The final major American PPV of 2025 has come to a close, as AllElite Wrestling finished out the year with a Jon Moxley Continental Classic victory and an MJF world title win at Worlds End. While Wrestling Inc. did in fact predict the latter, the former was something of a surprise, and even the MJF win was unexpected for those who didn't expect such a short second championship reign for Samoa Joe. There are also significant questions to be asked about the champions who did retain their belts, from Kris Statlander to FTR to the Babes of Wrath.
Here at Wrestling Inc., we like to pile all those questions together after a PPV and package them as one big question, giving you a look into the future as our writers try to project what might be coming next for the various characters of AEW. With that in mind, and Worlds End behind us, we ask for one final time in 2025 where do we go from here?
Following their victory over The Bang Bang Gang at AEW Worlds End on December 27 in a vicious Chicago Street Fight, FTR are still the AEW Men's World Tag Team Champions. Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler have always been featured as a top team in All Elite Wrestling, and now that they'll be walking into 2026 as the top guys in the tag team ranks, the question becomes who will realistically challenge them in the next few weeks and months for their titles.
Starting with their most recent challengers, assuming that "Switchblade" Jay White and Colten Gunn are still on the sidelines for a significant period of time, the chance for Juice Robinson and Austin Gunn to bring some gold home to the group formerly known as Bullet Club Gold has passed them by. With that in mind, FTR would need a babyface tag team to go against on TV in the lead up to Revolution, but it seems that the company is a little light on that front.
The Young Bucks have fully turned babyface, but they have wrestled FTR more times than we can count over the past five years so going down that route wouldn't be the best idea. Jon Moxley might have turned babyface in the wake of winning the Continental Classic, but the rest of the Death Riders are still hard to pin down on whether they can be a team you can route for against two men like Dax and Cash. The Hurt Syndicate are seemingly out of action due to the injury to Bobby Lashley, a stable like SkyFlight aren't taken seriously enough to be in the title picture, and it seems like Private Party are on the way out of the company completely, so who is left?
JetSpeed are the easiest option as they are so easy to get behind, and they had such good chemistry with FTR in their matches during the fall of 2025, with both teams saying that they jelled better each other than most other teams in the company. With that said, you can't count out a team like Adam Copeland and Christian Cage, who still want one more run with titles around their waists before they hang up their boots, and their history with FTR makes that an easy fit. Either of those two teams are more than fitting of a title shot at Revolution.
As for some fresh combinations for FTR, any duo from The Conglomeration, the Jurassic Express once their feud with The Demand is over, or even the newly reformed team of Eddie Kingston and Ortiz could be a fun choice. FTR could be very busy next year, but can they keep their crowns?
Written bySam Palmer
2025 has been kind to Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron. The two made history when they became the inaugural AEW Women's World Tag Team Champions, and after a successful title defense over TBS Champion Mercedes Mon and ROH Women's World Champion Athena at "Worlds' End," the sky seems to be the limit for The Babes of Wrath. After such a successful 2025, what's in store for Nightingale and Cameron in 2026? After the dominant Mon and Athena took a loss in AEW's final pay-per-view of 2025, what's in the cards for them? Will AEW's hot new tag team division flourish this coming year, or will AEW creative fall back on their chronic underbooking habits? After "Worlds' End," where do The Babes of Wrath, Mon, and Athena go from here?
I'm surprised that AEW hasn't run a full program featuring the Babes of Wrath and the team of "Timeless" Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa yet. The Babes of Wrath defeated the Timeless Love Bombs to in the inaugural AEW Women's World Tag Team Championship Tournament; by wrestling conventions, they should have been the first to have a full-fledged program for the titles. No matter now that Nightingale and Cameron are seemingly free of their Mon and Athena problem, they can now turn their attention to the Timeless Love Bombs, TayJay, the Sisters of Sin, or any multitude of women's tag teams AEW, and the independent scene, have to offer.
Speaking of Mon and Athena, they might be the story to follow here. The final sequence of Saturday's tag team match saw Athena collide into Mon during a pin break attempt, and while the two continued to fight for several more minutes, it was clear that Athena's blow left a mark on Mon. Mon found herself eating a flash pin from Nightingale, and as the tag team champions celebrated, Athena could be seen berating a despondent Mon. This smells like a feud build-up to me. Mon and Athena should be the most dominant women in all of professional wrestling. Mon has built her brand off being a title collector. Athena is the longest reigning ROH Women's World Champion of all time. The fact that these incredibly dominant singles stars have crumbled in tag team action has got to be a fighting point for both of them.
The only question is if this feud will be for the TBS title. Nightingale is currently Mon's newest challenger, but I'd bet a dollar that Athena will have something to do in the match whether its costing Mon, or saving her just to challenge her afterwards.
