Predator’s history on cinema screens can be described as spotty at best.
The original 1987 film is still lauded as one of the best sci-fi action films of all-time and one of the best in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s filmography. After that, the franchise experiences plenty of ups and downs, mostly downs, over the next 32 years. Predator 2 was considered a disappointment following the original film, the Alien vs. Predator films just came-and-went, Predators was considered an improvement over the other sequels but not all that memorable on its own, and The Predator seemed to leave anyone who saw it more baffled than anything at what they just watched.
It was during the production of The Predator, though, that the winds of change were about to come blowing through the franchise.
Director Dan Trachtenberg and screenwriter Patrick Aison approached producer John Davis with an idea they believed would freshen up Predator. The idea revolved around a Yautja, the titular alien hunter, arriving for its first hunt on Earth, specifically along the Great Plains in 1719. Standing opposite it is a young Comanche woman who dreams of becoming a hunter for her tribe instead of a healer, and sets out on a journey to prove that.
The title of this film – Skulls.
Skulls was the original production name as a way to keep the film closely under wraps and it paid off. The only hint of the film’s concept was the early synopsis, which only focused on the young Comanche woman at the center of the story. It was then confirmed in November 2020 that Skulls was the next entry in the Predator franchise, though this seemed to confuse fans given when it is set.
Audiences got a much clearer concept of Prey when the first teasers released in May 2022, giving a look at Naru, the Comanche woman, and the new Yautja, dubbed the Feral Predator. Subsequent trailers painted a clearer picture, which Trachtenberg helped clarify as well, such as confirming the film is the Feral Predator’s first visit to Earth. Between that, and it being the earliest Predator film in the mainline franchise, helped explain away why the Feral Predator didn’t have weapons like the iconic shoulder cannon.
Cut to August 2025, and Prey arrives on Hulu for viewers to enjoy at home and was met with the best reviews for a sequel in franchise history. Trachtenberg, lead star Amber Midthunder, and the team were all lauded for finding a way freshen up the franchise with a twist on the “back to basics” approach of Prey.
However, it did provide the first hint at Trachtenberg’s vision for the franchise going forward in a brief animated mid-credits scene. The scene is part of an illustration played during the main credits retracing the film’s narrative, but picks up shortly after the end. It shows three Yautja ships approaching Naru’s tribe after she returns with the Feral Predator’s head.
For as brief as the scene is, it confirmed Trachtenberg’s intent to dive headfirst into the franchise and expanding the Yautja in ways not depicted in the films up to that point.
20th Century Studios was quick to confirm this would be the case as Trachtenberg would lead the charge on multiple new Predator projects, including two films to be directed by Trachtenberg. The the title of the films were later revealed to be Predator: Badlands and Predator: Killer of Killers, the latter being the first animated entry in franchise history.
Killer of Killers would release on June 6, 2025, on Hulu and, like Prey, be met with widely positive feedback from audiences and critics. The animated anthology follows three warriors from across Earth’s history who manage to best a Yautja they encounter during its hunt. The three – the Viking warrior Ursa, the Shinobi Kenji, and World War 2 pilot John Torres – are then brought together on a Yautja-ruled planet to fight each other, with the survivor battling the Yautja clan’s chief. Kenji and Torres would ultimately escape thanks to Ursa sacrificing herself so the two could get away on a hijacked Predator ship.
Ursa, however, wasn’t killed. It was then revealed she would be placed in suspended animation alongside others who defeated a Yautja including Naru, Schwarzenegger’s character Dutch from the original 1987 film, and Danny Glover’s hardened LAPD officer Lt. Mike Harrigan.
Five months later, Predator: Badlands released in theaters on November 7, 2025, and like the previous two releases was met with a widely positive reception to continue the franchise’s upward swing, critically. Unlike all the franchise’s film entries, though, Badlands would be the first to follow a Yautja during a hunt instead of a human that finds itself being hunted.
Badlands follows Dek, a Yautja from the species’ homeworld of Yautja Prime, who is considered a runt by his father and potential clan. After escaping an attempt on his life with the aid of his brother, Dek ends up on the planet Genna to hunt a creature considered unkillable by the Yautja in an attempt to prove himself. During this hunt, Dek encounters a Weyland-Yutani synthetic named Thia who offers her aid in hunting the creature after leaving her cut in half and her legs missing.
Narratively, Badlands is the culmination of what Trachtenberg had been building to in his previous two films of truly exploring the Yautja as a people versus just deadly alien hunters to be overcome.
This is something that previous entries all the way back to Predator 2 had done a tiny bit of, but never teased going anywhere nearly as deep as Trachtenberg has in his three films. It came across as the studio trying to “have its cake and eat it too” by drip-feeding information about the Yautja as a species but without giving away so much information that the race loses their mystic and sense of danger.
Predators and The Predator would even tease the idea of a Yautja conflict between different tribes or different types of Yautja, but never paid off those teases.
Trachtenberg instead took a deep dive into exploring the Yautja on screen, starting with Killer of Killers depicting how some Yautja handle those who best one of their people. Badlands gave a much clearer idea of their society, though, and how clans valued strength and shunned weakness in a manner similar to ancient Sparta.
It also managed to create a tangible link between the Predator and Alien franchises without it feeling shoe-horned thanks to the presence of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in Badlands. Whether this means the Xenomorph and Yautja will cross paths one more time on cinema screens, though, remains to be seen.
As the saying goes, “once is an accident, twice is a coincident, three times is a patter,” and that certainly appears to be the same case for Predator and Dan Trachtenberg. The director, who made his feature debut with 2016’s Ten Cloverfield Lane, has reinvigorated a franchise some believed was on “life support” after The Predator failed to make any real splash critically or at the box office.
Three successful entries later and it is safe to laud Trachtenberg as the “golden child” of the Predator franchise for his work and it may continue based on how well Badlands performs. The director has previously teased having three live action films in mind with Prey, Predator: Badlands, and one more film that has not officially been announced.
Even if it doesn’t end up happening, it will not change Trachtenberg’s impact in keeping Predator alive. That said, let’s hope Trachtenberg continues to lead the charge on Predator.
It seems as though every few years, one promotion in particular emerges to become the hotbed of indie wrestling during that period of time. This list includes early Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and Game-Changer Wrestling, among others.
In the year of 2025, though, one indie promotion has arguably stood heads and shoulders over many promotions in the U.S. also having great years – DEADLOCK Pro-Wrestling.
The brainchild of content creators Anthony Douglas, James Darnell, and John Blud that started in 2021, spawning out of the trio’s successful and popular DEADLOCK Podcast, which itself began in 2019. Darnell, Blud, and Douglas quickly attracted a following online for their chemistry and selection of wrestling to talk about.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and the indies largely shut down. Some would run isolated shows with bare bones crews and no audience to stream on YouTube or Twitch. As the world started to reopen in 2021, the three jumped on an opening left by the pandemic, whether intentional or not. Wrestling fans searching YouTube or longtime podcast listeners who signed up to DPW On Demand would then discover DEADLOCK Pro-Wrestling, or DPW, Fire starting on December 11, 2021.
