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Last Wednesday night was jam-packed with three hours of AEW programming, starting with our traditional two hours of DYNAMITE, then immediately followed by RAMPAGE as it aired on a special night! During those three hours, the AEW faithful witnessed Adam Copeland earn back the TNT Championship by going through a hellacious “I Quit” match with Christian Cage, and saw Kazuchika Okada defeat Eddie Kingston to claim the AEW Continental Championship! In addition, Skye Blue and TBS Champion Julia Hart beat Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale in a Street Fight,  Orange Cassidy & Trent Beretta won their Wild Card bout in the Tag Title Tournament, and FTW Champion HOOK defeated Chris Jericho!

This Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, live from Quebec City, QC and the Centre Videotron, we will witness a rematch seven years in the making, one that many thought would never come to pass, when Katsuyori Shibata takes on Will Ospreay! Plus, Konosuke Takeshita will go head-to-head with Swerve Strickland, and the Quarter-Finals of the AEW World Tag Title Tournament begin when The Young Bucks meet Private Party!

Then join All Elite Wrestling in London, ON for Saturday’s COLLISION, live from the Budweiser Gardens,  for The Infantry versus FTR in the Quarter-Finals of the AEW World Tag Team Title Tournament, and so much more!

SEVEN YEARS IN THE WAITING…

“The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay vs. Katsuyori Shibata

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Eleven matches; that is how many times Katsuyori Shibata and Will Ospreay stepped into the ring between January 5th and February 11th of 2017. Seven of those times it was Shibata who came out on top, but only one of those victories came in the form of a singles match, the very last one at NJPW’s THE NEW BEGINNING IN OSAKA 2017 event. The other ten matches were all fought in trios and multi-man bouts, all save that RevPro British Heavyweight Championship fight on February 11th won by Shibata, but unfortunately a rematch never came to pass as Shibata’s career came to an end just two months later after an IWGP Heavyweight Title fight with Kazuchika Okada at SAKURA GENESIS 2017. 

Then the unimaginable happened; four years and six months later, during the G1 CLIMAX 2021 tour, Shibata shocked the world when he stepped into the ring with Zack Sabre Jr. for a five minute Grappling Rules contest! Two and a half months later, at WRESTLE KINGDOM 16, Shibata would get back into the ring with Ren Narita for a full-blow professional wrestling match, then ten months later, on the 11/4/22 edition of RAMPAGE, Shibata would make his in-ring debut for AEW in an International Championship loss to Orange Cassidy. Given the time between those two matches, it was reasonable to question whether or not Shibata was returning to full-time competition or if those were just a couple matches to test his own limits. The answer came on March 31, 2023 when, at ROH’s SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 event, Shibata won the ROH Pure Championship from Wheeler Yuta, and spent the next eight months tearing it up on both AEW and ROH events, as well as traveling to RevPro for their 11TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW. 

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After losing the Pure Championship back to Yuta last November, Shibata returned to Japan, but made a monumental return to AEW action on the March 16th COLLISION when he battled Bryan Danielson in a certified Dream Match. Here were two men that both thought their in-ring careers finished at some point in the years prior, two men who defied the odds and the expectations of medical professionals, two men who were now fighting better than they had at any previous point in their careers, and they were going to war for the AEW faithful. Danielson ultimately won the fight, and there was another man watching on who took what happened as a test he needed to take upon himself.

That man was Will Ospreay, and with his own bout against Bryan Danielson set for AEW DYNASTY on April 21st, he felt the need to test himself against Katsuyori Shibata, to see if he could succeed in 2024 where he did not in 2017, and thus made a challenge to “The Wrestler” for the fight going down this Wednesday night! Can Ospreay follow in Danielson’s footsteps and score a victory over Katsuyori Shibata in Quebec City? Or will Shibata repeat history in this monumental rematch seven years in the making?

ONE-ON-ONE…

“The Alpha” Konosuke Takeshita vs. Swerve Strickland

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Thus far in 2024, Konosuke Takeshita holds a record of 5-1 in singles matches, and 10-2 over the last twelve months in that field. That’s a run that includes victories over Chris Jericho, Darby Allin, Kenny Omega, Kyle Fletcher, as well as Rocky Romero this past Wednesday night, and has shown the world that “The Alpha” is one of the most fearsome competitors in All Elite Wrestling today. 

Over the course of his last eleven one-on-one match-ups Swerve Strickland lost exactly one time, his Continental Classic Gold League fight with Jon Moxley on 12/13/23, and was taken to a 30-Minute time limit draw by Hangman Page on 2/7/24. It’s been an incredible run for Strickland as well, and even if you factor in his two Three Way losses in the Gold League Finals and at REVOLUTION 2024, it doesn’t change that run because wasn’t the man who took the fall in either of those matches. There are few men who’ve been on a hotter streak that Swerve Strickland, and that run has put Samoa Joe’s AEW World Championship in Swerve’s crosshairs.

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For the very first time these two men, each at the top of their game, will lock horns this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, and there is certainly the possibility that the future of the AEW World Championship hinges on the result of this match! Both Takeshita and Swerve have reasonable claims to being the next challenger for Samoa Joe, based on their respective records and, in the case of Swerve, the fact he wasn’t defeated in the Three Way at REVOLUTION ’24. 

As announced Tuesday night by AEW GM Tony Khan, this match will determine the next challenger for Samoa Joe’s AEW World Championship! With that added factor, there is no doubt Samoa Joe will have his eyes on this contest as his next contender is determined!

AEW WORLD TAG TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTER-FINAL MATCH…

The Young Bucks (Matthew & Nicholas Jackson) vs. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen

On October 9, 2019, in the very first match of the original AEW World Tag Team Title Tournament, Private Party shocked the world when they defeated The Young Bucks to advance out of the Quarter-Finals. Though Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen would fall to The Lucha Brothers in the Semi-Finals, the impact was made, and the world had been forced to stand up and recognize Private Party.

A year later The Young Bucks would even up the score, pinning Isiah Kassidy to win a Four Way #1 Contenders match on 10/21/20, and would follow that up with a traditional tag team victory over Private Party on November 4th a few weeks later. Since that bout over three years ago, the two teams only met in one Trios match, though Isiah has a little more experience fighting the brothers Jackson with other partners during Marq Quen’s injury recovery, but not one other tag team match between Private Party and The Young Bucks since 2020.

That all changes this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE when, in the Quarter-Finals of the AEW World Tag Title Tournament, The Young Bucks and Private Party meet again! Since Marq Quen’s return to action in 2024, Private Party is 2-2 in tag team action, though one of those losses came in a Three Way tag with Top Flight and Bryan Keith/Komander where neither Quen nor Kassidy were the ones pinned to lose the match.  As for The EVPs, in 2024 they are 3-1 in tag team action, but to be honest about their record, two of those victories came over local competitors who frankly had no chance at actually beating the former 2-Time AEW World Tag Champions. 

The Young Bucks have a mission of becoming the first 3-Time AEW Tag Champions while Private Party have one to capture those belts for the very first time, and only one team can get closer to their objective. Will it be The Young Bucks or Private Party who advances to the Semi-Finals? And will it be The Undisputed Kingdom or the Orange Cassidy/Trent Beretta tandem who meets them there?

AEW WORLD TAG TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTER-FINAL MATCH…

The Undisputed Kingdom (ROH World Tag Team Champions Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) vs.

Orange Cassidy & Trent Beretta

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The AEW World Tag Title Tournament kicks off in full-force this Wednesday night with the aforementioned Young Bucks/Private Party match, and this Quarter-Final match pitting ROH World Tag Team Champions Matt Taven and Mike Bennett against Orange Cassidy and Trent Beretta!

Though OC and Trent have never faced this Undisputed Kingdom tandem in a tag match, Cassidy’s fight with Roderick Strong have made them all quite familiar with one another, in fact the former 2-Time International Champion beat both Taven and Bennett in singles matches on the road to REVOLUTION 2024. But on that same road, as part of their mission to remove Cassidy’s support system, The Undisputed Kingdom put a hurting on Trent Beretta, so that makes this tag team encounter as much a method of revenge as it is an opportunity to move forward in the tournament to face the winner of the Private Party/Young Bucks bout!

TBS CHAMPIONSHIP #1 CONTENDER MATCH…

Kris Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale vs. Skye Blue vs. Anna Jay

***Mercedes Moné on commentary***

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The TBS Championship is a prize greatly coveted by the women of All Elite Wrestling, and this Wednesday night four competitors will clash to see who moves on to DYNASTY 2024 to face Julia Hart! All four of these women have plenty of story with Julia Hart, especially Statlander, Nightingale, and Skye Blue given their months of battle since FULL GEAR 2023, but Anna Jay has her own reasons for wanting another fight with Julia Hart.

Hart has been the bane of Anna Jay’s AEW existence, in three bouts it has been Julia who’s won each one, including a TBS Championship fight at BATTLE OF THE BELTS IX back in January. Statlander is the woman that Julia Hart took the TBS Championship from, though technically she did not defeat Kris to win in, but Statlander has yet to be granted a rematch. Coincidentally, Julia earned that title fight at FULL GEAR 2023 by defeating Willow Nightingale in an Eliminator Bout, and of course there’s the relationship between Hart and Skye Blue that’s blossomed since Hart misted Skye many months ago. At first they were at odds, but over time the two women became thick as thieves, and have come to operate as quite the fearsome tag team, actually beating Stat and Willow in a Street Fight last Wednesday night on RAMPAGE!

This is quite the intriguing Four Way, and it will be interesting to see how TBS Champion Julia Hart responds to the outcome of the fight, especially if it is Skye Blue who earns herself the DYNASTY 2024 title match!

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Join us Wednesday night for DYNAMITE, hailing from the Centre Videotron in Quebec City, QC, and featuring the first Quarter-Final match in the AEW World Tag Title Tournament between The Young Bucks and Private Party, Takeshita versus Swerve, and a rematch years in the making between Katsuyori Shibata and Will Ospreay!!!

The meets us this Saturday in London, ON at the Budweiser Gardens for the return of COLLISION featuring former 2-Time AEW World Tag Champions FTR taking on The Infantry in a Quarter-Final match-up of the AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament!

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We are on the road to DYNASTY live on PPV April 21st, hailing from the Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, MO, and we already know Bryan Danielson will go to battle with Will Ospreay in a dream match for the ages! We also know that the AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament will culminate that night, and on COLLISION fans witnessed The Infantry score a huge upset over House of Black to move past the Wild Card round. This Wednesday night in Toronto, All Elite Wrestling returns to the Coca-Cola Coliseum and with that comes another red-hot edition of DYNAMITE! We’ve got Adam Copeland and Christian Cage in an “I Quit” match for the TNT Champion, the Continental Championship on the line with Kazuchika Okada challenging Eddie Kingston, HOOK and Chris Jericho going one-on-one, and AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm teaming with Mariah May to battle Thunder Rosa and Deonna Purrazzo!

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But wait, there’s more! Not only will the AEW faithful in Toronto get to experience AEW’s flagship, the whole world will also get to see RAMPAGE live, as it happens, immediately following DYNAMITE on TBS! That’s right, AEW is bringing three huge hours of action to TBS this Wednesday, and RAMPAGE will feature another Wild Card match in the Tag Title Tournament, as well as a Street Fight pitting Statlander and Willow against the TBS Champion and Skye Blue!

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The show starts at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, so drop in on the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, for highlights from last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER! Then join us next Wednesday night for DYNAMITE’s debut in Quebec, City and the Centre Videotron! 

TNT Championship I Quit Match…

Christian Cage(c) vs. Adam Copeland

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Three minutes and thirty-two seconds; that is how long Adam Copeland could claim to be TNT Champion after beating Christian Cage at WORLDS END. Then Killswitch, having earned a guaranteed TNT Championship during the ZERO HOUR, struck down the new champion to try and capitalize on the situation. Sadly it was Christian who got to take advantage of it all, convincing Killswitch to bequeath his title shot to “The Patriarch”, and ending Copeland’s TNT Title reign just 212 seconds after it began. 

Copeland had every reason to demand a rematch, despite Cage’s insistence that he go to the back of the line, but instead Adam began his “Cope Open” to earn another shot, and took on every person who stepped up to the plate. Griff Garrison, Lee Moriarty, Dante Martin, and the legendary Minoru Suzuki all put Copeland to the test in their own fashion, but Adam beat each one, leading to a confrontation with another man in pursuit of Cage’s title, Daniel Garcia. Like true sportsmen, Copeland and Garcia agree to meet in singles combat with the next TNT Championship match going to the winner, but like a true scumbag, Christian Cage and his Patriachy stuck their nose into the fight, causing a No Contest result, and allowing Cage to put Copeland on the shelf with a Con-chair-to.

But they left Garcia intact, and though he didn’t claim the TNT Championship at REVOLUTION 2024, it’s really only because Nick Wayne and the Patriarchy were there to make sure Christian Cage survived Greensboro as champion. Take them out of the equation, and the AEW faithful would’ve been calling Daniel Garcia the new TNT Champion. It would’ve been quite fascinating to see how Copeland would’ve responded to someone else being the one to knock Christian off the TNT mountaintop, but that’s not how the hand played out, instead Cage has to actually deal with the repercussions of his assault on Adam Copeland with the future of the TNT Championship hanging in the balance!

Furthermore, the future of the championship won’t be decided in a regular match, not after everything that’s taken place between these two men since Copeland first arrived in AEW, the TNT Championship will be contested in an “I Quit” match this Wednesday night in Toronto! This is just the second such bout in the history of All Elite Wrestling, the first taking place at FULL GEAR 2020 between Eddie Kingston and then-AEW World Champion Jon Moxley, and coincidentally that too was a fight between friends-turned-enemies. That is about where the similarities end, neither Moxley nor Kingston threatened violence with a nail-embedded 2×4 for one, and though their bond had history, it isn’t thirty-plus years deep.

That’s what makes this entire scenario so painful, yet so intriguing; the careers of Adam Copeland and Christian Cage have played out before the world for the last twenty-five years, their lives have unfolded before the eyes of wrestling fans, their triumphs and tragedies have been public consumption, and a vast majority of it took place with them supporting one another. Even at the times they were on opposing sides, it wasn’t as ugly as situations have gotten here in AEW, it never seemed past the point of no return as it does now.

