TJRWrestling AEW Worlds End 2023 Preview
A preview of AEW Worlds End featuring MJF against Samoa Joe, Eddie Kingston taking on Jon Moxley and a whole lot more.
It’s the final AEW PPV of the year taking place on the second last day of 2023. I think they have done a nice job with this card because it should produce a lot of awesome matches even with some big names in the company not being on the show. As usual, there are a lot of title matches because AEW has many titles within their organization. Sometimes in the past, I have criticized AEW for being weak in terms of storylines leading to PPV matches, but I thought they did a better job this time around.
I might be brief for some of this because it’s a holiday week, I wrote a massive 10k word column on Thursday and I tried to take it easy this week, but failed miserably doing that as usual.
If you need info on how to order AEW Worlds End on PPV, check out AEW’s website for info on how to watch it in your country. There are different options depending on where you live.
20-Man Battle Royal For Shot at TNT Title (ZERO HOUR PRE-SHOW)
This company loves battle royals. I don’t know who is in the match, so it’s tough to make a prediction. If Wardlow is in it then he’s my pick although the poor guy barely gets put in meaningful matches these days. I’ll take a stab in the dark and go with Orange Cassidy as the winner if he’s in the match. I know Orange is already the International Champion, but as a Tony Khan favorite, he’s always a possibility to win a match like this.
Winner: Orange Cassidy
FTW Championship: Hook (c) vs. Wheeler Yuta (ZERO HOUR PRE-SHOW)
They are two young guys who have a lot of talent already and plenty of potential to improve in the future. I don’t watch the pre-show, so it’s hard for me to show any interest in this. I’ll go with Hook although it’s hard to care about this FTW Title that isn’t an official AEW title.
Winner: Hook
Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli, Bryan Danielson), Mark Briscoe & Daniel Garcia vs. Brody King, Jay White, Jay Lethal & Rush
There are two 8-man tags on this show without a regular 2-on-2 tag team match on the card. This is being called an “All Star” tag team match by AEW since everybody in this match was in the Continental Classic tournament. Throughout that tournament, Jay Lethal lost every match he had, so I’ll predict more of the same for him here. I’ll go with Bryan Danielson getting the win for the babyface team.
Winners: Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli, Bryan Danielson), Mark Briscoe & Daniel Garcia
TBS Championship: Julia Hart (c) vs. Abadon
Julia Hart is a heel champion with a friend in Skye Blue. I know Thunder Rosa had Abadon’s back in the past, but I’m not sure if that’s going to matter here. AEW loves booking women’s matches where the heel wins due to having a friend at ringside. We have seen it for years with Britt Baker/Jamie Hayter and Saraya with her Outcasts group, so it should be more of the same here. Hart wins because of some interference from Blue. I’m not even sure if Abadon will get cheered by the fans in this match.
Winner: Julia Hart
Andrade El Idolo vs. Miro
The story is that Andrade was managed by Miro’s wife CJ Perry and now Miro wants to get his hands on him after not going after Andrade while he was in the Continental Classic. These two ex-WWE guys married pretty blonde women from their time working there, so I guess they have that in common. Both guys aren’t booked that well overall in AEW and I think Andrade will probably leave whenever his deal is up. Miro might be in AEW more long term. I’ll go with Miro winning this match.
Winner: Miro
Swerve Strickland vs. Keith Lee
These two guys used to be AEW Tag Team Champions together, Swerve turned heel and they never really had a blowoff match. It’s been a long time since then and now they are finally going to settle it. During their time apart, Swerve has become one of the top guys in the company while beating some big names and poor Lee doesn’t get a lot of TV time. I think this could be a way to give Lee a big win, so even though I like Swerve since he stole the “Whose House” thing from my LA Rams, I’ll go with Lee for the win.
Winner: Keith Lee
Chris Jericho, Sting, Darby Allin & Sammy Guevara vs. Powerhouse Hobbs, Konosuke Takeshita, Big Bill & Ricky Starks
This was likely going to be Bill & Starks defending the AEW Tag Team Titles against Jericho & Kenny Omega, but Omega has diverticulitis so he’s out for an undetermined amount of time. I don’t know if AEW was planning Sting & Darby against Hobbs & Takeshita or something like that, but now they are involved.
If you have followed Sting’s AEW run then you know he has never lost a match in this company. They have all been tag team matches just like this match. That’s smart booking because Sting barely has to do anything and probably won’t take many bumps. The man is in his 60s with his last match coming in March, so I think he’ll take it easy here. Sting gets the win here with Starks taking the pin.
Winner: Sting
AEW Women’s Championship: Toni Storm (c) vs. Riho
Riho was brought back over the last couple of months and picked up a bunch of wins to get in the title picture. I think Riho is just there to be somebody for “Timeless” Toni to beat. Just like the other women’s match, I can see Mariah May helping Storm get the cheap win.