Over the next four years, the North Carolina-based promotion would grow in popularity with both fans and wrestlers. Within weeks, DPW would run its first internet pay-per-view and fans quickly appeared to attach to the idea of a new promotion truly “by fans, for fans.” The trio backed this up, too, as they would quickly bring in some of the biggest names available to work indies along with a collection of eye-catching rookies starting to appear along the Mid-Atlantic indie scene.
In turn, this meant DPW quickly became a destination spot for independent wrestlers looking to turn some heads. Established acts like ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey and Bryan Keith before being signed by AEW helped provide some major credibility to the quality of the shows, backed up by an incredible crop of young names including Lucky Ali and Jay Malachi, both of whom are now signed to WWE. This told talent that “big eyes” are watching this place, so they need to get there.
If this sounds familiar to longtime indie wrestling fans, its akin to how hot Pro-Wrestling Guerilla got during the 2010s. Seemingly every big name working the indies visited the hot and small American Legion Hall in Reseda, California. Kevin Steen, El Generico, The Young Bucks, Ricochet, WALTER, and countless others worked PWG during this time before ending up in WWE or AEW by the time it was 2020.
DPW takes it a step further as active, contracted wrestlers to AEW/RoH continue to work the independent promotion fairly regularly. Queen Aminata, who has had a breakout 2025 on AEW TV, is the DPW Women’s World Champion at the time of this writing while Grizzled Young Veterans and The WorkHorsemen have previously been tag team champions.
Former-DPW Worlds Champion Adam Priest has also found his way to AEW TV, most recently tagging with Tommy Billington, though was reportedly still not under any contract as of this writing.
And DPW’s hot streak comes at a period where several promotions have seemingly been having hot streaks of shows. GCW, Defy, and Progress are just three of many independent global promotions all having very good 2025s in terms of show quality, and DPW, arguably, stands atop that.
Darnell, Blud, and Douglas aren’t wasting time in expanding DPW’s reach, either.
Along with DPW On Demand, DPW has partnered with Wrestle Universe to make their shows available on the wrestling streaming service alongside Pro-Wrestling Noah, DDT, and Tokyo Joshi-Pro, even growing to be able to tour Japan by 2023. It had also been running joint shows with West Coast Pro-Wrestling and Prestige Wrestling in the U.S., though Prestige is set to close its doors in 2025.
All this adds up to a company set to close out 2025 strong with two more shows as of November 2, 2025.
So if you consider yourself a true fan of indie wrestling, do yourself a favor and check out DPW to see some of the best in professional wrestling in 2025. And just support independent pro-wrestling in general, whether it be the promotions running shows or particular talent you want to see succeed.
Destiny 2, and Destiny as a franchise really, has had a rollercoaster existence since the first Guardians awoke in the Cosmodrome in 2014. In the universe, players would go on to challenge gods and fight against the apocalypse in the decade that followed as part of the Light and Darkness Saga.
The first saga has since ended and Bungie began the Fate Saga, starting with The Edge of Fate as Guardians ventured to Kepler at the behest of the mysterious Nine.
As much of a rollercoaster as the universe has experienced, though, players have been on an even crazier rollercoaster during that same period. Destiny and Destiny 2 would experience extreme highs and lows, whether it was the first Destiny being meme’d to death in its first year for a seemingly non-existent narrative to Destiny 2: Forsaken breathing new life into the sequel after a rocky first year.
This cycle continued with the release of The Edge of Fate, which seemingly encapsulates the ups-and-downs Destiny 2, alone, has experienced in roughly three and a half months.
The Edge of Fate faced its fair share of criticism, either, especially as the weeks went on and players dug into all the reworks Bungie introduced in the new expansion. One point of criticism ended up being the new Portal system, which was intended to help feed players into the game faster. However, many complained in its initial state that it was still too unwielded and failed to consistently communicate information to players clearly.
Criticism only intensified after the Ash & Iron update, which left many players disappointed with an apparent lack of content and bugs that would take weeks to get out of the game. The addition of the Heliostat exotic mission was a welcome addition in the weeks that followed the Ash & Iron update, but ultimately didn’t change players’ feelings on the update’s total content.
On the other hand, THE Edge of Fate did receive praise from across the player community for delivering what many felt was one of the best expansion narratives in Destiny’s history. Many in the community praised Bungie’s narrative team for their willingness to tackle the Nine, beings that have been one of Destiny’s deepest and longest-standing mysteries. Outside of Xur and The Emissary, players only had theories about who or what the Nine were and why they chose to interact with Guardians when and where they did.
There was also plenty of praise for the newest character to join the Destiny universe, Lodi. Portrayed by Brian Villalobos, Lodi is revealed to be an agent from 1960s Chicago working for a space agency known as the Department of External Observation who ended up being pulled forward in time by the Nine. Players and critics had almost universal praise for Villalobos’ performance as Lodi along with the writing team for how strongly written Lodi is.
A strong narrative wouldn’t be enough to keep players from leaving the game, and they would in record numbers before Destiny 2 finally hit its all-time lowest active player count in October 2025.
Bungie hasn’t been sitting on its hands, though, as multiple updates have rolled out in an attempt to address various player issues and entice them to come back to the game. These included simplifying the Portal, addressing gear drops and leveling, Unstable Core usage and economy and various other issues.
These arrived at the perfect time to as Destiny 2’s annual Halloween event, Festival of the Lost, is live as of this writing, and has been met with generally positive feedback. Several players and content creators said while there is still work to be done, the changes made to the Portal and making high-tier gear drops and leveling easier were steps in the right direction. Combine this with the positive feedback for the Festival’s new activities, Haunted Altars of Sorrow and Red Rumble, and there hasn’t been as much of a malaise around the game as there had been.
Bungie has confirmed even more changes will becoming over the next year, with the next batch of major updates set to arrive in December with the new expansion, Renegades.
Then there is the departure of longtime Bungie CEO Pete Parsons in August 2025.
Parsons had long been a controversial figure within the Destiny community for the state of the game, and Bungie as a whole. As the studio’s CEO, he was commonly one frustrated players pointed to as one of several executives in Bungie responsible for the state of Destiny and Destiny 2. The executive would only add fuel to the fire when showing off his personal car collection on social media amid mass layoffs all across the games industry, including within Bungie.
When he announced his departure from Bungie, many in the community were quick to jump on social media to give their own “goodbyes” to the now-former Bungie CEO.
In the same post announcing his departure, longtime Bungie developer and executive Justin Truman was confirmed to be taking over as the new Head of Studio. Truman was no stranger to controversy, himself, as several years earlier he faced blowback for a presentation he did at the 2022 Game Developers Conference where he said studios need to be careful not to “overdeliver” so as to manage customer expectations for future releases.
Truman indirectly addressed this as part of Parson’s departure announcement with a playful line about hoping to “overdeliver” when it comes to building worlds players want to invest in.
It should be noted that while Truman will be the new Head of Studio, he will not be taking over as CEO as Sony becomes more directly involved with Bungie after acquiring the studio in 2022.
As for what the future holds, that remains to be seen.
The departure of Parson, promotion of Truman, and Sony’s more direct involvement with the studio all happening so close together was jarring for the community, but it is something that they likely won’t be felt in full until 2026. It can typically take time for the impact of a major executive shakeup to be felt across a whole company, especially a game developer, and it would not be surprising if that was the same at Bungie.
As for the game itself, Destiny 2 doesn’t appear to be going anywhere despite player counts hitting record lows. Renegades is still on the way and already has some fans excited for what is to come in the next entry of the Fate Saga.