With AEW’s return to Toronto, one of these two competitors will be forced to say “I Quit” in front of the entire world. One man will have to capitulate to the others onslaught and give up their TNT Championship dream, but more than that, give up on the hope of reconciling differences with one another. Either Christian Cage or Adam Copeland will leave the Coca-Cola Coliseum as TNT Champion, that is certain, but what is uncertain is what the future of the relationship between these two men could possibly look like after the hell that’s been traversed over the last several months.

Continental Championship Match…

Eddie Kingston(c) vs. Kazuchika Okada

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Five months ago, at NJPW’s RUMBLE ON 44th STREET event, Eddie Kingston and Kazuchika Okada stood inside the ring as allies, a tag team facing down the BULLET CLUB GOLD tandem of Jay White and Juice Robinson, though their ending came with “Switchblade” pinning “The Mad King”. Skip ahead to March 6, 2024 and Kingston confronting The Young Bucks in the middle of the ring as the two found a way to gloat about their loss to Sting and Darby Allin at REVOLUTION 2024 a few days prior. The two EVPs made a choice to assault the Continental Crown Champion, teaming up on Kingston after a low blow neutralized him for a moment, but it seemed that the arrival of Kazuchika Okada would bring an end to the attack.

Turned out it was all a ruse at Eddie’s expense, and Okada chose that moment to show the world that not only was he officially All Elite, but he was also now one of The Elite alongside Matthew and Nicholas Jackson! To say that choice by Okada was disappointing would be a gross understatement, but it certainly proved a successful alliance as this new unit managed to defeat Kingston, PAC, and Penta El Zero Miedo in Trios competition, with Okada pinning Eddie to secure the victory. Sure it took another low blow from Matthew to allow Okada to hit The Rainmaker lariat, but with the win secured, it set Okada up for an immediate shot at the AEW Continental Championship. 

That title fight goes down this Wednesday night in Toronto, and it actually marks the first defense of the Continental Championship separate from the rest of Continental Crown, meaning it will be fought under Continental Rules, meaning absolutely no interference will be tolerated. Coincidentally, Kingston is also set to defend the ROH World Championship at ROH’s SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024 event on April 5th, a match separate from the rest of the Crown as well.

This bout is also Kazuchika Okada’s first singles match as an official member of the AEW roster, though not his first in All Elite Wrestling; in fact he’s 0-2 in one-on-one matches over his limited AEW experience, meaning he may see this as the match to make a statement to the rest of the AEW locker room, as well as an opportunity to claim his first AEW championship in rapid fashion. After overcoming Bryan Danielson at REVOLUTION 2024, after getting “The American Dragon” to actually shake his hand and acknowledge respect for “The Mad King”, it seemed Eddie had found a way to channel his inner fury into a positive, controlled fashion, but this situation with Okada and The Young Bucks seems to have shaken that resolve.

The Kingston who got in The EVPs faces was not restrained, the man who fought in that Trios match was not as focused as he was in Greensboro; could that be his undoing this Wednesday night when the Continental Championship is at stake? Will we see Okada add another championship to his resume? Will it be Kingston who adds another victory to this impressive run of nine consecutive singles matches, a run that includes Claudio Castagnoli, ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta, Bryan Keith, and two over Bryan Danielson?

Singles Match…

FTW Champion HOOK vs. Chris Jericho

FTW Champion HOOK and Chris Jericho recently found themselves with a common foe in The Mogul Embassy; in HOOK’s case it was Brian Cage in pursuit of the FTW Championship and for Jericho it was putting himself in the middle of that situation. When the original AEW World Champion elected to help HOOK when The Gates of Agony attacked him, Jericho became another target for Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona, and they didn’t wait long to let him know. It was only a few days between the attack on HOOK and the one on Jericho, and just as “Lionheart” helped “The Cold-Hearted, Handsome Devil”, so too did HOOK assist Chris. 

That led the two men to actually team up against The Gates of Agony; not only did they team up, the unlikely pair actually won the bout over Kaun & Toa, but that was not to be the end of their association, in fact Jericho himself made the challenge for this bout taking place on Wednesday night! Now one need only look at Jericho’s history in AEW for enough reason to question the man’s motivations for wanting this bout, but his desire to test HOOK does seem legitimate, not like a cover for ulterior motives. 

Interestingly it was just over 28 years ago that Jericho fought HOOK’s father Taz for the first time, actually scoring a DQ victory over “The Human Suplex Machine” that night in Philadelphia, so it is rather wild that Jericho is now fighting HOOK almost three decades later. It’s a testament not only to the longevity of Jericho’s career and how he’s operated at the highest levels, but also his willingness to mix it up with the younger generations when he could very well use his status to avoid ever having to lose face should he lose a bout like this.

It’s almost as if Jericho wants to make sure the landscape of wrestling is in good hands when the time comes for him to step away from in-ring competition, and perhaps that’s why the fights with Atlantis Jr, Titan, and now HOOK. It’s going to be interesting to see how this one plays out, will it be Jericho’s experience that lead to victory or will we see the youth of HOOK lead him to the biggest victory of his career? The FTW Champion tested Samoa Joe like few others in AEW have, can he do the same to Jericho?

Tag Team Grudge Match…

AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm & Mariah May vs. Deonna Purrazzo & Thunder Rosa

At one point during their REVOLUTION 2024 championship match, “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo had “Timeless” Toni Storm dead to rights, tapping out to her Venus de Milo submission hold, but the official was not in position to make the call thanks to Mariah May. Still, the world saw the AEW Women’s World Champ giving up even if the referee did not, and though it may not mean Purrazzo stands as the World Champion at this moment, it certainly gives her a viable claim to a rematch, and every justification to refer to herself as the “uncrowned champion” if she so chose. It’s quite clear Toni Storm wants to avoid a championship rematch with Deonna at this juncture, but unfortunately for Storm, she can’t dodge the tag team match scheduled for this Wednesday evening, a match she agreed to without even knowing who Deonna’s partner would be!

Turns out there’s another woman with some unfinished Toni Storm business, though it may be more accurate to say it’s unfinished World Title business, and that is “La Mera Mera” Thunder Rosa! Unfortunately for Rosa, due to injury she had to vacate the AEW Women’s World Championship in September 2022, a vacancy that was filled by Toni Storm at ALL OUT 2022 when she beat Dr. Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter, and Hikaru Shida in a Four Way bout. It was the first of Storm’s three championship reigns, and though it lasted just 76 days before Hayter dethroned her, it fueled the fire (and possibly the personality break) that has led “Timeless” to where she is today. In the time Rosa missed, the landscape of the AEW Women’s Division shifted quite a bit and now she finds herself fighting for a shot at the title she never lost, and perhaps this tag team contest is a way to that end game. A victory over Storm could put Rosa into contention, after all she’s won six straight matches since her return to action, four of those in singles competition, and if she could pin Toni in this fight, well it would have to put her name into the running for the next title fight. 

And that’s what makes this pairing of Thunder Rosa and Deonna Purrazzo quite interesting, they are two women with the goal of claiming the AEW Women’s World Championship from Toni Storm, but does that put them at cross-purposes as partners? Mariah May is obviously all in on supporting Toni and doing whatever she needs, can the same be said for “La Mera Mera” and “The Virtuosa”?

The CEO Comes to Ontario…

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Last week on DYNAMITE: BIG BUSINESS, Mercedes Moné made a huge impact with her arrival in All Elite Wrestling! It wasn’t just the words she spoke at the top of the program, but also her actions at the end of the night when Moné lent a helping hand to Willow Nightingale as TBS Champion Julia Hart and Skye Blue assaulted her. She dropped Skye Blue, planted Julia Hart, and actually shared a moment of respect with Willow Nightingale despite the fact Willow beat her to become the first NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion last year.

Now we will hear from “The CEO of AEW” this Wednesday night live on DYNAMITE, and you know the ears and ears of Julia Hart and Skye Blue, as well as the rest of the AEW Women’s locker room, are going to be fixed on what Mercedes Moné has to say!

But that’s not all…

That’s right; immediately following the conclusion of DYNAMITE, we will roll right into RAMPAGE on TBS, for three straight hours of the greatest professional wrestling on the planet! The second Wild Card Match in the AEW World Tag Title Tournament is set to go down pitting The Don Callis Family against Orange Cassidy and Trent Beretta, and it’s Street Fight time when Willow and Kris Statlander meet the TBS Champion and Skye Blue! Those two tremendous bouts, and a whole lot more, are coming to the AEW faithful immediately after the conclusion of DYNAMITE, making for one huge night of professional wrestling in Toronto!

AEW World Tag Team Title Tournament Wild Card Match…

The Don Callis Family (ROH World TV Champion Kyle Fletcher & Powerhouse Hobbs)

vs.

Orange Cassidy & Trent Beretta

***WINNER FACES TAVEN/BENNETT IN QUARTER-FINALS***

https://www.youtube.com/embed/p1e0m2uJ_MI?si=71hfGFOxLZNQHxQu&start=201

Last Saturday night on COLLISION, fans witnessed a tremendous upset when The Infantry defeated House of Black in the first Wild Card match, albeit with a little help from a revenge-seeking Mark Briscoe, meaning Capt. Shawn Dean and Carlie Bravo move on to face FTR in the Quarter-Finals.

This Wednesday night during RAMPAGE the second Wild Card contest will take place when The Don Callis Family, represented by Powerhouse Hobbs and ROH World TV Champion Kyle Fletcher, take on former 2-Time AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy and Trent Beretta! As odd as it may be, especially with the OC/Trent pairing, neither of these teams are particularly experienced as a duo. The Callis crew have only teamed up once other time at RAMPAGE: WINTER IS COMING 2023, while the Cassidy/Beretta team only have 3 AEW matches and 1 ROH match under their belts this year, though to be fair OC and Trent have a wealth of experience working together in multi-man matches over the history of AEW.

The winner of this contest moves on to face ROH World Tag Team Champions Matt Taven and Mike Bennett in the Quarter-Final round, and it’s quite difficult to pick a winner in this tag team affair. The power and precision of The Don Callis Family team versus the top tier all-around game of the OC/Trent pair; it’s quite the pick’em for the Wild Card round!

Street Fight…

TBS Champion Julia Hart & Skye Blue vs. Kris Statlander & Willow Nightingale

As mentioned already, Willow Nightingale was the victim of an assault by TBS Champion Julia Hart and Skye Blue following her victory over Riho last Wednesday night. It was only the efforts of Mercedes Moné that saved the former NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion from serious injury, but it certainly left a question of where Kris Statlander was to help out her friend.

We would find out after the fact that the former TBS Champion was assaulted backstage, preventing her from assisting Nightingale, but on this Wednesday’s special edition of RAMPAGE it’s time for Julia Hart and Skye Blue to pay the piper in the form of a Street Fight! Willow and Statlander have already proven successful in that field, defeating Diamante and Mercedes Martinez last December under that stipulation, and now they’re prepared to bring the fight to the TBS Champion and her ally! This has been raging in one form or another since Julia Hart claimed the TBS Championship for herself at FULL GEAR 2023, will this be the night the scores are finally settled? 

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AEW’s three hour block of the best wrestling on the planet begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, in addition to AEWPlus.com for international fans, so visit the official AEW YouTube channel before showtime, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, to catch highlights from previous editions of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, plus the latest CONTROL CENTER with Tony Schiavone! Then join AEW next Wednesday night for our debut in Quebec, City at the Centre Videotron for an all-new live DYNAMITE! 

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After weeks of anticipation, DYNAMITE: BIG BU$INESS is upon us, and the TD Garden is going to be rocking on Wednesday night! AEW World Champion Samoa Joe will defend his title against a familiar foe in Wardlow, the man who earned this opportunity in REVOLUTION 2024’s All-Star Scramble, and we will witness the first-time clash between Darby Allin and ROH World Six-Man Champion “Switchblade” Jay White! But that’s not all; The New Elite of The Young Bucks and “Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada will battle Death Triangle and Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston in Trios action, Willow Nightingale takes on former AEW Women’s World Champion Riho, and FTW Champion HOOK unites with Chris Jericho to battle The Gates of Agony!! All that, and so much more, is on tap for the AEW faithful this Wednesday night for DYNAMITE: BIG BU$INESS!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ze9OkyhQsuM?si=v5fKD10frwJUhvwf

The show begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, so be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s assorted social media platforms, for highlights from last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, COLLISION, and the latest CONTROL CENTER! Then join us Saturday night in Ottawa, ON, Canada (https://www.allelitewrestling.com/aew-event/aew-collision-ottawa) for our debut at the Canadian Tire Centre for an all-new COLLISION!

AEW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Samoa Joe(c) vs. Wardlow 

The history between AEW World Champion Samoa Joe and Wardlow runs a bit further back than just “The War Dog” winning the All-Star 8-Man Scramble at REVOLUTION 2024 to earn a World Title match. Back in the fall of 2022, for the better part of two months Joe and Wardlow operated as something of a tag team, even being dubbed WarJoe for their battles against The Varsity Athletes, Gates of Agony, and The Factory. It wasn’t the most stable of partnerships, but it seemed function enough until November 11, 2022 when all came crashing down after then-TNT Champion Wardlow told Powerhouse Hobbs he was going to take all the championships in the company while standing before then-ROH World TV Champion Samoa Joe.

Joe did not take kindly to that sentiment, cracked Wardlow with his ROH title belt, and slapped a Choke on the TNT Champion. This led to Joe becoming the TNT Champion at FULL GEAR 2022 in a Three Way with Wardlow and Powerhouse Hobbs, and then beating Wardlow in a singles match at NEW YEARS SMASH 2022 to close out the year. Darby Allin would beat Joe a week later to end that reign, but Joe regained the TNT Championship in short order, only to have Wardlow snatch it away at REVOLUTION 2023 in Joe’s first defense of that second reign. 

