Well, the 2026 edition of AEW WrestleDream on PPV was built around the brand-spanking new concept of Clockwork Carnage. That match is why AEW fans from around the world spent their hard-earned money on a PPV, but it wasn’t why they enjoyed the show.
Leave that to the undercard. Across the board and across divisions the talent in the middle of the show overachieved. The overall event should be critically acclaimed for those reasons and they all took place before Clockwork Carnage got to the ring.
Here are my Brass Ring Ratings for the event and here’s how they work … I call it like I see it and grade accordingly. One brass ring = bad. Five brass rings = epic, all-time greatness, and perfection.
FTR vs. Motor City Machine Guns - Match One In Best of Five Series
It’s crazy that AEW is likely to deliver four more of these matches. A fantastic opener. Strong tag team match psychology that was rooted in tired partners, hot tags, and near falls. Two parts of this stood out. First, the build to the hot tag to Chris Sabin was excellent. Alex Shelley sold the desperation and pain really effectively and then they layered in unique ways to interrupt the potential tag. Two, there is a near fall about two thirds of the way into the match that Shelley is sitting in the corner for. He’s watching Sabin make the pin and then gets visibly frustrated when he doesn’t get it. That’s selling. Constant selling to tell the story. Thumbs up and looking forward to match two.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO 1/4
Mercedes Mone vs. Thekla - AEW Women’s World Championship
Pleasantly surprised to see Thekla wrestle this match as a babyface. The crowd accepted her as such. The raw and unhinged nature of her character played well as the crowd favorite, which created investment in her winning the match and the championship. Mone was Mone. She rarely has an off night and had chemistry with Thekla. Mone used her protective mask illegally to win the match and that means there’s more to come between these two. Both are clearly the top two women in the division right now.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO 1/4
Chris Jericho vs. Nick Wayne
The match had it’s moments, but it also overstayed it’s welcome. Oh, a really bad finish too. The ending series of events with the referee distracted for the low blows was ridiculous. He looked inept out there as that was happening. Wayne got the victory, but the heat that was supposed to go with it fell on the shoulders of the official. One of Chris Jericho’s better matches in a while.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 1/4
The Young Bucks vs. Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight - AEW Men’s World Tag Team Championships
State of the art action. A fantastic tag match and 100% different from the opener. The story of this match was built around Fletcher and Knight being strong singles wrestlers, but maybe not on the level of a legendary team like The Young Bucks. The announce team set this hook and debated it’s merits early in the match. The finish saw things bear out that exact way with Fletcher and Knight arguing and not on the same page at the end. There were multiple creative spots in this that highlighted the athleticism of all involved. In particular, a freaking Destroyer to Fletcher off the back of Knight. Kyle Fletcher was the on the receiving end of most of those spots and took some huge bumps. Like most Young Bucks style tag matches in AEW, this one didn’t have many actual tags.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO 1/2
Persephone vs. Hyan vs. Queen Aminata vs. Dani Luna - TBS Championship
Persephone hits HARD. Goodness. She wrecked the women in this match with beautifully violent strikes. Some fine action in spots, but overall the audience was pretty tired for this and the match itself couldn’t fully bring them back. Persephone needed a strong victory and got it.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 1/2
Andrade El Idolo vs. Tommaso Ciampa - AEW National Championship
It’s not that the match had bad action, it’s just that the good action took a backseat to pants. Andrade’s pants. Ciampa’s pants. Even magical pants. Yes, the magical pants kicked out of a Ciampa pin. And yes, Ciampa pinned a pair of pants and the referee was there to count it. The pants kicked out. All of this was too cute at best and downright stupid at worst.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - O
The New Level and Swerve Strickland vs. Brodido and Adam Page - AEW World Trios Championships
A top three trios match in AEW history. Insane action that was built on the foundation of the Strickland and Page rivalry. All six men worked at a fever pace and it made for energy and excitement in the audience. They leveraged the hatred between Strickland and Page in this. Those two just had to look at one another for the crowd to simmer. Bandido hit both members of The New Level with the Revolution Fly off the top rope. Just insane athleticism. The match had plenty of that, but also a really good story of a diehard feud. Strickland sticking to the gimmick and disrespecting Page when he was supposed to hand over his title belt was icing on the cake. AEW is going to sellout a huge building with these two when they collide again in a singles match.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO 1/2
Jon Moxley vs. Mark Davis - AEW Continental Championship
All story. A gorgeous story full of violence. Moxley got beat up so badly that he nearly quit the match, but was pulled through by his Death Rider faction. He was emotional and that connected instantly with the crowd. They felt it. In the middle of all that was vicious striking and brutality from both competitors. They each sold for the other and were able to convey exhaustion because they had to be legit exhausted. Moxley got to show he was a fighter in this one and the entire bout revolved around achieving that goal. Mark Davis helped reach it with his work while on the attack and when it came time to do the job at the end.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO 1/4
Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Samoa Joe vs. Mike Bailey vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Ricochet vs. Darby Allin vs. Konosuke Takeshita - Clockwork Carnage for the AEW World Championship
The AEW version of NXT’s Iron Survivor Challenge. An identical idea, but without the penalty box. The match was good and hit another gear in the points phase. Inside of that was the spamming of finishing moves that all yielded pins and points. Smart booking in theory, but finishers were kicked out of all throughout the show. That’s a staple of AEW matches, so when they all worked in this it felt awkward. Will Ospreay won the match, but the standout performer was Samoa Joe. Joe presented as a total bad ass and it translated to being dominant. Sidebar. The back and forth exchanges were crisp and clearly well thought out. Had those been messed up, the Clockwork Carnage concept would have suffered greatly. Ospreay surviving and securing the win over Adam Copeland as time expired was a nice touch. They didn’t need to play the card of a sudden death overtime. That would’ve felt overly forced and a straight W for Ospreay in this new match helps establish his title run. Overall, it had your standard A+ AEW physicality, but the nature of the match itself didn’t lend itself to strong interpersonal or in-match storytelling.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO 1/2
What was your favorite match on AEW WrestleDream this year? Let us know in the comments!
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