Renegades will send Guardians back to Mars to face off with a new Cabal force amassing on the red planet, dubbed the Barant Imperium, and a superweapon it has been developing. To do so, Guardians will need to collaborate with multiple crime syndicates operating out of a thriving black market on Mars known as Tharsis Outpost. Guardians will be working with The Drifter and a Warlock from the Praxic Order, as well, to stop a dangerous new Dredgen that is connected to the Imperium’s efforts.
Renegades also marks the first collaborative expansion Bungie has produced for Destiny 2 as the studio partnered with Lucasfilm Games to create a Star Wars-inspired experience inside the game. This ranges from the space western influences on the narrative, gear, and overall aesthetic. The Barant Imperium’s design is very much inspired by the Galactic Empire while the Praxic Order and Dredgens serve as stand-ins for the Jedi and Sith, respectively.
More general changes and updates are set to arrive, as well, to continue improving the player experience after the first set of changes rolled out. These include additional vault space, the Orders system to streamline how players earn rewards with daily and weekly objectives to complete. Bungie said the idea is to make it so player’s don’t have to worry as much about loadout management “or step away from the activities you and your fireteam are interested in.”
And more updates are planned through the first half of 2026, though details have not been outlined as of this writing.
It remains to be seen if this will be enough for Destiny, as a whole, to recover from the latest valley it found itself in. It isn’t the first time the game has been in this sort of low and wouldn’t be the first time its managed to claw itself out of it. That said, only time will tell if the Destiny experience continues to be one of peaks and valleys or if the changes in the game and at Bungie means some long awaited stability for both.
AEW took to pay-per-view once again on Oct. 18, 2025, for WrestleDream live from the Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, Missouri. Coming less than a month after All Out, some fans wouldn’t be wrong for feeling WrestleDream was thrown together in fairly short order. That being said, it is still AEW on pay-per-view and no show in 2025 may have delivered a better in-ring than WrestleDream.
Tailgate Brawl
Kicking off evening was the second edition of AEW’s Tailgate Brawl, the new lead-in for the pay-per-view that airs live on TNT and HBO Max.
Claudio Castagnoli, PAC, Wheeler Yuta, and Daniel Garcia, accompanied by Marina Shafir, represented the Death Riders against Orange Cassidy, Tomohiro Ishii, Kyle O’Reilly, and Roderick Strong of The Conglomeration. The match was exactly the type of multi-man tag match AEW fans are accustomed to seeing on TV as both teams went back and forth until PAC scored the pin for his team on Ishii after a distraction and assist by Garcia and Yuta, respectfully.
Next up was Eddie Kingston and Hook, who are still getting their feet under them as a team, against Cole Karter and Griff Garrison of the Frat House. It was three minutes that saw Kingston and Hook dominate most of it, unsurprisingly, while a backstage promo by La Faccion Ingobernable aired effectively calling out Hook and Kingston.
The show then cut to a brief promo from a tailgate party in Boca Raton, Florida, Hosted by Big Boom AJ and his family. Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta appear to challenge AJ to a tag match at Full Gear before attacking AJ wrecking the party.
Third was the first of many tag matches to dot the evening as it was Megan Bayne and Penelope Ford versus Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron. The match continued to tease what fans will see when the AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship Tournament kicks off. Both teams traded momentum as Bayne and Nightingale threw their opponents around while Ford and Cameron used their speed and smaller sizes to their advantage. Nightingale and Cameron took the win after Nightingale dropped Bayne on the outside with a cannonball from the turnbuckle as Cameron hit suplex on Ford, who then tagged in Nightingale to perform the Doctor Bomb on Ford to score the pin.
To close out the Tailgate Brawl was FTR, comprised of Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler, taking on ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight, or JetSpeed for short. Immediately something seemed off as the teams made their entrances with about ten minutes left on the pre-show. As time wound down, it became clear the match would effectively be kicking off the pay-per-view when it went live in an overall cool spot, but one that AEW should use sparingly. As many fans would expect, this match delivered in every way possible. FTR served as the perfect bases to JetSpeed’s style of striking and high-flying offense. After many close calls, FTR was able to steal the win as their manager Stoke held Bailey’s feet during the pin to stop him kicking out.
On the whole, this was as solid an hour of AEW TV wrestling as a viewer can find. It continued building some stuff for weekly TV, such as Kingston and Hook versus LFI and the Women’s Tag Team Title tournament, and gave people a taste of what was to come on the main pay-per-view, especially when it came to tag team wrestling, but wasn’t anything to write home about either.
OVERALL GRADE – B
The Main Card
Thekla vs. Jamie Hayter
The first official match of WrestleDream’s main card was Jamie Hayter battling “The Toxic Spider” Thekla in what was as physical a match as a fan could see without using weapons.
Hayter and Thekla laid into each other for roughly 15 minutes with all the heavy-handed strikes and suplexes they could think of. It was the type of physicality both women have been known for in and out of AEW, especially Thekla who previously wrestled for Stardom in Japan which is known for its physical, high-paced in-ring style. Hayter was able to emerge victorious after cutting of Thekla’s spear with a lariat and then the Hayter-aid for the pin.
Jurassic Express vs. The Young Bucks
Next was the highly anticipated bout between the newly-reunited Jack Perry and Luchasaurus, aka Jurassic Express, taking on Matt and Nick Jackson, The Young Bucks, in a tag team match with $500,000 on the line.
These are two teams with history going back to the formation of AEW in 2019 and it showed, though they also made it clear these four are not the same people they were back then, either. Like most Young Bucks pay-per-view matches, the energy and speed was up for most of it as both teams showed off their athleticism for around 20 minutes. After multiple close pins, Jurassic Express were able to win after blocking the Bucks from hitting the TK-Driver and then hitting Matt Jackson with the Countdown to Extinction.
But wait…..there’s more.
As Perry and Luchasaurus go to leave with their bag of money, the pair decide to go and offer a handshake to the Bucks in a show of respect. The Bucks hesitate and before they decide what to do, Josh Alexander, Lance Archer and Mark Davis of the Don Callis Family jump Jurassic Express. The Young Bucks decide not to get involved and walk off, but not before Kenny Omega comes out to help Jurassic Express and try to get the Bucks involved. The two ultimately go to the back as Jurassic Express and Omega are able to fight off the Don Callis Family.
The Hurt Syndicate vs. The Demand
Bobby Lashley, MVP, and Shelton Benjamin of The Hurt Syndicate versus The Demand’s Ricochet, Bishop Kaun, and Toa Liona in a tornado trios match.
Fans were informed as the match began that the match was now a number one contender’s match for the AEW World Trios Championships. As with these two teams previous matches, it was a mix of athleticism and physicality as Ricochet was able to use everyone in the match as a base for his high-flying while Lashley, Benjamin, Kaun, and Liona delivered the physicality. MVP would be a regular target for The Demand as he has only wrestled three times in AEW, as opposed to Lashley and Benjamin, while the Syndicate would try to get their hands on Ricochet for much of the match.
Just as the Syndicate believe they have Ricochet corned, Kaun pulls him out of the ring and takes Ricochet’s place. It proves pointless as the Syndicate are able to hit a combination that ends with a Lashley spear to get the win and earn a match against the AEW Trios Champions, The Opps.
TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher vs. Mark Briscoe
Next comes the first title match of the evening as TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher, representing the Don Callis Family, battled Mark Briscoe for the TNT Championship in the pair’s fifth singles match.
The chemistry between Briscoe and Fletcher is undeniable at this point as Fletcher’s high-speed, high-impact and cleaner looking offense seems to just gel with Briscoe’s wilder and more chaotic, homegrown style. It resulted in what is likely the best of the pair’s five match series that began back in June 2024 on Ring of Honor.
Briscoe and Fletcher went back and forth for almost 25 minutes before Fletcher emerged victorious to retain his TNT title. It would take multiple brainbusters, including a brainbuster to the top turnbuckle, to keep Briscoe’s shoulders down for the three-count.
AEW Women’s World Champion Kris Statlander vs. “Timeless” Toni Storm
The former champion “Timeless” Toni Storm attempting to regain her title from the current champion, Kris Statlander, was next on the docket for WrestleDream.
It marked the first singles match between Storm and Statlander in AEW history, which may surprise some fans given Statlander joined AEW shortly after Dynamite began in December 2019 and Storm in March 2022. Despite that, the two had only ever met in multi-person matches in the past including at All Out in September when Statlander pinned Storm for the title, though it was with the seatbelt pin and not the definitive defeat Storm had been searching for.
There was a big match feeling in the air as Statlander and Storm, who have long been focal points of AEW’s women’s division, locked up for their first singles match. The two traded holds for the first few minutes as the match ramped up the deeper it got into its roughly 16 minute runtime. Statlander was able to his a Night Fever before locking in a submission that Storm struggled to break out of. Storm started to break free while yelling “kill me” at Statlander, who promptly hit another Night Fever and score the definitive pin Storm had been looking for.
Statlander would celebrate in the ring after a show of respect from Storm when TBS Champion Mercedes Mone would make her entrance, using the Frat House to hold her nine other championship belts. Mone promptly told Statlander to go to the back as Mone could celebrate becoming the longest-reigning TBS Champion in AEW history and issuing an open challenge for “any champion” to put their title on the line against Mone for the TBS Championship.
TBS Champion Mercedes Mone vs. Ring of Honor Interim Women’s World TV Champion Mina Shirakawa
Mone’s challenge would be answered by the Ring of Honor Interim Women’s World TV Champion Mina Shirakawa in the title-for-title open challenge.
The match was exactly was viewers have come to expect from Mone’s matches, and this was right there in quality with the rest. If there was any notable downside to this match, it was that this was the first where the crowd showed how tired it was as a result of the high in-ring pace that dominated the night. Mone and Shirakawa were still able to deliver in the ring for its own 16 minute runtime.
Shirakawa and Mone began trading submissions and pinfall attempts as the two tried to walk away with one more belt. Ultimately, Mone won the match after a backslide pin where she was able to get a foot on the rope to stop Shirakawa from kicking out. Mone is now “11-Belt Mone” and broke Ultimo Dragon’s record of holding 10 belts simultaneously.
Statlander would come back out during Mone’s celebration as payback for earlier and made Mone flee after Statlander hit Mone with a Samoan Drop.
AEW World Tag Team Champions Brodido vs. AEW Unified Champion Kazuchika Okada and IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita
In what was the culmination of the evening’s tag team matches, Brody King and Bandido put their AEW World Tag Team Championships on the line against the Don Callis Family’s Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita.
Takeshita is fresh of winning the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship from Zack Sabre Jr. at New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s King of Pro-Wrestling. This appeared to only fuel the animosity between Okada and Takeshita which has been brewing for weeks.
Anyone who had seen Takeshita challenge Bandido for the Ring of Honor World Championship at Supercard of Honor in July already knew what those two would bring to the match, on top of everything King and Okada bring to the table. The next 27 minutes would see Brodido and the Don Callis Family representatives trade heavy-handed strikes and big spots, all with tensions between Okada and Takeshita bubbling underneath.
Things came to a head as Bandido tried to survive a two-on-one situation against Okada and Takeshita. After catching Bandido, Okada attempted a Rainmaker but Bandido ducked and Okada ended up clotheslining Takeshita instead. Okada feigned regret for a minute before a giant smile formed on his face and he flipped off Takeshita, who rolled out of the ring to the floor. Bandido took the chance to regain his composure and catches Okada as he turns back around before hitting him with the X-knee. Bandido attempted the 21-plex after but couldn’t hit it due to his left arm, which had been hurt in a title defense about two weeks before against Hechicero. King came back in the ring to help Bandido soften Okada further before diving to the outside, taking out Takeshita. Bandido was then able to hit a one-armed 21-plex on Okada to retain the World Tag Team titles.
Cut to backstage where Lexi Nair is with a bereft Toni Storm, who is joined shortly after by Mina Shirakawa. Storm laments how the pair have nothing left before Shirakawa reminds Storm that they have each other, hinting that these two will likely be a team chasing the new Women’s Tag Team titles.
AEW Men’s World Champion “Hangman” Adam Page vs. AEW World Trios Champion Samoa Joe
“Hangman” Adam Page, the current AEW Men’s World Champion, then made his entrance to defend his title against one-third of the World Trios champions and former-AEW Men’s World Champion, Samoa Joe. The match came about after Page unwittingly offended Joe in what Joe read as a show of disrespect after defeating the Death Riders in a trios match on Dynamite weeks earlier.
Like most of Joe’s matches, it was a reminder that age really is just a number for the 26-year veteran and former world champion. Joe’s physicality was on full display against Page, who has made his career in AEW with wars against the likes of Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega, Swerve Strickland, and MJF, and this is exactly what fans got for 19 minutes.
Joe was eventually able to catch Page and apply the Coquina clutch, though Page was able to get to the ropes to break it up. After escaping Joe’s attempt at a Muscle Buster, Page hit Joe with the Deadeye for a two-count. Page followed this up with a pair of Buckshot lariats and scored the pin to retain his world title.
Joe’s teammates in The Opps, Katsuyori Shibata and Powerhouse Hobbs, came to the ring afterward to check on their partner. Page handed Joe his Trios title and the two embraced in a show of respect before Joe dropped Page with a lariat as Hobbs and Shibata began attacking Page. Joe would then crack Page with the AEW Men’s World Title and hit him with a Muscle Buster.
The camera then cut to the back where Mone let Statlander know she isn’t happy with Statlander raining on Mone’s parade and challenged Statlander for the Women’s World Championship at Full Gear. It was then confirmed on the next Dynamite that The Opps would be defending the Trios Championship against the Hurt Syndicate, Kazuchika Okada will defend the Unified Championship against Bandido, and the brackets for the AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship tournament will be revealed.
“I Quit” Match – Darby Allin vs. Jon Moxley
It is time for the main event as Darby Allin and Jon Moxley face off in an “I Quit” match to close out the show.
Allin comes to the ring alone while Moxley is joined by his Death Riders’ compatriot, Marina Shafir.
The next 25 minutes saw Allin and Moxley, two wrestlers known for their violent and physical matches, delivering war as the two tried to make the other quit. Shafir would make her presence known at random points during the match, though much of its first half kept the focus on Allin and Moxley as the two didn’t waste time getting physical. Allin, especially, would be put through the physical ringer as he was slammed, thrown, and even tased and have a skewer shoved into one of his fingers by Moxley.
