Labor Day weekend means lakes, relaxation, a love of wrestling & tacos, and the 2022 edition of AEW All Out. All Out is one of the”Big Four” AEW PPVs (the others are Double or Nothing, Full Gear, and Revolution), and the show will be broadcast from Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
It took a while for this card to come together, but as of the Friday before the Sunday PPV, AEW All Out is stacked with 14 matches across the pre-show and the show itself.
Obviously, this is too many matches to predict here (and also just too many matches in general), so I am going to choose the ones that interest me most to look at in a little more detail.
The Card
Eddie Kingston vs. Tomohiro Ishii (Kickoff)
This match is of interest because of the way we got here. It was originally supposed to be Kingston taking on Sammy Guevara, but a legitimate backstage confrontation between the two saw Kingston get suspended for two weeks. It also caused the match to be scrapped because an unhinged (and unhappy) Kingston could do some serious damage to Guevara.
Instead, we get Kingston taking on Ishii. This is fine, mainly because Ishii is one of my favorite wrestlers on the planet. The two have previous as they squared off at NJPW’s Capital Collision in May with Ishii going over. I expect the opposite to happen here with Kingston getting his win back.
Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Jericho
The role of Daniel Garcia is the story here, with Danielson working on convincing the very accomplished wrestler to break away from Jericho and his band of devilish sports entertainers.
This could go one of two ways, but for me, the logical story progression here is to have Danielson out-wrestle Jericho and put on a clinic in front of Garcia. This should lead to Garcia embracing what he actually is and slotting in with Danielson et al. under the umbrella of the Blackpool Combat Club.
Jungle Boy vs. Christian Cage
Easiest prediction on the card. Jungle Boy needs to move on to a new feud, and the only reason Christian should win here is to extend this to another match. Neither of them needs that, so Boy should go over.
Jon Moxley vs. CM Punk (AEW World Championship)
It is hard to know what to read here. The reports of Punk burning bridges again while still in the company make sense, especially because he was essentially squashed on AEW Dynamite a couple of weeks ago in his title unification match with Mox.
What this means is that we come into this match not reading how the company is going to have this play out. It seems unlikely that Punk would be squashed again, but can he really win after being so thoroughly buried in late August?
I think the way to take this is to make Punk heel. Have him unable to win and get dirty trying to do so. Mox is the perfect opponent for a turn like that – there are no limits he won’t cross – and it would make for compelling storytelling.
Always remember, folks. Pro Wrestling is Real.