AEW All Out takes place Saturday, September 26, from the NOW Arena in Chicago, Illinois, with the main card scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET. The event arrives with championships on the line throughout the night, major faction rivalries converging, and two matches designed to shape the company’s title picture heading into WrestleDream on October 17.
At the center of the card, Will Ospreay makes his first AEW World Championship defense since winning the title at All In on August 30. His challenger is Jon Moxley, the leader of The Death Riders, in a match built on a relationship that deteriorated before Ospreay’s ascent to the top prize.
All Out will also feature Christian Cage and Adam Copeland defending the AEW World Tag Team Championship in a Three-Way TLC Match against FTR and The Young Bucks. Elsewhere, Kazuchika Okada puts the International Championship on the line against Tommaso Ciampa, Andrade El Idolo defends the National Championship against PAC, and Persephone holds a TBS Championship Open Challenge with explicit limitations placed on who can answer.
Will Ospreay’s first world title defense carries Death Riders history
Ospreay’s road to the AEW World Championship was closely tied to The Death Riders before the relationship came apart. He had recruited the group to help prepare him for his All In match against Kenny Omega, but he exited the stable on the July 29 edition of AEW Dynamite, nearly a month before the pay-per-view.
For more background on this topic, read Steven Borden Explains Why Wrestling Finally Pulled Him In Ahead Of AEW All Out Debut.
Ospreay nevertheless reached All In and defeated Omega to become AEW World Champion. His first defense now comes against Moxley, a rival with intimate familiarity of the champion’s recent path and a stable positioned to create a difficult environment around any Death Riders-related confrontation.
The match was made after Ospreay, Andrade, Callum Newman, Henare, and Francesco Akira defeated The Demand and The Dogs on the September 2 episode of Dynamite. Moxley and the remaining Death Riders emerged afterward, and the title bout was announced on the arena screen.
For Ospreay, this is the first opportunity to establish the tone of his reign in a one-on-one championship setting. For Moxley, a victory would return AEW’s premier title to a figure who has repeatedly been central to the company’s highest-stakes fights. The history between the competitors adds an additional layer: this is not simply a challenger seeking a title shot, but a former ally turned adversary confronting Ospreay at the moment he has reached the summit.
Tag champions enter a dangerous Three-Way TLC Match
Cage and Copeland will put the AEW World Tag Team Championship at risk against two of the division’s defining teams when they meet FTR’s Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler and The Young Bucks’ Matt and Nick Jackson in a Three-Way TLC Match.
The champions took the titles from FTR in an I Quit Match at Double or Nothing on May 24. They then successfully retained against The Young Bucks at All In. Rather than avoid either former opponent, Copeland extended the prospect of another championship opportunity during a verbal confrontation involving all three teams on the September 2 Dynamite.
A TLC stipulation changes the nature of the rematch equation. The titles will not be decided through a conventional pinfall or submission, placing a premium on endurance, timing and the ability to survive the risks presented by tables, ladders and chairs. Each pairing also enters with different motivations. Cage and Copeland are looking to validate their reign against both leading challengers at once, FTR are seeking to reclaim the gold they lost, and The Young Bucks have another chance to leave with championships after falling short at All In.
With three established teams competing under one of wrestling’s most punishing match formats, the tag title contest has the potential to alter the division dramatically regardless of which side emerges with the belts.
Women’s tag titles and trios gold up for grabs
Jamie Hayter and Alex Windsor, collectively known as The Brawling Birds, defend the AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship against Megan Bayne and Lena Kross of Divine Dominion. Hayter and Windsor defeated Bayne and Kross at All In in England to win the championship, doing so in their home country.
The loss did not end the hostility between the teams. Their issues have continued to escalate in the weeks since, making All Out a direct rematch with Divine Dominion attempting to quickly reverse the result that cost them the titles. The Brawling Birds, meanwhile, can strengthen their position as champions by showing that the All In result was not a one-night swing but a decisive shift in the division.
The AEW World Trios Championship will also be contested as Swerve Strickland teams with New Level’s Kofi and Austin Creed against “Hangman” Adam Page, Brody King and Bandido. Strickland, Kofi and Creed won the titles from Page, King and Bandido at All In during the multi-team Trios Championship Roulette Royale.
Page, King and Bandido earned their contractual rematch by defeating Orange Cassidy, Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong of The Conglomeration on September 16. Their challenge at All Out is straightforward but formidable: they must take back the titles from a team that already proved it could outlast a crowded championship field at All In.
