All In London, All Elite Wrestling’s marquee pay-per-view, is nearly a month away. Before we get to Wembley Stadium, though, the young promotion squeezed out one more big show for its fanbase: AEW Redemption 2026.
Emanating from the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Tony Khan and company brought our neighbors to the north 10 matches to enjoy on the main card. As usual, there was a lot to like about what we saw on July 26, and there were some hiccups, so let’s talk about it all.
Hits for AEW Redemption
Kenny Omega vs. Kevin Knight
This match served as a litmus test for Knight as a potential main eventer, and he comfortably passed. The TNT Champion’s athleticism and timing always stand out, but they were accentuated against Omega, who turned in another brilliant in-ring performance. We’ll get to the post-match angle in a bit.
Willow Nightingale wins the Women’s World Championship
Once Nightingale won the Casino Battle Royal to earn a title shot at this show, everyone figured she was winning the belt, but that didn’t diminish the moment. She and Thekla set the tone from the opening bell, forgoing the usual pro wrestling formalities in favor of heavy strikes, and it kept a tiring Montreal crowd engaged with the action. The rollup finish doesn’t give Nightingale the definitive win fans would’ve wanted, but it opens the door for a rematch with Thekla down the line.
Speaking of, the former champ deserves some kudos for her time with the title. Her reign suffered a bit from a lack of big-time babyface challengers, but “The Toxic Spider” held things together with her magnetism. Hopefully, AEW gives her something substantial to do at All In.
Maya World wins the TBS Championship
Another feel-good win in the women’s division, and an adequate match. It’s nice to see AEW maintain Maya World’s momentum after the Owen Hart Cup. They went with the old “heel veteran overestimates less experienced opponent, and it costs them” finish, but with World hitting her finisher and pinning Shida, making for a more satisfying conclusion.
Kyle Fletcher vs. Bandido
This was the top contender for Match of the Night. Fletcher continues to show everyone why he’s considered one of the best in the world, and Bandido proved why he should be in the conversation for that, too, with another great effort on PPV. At some point, the Ring of Honor World Champion needs to win some AEW singles gold, so hopefully, that happens sooner rather than later.
Andrade El Idolo vs. Mark Davis
You could tell that the crowd started to fatigue by the time this match came around, but they still enjoyed it and got a nice clean finish and a title change in the end. It sucks that Davis’ title reign got cut short given his recent output as a solo act, but there was no way Andrade was losing so soon after his big babyface turn.
Six-Man Ladder Match for International Title
A fun opening spotfest. Everyone got their stuff in and looked impressive in the process. Most critically, the right man went over, as “Speedball” Mike Bailey got the win in his home province and locked in a rematch with Kyle Fletcher that every fan wants to see.
Cope & Cage vs. The Death Riders
The decision to have Claudio Castagnoli and PAC attack Adam Copeland before the bell, knowing that he and Christian Cage enter separately, was a shrewd creative choice. From there, the two teams put together an acceptable tag match. It felt like a formality since everyone knew Cope & Cage vs. The Young Bucks was the direction going into All In, but there are worse time-passer bouts that one could book.
Misses for AEW Redemption
The show-closing angle with Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega, and The Death Riders
There were a few moments on this show that didn’t work the way AEW hoped, and this was the glaring example. Ospreay saving Omega from the Death Riders was okay, but taking a One Winged Angel afterward made him look like a gullible chump, which is not how you want your challenger for the world title at your biggest show to look.
They remedied this with Ospreay, Omega, and Moxley via two strong segments on the July 29 Dynamite, but at the time, it left fans more confused than intrigued.
The story of The Young Bucks vs. Jon Moxley and Will Ospreay
If you judge this match on its workrate, there’s little to argue about; that’s what you expect out of Moxley, Ospreay, and the best tag team of all time. The match’s story is, well, another story.
Building the match around Nick Jackson suffering a head injury was fine, and Jackson sold it well, but it’s hard to take the severity of it seriously when the referee does little to try to stop the match. The melodrama surrounding Ospreay hesitating to exploit the injury didn’t work either. The whole thing felt a little too over-the-top in execution.
The Dogs vs. The Bang Bang Gang
Bloodless chain matches are never worth the time, and this match showed why. It seemed like AEW only added the stipulation to differentiate it from the other tag bouts on the card. That’s a bad reason to book gimmick matches, and it was a sign that, at the very least, they could’ve saved this for TV or another PPV.
The underwhelming finish didn’t help matters, either, as the Death Riders’ interference gave the War Dogs the win, ensuring this feud continues for at least a few more weeks.
Chris Jericho vs. Tommaso Ciampa
It wouldn’t surprise anyone if the chain match got nerfed in favor of this No Holds Barred brawl featuring the silly “Painmaker”. The goofiness didn’t stop there, as this supposed ultraviolent match stopped for a few minutes so that Ciampa could assault a plush version of the Canadiens mascot. The height of nonsense came during the finish, as Jericho forced Ciampa to quit by THREATENING TO KILL HIM WITH A POWER DRILL.
Yes, attempting to lobotomize someone should force them to give up, and AEW has tested the boundaries of violence before. And sure, the tool has become a focal point of the Jericho/Ciampa feud. But at the risk of sounding like a pearl-clutching “fan”, this was a step too far. Given the janky tone of the match, though, you could say it fits with everything else we saw in this one.
That’s all for the AEW Redemption 2026 Review for July 26, 2026! If you would like even more AEW Coverage from Chris Jeter, check out more of his articles right here on Let Them Wrestle.
