It feels like it should be some kind of illegal to call a “Timeless” Toni Storm match a “dud,” but here we are. Storm has run through every one of her challengers, from TBS Champion Mercedes Mone, to Megan Bayne, to ROH Women’s Champion Athena. Not a single woman has been able to dethrone her, despite many fans, myself included, thinking it would be either Moné or Athena. Now, she’s facing three women at All Out, and I can’t say I’m excited for the match. While the in-ring action will more than likely be good, it seems like the outcome is going to be extremely predictable and it honestly just feels extremely thrown together.

Storm is going up against Thekla (who is getting her first shot at the gold), Jamie Hayter, and Kris Statlander, and I think this match is a dud because I don’t believe any of these women can stop Storm. Statlander is the most convincing out of the three due to her ongoing “will she or won’t she join” storyline with the Death Riders. While I think I can speak for quite a few of us here at WINC that we believe Statlander is amazing, her winning the title off Death Riders interference, almost right after the Death Riders main storyline takeover with Jon Moxley and the AEW World Championship, would just not work. And, if Marina Shafir or Wheeler Yuta cost her the title, that’s also going to suck, as that storyline just doesn’t need to continue.

Thekla may have Julia Hart and Skye Blue in her corner, but she just hasn’t been built up to seem like a formidable challenger to Storm. I feel the same way about Hayter. While she’s a former women’s champion herself, she’s just been out a little too long for me to think she has any shot at defeating Storm in a fatal four-way.

I don’t want to seem like I’m blaming AEW by any means, but they could have anticipated WWE’s counter-programming a bit better. They made the right move by changing the pay-per-view time, but I think Tony Khan could have spiced up this match, and others, a little more. Storm just basically said she wanted to face all of these women on an episode of “AEW Collision” a few weeks back for no real reason other than they were all brawling in the ring together, with Hayter running out to help.

It’s so unclear who defeats Storm right now and I hate that I’m losing interest in her story and the championship as a whole. This dud of a match isn’t doing anything to help that. I hope I’m proven wrong by the in-ring action, but with fatal four-way rules, there’s bound to be plenty of interference from the Death Riders and the Triangle of Madness, and it has the potential to be sloppy. I hate doubting women’s matches, especially in AEW, but this isn’t one I’m looking forward to at All Out.

Written by Daisy Ruth