MJF Gets Pinned And 5 Smart Booking Decisions

AEW, fresh off its most successful pay-per-view ever, All In, is looking to continue that momentum just a week later at All Out 2023.

Emanating from the United Center in Chicago, All Out is taking place amid a cloud of controversy surrounding Jack Perry and CM Punk, who was fired by AEW following a backstage incident with Perry at All In. Although All In shattered numerous AEW and pro wrestling records, AEW has had a tough time building interest in Sunday’s pay-per-view.

With Punk’s expected match with Ricky Starks off the card and AEW Dynamite plagued by numerous unforeseen last-minute changes, the All In 2023 card—even with the late addition of Starks vs. Bryan Danielson—feels like a C-level show that is happening just for the sake of continuing tradition. There is no world title match, two random ROH title matches and an overall sense of uncertainty surrounding the match line-up, and it won’t be easy to for AEW to make All In matter as much as it has in the past.

But it isn’t impossible, either. Here are five smart booking moves AEW must make at All In 2023.

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Miro Gets Back On Track

Largely absent from AEW for the past year-plus, Miro—who finds himself smack dab in the middle of the Punk drama—is back in a high-profile spot as a top-tier star on Collision. AEW, to put it mildly however, has been wishy-washy with the push of the former TNT Champion.

That must stop at All In, where Miro battles Powerhouse Hobbs in a clash of two stars who both deserve better booking. While both Hobbs and Miro should be pushed more consistently, Miro desperately needs a marquee victory to help solidify himself as a potential main event star on Collision.

Especially with Punk’s AEW future once again uncertain, Miro is someone AEW should build Collision around, which necessitates a win even at the expense of the promising Hobbs.

Darby Allin Regains The AEW TNT Championship

Luchasaurus is the AEW TNT Champion in name only, with Christian Cage the clear star of the pairing. But with Edge potentially on his way to AEW and likely to reunite with Cage if he does show up in AEW, it’s time for Luchasaurus and Cage to move on.

For Darby Allin, a former three-time TNT Champion, winning the title for a fourth time is essentially a lateral move. But there are virtually no indications that WWE has any plans to elevate him above that level anytime soon.

Allin is in a position similar to International Champion Orange Cassidy as a reliable, proven and incredibly popular babyface who always delivers in the ring. That makes him a better candidate to hold the TNT title than Luchasaurus, who’s been a background actor ever since he’s been paired with Cage.

Orange Cassidy Finally Drops The International Championship

Speaking of Orange Cassidy, the longtime International Champion has himself admitted that he’s badly hurting right now. That’s completely understandable given that he’s put on stellar match after stellar match since winning the International title—then the All-Atlantic Championship—way back in October 2022.

With Cassidy also now working as a producer backstage, he can still be a valuable contributor to AEW without running himself into the ground. The lovable star has done a tremendous job carrying a title that meant next to nothing before he elevated it to being something meaningful, but now is the time for him to let it go.

When he faces Jon Moxley at All Out, that will clearly be his biggest challenge yet, and Moxley as champion could catapult the International title to another level. Arguably AEW’s biggest star outside of MJF, Moxley is the right man to dethrone Cassidy and uphold the prestige of what is still a very new title.

Konosuke Takeshita Upsets Kenny Omega

Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson was once pencilled in for All In until Danielson’s unfortunate injury caused those plans to be scrapped. That resulted in Omega, arguably the world’s best in-ring performer, getting stuck in a six-man tag team match at All In.

Well, at All Out, AEW gets a shot at a re-do when Omega goes one-on-one with Konosuke Takeshita in a potential Match of the Year candidate. This match could—and should—serve two purposes: It should be a show-stealing “banger” of a bout, and it should serve as a launching pad for Takeshita.

Omega’s legacy is virtually bulletproof and won’t be hurt at all by a loss to Takeshita, and with the latter having Don Callis by his side, AEW can easily protect Omega in defeat by having Callis interfere. The bottom line is, Takeshita has lost way too many matches, and if he loses to Omega here, there is no real reason to take him seriously as a potential top star.

Similarly, AEW needs to ensure that Starks isn’t pinned clean by Danielson, or else the company runs the risk of yet another hiccup for Starks, who should be Collision’s top heel following Punk’s departure.

The Sl0w-Burn Beef Between Adam Cole and MJF Begins

A popular theory heading into All In was that Adam Cole would turn heel on MJF and defeat him to win the AEW World Heavyweight Championship. That didn’t happen, but AEW still has the opportunity to ignite the issues between the two enemies-turned-friends.

Cole’s pals Mike Bennett, Roderick Strong and Matt Taven have inserted themselves into this rivalry in a way that suggests that one of them, likely Strong, is going to play a pivotal role in the dismantling of the unlikely friendship between Cole and MJF. Aside from the unreal chemistry between MJF and Cole, the best thing about this storyline that far has been its unpredictability, with AEW avoid an obvious MJF heel turn.

But it’s time for AEW to plant the seeds for real friction between Cole and MJF, ultimately building to another title match between the two. It’s not time to end their friendship just yet, but whatever happens at All Out, the buddy-buddy relationship between Cole and MJF should take a turn for the worse.

In an ideal world, Strong and The Kingdom will cause MJF to take a rare pin and lose the ROH Tag Team Titles to The Dark Order, setting off a slow-burn build to a heel turn for the ages for Cole.