Allin would get back at Moxley randomly, thanks in part to a bag of weapons he brought with him which included the AEW flag Allin took a photo with after summitting Mt. Everest earlier in 2025.
As Allin would start to pick up momentum later in the match, the rest of the Death Riders would emerge to help their leader try to finish Allin off. This resulted in an aquarium being taken out and filled with water, which Moxley held Allin’s head under multiple times though he refused to quit. Eventually, the lights cut out for a few moments and when they returned, Sting was in the ring armed with his metal bat to aid Allin. Sting ran off the rest of the Death Riders, tossed Allin the bat, and carried Shafir backstage. Allin didn’t waste time taking the aluminum bat to Moxley before using the AEW flag to choke Moxley and hitting a Scorpion Death Drop and Coffin Drop. Allin then locked in a Scorpion Death Lock and Moxley quickly quit as Allin celebrated with flag as WrestleDream faded to black.
Final Thoughts
AEW has had a banner year in 2025, with the overall quality of the product managing to pick back up after a rocky few years tracing all the way back to the infamous “Brawl Out” backstage fight in 2022.
While it could be argued the build to WrestleDream felt a bit rushed due to the relatively short-turnaround from All Out, AEW was able to deliver what may be its best in-ring pay-per-view of 2025.
Each match felt different enough from the one previous that the crowd, even when tired, was engaged for the roughly 4.5 hour pay-per-view, or 5.5 hours if including the Tailgate Brawl. It highlighted something AEW has done better in 2025 than it had in recent years which was keeping the core focus on the ring and only shifting focuses when it needed to.
Tag team wrestling, in particular, was the star of the show at WrestleDream between an 8-man tag, a trios match, and five traditional 2v2 tag team matches. The women’s tag match on the Tailgate Brawl helped provide a quick preview of what fans can see in the tag title tournament while the three men’s tag matches showcased a division that has experience a massive rebound in 2025, especially in the last several months.
To further this point, the best match of the night would have to go to Brodido vs Takeshita and Okada for the AEW Tag Team Championships.
Bandido has been considered by many outlets one of the best wrestlers in 2025 with a catalog of matches including two potential Match of the Year candidates in his Ring of Honor World Championship defenses against Takeshita and Hechicero. He has also had many standout bouts south of the border for CMLL in Mexico, main eventing the legendary Arena Mexico against names including Mistico, Mascara Dorada, Volador Jr., Difunto, and others.
There appeared to be some frustration with fans online over the end of the “I Quit” match and it feeling rushed, along with some other points, but nothing that seemed to set off any major backlash from fans in a way that ruined a particular match or the show.
That said, show length is something that AEW should address.
It may have been a Saturday but there’s something to be said about a pay-per-view starting its main card at 8 P.M. not needing to go well past midnight. If the show had started in the early or mid-afternoon as All In: Texas, Forbidden Door, and All Out have, then longer shows don’t appear to be a problem for most fans based on the reception those shows received. For evening pay-per-views, though, Tony Khan may want to consider trimming the shows down for the benefit of AEW’s audience.
“In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.”
There may be no universe summed up better in one sentence than Warhammer 40,000. A universe in the distant future engulfed in almost endless war and carnage as multiple entities vie for domination across the stars, though what that domination looks like depends on which entity it is.
For humanity, or the Imperium of Man, it is about spreading the word and power of the God-Emperor across the stars and burning out all heretics, non-believers, and filthy xenos until only the Imperium remains. They will achieve this through their various military wings such as the overwhelming firepower of the Imperial Guard, the dogmatic warriors of the Sisters of Battle, or one of the thousand chapters of Space Marines to tackle the most dangerous and important missions for the Imperium.
The Tyranids, by comparison, seek domination through simple digestion. These insectoid aliens exist simply to consume bio-mass on a galactic scale, evolve, and keep consuming until all is one with the Tyranid Swarm and its Hive Mind.
Orks just don’t know what domination is or even how to spell it. All they care about is going to fight a worthwhile WAAAHHH and a good crumpin’.
Those are just three of the many powers locked in never-ending combat with each other across the galaxy. A universe where to be a human is to be among untold trillions living a life a hard labor, crime, awaiting conscription to the Imperial Guard, becoming a Space Marine candidate, or a brutal death at the hands of one of the billions of monstrosities and destructive machines turning planets into graveyards.
It is a universe where there is no true hero to rally behind. Whichever force wins out, the galaxy will likely be worse for it.
And this is the universe that has grown to become a worldwide phenomenon since the tabletop game first hit store shelves in 1987.
The tabletop miniatures war game from Games Workshop has already carved out a sizeable fanbase for itself between the various sub-hobbies for the miniatures game and an expansive narrative universe told through various mediums already across the tabletop game, video games, books, and more.
Despite all this success, it still hasn’t been widely known across mainstream entertainment until the last few years. This was largely on the back of the long-awaited game Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, various animated shorts including one episode in Amazon’s video game-inspired series Secret Level, and Henry Cavill spearheading efforts with Amazon to adapt Warhammer 40,000 to live action.
Of all those, though, Secret Level’s Warhammer 40,000 episode was hailed as one of the best episodes of the series. Longtime fans also applauded the episode for being able to deliver an accurate representation of the universe to more dedicated fans while also introducing it in a way that is palatable to anyone discovering it.
It can be a lot for anyone to take in it at first due to the sheer contrast of styles among the universe’s central powers, alone. The Imperium has an overall Gothic aesthetic style to it, the Tau Empire draws more inspiration from mecha anime and manga such as Gundam, and the force of Chaos are generally some form of cosmic horror. Various sub-factions take this further, such as the original Space Marine Legions all being inspired by various human cultures such as Germanic, Mongolian, and Roman among others.
The rabbit hole only gets deeper as there between learning what else makes the races and their various sub-factions unique like their abilities and goals, the characters that perpetuate these groups, the various conflicts taking place, and much more.
On top of this, the Imperium’s tracking of history can be spotty at the best of times and outright wrong or completely non-existent at the worst. Certain major narrative events have established dates to help provide some sense of a timeline, but when and where various other events take place in-between those is another story.
Games Workshop has done this intentionally to avoid bogging down the universe too much in a dedicated timeline and provide flexibility when crafting new stories and adaptations. It could also be the key to adapting Warhammer 40,000 to live action going forward.
An issue the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, or any of the various DC Cinematic Universe iterations have all run in to is maintaining an ever-growing canon across various mediums and ensuring there are no contradictions or issues.
Warhammer 40,000 doesn’t have this problem nearly as bad. Anytime sometime comes up in a new game, book, or short that contradicts an older piece of lore, Games Workshop may address it but is just as likely to leave it be for a time so as to get fans talking.
It allows Games Workshop and Amazon and whoever else Games Workshop partners the freedom to, effectively, set whatever new project they are working during general periods versus a very specific period. It also grants them the freedom to adapt Warhammer 40,000 to a variety of genres ranging from horror to war, political thrillers and spy duels and many more.
Warhammer 40,000 grants so much freedom for storytelling that Games Workshop can keep adapting the universe because if something is a disappointment, they can just ignore it and move on. If other things like video games and books don’t get bogged down in the nitty-gritty of Warhammer 40,000 expansive lore, shows and films won’t, either, save for anything directly related to said shows and films.
