Cena’s last match went as expected. Gunther ascended to the tournament final, defeating LA Knight, and then telegraphed exactly how he would beat John Cena in his final match. Gunther promised to make Cena tap out, which is exactly what he did. Gunther came into Cena’s last match as a  (-250) favorite, meaning the smart money thought Cena would uphold tradition and lose his last match. The crowd reaction and subsequent anger indicates genuine surprise and shock that Super Cena would go out with a loss in his final match. There has been a large contingent of the internet wrestling community who believes Cena should have won on his way out. HHH made the right decision. Gunther is the most important heel in the social media era, in a stacked WWE roster that is somehow short of proper heels.

Gunther: A Star is Born

I am a big, big Gunther fan. According to the Bret Hart framework to evaluate wrestlers (in-ring wrestling ability, promo ability, and look) Gunther excels in all three. He is a throwback to old school heels that the fans genuinely hate and want to see beat. With his foreign Austrian accent, he could slip into a promo about being the Übermensch heel. Gunther already has multiple world championships and beat Goldberg in his retirement match earlier this year. There’s a reason he’s been booked so strong. In the social media era, Gunther is the only true heel. Watching heels and faces get frozen yogurt together on Instagram has largely broken the illusion that these people hate each other. This has diminished other wrestlers who might otherwise be the top villains in pro wrestling. The rise of cool "tweeners" before social media has also contributed significantly to the erosion of true heels. The tweeners are supposed to be heels, but often have adult fans cheering them on in an ironic way. Gunther has largely escaped this dynamic and is mostly getting boos. In the social media era, Gunther is the only top-card heel whose character survives unbroken across television, social media, and booking.

If I were the head booker, I'd place severe restrictions on social media usage among the talent. This is tricky, I know. In an era with Logan Paul and ishowspeed, WWE knows they need young influencers with huge followings. The downside of social media is obvious though. Social media, through long podcast interviews, shoot interviews with retired wrestlers, and Instagram posts of contemporary wrestlers hanging out with their opponents, has largely broken kayfabe. Gunther has kept true to kayfabe and not indulged in breaking the fourth wall. Gunther uses his social media to troll wrestling fans and to build more heel heat. This should be the template going forward.

Match Review

Tradition states you go out on your back in your last match. Cena is ever the traditionalist. The idea to losing in your last match is to give a boost to a younger guy on your way out, as a way of paying it forward and giving back to the business. Cena did everything possible to make Gunther look like a monster.

The match itself was really well done, with a high work rate, and one of the highlights of 2025. (Cena’s last run had some memorable matches. His Summerslam match against Cody Rhodes and Crown Jewel match against AJ Styles get honorable mention, but this is arguably the best match of Cena's last year.) Cena hit three attitude adjustments, including one on the Spanish announcer’s table and an avalanche attitude adjustment off the second rope. Having Gunther kick out of multiple finishers was another way Cena helped with upcoming Gunther’s monster heel run.  Gunther put him in a sleeper hold and Cena tapped out! The crowd was in tears, adults and children alike. Two nights later on RAW Gunther is getting boo'd out the building. Glorious.

The immense fan backlash is the point. We’re supposed to hate the heel for beating our hero. Now we desperately want to see Gunther beat, but it’s not clear who will beat him. This is exactly where WWE wants to be. Any criticism of HHH as a bad booker is nonsense. HHH was the top heel of the previous era and knows what it takes to draw heat.

A few thoughts: Expect Gunther to be booked strong for at least the next year. Barring injury or the emergence of another top heel, Gunther should be on a long winning streak.

• You have to spot Gunther a few points for the Royal Rumble. He’s currently at +1400 when the line should be well below +1000. This is assuming he’s in the main Rumble match and not in one of the main title matches.
• Gunther will be an overwhelming favorite if and when he faces AJ Styles. Gunther is being booked to be the career killer of guys over 40, similar to Randy Orton’s Legend Killer moniker. AJ Styles is the next one up, but Rey Mysterio Jr. is another potential legend for Gunther to retire.
• For Cena's last match, Belt.BET hosted bets on whether President Donald Trump would attend Cena’s last match. Trump has appeared at numerous Wrestlemanias and has former WWE CEO Linda McMahon in his Cabinet as US Education Secretary. Here were the odds:

Trump shows up on screen: (+150)
Trump is in the arena: (+300)
Trump is in the ring: (+567)

Trump ended up attending the Army Navy game, so this bet resolved to "NO."

