One thing nobody can criticize AEW for is having an uneventful weekly show in Dynamite. The young promotion and its booker, Tony Kahn, have worked hard to make sure its weekly television is nearly just as important and entertaining as its Pay-per-views. We saw that being proven 3 weeks ago during AEW’s “Beach Break”. A special episode of Dynamite that features blow off matches to months-long feuds, a fully decorated – and by the end, trashed – main stage, and a title match between MJF and Kenny Omega, that saw the Cleaner sweeping up his second world championship in AEW. But a week into the new champion’s reign, and a week away from AEW’s next Pay-per-view Redemption, some have felt the build to AEW’s brand new show in Montreal leaves something to be desired.  

Kenny Omega gets his Redemption Early 

The title match at Beach Break had been building for the previous few weeks, MJF playing the cocksure heel champion expecting to main event All In Wembley whether we like it or not. Kenny Omega, the aging legend hoping to prove to the fans and himself that he still has one more great run in him. It was an emotionally charged feud and seemed destined to explode on the stage of AEW’s newly announced PPV: Redemption on July 26th. Kenny has been using the word “redemption” in his promo’s for the last few months. Clearly calling his shot of winning the title at the PPV in his home country of Canada. This is why most fans were surprised when the title match was announced for Beach Break, 3 weeks before the Redemption PPV.  

It seemed like a forgone conclusion that Kenny would win the belt whenever he faced Maxwell in the ring. Promo segments for the last 6 months have been laying the groundwork for a Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay main event at Wembley. On pace with that, Will had just won the Owen Hart Cup Tournament securing his place in that show’s main event. Follow this with the backstage rumors that MJF has been dealing with a nagging knee injury, it seemed clear where this title match was heading, but pulling the (V)trigger early seemed an odd call. Perhaps MJF’s injury was more serious than suspected. Maybe Tony Kahn had a new grander plan for Redemption we just didn’t know about yet. Either way, the match played out as expected. A vintage Kenny Omega stepped into the ring that night in 90-degree heat and ended MJF’s 3rd championship reign with a One-Winged-Angel. After the celebrations, however, we were left with one question…Now what? 

Kevin Knight Takes Flight 

Another major story in the promotion this year has been the rise of ‘The Jet’ Kevin Knight. The Atlanta-born 29-year-old has made quite the (UFO) splash in AEW since his signing in March of 2025. His high-flying antics have impressed the audience and the promotion alike. In fact, it’s not a stretch to say Tony Kahn has designated Knight as his new project wrestler, giving Knight many at-bat opportunities in the ring and on the mic.  

Most of Knight’s time in AEW has been spent as one half of the tag team Jet Speed with fellow indie darling ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey. The two worked seamlessly together. Speedball’s quick foot work and hard-hitting judo style fed perfectly into the superhuman top rope dives from Knight. However, the two seemed to have reached their limit together after winning the Trio’s Titles multiple times with a rotating third member. Soon after, the two split up with Kevin turning heel on Mike Bailey and aligning himself with the treacherous Don Callis Family. He quickly secured the TNT Championship, his first singles title in the promotion, and made his desires known to the audience. Kevin would not be satisfied until he was Jet “Two Belts”. 

A Challenge Some May Find Challenging 

Last week’s Dynamite was built around its midpoint segment, Kenny Omega’s world championship celebration. The stage was adorned with a 7 foot tall Omega symbol covered tip to tip in photos from Kenny’s legendary career. The champion wore his Sunday finest and celebrated his win with Elite stablemates The Young Bucks and his presumed future opponent, Will Ospreay. The major take away from Kenny was this: There are 50 days from now until All In and Kenny is going to make it 50 days to remember. The segment was fun, but what had everyone on the edge of their seat was figuring out who exactly would be challenging for the title at Redemption.  

The world title picture in AEW this year has been a sickening buffet of the greatest talents in the industry scrambling like crabs in a bucket to grab the belt for themselves. It’s been a loose story that has felt dynamic, exciting, and all too real for a genuinely bloated roster that can’t bring itself to cut anyone because they all have the potential to be proven draws. Kyle Fletcher, Bandido, Brody King, Andrade el Idolo, Rush, Konosuke Takeshita, hell Mark Brisco, have all thrown their hats into the ring and that’s not even mentioning midcard belt holders and previous champions. So, who would be the lucky superstar to feature in what might be Kenny Omega’s only PPV title defense before almost certainly losing in Wembley to Will Ospreay? None other than the TNT champion Kevin Knight.  