While audiences still have a ways to wait for Henry Cavill’s series to premiere, if all goes right it could be the start of a long and prosperous run in live action for Warhammer 40,000.
In the years following Avengers: Endgame’s release, it has been an up-and-down road for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The massive franchise still churned out several successful films and shows, but there also seemed to be just as many disappointing releases critically, commercially, or both.
The last few years saw the releases of Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Secret Invasion, all three of which sit as three of the worst received releases in MCU history.
Despite the valley, the MCU appeared to have turn a corner with the release of Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024. The first outing in the MCU for the titular characters, which also doubled as the MCU debuts for actors Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, was generally well-received by fans and critics and also delivered at the box office. From there, the following year of releases have seen the MCU seemingly get back on track. Agatha All Along was a surprise hit on Disney+, viewers welcomed back Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio for Daredevil: Born Again, and the “one-two punch” of Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps continued the strong critical resurgence in theaters.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars will look to continue the upward trend for the MCU in theaters but a question still remains – where will the MCU go next after Secret Wars?
While Marvel Studios’ head Kevin Feige has hinted at what the next MCU saga’s narrative arc will be, he has made it clear one group will be playing a big part regardless – mutants and the X-Men.
Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2017 immediately had fans wondering how and when mutants would start making their presence known in the MCU. Despite mutants being such a central part of Marvel Comics, 20th Century Fox held a tight grip on the X-Men’s film and TV rights for years and blocked Marvel Studios from being able to use any related characters for years. The only exceptions were Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, better known as the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. The two characters had such a long association with the Avengers in the comics that Marvel Studios was able to use the characters, though they had to retcon their origins from being mutants to gaining their powers from one of the Infinity Stones.
Scarlet Witch’s origin would be reworked further in the series WandaVision, though some of the changes brought the MCU iteration closer to her modern comics counterpart.
With the acquisition’s closing in 2019, it was now “jump ball” for when audiences would get their first hint at mutants in the MCU. The first reference appeared to catch many fans by surprise as Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, was confirmed as the first mutant in the MCU. Outside of her subsequent appearance in The Marvels, mutants remained a fairly quiet topic in the MCU until Deadpool & Wolverine It didn’t waste time sending audiences into the deep end of the mutant pool, either, with the powerful mutant psychic and Charles Xavier sister, Cassandra Nova, serving as the film’s central villain. Viewers were also treated to the big screen debut of the popular X-Man Gambit, portrayed by Channing Tatum in direct reference to Fox’s planned Gambit standalone film Tatum was set to star in before it was canceled.
A willingness to lead off with a villain like Cassandra Nova hints that Marvel Studios isn’t going to have any problem digging around X-Men’s dense history. Fans could be treated to some surprise “one-off” villains for a specific film or series while saving the bigger, more widely known characters for bigger projects.
I say all this to say this one thing – sometimes the obvious choice is the right one and mutants are the right direction for the MCU. Mutants and the X-Men has such an expansive history on the comic page that Marvel Studios could make multiple MCU Sagas mutant- or X-Men-centric for years before even having to think about potential resets to the universe.
Its possible that Marvel Studios may have already planted the first seeds of what’s to come for mutantkind in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Aside from finally bringing Marvel’s First Family into the MCU, First Steps didn’t waste time in setting some big narrative gears in motion for the team in the form of Franklin Richards. He is still a small child by the film’s post-credit scene, but the scope of his powers have already been teased with him bringing his mother, Susan Storm, back to life after the Fantastic Four’s climactic battle against Galactus. Some fans have even speculated the reason the Fantastic Four’s ship appears in Thunderbolts* own post-credit scene is because of Franklin’s potentially reality-altering powers.
Franklin isn’t just an important character for the Fantastic Four, he’s important to X-Men history as well. While his roots have since been retconned, he was originally considered one of the most powerful mutants to ever be born. This would lead to him having a central role in X-Men’s Onslaught comic arc in the 90s when he is kidnapped by Onslaught, a psychic entity created during a massive battle between Professor Xavier and Magneto and is the manifestation’s of both characters’ darkest thoughts and emotions. Onslaught sought to use Franklin’s powers to reshape reality before it was stopped by the combined efforts of the X-Men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four.
But this is just one of the possible directions the MCU could go with mutants following Secret Wars and there are already rumors circulating online about where else the MCU may go with the introduction of mutants. One unconfirmed rumor suggested Mr. Sinister may be one of the first major mutant villains the MCU will have to contend with and opens the door to various other possibilities in its own right, namely the introduction of Apocalypse to the MCU due to Sinister serving Apocalypse at multiple points in the comics.
There is also Magneto, the Phoenix Force, Nate Grey, and more just waiting for Marvel Studios to dig in to and bring to theaters and streaming in the coming years.
It has been a roller coaster of a few years for the video game industry. One the hand, the industry was hit hard by the aftermath of several major acquisitions, thousands of layoffs, and many lackluster releases. On the other, multiple new, high-profile independent studios have emerged across the globe and there appears to be renewed effort to fill the gap between the major $70 releases and smaller indie titles, especially at a time when there appears to be a growing dissatisfaction in tentpole, AAA-style games.
2024 seemed to encapsulate this idea the most due to an overall lack of enticing AAA releases, with a few noted failures among them such as Concord.
It hasn’t been the case in 2025 thanks to a much more loaded release calendar with titles including Doom: The Dark Ages, The Outer Worlds 2, Borderlands 4, and Monster Hunter Wilds among others. One that, I believe, sits head and shoulder above them, though, and truly embodies what AAA games can be when done right – Ghost of Yotei.
The sequel to 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yotei is the second entry in the series from longtime PlayStation developer Sucker Punch Productions. Yotei takes places over 300 years after the first game on the island of Ezo, modern day Hokkaido, in the regions surrounding Mt. Yotei. The new setting also means a new protagonist in Atsu, a mercenary who has returned to Ezo seeking vengeance for her family’s murder at the hands of the “Yotei Six.”
Like the first game, Ghost of Yotei thematically and aesthetically borrows heavily from Japanese samurai cinema, especially the works of Akira Kurosawa. It can be seen in the world design with the striking color contrasts and felt in the music and dialogue over the game’s estimated 60-hour playtime to complete it.
The visuals, in particular, are so striking that it has made me do something I don’t typically do – take screenshots. The landscapes combined with the changing weather and time of day have resulted in some of the most eye-catching images I have ever seen in a game.
When people have to take a moment to make sure a landscape shot from a game isn’t a real landscape, it really does say something about that game’s visuals.
Aesthetic is only one half of the equation, though, and while Ghost of Yotei has plenty of style, does it have substance.
The answer – yes.
As of this writing, I am still playing Ghost of Yotei and have not yet completed the main plot. However, I feel I can still say with full confidence that this is one of the most engrossing narratives I have experienced in a game in quite a while. Atsu, portrayed wonderfully by Erica Ishii, is exactly the type believable, sympathetic, and flawed protagonist players would hope to see in a game that doubles as a love letter to samurai cinema. The characters she meets and interacts with most often feel like real people who players can buy following someone like Atsu during her journey for revenge.
It has, admittedly, been hard to stay on that narrative because of the wealth of things to do.