War Games/Survivor Series was one of the more confusing branding exercises I've seen from WWE. I was expecting a traditional Survivor Series elimination match but instead got a War Games match. In that case, why even bother using the Survivor Series name?

Survivor Series would at least be more fun for betting. You could bet on various combinations & permutations on the surviving team. The winning team could win with 5 survivors (5-0), 4 survivors (4-0), 3 survivors (3-0), etc. And you could bet on who the remaining survivors are. If there's anyone from TKO listening, please consider this!

Heel Team were Overs (-200): I bet on the faces team at (+150). That didn't go well. The heel team was favored for a reason. The storyline advances with the heels, which is why they were favorites.

Potential Prop Bet: Who eats the pin? We didn't include this prop bet this year but there's hope for next year. This year World Champion CM Punk was the first entrant and ended up eating the pin after being attacked by a black hooded assailant. The internet thinks this is Austin Theory – I'd be thrilled if this was LA Knight. LA Knight and CM Punk have great chemistry together and are both great talkers.

Cena's Final Matches: Dominik Mysterio had a huge night, winning the Intercontinental Title back from John Cena in San Diego, Mysterio's hometown. In what must be the honor of a lifetime, Dominik Mysterio got two matches against Cena in Cena's last run. I also admit to being fooled by Dominik's kayfabe shoulder injury. Great work all around. Also, Cena taking finishers from the Judgement Day's female wrestlers was an unexpected nice touch. Cena is really doing everything he can to put over the next generation.

Now it's off to Cena's last opponent. "The Last Time is Now" tournament is coming down to LA Knight vs. Gunther. I already put down a bet in favor of Gunther, but I am tempted to hedge my risk here. LA Knight is bound to win something eventually. LA Knight is over with fans and the storyline is about his consistent failures to break through due to poor booking. This is reminiscent of Daniel Bryan's run up to Wrestlemania XXX. I don't actually think HHH has anything against LA Knight or that LA Knight is being held down by his booking. It's all a work, folks.

Expected Future Storylines Coming out of War Games/Survivor Series:

Bron Breakker is the big breakout star and the beneficiary of Seth Rollins getting hurt. It's clear Bron is getting groomed for the top spot, but this was all accelerated once Seth Rollings suffered his shoulder injury. Bron got the pin over CM Punk and will face CM Punk for the championship on the first RAW on January 5, 2026. My only quibble: Bron isn't polished on the mic yet, but pretty much no one is at this stage. His promo last Monday was pretty good.

WWE World Championship Match (initial odds)

CM Punk: -180 (5/9)
Bron Breaker: +140 (7/5)

Prediction: I think Bron is going to get the title eventually, but not that early. I'll stick for CM Punk.

Roman Reigns' Future Booking: Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar seemed to be the main attractions of the War Games match. Another big match between the two seems like a no-brainer. Also, Roman Reigns-Cody Rhodes III at the next Wrestlemania make sense. Reigns is now a "tweener" who gets cheers from the audience. I like this dynamic and it makes the rubber match outcome against Rhodes more unpredictable.

Make no mistake: most professional sports are already rigged and tipped in favor of bigger markets and pleasing advertisers who have bought ads on the premise that fans will be watching a competitive contest between the top two teams in the sport. Sports betting has only made this worse. (The ESPN coverage of the cheating scandal has been light touch, with betting site banners accompanying the headlines.) The NBA previously tried to sweep the Tim Donaghy scandal under the rug, portraying the cheating referee as one bad apple in an otherwise honest sport. (Not surprisingly, Tim Donaghy has played a heel referee in indie wrestling promotions.) Now we know that the scandal is much bigger than just one bad apple referee. So far more than thirty people across eleven states have been arrested.

How does cheating usually work? Sporting events usually tip things in favor of extending the series, so a five game series gets stretched to six or seven games. There are millions worth of advertising dollars here. The ads have already been sold, and it's a pain to try to compensate big brands with inferior blocks of advertising.