The two parted ways after that, Wardlow getting wrapped up with Powerhouse Hobbs while Joe continued his epic ROH World TV Title run as well as began his pursuit of MJF’s AEW World Championship. For Wardlow that path led to triumph and tragedy, losing the title to Hobbs just three days later, before regaining it for a third time, only to have it ripped away by Christian Cage and Luchas…Killswitch. After that, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that Wardlow floundered. He disappeared from television for four months, came back and resumed decimating one individual after another while sporting MJF’s initials on his wrist tape, but it wasn’t until the masks were ripped away, and he was revealed as member of the Undisputed Kingdom that things came into focus.

Wardlow, along with Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Matt Taven, and Mike Bennett, accomplished their larger goal of destroying MJF’s life by helping to weaken him for Samoa Joe to take the AEW World Championship at WORLDS END. Following that, each man declared their individual goals, and for Wardlow that meant taking what he felt he’d deserved since destroying MJF at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2022: the AEW World Championship. All Wardlow had to do was find his angle to a championship opportunity, and that came in Greensboro when he won the All-Star Scramble and earned a future title match, a result that occurred just a couple hours before Samoa Joe survived both Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland to retain the AEW World Championship.

With the title match in place, all that was needed was setting the date in stone, and that happened last Wednesday night on DYNAMITE following Joe and Swerve’s tag team victory over Wardlow’s partners in the Undisputed Kingdom, your ROH World Tag Team Champions Taven and Bennett. This Wednesday night, when AEW returns to TD Garden for the first time since BLOOD & GUTS 2023, it will be BIG BU$INESS, and there isn’t much that’s bigger business than the AEW World Championship! In this rubber match, Wardlow gets his very first crack at the most coveted championship in professional wrestling, and he does it knowing that the last time he met Samoa Joe one-on-one, he was the won who walked away with a championship title around his waist!

What’s rather frightening though is the difference between Samoa Joe circa March 2023 and Samoa Joe in March 2024; though he has always been one of the most intimidating men in wrestling today, the last 75 days have seen Joe unleash an intensity unfamiliar to AEW audiences. It was as if his pursuit of the AEW World Championship began to open a door he’d left closed for many years, and the first night he walked onto DYNAMITE as the AEW World Champion, said door swung wide open and the landscape of AEW quaked in fear. This is Joe unleashed, this is Joe with everything he’s wanted from the moment he came to All Elite Wrestling, and this is a Samoa Joe who will stop at nothing to make sure it remains his forevermore. It may sound trite to say that the person who beats Joe may have to kill him, but with one look at the way Joe carries that AEW World Title, it’s hard to not take that as his truth. 

This Wednesday night in Boston, Wardlow is going to have to find a way to break Joe like no one ever has before in order to become the AEW World Champion, but if he can maintain that fury, if he can keep that righteous anger burning, then Wardlow may be able to do just that. All eyes will be on the TD Garden this Wednesday night, can Wardlow become the champion he’s longed to be in front of their gaze?

TRIOS BATTLE…

The Elite (Kazuchika Okada, Matthew Jackson, & Nicholas Jackson)

vs.

Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston & Death Triangle (PAC & Penta El Zero Miedo)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/9GYxUuhNhcw?si=10AOPXDXEGZcN2xV&start=230

Last week on DYNAMITE, “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada made his first appearance for All Elite Wrestling as a certified member of AEW locker room, and while that should’ve been a joyous occasion, it was marred by the former multi-time IWPG Heavyweight Champion signing on with The Elite following The EVPs official dismissal of Kenny Omega and Hangman Page. As if that wasn’t disappointing enough, Okada made that choice at the expense of Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston, and when Kingston tried for a measure of revenge on COLLISION a few days later, he paid for it then as well; at least until “The Bastard” PAC made his return to AEW

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xg2DmLSr7uU?si=NjzVTw_mXBjnOrxY

Now we come to BIG BU$INESS this Wednesday night at the TD Garden, and the challenge laid out by Kingston Saturday night. A Trios bout between this new Elite and the rather wild combination of the Continental Crown Champion, Penta El Zero Miedo, and “The Bastard”! One would have to go back nearly three years, to one of the finals events of AEW’s extended stay at Daily’s Place, to find the last time those three men stood together on the same side, coincidentally enough it was also in opposition to The Young Bucks, albeit with Brandon Cutler as their third. Kingston and Penta are close, though it hasn’t always been the easiest of roads, but PAC and Eddie aren’t exactly best friends. Still, they’ve proven they can function as a unit when driven by mutual goals, and eradicating this version of The Elite right out of the gate is certainly a goal worth fighting for.

Make no mistake, this is a pivotal fight in the careers of all men involved; it’s the first big match of Okada’s new endeavor as Elite, it’s PAC’s return to the fold for the first time since July 26th, and it’s AEW’s return to TD Garden! Who will rise in the face of the increased heat of the spotlight that’ll be shone on this match, as well as the entire BIG BU$INESS event?

ONE-ON-ONE…

“Switchblade” Jay White vs. Darby Allin

https://www.youtube.com/embed/EqDOJRtLQCw?si=4xLfEkSvaQjJs5B-&start=326

Before the dust had even settled in Greensboro, before the crew had even finished tearing down the REVOLUTION 2024 set, AEW GM Tony Khan had announced that Darby Allin would fight ROH World Six-Man Champion “Switchblade” Jay White at DYNAMITE: BIG BUSINESS! At the moment Darby was informed of this, during the Media Scrum following the pay-per-view, he certainly didn’t look to be in any condition for a fight of this caliber, but anyone who’s paid attention to the career of the former World Tag Team Champion knows that he won’t let anything stop him from entering the fight, not even an impending trip to Mt. Everest on March 27th. 

But will Darby Allin be in any condition to make that trip after this Wednesday night’s fight with “Switchblade” Jay White? After the words exchanged last week between Darby and “King Switch”, this bout has heated up quite quickly, and is a huge part of AEW’s return to TD Garden! 

Given that Jay White is perpetually supported by The Gunns, Austin and Colten, the question has to be asked if they will get themselves involved in the bout? Or will the influence of The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass actually sway The Bang Bang Gang to fight on the up-and-up? As for Darby, what does his future look like in the post-Sting landscape of All Elite Wrestling? With so much of his last three years spent at Sting’s side, how will the former 2-Time TNT Champion move forward in his career standing by himself? This Wednesday night, as part of BIG BU$INESS, we will all see what the future entails!

SINGLES MATCH…

Willow Nightingale vs. Riho

A week ago former TBS Champion Kris Statlander stepped into the ring for a fight with original AEW Women’s World Champion Riho for the first time in four years, and though it was a hard-fought battle from Stat, it was Riho who took home the victory, moving herself one step closer to a potential championship bout.

But Riho and Kris Statlander aren’t the only women looking for a title opportunity, former NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion Willow Nightingale is also on the hunt for the TBS Championship around Julia Hart’s waist, and just like her tag partner, the road also goes through Riho! Prior to this, the only engagement between the two women took place on the November 14, 2022 edition of DARK: ELEVATION when they teamed up to defeat Emi Sakura and Mei Suruga, a match that coincidentally also took place in Boston, just four miles away at Agganis Arena.

Will Willow win out where Kris Statlander came up short one week ago? And how will Stokely Hathaway play a role in this bout because, let’s face it, he can’t help but find a way to insert himself into any match…

TAG TEAM BOUT…

FTW Champion HOOK & Chris Jericho vs. Gates of Agony (Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/s_qmxbdjnho?si=sjSuJ4snp-iOR7_-&start=326

It’s an unlikely alliance yet here we are; Chris Jericho and FTW Champion HOOK are set to stand on the same side of the ring with The Gates of Agony (Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona) standing in opposition. All of this stems from the All-Star 8-man at REVOLUTION 2024, Jericho and HOOK’s participation in the match, HOOK’s rivalry with Brian Cage, and his victory over “The Machine” last week on DYNAMITE! It all coalesced into Jericho assisting HOOK, HOOK assisting the OG AEW World Champion, and now this tag team bout between The Gates of Agony and HOOK/Jericho. Jericho has some experience with The Gates after defeating them with Kenny Omega as his partner, but HOOK has never set foot in the ring with either Toa Liona or Bishop Kaun, and given that he and Jericho are entering into this unity for the first time, it’s going to be quite interesting to see how they function as a unit.

The Gates ended their 2023 as participants in the NJPW World Tag League, scoring four points overall, but in 2024 they’ve taken a step back from Mogul Embassy business as Swerve Strickland made it a point to pursue his AEW World Championship dreams without Embassy involvement. That’s done now; Kaun and Toa are back in business this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, and they aim to deliver a message to everyone in the AEW locker room by decimating the original AEW World Champ and the current FTW Champion! 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/4nNZN0oqdmU?si=uIMNQAcLpifMo9oX

DYNAMITE: BIG BU$INESS is finally here and the TD Garden better be ready for an epic night! The AEW World Championship will be at stake when Samoa Joe and Wardlow rekindle their rivalry, we will see Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston unite with PAC and Penta El Zero Miedo to take on The Elite, and FTW Champion HOOK tags up with Chris Jericho to battle The Mogul Embassy’s Gates of Agony!  In addition, Darby Allin and Jay White lock horn, Willow Nightingale battles the original AEW Women’s World Champion Riho, and there is plenty more coming your way from Boston this Wednesday night!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/iweidRmLn4U?si=lYTRuKYeFau7Q-UI&start=326

DYNAMITE begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for our international fans, so drop by AEW’s official YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, to catch highlights from last week’s editions of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, COLLISION, and the latest CONTROL CENTER! Then on Saturday night we head to Ottawa, ON, Canada for our debut at the Canadian Tire Centre with an all-new COLLISION!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/C3rmReJVUAE?si=1Jcso0cUIPNV8Cxr

We are finally here, the moment we have all been anticipating/dreading since October 18th when “The Icon” Sting announced to the world that he would bring his historic Hall of Fame career to an end at REVOLUTION 2024. That night he said to the world “The only thing sure about Sting is my retirement, REVOLUTION 2024, is for sure.”, and it felt like a seismic shift in the foundation of professional wrestling. 

We’d learn shortly thereafter that the site for this historic night would be the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC, a site very familiar to “The Icon”, a place where he fought “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair to a 45 minute draw over the World’s Championship, where he and Lex Luger won the 1988 Jim Crockett Memorial Cup, and where he stepped inside a Steel Cage with Mick Foley. The Greensboro Coliseum is where Sting found The Great Muta to a time limit draw, where he went to a Double DQ with Abdullah The Butcher, and where he was trapped inside that enclosed Steel Cage in 1991. After Sunday night, the Greensboro Coliseum will also be known as the location where Sting fought his final professional wrestling match, and where All Elite Wrestling’s first pay-per-view of 2024 took place!

While this Sunday night will obviously be historic as the night professional wrestling bids farewell to Sting’s in-ring career, it could also go down in history as one of the most unforgettable nights in AEW history! With so many championship matches on tap, the debut of Will Ospreay as an official member of the AEW locker room, the All-Star Scramble, and so much more, REVOLUTION 2024 goes live on PPV beginning at 8pm ET/7pm CT, with the ZERO HOUR kicking off at 6:30p ET on the official AEW YouTube channel!

AEW WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP TORNADO TAG MATCH…

Darby Allin & “The Icon” Sting(c) vs. The Young Bucks (Matthew and Nicholas Jackson)

13,978 days; 38 years, 3 months, and 7 days; that is how long it has been since the first night “The Icon” Sting stepped inside a professional wrestling ring for a match. In that time he has been an inspiration to fans around the world, one of the most beloved figures the industry has seen, a true Hall of Fame talent, a master of reinvention, and a worthy of that “Icon” tag. It was not all that long ago that, due to injury, it was thought Sting’s days inside the ring were over, but since coming to All Elite Wrestling he has proven that to be so far from the truth. 

It began at WINTER IS COMING 2020 on December 2nd, when Sting arrived at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, to the delight of the limited fans inside the arena. It was a cold night in Jacksonville but the electricity for Sting’s arrival, the excitement from the fans made it red hot, and at REVOLUTION 2021, when he teamed with Darby Allin for his first match in nearly six years, “The Icon” showed he was as good as ever. That Street Fight saw the Sting/Darby tandem score victory over Brian Cage and Ricky Starks, and thus began a streak of twenty-eight victories, fifteen of them in tag matches with Darby, that has included Street Fights, No DQ situations, a trip to Pro Wrestling NOAH, and even a Coffin Match at Wembley Stadium for ALL IN: LONDON! 

In the midst of all that, on October 18th, Sting told the world that at REVOLUTION 2024 he would close the book on his legendary in-ring career after thirty-eight years, he said that was the one thing about Sting that was for certain, but between October and this Sunday, there was still a lot to accomplish. Darby and Sting made an ally out of Adam Copeland, joining him in the fight against The Patriarchy, and even signed on with Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara to fight then-AEW World Tag Champions Big Bill & Ricky Starks and The Don Callis Family. Still, there was one goal, one thing that Sting hadn’t accomplished during his AEW tenure, one thing Darby Allin was adamant about making happen before the final curtain: an AEW championship.

That ultimately came to fruition on February 7th when Sting and Darby claimed the AEW World Tag Team Championship from Starks and Big Bill in a Tornado Tag. It should have been a moment of triumph, of celebration, but instead two petulant adults ruined the moment for Sting and Darby, as well as for the fans wanting to celebrate this monumental occasion. While the extent of what The Young Bucks did to Darby, Sting, and his sons was quite shocking, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they spoiled the celebration. 

After all these are two men who, after losing their tag team title opportunity at FULL GEAR 2023 to Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho, had Brandon Cutler put out the message to “respect their privacy” as they took time away from wrestling, had Brandon Cutler tweet out that they were done with BEING THE ELITE, and on January 10th when Matthew and Nicholas finally came back to work to respond to the question of who Sting would face in his final match, also had Cutler put out that backstage morale increased tremendously due to their return.

