It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means!

…Oh wait. It means All Elite Wrestling fans experiencing another desolate week of no Dynamite. Oh well! Let’s break up the melancholy with some speculation!

Who doesn’t love a tournament!? Wrestling is always better with a tournament. Obviously we should create a bracket, right?

All Elite Wrestling debuted the World Title Eliminator tournament last year, which concluded with the first epic clash of Kenny Omega and Hangman Adam Page after their tragic championship loss at All Out. That amazing feud will come to a head at Full Gear as the two former best friends clash, but there must be a follow-up challenger!

The tournament starts this week on Rampage with the finals concluding at Full Gear. Let’s look at the contestants.

• Jon Moxley
• Bryan Danielson
• Eddie Kingston
• Lance Archer
• Orange Cassidy
• Powerhouse Hobbs
• Dustin Rhodes
• Dark Order’s 10

At first glance, one has to believe that Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson would be heavy favorites for the finals. A clash between Moxley and Danielson would headline any promotion in the world. But let’s get a better landscape of the tournament by looking at the bracket and going through each matchup towards the finals!

The actual bracket makes it even more likely that we’re in for a Danielson/Moxley finals, but is AEW going to be that obvious? Will we get swerved by an upset? Let’s go through each matchup and speculate forward.

Round 1

Orange Cassidy vs. Powerhouse Hobbs

The Eliminator tournament begins this Friday on Rampage. This match was taped on last Saturday’s Dynamite, but it’s of the utmost importance for me to avoid spoilers. Thus, I don’t know how this turns out! Perhaps I’m completely wrong in my analysis. Maybe I should look at spoilers prior to predicting the tournament so my results fare a little better.

Orange Cassidy and Powerhouse Hobbs could not be any different in terms of style, but I think this match plays out one way. Powerhouse Hobbs will, most likely, dominate the majority of the match until a massive comeback by Freshly Squeezed leads to a victory. I love Hobbs and do not believe he should be losing, but neither should Orange Cassidy. Cassidy steals a creative pinfall out of nowhere and advances in the tournament.

Lance Archer vs. Eddie Kingston

Lance Archer versus Eddie Kingston is up next, and this match could go either way. Both guys are perpetually losing big matches in AEW and could use a good win against stiff competition. Regardless of who wins, it will be two hard hitters trying to inflict as much pain on the other. Lance Archer loves saying, “Everybody dies,” but he might need to do just that to pin Eddie Kingston.

I originally was going to predict the Mad King to win this match, but I think it would even more interesting to have Lance Archer beat him to set up a semi-final matchup against the winner of the next match. I’m doing a little fantasy booking with this result, but I honestly think this one could go either way. I’ll take Archer to pull off the upset to continue the Suzuki-Gun, Kingston, and Moxley mini-feud. Maybe he gets a little help from the Murder Grandpa…

Dustin Rhodes vs. Bryan Danielson

Here we have our first match where I have zero doubts of who’s winning. The match should be fantastic regardless, but Bryan Danielson should absolutely win this one. It’s actually the first round matchup I’m most looking forward to because of the two legends locking horns. It’s not too often that Danielson matches up with an opponent with more experience than him, let alone someone with TEN years more experience.

What I’m most looking forward to seeing is how they structure the match. Dustin has absolutely no business being as spry as he is for 52 and Danielson might be better than he’s ever been. Both men are ring generals and masters of this craft. However the match plays out will undoubtedly be fantastic. One thing is for certain though, and Bryan Danielson will be moving on.

Jon Moxley vs. Dark Order’s 10

All jokes about my crappy graphics aside, how good is the AEW graphic design department?! The design of the already scheduled matches are phenomenal and put my two cent Photoshop skills to shame.

Anyway…

Jon Moxley and Preston Vance can go one of two ways, but both options aren’t great for the muscle of the Dark Order. Either Moxley continues his shift into the darkness and squashes Vance, or the match lasts for a little while, Vance makes Moxley sweat for five to ten minutes, and Moxley still finishes him off. There’s absolutely zero chance that Vance pulls of the upset and I think Moxley annihilates him to set up a square off with Orange Cassidy.

Which is far more interesting because Moxley destroyed Orange Cassidy’s friend, Wheeler Yuta, on Dynamite this past week.

Semi-Finals

The Semi-finals feature two first time matchups between three AEW stalwarts and a legendary newcomer. After four awesome first round matchups, both semi-final matches look to be phenomenal bouts, albeit kind of predictable.

Jon Moxley vs. Orange Cassidy

After destroying Pres10 Vance, Jon Moxley advances to face Orange Cassidy. Freshly Squeezed will look for some retribution after Moxley laid out his friend, Wheeler Yuta. Will Moxley’s path of destruction continue through Cassidy?

Yes, I believe it will. Cassidy is an incredible babyface-in-peril who always escapes the jaws of defeat, but I think Moxley is on a crash course for a date at Full Gear. After a phenomenal bout, Moxley hits multiple Paradigm Shifts to put Orange Cassidy down. If Moxley is taking a turn towards the dark side, maybe we see him take out Cassidy for a little while. Taking out the beloved Cassidy would be a phenomenal way to throw heat onto Moxley.

Bryan Danielson vs. Lance Archer

Bryan Danielson and Lance Archer is another picture perfect example of a match I want hooked into my veins and didn’t realize could ever be possible in 2021. I absolutely adore how AEW is booking Bryan Danielson. He gets to wrestle like its 2005 again and us fans cannot be happier about it. I’m sure he loves it too!

Like the previous matchup, I think there’s only one way this could go. Danielson survives a savage brawl with the Murderhawk Monster by barely tapping him out. Protect the monster while securing Danielson’s spot at Full Gear.

Finals

Jon Moxley vs. Bryan Danielson

As soon as the Eliminator Tournament bracket was released, this was always going to be the final matchup. I cannot foresee a different path for Full Gear. It will be awesome watching these two battling to decide the next challenger for the winner of Hangman versus Omega. Both men are in their ultimate form and a bout between them could be a match of the year contender.

One question left to answer: who wins?

My first instinct is to answer, “we all do,” but there needs to be a decisive winner. Despite what that graphic says, Bryan has not lost in AEW. That picture was pulled directly from the Roster page on AEW’s website and we can discuss the lack of accuracy of the AEW ranking system another time. Danielson’s one loss was in a trios match against the Elite and he has two more wins over Minoru Suzuki and Bobby Fish. Danielson will not have lost a singles match in AEW going into his match with Moxley.

I think that streak ends at Full Gear. Jon Moxley needs another awesome run as a singles competitor. Ever since losing the AEW World Championship to Kenny Omega, he’s been in a tag team with Eddie Kingston. While yes, that tag team is awesome, Jon Moxley excels as a singles competitor with an edge. I think the man who destroyed Kenny Omega in his debut at Double or Nothing returns and beats Bryan Danielson in a classic that possibly steals the show at Full Gear.

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Who do you have winning the tournament? Is it the same as me?

Most people’s brackets are probably similar to mine, but I thought it would be fun going through it since there’s no Dynamite during the week. Regardless, it should be a fun tournament!

Let me know in the comments what you think is going to happen!