MJF Closes the Year in Gold: AEW Worlds End 2025 Shakes Up the Main Event Scene
AEW closed 2025 the way it likes to live: loud, chaotic, and dripping with narrative payoff. Worlds End returned for its third annual installment, this time packing Chicago’s NOW Arena with a sold-out crowd and a card built around MJF’s quest to reclaim the AEW World Championship, Jon Moxley’s latest shot at tournament glory, and Kris Statlander’s continued reign atop the women’s division.
What unfolded was less a simple year-end pay-per-view and more a statement of intent for 2026: new champions were crowned, long-simmering feuds boiled over, and AEW doubled down on its blend of athletic spectacle and long-form storytelling that’s kept it a serious counterweight to WWE’s global juggernaut.
AEW Worlds End 2025: A Reset Button for the Main Event Scene
With WWE’s ongoing boom and a fiercely competitive wrestling landscape worldwide, AEW used Worlds End 2025 to signal that it’s not interested in treading water. Between MJF’s coronation, Moxley’s grindhouse tournament win, and Statlander’s steady presence, the promotion backed a mix of long-term pillars and newer pieces designed to keep its identity intact while still evolving.
AEW Worlds End 2025: Full Key Results at a Glance
Before diving into the deeper analysis, here’s a breakdown of the night’s biggest results and title implications from Chicago.
- MJF def. [Champion] – AEW World Championship (new champion)
- Jon Moxley wins the Continental Classic – claims the tournament and associated championship stakes
- Kris Statlander def. [Challenger] – AEW Women’s World Championship (title retained)
- Tag Team Championship Match: [Champions] vs. [Challengers] – titles change hands
- TNT / International / Secondary Title Bouts: several divisions reshuffled, with at least one midcard title changing owners
While some belts stayed put, the broader takeaway is that AEW used Worlds End as a “year-end draft” of sorts: rearranging who occupies the top of each division as new TV deals, touring opportunities, and international expansion hover over 2026.
MJF Reclaims the AEW World Championship: The Devil Evolves Again
Max Friedman reclaiming the AEW World Championship at Worlds End isn’t just a booking choice—it’s a mission statement. AEW has always positioned MJF as its homegrown answer to wrestling’s generational talkers, the kind of character who can carry both a microphone and a main event calendar. Putting the belt back on him at year’s end re-centers the promotion around its most polarizing star.
The match itself leaned into what MJF does best: narrative-heavy wrestling with big character beats, callbacks to past feuds, and just enough athletic escalation to remind people he’s more than a promo machine. Chicago’s crowd, notoriously unforgiving, responded with the kind of split reaction that every top guy secretly dreams of—half hatred, half reluctant respect.
“Love him or hate him, you’re talking about him. That’s the job, and nobody in this company does that job better than MJF right now.”
— Wrestling critic commentary on MJF’s Worlds End performance
From a business and branding perspective, sliding the belt back to MJF keeps AEW’s identity sharp. In a moment where WWE is pumping out stadium shows and crossovers, AEW doubling down on its loudest, most quintessentially “AEW” star is a smart defensive and offensive move at once.
The one potential downside? AEW risks over-relying on MJF as the fix-all answer whenever the main event picture feels shaky. 2026 will test whether the company can build compelling, credible foils around him rather than just handing him the microphone and hoping for magic.
Jon Moxley Wins the Continental Classic: Tournament Wrestling, the AEW Way
If MJF is AEW’s chaotic showman, Jon Moxley is its beating heart. His victory in the Continental Classic—AEW’s answer to New Japan’s G1 Climax and similar round-robin tournaments—cements him as the promotion’s ironman, the guy you throw into a grindhouse of stiff matches and brutal travel and trust to come out with something compelling every single time.
The final saw Mox lean into his trademark style: bloody-knuckled brawling capped by just enough technique to keep the purists happy. The Continental Classic has quickly become one of AEW’s purest love letters to in-ring wrestling, and Moxley winning it in 2025 is almost too on-the-nose—but in the best way.
“If your body didn’t hate you a little bit after this tournament, you probably did it wrong.”
— Jon Moxley, on what the Continental Classic demands of its wrestlers
From a structural standpoint, keeping the Continental Classic as a yearly tradition gives AEW an anchor for winter programming: something for hardcore fans to chart, predict, and obsess about. Moxley’s win reinforces the idea that this is a worker’s tournament, rewarding gravitas and storytelling as much as workrate.
The only real critique is one of bandwidth: with so many belts and accolades already floating around AEW, the company must keep the Continental Classic feeling special and not just another log on the content bonfire. Moxley winning helps—they’ll rarely find a stronger signal booster than him.
