Need to know when and where to watch an upcoming PPV? Need to know who’s fighting who? Need to know why you should care? Then, you’ve come to the right place!
“A Handy Guide” is a series on Dirt Sheet Radio where I run down an upcoming pay-per-view, and discuss the competitors and stories going into each match. For now, the focus is going to be on WWE and AEW, but if there’s interest, we may expand to companies like TNA, NJPW, and more. Additionally, I also give my picks for the sleeper hit, the match that I think will over-deliver or be under-appreciated, and my fairly self-explanatory match of the night.
Today’s edition is all about AEW All Out 2026— the company’s longest-running pay-per-view— taking place on Saturday, September 26th, at Now Arena in Chicago, Illinois. This will mark AEW’s first appearance in Chicago this year, and All Out’s return to the Windy City. All Out is to AEW what Backlash is to WWE, it’s a display of consequences from the company’s biggest show of the year. It marks a reset for some wrestlers and a new chapter for others. Over the years, it has been home to some of AEW’s most memorable such as the Chicago Street Fight between Willow and Statlander, the Lights Out Steel Cage Match between Swerve and Hangman (yikes), the debut of CJ Perry (yikes but in a different font), and of course the crowning of the inaugural AEW World Champion.
The PPV will air at 4pm PT/7pm ET on major cable and satellite providers in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. U.S. and Canadian viewers can stream the event on YouTube, Prime Video, and DAZN. Additionally, U.S. fans can also stream it on HBO Max or catch it at select Dave & Buster locations nationwide. International viewers can view the event on PPV.com or MyAEW.com.
This article does not cover any of the Buy-In (pre-show) matches, and as always the card is subject to change. But for now, these are the matches, and these are the stories:
Kazuchika Okada vs. Tommaso Ciampa— International Championship Match
Given their career trajectories, you’d be forgiven for thinking this match could never happen. While Okada was the poster boy for New Japan and having seven-star matches with Kenny Omega, Ciampa was becoming the most despicable heel in NXT and putting on one of the brand’s first five-star matches with Johnny Gargano. During COVID, Okada was dealing with Ospreay’s defection from CHAOS, and Ciampa was teaming with Timothy Thatcher and trying to wrestle the UK Championship from WALTER (now Gunther). When Okada signed with AEW in 2024, it seemed like this match would definitely never happen because Ciampa was busy reforming #DIY with Gargano and winning the WWE Tag Team Championship.
However, on January 28th, 2026, Ciampa made his AEW debut— a week after announcing his departure from WWE— and that forbidden door was busted wide open once again.
Fast forward eight months later. Okada has allied himself with The Don Callis Family, sowed seeds of discord with Fletcher and Takeshita, and won the International Championship from the former. Ciampa already has one TNT Championship reign to his name and recently settled a blood feud with Chris Jericho. Hungry for gold and hungrier for competition, Ciampa calls out the new International Champion. Okada, of course, calls him a “bitch”, and Ciampa responds in kind. No more jokes and no more smiling. The Psycho Killer wants The Rainmaker at All Out, and he just might get him. Given all that, I’m calling this match the sleeper hit of the pay-per-view. The match to really look out for to steal the show.
Andrade El Idolo vs. PAC— National Championship Match
To maybe no one’s surprise, Andrade El Idolo defeated Mark Davis at All In, winning the AEW National Championship and a cathartic ridding of The Don Callis Family from his life. Now, he finds himself in the crosshairs of a different, much more violent faction. The Death Riders have not taken kindly to Andrade’s arrogance and in-ring antics. Taking selfies with beautiful women, removing your pants, and posing in between the ropes are behaviors unbecoming of a professional wrestler. The Death Riders need to teach him a lesson, and The Bastard looks to be the guy who will do just that.
PAC has been a mainstay of the Death Riders since they were still known as the Blackpool Combat Club. The grumpy Englishman terrorizes opponents with his hard kicks and deceptive strength. Though he’s a smooth and graceful high-flyer, he often finishes matches with a tight double underhook crossface aptly called “The Brutalizer”. In Moxley’s gang, he plays the enforcer role well, often ending fights rather than starting them. That isn’t to say, however, that he doesn’t pick fights of his own.
After successfully defending his championship against Daniel Garcia, Andrade was jumped by the rest of the riders (sans Mox and, technically, Kemalito) An irate PAC touted his former victory against the National Champion and vowed to do it again in Chicago. Before Andrade could respond, PAC kicked him in the head and left him laying in the ring. This will be a brutal exhibition. How I know?? Because Andrade and PAC are technically sound wrestlers, and their styles mesh well with each other. Expect to be entertained and wowed way before Andrade even takes his pants off.
