulette Battle Royal for the AEW Trios title
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