At the start of tonight's episode of AEW Dynamite, it was announced that "Switchblade" Jay White was attacked by The Death Riders and has subsequently been removed from competing in the 2025 Owen Hart Foundation Tournament from the very onset.
Prior to this, he was one of the few men who had declared himself very early on, with intentions to go on to not only win the Owen Hart Cup, but to go on to win the AEW World Championship at AEW All In: Texas.
Replacing him in the tournament is All Elite Wrestling's newest acquisition, Kevin Knight, who was in competition on Dynamite teaming with Will Ospreay in successful tag team action wherein they defeated Lee Johnson and Blake Christian from Ring of Honor.
Ospreay and Knight will actually face off this Sunday at AEW Dynasty in the first round of the tournament, as they are placed in quarterfinals action on the bracket on the top left side.
The winner of that match will face the winner of Brody King vs. Konosuke Takeshita in the semifinals.
On the right side of the bracket, Mark Briscoe vs. Kyle Fletcher and "Hangman" Adam Page vs. a wild card are the two quarterfinals matches.
Given how the wild card is completely unknown, it's difficult to fully predict that side of the bracket. However, realistically, the left side should result in Ospreay beating Knight, Takeshita beating King, and Ospreay beating Takeshita, as this whole tournament kicked off with Ospreay touting his future title shot. He's the smart pick to win the whole thing.
That would mean the right side of the bracket leans more heavily toward Fletcher beating Briscoe, and either Fletcher beating Hangman, or the wild card. It's not unreasonable that the wild card could lose their quarterfinals match against Page by any means.
A finale of Ospreay against Fletcher or Ospreay against the wild card seems most likely.
In regards to the women's bracket, the quarterfinals matches are Jamie Hayter vs. Billie Starkz, Thunder Rosa vs. Kris Statlander, Julia Hart vs. Mercedes Mone, and Harley Cameron vs. Athena.
Working backward, the bottom right side of the bracket clearly goes to Athena, and Mone will likely beat Hart so that those two will face off in the semi finals. That could go either way, and the winner could face anyone on the left side, including even another encounter between Billie Starkz and Athena after the two have teamed and fought each other for years in ROH.
Could AEW be building up to Mercedes Mone winning this so that she holds yet another title belt and can have a champion vs. champion match against "Timeless" Toni Storm at All In? That certainly seems more likely than any of the women on the left side winning with what little momentum they have.
Who do you think will win this year's tournaments? Drop your predictions in the comments below!