Written byAngeline Phu
Darby Allin overcame the injury that removed him from the Continental Classic just in time to return and set up a match against NJPW's Gabe Kidd at Worlds End, and he emerged victorious from the bloody bout after besting the Death Riders' hired mercenary with a roll-up. Now that the battle has been fought, after many months of Allin and Kidd going back and forth, in spots including body bags, as well as a dangerous feat in the lights out steel cage match at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, neither man currently has a set path.
Allin's first match of 2025 was that star-studded August steel cage match at the pay-per-view. He had a big year achieving his dream of climbing Mount Everest, but didn't have nearly as big of a year within the ring. That might not be a bad thing, however, as it leaves things wide open for the star in 2026, even if fans can't easily see his direction. AEW's next pay-per-view isn't until Revolution on March 15, leaving plenty of time for Allin's path to become more certain.
While it doesn't exactly look like he's headed toward the AEW World Championship scene anytime soon with everything going on there following MJF's win, he could just jump in the fold to further complicate things, or hang around the mid-card scene making sure he's good to go after having just 13 matches this year. It wasn't clear if his story was wrapped up with the Death Riders following his win over Kidd, but with Jon Moxley's face turn, as well as the impending breakup of the Death Riders, his involvement there makes even less sense.
Another thing that isn't exactly clear is Kidd's status with NJPW, with the latest news dating back to the beginning of the year when his deal was set to expire in January, with reports from March that Kidd had yet to re-sign. Various reports have emerged regarding various stars' NJPW contracts, and Kidd has yet to be one of those reports, so it might be safe to say he's still with the promotion for a bit longer.In that case, he may make a few appearances here and there in AEW when a big match for him pops up, whether that be a singles bout or a multi-man match.
However, Kidd wasn't in the ring with the rest of the Death Riders following Moxley's victory in the final of the Continental Classic, so it's not exactly clear if he's still working for the stable, or perhaps just wasn't "paid" to assist, due to C2 rules. He doesn't seem to fit the breakup angle, so it's likely he's finished with Moxley and his crew.
Written by DaisyRuth
On the December 13, 2024 episode of "AEW Rampage," Kris Statlander promised us all that she would keep moving forward. She kept true to her word: in 2025, Statlander shocked the world by defeating the record-setting world titleholder "Timeless" Toni Storm to become the first woman to hold both the TBS Championship and the AEW Women's World Championship. Statlander has capped off a magnificent 2025 with a solid title defense against Jamie Hayter at "World's End," but as the clock ticks down to 2026, the question remains: where will Statlander's promise to keep moving forward take her? Will 2026 be just as successful for the AEW Women's World Champion, or will new competitors shatter Statlander's heart? What's next for the AEW Women's World Championship in 2026?
With Storm and Hayter neutralized, the only person left from that fateful All Out match is Thekla. Thekla's not doing much nowadays; the Sisters of Sin are doing heelish tag team things, leaving Thekla to kick rocks and play sudoku in the back. Statlander could make her list of All Out co-performers a hitlist, and successfully defend her title against "The Toxic Spider." Of course, Skye Blue and Julia Hart will try to play their numbers game against Statlander, but there are plenty of babyfaces to come to Statlander's aid. Perhaps the Babes of Wrath will show up to assist, and put the AEW Women's World Tag Team Championships on the line while they're there?
Given that Statlander triumphs over Thekla in their encounter and she will; Thekla's good, but not world titleholder-levels of good yet what's next for the AEW Women's World Champion? You could argue that Statlander is just keeping the AEW Women's World Championship warm for Mercedes Mon. Out of the entire AEW women's locker room right now, there are no realistic candidates for the person to overthrow Statlander. Storm, Hayter, and, in this hypothetical, Thekla have had their shot. Nightingale is over, but not quite enough. Athena, maybe, but she's mostly a ROH girl. You could bring back faces like Hikaru Shida, Thunder Rosa, and Nyla Rose, but let's focus on who's here. As of right now, Mon seems like the only active AEW competitor who could dethrone Statlander to become the next AEW Women's World Champion. It even breaks down stats-wise. Statlander is currently 0-2 against Mon. Has this AEW Women's World Championship reign toughened her up enough to make it 1-2, or will Mon continue to have Statlander's number?
The AEW women's division is vast, and Statlander has a wide selection of competitors to defend her title against. The sky is the limit in 2026, and Statlander will do what she does best: keep moving forward.
Written by Angeline Phu
Okada losing the Continental Championship to Moxley was exactly the reason he and Don Callis chose not to put the International title on the line as well, meaning that although he may no longer be the Unified Champion, he is still a champion and has a litany of people who will be looking to change that.