The version of The Young Bucks that has taken up television time in 2024 can be summed up in three words: abuse of power. For the first time since AEW’s inception, the brothers Jackson are actively taking advantage of their power as EVPs in the company hierarchy, not only to threaten people with fines (as they did with Tony Schiavone) or to disrupt others moments (as they did with Eddie Kingston this past Wednesday), but also to put themselves into this position to challenge for the AEW World Tag Team Championship! The return of the rankings system was intended to provide deserving challengers with their opportunities, to have a system where individuals/teams earn their way to title shots with victories over other deserving challengers, but The Young Bucks arbitrarily decided how it would work for them. They came back, defeated a team of local hopefuls on the 2/9 RAMPAGE, cheated to beat Top Flight on the 2/14 DYNAMITE, and then declared themselves the #1 Contender’s to the tag titles. They didn’t earn that top spot through actual work, they didn’t win an Eliminator Match to get a title opportunity, nor are they answering any kind of Open Challenge to face Darby Allin and Sting; they are simply using the tools they were given as EVPs for selfish ends rather than to the boon of AEW.

The Young Bucks, as they have chosen to operate thus far in 2024, couldn’t be farther from who they were in 2019, and could not be any farther from the men they are facing on Sunday night. Since the day he set foot in AEW, Sting has been here for All Elite Wrestling, for the men and women in the locker rooms, and has been an example of how to enjoy a nearly 40 year career in this industry in a way that actually benefits all those around you. That isn’t just here in AEW though, the people who were around him long before AEW have testified to that being the way Sting has always conducted himself in the wrestling sphere, and it is also what Sting has told the world he sees in Darby Allin. Darby cares about AEW deeply, not just his own place in it, but in the entirety of All Elite Wrestling, wanting to see it grow and thrive, and thus he is utterly disappointed in the men The Young Bucks have chosen to be in 2024. They are not here for AEW, they are not here to benefit anyone else but themselves, and they obviously don’t care who they hurt in the process, and that is why this Sunday night at REVOLUTION 2024, Darby Allin and Sting have bad intentions for Matthew and Nicholas Jackson.

It’s about AEW, it’s about the Borden family, it’s about the bond Sting and Darby have built over the last several years, and for Darby especially, it’s about making sure “The Icon” gets the send-off from professional wrestling that he has earned. After thirty-eight years and a lifetime of sacrifice, of a career filled with the highest highs and lowest lows, of championships, and of blood, sweat, and tears, Sting bids professional wrestling farewell, but not before trying to teach one last lesson to The Young Bucks about humility, and the cost of their hubris.

AEW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Samoa Joe(c) vs. “Hangman” Adam Page vs. Swerve Strickland

https://www.youtube.com/embed/2JiQTUOM-ac?si=W6i4ka_xZRFfPkeO&start=285

Two years ago, at REVOLUTION 2022 in Orlando, Swerve Strickland signed his name on the dotted line to became All Elite while Adam Page retained the AEW World Championship over Adam Cole. One year ago, at REVOLUTION 2023, as Adam Page beat Jon Moxley in Texas Death and Samoa Joe lost the TNT Title to Wardlow, Swerve sat in the back of San Francisco’s Chase Center stewing that he wasn’t involved with anything that night.

Now REVOLUTION is upon us again, this time hailing from the historic Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC, and Swerve Strickland is exactly where he has always wanted to be, in the AEW World Championship picture. Swerve has always felt, always known, he has the tools to be the man standing atop AEW as champion, but this is his first opportunity to become the champion, and he means to make the most of it. Over the course of his AEW career, specifically since the moment he chose to turn his back on Keith Lee, Swerve has shown a willingness to do anything, to go to any lengths, in order to accomplish his goals, and that is where Hangman Page enters into the picture.

This thing between Hangman and Swerve started innocuously enough on the September 6th DYNAMITE when Strickland interrupted Tony Schiavone’s conversation with the former AEW World Champion, but it quickly went south as Swerve ran down Hangman. Strickland swore it wasn’t personal, that it was simply a matter of wanting the spot Adam occupied, and it was that night Strickland said “if I would’ve gotten the opportunities that you’ve gotten, I’d be the first black AEW World Champion by now”. Maybe it wasn’t personal to start, but it rapidly became so as Swerve pushed every possible button he could to get under Hangman’s skin, the situation ultimately ending with Mogul Embassy member Brian Cage dropping Hangman with a Drill Claw.

Their first singles match at WRESTLEDREAM 2023 went Swerve’s way, but not without the assist of Prince Nana, while their second match at FULL GEAR 2023 produced one of the most violent, bloody, sadistic scenarios we’ve ever seen play out in All Elite Wrestling, and that too was won by the boss of The Mogul Embassy. Along the way Hangman made sure Strickland didn’t cheat his way to a TNT Championship opportunity, along the way Swerve thought it was a good idea to break into Hangman’s home, along the way everything that started as being about professional wrestling and a “spot” got very, very personal. Hangman swore he’d never let Swerve become AEW World Champion, and when the two men collided on the February 7th DYNAMITE to see who would go to REVOLUTION 2024 to fight for the title and it ended with a time limit draw, Hangman thought he’d accomplished his goal of blocking Swerve’s path to the title.

Unfortunately for Hangman, AEW GM Tony Khan had other thoughts, and it was announced just moments after the draw that both Hangman and Swerve would go on to March 3rd in Greensboro as the challengers for the AEW World Championship held by Samoa Joe. Yes, that was another thing that happened along the way; the most dominant World Champion in ROH’s 22 year history, the most dominant ROH World TV Champion in that title’s 14 year lineage, had now become the king of All Elite Wrestling after smashing through MJF at WORLDS END 2023.

Ask anyone who’s ever stood across the ring from Samoa Joe, or even stood in the ring as he made his entrance for that matter; the AEW World Champion is one of the scariest individuals to share space with inside the squared circle. There is an intensity that permeates the room when Joe walks into it, a feeling that you’re sharing space with one of the baddest men on the planet, a man willing to destroy you if you come for what’s his, and an individual to be feared. Samoa Joe’s arrival to ROH at GLORY BY HONOR 2002 changed the game for professional wrestling, his historic reign as ROH World Champion elevated ROH to that next level, and his fight with Kenta Kobashi in October 2005 elevated the entire sport. A man of Joe’s size wasn’t supposed to move like that, wasn’t supposed to be able to string together the furious combinations of offense that he did, but his presence on increasingly larger stages showed the wrestling world different, making his arrival to AEW two years ago one of the most exciting debuts in the company’s history. 

After all, there are few competitors in professional wrestling more legitimate than Samoa Joe, few men who force all those around them to be better, and that is what both Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page are going to have to be on Sunday night: better. They each need to find the best version of themselves to have a hope of dethroning Samoa Joe as the AEW World Champion, they both need to find a way to focus on that goal rather than on their hatred for each other, otherwise their mutually assured destruction will leave Samoa Joe reigning atop AEW. 

AEW WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

“Timeless” Toni Storm(c) vs. “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo

Deonna Purrazzo first showed her face in AEW as the ROH Women’s World Champion, but at that time she was obligated elsewhere in her professional wrestling career, and with Mercedes Martinez defeating her to claim the championship, it seemed the only time the AEW faithful would get to see “The Virtuosa”. 

Then January 3rd happened, and in the aftermath of Mariah May’s in-ring debut for AEW, “The Virtuosa” arrived on the scene in Newark, upstaging Mariah’s debut, and telling her to take a message back to AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm. Mariah took umbrage with the idea that she’s Storm’s messenger, slapped AEW’s new signee across the face, but immediately received a slap of her own from Purrazzo, followed by a kick to the jaw that sent Mariah reeling.

With just those few minutes, Deonna Purrazzo let the world know why she was here in All Elite Wrestling, but it would take a few more weeks before the AEW faithful learned about the history between Deonna and Toni Storm before there was a “Virtuosa” or a “Timeless”. It turned out that the two women were friends, former roommates, who even got identical tattoos to commemorate their bond. Their friendship ran deeper than two women who’d worked in Stardom together, or had been opponents in other companies, they were true friends in their pre-AEW days, but that didn’t stop “Timeless” Toni Storm from feigning ignorance to who Deonna Purrazzo identity.

Eventually Storm let the facade drop, and both women spoke to their history, Deonna looking for some glimmer of the woman she knew before “Timeless” took over while the AEW Women’s World Champion considered her past dead. It’s almost as if, between losing the AEW Women’s World Championship twice in less than a year and having her relationship with The Outcasts disintegrate, Storm just broke, deciding that she’d always been “Timeless”, and anything before her AEW premiere as “Timeless” happened to someone else.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fMoMQtFd47Q?si=HIlXC6OL5FVV4hml&start=74

So Deonna did what she had to do in order to get what she wanted, she got to work inside the squared circle and earned her way to a championship fight. Starting with Red Velvet on January 13th, Purrazzo has racked up five singles victories over Red, Anna Jay, Taya Valkyrie, Madison Rayne, and Kiera Hogan, and did not hesitate to throw blows with her former friend last night on COLLISION. It seems Deonna Purrazzo has had to accept that the Toni Storm she knew is gone forever, so all that’s left to do is take away the championship she holds so dear, and see if perhaps that shock to the system jolts Toni Storm back to who she was before “Timeless” took over the reins.  

TNT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

“The Patriarch” Christian Cage vs. Daniel Garcia

Daniel Garcia was at a point in his young career that many individuals could relate to regardless of their occupation; he was questioning himself, questioning his worth, and questioning if he should continue chasing his professional wrestling dreams. The frustration of one loss after another in the Continental Classic didn’t help his feelings, but when he finally got that victory over Brody King in their last match of the tournament, even if it didn’t matter by that point in terms of the standings, it mattered to Garcia and his dreams. It was a reminder of just how good he is bell-to-bell, it was a wake-up call to the rest of AEW that Garcia needs to be viewed as a threat to everyone standing across the ring from him, and a statement to the fans that the energy they’d invested in Garcia was one worth making.

It wasn’t a victory that led Garcia directly into a ripping streak where he’s stacked up W’s over everyone in front of him, but it bolstered his confidence, it led to his team scoring victory at WORLDS END 2023 when Garcia pinned Lethal, and to Garcia stepping up to aid FTR against The House of Black, notably being the deciding factor in their victory over The House in the Escape The Cage match several weeks ago.

A week later, Garcia followed that up by scoring the decision over Nick Wayne to get his trio with FTR  a win over The Patriarchy, and that moment is what brought him to this place on Sunday night’s REVOLUTION 2024 pay-per-view. That victory gave Garcia the confidence to call out Christian Cage for a TNT Championship match, it boosted Garcia when he accepted Adam Copeland’s challenge for a #1 Contender match on DYNAMITE. Sadly, though unsurprisingly, Christian Cage and The Patriarchy ruined that match, getting it thrown out as a No Contest when they interfered while Copeland had Garcia in a Crossface submission. Merely interfering wasn’t enough though, Cage and company tried to deliver a Con-Chair-To to Garcia, one Copeland stopped from happening, only to end up a victim of the devastating chair attack himself thanks to Mother Wayne hitting him in the groin.

So with Copeland on the shelf from that assault, Daniel Garcia was the man left standing, and he absolutely was not going to back down from this fight no matter what. He wants that TNT Championship, he wants revenge for what Cage did to him, Copeland, and Daddy Magic, and he will fight the entire Patriarchy by himself in order to get it! Unfortunately that just may be the scenario in Greensboro on Sunday night, Garcia versus Cage, Killswitch, and The Wayne’s, but if that’s what it takes to finally wear an AEW championship around his waist, than that is what Garcia will do.

There is one question though, if Garcia is successful in his TNT Championship bid at REVOLUTION 2024, how will Copeland handle that upon his return? It’s been his mission to be the one to take that title from Christian Cage, the entire point of the Cope Open was for Adam to play Cage’s game and earn his way back to contention with actual victories, so if Garcia is the one to swoop in and end The Patriarch’s reign as TNT Champion, how will Copeland respond?

CONTINENTAL CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Eddie Kingston(c) vs. “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson

Nearly 500 years ago the Pakistani Beggar King Hussein Nishah wrote, “Treat people the way you want to be treated. Talk to people the way you want to be talked to. Respect is earned, not given”, and those words, especially the final five, have permeated through history to this very day. Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone character in The Godfather spoke those words after a fashion, Ring of Honor even named one of its pay-per-view events RESPECT IS EARNED, it’s a mantra that many people live by, and one that Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston has taken to heart both in his wrestling career as well as in life.

He is the first man to admit that he wasn’t the most respectful of individuals as a young kid first getting into professional wrestling. He was an uncouth kid off the streets coming into a world where handshakes are an expectation, respect for those who came before you is demanded regardless of their behavior towards you, and “paying your dues” can be an arbitrary term for treating the younger generations horribly. It could be a world where respect was expected rather than earned, and that system did nothing to bolster those who struggled to find their place in it. Some were rigid in their expectations of adherence to pro wrestling’s precepts, and when an individual like Kingston, especially in his nascent years lacing up the boots, comes into that world it can bristle those who have lofty expectations. 

That is the relationship of Bryan Danielson and Eddie Kingston, one where the former gives the latter no learning curve and simply demands he be better. There’s no leeway given to the notion that Eddie, as he has owned, is his own worst enemy, that he’s guilty of walking away rather than fighting the preconceived notions of men like Bryan and Claudio Castagnoli. There are times when Eddie hasn’t pushed himself to be his best, that he’s allowed himself to be less than, but for some it just takes longer to find that self-belief, to create that self-confidence, that lends itself towards being the best version of yourself. 

Bryan and Claudio may entered into professional wrestling utterly confident about their abilities, completely sure of their choices, but that wasn’t Eddie. He was the man who took time to figure out his place in the world of wrestling, to learn who he is as a man away from the ring, and figure out why he kept handicapping his own career. It took time, it took making a lot of mistakes and creating a slew of enemies, it took losing friends and relationships, but eventually Kingston looked inward rather than outward, and began to make the changes. The reality is that this is an ongoing process for Kingston, one that will likely last his entire life, but at least it’s a process he pursues and won’t let himself give up on ever again.

Unfortunately that’s not enough for Bryan Danielson; Eddie’s desire to change, the work put in towards becoming a better version of himself, of living up to his fullest potential, none of that matters to “The American Dragon” because all he sees is who Kingston was, not who he is. He doesn’t see the hard work Kingston puts in every night, the gym hours, the diet, the mental healthcare, the pure passion Eddie has for professional wrestling; all he sees is who Eddie was fifteen, twenty years ago, a version of Kingston that Danielson has forever trapped in amber. For Bryan there is no such thing as growth, no such thing as change, no such thing as redemption; you are who you are and you’ll always be that.

