8 AEW Nightmares That Could Come True In 2026

The pic above shows a subtly humbling outcome for Tony Khan. Mike Santana is a wrestler he jettisoned. The ex-Inner Circle member requested his release and was eventually granted it in March 2024. He's since gone on to back himself in TNA, has done some work on WWE's NXT brand, and then won the TNA Title at Bound For Glory In October.

Total Nonstop Action could be even more problematic for Tony in 2026, but his All Elite project is facing more scrutiny than ever. Perhaps that should be rephrased - AEW faces more consistent negative scrutiny in the new year. It has always been under the microscopic lens since launching in 2019, but goodwill has long since run out for many wrestling fans who expected more from the alternative as a competitor to WWE than they're getting.

Stumbling blocks were always going to happen, but there's been a haphazard sense of self-sabotage on several occasions on the AEW side. The whole CM Punk fiasco raged on for far too long, Khan's own social media behaviour has been erratic and sometimes counterproductive, and everything from live event attendance to TV ratings has been sagging badly for ages.

Could things get worse in 2026? It doesn't seem to matter who Tony signs or what personally-gratifying, star-rating heavy match up he puts in front of people, nothing seems to change for the better. Now, AEW faces the very real prospect of sliding from the number 2 spot behind WWE into a number 3 position previously occupied by ECW in the 90s.

Is that extreme (so to speak)? Only time will tell, but these are the things keeping Khan and supporters awake as the fireworks usher in a new year.

These soon to arrive AEW Women's Tag-Team Titles were always coming, and it's actually a shock that it's taken the company so long to make doubles straps a reality for the division. WWE introduced their own Women’s Tag Titles back in 2018, then crowned their first champs in early-2019. Ever since, the division has ranged between really decent and utterly dreadful. Many teams have been thrown together just for one title challenge/reign, and they generally seem like an afterthought more often than not.

AEW could serve up more of the same, and they definitely won’t want that.

There are arguably too many belts on offer in the promotion (across the main AEW shows and ROH) as it is, and it’s difficult to care about some of them. Adding in even more and, in turn, cultivating credibility for them could prove challenging. Please don’t add Women’s Trios belts on AEW and ROH as well, Tony! You'd be stretching things to breaking point by doing that.

Currently, AEW's social streams are making a lot of noise about Anna Jay and Tay Melo as a top tier female duo who could do great things with the titles. Maybe they could, but it'll be consistency and storylines to go along with good matches that'll help the belts survive throughout 2026.

If fans start to get déjá vu about inconsistent horrors on the WWE side, then AEW's new championships will struggle. There's a real sense that these things are up against it before they've even really become a weekly concern on episodes of Dynamite and Collision.

They need to be more Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill than Carmella and Zelina Vega.