Will Ospreay, Mercedes Moné and Real Winners and Losers of AEW WrestleDream Match Card

The 2026 edition of WrestleDream featured championship and a first-time special match for the AEW Men's World Championship, airing from Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Florida.

Will Ospreay overcame the odds in Clockwork Carnage to retain his AEW Men's World Championship while Mercedes Moné defeated her top rival Thekla to successfully defend her gold.

Swerve Strickland and New Level fell to Hangman Adam Page and Brodido. Jon Moxley pushed through the pain to retain the Continental Championship against Mark Davis.

This was only the foundation of a fun night of All Elite Wrestling action. For all the real winners and losers from WrestleDream, keep reading.

It has been an odd start for Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley. The Motor City Machine Guns have slowly found their footing in AEW, barely appearing to date.

In some ways, their match with FTR was the true introduction to AEW for MCMG, who finally got to show off what they could do.

It was a long battle against Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler that started on the Tailgate Brawl and bled 15 minutes into the main show.

While capturing the first win in a Best of 5 series was nice, it was even more important that Sabin and Shelley looked like one of the best tag teams in AEW right now.

The best bet is that this series will lead to The Young Bucks facing MCMG. By the end of that match, AEW fans will chose if they have bought into this veteran team.

This was a great start to selling the unfamiliar fans on what they can do.

Mercedes Moné continues to show she is one of the best wrestlers in the world, delivering matches every time out that rival even the top men in AEW right now.

She brought out the best match from Thekla of her run in AEW. It is rare that heel vs. heel works this well, but because of the personality and charisma of both women, both were supported through this battle.

This was a definitive win for The CEO, who stands far and above the rest of the women's roster right now.

Anyone could step up to Moné next week, but at least until Toni Storm returns, no one else is a clear candidate to dethrone the Women's world champion.

What most matters for The CEO will be the company building strong stories around her. Who is going to be built to step up to The CEO's level?

The biggest winner of WrestleDream was the man in the least anticipated match of the show.

After Nick Wayne defeated Jericho at Grand Slam: France, it looked likely Y2J would clearly establish himself as the better man at the pay-per-view.

Instead, Jericho let Wayne show out at WrestleDream and find a way to defeat Y2J a second time and seal a victory in this rivalry.

Hopefully, Wayne can move on from this angle after this win and begin a true ascent up the roster.

At just 21 years old, The Prodigy could quickly become one of the defining stars of the next era in AEW, running with these two wins over a legend to gold and glory.

Updated 2026 AEW WrestleDream Card and Predictions for Match Order

Don Callis took a big risk in putting Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight against The Young Bucks, and it did not pay off.

Much like the other tag teams Callis has assembled, this alliance fell apart when it mattered most, which allowed Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson to take them down.

This tag title match also cost one or both of Fletcher and Knight a spot in the Clockwork Carnage match, which meant Callis had just one client in the contest, Kazuchika Okada.

The Rainmaker did not win that match nor did Mark Davis take the Continental Championship, so The Callis Family left WrestleDream with no extra gold or a clear path to more gold in the near-future.

The Family is the least dangerous it has been in a while, and it is more likely than ever that The Family might lose more members, especially a frustrated Protostar.

Queen Aminata quite nearly pinned Persephone and won her first AEW gold if it was not for the intervention of Hyan.

This was the latest heartbreaker for Aminata, who still has yet to win either AEW or Ring of Honor gold despite her standing as one of the company's best women.

Of every woman in this 4-Way battle, Aminata was the most deserving of taking that title given her longevity with AEW.

That win may still be in the cards, but for now, she must wait another day for an opportunity one on one against Persephone.

When Persephone captured the TBS Championship while still the CMLL world women's champion, the possibility this would be a short reign was high.

Her constant responsibilities for CMLL though have not gotten in the way of Persephone working one of the most hectic schedules of any woman in AEW.

This would have been an easy time to move the title without costing the CMLL champion a pinfall or submission.

Instead, Persephone has now technically defeated all the major rivals to her TBS Championship.

It should be interesting to see how AEW follows this win up as it looks more likely than ever that she is at least getting to Winter is Coming in Monterrey, Mexico with two titles.