So no matter what Eddie Kingston does, Bryan Danielson will never genuinely respect him, not as a wrestler or a man, it will never be earned no matter how many times “The Mad King” can best him. There’s a reason why the simple act of a shaking Eddie’s hand has to be forced upon Bryan, and it says a lot more about who Danielson is as a person than anything about Eddie Kingston. Perhaps the world can now see that no matter how good “The American Dragon” may be inside the ring, and make no mistake he is quite possibly the best to ever do it, outside of the ring he is a bully who relishes in the misery of others, and Bryan’s actions show he is the one who has not earned one ounce of respect. 

AEW INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

“Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy(c) vs. Roderick Strong

Adam Cole made it abundantly clear on the DYNAMITE followings WORLDS END 2023, when The Undisputed Kingdom officially introduced themselves to the world as a unit, that Roderick Strong was on a mission to claim the AEW International Championship. There was no secret plan now that Cole, Strong, Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, and Wardlow had stepped out from behind their masks, every card was laid out on the table, and Roddy did not hesitate to step to Orange Cassidy’s face on the January 17th DYNAMITE after he and Trent Beretta defeated Penta and Komander. To be clear though, while Roderick had no problem getting into OC’s face to declare his championship aspirations, he had no intention of fighting Cassidy that night even though the defending champion was more than willing to go.

Instead Roderick Strong made it known he would wait until REVOLUTION 2024 to take up this title fight, giving Cassidy plenty of time to prepare for the match, but also plenty of time to possibly lose the championship as well. After all, just because Roderick was willing to wait over a month for his title opportunity didn’t mean Cassidy wasn’t going to be the defending champion he’s always been. In fact, not only has “Freshly Squeezed” defended the belt since the confrontation with Strong, he’s done so three times, including traveling to RevPro in London to put it on the line in a Seven Way bout! 

But it looks like Roderick actually had a rationale behind his decision to postpone the opportunity, an actual plan to put into motion leading up to REVOLUTION 2024, and that plan meant removing a majority of Cassidy’s allies off the playing field. Trent Beretta, Chuck Taylor, and Rocky Romero have all been put on the shelf by The Undisputed Kingdom, FTW Champion HOOK has been otherwise engaged in issues with Brian Cage and a fixation on Samoa Joe, and Danhausen, well who knows where his head is at. Suffice to say with Trent, Chuck, and Rocky off the table, the AEW International Champion is rather alone while Roderick Strong is always flanked by Taven and Bennett. 

If Cassidy had lost the championship between January 17th and March 3rd, it’s safe to say Roderick would’ve just moved his focus to whoever beat Orange, because for him this isn’t personal, it’s just about taking the International Championship. For Cassidy however, trying to take the title he’s poured his blood, his body, and his soul into for 471 out of the last 508 days is very personal, and taking down his best friends out of some misguided delusion that it will make him easier pickings is also very personal.

So while Roderick is fighting for the International Championship, Cassidy is fighting for that title as well as for those who suffered at The Undisputed Kingdom’s hands simply for the “crime” of being in Orange’s friendship circle. Taven and Bennett have already brought one championship to the UK fold, will Roderick be able to bring another on Sunday night? Or will Cassidy be able to continue chasing the records he set with his first International Championship reign?

THE FAMILY THAT FIGHTS TOGETHER…

Will Ospreay vs. “The Alpha” Konosuke Takeshita

https://www.youtube.com/embed/yOaijQExO6k?si=Y5jcO3un9QZlvCNU&start=285

In the twisted mind of Don Callis, pitting two of his own “family” members against one another seems to be a way for Callis to hype his own unit as the greatest group of professional wrestlers in All Elite Wrestling. It is a way for Callis to say he won regardless of if it’s Takeshita or Will Ospreay who comes out with the actual victory in the match, and it’s clear to see that Callis believes, no matter the outcome, his “family” bond will remain as strong as ever.

But will that be the case? Is The Don Callis Family on the same level as, say, The Blackpool Combat Club? Meaning can Callis’ crew fight one another with no problem, do they look at it as iron sharpening iron the way The BCC does, or is Don Callis setting himself up for disasterous consequences? 

However the aftermath of this battle plays out, there is no doubt it has the potential to be one of the greatest bouts AEW has seen its existence. Konosuke Takeshita is a true hoss in that ring, he’s powerful and fast, a hard-hitting beast who has grown to relish the pain he dishes out to his opponents. Will Ospreay, well there’s a reason many people, fans and wrestling pundits alike, consider him the greatest wrestler competing today. He can soar, he can strike, he can get on the mat and grapple, he can take punishment as well as dish it out, and the fact that this will mark his first official match as part of the AEW locker room only provides further incentive to make it a memorable evening. 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/dYA59k3M37A?si=TH7__yLkW0tUnJGb&start=449

So while Don Callis may say that no matter what happens, his family wins, the reality is that no matter happens it is the fans who will win with this match!

TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH…

The Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli & Jon Moxley) vs.

FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/3WPmdwHpxKE?si=d2F4xSzoY4IZDj9I&start=221

On the 2/21 edition of DYNAMITE, fans witnessed glorious combat as FTR and The BCC, represented by Claudio Castagnoli and Jon Moxley, battled to a 20-minute draw. Though a phenomenal pro wrestling contest, it was understandably unsatisfying for either team, and they nearly came to blows in the backstage area shortly thereafter. Both teams wanted more, with the challenge laid out by FTR for a rematch, and that challenge was gladly accepted by Mox and Claudio, but not without their fair share of words denigrate Cash and Dax as clutching to the past of professional wrestling rather than creating the future.

The former 2-Time AEW World Tag Champions took umbrage with that statement, and their perspective came out after scoring a hard-earned victory over Shane Taylor Promotions last week on COLLISION, but things weren’t done yet that night. Bryan Danielson beat Jun Akiyama in a superb main event, but things went pear-shaped after “The American Dragon” kicked him right in the groin, bringing Eddie Kingston into the ring from the commentary position to pound Bryan’s skull in. Of course this brought Claudio Castagnoli into the fray, which in turn got FTR involved, sending the two BCC members scurrying away for higher ground. As COLLISION went off the air, it was announced that FTR and the Continental Crown Champion would team up to fight Mox, Bryan, and Claudio in a Trios match on DYNAMITE, a bout that got as intense as one would expect, and ended with Danielson putting Kingston down! 

So that brings us to this Sunday night on pay-per-view where FTR meet Moxley and Castagnoli in a tag team grudge match that feels as much about marking territory as it is about tag team wrestling. It’s about staking claim as not only the baddest dudes in AEW, but also taking ownership of All Elite Wrestling as the top dogs in the territory.

ALL-STAR 8-MAN SCRAMBLE MATCH…

FTW Champion HOOK vs. Brian Cage vs. Dante Martin vs. Chris Jericho vs. “The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer vs. Magnus vs. Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Wardlow

***WINNER EARNS AN AEW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH***

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ltpMUc0QDnQ?si=V3he_FFxDrY8fK8D&start=221

Thanks to injuries, Meat Madness had to be put on the back burner, but in its stead, this Sunday night will see AEW’s first Scramble match! We’ve got four of the biggest, toughest men in All Elite Wrestling in Lance Archer, Powerhouse Hobbs, Wardlow, and Brian Cage, a guest from CMLL in Magnus, FTW Champion HOOK, the high-flying Dante Margin, and the original AEW Champion Chris Jericho all competing for a future shot at the AEW World Championship! There’s a whole lot of history mixed up in this match, like Hobbs being the one who ended Wardlow’s second TNT Championship reign on the 3/8/23 DYNAMITE and Wardlow reclaiming it from Hobbs forty-two days later on the April 19, 2023 edition of AEW’s flagship. 

Then there’s the issues between the FTW Champion and “The Machine” Brian Cage that have been the main focus of Cage for the last several weeks, not to mention their history with Team Taz. Also, it wasn’t all that long ago that Powerhouse Hobbs decimated Chris Jericho, putting him on the shelf for several weeks, and it was just last night on COLLISION that Jericho got laid out again by the former TNT Champion!

There is a litany of intriguing situations wrapped up in this All-Star Scramble Match going down in Greensboro this Sunday night, but only one man can earn their shot at either Samoa Joe, Hangman Page, or Swerve Strickland! 

ZERO HOUR

TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH…

TBS Champion Julia Hart & Skye Blue vs. 

Kris Statlander & Willow Nightingale (w/ Stokely Hathway)

After losing to Skye Blue on Wednesday as a result of Julia Hart cracking her in the skull with the TBS Championship belt, Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale will have a chance to even the score this Sunday night during the ZERO HOUR! Stokely Hathaway’s insistence that Stat use a chain as a weapon may have provided a slight distraction to Stat, but it was Hart’s involvement that made the former TBS Champion vulnerable for Sky to hit a Code Blue for the pinfall victory. That gave Skye a 2-1 advantage over Statlander in their singles matches, but Willow beat Skye two weeks ago in their singles match, while Julia Hart holds victories over all three women, including her own partner. It was Willow that Julia beat to earn her TBS Championship match, it was Skye who Julia pinned to become the TBS Champion, and though she hasn’t beaten her directly, it was Statlander who Julia took the TBS Championship from at FULL GEAR 2023.

Ever since Hart and Skye have banded together, they’ve set their sights on taking down Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander, and between the events of Wednesday night, and this first-ever tag team meeting, they’ve certainly got their opportunity to rid themselves of Nightingale and Statlander. The presence of Stokely Hathaway may not help matters either, he hasn’t exactly been the best individual to have at ringside given his insistence on interference doesn’t quite jive with the entire oeuvre of the two women he’s allied with, but perhaps Willow and Kris believe they can bring out the best in a man who has only ever shown the wrestling world his worst. What they need from Stokely in this fight is to be on the same page, and not create another distraction that leads to defeat. Hart and Skye are obviously of one mind right now, perhaps an effect of that black mist Skye was exposed to months back, and that’s where Willow, Statlander, and Stokely need to get if they want to win this bout on ZERO HOUR!

12-MAN TAG!!!

The Bang Bang Scissor Gang (AEW World Trios Champions The Acclaimed & Daddy Ass and ROH World Six-Man Champions BULLET CLUB GOLD)

vs.

Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen), Jay Lethal, Jeff Jarrett, & Willie Mack

https://www.youtube.com/embed/rlfCMoj4YDM?si=_mL_LsbxB_Lgu2VR&start=449

The final match in the legendary career of “The Icon” Sting takes places this Sunday night at REVOLUTION 2024 live on pay-per-view from the historic Greensboro Coliseum! In one of six championship matches taking place on March 3rd, Sting and Darby Allin will defend their AEW World Tag Team Championship in a Tornado Tag against former 2-Time champions, The EVPs of AEW, Matthew and Nicholas Jackson, otherwise known as The Young Bucks! Plus, AEW World Champion Samoa Joe defends against both Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland, Orange Cassidy defends his International Title against The Undisputed Kingdom’s Roderick Strong, and “Timeless” Toni Storm puts her AEW Women’s World Championship on the line against former best friend Deonna Purrazzo!

But that’s not all; we’ve also got an 8-Man Scramble for an AEW World Title shot, a TNT Championship clash between Christian Cage and Daniel Garcia, FTR and BCC going at it in a tag team rematch, Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston battling Bryan Danielson, and two members of The Don Callis Family colliding when Will Ospreay meets Konosuke Takeshita!! It all begins with the ZERO HOUR, going live at 6:30p ET on the official AEW YouTube channel, and then REVOLUTION 2024 coming at you starting at 8pm ET/7pm CT! Do not miss out on one of the most historic nights in the history of our great sport as we bear witness to Sting’s final professional wrestling match!

To witness the fallout of REVOLUTION 2024, join us Wednesday night at the Gas South Arena

in Duluth, GA to see what shape All Elite Wrestling takes in the aftermath of this pay-per-view extravaganza!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/cMqxz0QvNVc?si=DvZeA8lZq-6uYzpc

Welcome to the beginning of the end; the first night in the final week for the legendary in-ring career of “The Icon” Sting! Fans around the world have been dreading this week since October 18th when the man first told us all about his intentions to draw the curtain with REVOLUTION 2024, and now we are only a matter of days away from that monumental night. But there is still a good deal of business to conduct in these next several days, and it begins this Wednesday night in Huntsville, AL!

The last time AEW was in Huntsville was as part of the HOUSE RULES tour last June, but it’s been since February 5, 2020 that this magnificent venue has hosted AEW’s flagship program! So for the final night of live action before REVOLUTION 2024, we make our return to the Von Braun Center for Sting’s final DYNAMITE! Plus, ahead of their respective matches on Sunday night, The Blackpool Combat Club will meet FTR and Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston in Trios action PLUS “The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay makes his first appearance on DYNAMITE as an official member of the AEW locker room!

DYNAMITE gets underway at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, so swing by the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s assorted social media platforms, for highlights from last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, COLLISION, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER! Then join us this Sunday night for REVOLUTION 2024 for AEW’s first pay-per-view of the year, and Sting’s final professional wrestling match!

A TRIOS FIGHT…

Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston & FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood)

vs.

The Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, & Jon Moxley)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/C2PCXoavgXQ?si=zjLmwan4DIqt8yMK&start=399

We are just four days away from REVOLUTION 2024 where FTR will clash with The Blackpool Combat Club and Bryan Danielson is set to challenge Eddie Kingston for the Continental Crown, but before that takes places, this two matches will merge into one for a huge Trios battle!

Last Saturday night we witnessed Bryan Danielson kick Jun Akiyama in the groin after the multi-time World Champion slapped “The American Dragon” across the face in response to Bryan disrespecting Eddie Kingston yet again. The brawl that erupted between Kingston and Bryan brought Claudio to the ring first, but he was followed quickly by Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler, sending the two BCC members scurrying, but also forcing the hand of AEW GM Tony Khan to sign this Trios bout before COLLISION even went off the air!