Players involved in the scam are usually instructed to score less in a scheme described as “point shaving.” In Terry Rozier’s case, he is accused of pulling himself out of games so friends could win on his prop bets. In the NBA, referees have wide discretion to put star players in foul trouble, limiting their effectiveness and tipping the scales in favor of a big market team looking to extend a series to six or seven games. The Portland Trailblazers coach Chauncey Billups has been accused of ensnaring NBA players into a rigged poker game. Details of how the poker game is connected to the NBA games are unclear, but it is plausible that NBA players who amassed huge gambling debts would be more willing to take part in point shaving schemes.

Facts: the number of people who know the outcomes to pro wrestling matches (the wrestlers, the referee, the booker) is fewer than than the number of people who know the outcomes to NBA games (basketball players, refs, coaches, mobsters, poker players).

This is why pro wrestling is the greatest and most honest sport. We know it’s fake and the results are pre-determined. That’s why it’s OK to bet on pro wrestling. Pro wrestling is the only honest scam. HHH will never lie to you like Adam Silver does about a Terry Rozier suspension. And if he does, you’ll realize it was to advance a storyline, not to cover poker gambling debts.

Watch out Linda McMahon. There's another high-powered woman in Washington who knows pro wrestling.

Nancy's $harp Money Picks:

"I'm mostly going with the overs tonight. As my father Thomas D'Alesandro used to say, "you gotta stay in it to win it." That means being happy winning a bit when the favorites are gonna win and then bet big when the lines are out of wack. I think the lines tonight are mostly right but we'll see more chaos at War Games/Survivor Series and definitely at the Royal Rumble." Nancy also commented that there aren't usually title changes at Saturday Night Main Event. Clearly Nancy knows ball.

WWE World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk vs Jey Uso

CM Punk is the favorite at -500.

Yeah, that makes sense. WWE needs a new champion since Seth Rollins injured his shoulder doing that coast to coast flying headbutt move at Crown Jewel. Look, I love the Uso twins and Jey was an interesting experiment as a long shot winner at the Royal Rumble. I'm the first one yeeting in the crowd when Jey comes to San Fran or D.C., but he can't carry the company. The guy gets gassed when he's not doing the hot tag.

Nancy's Pick: CM Punk (-500) to win it with help from Jey's brother Jimmy Uso. Expect Jimmy and Jey Uso to have another feud to make up for their lackluster Wrestlemania match. Expect a lot of superkicks. Yeet! Yeet! The WWE World Heavyweight championship is coming home to CM Punk tonight!

Undisputed WWE Title Match

Cody Rhodes (-600) vs. Drew McIntyre (+350)

Didn't we just see this match already at Wrestlepalooza? Alright, I guess injuries have ravaged this company. I'll put my congressional pension on Drew McIntyre.

Nancy's Pick: Drew McIntyre (+350) by DQ. I love Drew but I also didn't think he's winning the title tonight. Cody is gonna get a longer run with the belt and is the face of the company. If Drew's gonna win, it's gonna be through disqualification. Expect some heelish behavior from Cody Rhodes.

Commentators are saying Cody Rhodes is the best pure babyface since Cena, but they are under-counting how good of a heel Rhodes is. Watch Cody's work in between his WWE stints, including his AEW match against his brother Dustin Rhodes. The guy can play a heel if he needs to. I'll also be cheering for Drew McIntyre.

This site needs prop bets. I bet Cody gets down and dirty here. If there was a chair shot from Cody prop bet, I would take that.

Editor's Note: Since this post went live, WWE has added a stipulation in which Drew McIntyre can win the WWE title by disqualification. Wow, the power of Nancy Pelosi.

WWE Intercontinental Title Triple Threat Match

This is a triple threat match between Dominik Mysterio, Penta, and Rusev. You would think in a triple threat match the odds would be divied up more evenly, but they're not! "Dirty Dom" is the biggest favorite of the night at -1200. I can't disagree with that. Kid is on fire and potentially my bet to be Cena's last opponent in Washington DC. (more on Cena's last match in DC in a future column)

WWE Women's Title Match

Jade Cargill (-500) vs Tiffany Stratton (+300)

Again, this is gonna be a predictable card. Jade just turned heel against Tiffany and they're gonna book her strong. Any booker would have Jade win tonight and then run this feud back. Expect a later match to be more competitive in Tiffany's favor, but Jade Cargill is going over tonight.

This has the elements of being a good longer term feud. Jade Cargill is better used as a heel. She's just so much bigger than Tiffany, the story writes itself. I'd give her Jade the title as a heel and let her run over the smaller faces, like Tiffany and Iyo Skye. That's how we'd do it in Baltimore at least. That's what would draw the most money.

