Five possible opponents for Kenny Omega at All Out

Apparently, plans have changed when it comes to the AEW World Championship picture. Thanks to a loss in the big Survivor Series-style elimination tag team match on the July 28 episode of AEW: Dynamite, “Hangman” Adam Page was forced to abdicate his shot at Kenny Omega’s world title.

Combine that with a report that the promotion has pivoted away from having Page challenge for the belt at the upcoming All Out pay-per-view and you get a situation where it appears that Omega needs a new opponent for the big show in Chicago.

With the PPV a little more than a month away, who could that be? Well, that’s what we’re here to talk about today.

These five opponents could challenge Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship at All Out

Christian Cage

When Christian Cage debuted in AEW back in March, the promotion wasted no time teasing a future match between him and Omega. Since then, the two have diverted paths, but with “Hangman” out of the title hunt, there’s now an opportunity to revisit this.

They have already poured some water on those seeds they planted on this past Wednesday’s Dynamite, as the announcers noted that Cage’s spotless AEW record could position him as the next number one contender.

Given Cage’s lukewarm booking thus far — not terrible, but the new car scent that his arrival to AEW brought has already started to wear off — he feels like a bit of a letdown compared to what fans thought they were getting; no one would bat an eye if he received a title shot on television, but getting one on AEW’s biggest supercard of the year is a different story.

However, if AEW has other plans for what will close the show, giving Omega a relatively soft challenger to face in the semi-main event wouldn’t be a terrible decision. Plus, as far as skilled wrestlers go, you could do a lot worse than Cage.

Eddie Kingston

As of July 28, Eddie Kingston is not in AEW’s top five men’s singles wrestlers rankings. He also hasn’t appeared on Dynamite since coming up short alongside Penta El Zero M in his quest to unseat The Young Bucks as AEW World Tag Team Champions. Still, there’s enough history between him and The Elite to set him up as the next contender to Omega’s title.

It also wouldn’t take much time to heat Kingston up. With a 17-6 record, all the promotion would need to do is give the former Chikara Grand Champion a few high-profile wins and a microphone to sell the match, and POOF, they would have a PPV-worthy championship bout.

Like Christian Cage, Kingston has reached the point in his career where he doesn’t need a championship reign to validate his greatness (though it would be nice). As such, no one would expect him to beat Omega, but it would be cool to see him in a big match in front of tens of thousands of spectators.

Orange Cassidy

When AEW teased the possibility of a Kenny Omega vs. Orange Cassidy match back in May, the fans in Daily’s Place seemed to be all for it.

Of course, them going with a triple threat match that also involved PAC would seemingly indicate a lack of faith in Cassidy as a draw, but given how that match played out and the lengths Omega and Don Callis went to screw Cassidy out of the title, it’s more likely that they wanted to save the one-on-one encounter for a later date. All Out could be that later date.

With Cassidy finishing up his program with The Blade, he doesn’t have another obvious next opponent to face (unless you’re hoping his, ahem, strike exchange with Sting will lead to a match, which……welcome aboard the bandwagon), and filling that void with Omega makes a lot of sense.

Cody Rhodes

This one feels like a longshot for a couple of reasons. First, Cody Rhodes is barred from challenging for the AEW World Championship after his loss to Chris Jericho at Full Gear 2019 and doesn’t seem destined to reverse course on that anytime soon.

Second, if Rhodes were to begin the journey of getting another world title shot, that story certainly wouldn’t begin and end over the course of a month. However, if there’s any match that would match the billing Omega vs. Page would’ve brought to All Out, it would be Omega vs. Rhodes.

The two have feuded before in New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring Of Honor — they split two singles wins across both promotions — but in that scenario, Omega was the babyface and Rhodes was the heel.

Them re-sparking that flame with the roles reversed (while potentially playing off of Rhodes quietly splitting away from The Elite to form The Nightmare Family) would make for some compelling television. It will happen eventually, but don’t rule it out for All Out.

Someone from another promotion

The Forbidden Door is now open, which means we now have nearly endless possibilities for inter-promotional matches. With Omega’s dance card clear, that means we could see him face anyone at All Out.

Well, not “anyone”. Given the time remaining to properly promote this world title match, we can probably rule out wrestlers like Kota Ibushi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Kazuchika Okada. “Switchblade” Jay White seems more likely to receive a title match in Impact Wrestling. Same with Rich Swann.

We might not see any of those guys face Omega anytime soon, but the right surprise opponent from another promotion could work in the sense that it would assuage the fans who are disappointed that they aren’t getting Omega vs. Page.