AEW All Out 2021 HOT TAKE
Six letters that when placed together, bring forth imagery of hearts and souls exploding with passion as they exorcize everything within in order to achieve the ultimate in combat competition, immortality.
Over the last several years, All Elite Wrestling has tasked itself with raising professional wrestling from the depths, forcing it upwards to the heavens, bringing back the purity of the sport, the grit and grime of competition while entertaining without insulting the audience that lives and dies by the achievements and failures of its favorite fighters.
At All Out 2021, international FITE viewers will once again be your ringside seat to watch the fury of All Elite Wrestling as it invades the Windy City of Chicago one more time, its champions seeking to once again exit with the glorious luster of gold around their waists, its fighters seeking to have their arms raised in victory and its audience once again marching in support of professional wrestling the way it's supposed to be - unapologetic, organic, sneering and defiant.
At All Out, All Elite Wrestling will again make history, digging deep into the culture of professional wrestling, changing it forever, leaving all that they have accomplished in the time capsule for future generations to debate.
All Out, live on FITE, internationally, will feature the following:
AEW World Champion Kenny Omega vs. Christian Cage
For months, Kenny Omega has outlasted and out battled everyone at all corners of the globe, collecting championships and sneering down at all contenders….until the debut of AEW Rampage. On that groundbreaking evening, Christian Cage shocked the world to defeat Omega for the Impact Wrestling Championship. It was the Rocky comeback moment coming to life for an international audience before their very eyes..
Now, Omega must enter the squared circle against Cage once more, this time in defense of the AEW World Championship live on FITE, exclusively for international viewers. Does Cage, who was once thought to have been retired for good from in-ring competition, now hold the all- important mental advantage over Omega? Could that win-loss blemish be the weak link in Omega's sterling suit of armor? Or, will that embarrassment at Rampage spur him on to show the world one more time why he is the best bout machine?
With one of the best matches of the year on AEW television to their credit, what happens when Cage and Omega face off, unbridled and without TV restrictions, live at All Out?
AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks vs. The Lucha Brothers inside a Steel Cage
When AEW first held All Out in 2019, the show-stealing encounter of that debut event saw The Lucha Brothers best The Young Bucks in a ladder match that shocked and awed fans in Illinois and across the world. Now, two years later, The Bucks represent the Elite as the AEW World Tag Team Champions and as the dust settles on the Eliminator Tournament to determine their challengers, Rey Fenix and Penta El Zero M, who bested the Bucks in that classic ladder match, once again stand across the ring from them as challengers.
For the Bucks, no matter their demeanour, this is a chance to face the ghosts of their past and erase a past loss, while once again proving their tag team dominance with yet another highlight reel of all out aerial excellence. For the Lucha Brothers, it's a chance to bring Death Triangle to the next level, bringing the Elite down a notch.
For all involved, this match being held inside the confines of a steel cage provides the springboard for all four fighters to take things to the next level. In traditional steel cage matches, the competitors are trapped in order to settle their scores. For The Young Bucks and The Lucha Brothers, the cage provides new foundations for offensive attacks, new heights for highspots and a DEFCON 1 warning for danger. What was once meant to limit instead becomes the base of operations for innovation for four of the most inventive talents in professional wrestling history.
CM Punk vs. Darby Allin with Sting
For seven years, pro wrestling fans have chanted for the return of Punk inside a wrestling ring and in 2021, AEW delivers. Several weeks ago, Punk returned to Chicago to commemorate his debut with All Elite Wrestling, directly responding to Darby Allin calling out ‘the Best in the World."
Noting that Allin likes to do dangerous things to his own body in pursuit of destroying his opponents and the obvious adrenaline high, Punk pointed out there was nothing more dangerous than wrestling CM Punk, "except wrestling CM Punk in Chicago."
The Second City is now the marked destination for the return of the Second City Saint inside the ring, leaving the question of what CM Punk the competitor will look like in 2021. The field of competition has changed but Punk's heart is without question. However, even someone with the heart of a lion can find themselves outmatched and Darby Allin has proven to have the biggest fighting heart in all of AEW.
So what will happen when these two warriors of different eras clash? What does CM Punk, who has always prided himself with being the best in the world to the point of dangerous obsession, bring to AEW in 2021? Who emerges victorious? Perhaps even more importantly, what's next in the trajectory for their valiant warriors' lives coming out of this battle?
These answers will only be revealed at All Out.
AEW Women's Champion Dr. Britt Baker DMD vs. Kris Statlander
2021 has been the year of DMD. Dr. Britt Baker has risen to grasp the AEW Women's division and reshape it in her own image. Like Marvel's Mad-God Thanos, Baker has become everything the universe of women's wrestling revolves around over the course of this year.
However, all malevolent forces have those who rise up and rebel against them and at AEW's All Out, Kris Statlander stands defiant, seeking to take down Baker and claim the AEW World Women's Championship as her own.