Sharp Money Pick: AJ Styles

John Cena of course should be the favorite here, but not a -1600 favorite. AJ Styles is good value here.

Also, betting on Cena during his Retirement Tour seems to be the Noob betting strategy this year. If you're betting on Super Cena, you're way not paying attention. Cena is eager to move onto Hollywood. Putting a bunch of his colleagues over on the way out is the right way to do it.

*I may be biased here. I actually saw AJ Styles wrestle John Cena at a dark match years ago. AJ Styles won.

Cody Rhodes (+250) & Seth Rollins (-400)

Sharp Money Pick: Cody Rhodes

Champion vs. Champion: Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins is more difficult to judge. This is a champion vs. champion match, but as CM Punk noted in his RAW monologue, this is NOT a title match. Paul Heyman is building up the importance of the match by arguing that 1) Seth’s leadership of the Vision is at stake; and 2) if Seth loses, Paul Heyman will question why he chose Seth over Roman Reigns. This makes it seem like Seth should win, right?

We should go back to thinking like the booker. The current booking team seems willing to engage unorthodox booking, so face vs. face interactions. LA Knight has been feuding with Jey Uso and CM Punk recently and the feud feels fresh. Can we imagine the same thing happening if the Vision begins to fracture? Yes. A fracture within the Vision is potentially Bron Breakker’s breakout moment. Bron Breakker has clearly been tapped to be the guy headlining Wrestlemania in a few years.

This is also premised on the idea that Cody Rhodes will be booked strong, like the Hulk Hogan of the current era.

Roman Reigns (-350) vs Bronson Reed (+225) in an Australian Street Fight

Sharp Money Pick: Bronson Reed

Roman Reigns already won the previous match. Bronson Reed is getting a big push. I’m betting on a trilogy where Roman Reigns wins the final rubber match, but Bronson Reed coming out strong. At this point in his career, Roman Reigns can afford to lose the second match of a trilogy.

Summary: There is good value in the underdogs at Crown Jewel Perth.

For traditional team sports (say basketball), we have two teams consisting of multiple individuals where each team is striving as hard as they possibly can to defeat the other team.  To that end, they will do their best to score as many points as possible and prevent the opposing team from scoring as much as possible.  For individual sports (say boxing or tennis), we may have an individual striving to defeat the other (by landing punches and possibly knocking out their opponent or say winning points in tennis).  In all of the above cases, in an ordinary situation, no one can be sure of the outcome in advance, since both teams (or individuals) are striving for opposite outcomes.  The sporting event is therefore fundamentally random, probabilistic or unpredictable in the sense that no one can unfailingly predict in advance who will win.

In professional wrestling, we are in a different situation.  The outcome is often a “work” where management and the performers involved have agreed to the outcome (who wins or loses).  Further, they will likely have agreed to the sequences of events leading to the outcome.  Therefore, if we were privy to these conversations and discussions we could predict the outcome with high confidence.  Thus in that sense the outcome is seemingly non-random.  (I say mostly, because there is still the small probability someone could go off-script, or for there to be a last-minute change).

However, while on the surface, these two situations may seem very different, on the other hand, both fall into the category of a prediction market and are more qualitatively similar than initially appear. In both of the above categories, the bettor has a small subset of the available information and so can only typically estimate probabilities.  In both cases, an insider will have access to more information that will lead to better estimates.  In sporting events, there is often lots of information held by insiders that will have a significant effect on the outcome (health of players, attitude of the team, plans to rest players, etc): information that the bettor is not privy to.  Additionally, in the wrestling case, for the bettors, the event is still probabilistic in the sense that for almost everyone involved, the outcome is unknown.  Fundamentally, the difference between typical sports betting and professional wrestling betting is that in the first we are predicting the outcome of a game of skill with determined adversaries and in the other we are predicting a decision by the wrestling federation.  Professional wrestling outcomes are still apparently random or probabilistic to the investing or betting public and still amenable to strategies and analysis.

WWFTX was the ONLY betting platform to allow smart fans such as yourself to cash in on this historic occasion. This wager was available for +300 only on WWFTX.

Congratulations on our fans who invested successfully. Your dedication and hard work have paid off. You are the smart fan, the mark, the smart mark, the smark, the David Meltzer dirt sheet subscriber who doesn't fall for what the Fed tells you! This win's for you!