Tommaso Ciampa came into AEW by immediately establishing his desire to be a champion. His short TNT Championship reign made clear he was going to win many titles.

Since that time though, The Psycho Killer has struggled to find his way back to gold. He fell short in his rivalry with Jericho and suffered multiple championship losses.

This National Championship opportunity against Andrade El Ídolo might have been the last opportunity for Ciampa to capture gold again in 2026, and he fell short.

As great as the match was, El Ídolo did not need to win this to keep his momentum, especially as he continues to carry the Casino Gauntlet contract for a guaranteed world title shot.

Where does The Psycho Killer go from here? He has consistently delivered on big stages, but he cannot keep getting spots like this only to lose.

Swerve Strickland made a firm statement by bringing in Kofi and Austin Creed to take the World Trios Championships from Hangman Adam Page, Brody King and Bandido.

He wanted to take everything away from The Cowboy, but it seems to have only motivated Hangman further, who rebounded with Brodido to take the gold back.

The Mogul saw himself to be the lesser man when it mattered most, and New Level saw the pettiness that drives Swerve take over.

What will become of Swerve's alliance with New Level? Only time will tell, but Kofi and Creed clearly did not agree with his attitude.

This should free up New Level to go after The Young Bucks, which is what AEW fans are most clambering for, leaving Swerve alone again.

Hangman Adam Page, Brody King and Bandido have reclaimed the World Trios Championships, and no one was happier than the ROH world champion.

Bandido took the first fall in this contest and rallied his team to make the comeback. He kept his team focused and drove their energy.

It was an ultimate babyface performance even before he hit both Kofi and Creed with a Double Diving Spanish Fly and pinned Swerve for the deciding fall.

This was Bandido's third AEW title win, and he recently passed the day limit for the most time as ROH world champion at 710 days.

It is clear that the luchador is a made star and will be one of AEW's top stars going forward, even if he remains a trios performer first into 2027.

The Mad Dragon has arrived in AEW. Ilja Dragunov made his first entrance in the company to a wild pop under the same name he made popular on a worldwide stage with WWE.

While he delivered many times in the ring with WWE, he was never treated as a big deal on Raw or SmackDown in the way he was in his introduction at WrestleDream.

The road is still uncertain in front of Dragunov. He was not given an immediate feud, so how AEW sees him is still not fully established.

It looks good to start though as a fresh path forward is exactly what The Mad Dragon needed.

It may not look like it was a successful night for Mark Davis, given he lost in his bid for the Continental Championship, but this was a career performance against Jon Moxley.

The two battled in the most emotional contest of the night, driving home that Mox was fighting through his own pain in recently losing his close friend Pac.

By the close, Mox and Davis both had spilled enough blood to permanently stain the canvas.

This match solidified Davis as one of the scariest heel monsters in wrestling right now and will likely lead to him capturing more accolades soon.

Losers: Konosuke Takeshita and "Speedball" Mike Bailey

Someone had to get eliminated before the final stretch of Clockwork Carnage, but it was disappointing to lose Konosuke Takeshita and "Speedball" MIke Bailey.

Both are great competitors that deserve a major spotlight. They guided the first stage of the action as the second and third participants, and both did not go down easily.

The Alpha especially should eventually be in the world title picture in AEW, though he will need to collide with Kazuchika Okada again before that.

Speedball is an impressive athlete that always over-delivers with opportunities. If he is out of the world title picture, he should at least be gearing up for another Continental Classic run.

Will Ospreay came up with the idea of Clockwork Carnage then after one run in Pro-Wrestling: EVE, he was comfortable running it on a major AEW PPV.

This main event was not the best contest of the night, but it was still an exciting home stretch to WrestleDream that showed why AEW should run this concept more.

Ospreay tested the time limit and ran it all the way down to the wire to protect his AEW Men's World Championship.

At the end, he also has established multiple big names as future challengers, especially Adam Copeland and Samoa Joe, which would make for exciting PPV main events.

Whatever comes next, Ospreay has certainly showed he can steer the ship in interesting and exciting directions.