Baker has not been without her alliances, with her loyal Rebel (not Reba) by her side and now international star Jamie Hayter having thrown her might behind the Champion, but Statlander has a few Best Friends of her own, including Chucky T and Orange Cassidy, standing behind her. At All Out, will it be a crowning achievement for the AEW fans' favorite alien or will Dr. Britt smash a few more teeth in pursuit of yet another win on her near-flawless record?
Chris Jericho vs. MJF - Jericho puts his career on the line.
Chris Jericho made history by becoming the first global superstar to sign his name to an All Elite Wrestling contract, leaving his days in WWE behind. Once, he claimed he would never wrestle outside the auspices of WWE but then, he chose to become one of the many who placed AEW on his shoulders to rise the tide and raise all ships in the world of professional wrestling, accentuating his own legend and legacy in the process.
Then came MJF. When Jericho's former partner formed the Pinnacle and attacked The Inner Circle, war ran rampant through all aspects of AEW. Not even the Stadium Stampede quelled the fire, leading to Jericho's Five Labors to get to a singles bout against MJF. With MJF victorious in that battle, Jericho has placed the ultimate wager for All Out - should Jericho not emerge victorious, he will never wrestle in All Elite Wrestling again.
Will the AEW faithful sing Judas for the final time? Will MJF prove his superiority once and for all against the all-time great? Or, will the first-ever AEW World Champion once again shock the world by doing what doubters believe could never be done? The Final Countdown to what could be the farewell appearance of Chris Jericho inside an AEW ring has begun. Will things ever be the same again?
Jon Moxley vs. New Japan Pro Wrestling's Satoshi Kojima.
Since arriving two years ago in All Elite Wrestling, Jon Moxley has left a path of destruction in arenas across the world. Since the advent of COVID-19, the one country that has found itself safe from Moxley's mayhem has been Japan, so instead Moxley has called for their best fighters to come to him.
Finally, Moxley has received a response to his calls and open contracts. Satoshi Kojima is coming to All Elite Wrestling. The legendary Kojima has held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, All Japan Pro Wrestling's Triple Crown Championship, the NWA Worlds Championship and the MLW Championship, among scores of other accolades. Kojima, however, has never faced someone like Jon Moxley.
With his cocksure attitude and a mosh pit maulers' black heart, Moxley has been angry and aching for a true fight against New Japan's best for months and now, at All Out, he gets his wish.
For Kojima, the 50-year old legend has nothing to lose. His name has been made and will stand the test of time, so it's yet another chance to prove his worth. For Moxley, this is a chance to take all the angst and anger out the only way he knows how, to beat the snot and piss out someone, take a piece of their dignity and fight on. Kojima is not flying across the globe to stand down, so Moxley will have to plow through him. What will happen when these forces collide?
AEW All Out will also feature Eddie Kingston challenging TNT Champion Miro in a bout that has echoes of the legendary Stan Hansen vs. Big Van Vader encounters of the 1990s. Miro has been punishing souls and pulverising challengers since rising to the throne as TNT Champion.
Eddie Kingston, the everyman ready to step off the bar stool and into the alley to settle scores, has stepped to Miro, seeking to stop the Bulgarian Bully and score his first AEW Championship in the process. Neither man will walk out without bruises or scrapes but one will emerge with bragging rights and a championship belt.
The legendary Paul Wight will step inside an AEW ring for the first time, bringing seven feet of fury and experience as he faces the brash QT Marshall. Marshall has been bullying and antagonizing every corner of the AEW locker room for months, so what happens when the gigantic Wight tries to wrap his hands around Marshall's throat? Without hyperbole, this is Marshall's biggest and perhaps gravest encounter in All Elite Wrestling to date.
Not to be forgotten is the grudge match hidden inside a purist wrestling fan's dream as Andrade and PAC take to the ring to face off. The heat between the two has risen like an exploding thermometer in recent weeks. The trash talk can only be settled in one place, the AEW ring, with one man proving his superiority. With Andrade's mentor Chavo Guerrero and PAC's associates in Death Triangle all lurking, could this issue be settled at All Out, or will the warfare just evolve to the next level? From the ring to the stratosphere, nowhere is safe.
The AEW All Out Buy In will feature the return of the Casino Battle Royal with AEW's best female competitors all clashing to earn their chance at AEW Women's World Champion Dr. Britt Baker, DDS. With top stars from Japan, the United States and more all rolling the dice to see where they land in terms of entering the Casino Battle Royal, they will rely on luck, power, skill and ferocity to battle their way through to the end and a guaranteed championship match.
AEW All Out has risen to become one of the destination events for true professional wrestling fans over the last several years and as it returns to Chicago, FITE opens the invite for all international viewers to stand witness to what promises to be the most talked about professional wrestling event of 2021.
How To Watch AEW: All Out 2021
Mike Johnson is the lead reporter for PWInsider.com and has been writing about professional wrestling since 1996. He can be found on Twitter @MikePWInsider and MikeJohnsonWrites.com.