Next time bet harder for your bloodline.

Reasons to invest in Wrestling Futures:

• Diversification: adding wrestling futures will immediately diversify your portfolio
• Not correlated with the S&P 500: academic research from noted finance academics Modigliani & Miller demonstrates that wrestling futures are not correlated with other major asset clauses, including the benchmark S&P 500, stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.
• You can Win. Let’s face it, the stock market is stacked against the little guy. You're just payment for order flow cannon fodder for large quant funds.  Wrestling futures however, democraticze finance to those who pay close attention to pro wrestling.
• Your currency is rapidly deteriorating away: due to massive central bank money printing, your fiat currencies are rapidly becoming worthless, so you might as well gamble and take Iyo Sky as the under at Summerslam if you hope to achieve the quality of life your parents had at your age.

**Is this a regulated product? **

No narc, stop asking narc questions.

There’s no way US Education Secretary Linda McMahon would allow us to get away with this. If she knew what we were up to, we would be immediately sent to be tortured at re-education camps. The US Education Secretary has jurisdiction over re-education camps.

**Can I pay with fiat? **

No, again with the narc questions. A normal person wouldn’t even know what “fiat” is.

In Conclusion: Wrestling Futures are the Future.

Howdy. Welcome to Part II of WWFTX’s two-parter on how Y’All In went. At least for the parts I remember. It was a really long night.

All In

The Opps (Katsuyori Shibata, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Samoa Joe) vs. The Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta) and Gabe Kidd

This match was for the Trios title which… is a little hard to care about. One common criticism of AEW is its lackluster writing, partially hampered by the fact that there seem to be so. many. damn. belts. The Trios title and the stakes in this match fall victim to this. I don’t have any complaints about the in-ring action, but it could have totally been bolstered if scripters had managed to give fans more compelling reasons to care about the stakes. Eh, at least it was the bottom of the card?

Men’s Casino Gauntlet Match

Not to be glib but I kind of slept through this one.

Dustin Rhodes vs. Daniel Garcia vs. Kyle Fletcher vs. Sammy Guevara

Adam Cole vacates the AEW TNT Championship in an emotional announcement, explaining that he will be taking a long, unspecified amount of time away from wrestling due to injuries. What was initially booked as a match between him and Kyle Fletcher for the title turned into a 4-way that was won by Dustin Rhodes–a result that was meant to be a feel-good moment. It’s hard for the match to bring the emotional compulsion that can surpass the shadow of Cole’s address and I don’t really think it approaches that territory at all. Commentary knows that—which is why they devoted some time to recapping Rhodes’ lengthy career, trying to sell us even more on him. Well, I had no problems with Rhodes winning the match, what I had a problem with was that the match felt like too long even though it was only about 15 minutes and the ending wasn’t executed well. For one, you could see Sammy Guevara taking an annoying amount of time and distance rolling off the apron so that the attention could be put on Garcia, who soon put Rhodes in the Dragon Tamer. The sequence in which Rhodes tried to reverse the hold to win the match came to an end too soon, which deflated the build-up almost instantly, not aided by Guevara’s last-minute slide-in in an attempt to stop Rhodes. Seriously man, some urgency earlier would have been great, but seeing him again at the end just pissed me off.

Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay w/ Prince Nana vs. The Young Bucks (Matthew and Nicholas Jackson)

Just cuz we’re out of the pre-show doesn’t mean the fun has to stop and the Young Bucks brought it. A whole boat-load of fun—they made their entrance on a moving boat platform to flute instrumentals and a declaration being read. Since Strickland and Ospreay have never tag-teamed with each other before (though Strickland has previously held the World Tag Team Championship with Keith Lee), their inexperience vs. the Young Bucks’ long partnership was one of the main angles of the match. Strickland and Ospreay started the match out of rhythm, leading to a highly entertaining sequence of the Young Bucks toying Ospreay following an aborted Oscutter. However, the Non-Bucks slowly found their groove and the last half of the match was a genuine nail-biter that felt like it could go either way and the crowd responded in kind—the Bucks picked up their aggression and became more malicious when their opponents started sharing time on the apron. Yes, if you’re not a fan of almost back-to-back highspots and flips and all that jazz, your enjoyment of this will probably suffer greatly. But if you are: a relatively high-stakes match, crowd-pleasing spots, a story about learning to work as a team that builds through the course of the match itself, and the birth of a meme… there’s not a lot left you could really ask for.

