AEW All Out 2026: Biggest Winners & Losers

AEW went All In, then ended Saturday’s Wrestling Hokey Pokey with All Out. The show was full of action, injuries, ups, downs and in between, which you can read more about AEW All Out – 9/26/2026 Results Pageas well as 3 things we hated and 3 things we loved column.

All that remains is to determine the winners and losers of the massive show. As always, the winners and losers will not be literal. Some winners are losers, like Will Ospreay, and some losers are winners, like the other two teams in the AEW World Tag Title ladder match, and sometimes it’s just an entire company catching a stray and looking at you, WWE. The only rule is that there are no rules. If you want to continue the conversation, the comments section will be open as always.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at Saturday’s winners and losers, starting with the big loser.

I want to start by saying that I have not made this a contest. AEW didn’t make it a contest. WWE is a big boy company full of big boy employees and executives who decided to put on a Chicagoland show in front of All Out. They turned this into a contest and it seemed like a complete non-entity from a purely optical point of view.

Obviously, the program was meant to hinder AEW ticket sales. They did not do that. They did succeed in their second goal, which was to steal some of the news cycle from AEW’s September PPV, but unfortunately most of the news was a Will They/Won’t They story about whether or not WWE was going to air the glorified house show. They decided to air it on tape delay, an hour before this week’s AEW Dynamite. Just typing this makes me a little sad. WWE is moving in embarrassing ways.

The term “Streisand effect” refers to any situation where a person or company tries to hide unflattering news, only to draw more attention to it as a result.

If WWE decided to just not air Worlds Collide, it would be a bummer. maybe some tickets would be refunded, but it wouldn’t be the endless headlines we’ve seen. Now we’ll have to revisit this mistake once again when they finally air the show, and then we’ll probably have to discuss the impact, or lack thereof, on AEW’s ratings. Not only did they lose this weekend, but they found ways to continue to rub their noses in the fact that they lost at least until Wednesday.

When a three-way ladder match between The Young Bucks, Cope n’ Christian and FTR was booked, I kind of felt like FTR was getting in the way of what could have been a neat torch passing from one crazy team to another. I’m so happy I was wrong.

Not only did FTR put on a show in the match, but they may have stolen it with some pathos-driven selling and crazy batsman in-ring work. The match had a high stakes as everyone was expecting something along the lines of the legendary TLC matches of last year. I think they cleaned it. Adam Copeland and Christian Cage had enough crazy beats to make me cheer, but by the end everyone was still moving. The Young Bucks got a crowning moment of sorts, defeating two other great teams to cement themselves as living legends.

There was a certain mythic bent to the match, similar to last month’s match between Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega. The 21st century is getting old. The stars of the 2000s are finally passing the torch. The Young Bucks and FTR were very close to being something of a silent generation in the big tag team conversation for various reasons, but there was something special about Cope n’ Christian bringing these two teams to immortality.

Last month, Will Ospreay wrestled one of the greatest matches of the 21st century. He and Kenny Omega proved that they’re in the same conversation when it comes to wrestling, but Kenny isn’t here, which means Will Ospreay is left holding the briefcase. His next challenger, Jon Moxley, was just as important to AEW’s history and the world title as Omega, which is why expectations were so high for the All Out main event. Clearly, all the ingredients for greatness were here.

I don’t know if it was Ospreay, I don’t know if it was Moxley, but while they were mixing the ingredients, someone accidentally tipped over a whole bottle of “flips and debauches” and threw the whole balance off. Moxley and Osprey seemed to have good match ideas that kept getting interrupted by nonsense. It was the kind of match you’d expect from two veterans of an indie show who need as many young guys as possible to hide their limitations, but Moxley and Ospreay just don’t have those limitations. I know they are both capable of much better.

Unfortunately for Ospreay, he is the champion and the match winner. If Moxley had won, I would have written about how Moxley is a loser for winning such a bad match. Hopefully, Osprey’s next defense against Kazuchika Okada will give him a chance to play well, but as far as his inaugural title defense goes, I have to believe that this wasn’t the first impression AEW World Champion Will Osprey wanted to make.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. “I love when I’m wrong.”

I really thought Thekla was just going to be an obstacle for Willow Nightingale to overcome on her way to a big money rematch with Mercedes Money, but luckily AEW is seeing how many people are responding to Thekla. He is simply attractive. You have no idea what he’s going to do next. He has undone all the B**** word damage done by Kazuchika Okada. In some ways he reminds me of early John Moxley. There is something dangerous about him. He’s simply a star, and his win on Saturday made sure he won’t just fade into the background. Nightingale will have many opportunities in the future, but AEW is right to jump on the popularity Thekla has gained for her.

Monet and Thekla are as perfect for each other as Monet and Willow, to be honest. Thekla’s roughness and uninhibited nature contrast with Monet’s cool, refined character. I’m sure there will be plenty of ways for Thekla to get under Monet’s skin, and that’s just good television.

Pac is an incredibly gifted athlete with a fascinating personality, but he’s been relegated to a glorified tomato can. At no point on Saturday did I think AEW National Champion Andrade El Idolo was in any danger of losing his title. It doesn’t matter that it was the highly popular Andrade. I can’t think of a single star that Pac could realistically beat at this point.

He played his role admirably on Saturday, but it was hard to find him a credible threat. Not because of his athleticism or character, but simply because of his history.

That’s one of the frequently criticized problems with the bloated list. there’s just no room in the win column for guys like Pac. If he was a new hire, there would still be hope, but he is an “AEW Original” and it seems that all originals’ places in the hierarchy are frozen. Obviously, he’s a winner compared to the likes of Kip Sabian or Sammy Guevara or other originals who have faded into the background, but when you put him in the saddle, it’s pretty clear how his prospects are.

The new tier just took to AEW like ducks to water. It’s easy to forget how Austin Creed ran over The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega in Wrestling Nerd Culture, so maybe it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, but I spent most of Saturday’s World Trios Match feeling like they’ve been on the roster a lot longer than they have.

It’s been about a month now, and while they’re still clearly learning about all of AEW’s backstage recognition, in the ring, they fit right in with the company. The New Level were just having fun in their final years in WWE. The New Day/Level has always been about fun and it looks like they’ve found that spark again in AEW. Their relationship with Swerve Strickland felt natural, and they added an extra dimension to not only the Swerve/Executioner Page feud, but also the chemistry between Executioner Page and Brodido. Page and Brodido were good before, but there’s something very natural about how they work with The New Level. Hangman Page is especially handy for Kofi and Creed in the ring.

However, I’m curious to see what happens when the honeymoon is over. They haven’t even sniffed AEW’s key tag division, and with The Young Bucks fresh off defeating Cope n’ Christian, New Level could be the next dream match on the champions’ roster.