AEW’s Original Plans for AEW World Title Clockwork Carnage Match at WrestleDream 2026

AEW’s upcoming WrestleDream 2026 event this Saturday in Orlando Florida features the debut of a new match type in AEW called the Clockwork Carnage. This eight-man match currently features AEW World Champion Will Ospreay, Samoa Joe, “Speedball” Mike Bailey, Adam Copeland, Konosuke Takeshita, Kazuchika Okada, Ricochet, and Darby Allin as the competitors.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that the current belief is that AEW officials original plans for the match would have included Jay White in Copeland’s spot.

AEW officials reportedly made a change to their plans for the match after White suffered an injury at this past September’s All Out 2026 and made the decision to include Copeland in White’s spot instead. The reason for the decision reportedly was due to Copeland’s tag team with Christian Cage being put on hold for the time being due to Cage suffering broken ribs and a punctured lung injury at the same event.