AEW All In vs. WWE WrestleMania, Which Show Was Best Spectacle of the Year?

In the midst of what has been a banner year for All Elite Wrestling, the pressure was on for All In 2026 to deliver and it ultimately did not disappoint.

Although the attendance at Wembley Stadium in London was considerably lower than what the inaugural installment did in 2023, the show still boasted nearly 50,000 fans and featured an incredible card from top to bottom.

AEW's creative direction largely being consistent throughout the year has had a positive impact on attendance at various events, viewership and general buzz surrounding the product.

It's especially interesting to compare the company's growth this year to what WWE has been doing, specifically with the mixed feelings fans have had toward the product despite the big business they continue to do.

WrestleMania 42 in particular was a significant talking point in the wrestling world back in April for a variety of reasons, and with WrestleMania and All In being the biggest events of the year for WWE and AEW respectively, it's expected for them to be compared to each other.

Criteria to determine which show was the best spectacle of 2026 so far will include the layout, pacing, atmosphere, in-ring action and memorable moments from each event.

Layout

WrestleMania expanding from one to two nights starting in 2020 was among the smartest moves WWE has ever made with The Show of Shows. The cards were simply becoming too bloated and tedius to justify keeping them at only one night.

It allows WWE to add more matches to 'Mania without tiring out the live crowd. All In has always been a one-night event, but All In 2026 was surprisingly shorter than the average AEW pay-per-view (not counting the two-hour pre-show) due to the curfew that London has in place and the show needing to end before a certain time.

There were certainly points during All In where the Wembley Stadium crowd was exhausted from all of the wrestling, but they came alive when it mattered most, including down the stretch for the top two main events.

It started hot with The New Level debuting and progressed nicely from there, culminating with the best bout of the night in Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay. The layout was terrific with everything being positioned right where it should been.

Meanwhile, Night 2 of WrestleMania 42 was noticeably stronger than Night 1, at least in terms of how it was executed. The two-night formula still works for WrestleMania, but there needs to be a better balance in the amount of attractions allocated to each night so one doesn't overshadow the other.

Pacing

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The pacing of AEW's pay-per-views is normally the biggest knock against them from fans. The wrestling never ceases to deliver, but the vast amount of matches combined with the excessive length of each one almost always results in marathon shows.

All In was oddly an exception to that, and not only because of the earlier start time. Other than the Trios title fiasco overstaying its welcome, every match lasted about as long as it needed to, right down to the AEW Women's World Championship and AEW World Championship main events being able to breathe and not dragged out or rushed.

Unfortunately, WWE's new premium live event model with minutes of commercials airing in between each other simply isn't sustainable. It drastically hinders the flow of the show and forces many matches to get cut for time, even at WrestleMania.

That was especially an issue on Night 1, but WWE did improve upon that with Night 2. Most of the undercard received a decent amount of time and the 30-minute-plus instant classic for the World Heavyweight Championship closed out the weekend on a high note.

A happy medium between the two pacing styles would be ideal, but between these two specific shows, All In had more of an seamless stride.

Atmosphere

There will eventually come a point where AEW won't be able to run All In at Wembley Stadium annually anymore. It may be years down the road, but All In being held in the same stadium year after year is bound to lose its luster and that will affect attendance.

It's the law of diminishing returns.

Until then, though, it will remain an epic atmosphere, which in turn gives every match on the show a big fight feel. As previously noted, the crowd won't be white-hot for every single thing that happens, but if the pacing is consistent throughout, it will blow almost every other event AEW does during the year out of the water.

Of course, that's been the case with WrestleMania since its inception, and regardless of whether it's critically acclaimed or poorly received by fans, it has always felt larger than life. Even when certain matches have under-delivered, the stage and setup alone make the show special.

All In 2026 and WrestleMania 42 were essentially the same in that regard. All In featured a ton of unique entrances from Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay, Willow Nightingale, Kevin Knight and others. The walkouts at WrestleMania for CM Punk, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes and Liv Morgan were all pretty breathtaking as well.

All In being back at Wembley for the first time in two years was fun, but Las Vegas just didn't need WrestleMania two years in a row and that was yet another factor in the fan fatigue toward the event.

In-Ring Action

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It is possible for there to be too much of a good thing and wrestling pay-per-views aren't immune to that. More often than not, AEW pay-per-view cards have way too much wrestling and it causes certain matches to get lost in the shuffle.

Again, though, All In seemed to take the "less is more" approach (at least with the main card) and it worked out wonderfully. There were nine matches in the four-plus hours and virtually everything (with the possible exception of Jon Moxley vs. Nigel McGuinness) felt like it was worthy of AEW's grandest stage.

The undercard had several standout matches and the top two main events will be included in the conversation for the very best of AEW in 2026.

The in-ring action at WrestleMania 42 was enjoyable on the whole, but many matches were shorter than they should have been and therefore didn't get a chance to be more than what they were. Gunther vs. Seth Rollins and Rhea Ripley vs. Jade Cargill were above average and CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns was an absolute gem, but the rest of the card on the two nights left a lot to be desired.

The wrestling at All In was far superior to what WrestleMania delivered in April.

Memorable Moments

WWE prides itself on giving fans a surplus of "WrestleMania moments" every year. Although the latest installment was by no means perfect, there was no shortage of special moments between the two nights.

In fact, the moments may have outweighed the matches at 'Mania by a wide margin this year with Paige returning to the ring, Bianca Belair announcing her pregnancy, Oba Femi essentially squashing Brock Lesnar, IShowSpeed going viral, Danhausen sharing the screen with John Cena, multiple championships changing hands and much more.

AEW has officially embraced All In being its premier pay-per-view and they've treated it as such in recent years. At the 2026 event alone, Will Ospreay and The Brawling Birds captured gold in their home country, The New Level debuted, Sting returned, and Mercedes Moné clinched the AEW Women's World Championship.

This is another category that All In and WrestleMania are virtually even in. The overall feedback to All In was significantly more positive online, but WrestleMania 42 was a definite improvement over the mixed bag that was WrestleMania 41 and it still offered enough satisfaction for fans.

The moments will be remembered just as much as the matches will be, maybe more so, and both events had a historical impact in their own way.

Final Analysis

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WrestleMania 42 wasn't the weakest WrestleMania WWE has produced in the last decade, but it also paled in comparison to the WrestleMania events in 2023 and 2024 when the company was creatively firing on all cylinders.

If anything, the event served as an additional reminder of how corporate and commercialized the product has become as well as what can be fixed and avoided for future installments. It was one of WWE's better premium live events of 2026, yet it wasn't the complete package that All In was.

Every installment of All In that AEW has done to date has ranged from fun to fantastic, but All In 2026 was practically a perfect pay-per-view with a wide variety of styles, stories and surprises. Not every booking decision was the right one, but there was very little for fans to complain about once it was over.

Fans who enjoyed WrestleMania over All In are well within their right to do so, and there will always be those who will prefer the pacing and structure of the shows that WWE puts out over AEW's. However, All In provided the better bang for the viewer's buck and a more exciting experience for the audience in attendance.

AEW once again outdid itself with another exceptional All In, but that isn't to say WrestleMania can't bounce back with a stronger show next year if they learn from this year's 'Mania mistakes and put together the thrilling card fans know they're capable of.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.