Swerve Strickland and The New Level (Kofi/Austin Creed) vs. The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (Hangman Page/Brody King/Bandido) — Trios Championship Match
Last month at All In, Austin Creed (formerly Xavier Woods) and Kofi (formerly Kingston) made their not-so-surprise AEW debut as The New Level. They became the new Trios champions with Swerve Strickland, and also secured the second catchiest theme music in AEW. First place is Orange Cassidy’s theme no I will not be taking any questions. The New Level have quickly ingratiated themselves to the AEW fans, showing off how they haven’t lost a step and why they were two-thirds of the subjectively greatest trio in WWE history. After being criminally underutilized in the latter days of their WWE tenure and then reportedly being asked to take a 50% pay cut, it was refreshing to see them win gold on their first day in AEW.
Unfortunately, they had to step on many toes on the way to doing so. Even more unfortunate, those toes belonged to the last three Trios champions. The Conglomeration held the Trios championships for a substantial amount of time until a timely intervention by The Lethal Twist (Jay Lethal/Blake Christian/Lee Moriarty) caused them to lose the titles to The Demand. Ricochet and his guys could only celebrate being champions for a week before they also lost the titles to the makeshift team of Hangman and Brodido. Less than a month later, they, too, would lose the titles in that tumultuous Roulette Royale at All In. With so many teams holding valid claims for the championship, Tony Khan pitted them against each other. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly defeated The Conglomeration, and Swerve and The New Level defeated The Demand, setting us up with this great Trios Championship match at All Out.
Who knows how long Swerve will stay allied to Kofi and Creed, and the same can be said for Page and Brodido. Regardless, both teams have great chemistry with each other and against their All Out opponents. Expect another stand-out performance by The New Level, fun shenanigans by Brodido, and palpable tension between Swerve and Hangman.
TBS Championship Open Challenge
They don’t ask how you won, they only ask who won. At All In, Persephone defeated Maya World for the TBS Championship, but her victory comes with a big asterisk. An asterisk named Britt Baker. The Doctor returned in London and interfered in the TBS Championship match, securing the victory for and allying with Persephone. That isn’t to say that Persephone wouldn’t have won without Britt’s help, because she absolutely could have.
At just fifteen years old, Persephone started her wrestling journey in her hometown of El Paso, Texas. She’s powerful and charismatic, and just a few years into her career, she was picked up by CMLL where she garnered international attention. So much so that at Forbidden Door 2025, she was invited to compete in a four-way match for the TBS Championship. In the match, she came close on multiple occasions to winning the title off then champion Mercedes Moné, and AEW took notice.
Over the next year, she worked primarily in CMLL while making sporadic appearances in AEW until she officially signed with the latter in January 2026. Now, she reigns as not only the TBS Champion, but also as the CMLL Women’s World Champion (who she fittingly took off of Mercedes Moné). Perse Dos Straps has already retained her championship against Vertvixen and Hyan, now she’s going to Chicago to take on anyone else that dares to step in the ring with her.
Cage and Cope vs. FTR vs. The Young Bucks— Ladder Match for Men’s Tag Team Championship
At All In, Christian Cage used a screwdriver to help his team retain their championships against the Young Bucks. This complicated the tag team contender scene. After the match, FTR made their return to stare down Cage and Cope, the men who beat them for the titles. This complicated the scene even more. In order to un-complicate things, Adam Copeland laid down a monumental challenge for All Out: a three-way ladder match involving all three of these teams. For copyright reasons, AEW can’t call this a TLC match, but we all know in our hearts that this is what it’s going to be.
There’s a lot of history between these six men going into the match. Cage and Cope, respected symbols of a bygone era, have to prove that they can hang with two of the best tag teams today in a match they made famous. They’ve made FTR say “I Quit” and they survived against the Young Bucks, but can they outlast both teams at the same time? FTR are 3-2 against the Young Bucks two-on-two, but they’re 1-2 against Cage and Cope. However, they’re the freshest out of all three teams, which could give them the edge in this ladder match. The Young Bucks also excel in ladder matches and can be just as opportunistic as FTR and the Attitude Era legends.
There’s not much else to say about this match. TLC matches are car crashes in the best kind of way, and the six men involved are all prolific in their own rights. Expect a symphony of con-chair-tos, lots of broken wood, and high-dives that’ll make your palms sweat like crazy.