This is one last chance to get an advantage before heading to Greensboro on Sunday, one last match before their respective contests to exert a level of dominance over your foe, and that is such an important aspect of what’s going on between these six men. For the FTR/BCC dynamic, there is a level of respect between the four men for their abilities inside the squared circle, but each team wants to prove themselves the better, and that supersedes all else. Cash or Dax getting the fall on Mox or Claudio heading into Sunday would be a huge statement, as would vice versa, especially after their frustrating time limit draw.

Now Bryan and Eddie is a vastly different story; just listen to the words Danielson spoke prior to his match with Jun Akiyama. There is no respect there flowing from “The American Dragon” to “The Mad King”, not one iota of it, conversely if you listen to the commentary Eddie provided during the match, he has a great deal of respect for Bryan Danielson’s abilities inside that ring. Kingston recognizes that Bryan is one of the greatest competitors to ever lace up a pair of boots, but what Eddie can’t abide is the judgment he feels Danielson has dumped on him over the last twenty years. It seems nothing Kingston does will ever change Bryan’s feelings, but what he can do is pin Bryan’s shoulders to the mat on Wednesday in this Trios match before they head into the fifth singles match of their careers on Sunday. It would serve Bryan right to suffer that fate after his actions on Saturday, but that being said, what would it do to Eddie to take the “L” before the championship fight at REVOLUTION 2024?

STING’S LAST DYNAMITE…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hfqrcm-o2Rg?si=YEb8QUDLK15xGFUe

This is it; this Wednesday night, 1,183 days since his first appearance at WINTER IS COMING 2020, “The Icon” Sting will make his final appearance on DYNAMITE live from Huntsville, AL and the Von Braun Center! It’s been a decade since the last time Sting set foot in this venue, and nearly thirty-six since his first time when he stepped inside an enclosed Steel Cage alongside Lex Luger, Nikita Koloff, and The Road Warriors to battle The Four Horsemen. Huntsville is a city that has witnessed Sting fight for championships, both singles and tag team, as well as go to battle against men like the late Bam Bam Bigelow and Kurt Angle.

Now, with the AEW World Tag Team Championship around his waist and partner Darby Allin at his side, Sting will return to Huntsville one last time for his final DYNAMITE appearance! It’s sure to be a special moment for the champions, but one has to wonder if EVPs Matthew and Nicholas Jackson will let the moment remain special or if they will attempt to ruin this one as they ruined Darby and Sting’s championship victory several weeks ago!

A LEGACY…

Chris Jericho vs. Atlantis Jr.

It has been almost thirty years since the last time Chris Jericho, then known as Corazon de Leon, faced CMLL legend Atlantis in singles competition. It was on 4/15/94 that Jericho fell to Atlantis in the first round of a one night Gran Prix tournament, but those matches against one another were not their norm. In fact, a great many matches that took place during Jericho’s CMLL tenure actually found him and Atlantis on the same team, often in trios with a rotating cast as their third. The last time on record that Atlantis and Chris Jericho united was September 10, 1995, some three years before Atlantis Jr. was even born, but this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, there will be somewhat of a reunion!

Atlantis Jr, the older of Atlantis’ two wrestling sons, was born in 1998, first began training for his in-ring career at the tender age of 12, and Atlantis Jr. has stated that his first-ever match took place in 2017. During the course of these last seven years, Atlantis Jr. has competed not only in CMLL, but also for NJPW STRONG as well as NJPW proper, not to mention numerous independent promotions around Mexico and in the United States. He currently reigns as the World Historic Light Heavyweight Champion, and up until February 5th was 1/3 of the CMLL World Trios Champions with Star Jr. and Volador Jr. 

This Wednesday night, thanks to the partnership between CMLL and AEW, Atlantis Jr will make his way to All Elite Wrestling for the first time, and take on a man quite well known to his family in Chris Jericho; not only that, but Atlantis himself will be in his son’s corner for this bout against his former tag team partner! Now Jericho has been out of action since Konosuke Takeshita beat him back on February 7th while Atlantis Jr. is only recently returned from the CMLL/NJPW joint FANTASICA MANIA 2024 tour in Japan, and coming off a 2/3 Falls Victory on CMLL’s February 26th event in Mexico. Will those factors play a role in the outcome of this generational clash? Will Don Callis and his “family” find a way to insert themselves into Jericho’s life once more for the sole purpose of creating chaos? There are many questions that swirl around this legacy match, but putting those aside, this will be a piece of history watching Atlantis and Atlantis Jr come to AEW for a fight with El Corazon de Leon!

GRUDGE MATCH…

Kris Statlander vs. Skye Blue

On the October 14th edition of COLLISION, Skye Blue stepped up to challenge Kris Statlander for the TBS Championship but came up short in her title bid. After the pinfall, the defending champion attempted to shake the hand of her opponent, at the time her friend, and Skye refused the gesture. Willow Nightingale came down to the ring to quell the situation, but it was clear that night something deeper was going on with Skye.

Fast forward to FULL GEAR 2023 and the Three Way championship match where Statlander defended against both Julia Hart and Skye Blue, only to see the title slip away when Hart stole the winning pinfall from Kris and stole her TBS Championship. The changes in Skye were evident that night when, upon her entrance, she threw down her trademark baseball cap, stomped on it, and replaced it with a crown, but the true depth of her transformation wouldn’t reveal itself until a few weeks after that pay-per-view extravaganza.

Heading towards a clash at WORLDS END, TBS Champion Julia Hart and Abadon were in the midst of a fight on the 12/16/23 edition of COLLISION when Skye Blue appeared, seemingly to help Abadon  beat down Hart, but it became quickly apparent that Skye was there to assault Hart’s would-be challenger, cementing their unholy alliance at the expense of “The Living Dead Girl”. 

On the 12/27 edition of DYNAMITE, Skye Blue and Kris Statlander would clash once again, no championship on the line this time, just the desire to settle a grudge after Skye turning her back on Stat and Willow Nightingale to align with Julia Hart. Unlike their first meeting which was one fair and square by Statlander, this outcome of this bout was directly influenced by the involvement of Julia Hart when she struck the former TBS Champion, leaving Kris vulnerable for Skye to hit an Avalanche Code Blue and score the pinfall victory.

Since that night the tensions between the two pairs of women have only escalated; at DYNAMITE: HOMECOMING 2024, Statlander and Willow were on the winning side of an Eight-Woman Tag that included Julia Hart and Skye Blue on the losing side, and Willow scored a victory over Skye two weeks ago on DYNAMITE, albeit with some unwanted assistance from Stokely Hathaway.

So that brings us to this Wednesday night where, in their rubber match, Kris Statlander and Skye Blue will go head-to-head one more time! During AEW’s last visit to Huntsville, Statlander successfully defended the TBS Championship over Lady Frost while Skye Blue was on the losing end of a Four Way AEW Women’s World Championship match with Toni Storm, Anna Jay, and Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. Will this Wednesday night be a repeat of that June evening for Statlander, or will Skye Blue turn around her fortunes from that summer stop at Von Braun to earn victory? And just where how will the TBS Champion, Willow Nightingale, and Stokely Hathaway play a role in the outcome?

OSPREAY IS ALL ELITE!

As Don Callis mentioned in the interview above from last week’s edition of DYNAMITE, he was personally traveling to England to scoop up Will Ospreay and bring him to the United States in advance of this Wednesday night. Though the AEW faithful have seen Ospreay on DYNAMITE before, this week in Huntsville will mark the first time the former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion has appeared as an official member of the AEW roster! 

Ospreay has made it clear he’s coming to AEW with the intention of blowing away everything he’s already done in his impressive career, and that begins this Sunday night at REVOLUTION 2024 when he takes on fellow Callis Family member Konosuke Takeshita, but what will Ospreay have to say to the AEW faithful in advance of this highly anticipated bout? We will find out when he arrives at the Von Braun Center this Wednesday night for DYNAMITE!

ALSO:

DYNAMITE begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, so be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s assorted social media platforms, for highlights from last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, COLLISION, as well as the newest CONTROL CENTER! Then make it a point to join AEW on Sunday night for REVOLUTION 2024 (https://www.allelitewrestling.com/watchrevolution2024) to bear witness to Sting’s final professional wrestling match, multiple championship matches, including Samoa Joe defending his AEW World Title against both Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page, as well as the first match for Will Ospreay as an official member of the AEW locker room!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/K3VWcr7JD1Q?si=bnjXU9RTiH9cKrJ8

COLLISION returns to the airwaves this Saturday night with a collection of tremendous match-ups as we near the end of the road to REVOLUTION 2024! This week, the Great Southern Bank Arena in Springfield, MO hosts AEW’s Saturday night fights, and is going to be unforgettable, particularly when “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson steps into the ring with the legendary Jun Akiyama for their very first singles match! They’ve dance a handful of times in tag and trios in their Pro Wrestling NOAH days, but for the first time it’s one-on-one, and the eyes of Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston will no doubt be on this fight! Plus, coming off a heated time limit draw with The BCC on Wednesday, FTR gets right back in the saddle with a tag team fight against Shane Taylor Promotions, and we will see both Thunder Rosa and Serena Deeb in action as each tries to climb back to the top of the mountain!

The night starts at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, and the AEW faithful can get prepared for the action-packed evening by visiting the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s other social media platforms, for highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER, and so much more!

ONE-ON-ONE…

“The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs. Jun Akiyama

Four times over the course of his career “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson has stood across the ring from Jun Akiyama, a man many refer to as the 5th Pillar of Heaven, placing him alongside Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, and Toshiaki Kawada in the grand tapestry of All Japan Pro Wrestling. All four of their meetings came together under the Pro Wrestling NOAH banner, but not a one saw the two combatants square off in a head-to-head match-up. The first, taking place on 11/29/06 during Danielson’s ROH World Championship reign, saw Bryan team up with the late, great Bison Smith to actually defeat Akiyama and Makoto Hashi, but their next two meetings would not follow suit.

4/23/07, as part of Bryan’s month long tour of NOAH, they would lock up again, this time in Trios competition, with Bison again siding with Bryan, and the pair joined by Joe Legend. This time out Akiyama had former GHC Heavyweight Champion Takeshi Rikio and junior heavyweight legend Yoshinobu Kanemaru at his side, and this time around it was Akiyama’s unit that picked up the win. They traded another victory on April 4, 2008 when Bryan returned to NOAH, this time alongside the team of D’Lo Brown and Buchanan, collectively known as RO&D, to defeat Akiyama, the late Atsushi Aoki, and once again, Takeshi Rikio.

The final encounter between these two men took place a month later, May 17th at Differ Ariake, this time with Bryan and Bison being joined by Akitoshi Saito, to defeated Jun Akiyama and the same partners as the April fight. So when it comes to the numbers of their history, somewhat surprisingly it is Bryan Danielson who holds the 3-1 advantage, but that’s without a singles encounter. This Saturday night on COLLISION that changes because Jun Akiyama is coming back to All Elite Wrestling to fight “The American Dragon” one-on-one!

Bryan has already had a strenuous 2024 in terms of his in-ring activities; he began the year by losing to Kazuchika Okada at WRESTLE KINGDOM 18, followed by an 8-Man loss to TMDK at NEW YEARS DASH!! 2024 before he returned to the United States. Since coming back to AEW, Bryan has been on a tear, scoring a tag team victory over Continental Champion Eddie Kingston and Ortiz, singles wins over Yuji Nagata and Hechicero, and a trios victory over the CMLL contingent. A speed bump came upon Bryan’s return to NJPW for THE NEW BEGINNING IN OSAKA 2024 when he fell to Zack Sabre Jr., but now he’s back home for the final leg leading to REVOLUTION 2024 where he will challenge Eddie Kingston for the Continental Crown. 

Now there are already many ties that bind Kingston and Danielson, but Saturday will add one more as it was back in November 2021 that Eddie Kingston and Ortiz first welcomed Jun Akiyama to AEW. Akiyama won that tag team bout, but would fall to “The Mad King” in a singles bout at FULL GEAR 2021: ZERO HOUR the next night. The respect built between those two nights actually led Akiyama to bring Kingston to DDT Pro Wrestling, as his partner, for the March 2023 DDT GOES HOLLYWOOD! event in Los Angeles. What began as a relationship of Kingston looking up to Akiyama as an idol developed into that of one as peers, one whose respect is built upon the fight, and perhaps that is why Danielson chose to take this match so close to his International Championship challenge against Kingston.

Perhaps Bryan took this to spit in the face of someone Kingston respects, to use Jun Akiyama to send Eddie a message, perhaps even an opportunity for Bryan to show the current KO-D Six Man Champion the complete lack of respect he also shows Eddie Kingston. Bryan’s insistence that this is his last full-time year as an in-ring competitor has led to some fantastic matches, with certainly more to come, but it is also beginning to feel like it is Danielson’s way to bolster his ego, and prove beyond any doubt that “The American Draagon” is the best wrestler in the world whether he’s active or not. It feels like an ego trip concealed as a farewell tour, but Jun Akiyama is not the man to use for such purposes. 

Not only does he hold that aforementioned KO-D championship, but he’s also a former 2-Time Triple Crown Champion, 3-Time GHC Heavyweight Champion, 7-Time AJPW World Tag Champion, and 4-Time All Asia Tag Team Champion, just to name a few. He’s wrestled, and beaten, legends like Stan Hansen, Misawa, Kobashi, Taue, as well as today’s greats in DDT Pro like Takeshita, MAO, and Rukiya. Akiyama is one of the last of his generation still competing, with only a few others like Satoshi Kojima and Yuji Nagata springing to mind as Akiyama’s contemporaries still fighting at the highest levels. 

All this is to say that Danielson should not approach Akiyama with the same disrespect he shows Eddie Kingston, or perhaps that’s the game Bryan is playing, showing respect to everyone he fights except the Continental Crown Champion. However this fight with Akiyama plays out, Danielson is going to feel it, and for his sake, he best hope it doesn’t compromise him for that championship fight at REVOLUTION 2024.