Kevin Knight’s music hit and the celebratory atmosphere of the Boston crowd turned into one of judgement. Knight got his boo’s from the fans as any good heel should and sauntered confidently into a ring with the two most over guys in the company. It was yet another sink or swim moment for the young Jet, and, like he has for the last year, he swam. Delivering what I’d consider his best promo work in the company to date, Kevin laid out his claim to the match. He had earned a title shot from the previous champion MJF who lost the belt before Knight could cash it in. An honest claim to a match that most would be happy to see…on Dynamite. The judgement for Knight began to turn sour when the match was made for the Redemption PPV in 2 weeks’ time. The crowd began to chant “No”. The boos grew louder, and twitter began to swell with a deluge of…Opinions. 

The question at the top of everyone’s mind: Does Kevin Knight deserve to main event Redemption and work what will probably be Kenny Omega’s only successful PPV title defense? On one hand Kevin Knight is a talented young member of the roster and we should celebrate Tony Kahn being brave enough to book this show in a way that establishes Kevin Knight as a main event player. Afterall, many criticize WWE for doing the exact opposite and relying too heavily on their older established legends at the expense of the younger wrestlers. On the other hand, Kevin Knight is not a known entity or threat to Kenny Omega and almost certainly will not draw a major ticket sale or viewership numbers during AEW’s hottest run of shows in years. Points have been volleys in either direction in the days that followed. Kevin has already been given 2 world championship matches this year against MJF and Darby Allin, losing both. With such a packed roster and such a chaotic story around the world championship, it feels a bit like Kevin has skipped the line for his 3rd title shot, while some are still waiting for their first. Alternatively, doesn’t that just mean the story is being told as it should? Kevin is having the best year of his career, and a connection with Don Callis has been shown to get some wrestlers a lot of great opportunities. Narratively, it should be Kevin.  

It’s a balancing act I don’t envy Tony Kahn for having to put on, but I can’t help but feel like the balance is off going into Redemption week. There’s something missing with this build and it’s hard to shake the feeling that it was all hastily thrown together after moving Kenny’s win off Redemption and on to Beach Break. Until a few weeks ago the headline event for Redemption was Kenny Omega vs. MJF, the biggest babyface and heel in the company, and in short order that main event has taken a sizable loss of notoriety. This isn’t a knock on Kevin Knight, but he is not that guy yet. It’s great to see Tony Kahn invest so heavily in this fresh talent, but it’s important to remember Knight was signed less than 18 months ago. Most would agree with Tony’s opinion that Knight is a future world champion, but this PPV seems to show a divide in how long we expect that to take.  

Ultimately, for the main event it seems to come down to this: Do you think it is worth prioritizing young talent over established draws when the long-term goal is all but set in stone. Does it matter who Kenny faces at Redemption? We know he wins. We know he walks into Wembley as the champion. And, let’s face it, we know Will Ospreay is walking out of Wembley as champion. So why do we care so much about the Redemption main event anyway? It’s a great opportunity to shine a rising wrestler on the roster while we make our way to the actual show in August. Isn’t Redemption just…filler? 

Wait, Is Redemption Just Filler? 

It seems like an insult to call an AEW PPV ‘filler’. The company is known for its outstanding performance when its PPV time. Even the most poorly built shows end up leaving the audience in a sweaty post-coital daze of incredible wrestling. After 7 years it’s almost accepted fact that AEW has the best catalogue of PPV shows in Wrestling history, so dismissing one as filler feels disingenuous. The wrestling will surely be incredible. Kyle Fletcher and Bandido are going to burn the sky down in Montreal, that’s a given, so why does this show feel so skippable?  

Well, it might have something to do with the fact that my most anticipated match of the night is Fletcher vs. Bandido for the Intercontinental Championship – a match with no build or personal story between the two wrestlers. Why is Fletcher defending his belt against Bandido? Well, because both wrestlers are young potential main eventers who need to stay hot while they wait for more compelling matches with Takeshita and Andrade take place at All in. Their match at Redemption is…filler. Five beautiful golden stars of filler, but filler none the less.  

This is a trend that continues. No match set for redemption feels like it progresses a story, it feel like a scrambled race to find matches that won’t have too big of an effect on the inevitable march to Wembley.  