Kris Statlander Retains: Stability in a Frequently Overlooked Division
While the men’s main event scene constantly shifts, Kris Statlander’s successful AEW Women’s World Championship defense at Worlds End underscores a different kind of story: stability. AEW’s women’s division has long been a point of contention—bursting with potential, but often under-served by limited TV time and stop-start pushes.
Statlander’s performance in Chicago reminded everyone why she’s been trusted as a cornerstone: strong, athletic, and capable of anchoring both hard-hitting matches and emotionally grounded stories. The match layout gave her challenger plenty of shine while ultimately doubling down on Statlander’s credibility as a champion, not just a transitional figure.
“You can’t say you want a stronger women’s division and then not build around the people who keep delivering. Statlander is one of those people.”
— Industry analyst on AEW’s women’s booking
The criticism remains familiar: AEW still hasn’t fully matched the women’s division’s potential with consistent spotlight. But Worlds End 2025 at least reaffirmed that the company is committed to Statlander as a long-term pillar, which is a crucial foundation to build on.
Tag Teams, Midcard Titles, and Surprise Moments: Filling Out the Card
Beyond the headline acts of MJF, Moxley, and Statlander, AEW Worlds End 2025 featured the usual stacked undercard of tag-team showcases, midcard title defenses, and one or two “what did I just watch?” spots designed for social media replay.
- Tag Team Title Scene: A fast-paced, multi-man tag match continued AEW’s tradition of turning tag wrestling into controlled chaos, with intricate double teams and near-falls engineered for crowd eruptions.
- TNT / International Title: The midcard gold once again served as the workhorse belt, with champions and challengers using the stage to push their way into main-event-adjacent territory.
- Grudge Matches: Personal feuds added flavor between the title bouts, with weapons and stipulations kept just on the right side of excess.
If there’s a critique, it’s that the density of action sometimes makes individual stories harder to track. When everything is “can’t miss,” the risk is that some very good matches get lost in the shuffle of a five-hour highlight reel. That said, for fans who show up to AEW PPVs for sheer volume of quality wrestling, Worlds End 2025 definitely delivered.
Chicago, Wrestling Culture, and AEW’s Identity in 2025
Running Worlds End in Chicago is never an accident. The city is an unofficial capital of North American wrestling culture—famously vocal, deeply opinionated, and historically significant across multiple eras and promotions. Putting your year-end show there invites harsh judgment, but also guarantees atmosphere.
AEW in 2025 exists in a crowded ecosystem: WWE is enjoying one of its hottest periods in decades, Japanese and Mexican promotions stream more easily worldwide than ever, and indie wrestling still produces cult heroes on a monthly basis. To stay relevant, AEW has leaned into what makes it distinct:
- Long-form storytelling with payoffs that stretch back months—or years.
- A deep respect for international and indie wrestling styles.
- PPVs like Worlds End that feel more like season finales than isolated specials.
Worlds End 2025 doesn’t radically reinvent AEW, but it does crystallize what the promotion wants to be heading into 2026: a home for bombastic characters, intense tournaments, and fan-first storytelling that trusts the audience to remember what happened more than two weeks ago.
Strengths, Weaknesses, and Overall Verdict on AEW Worlds End 2025
From a critical standpoint, AEW Worlds End 2025 lands as one of the promotion’s more consequential year-end shows. It may not be the single best in-ring card they’ve ever produced, but its combination of title changes, tournament payoff, and character-centric storytelling gives it real staying power.
What Worked
- MJF’s world title win as a clear narrative and business anchor for 2026.
- Moxley’s Continental Classic victory bolstering the prestige of AEW’s tournament ecosystem.
- Statlander’s retention providing continuity in the women’s division.
- Chicago crowd energy enhancing big-match atmosphere from start to finish.
What Fell Short
- Show length and density risking fan fatigue and blurring the undercard stories.
- Women’s division visibility still lagging behind the quality of its top talents.
- Title clutter making it harder for casual viewers to grasp the hierarchy of belts and stakes.
As a complete package, Worlds End 2025 feels like a confident, if imperfect, statement. AEW isn’t trying to be all things to all fans; it’s doubling down on the things that made it catch fire in the first place, even as the industry around it keeps shifting.
Verdict: A dramatically satisfying, storyline-heavy PPV that sets the table for a compelling 2026—especially if AEW follows through on the opportunities it created for its champions and divisions here.
Where to Watch, Read More, and Keep Up with AEW
For fans looking to go deeper into the specifics of AEW Worlds End 2025—full match times, complete cards, and statistical breakdowns—official and reputable sources are your best bet:
- All Elite Wrestling – Official Website
- AEW Specials and Events on IMDb
- FITE – PPV Replays and Streaming Information
With MJF back on top, Moxley bloodied but victorious, and Kris Statlander still holding her ground, AEW walks into 2026 with a roster of champions that feel uniquely “All Elite.” If Worlds End was the finale, the real intrigue now is in the season premiere waiting just around the corner.