The bout also puts several contrasting personalities and approaches into the same match. Page, King and Bandido bring a previously successful championship combination back together, while Strickland and New Level will look to demonstrate that their All In victory was the beginning of a durable trios reign.
Okada-Ciampa and Andrade-PAC add major singles title stakes
Kazuchika Okada will make his first International Championship defense since winning the title at All In when he faces Tommaso Ciampa. Ciampa forcefully stated his intention to challenge for the championship on the September 16 edition of Dynamite, attacking Okada from behind backstage while the champion was speaking with Renee Paquette.
Okada represents The Don Callis Family and enters with the prestige of a newly won championship. Ciampa’s attack ensured that the title defense will not be framed as a sporting introduction between unfamiliar opponents. Instead, the challenger has already made his willingness to strike first clear, while Okada has a chance to answer in the ring and establish the International title reign on his own terms.
Andrade El Idolo’s National Championship defense against PAC further connects All Out to the expanding conflict around The Death Riders. Andrade has recently turned back several challengers, including Jack Perry and Nick Wayne in a Three-Way Match, The Beast Mortos, and Death Riders members Gabe Kidd and Daniel Garcia. Those defenses occurred across the September 5 and September 19 editions of AEW Collision.
PAC now gets the opportunity to succeed where Kidd and Garcia did not. As another Death Riders representative, he carries faction momentum into a match against a champion who has repeatedly had to withstand challengers from different corners of AEW. A PAC victory would bring the National Championship under the Death Riders umbrella on the same night Moxley pursues the AEW World Championship.
Persephone issues TBS Open Challenge with restrictions
Persephone will defend the TBS Championship in an Open Challenge, but the champion has narrowed the field herself. Maya World, World’s tag partner Hyan, and their ally Thunder Rosa are barred from answering the challenge at Persephone’s request.
The restrictions follow Persephone’s successful defense against Hyan during the most recent Wednesday editions of Dynamite and Collision. By excluding the people closest to the conflict, Persephone has created uncertainty around who will emerge as her challenger while also ensuring that the TBS Championship scene will have a new wrinkle by the end of the night.
The open format provides an opportunity for a competitor outside the announced title program to step forward. At the same time, the exclusions make clear that the champion is trying to manage a volatile situation rather than fully close the door on it.
Two Number One Contender matches shape WrestleDream and the tag division
Willow Nightingale faces Thekla of Triangle of Madness in a Number One Contender’s Match for the AEW Women’s World Championship. The winner will challenge Mercedes Mone at WrestleDream on October 17, provided Mone is medically cleared to compete. Mone is not currently medically cleared.
Nightingale has a clear personal incentive after Mone defeated her for the AEW Women’s World Championship at All In. Thekla, meanwhile, has also been involved in a heated exchange with Mone, with the two trading words on the September 9 Dynamite Rebel Heart television special. Their match at All Out therefore determines not only a top contender, but which unresolved issue follows Mone into WrestleDream.
Darby Allin and Steven Borden meet Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight of The Don Callis Family in a Number One Contender’s Match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship. Allin enters as TNT Champion and previously defeated Knight for that title at All In. On September 16, Allin and Borden teamed with Cage and Copeland to defeat Fletcher, Knight and FTR in an Eight-Man Tag Team Match.
A win for Allin and Borden would establish a new threat to the team that survives the TLC title match. Fletcher and Knight, meanwhile, have the chance to convert their association with The Don Callis Family into a direct route to the tag championship.
Tailgate Brawl begins the night
Before the main card, AEW Saturday Tailgate Brawl returns at 7 p.m. ET. David Finlay and Clark Connors of The Dogs will join Wheeler Yuta and Daniel Garcia of The Death Riders against Jay White, Colten Gunn, Austin Gunn and Ace Austin of The Bang Bang Gang.
Jack Perry will also face Katsuyori Shibata of The Opps during the Tailgate Brawl. The pre-show matches extend several of the faction rivalries present elsewhere on the card and provide a significant lead-in to a night dominated by title implications.
From Ospreay’s first world title defense against Moxley to the uncertainty of Persephone’s Open Challenge, All Out is positioned as a pivotal stop on AEW’s road to WrestleDream. Chicago will see multiple champions tested, former champions chasing redemption, and contenders fighting to define what comes next.
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Darryl Polo
Darryl Polo is a passionate wrestling fan covering WWE, AEW, TNA and beyond. He loves great rivalries, breakout stars and the moments that keep fans talking long after the bell. How we work.