AEW WrestleDream 2023 Picks: Wrestling Inc. Predicts The Winners

Sunday night in Seattle, AEW will put on the first-ever WrestleDream pay-per-view in celebration of the legendary Antonio Inoki, who died one year ago. While AEW CEO Tony Khan was "hopeful" at one point that the event honoring Inoki — who founded New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 1972 — would include NJPW talent, NJPW's presence on the card has thus far been limited to Zack Sabre Jr., who will take on fellow technical specialist (and Washington State native) Bryan Danielson for the first time since 2009. WrestleDream is also the second straight AEW PPV in which the AEW World Championship will not be defended, something that had previously never happened since the title's inception. But the event still promises to be not only an exciting night of action but a meaningful one, with five titles on the line and numerous storylines set to advance.

Of course, the big question is always "But who is going to win?" and the Wrestling Inc. staff have our own opinions on what is, as of this writing, a 10-match card. Our official picks have been compiled below, along with some explanations from our writers and editors about why we chose the way we did. Make sure you come back after WrestleDream to see how we did, because you can be sure those of us who picked the most correct results will not be shy about bragging about it.

Wrestling Inc's polls had already closed by the time this match was announced on this week's edition of "AEW Dynamite," so we've got no official results to point to when it comes to calling this match between Blackpool Combat Club's Wheeler Yuta and Ricky Starks, who swears on X (formerly Twitter) that he was not the masked attacker who took out Jay White — though he'll tell you if you join his Patreon. 

Nevertheless, we're confidently calling the match for Starks. He just faced Bryan Danielson in a Texas Deathmatch on "AEW Collision" and lived to tell about it, and we're pretty sure he's got some steam to blow off against Danielson's BCC stablemate, Yuta, who came out at the end of the aforementioned main event. Given their respective positions on the AEW totem pole, it would be a pretty massive upset for Yuta to beat Starks. Starks is clearly being set up for future stardom; Yuta is no JAG, but he is currently a "guy who loses to the guy being set up for future stardom."

Written by Miles Schneiderman

From a kayfabe standpoint, it's a little surprising that 77% of WINC writers and editors believe Swerve Strickland will defeat "Hangman" Adam Page in singles action at WrestleDream. Both men are former AEW World Tag Team Champions, but Strickland and his partner, Keith Lee, have the second-shortest reign with those titles of all time (70 days), and after they broke up, even their would-be feud went nowhere. Page, meanwhile, was tag team champion for 228 days, and his feud with his former partner, Kenny Omega, led to him winning the AEW World Championship. Strickland has never held a singles title in AEW. It's also been more than two months since Swerve won a match, having dropped his last four (all tag matches). Page is on the opposite trajectory, having won his last four matches (almost all singles) including the charity battle royal at All Out and a match for the Ring of Honor World Six-Man Tag Team Championship, which he won alongside the Young Bucks.

So why do we think Strickland is taking the match at WrestleDream? Maybe it's wishful thinking. This is Swerve's first one-on-one match on an AEW PPV; it's safe to call this the biggest match of his AEW career, and possibly his career as a whole. A win is potentially star-making — Swerve will have beaten a former world champion and proven that he can succeed as a high-level singles wrestler in AEW. Page winning would be less meaningful and would represent a seemingly stagnant creative direction, unless AEW is just using Swerve to boost the Hangman back to his former place of prominence. But throw in the fact that we expect Page's character arc, as it looks currently, to be trending in a downward direction (our boy has even started drinking again) we feel irrationally confident that Strickland will walk away with the 1-2-3.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Eddie Kingston is putting not one, but both of his titles on the line at WrestleDream against ROH Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata. The two men will clash for the Ring of Honor Championship as well as the New Japan Pro Wrestling STRONG Openweight Championship, and a whopping 92% of Wrestling Inc's staff believe Kingston will retain.

Our strong faith in Kingston is partially because he just won the ROH title from Claudio Castagnoli in what was potentially the biggest win of his career during AEW's Grand Slam special last week. The win was made all the more special and heartwarming being in Kingston's home territory of New York. The win came in a rematch of their bout at ROH Supercard of Honor back in March. Kingston initially appeared in ROH all the way back in 2006, and now that he's the brand's champion, he's going to fight to hold on to that title as long as he can. We've seen how loyal that man can be.

Kingston made his debut for NJPW in 2021 and became the NJPW STRONG Openweight champ even more recently this July prior to competing in the G1 Climax. Despite facing off against such a prominent, veteran talent in Shibata, Kingston isn't likely to go down without a fight.