TAG TEAM THROWDOWN…

FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) vs. Shane Taylor Promotions (Lee Moriarty & Shane Taylor)

Coming off a tremendous 20-minute draw with Moxley and Claudio on DYNAMITE, FTR are jumping right back into action this Saturday night with a fight against opponents not all that different from The BCC duo. Shane Taylor is a hard-hitting, smashmouth fighter from Ohio who has no problem calling it as he sees it, and letting the world know how he feels. Lee Moriarty is a supremely skilled grappler, capable of tying a man up in knots inside the squared circle, but has proven to be just at home throwing elbows as he is chaining together holds. Together, STP has a mission of ascending to the AEW and ROH mountain tops, and they’ve actively put out the call for others to join in their quest:

Well this Saturday night, when faced with the 2-Time former AEW World Tag Champions, the men who held AAA, ROH, and IWGP Tag Gold simultaneously for six months, Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty will have their chance to rumble with the best, and show the rest of the locker room why they are the team to ride with. After that unsatisfying result on DYNAMITE, and the potential for a rematch down the line, FTR is going to bring the fight to STP but best believe that STP will return it in kind. This is going to be a slugfest, of that there is little doubt, the only question is if what Dax and Cash went through on Wednesday has left them ripe for the picking or queued them up for more violence?

TRIOS MASH-UP…

The Bang Bang Scissor Gang (Colten Gunn, Daddy Ass, & Jay White) In Action!!!

Last week on RAMPAGE we witnessed The Bang Bang Scissor Gang compete in full force for the very first time, and they showed The Dark Order, Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal, and Satnam Singh just what they are capable of when operating in the same page. After everything that’s gone down between The Gunns and their father, as well as The Gunns and The Acclaimed, it had to have been simultaneously strange and exhilarating to be working together, but magic was made, of that there is no question.

But this week on COLLISION, with the cowboys coming back to town, they’ve decided to do it Trios style once more, but rather coming in as one of the units they’ve become accustomed to, or even simply put The Gunn Club back together for the night, “Switchblade” Jay White has mashed it all up to put himself, Colten Gunn, and Daddy Ass together for some Trios competition! Will this blending of ROH World Six-Man and AEW World Trios Champions be as successful as all six fighting together? With fewer individuals in the mix to distract, will Billy and Colten Gunn be able to remain cohesive given their complicated history in AEW? And just who will step into the ring with these champions to try and upset The BBSG?

ONE-ON-ONE…

Malakai Black vs. “Bounty Hunter” Bryan Keith

It has been more than 610 days since Malakai Black competed in a one-on-one match in All Elite Wrestling, and 608 days since the last time he fought in a match that wasn’t some sort of tag, trio, or multi-man contest. Mind you, that focus on multi-man competition paid off, up until a week ago The House of Black were the longest reigning AEW World Trios Champions since the titles incarnation, and collectively they remain one of, if not the, most imposing units in All Elite Wrestling. The House may have lost the Escape the Cage match against FTR and Daniel Garcia, but it isn’t because Malakai Black tasted true defeat, in fact in the realm of singles competition only one man has put Black’s shoulders to the mat since his Summer 2021 debut, and that was back on October 23rd of that year. 

Suffice it to say “Bounty Hunter” Bryan Keith, a man who only officially became All Elite three weeks ago, has his work cut out for him on COLLISION this Saturday night. Though he is coming into this fight off a RAMPAGE victory, that was in Trios competition and prior to that win, in his limited AEW experience, Keith had yet to score any victories, let alone in the singles ranks.

Will this be the night “Bounty Hunter” shocks the world and puts down the master of The House? Or will this night serve as Malakai Black’s herald, declaring to the world that he is stepping back into the singles ranks with the cruelest of intentions?

NO DQ, DON CALLIS FAMILY & CHRIS JERICHO BANNED FROM THE BUILDING, THERE MUST BE A WINNER!!!

Sammy Guevara vs. Powerhouse Hobbs

https://www.youtube.com/embed/CABuVbJQZ1U?si=BiU-YQYqj201tOEJ

Last night on RAMPAGE, Sammy Guevara called out Powerhouse Hobbs for a fight in response to being put through tables by the former TNT Champion. Unfortunately for “The Spanish God” the challenge did not go in his favor, as a devastating lariat, two spinebusters, and a World’s Most Dangerous Slam left Guevara a broken man at the feet of Hobbs and Don Callis. Yet he persists, despite the odds, despite the physical advantages Powerhouse Hobbs holds over Sammy, the young man persists in the fight. That should come as no surprise, after all this is the man who dethroned “The Redeemer” Miro to win the first of his three TNT Championship titles, Sammy clearly does not back down from a fight.

And a fight is what he will have this Saturday night on COLLISION when he faces Hobbs one-on-one, for the very first time, and in a No DQ match to boot! While this sounds like a situation just inviting the interference of the Don Callis Family, in an effort to level the playing field the entire Callis crew has been banned from the building, but so has Guevara’s main ally, Chris Jericho!

Will that ruling be enough for Sammy to knock down the mountain that is Powerhouse Hobbs? This No DQ situation may seem like the perfect playground for Guevara, especially looking at that fight with Jeff Hardy as a litmus test, but so too is it the perfect opportunity for Hobbs to become an untethered engine of destruction. This may be a situation of mutually assured destruction… 

RETURNING TO FORM…

Serena Deeb vs. Kiera Hogan

https://www.youtube.com/embed/G9Ubybrd6jw?si=1pvxKMTSAmkowIhp

Thunder Rosa In Action!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/XUO5Nf0khyk?si=CNcX9lYcatBSHeGY

Both Serena Deeb and former AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa are on a mission, a mission to return to the top of the Women’s Division and claim (or reclaim in Thunder’s case) championship success. Both lost over a year of their careers fighting to get back into the ring, and both were able to return to the ring within a month of each other. For Rosa that moment came at the tail end of 2023 when COLLISION came to San Antonio right before Christmas while for Deeb it came in Bossier City, LA a month later, also on COLLISION, and for each it was cathartic. Imagine sitting on the sidelines for over year, watching others else be able to do the thing you love to do, while you are stuck struggling to be able to rejoin the fight. 

Whether it’s professional wrestling, music, reading, writing, whatever; each of us has something we love to do so imagine if suddenly you weren’t able to do that thing, and even after you felt you could do that thing, you still weren’t allowed to do that thing. That is the space where both Thunder Rosa and Serena Deeb have lived for far too long, but that longing to return to the ring has made each moment spent in it since their returns that much sweeter. This Saturday  night on COLLISION the joy of competing continues for each woman as they step back between the ropes, fully cognizant that not too long ago it seemed an impossibility, and they get ready to fight whoever is standing on the opposite side.

After almost losing these moments for good, each woman knows these are now ones to be cherished, but the sweetest moment, the one that makes the year-plus struggles worth it, will be the one when a championship belt is handed over and lofted high overhead in celebration. Who will get there first, and will their paths cross once more on the road to their shared goal?

We are just eight days away from REVOLUTION 2024 where “The Icon” Sting will have his final professional wrestling match, and COLLISION returns on Saturday night, emanating from the Great Southern Bank Arena in Springfield, MO with a loaded night of action! With a Continental Crown match-up on his future, “The American Dragon” welcomes Jun Akiyama back to All Elite Wrestling, The Bang Bang Scissor Gang mashes things up for Trios action, Serena Deeb and Thunder Rosa continue their efforts to climb back up the rankings, and Malakai Black returns to singles action for a fight with “Bounty Hunter” Bryan Keith! 

All that, as well as FTR taking on Shane Taylor Promotions in a tag team fight, comes your way at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, and the AEW faithful can get prepared for the action-packed evening by visiting the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s other social media platforms, for highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER, and so much more!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/IqWKRduNr-0?si=kWRFeUYanUrFn-p5&start=240

This Friday’s edition of RAMPAGE hails from the Footprint Center in Phoenix, and gets underway at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, with a collection of amazing match-ups! We will see Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander, with Stokely Hathway at their side, take on The Outcasts of Ruby Soho and Saraya, while Matt Sydal battles CMLL’s Mistico in singles competition! Plus, as their REVOLUTION 2024 date nears, AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy teams with Roppongi Vice to take on The Undisputed Kingdom of Roderick Strong, Matt Taven, and Mike Bennett! And for the first time since last November’s FULL GEAR 2023 loss to Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho, The Young Bucks will actually step inside the ring to compete!

Before the show begins, swing by the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, to catch up on highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE, as well as previous episodes of RAMPAGE, COLLISION, and the latest CONTROL CENTER!

TRIOS GRUDGE MATCH…

AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy, Rocky Romero, & Trent Beretta vs. Undisputed Kingdom (ROH World Tag Champions Matt Taven & Mike Bennett and Roderick Strong)

AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy and The Undisputed Kingdom’s Roderick Strong are set to do battle at REVOLUTION 2024 provided “Freshly Squeezed” remains champion until that point. Strong is in no hurry to get to the title fight, though Orange has been more than willing to put the belt up at any point, instead he’d rather wear the champion down and bring down those around him. We witnessed it on DYNAMITE with the attack on Chuck Taylor, and that assault brings us to this Trios bout taking place on RAMPAGE!

Though he is set to battle fellow CHAOS member Tomohiro Ishii on COLLISION this Saturday, Orange Cassidy is more than willing to step into this Friday night fight alongside Roppongi Vice of Trent Beretta and Rocky Romero! Frankly Trent seemed less than enthusiastic about Orange fighting Ishii, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be game to pick up this battle alongside a trio he absolutely cannot stand, and Rocky is ready to stand right alongside his brothers-in-arms!

The Undisputed Kingdom, on behalf of Roderick, seems more than willing to remove all the pieces from the chess board before REVOLUTION 2024, leaving Orange all by himself for that championship bout, so that means Trent and Rocky best be wary of what The UK is capable of doing. This may not be about winning for them, and more about hurting Orange and those around him in advance of March 3rd’s pay-per-view extravaganza!

ONE-ON-ONE…

Mistico vs. Matt Sydal

https://www.youtube.com/embed/YaogNDa_zCs?si=4GtzhBZJF0V7zc8G&start=207

Last week on RAMPAGE, Matt Sydal was one of the members of Team AEW who welcomed the CMLL contingent to their first taste of All Elite competition. Though it was Christopher Daniels who ultimately took the pinfall at Hechicero’s hands, Sydal still felt the sting of that loss though he, and the rest of the men in the match, were taken out of the climax by a Mascara Dorada dive to the floor.

Looking for some redemption, Sydal was on hand Wednesday night to back up The Blackpool Combat Club against the CMLL contingent’s swelling numbers, and this Friday night he will step back into the ring for singles competition against one of the preeminent members of that roster. Unquestionably, Mistico is one of the biggest names on that CMLL side of this fight, his resume includes championships won around the globe, and these two even have a bit of shared history in the form of one lone match over a dozen years ago won by Mistico. 

As representatives from CMLL continue to assert their forces on the members of the AEW locker room, each match pitting one side against the other becomes increasingly important, meaning Sydal isn’t just fighting for himself anymore, but rather for the entirety of All Elite Wrestling! 

TAG TEAM BATTLE…

Kris Statlander & Willow Nightingale vs. The Outcasts (Ruby Soho & Saraya)

Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale, despite the presence of Stokely Hathaway, have managed to persevere through whatever drama he’s tried to kick up, with a friendship that seems tighter than ever. They both come into this Friday having had a successful 2024 thus far, scoring singles wins, tag wins, and even a DYNAMITE: HOMECOMING 2024 multi-woman victory over a team that included The Outcasts!

Speaking of Ruby Soho and Saraya, they are the two women who will face off with Statlander and Nightingale this Friday on RAMPAGE, but in stark contrast to their opponents, The Outcasts don’t seem to be any where near the same page! The source of their tension is clear, it’s all been about the Ruby/Cool Hand Ang relationship, and all that has been done to disrupt it from taking place. The inclusion of Harley Cameron into the dynamic has really poisoned the well, but with this tag team bout, can The Outcasts find that good place again? Can their friendship be restored to the place where it mirrored what Willow and Kris have?

ALSO FEATURING: 

-THE YOUNG BUCKS RETURN TO ACTION!

Phoenix, AZ and the Footprint Center host this Friday’s RAMPAGE, beginning at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, and featuring AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy, Trent Beretta, and Rocky Romero battling The Undisputed Kingdom in Trios action! Plus, CMLL’s Mistico takes on Matt Sydal, Willow & Statlander take on The Outcasts in tag team competition, and the EVP’s get back to work inside the ring after four months away!

Before the night gets underway, be sure to drop by the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s other social media platforms, to catch up on highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE, as well as previous episodes of RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, plus the latest CONTROL CENTER!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hHNXYL-_Okc?si=pHTerTCjZFNtqUGy

https://www.youtube.com/embed/wx0X0mVfha0?si=Kcz6BIyoURU1IZbK

After an exciting week in AEW action, All Elite Wrestling returns to the Footprint Center in Phoenix, AZ this Wednesday night with a jam-packed episode of DYNAMITE! Beginning at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, fans will see Ricky Starks & Big Bill defend their AEW World Tag Team Championship against the #1 Ranked duo of Darby Allin & Sting, just as the #1 Ranked Swerve Strickland and #2 Ranked Adam Page fight for a shot at Samoa Joe’s AEW World Championship at REVOLUTION 2024! Plus, Red Velvet will fight AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm in an Eliminator Bout, Konosuke Takeshita steps up to fight Chris Jericho on behalf of The Don Callis Family, and The BCC battles the CMLL unit in Trios competition!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hxnzKrrPTeY?si=sD3HGD4vtgspKt0l

REVOLUTION 2024 is a month out, and the pieces are falling into place for what will certainly be one of the most memorable nights in professional wrestling history! Part of that history-building will take place this Wednesday on DYNAMITE starting at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans! Before showtime, be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, for highlights from last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, COLLISION, as well as the newest CONTROL CENTER, and more! Then join us Saturday night in Henderson, NV where AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy will defend his title against “The Stone Pitbull” Tomohiro Ishii!

