AEW WrestleDream 2025 Recap & Fallout: The March to Full Gear Is On

I had to take a day to think, reflect, and read my tea leaves to see how exactly All Elite Wrestling moves on from one of the best Pay-per-views they have ever put on. AEW WrestleDream was, from top to bottom, choked-filled with some of the best matches of the year. Not only that, but Tony Khan and company have set the closing storylines for AEW for the remainder of 2025. After the results of WrestleDream, we look forward to not only Full Gear but also how the rest of the year falls in place for AEW.

Make sure to check out my WrestleDream predictions to see how well I did, or didn’t do…

The Hangman Has His New Outlaw

“Hangman” Adam Page got his handshake from Samoa Joe, but it might cost him everything. 

What many believed, myself included, to be a “mini” program between Joe and Hangman turned into a major championship storyline that is going to take us to the end of 2025. It was supposed to buy us a month in storytelling, while everyone shuffled in life for a title fight. Now, instead, Joe, like the absolute legend that he is, breathed new life into this rivalry. 

The world is after Adam Page– we are now going to get Page vs Powerhouse Hobbs and Page vs Katsuyori Shibata–  which is what a face world champion should be doing. The Death Riders and now the Opps have set their crosshairs on the Hangman. Hangman is outnumbered, so Hangman will be looking for some friends. Is this where the Elite finally get back together? 

We are getting the rematch at Full Gear. Will Samoa Joe do the improbable and regain the AEW title for the second time? Or, are they just biding time for Darby Allin to beat the Cowboy for the World Title? Either way, this will be an entertaining program between two of the best wrestlers in the world. This rivalry versus Joe can be a title reign and a career-defining set of matches for the World Champion. 

In the immediate future, the Opps now have to lick their wounds and defend their titles against the Hurt Syndicate. I can see Hangman getting involved and costing them the titles.

Kris Statlander Is Next Up, so Is Mercedes Mone. The Storm Has Passed, for Now.

There is no heel turn or soft win. Kris Statlander decidedly beat the former world champion, Toni Storm, straight up to solidify the Statlander era. Stat Daddy, as the former champion so eloquently named her, is here to stay. After the match, Storm literally and figuratively handed the title to Stat, ushering in the reign of Statlander. Mercedes Mone, who was involved the minute Stat’s match was over, is the next opponent for the Alien. While beating Storm legitimized Statlander as a real champion, beating Mone might be her most important task to date.

Going into Full Gear, there will be a significant crossroads the company will be at: Do you finally pull the trigger and give Mercedes the World Title belt, or do you make Statlander one of the strongest champions AEW has had? Mone is currently 2-0 against Statlander. A Stat win, to exorcise one of he biggest demons, can make for a great feud between the two champions.  

As for Storm, her long-deserved and needed break might be on the horizon. She is still shell-shocked, and she has not only carried the women’s divisions, but the company over the last year. She deserves some time off to reenergize and regroup.

The AEW Spirit Will Never Quit

This match is the most consequential match that came out of WrestleDream for AEW. Darby Allin stood up for AEW and defended it from a barrage of Death Riders, specifically Jon Moxley. With some help from his mentor Sting–who said he’d always look after the daredevil– Allin was able to stand firm and be the literal embodiment of the AEW spirit.

In a weird and twisted form of poetic justice, Allin, the embodiment of the AEW spirit, can’t die. Mox, on the other hand, is everything that is trying to kill that spirit, and can’t. As funny, or insane, as it is to say this: not having any hijinks happen after the match was fun, and added to Allin’s win. 

Is AEW’s soul saved? As long as Moxley and the Death Riders are alive, I don’t believe that is the case. Now that Allin has finally gotten his singles-match win against Moxley, do they dare run it back for a third match at Full Gear? How much more can these two men do for each other? The first match was a Coffin match, and this one was a “I Quit” match. Is the third one a cage match? What I like to think they try to run back is the Exploding Barbed Wire match. 

In the immediate future, since Moxley never seems to take time off, Dynamite will be the setting for the Death Rider’s next move. No doubt that Full Gear and Allin will be on their list.

Brodido Is Still Champions, While It’s the Beginning of the End of Takeshita in the DC Family

What a journey it’s been for the makeshift tag team of Bandido and Brody King. In what many believed was a last-minute addition for a tournament, it is now the centerpiece of the reshaped and reinvigorated AEW tag-team division. This win cemented King and Bandido as the best  (current) tag team champions in the world. Out of all of my predictions coming into WrestleDream, I’m glad I was wrong on this one. It’s satisfying that they didn’t break up Brodido for the sake of that Don Callis story. 

As far as the Don Callis family is concerned, this is the beginning of the end of Konosuke Takeshita being in that group. Takeshita looks to be entirely over Kazuchika Okada, and this animosity between the two will ultimately lead to an NJPW matchup between the current and new IWGP champions. With Full Gear being one of the “Big 4” PPVs for AEW, that might be the perfect place for this battle of giants. 

Bandido pinning Okada means we are getting a one-on-one match between the two for the Unified Title at Dynamite. Does the Mexican outlaw get his third title? I don’t see Okada losing two matches in a row. The result will be a blowout between Brodido and the DC family.

Jungle Express Is Back, and the Young Bucks Have Hit Rock Bottom

In what seemed to be a theme at WrestleDream, another team got its first-ever win against a long-time rival. Jungle Express’ win over the Young Bucks was their first win ever over the legendary tag team. Before Saturday, Jungle Express had been 0-4 in tag team matches, and 0-6 if you count ladder and battle royals. Jack Perry, after his time as the Scapegoat, had to grow to get the love back for wrestling.