All Elite Wrestling is back with their final PPV of the year — Worlds End! The third annual edition comes our way from Hoffman Estates, Illinois at 8 p.m. Eastern tonight (Dec. 27). Including a streaming pre-show that starts an hour earlier, the event will feature 11 total matches as of this writing. Counting the finals of the Continental Classic, that includes six title matches! It’s a lot to process. But our motley crew is back to make predictions about the matches coming our way Saturday night from Now Arena, and muse about all things AEW along the way.

Samoa Joe surprised a lot of folks last month at Full Gear when he defeated Hangman Page inside a steel cage to become the new AEW world champion, thanks to a heel turn from HOOK. But as the event came to a close, Swerve Strickland returned to AEW and took out Joe’s henchmen, setting up a three-way world title feud between Joe, Page, and Strickland at Worlds End. That equation abruptly changed on the Dec. 17 episode of Dynamite when MJF returned to AEW and cashed in his contract for a world title match. As a result, the Worlds End main event is now a 4-way world title match. When MJF went on hiatus from AEW three months ago, he vowed not to return until he was ready to be the peak version of himself and win back the world championship. That’s one reason why the pressure is on for him to deliver on his word and not blow this cash in. It looks like betting markets are buying in on MJF’s hype, as places like BetOnline list him as the favorite to win tonight’s main event.

Maxwell Jacob Friedman return for this rather than his Dynamite Diamond Ring signals to me they’re gonna strap him while he’s around. Four-way math always favors the champ, and while I’m certainly not inclined to count any of these guys out, my gut feeling is that the title stays planted right where it is even with MJF trying to play spoiler. Hanger and Swerve’s alliance is firm but still not quite set in stone, and the segment at the Hammerstein Dynamite tells me they might be a little too focused on humbling Max and not quite enough on beating the champ.

MJF is going to look like a real dummy if he cashes in that Casino Gauntlet contract for a world title match with extra opponents and then blows it. My mind says Joe keeps the gold, but my gut tells me a surprise might be coming with a new world champion crowned. I think Swerve has the biggest upside for fresh PPV matchups over the next few months. Still think she needs a mouthpiece, but this run appears to be about establishing Stat as the standard-bearer for the AEW Women’s division. That’s going to involve beating at least one more former World champ. Jamie is great and gonna for sure give her a run for her money, but I reckon the Kris Stat freight train continues until we get something that feels truly monumental. Hayter feels like a placeholder opponent for Statlander until they find a more interesting creative direction.