AEW did not exactly hand out a gentle reminder of why All Out matters. At the sold-out Now Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, the fifth edition of the show delivered the sort of hard-edged reset that keeps a card like this relevant: surprise outcomes, returning names, and enough future stakes to make the whole thing feel like more than just another stop on the calendar.
The cleanest headline from the night was Jungle Jack Perry beating Katsuyori Shibata by surprise three count, which immediately mattered for one reason: Samoa Joe returned. That is the kind of development that changes the temperature of a show in an instant, because it does not sit in a vacuum. Perry has already been tied to the question of where Samoa Joe is, and now the answer is simple enough — he is back, and that means a future collision is no longer a tease but a very real direction.
All Out had stakes built into the card
This was not a show lacking context. On August 30 at All In, Jungle Jack Perry lost in the Casino Gauntlet, while Katsuyori Shibata, Hook, Anthony Bowens and Action Andretti fell to Lio Rush and The Rascalz. Earlier still, on All Out: Buy In, Skye Blue and Julia Hart lost to Kris Statlander and Harley Cameron. And on September 19, Queen Aminatana and Mina Shirakawa beat Emily Jaye and Georgia South on Collision. The point is obvious: AEW had already been threading outcomes into future possibilities before the bell rang at All Out itself.
That matters because All Out is supposed to be one of those cards that pushes things forward rather than just fills time. With title implications and contender lines hanging over the event, the night needed to justify its place in the calendar. The sold-out setting helped. The fifth edition tag helped. But what really sells a show like this is momentum, and Perry’s win — especially the manner of it — did exactly that.
Championship pressure still looms
The bigger championship picture remains the other major force in the room. Will Ospreay was looking to defend his AEW Men's World Championship against Jon Moxley, and that alone tells you the scale of the evening. A title match like that does not sit beside the rest of the card; it defines it. When the top belt is in play, everything else has to justify itself against that standard.
That is why the return of Samoa Joe feels significant rather than decorative. AEW does not need every answer right away, but it does need consequences, and this one is obvious enough. Perry’s win now has a future attached to it, and future stakes are what stop a results show from becoming a mere list of names and scores.
In that sense, All Out delivered what it was supposed to deliver: movement. Not every result needs to be a masterpiece to matter. Sometimes a sharp turn, a surprise finish, and a returning heavyweight are enough to make a card feel alive. On September 26, AEW got exactly that.
