The main event of AEW Redemption 2026 surprised many fans, as the AEW World Championship was put on Kenny Omega with a victory over MJF in the weeks prior to the event, on “AEW Dynamite: Beach Break,” a TV special from Clearwater, Florida. Instead of facing MJF on pay-per-view, Omega defeated then-TNT Champion Kevin Knight in the main event of Redemption.
According to a new report in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the main event of Redemption was originally set to be MJF vs. Omega when AEW’s 2026 was initially laid out at the beginning of the year. The match, according to Dave Meltzer, was changed for two reasons.
The first was MJF’s knee injury. The star hyperextended his knee in a title defense against Rush on a June edition of “Dynamite.” The champion continued to work through the pain, highlighting his attempts at recovery in a cold plunge on social media, but according to the Observer report, the title change happened ahead of Redemption to give him some time to heal up before All In.
The second was to get the title on Omega a few weeks earlier than originally planned, so AEW could begin advertising his All In match against Will Ospreay at Wembley Stadium. In the days following Omega’s win at “Beach Break,” Meltzer reported that more than 1,000 tickets were sold for All In.
Ospreay would go on to get an emotional victory over Omega at All In, capturing the AEW World Championship. According to a local government organization in London after the event, the turn style count for the event was 41,102.
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