Winner: Toni Storm
TNT Championship No Disqualification Match: Christian Cage (c) vs. Adam Copeland
Booking a No DQ match after Christian Cage beat Adam Copeland the last time because of Shayna Wayne’s interference is a weird move. The logical thing would be to book a Steel Cage Match to prevent interference. Cage and Adam are both smart guys who will likely plan out a creative match and execute that plan very well. Perhaps the No DQ stipulation was done to give them the freedom to use weapons and brawl all around the building. I can see one of them bleeding during the match too. The stipulation could lead to Christian getting an assist to win, but I think that a title change is certainly possible here. Since I haven’t picked a title change yet on the show, this is one that I think might happen.
I think long term the plan for these guys is to become a babyface tag team again, but that’s probably more likely in the second half of 2024 or even 2025 depending on how long Christian wants to keep being a great heel. This should be a fun match between two best friends at 50 years old who lost years of their careers due to injuries and now they get to what they love together. That’s pretty cool.
Winner AND NEW TNT Champion: Adam Copeland
Finals of the Continental Classic Tournament: Jon Moxley vs. Eddie Kingston
The winner will receive the Triple Crown Championship: ROH World Championship, NJPW Strong Openweight Championship, and the inaugural AEW Continental Championship.
Does that mean the winner has to carry around three titles everywhere they go? That would be a pain in the ass. When Eddie beat Bryan Danielson on Dynamite, the story was that Eddie beat a better man who had never lost to Eddie before. It’s more of the same in this match as Eddie faces a good friend in Moxley, who also is known for winning big matches and has beaten Kingston plenty of times in the past, including in AEW.
The question becomes do they go with the story of Kingston finding a way to win or do they put another championship on Moxley since he’s the company flagbearer in a lot of ways and have people chase him? I think Kingston should win. Considering this show is taking place in Long Island, New York and Eddie is a beloved New Yorker in front of the “hometown” fans, I think it’s the right time and the right place for Kingston to beat a guy like Moxley. It would be a cool moment for sure.
Winner AND NEW AEW Triple Crown Champion: Eddie Kingston
AEW World Championship: MJF (c) vs. Samoa Joe
They had a very good match in the past and I think they’ll have an even better match this time around. That’s because MJF has the injured left shoulder storyline that should come into play during the match as Joe targets the left arm throughout the match. We don’t know for sure if MJF will need surgery on that left shoulder because it has been reported that he’s going to work through it and just go with treatment rather than a major surgery. If MJF didn’t have a legitimate injury then I would pick him to win for sure. However, due to the injury, I think he *might* lose, yet I’m not sure if I’m picking Joe to win.
There is also the mysterious storyline of somebody stealing “The Devil” mask that belongs to MJF, which has led to random attacks. We found out on Dynamite this past Wednesday that Samoa Joe worked with The Devil to have Joe fake an injury and cost MJF the ROH Tag Team Titles to two masked men who work for The Devil. Tony Khan also commented this week that we might find out who The Devil is in the story, so perhaps that will play a role in the finish. My theory on The Devil is that it’s the injured Adam Cole with Roderick Strong, Matt Taven, Mike Bennett and a returning Kyle O’Reilly as the four masked guys.
With all that said, I think MJF finding a way to retain the title is my prediction. I don’t know how. A fluky rollup or something like MJF cheating with the Dynamite Diamond Ring even though he’s a heel is certainly a possibility. If Joe wins then I’m cool with that too because I like Joe a lot. I just think the guy that MJF loses to is going to be whoever The Devil is and if it’s not Joe then MJF needs to keep the title. Perhaps MJF holds onto the title until Revolution in March and drops the title there, but if it’s before that then so be it. For this match, I’ll go with MJF, but I admit I nearly went with Joe. Kudos to AEW for telling an interesting story involving the AEW World Title.
Winner: MJF
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BONUS TOPICS!
The Match I’m Looking Forward To The Most
MJF vs. Samoa Joe. I’m interested to see how it will be booked. I really like Cage-Copeland too.
The Match I Care About The Least
Hook vs. Wheeler Yuta overall. For the main show, I’ll go with Hart-Abadon.
Longest Match
Eddie Kingston vs. Jon Moxley around 25 minutes.
Shortest Match
Toni Storm vs. Riho around nine minutes.
Excitement Level on a Scale of 1-10 (1 being low, 10 being high)
It’s about a 7.5 out of 10. I think this could be an awesome show if the right matches get the most time and they manage to pull off a couple of surprises. It wouldn’t shock me if one of the released WWE wrestlers from September appeared on this show at some point. I don’t know who or when, but I think there’s going to be some surprises like that. As I mentioned earlier, I’m really intrigued by the MJF-Samoa Joe match and The Devil storyline, so I want to see what happens there.
IN CLOSING
I’ll be back with a review of AEW Worlds End on TJRWrestling.net either Saturday night if I’m able to get it done or it might be Sunday morning.
You can also tweet me @johnreport. If you want to send an email, send it to me at mrjohncanton@gmail.com as well. Thanks for reading.