Shibata is a relatively new talent to ROH, debuting in March, when he defeated Wheeler Yuta for the ROH Pure Championship. It was certainly an impressive showing, with many believing Shibata's career was over in 2017 due to a severe head injury. Even with a loss, Shibata will still have his own belt to defend moving forward, so him putting over Kingston is what we'd like to see here.

Written by Daisy Ruth

This tag team match is tough to predict, which is reflected in the Wrestling Inc. staff votes, with The Young Bucks and the team of Orange Cassidy and HOOK tied with 31% each. The closeness of that showcases how tough this one is to call, and a big reason for that is because there is a real lack of storyline heading into this one. Rather than being built up over personal issues, it feels like one that has been booked to get a lot of top names onto the PPV card. Nevertheless, with three former AEW World Tag Team Champions involved in this and a very popular fourth team, any outcome would make sense for a future title match.  

The Young Bucks are arguably the most established names in this match, but they also hold the ROH World Six-Man Championships while Nick Jackson is the number one contender for the AEW International Championship, which will keep them busy. Rey Fenix is the current AEW International Championship, which could be a reason for the Lucha Brothers not to get the big push here. Meanwhile, The Gunns do have a lot of recent history with FTR. Should the "Top Guys" end up retaining their titles, revisiting that could be an easy program to book.

Cassidy and HOOK who are the real wildcards heading into this one. While they're not as established as a tag team, both men have rarely suffered a defeat in the past year and would provide something fresh in the tag team title scene if they win. Plus, Cassidy defeated three of the competitors in this match on "AEW Dynamite" this week, which could be a sign of things to come.

Written by Matthew Wilkinson

Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho have historically stood against one another, starting with their thought-to-be-impossible dream match at Wrestle Kingdom 12. But their joint disdain towards Don Callis and his ever-expanding will see them united at WrestleDream. Callis has pulled the strings of betrayal for months now, first turning on Omega with Konosuke Takeshita, and now with Sammy Guevara turning his back on Jericho. Add that to Callis and Takeshita's desire to strike at Omega's "heart" — Kota Ibushi. Additionally, Callis has once more called upon Will Ospreay. After all, Ospreay did the bidding of the "The Invisible Hand" against Jericho at All In. 

All six wrestlers serve as the ingredients for an in-ring classic, and it is undoubtedly difficult to call a winner going into the bout. The poll put to our Wrestling Inc. team reflects as much, although the majority has landed on the side of Jericho and The Golden Lovers, with 54% backing them to pick up the W. While Takeshita not only pinned Omega in trios action at All In but also in singles action a week later at All Out, it cannot be ignored that Jericho holds the win over Guevara in their sole contest and Ibushi is undefeated in AEW.

Guevara can be considered the weak link in Callis' outfit. Takeshita and Ospreay have both defeated Kenny Omega in singles action this year, and the latter has defeated Jericho; it's the "Spanish God" who comes into this bout with the most to prove. He not only lost to Jericho recently but he also failed to wrest the AAA Mega Championship from Omega in 2020, so he holds no bragging rights against his rivals, and he may well be the one taking the loss in this bout.

Written by Max Everett

Christian Cage has been carrying the TNT Championship for over 100 days, but he's only been champion for 5 days, having won the title on Saturday. As the trash-talking brains behind Luchasaurus' brawn, Cage has once again reinvented himself as a turtleneck-wearing sociopathic insult comic and it doesn't seem that the staff at Wrestling Inc. are sick of his antics, as 69% of us believes that Cage will retain his title against Darby Allin in their two-out-of-three falls match at AEW WrestleDream on Sunday.

Darby Allin has quite frankly "been there, done that" when it comes to the TNT Title. So far has the death-defying wrestler fallen that it's possible he needs the title more than the title needs him, and that is never a position a triumphant babyface should be in. A hometown win for Darby would be an easy pop but would leave Allin and the title with seemingly nowhere to go. If anyone should be beating Christian Cage for the TNT Title, it's the man that he overshadowed for months, former TNT Champion Luchasaurus or the constant target of Christian's angst, Nick Wayne.

A cocky heel joking about dead dads and promising to sleep with widows is just good television, and Christian plays the part perfectly. He's also still the same solid hand in the ring that he's been his entire career. To have him lose so shortly after winning the title would cut the legs out from under one of AEW's most entertaining acts.

Written by Ross Berman

Despite the fact that Julia Hart is undefeated in her previous 27 matches in AEW, 77% of the Wrestling Inc. staff believes that Kris Statlander will come out on top at AEW WrestleDream when they compete for the TBS Championship. 