If Moxley's tale was one of redemption and resilience, then it can be said that Okada, and Callis by proxy, was telling the story of betting everything on the wrong horse. And now they are going to have a time of it trying to settle that debt. Okada and Konosuke Takeshita have never got on, despite Callis' best wishes, and that came to a head as the senpai and his young boy went to war in the Continental Classic semi-finals. Okada found a screwdriver hidden in the turnbuckles, unloaded it onto Takeshita's skull, and stole the win from beneath his opponent. On the other side of the bracket, Moxley beat Kyle Fletcher; but only once Fletcher had looked for that same screwdriver to no avail, revealing it was placed with him in mind.
So in one fell swoop, Okada managed to anger the two longest-tenured and comparably major names within his faction. And he just so happens to have a title that the two defeated semi-finalists may want to claim in penance. The question when it comes to that is where Callis' allegiances lie, as he was more than happy to back Okada ahead of his defeat against Moxley, shunning his other two Family members. Will he, and the rest of the group, take the side of Okada or Takeshita? And how does Fletcher fit into that question? He had beaten Okada in the league stage, after all.
Another to hold a win over the International Champion from the league stage is Kevin Knight, and though he did not advance to the finals could easily stake a claim to a rematch for the title.
It would be remiss not to mention that Okada is the man set to stand opposite NJPW President and legend Hiroshi Tanahashi for his retirement match at Wrestle Kingdom on January 4. Takeshita is facing Yota Tsuji on the same card, defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship in a Winner Takes All match also for Tsuji's IWGP Global Championship.
Written by Max Everett
Jon Moxley's Continental Classic story was one of redemption and resilience, bouncing back from two defeats in the league stage including one to his own stablemate in Claudio Castagnoli to defeat Kyle Fletcher in the semi-finals and then former Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada in the final of the tournament at Worlds End. Despite a knee injury, a stretch of submission losses prior to the tournament, and a chipped tooth, Moxley managed to end the year that he lost his fourth World Championship with a first reign as Continental Champion. But where does he go from here?
Of course, in beating Okada, Moxley technically has a claim to the International Championship that he opted not to defend in the tournament; though there shall be more on that front later to rationalize why that may not be the case. It would at the very least address the situation with the slowly-dying Unified Championship Okada had won as he, supposedly, unified the Continental and International titles against Kenny Omega at All In last year.
There is of course the lingering question as to Moxley's position at the helm of the Death Riders, with a turn staved by his success and their failure at Worlds End; Moxley did still fail the group for an entire stretch before the tournament started, has a loss to Castagnoli and thus his right-hand-man could argue a claim for the title anyway. Konosuke Takeshita is another to have defeated Moxley in the league stage before he was undone by Okada in the semis with the help of a screwdriver and could very well claim to be the rightful Continental Champion; once more, there will be more on why that may not be the case in a little bit.
Moxley's words after winning the tournament and title appeared to indicate that he had turned a proverbial corner, the one leading to babyface avenue. That would put he and the Death Riders in the optimal position for a feud with the Don Callis Family over the coming weeks. Though, if the rest of the group don't share the new heroic sentiment of their leader of losses, there is all the chance that they could be on as rocky ground as the DCF.
Written byMax Everett
MJF will be walking into 2026 as the AEW Men's World Champion afterdefeating Samoa Joe, Swerve Strickland, and Hangman Adam Page at AEW Worlds End on December 27 to begin his second reign atop of All Elite Wrestling. Maxwell Jacob Friedman's record-breaking first reign as champion divides opinion amongst fans to this day, but everyone deserves a second chance at some point in life, so what does the immediate future look like for the "Salt of the Earth?"
One thing that we do know already is his first challenger, the current ROH Men's World Champion Bandido, whowon the Dynamite Diamond Ring on Christmas Eve to earn himself a title shot, becoming the first man besides MJF to win the ring in the process. That match will take place on the Maximum Carnage edition of "Dynamite" on January 14, so expect Friedman to cut one or two promos calling Bandido every offensive name under the sun for some easy heat before their match, which MJF will most likely win.
Assuming that MJF makes a successful first defense of his crown, what happens next? The first few months of the year for AEW are always used to build up the Revolution pay-per-view in March, which MJF will most certainly main event, but with the Grand Slam Australia event taking place on Valentine's Day, that could be a great place to have Friedman defend the title against someone like a Kyle Fletcher, who by that point could have become disillusioned with The Don Callis Family due to how his Continental Classic campaign ended. MJF will most likely retain, but the future of AEW will be the true winner if that bout happens as MJF and Fletcher are two men who can carry AEW on their backs for the next few years.
For the men who he defeated at Worlds End, Samoa Joe might stick around in the main event scene, but the AEW World Trios Championships need some love and care so if he's not interested in MJF anymore, don't be surprised. As for Swerve Strickland and Hangman Adam Page, MJF will face either of those two at Revolution unless someone like Kenny Omega decides to have one more main event run. Regardless of who he faces, expect MJF to be the king of AEW until at least All In London.
Written by Sam Palmer