Women’s Casino Gauntlet Match: Since I said I slept through the men’s casino gauntlet match, it’s only fair to say the same for the women. Out of obligation to kayfabe gender relations.

The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin) w/ MJF and MVP vs. JetSpeed (Kevin Knight and Mike Bailey) vs. The Patriarchy (Christian Cage and Nick Wayne) w/ Kip Sabian and Mother Wayne

I don’t remember this. Let’s just chalk it up to the fact that the next 3 matches are complete stunners and not the extensive brain damage I've sustained from work.

Toni Storm w/ Luther vs. Mercedes Moné

By this point, All-In was approaching the 4-hour mark (not counting the pre-show) and I was starting to lose feeling in my butt from dumping it on the couch watching this. Admittedly though, it was hard not to be swept along into the huge pop that Mercedes Moné instantly got the moment her retinue of cheerleaders, all wearing a championship belt of hers. This was a great, tightly-worked match that impressed big emotions on me. Maybe I’m just a sick freak but I was laughing my ass off watching Toni Storm’s expressions when Moné had the upper hand in the beginning—it was kind of like watching Steamboat Minnie get tortured, but then Ms. Storm regained some footing and I was completely enraptured in straight, no frills suspense.

The odds leading into the match switched last minute to favor Storm just the slightest bit and it truly felt like it while watching—it could’ve been anyone’s win up until the very last moment. One slight issue that you may have with the is that Storm Zero does not look very impressive—it’s pretty straightforward and not that splashy of a piledriver—but given how good the two ladies were at selling the impact of each other’s moves and their manipulation of ring psychology, the exhaustion and desperation in the ring was practically palpable when Storm hit her finisher. Any move could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back and led to the pin. That’s how tightly-strung Storm and Moné had me. Funny, suspenseful, thrilling… timeless? That’s probably saying a bit much, but it was a good time to be had.

Kazuchika Okada w/ Don Callis vs. Kenny Omega w/ Kota Ibushi

Since All-In, some in the IWC (at least the section that is represented on Cagematch) have said that this was the weakest of all Okada vs. Omega bouts. This is not to say that it was a bad match, quite the opposite actually, but the assessment is completely understandable. Very few things can live up to the hype that has been built around Okada and Omega. Newcomers to wrestling who have yet to watch the pair’s previous meetings may even wonder how it’s possible for the actual Okada-Omega series of matches to live up to the hype perpetuated by the IWC. So… does this actual match live up to expectations?

Keeping in mind that both wrestlers are either approaching The Hill, or already on it, and that their extensive careers make novel, show-stopping spots increasingly harder to implement, I was happy with what we got. Yeah, yeah, I’m too easy of a mark.

I was surprised and impressed by how brutal Okada was willing to be, targeting Omega’s abdomen repeatedly, no doubt due to the man’s past with diverticulitis. The character work was also great—Okada continues to sell nonchalance while he’s mushing Omega’s stomach like Italian winemakers crushing grapes under their feet the traditional way, and he briefly expresses disbelief and frustration at Omega’s determination, before adapting a gloating smile as he lords the new Unified belt over a retreating Omega and Ibushi. Fantastic and amusing heel work. Even if you were rooting for Omega, you could hardly be disappointed given his sheer exertion and the touching, though bittersweet image of Ibushi helping a defeated Omega back up the ramp. The bit with the interference by Don Callis and the swapping of refs felt kind of lame and cheap though—the match seriously doesn’t benefit from that when Okada alone was already putting on such a good show as a heel.

Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley w/ Marina Shafir

Coming into the match, Adam Page was the heavy favorite and for good reason, every storytelling beat seemed to lead up to him taking down Moxley’s reign of terror. So, yeah, that’s what happened.

But how was the wrestling? Well, you know, when I first became interested in professional wrestling, I thought that hardcore matches were a lot more common than they actually are. Imagine my surprise when I found out that wrestlers weren’t constantly beating each other over the head with steel chairs. Thankfully, Moxley’s mighty mushy forehead came to the rescue and saved me from dying of bloodthirst. Within the first 2 minutes his head was already squirting like a sprinkler on a Floridian golf course and it got progressively bloodier and bloodier as the match progressed. Barbed wire, tacks, chairs, a table, bed of nails, plastic bag, crushed glass, chains—practically a whole hardware store’s inventory was up in that ring or had somebody thrown into them out of the ring. And all of it looked like it hurt. And it’s not just the array of weapons that is worth mentioning, so too are the various wrestlers that joined in on the action and who were also put out of action for it.