The House Of Black star has been on a dominant run recently, picking up victories against the likes of Skye Blue, Willow Nightingale, and Kiera Hogan. She has showcased a ruthless edge that is in line with the male members of her group, with whom she has been appearing alongside whenever they're in action. Her performances have led to her getting the biggest match of her entire career at this upcoming PPV.

Statlander has been equally as impressive since she returned from injury, and she has a history of ending impressive unbeaten runs, being the first woman to hand WWE's newest signing, Jade Cargill, a defeat. The Best Friends star has been defending her title regularly since that point, helping to establish her title reign as an important one. 

Interestingly, Statlander was the last person to defeat Hart, although that was at a unique time in the young wrestler's career. Hart was transitioning from her cheerleader role to her current gimmick, so Statlander will be competing against a completely different Hart this time around. However, this big opportunity still might have come a little too soon for Hart, which is why we have Statlander walking in as the favorite.

Written by Matthew Wilkinson

While we don't have quite as clear of a consensus in this Ring of Honor match at WrestleDream as we do with Kingston versus Shibata, 85% of us at believe Better Than You Bay Bay, Adam Cole and MJF, will remain the ROH World Tag Team Champions, despite it now being a handicap match. It was revealed during Wednesday's episode of "Dynamite" that Cole broke his ankle in three different places and tore ligaments running to help his tag team partner in his AEW Championship defense at "Grand Slam."

MJF said the team will not be relinquishing the titles to their opponents at the pay-per-view, The Righteous, and he'll go into WrestleDream to defend the titles because he knows how much they mean to Cole. The pair won the tag team championships at AEW All In at the end of August. The Righteous have been wrestling in ROH since their return to the brand in March at Super Card of Honor, but haven't exactly made a mainstream splash quite like MJF and Cole. They did have an impressive showing to earn the championship match, however, outlasting The Kingdom, The Hardys, and Best Friends in a four-way match on "AEW Rampage: Grand Slam" last Friday.

Despite Cole's injury and the fact MJF will be taking on Vincent and Dutch alone on Sunday, we still have faith in The Devil to hang on to the championships to continue his friendship with Cole. It will be interesting to see if MJF continues to defend them alone if he retains at WrestleDream while Cole undergoes surgery.

Written by Daisy Ruth

AEW WrestleDream will also include FTR defending the tag team titles against Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis of Aussie Open. The Wrestling Inc. team unanimously believes that FTR will walk away from Sunday's bout with the AEW World Tag Team titles still around their waists. The match will be the second between the two teams, with FTR successfully defending the IWGP Tag Team Championship against the duo last October – almost exactly one year prior to Sunday's pay-per-view. Since then, both sides have teased another match.

Fletcher and Davis finally challenged FTR to an official rematch several weeks ago on "AEW Collision," with the duo seemingly more concerned with getting another shot at FTR rather than capturing the tag championship. As for FTR, Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler have been on a hot streak, defeating the Young Bucks at AEW All In last month before winning a pair of open challenges on "Collision" over the last few weeks. They'll now look to continue their successful title reign with a second victory over the former NJPW tag team.

Last year was an interesting one for Harwood and Wheeler. The two had a trio of acclaimed matches against The Briscoe Brothers and held three sets of titles from promotions around the world, while at the same time, it was widely claimed that the team was underutilized within AEW itself. After taking some time away from the ring, FTR returned to AEW earlier this year, quickly capturing the AEW World Tag Team Championship from Austin and Colten Gunn, which they've held onto since.

Written by Nick Miller

One of the most highly-anticipated matches on the AEW WrestleDream card is Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr. The two accomplished technicians are 1-1 in their two matches together, but it's been nearly 15 years since they last shared a ring. This time around, the majority of the Wrestling Inc. staff feels confident that Danielson will walk away with the victory when all is said and done.

Coming off multiple wins against Ricky Starks, as well as his victory over Kazuchika Okada at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door back in June, Danielson has a lot of momentum right now. While Sabre will undeniably stay competitive with Danielson throughout their bout, it's hard to see this weekend as the right time to put an end to Danielson's current streak. Instead, look for the 42-year-old father of two to continue climbing the ladder in AEW moving forward.

Danielson recently revealed that he intends to wind down his full-time career in the near future. That means that time is likely running out for the former WWE Champion to have a sustained title run in AEW. It might not happen in the immediate future, as MJF seems to have his hands full at the moment. Still, it seems like a strong bet that Danielson will look to capture the AEW World Championship before stepping back into a part-time role, and a victory over Sabre on Sunday would push him further toward that goal.

Written by Nick Miller