The Brawling Birds (Jamie Hayter/Alex Windsor) vs. Divine Dominion (Lena Kross/Megan Bayne)— Chicago Street Fight for Women’s Tag Team Championship
My goodness, do these ladies despise each other. At All In, these two undefeated tag teams went head-to-head for the very first time. All four women had something to prove and they couldn’t stand how much the other team was bragging about their successes. After weeks of blindsided attacks and brutal exchanges of words, things finally came to a head in London, and the Brawling Birds came out on top. No one expected Divine Dominion to take this defeat lying down, much less the new women’s tag champs. So, the rematch was set for All Out.
This will not be just any match, though, this is going to be a Chicago Street Fight. These four women are no strangers to weaponized brawls. Last year, Megan Bayne won a hard-hitting, No DQ match with Penelope Ford against Anna Jay and Harley Cameron, and she was also in the first women’s Blood and Guts match opposite Jamie Hayter. Lena Kross helped defend the tag team championships in a bloody No DQ match against the Sisters of Sin (Julia Hart/Skye Blue). And speaking of No DQ, Alex Windsor made a name for herself with some excellent no disqualification matches in RevPro and Pro Wrestling Eve. In an already violent-looking card, this match had the chance to fly under the radar, but I believe these two teams will bring the violence too.
Willow Nightingale vs. Thekla— #1 Contenders Match for Women’s World Championship
On the same night that Mercedes Moné defeated Willow Nightingale for the Women’s World Championship, Thekla stood on top of the Buy-In panel’s table and declared her intentions to get back said championship. In one night, we had two strong contenders for Moné’s championship, and all three women were on a collision course for All Out. Would Willow attempt to play spoiler on yet another Moné reign? Would Thekla’s massive ego attempt to eclipse Mercedes’s? Or would we get a styles-clashing three-way dance in Chicago? The possibilities— all three of them— were endless!
And then Mercedes was diagnosed with a broken nose and wasn’t cleared for this month’s PPV.
In the business, we call this scenario a “real bummer”. However, the back-up plan is anything but. In a rematch from Redemption, the former champion, Willow, will face off against the woman she beat to become the champion, Thekla. The winner goes on to Wrestledream in October to face Mercedes Moné for the women’s championship.
Willow is nursing a legitimate broken left hand going into the match, but she’s not counting herself out and neither should you. The Babe With The Power(bomb) knows what it’s like to get sidelined and relinquish a championship due to injury, she is refusing to let that happen again. On the other hand (no pun intended), The Toxic Spider is looking to rewrite history, avenge her loss from Redemption, and reclaim her place at the top of the women’s division. She has no love for Willow— and vice versa— and will look to exploit every weakness she can in order to get her title back.
This is not a detour, this is a delight. Willow and Thekla had a great match at Redemption, and their contrasting personalities have made for great television over the past month. The winner, no matter who it is, will be a more than worthy contender for Mercedes’s championship. And no doubt the champ herself will be on hand to watch this match closely.
Darby Allin/Steven Borden vs. Don Callis Family (Kevin Knight/Kyle Fletcher)— #1 Contender’s Match for Men’s Tag Team Championship
On March 3rd, 2024— two years ago— Sting wrestled his final match, defending his and Darby Allin’s tag team championships against The Young Bucks. During that match, we saw Darby fall twenty feet onto a sheet of glass, The Young Bucks superkick Ric Flair out of AEW, and Sting call on two special guests: his sons. Steven and Garrett Borden accompanied their father to the ring, decked out in his Wolfpac and Surfer costumes respectively. They also got physical during the match, taking bumps and breaking out Stinger Splashes that turned some heads. Could Garrett and Steven carry on their father’s legacy? Or, better yet, could they carve their own legacies in the wrestling ring? Well, at All Out, Steven gets his first shot.
Steven’s career trajectory has been fittingly catalytic as well. Not to brag, but I was able to see Steven wrestle in a dark match before Collision. During the match, my friends and I joked that this was akin to seeing pre-jorts John Cena answering Kurt Angle’s open challenge. Fast forward to six weeks later, and Steven has made his official AEW debut, allied with his father’s protégé, Darby Allin, and dived feet first into a feud with the Don Callis Family. Sheesh, I wish my first two months at any job were this eventful.
Don Callis has major beef with Steven after the potential prodigy rebuffed an invitation to join the family. Steven also aided Darby in taking the TNT Championship off of Kevin Knight, which made him even less popular with the family. Don has now sicced Knight onto Steven and Darby, and has Kyle Fletcher aiding and tagging with Knight. Though, that might also be to distract The Protostar from dwelling too much on being defeated by Okada and losing his International Championship. Begrudgingly, Knight and Fletcher make a decent enough team, and they hold a tag team victory over the Young Bucks. They’re carrying that momentum into All Out to take down Darby and Steven, and get another chance at championship gold in the process.