The few who don’t regard this match as highly point to its excessive violence and pointless cruelty, but like, was it really excessive? Don’t we all wish to bite a workplace nemesis on the head and then dangle him by the throat off the side of an elevated platform? Professional wrestling, like many other art forms, serves as a form of emotional catharsis and one reason why it works so well is because of its explicit acceptance of and enthusiastic indulgence in violence. When you’re gorging on a double-triple-quadruple-what-have-you baconzilloid cheeseburger with extra cheese, part of the satisfaction is derived from letting yourself go, not caring about the grease on your fingers and rubbing all over your mouth and on your cheeks. Sure, in the aftermath, maybe you are left pondering our life plans and hating yourself, feeling directionless—like AEW might find itself in after the conclusion of the Death Riders’ dominance—but in the moment, it’s simply immensely satisfying.

What’s next for AEW?

As we ponder this, so too must the folks over at WWE, who are continuing their strategy of counterprogramming—offering up NXT Heatwave on the same day as AEW and NJPW’s Forbidden Door.

As for AEW themselves, the conclusion of All In has been followed by some talent announcing that they will be taking time off, such as Ospreay, who was carried out of the event in a stretcher. Kenny Omega too, has also been reported to be stepping away from AEW for a bit. The reasoning behind his break, as well as its duration, has yet to be disclosed, but it’s only natural to assume that it is due to his declining health.

But to end on a good note for the AEW-lovers reading, the promotion has announced that the next All In will be a return to London’s Wembley Stadium, August 30 2026. A lot can happen between now and then—chin up, lovers.

As far as we know, HHH is the head of creative, meaning he is ultimately responsible for match outcomes, but he has input from a team of writers. There is an upcoming Netflix show called Unreal that will supposedly reveal what this dynamic is like. I’m under the assumption the show is a work, so will not actually reveal anything interesting. Otherwise this is the worse breaking kayfabe incident ever, way worse than the Current Call.

Last weekend was a big weekend for wrestling futures. AEW hosted All-In, one of their biggest events in AEW history. WWE ran counter-programming with Saturday Night’s Main Event (SNME) and Evolution, an all-women’s wrestling event.

Over vs Under Results

AEW All-In: 3-2

WWE SNME: 1-2

WWE Evolution 5 - 1 - 1*

SNME had Goldberg’s retirement match, which likely did not entice betters. Tradition dictates that pro wrestlers lose on their way out. So the final odds looked like this. Gunther (-1000) was an easy bet against  Goldberg (+500). Note: we’ll have a piece for you later on this bit of conventional wisdom. We know wrestlers are supposed to lose on their way out, but we want to run the numbers. We’ll get back to you on whether this is true or not. Wrestlers and promoters lie, but the numbers don’t.

The run up to WWE’s double-header did not look promising, betting-wise. The writing team was coming off a fairly predictable Night of Champions, in which the favorites won 5-1, with only Solo Sikao winning over Jacob Fatu coming as a surprise. Tip to TKO: if the betting favorites win close to 100% of the time, it’s time to shake things up.

WWE’s Saturday Night Main Event had a more surprising 1-2 outcome, but with a huge asterisk. Seth Rollins was a heavy -1000 favorite going into the event LA Knight (+400). According to The Fed, it appears Rollins injured his knee during the match. LA Knight was forced to improvise and won the match. The Internet wrestling community (IWC) has a large contingent that thinks this is a work. We'll try to think of a way for skeptical fans to wager on this.

Evolution was a more predictable affair, with favorites winnin 5 - 1 - 1*. The asterisk is because Naomi successfully cashed in her Money in the Bank suitcase during the Iyo Skye and Rhea Ripley match, setting up a three way match at Summerslam. Even when WWE is predictable, I appreciate how the existence of the Money in the Bank suitcase adds an element of surprise to any big match. The Summerslam Triple Threat match odds are currently Naomi (-600), Rhea Ripley (+250), and Iyo Sky (+400). Iyo Sky is the biggest underdog in the entire Summerslam.