Sucker Punch has managed to design the various sub-plots, side quests, and random encounters in a way that feel genuinely rewarding and worth doing. It is a feeling that can get lost in some games due to simple “copy-and-paste” mechanics design with little thought or time given to making these activities worthwhile.
All this comes together to form one of my personal favorite games of the year and a reminder of what happens when a studio is able to make a AAA game the right way.
In the roughly six years of All Elite Wrestling’s existence, the wrestling industry has been through a lot as a whole. AEW was no exception with plenty of highs and lows in the company’s young history, but one thing remained constant – great in-ring action. The action reflected an almost all-star roster of wrestlers from all over the world to make AEW “where the best wrestle.”
AEW in 2025 may exemplify that idea better than any as the promotion has experienced a massive bounce-back in quality, especially on their weekly TV shows, thanks to one of the deepest and most talented roster assembled in wrestling today.
It got me thinking on a very simple question – is AEW’s 2025 roster the greatest ever assembled in wrestling history?
And, to be blunt, I think there is an argument to be had at the very least. The main event scene is as good a place to start as any and a photo that became a sensation among wrestling fans.
“Attack for the Next Generation”
Three stars had been front and center in AEW all through 2025, leading the charge as the company began its resurgence.
First was Swerve Strickland, who has made AEW his home since 2022 following his release from WWE in November 2021. The Mogul went from tag gold with Keith Lee to singles star, taking some time to find his footing before crossing paths with another in the photo above. From there, Swerve ascended to become a world champion in April 2024 and solidified himself as one of the true faces of AEW with bloody wars against the likes of Jon Moxley and going toe-to-toe with Bryan Danielson, wrestler-to-wrestler.
Then there was the ‘Aerial Assassin,’ ‘The Commonwealth Kingpin,’ or the ‘Billy GOAT’ Will Ospreay. The Essex-native already made his presence in AEW known while still with New Japan Pro-Wrestling when the two promotions began their partnership. After stealing the show at the first two Forbidden Door events and battling Chris Jericho at Wembley Stadium for All In: London 2023, Ospreay officially signed with AEW in November 2023 and began as a full-time roster member in March 2024. It became clear to everyone watching that Ospreay was going to be one of the top guys in AEW for a very long time.
Finally, we have the longest-tenured AEW star of the three and a legitimate day one guy – ‘Hangman’ Adam Page. What can be said about the now-two time AEW Men’s World Champion that hasn’t already been said about the “anxious millennial cowboy?” The story of ‘Hangman’ Page is almost the story of AEW, going through many ups-and-downs by forces outside and within. However, one thing was made perfectly clear after winning his second world title at All In: Texas 2025 – Page truly is AEW’s main character and the company’s current ace.
The photo above was taken the day of Forbidden Door 2025, which saw all three compete in wildly different matches. Page defended his title from longtime rival Maxwell Jacob Friedman, or MJF for short, while Swerve challenged Kazuchika Okada for the AEW Unified Championship and Will Ospreay teamed with Kenny Omega, Darby Allin, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Kota Ibushi to battle Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Gabe Kidd, and the Young Bucks in a Lights Out Steel Cage match. By then end of the night, though, only one of the three would be able to wrestle at the next episode of Dynamite.
Swerve and Ospreay both left Forbidden Door needing to go under the knife to address long-standing injuries. Swerve underwent surgery to fix a torn meniscus he had been dealing with since 2019. While Ospreay hoped to avoid surgery, he ultimately got it to address two herniated discs he was dealing with for nearly a year and were starting to press on his spine. Both surgeries were ultimately successful, but the two still have a ways to go until they are ready to be back in the ring.
Injuries aside, these three helped set the standard for 2025 by which the rest of the men’s roster would be judged against. Despite these lofty standards, it doesn’t appear to have been a problem.
Heading in to 2025, AEW already had one of the deepest and most-talented rosters in the modern wrestling industry. Jay White, Kenny Omega, MJF, Konosuke Takeshita, Kazuchika Okada, Mark Briscoe, Bandido, Brody King, The Hurt Syndicate, FTR, and Adam Copeland were among just a few of the names that populated this proverbial all star roster of talent spread over generations and coming from all over the world. AEW would go on to add names like Josh Alexander, Kevin Knight, ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey, Hechicero, Ace Austin, and El Clon, better known by his former name Arez, and even brought back Andrade el Idolo after he was fired from WWE heading into the final months of 2025.
The depth is such that even Ring of Honor has benefitted, with Bandido having a banner year as RoH Men’s World Champion including two potential match of the year candidates during his reign. Rush and Sammy Guevara found each other on Ring of Honor and have given the two the best footing they’ve had under the AEW umbrella in a long time. Shane Taylor Promotions looks poised to close out the year strong, as well, as Lee Moriarty continues his record-setting reign as Pure Champion and Shane Taylor and the Infantry won the RoH Six-Man Tag Team Championship at Death Before Dishonor in August.
Somehow, in spite of several notable injuries, the roster is in such a good position that the TNT, World Tag Team, and World Trios titles have all received “shots in the arm” and look to end the year in stronger places than they were in at the start of the year.
Then there is the women’s roster, which has had one of the strongest years in the company’s history. Two women stood at centerstage for much of the year to help wave the flag of women’s wrestling – Mercedes Mone and ‘Timeless’ Toni Storm.
Who Run The World?
‘Timeless’ Toni Storm has been a mainstay at the top of AEW’s women’s division since becoming ‘Timeless’ in 2023 after the end of her second AEW Women’s World Title reign. She has been a constant source of “cinema” on AEW TV during that time, with her mentorship of and later rivalry with Mariah May being central for much of it. She would entertain crowds with her antics before getting into bloody wars in the ring, typically with the title on the line.
By contrast, Mercedes’ time in AEW has been one of the former-Sasha Banks chasing and making history in and out of the company. Mercedes officially debuted with AEW in March 2024 after making a cameo appearance at All In 2023 and months of rumors around her future. Since then, she has toured the world wrestling for AEW and various other promotions, ranging from major international promotions like CMLL in Mexico to random, small independent promotions across Europe. As of writing, she is poised to break Jade Cargill’s record as the longest-reigning TBS Champion in AEW history and is one title away from tying Ultimo Dragon’s ten simultaneous title reigns but has made it clear she wants to break that record.
The two would ultimately meet at All In: Texas for the AEW Women’s World Championship in one of the four biggest matches featured on the show. In what was a shock to no one, the two had an incredible match that ended with Toni retaining her world title and giving Mercedes her first loss in AEW.
Also on All In: Texas were the men’s and women’s Casino Gauntlet matches where the winners won a guaranteed world title match.
While most enjoyed the men’s, the women’s gauntlet match was met with widely positive feedback and helped reflect how far the division had come since AEW began in 2019. The women’s division had been a constant source of criticism in those early years for the relative lack of screen time afforded to the women and placement on the shows.