Darby’s involvement in this feud is a no-brainer. Sting penned him as his mentee on the icon’s very first night in AEW, and their careers are forever intertwined. Taking the Borden legacy under his wing is more than just a favor for Darby, it’s a duty. He wants Steven to succeed just as much as Sting helped him succeed. If his second reign as a tag team champion can be with the scorpion’s son, then that’ll make this match Saturday that much sweeter. Plus, it means he gets to beat Kevin Knight again.
Steven said he hesitated joining the wrestling business because he didn’t want to live in his dad’s shadow. At All Out, he takes a definitive step out of it, but will it end with defeat at the hands of the Don Callis Family? Or will it catalyze into championship gold?
Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley— Men’s World Championship Match
At All In, Will Ospreay had a simple yet poetic walk-out for the main event. Accompanied by his United Empire stablemates and Baba O’Riley by The Who, Ospreay walked through the backstage area and encountered figures in his career that have defined his journey. People like Michael Oku, Swerve Strickland, Mark Davis, Kyle Fletcher, and his wife, Alex Windsor. Right as he got to the apron, he was stopped by Jon Moxley, the final craftsman that molded Ospreay into the man he was today. Moxley handed him the Union Jack, and nodded with begrudging acceptance before walking away. As Ospreay looked back at Mox, you could tell things weren’t over between them.
Three days later, after the main event of Dynamite, Gabe Kidd sought to take revenge on Ospreay and company for beating him and his team. But Moxley and the Death Riders showed up, and Mox got in the way of Kidd before could lay Ospreay out with a steel chair. Then, as Moxley handed Ospreay his title back, and the two had an intense stare down, a graphic appeared on the big screen: Moxley vs. Ospreay for the Men’s World Championship at All Out.
If you’ve been following AEW for the past few months, you know of the history between these two men. Ospreay sought the guidance of Mox and the Death Riders to gain a killer edge, the ability to “pull the trigger”. Ospreay proved himself to the Death Riders and they aided him in winning the Men’s Owen Hart Tournament. However, when Mox tried to suffocate Omega with a plastic bag at Redemption, Ospreay intervened and ended his partnership with the Death Riders. No one expected to see the two side-by-side again, though we expected them to inevitably come face-to-face.
Ospreay revealed that he was the one that asked for this match, he wanted his first championship defense to be against the man that helped him win it. The Ace of AEW, the man who has won every singles championship a man can hold in the company— including the world championship four times. Moxley has made it clear that he never expected to be given this match, but he knew it was an inevitability. He wanted Ospreay to be a leader but he can sense the doubts, and he wonders if Ospreay even feels like a champion. Mox may not be his teacher anymore, but he’s still giving Ospreay his first test.
If you can’t tell by now, this is my pick for match of the night. Save for Darby tagging with Sting’s son, this match has the strongest story threads, and I’m a sucker for a good story in my wrestling. It’s one thing to win the championship, it’s another thing to hold it. I can’t wait to see how Ospreay responds to the pressure, and how Moxley responds to Ospreay.
Other Things To Look Out For
- Ilja Dragunov is reportedly heading to AEW after dealing with visa issues. Could All Out be the introduction to Unbesiegbar? And if so, where do you see him fit best in the current roster? Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing him confront the National or International champion at the end of their respective matches.
- Andrade won the Casino Battle Royale at All In and has also allied himself with the world champion (possibly in a bid to be part of Ospreay’s United Empire?). He still holds his guaranteed title shot and has yet to make it known when he’ll cash it in. Regardless, he’ll likely be watching the main event closely.
- I just…really think Steven’s gonna turn on Darby. I have no basis for this other than a gut feeling. If it happens, it’s definitely a big departure out of the shadow of his dad (infamously the target of heel turns from many trusted partners), but it also feels too easy. And if it means he joins the overbloated Don Callis Family, then I want this even less. But that’s just the mark in me talking.
- Jack Perry recently called out Samoa Joe, daring him to come back to AEW and fight him. It's a bold move— kind of a stupid move, but bold nonetheless. He will be wrestling Katsuyori Shibata— a member of Samoa Joe’s group, The Opps— on the pre-show. This should be a good match in its own right, but maybe we also see an appearance from the former AEW World champion to answer Perry’s challenge.
Jhuvin P. is a writer for CBC/DSR. He has previous experience as a ghostwriter, has published several short stories, and is perpetually working on a novel. In addition to writing, he is also a comedian based out of Colorado Springs. He posts clips of his stand-up along with his other goofy antics on TikTok and Instagram.