The Post’s Joseph Staszewski brings you around the world of professional wrestling every Tuesday in his weekly column, the Post Match Angle.

All Elite Wrestling, throughout its brief history, has answered the bell whenever it’s needed a big show or moment. That time has come again.

It needs to deliver this Sunday at “All Out” – arguably its biggest pay-per-view of the year – which will happen a day after WWE’s “Clash at the Castle.” So let the comparing and contrasting begin.

For the first time, AEW enters a show carrying plenty of negative perceptions of its current state. There were recent reports of CM Punk being unhappy and plenty of rumors around injured AEW women’s champion Thunder Rosa’s standing in the women’s locker room that she felt the need to set straight on “Busted Open” radio. There are also reports of a recent talent meeting to discuss steps taken to improve communication between the wrestlers, creative and administration, and Eddie Kingston acknowledging he was suspended for a mild altercation with Sammy Guevara

While things like this are bound to happen in any company, let alone a wrestling one, and may not all be 100-percent true, it just all feels so different than the endless positivity – outside of some tough injuries — that has been around AEW for so long. It feels like the honeymoon period has ended.  

This is coming when, for the first time in three years, the buzz around the industry seems to be largely be with WWE and the changes Triple H has been making since taking over as head of creative after Vince McMahon’s retirement as a result of a hush money probe by the company’s board of directors. Last week, AEW put on its long-awaited world championship unification match between CM Punk and Jon Moxley on “Dynamite” on free TV. And while the show had more than a million viewers and was No. 1 on cable for the night, it only saw a slight overall increase in the ratings.

The match itself didn’t close the show and lasted a little more than three minutes with Punk re-injuring his surgically repaired foot in storyline – though grabbing the wrong one while selling — and losing basically a squash match to Moxley after calling him the third-best member of his group again. On “Rampage,” AEW teased backstage footage of Punk after the match, which ended up being under a minute. At best, it added a little further uncertainty around Punk being healthy enough to compete at “All Out,” but felt like something that didn’t live up to the billing.

It leaves AEW entering this week in an advantageous, but critical position. By doing what it did last week, the company took on the challenge of having a major storyline that most people don’t know where it’s going – a rarity in wrestling. But they now have to make that story worth it for the audience after under-delivering on Moxley-Punk last week.

Is that a rematch with a stipulation, a surprise challenger, the return of MJF or something else? The good thing for AEW is “Dynamite” feels like a must-watch this week to find out, especially with Moxley scheduled to speak. Because as good as some of the “All Out” card is (the trios title tournament, Jungle Boy vs. Christian Cage, Chris Jericho vs. Bryan Danielson and Ricky Starks vs. Powerhouse Hobbs all have strong stories), the lack of an anticipated world title match feels un-AEW and imperative when a large number of people buy pay-per-views the day of the event. There will also be plenty to compare the show to with “Clash at the Castle” and NXT’s “World’s Collide” also this weekend.

If “All Out” from the NOW Arena in Chicago, isn’t an exceptional show, it certainly shouldn’t be looked at as a death knell or the beginning of the end. AEW is still, considering it is a little more than three years old, a strong wrestling company with a loyal fan base that has exceeded expectations. But if you are trying to grow your audience with your television rights deal soon to be negotiated and avoid fans from making WCW comparisons for the wrong reasons, then “All Out” better deliver. Because AEW will have to wait two months for “Full Gear” to make that type of impression again.  

AEW has continually come up big during these moments in its history. “All Out” would not be a good time to stop.

Seth Rollins and Matt Riddle (yes, Triple H returned his first name) had their match taken off SummerSlam and pushed to Clash at the Castle and boy has it been worth it. The two took their personal feud to a place we haven’t seen in a long time in WWE. There was a parking lot brawl captured as if by a cell phone, the breaking down of the fourth wall with the mention of Riddle’s real-life divorce, some bleeped out F-bombs and a brawl in the ring after “Monday Night Raw” went off the air.

The moment everyone will be talking about for years is the footage said to have been caught on hot-mic after Riddle told Rollins he was going to prove to him “there’s only one man in your marriage, and that’s Becky, bro” to close the scheduled portion of their interview with Corey Graves. In the segment that followed, Rollins chose to cut deep in some just fantastic gritty television that blurs the lines and can easily push this feud to Extreme Rules in October.

“Let’s talk about your family,” Rollins said. “Oh wait you don’t got one, cause your wife divorced you and took your kids and they don’t want to see your bitch ass anymore”

Riddle, who became officially divorced from his wife Lisa earlier this year after 11 years of marriage, went into a profanity-laced tirade that only turned up the heat for Saturday.