The Men’s Tag Team division is where this becomes really bleak. In a mirror story to Kenny’s “legend proving he still has it” arch, Adam Copeland (f.k.a. Edge) and Christian Cage are holding tag team gold for the first time in over 25 years. This reign has been hotly anticipated ever since Adam Copeland made his AEW debut in 2023. The tag division has always been one of AEW’s strongest assets and seeing Cope and Cage reunite in such a competitive promotion made wrestling nerds salivate. But since winning the belts at Double or Nothing in May the division has felt muddled. 

The previous champs, FTR, have taken a hiatus from wrestling. The Dogs have made their debut coming from Japan and have picked a fight with basically everyone who steps in front of them including the Young Bucks and Cope and Cage AND the Bang Bang Gang. At Forbidden Door Cope and Cage defended the titles against the Dogs, but haven’t been able to escape the feud. But, instead of running the match back with a stipulation, Cope and Cage are set to defend their titles against Claudio Castagnioli and Pac of the Death Riders, because the Death Riders are allied with the Dogs for…some reason. That part hasn’t been explained much, but Gabe Kidd, a Dog, is maybe also a Death Rider, or only a Death Rider, but nobody knows for sure because before he could clarify the situation he fucked off to japan to compete in the G1 Climax.  

So, Cope and Cage are fighting Claudio and Pac of the Death Rider in a proxy war against the Dogs who are feuding with the Bang Bang Gang, and teamed with the Death Riders who are feuding with Cope and Cage and also the Young Bucks, who are feuding with the Dogs who might be Death Riders. You get all that?? 

The two tag team matches set for the PPV are Cope and Cage vs Claudio and Pac, and The Young Bucks, vs Jon Moxley and Will Ospreay, also of the Death Riders. Why aren’t either of the two biggest tag teams having matches with any of the other 5 actual tag teams they’re feuding with? Because those matches are happening at All In, these matches – are filler.  

Conspiracy Side Bar 

A wise man once said that to be a wrestling fan you must speculate wildly, so here’s one for you. On Dynamite this week Pac gets injured. Claudio is still challenging for the Tag titles and will need a SECRET PARTNER (presumably because Yuta and Garcia will be in a tag team match with Hangman and Swerve Strickland on the Buy-In). And who should answer the call but the hottest free agent in town S. Farrelly, and The Bar finally reunites. That almost certainly doesn’t work with contract timelines, but it’s the only way I can make sense of Claudio challenging for the tag belts.  

Is Redemption Worth It? 

So, Redemption seems to be filler. The rest of the card fares better but still fails to excite. Andrade vs. Mark Davis seems like an obvious Andrade win. Ciampa vs. Painmaker Jericho is a run back of their match from Beach Break. The Women’s matches are oddly the most interesting part of the card. Thelka vs. Willow for the women’s championship is the match I’d say is most in the air. The result of that comes down to who Tony thinks is a bigger star walking into Wembley and facing Mercedes Mone. Additionally, Hikaru Shida vs. Maya World for the TBS championship could be a great crowning moment for Maya who has shown up for the company when the chips were down. The women’s division has hit a few more bumps in the road on the way to Wembley however, so it isn’t surprising that we have ended up with a lot of story yet to tell at Redemption. I think a lot of us just wish that driving story was present for the men, especially after such an impressive first half of 2026.  

Does this mean Redemption isn’t worth watching? Of course not. Like I said at the start AEW is incapable of putting on a bad PPV. It would be a catastrophic night for the company if there were only 2 match-of-the-year contenders on the show. If you are in AEW fan, like me, you’re watching the show, that isn’t the question that needs answers. It’s the outsider and casuals we need to think about.  

Bryan Alverez got some heat this week after ranting about this card and AEWs failure to build the PPV and the continuing failures in weekly booking. Matches get announced last second or not at all. Massive big-name matches will have no advertising at all and will open the show, while a Women’s eliminator match main events. I don’t agree with everything Bryan said during that rant, but he does make a good point. I am an AEW die hard. As someone who only started watching wrestling 5 years ago, AEW is literally what I grew up watching. I want this promotion to succeed. And, yes, I want them to stick WWE’s nose in it. Don’t pretend like you don’t want that too AEW fans, it’s why the company was started. But those over-the-top ambitions will remain pipe dreams for as long as AEW fails to reach the broader public. Not by diminishing the show, but by making it consistent.  

The problems we are talking about aren’t lack of story, character, or good in ring wrestling. These are failures in nut-and-bolts promoting. Kenny Omega vs. Kevin Knight might be a 5 star match, but for the people of Montreal the names on the poster are not getting them to buy a ticket. For the lapsed fans or WWE casuals, this looks like what it is. Filler.