However, there were still bright spots in the division as Riho became AEW’s first Women’s World Champion and, along with Emi Sakura and future-world champion Hikaru Shida, give many Western viewers their first taste of joshi wrestling. Britt Baker, Kris Statlander, Penelope Ford, Nyla Rose, and few other independent standouts who hadn’t been signed by WWE also helped the division find its footing in those early days
The division would improve even more with the addition of talents like Toni Storm, Mercedes Mone, Athena, Thunder Rosa, Ruby Soho, Willow Nightingale, Jamie Hayter, Megan Bayne, Thekla, Deonna Purrazzo, and Alex Windsor. AEW was also able to cultivate a number of young talent such as Julia Hart, Skye Blue, Red Velvet, Billie Starkz, and Anna Jay who have become standout homegrown stars.
And there has been plenty of other accolades for the women’s division to celebrate beyond Toni and Mercedes’ accomplishments.
Athena has continued her record-setting, 1,000+ day reign as RoH Women’s World Champion while also winning the Casino Gauntlet in her home state of Texas and challenging for the AEW Women’s World Title at Forbidden Door. New champions are also set to be crowned as AEW has officially announced Women’s World Tag Team Championships, which the fans have demanded for some time, and the RoH Women’s Pure Championship.
2025 will also see the first women’s Blood and Guts match take place in Greensboro, North Carolina, though no teams have been announced at the time of writing.
Measuring Up
Looking at the roster in 2025, I personally believe this may be the single greatest roster of talent ever assembled in the history of professional wrestling. This isn’t meant as a slight against other truly great rosters such as Jim Crockett Promotion’s rosters during the 1980s, the famous “SmackDown Six” era, and NXT Black and Gold’s prime from late 2016 to early 2020, all of which were also populated with future hall of fame talent that would take being a booker or promoter of historically abysmal proportions to not draw crowds with.
Instead, it just appears to be a case of AEW coming along at the right in wrestling and proving it is here to stay that led to this wealth of talent. When one faction can have names like Kyle Fletcher, Konosuke Takeshita, Kazuchika Okada, and Andrade el Idolo, alone, it gives you an idea of just how deep the well of talent is in AEW.
It is a roster that truly embodies global wrestling and what it has to offer fans in 2025. On one show, a fan can see Jon Moxley and Darby Allin try to destroy each other in a wild no-DQ match, Bandido and Hechicero showcase true lucha libre, a Toni Storm promo which has taken on a life of its own, the best in Japanese joshi and puroreso, and technicians putting on a mat classic, and none of it feels out of place.
And new talent will only continue to filter in, as well, especially on the women’s side with the additions of the Women’s World Tag and RoH Women’s Pure titles. While I could sit here and provide a laundry list of names I’d want to see in the division, especially with new gold on the way, it wouldn’t be fair to anyone I’d leave out simply for space or even just forgetting their name. I can say that as of late it seems AEW may have eyes on some names I have been beating the drum for in recent months which has gotten me even more excited for what’s to come.
Get Used To It
AEW is here to stay, that is something that has become crystal clear over the last year. While numbers haven’t been made public, Tony Khan and reports from outlets such as Fightful have indicated AEW and WBD were very happy with AEW finally making it to HBO Max with simulcast for its weekly TV and more recently pay-per-view after the success of All Out.
Even if it won’t be number one over WWE, which honestly may never happen given just how big WWE has become, it doesn’t mean AEW will be any less of an enticing destination for wrestlers wanting to prove they have what it takes “where the best wrestle.” It almost guarantees anyone one the independents or working internationally who pride themselves on their ability between the ropes will likely end up in AEW. More importantly for the talent, it means another place to make good money and make a full-time living in an industry where it can be very tough to do so.
AEW hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down, either, as many independent standouts and a few notable former-WWE names have popped up across AEW and RoH TV over the course of 2025. Adam Priest, Aleah James, Lacey Lane, Jordan Oliver, Alex Zayne, and Man Like DeReiss are just a few of those names who have gotten a look at in that time and whenever names a brought back consistently, it is usually a good sign for their future. And considering some of the names, it could be a very good sign for AEW’s future as well.
Have you ever had a cloud hanging over your head when it comes to shows or movies? That one that you keep telling yourself “I’ll get to it eventually” but the longer you put it off, the more it bites at you?
THAT…….was One Piece for me.
So to tip my age a bit, One Piece is something I have been aware of since I was a kid. I was still in elementary school when anime first crossed the Pacific and began airing with English dubbing on TV in the States. Despite my exposure to anime thanks to Cartoon Network’s original Toonami blocks, I ended up missing One Piece at the time.
Anime would weave in and out of my life, with it coming back in recent years thanks in small part to the Covid-19 pandemic. I would binge what was available of Attack on Titan, Seven Deadly Sins, one of Gundam’s many series, and revisiting childhood classics like Dragon Ball Z and Cowboy Bebop. I eventually started One Piece, getting well over 100 episodes in before just falling off as the world opened back up.
Then came Netflix’s live action adaptation of One Piece in 2023, a series that was already being met with skepticism in the wake of the live action Cowboy Bebop series’ poor reception. Fan concerns ended up being proven wrong as 2023’s One Piece was a huge hit with fans and critics who applauded the work in bringing such a vibrant and crazy world to life. Despite this, I still wouldn’t pick the anime back up.
Cut to early 2025 and I finally decide to pick One Piece back up and continue my journey with the Straw Hat pirates. I knew it would likely take a good amount of time to catch up on well over 1100 episodes. Two months and almost nothing but One Piece later, I was fully caught up and felt stupid for waiting so long to watch this series.
I finally understood the hype around this incredible world of pirates, devil fruits, and so much more created by Eiichiro Oda. It led me down a rabbit hole in the following months as I dug further and further into One Piece, from the state of the Straw Hats’ journey to massive revelations about Rocks D. Xebec and just how big his impact on the world actually was. The more I learned, the more I needed to know.
The hardest thing to believe is that this sprawling story was originally envisioned as a five-year project that would lead to the Straw Hats battling the Yonko, or Four Emperors, who were intended to be the series’ original main villains. Considering how long it took to even get out of the East Blue at the start of One Piece, I don’t know if there was ever a possibility of that happening.
Outside of the world, itself, One Piece also shows how far anime has come artistically since it premiered in 1999. The series has always followed Oda’s vision faithfully, but it is like night and day watching clips of a fights from those first 100 to visual feasts that were the fights on Egghead between Gear 5 Luffy against Admiral Kizaru or Zoro’s duel with Rob Lucci. It is hard to believe it is the same series, even more so with special projects like Fan Letter or the work put into one of the films.
At the very least, I was happy to finally give One Piece my time when I did because it now means I’ll be able to enjoy its run to the end with everyone else. Oda has already confirmed One Piece has entered its Final Saga and fans will get to see what fate has in store for Luffy and his crew. And with everything already going on in the manga, Oda isn’t playing subtle when it comes to telling fans just how much more insane the state of One Piece will get as it nears the end.
I’m the Minimum Wage Nerd and its a pleasure to meet you!
As my name suggests, I’m just someone trying to enjoy their fandoms while getting by at minimum wage and, unfortunately for me, I have a fair few. One second I could be digging into the state of the comic book film and TV industry and the next second, I’m debating the state of the NFL or a particular team.
This place is just meant as a space for me to share my thoughts on anything and everything that catches my eye on any given day, so don’t expect a specific schedule. I can promise I will post multiple times a week, just that some weeks may have more or less posts than others.
While I don’t do much social media, you can follow me at @kbillznbitz.bsky.social if you want an easier way to keep up with posts.
Minimum Wage Nerd 