Raquel Rodriguez and Aliyah were surprise winners of the WWE women’s tag team championship tournament, defeating Ioi Sky and Dakota Kai. But did they actually win fairly? Aliyah was the legal competitor for her team after keeping her tag from Gonzalez hidden, but she rolled up Kai, who was not the legal participant from her team after tagging Sky in just a few minutes earlier, for the pin to win it. Did Aliyah or the referee make a mistake in the ring? Was it done intentionally to force a rematch? Will WWE address it next week or when they return to SmackDown on Friday? It’s something I can’t see Bayley’s character just letting go easily. Either way, the winners were he right call for now as it creates new stars and story opportunities.

Kenny Omega … tell us how you really feel about Will Ospreay. Omega delivered a scathing promo after Dynamite off the air. It feels like only a matter of time before these two have their first singles match since PWG All-Star Weekend in 2015 – won by Omega. Wrestle Kingdom 17, maybe? (Also, I didn’t have Ospreay having a Twitter feud with Kevin Nash on my 2022 wrestling bingo card.)

Loved everything about Kurt Angle’s appearance on “Raw.” He came dressed for a fight and with this gold medal, had a fun interaction with fellow amateur wrestlers Chad Gable and Otis, drank milk with the Street Profits and had Edge get him with the cue-card gag again 20 years later. Hope WWE treats all returning legends this way, really adds to the show.

If there was one thing about Raw I thought felt like a repeat of Vince McMahon mistakes is The Miz getting kidnapped by Dexter Lumis last week and being back this week with no explanation of how he got free, other then Lumis was arrested on NXT.

It is clear NXT and AEW have a different approach to a “Lights Out” match, but Tiffany Stratton and Wendy Choo put a super entertaining twist on it. The Legos instead of thumbtacks and Choo’s bed instead of a regular table worked perfectly and they both should be commended for the hard-hitting match with a comedy twist. Though I could have done without the Undertaker purple lighting.

If there was any doubt why Daniel Garcia and Ricky Starks are so highly regarded, just watch their promos from Dynamite last week. Just well-delivered, raw emotions that got me further invested in their stories. 

Impact is set to do a Barbed Wire Massacre match between Sami Callihan, Moose and Steve Maclin. Curious to see where this falls between Chris Jericho vs. Eddie Kingston’s barbed-wire-everywhere match and what we see on GCW often.

Matt Cardona has done a fantastic job reinventing himself since being released by WWE in April 2020, ranging from the violent to the just downright fun and entertaining. In the latter category, mark his shocking loss to hand-picked opponent Rolando Freeman at NWA 74 in his first match back from a torn biceps.

WWE really can’t go wrong when NXT champion Mandy Rose, NXT UK champion Meiko Satomura and No. 1 contender Blair Davenport meet to unify the titles on Worlds Collide. All would make a worthy unified champion. But if you ask me, I’m having Davenport win to give her instant credibility, bumping Mandy Rose up to the main roster and letting the legendary Satomura work wherever she wants with the end of NXT UK for NXT Europe.

Someone needed to tell Sami Zayn he’s really isn’t in the Bloodline and his new cool friends are just taking advantage of him. Old friend Kevin Owens did it beautifully with a mix of tough love and real love. Got the pop they will get when the finally reunite and take the tag title off The Usos. Owens’ and Zayn’s on-screen chemistry is all-time good.

Triple H now has me looking for clues in the background of every backstage vignette.

Will Ospreay, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, All Elite Wrestling

The award is a bit retroactive this time around as the New Japan superstar was part of his fourth match this month rated five stars or higher by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer when he, along with Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis of United Empire, defeated PAC, Pentagon Oscuro and Rey Fenix in the quarterfinals of AEW’s trio title tournament on “Dynamite.” While Ospreay went 1-3 in those matches, no one is having better ones than him right now with Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks up next week with the chance to add one more five-star bout.

Roman Reigns (c.) vs. Drew McIntyre, Undisputed WWE Universal championship (Saturday, 1 p.m., Peacock)

Reigns doesn’t wrestle too often anymore, so when he does it’s a big deal. And because this match is in Cardiff, Wales, you have to factor in a slight chance McIntyre actually wins. This will be their fourth televised singles match since 2019, with Reigns winning all three previous meetings. Then there are the peripherals. What role does Sami Zayn play? Does Paul Heyman return? Does Karrion Kross interfere? Does Austin Theory attempt to cash in? There will be plenty of story to tell around two of WWE’s best all-around performers right now.