AEW World Tag Team Championship Match…

Big Bill & Ricky Starks(c) vs. Darby Allin & Sting

https://www.youtube.com/embed/gNUS7PkEu_Y?si=JtKxBJRnoU_WQd6C

Together they are 14-0 in tag team competition, a streak that first began at REVOLUTION 2021 when Darby Allin and Sting defeated Team Taz in a Street Fight. That night it was Ricky Starks and Brian Cage officially fighting under the FTW banner, but let’s be honest, every member of the group got involved in that situation to try and shut down Sting’s return to professional wrestling, but they failed. 

Fast forward almost three years, the landscape is very different for Ricky Starks, the ally standing at his side hasn’t been a Team Taz member for quite some time, nor has the championship around his waist been the FTW Title. Instead stands Big Bill, one of the most impressive specimens in professional wrestling, and man that Starks proudly says is not his friend, just his championship tag team partner, and Bill will claim the same. They don’t know much about each other’s personal lives, Starks was even shocked when he learned who Bill is involved with, but that like of a personal relationship hasn’t prevented them from gelling into quite the impressive duo. They utterly decimated FTR to win the titles in the first place, survived a wild Ladder Match to retain the belts, and put down the tandem of Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara in a Street Fight. They’ve been dominant because of their skills inside the ring, and how they compliment each other, not necessarily because they are best friends.

On the other side of this fight are Sting and Darby Allin; two men who, despite their difference in age and experience, have formed a formidable bond both personally and professionally. Ever since Sting first came to the AEW fold at WINTER IS COMING 2020, he and Darby have been thick as thieves, partners always, but giving space when needed, and quite unstoppable. No active tag team is even close  to their 14-match win streak, and no individual is even close to Sting’s 27-match win streak. There’s is a bond built on respect, built on friendship earned, something that runs deeper than that of Starks and Big Bill, but also makes them care about the other in a way the defending champions do not. 

Beyond the bond of holding titles together, it doesn’t seem likely Bill and Ricky care about the well-being of one another, whereas “The Icon” and the former 2-Time TNT Champion have that investment in one another. This Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, with the AEW World Tag Team Championship on the line, we will all see which approach to tag team competition wins out. Will Big Bill and Ricky Starks add the first loss to Sting’s AEW resume as he heads towards his last dance at REVOLUTION 2024? Or will Sting and Darby Allin, a man “The Icon” calls the best partner he’s ever had, add one last championship to Sting’s trophy case before his legendary career is over?

Winner earns REVOLUTION 2024 World Title Match: 

(#1)Swerve Strickland VS. (#2) Adam Page

https://www.youtube.com/embed/V1Tdpd-NHkE?si=eu8_gppIS8eUpVrL

It is a fact that the record books show Swerve Strickland has beaten “Hangman” Adam Page twice in the last four months; once at WRESTLEDREAM 2023 in a traditional singles contest, and then again at FULL GEAR 2023 in that infamous Texas Death match. However, what the numbers on a piece of paper don’t show is that both victories came about as a result of Prince Nana and The Mogul Embassy lending The Boss a helping hand. In the former, it was absolutely a case of cheating when Swerve used Nana’s crown to knock Hangman across the skull, but in the latter, when both Nana and Brian Cage got involved, it was at least in the purview of Texas Death Match rules. Still, neither victory came about as a result of Swerve working alone, neither win can be credited to Strickland alone, and that is the point Hangman Page aims to prove on Wednesday night!

That point of pride isn’t the only thing on the line come DYNAMITE though, with Swerve sitting atop the newest rankings, and Hangman at number two, this fight is also to see who will challenge Samoa Joe at REVOLUTION 2024 live on pay-per-view! Page is on a mission to regain the title he lost at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2022, while Swerve aims to become champions for the first time, as well as make history as the first African-American AEW World Champion!

Which of these two warriors, both deserving of the opportunity, will win this rubber match and move on to face AEW World Champion Samoa Joe next month? Can Swerve live up to the challenge to do it by himself this time around? Or will that lack of Mogul Embassy assistance be all Hangman needs to get his first AEW World Championship opportunity since Jon Moxley knocked him out back in October 2022?

Trios Battle…

Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, & Jon Moxley) vs. Hechicero, Mascara Dorada, & Volador Jr.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/t6nVrx24Nng?si=M53dpcEDr0GNJTJl

It began with Jon Moxley getting into it with the CMLL contingent during his fight with Jeff Hardy, and the assault they perpetrated on the former 3-Time AEW World Champion after his victory. It continued with Bryan Danielson’s hard-fought victory over Hechicero last Saturday night on COLLISION, a win that pushed Danielson to his limits as much as any match he’s experienced during his AEW tenure. It demonstrated to the AEW faithful the kind of threat that Hechicero is on his own, just as the CMLL contingent’s victory on RAMPAGE the night prior showed how good they are as a unit.

Well this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, they are going to be pushed to their limits as a trio when they face The Blackpool Combat Club of Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, and Jon Moxley! This will be the very first time Hechicero, Mascara Dorado, and Volador Jr. unite as a trio, just as it will be the first time Bryan, Claudio, and Mox will fight as a trio, and what a first-time outing it will be for each!

Moxley made mention about gang warfare several weeks ago in relation to his fights with Shane Taylor Promotions, and how it was avoided in that situation, but it looks like it’s upon him and The BCC now with these luchadors representing CMLL! With Danielson’s victory on Saturday, The BCC are up a victory over CMLL, will the luchadors even that score in Phoenix? 

Running The Callis Family Gauntlet…

Chris Jericho vs. Konosuke Takeshita

https://www.youtube.com/embed/smbJ1FzzlwI?si=aYvLqGvh_baNWbmR&start=120

Chris Jericho is essentially running a gauntlet match against The Don Callis Family, though he may not be battling them one after another on the same day, he is still in the midst of having to fight each one. The original AEW World Champion managed to best ROH World Television Champion Kyle Fletcher in his first battle with the Family, but the road isn’t even close to done yet because this Wednesday night Jericho will face “The Alpha” Konosuke Takeshita!

Back in November, at DDT Pro Wrestling’s ULTIMATE PARTY 2023, Jericho traveled to Japan to defeat Takeshita on his home turf, and in their four other meetings as foes, it has been Jericho’s team that has come out on top three of those times! The in-ring momentum is certainly on the side of Chris Jericho, but aside from Sammy Guevara, is there anyone on the side of “Le Champion”? He had the assistance, temporarily, of Sting and Darby Allin, but they’re engaged in their own battle in Phoenix, so is there anyone to counteract the supreme numbers advantage held by The Don Callis Family? Will Jericho’s quest to take down each man surrounding Don Callis be cut off at the knees this Wednesday night, or will he get one step closer with a victory over “The Alpha”?

Eliminator Match…

AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm vs. Red Velvet

***DEONNA PURRAZZO ON COMMENTARY***

https://www.youtube.com/embed/TH_paMQOF3A?si=VOickSlRSz7LlBfW

AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm is officially on the road to REVOLUTION 2024 for a championship fight with “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo! After having her state of mind questioned by Purrazzo, and her abilities inside the ring placed in doubt, Toni Storm requested what she called “a public workout” this week on DYNAMITE. The reality, whether she realizes it or not, is that Toni Storm will be entering into an Eliminator Bout against one of the most capable competitors in the AEW locker room: Red Velvet! Red has been chasing an AEW championship for almost as long as she’s been part of the company, and though she’s come up short on several occasions, as well as tangled with injury stalling her momentum, none of it has stopped Red Velvet from perpetually pursuing her goals!

If she can pull off a victory this Wednesday night in Phoenix, Red Velvet will earn herself a future championship match, but she’s got some history to overcome. Nine times the AEW Women’s World Champion has competed in an Eliminator Match, and nine times the champion has been victorious, with the champion in question being Toni Storm in four of those bouts. Can Red Velvet be the first woman to win an Eliminator bout, as well as the first challenger since Eddie Kingston & Penta El Zero Miedo to win an Eliminator contest in any division?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/dBg63mEl3Hg?si=gkxq7RasEK-uFC-R&start=120

This Wednesday night, All Elite Wrestling returns to Phoenix, AZ and the Footprint Center with one of the most stacked editions of DYNAMITE yet! Starting at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, Darby Allin & Sting will challenge Big Bill & Ricky Starks for the AEW World Tag Team Championship, while Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page battle for an AEW World Championship opportunity at REVOLUTION 2024! AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm will face Red Velvet in an Eliminator Bout, Chris Jericho continues his fight against The Don Callis Family when he meets Takeshita in singles competition, and The BCC takes on the CMLL contingent in Trios battle!

All that and more comes your way this week on DYNAMITE, so before the show gets underway, make a point to visit the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s assorted social media platforms, for highlights from last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, as well as the newest edition of the CONTROL CENTER!  Then come on down to Henderson, NV and The Dollar Loan Center this Saturday for an all-new edition of COLLISION!

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This Saturday night All Elite Wrestling makes our debut in Bossier City, LA at the Brookshire Grocery Arena with what will surely be an unforgettable edition of COLLISION based on the Cage Match alone. That’s right, six of the best in the world, locked inside a Steel Cage together, The House of Black battling FTR and Daniel Garcia,  and fighting it out under Elimination rules! Plus, “Blue Thunder” Yuji Nagata returns to AEW to take on “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson in their first-ever singles match; they’ve got some New Japan history from two decades back, but never went one-on-one until now! In addition to those two huge bouts, Mariah May will be in action against Lady Frost, Serena Deeb makes her return to in-ring competition, and Orange Cassidy defends his AEW International Championship against Komander!

The night gets underway at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, and the AEW faithful can get prepared for the action-packed evening by visiting the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s other social media platforms, for highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER, and so much more!

SIX-MAN ELIMINATION STEEL CAGE MATCH…

Daniel Garcia & FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) vs.

The House of Black (Brody King, Buddy Matthews, & Malakai Black)

Since October, there has been a war going on between FTR and The House of Black, the details of which can be viewed in great detail on this Timeline presentation, and that war has also pulled in Daniel Garcia as an ally on the side of Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler. See in their final match of the Continental Classic, Daniel Garcia defeat The House’s Brody King, his second singles victory over Brody in 2023 actually, and Daniel has suffered for that sin against The House repeatedly.

But that hasn’t stopped Garcia from stepping up against The House of Black, from aligning himself with FTR, and fighting them with every ounce of his being. He did it two weeks ago on COLLISION when he and FTR lost in a standard Trios bout to The House of Black, and again last week when he bested Buddy Matthews in their singles bout. FTR has done their part as well, tussling with House of Black as two of the teams in FULL GEAR 2023’s Championship Ladder Match, and beating the Buddy/Malakai combination three weeks ago, but every contest involving these six individuals seems to end up in a fight after the bell. 

That’s why this Saturday night on COLLISION, with AEW’s debut in Bossier City, all six of these competitors will be locked inside a Steel Cage! This will be the first time in AEW’s history a Trios battle will be contested under this circumstances, as well as the first Elimination Rules Cage match, and that could lead to very painful outcome for any one of these six men. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to find one man alone against all three House of Black members, or FTR going 2-on-1 with a House member; the Elimination factor makes this even more an unpredictable battle that it would be as a standard Cage Match. 

This will be a violent affair, of that there is no doubt, but will even this be enough to end the hostilities perpetually erupting between these six combatants? Or will the outcome just be adding more fuel to the burgeoning inferno?

DREAM (MATCHES) DO COME TRUE…

“The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs. “Blue Justice” Yuji Nagata

The very first time Bryan Danielson stepped into the ring with Yuji Nagata was November 2, 2002 at the tail end of American Dragon’s very first tour with New Japan Professional Wrestling. That night, with Scott Norton and a man named Jack The Bull at his side, Danielson’s team bested Nagata, Masahiro Chono, and Heat (aka Minoru Tanaka). Over the course of the next two years, Bryan and “Blue Justice” would be on opposite sides of the ring a total of nine times, all in tags or trios, with Danielson’s side of the coin winning just twice, that aforementioned first match and their last on July 16, 2004, making Bryan 1-2 in tags and 1-5 in trios all-time against Yuji Nagata. 

What that means in the grand scheme of things is that this Saturday night on COLLISION, when Yuji Nagata returns to All Elite Wrestling nearly three years since he fought Jon Moxley over the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship! In the years since, Nagata reigned as All Japan’s Triple Crown Champion for 133 days during the course of 2023, competed in the NJPW’s 2023 World Tag League as Minoru Suzuki’s partner, fought in AJPW’s Real World Tag League and Royal Road Tournament’s in 2022, competed for DDT Pro Wrestling, GLEAT, ZERO1’s Shinjiro Otani Benefit Show, and even for West Coast Pro here in the United States; Nagata generally made his way across the wrestling landscape, and now the oldest 55 year old returns to AEW for this dream battle with Bryan Danielson!

We know Bryan has his eyes set on ripping that Continental Crown away from Eddie Kingston, a man he clearly does not respect in any fashion, but before that can become reality, “The American Dragon” has to contend with Nagata this Saturday night! 

ONE-ON-ONE…

Mariah May vs. Lady Frost

Several weeks ago, Mariah May made her much anticipated in-ring debut by scoring a victory over Queen Aminata. It wasn’t the easiest of wins, Amanita gave Mariah May a tremendous fight in the process, but it was a win nonetheless. Unfortunately for the former Stardom champion, not only did her idol Toni Storm neglect to watch the match, but Mariah’s moment was crashed by a Deonna Purrazzo more interested in challenging the AEW Women’s World Champion than in Mariah May.

This Saturday night, Mariah will have a second chance to make the night all about her as she gets back into the ring for the first time since January 3rd, and her opponent will be one of the more impressive competitors gunning for a spot at the top of the locker room: Lady Frost! While Mariah may be new to All Elite Wrestling, these two women that are no stranger to one another, each having been a part of a pivotal moment in the other’s career.

For Lady Frost, when she made her first excursion to the United Kingdom in November of 2019, the very first match she competed in was spent working as Mariah May’s partner, and the two were actually victorious in that bout.

For Mariah May, when she traveled to the United States for the very first time in March of 2022, the opponent standing across the ring from her that night in the South Philly’s legendary Arena was in fact Lady Frost! In that singles outing, it was May who came out with the victory, and Frost has been itching for another go for nearly two years.

Well she will have her opportunity this Saturday night on COLLISION when she and Mariah May lock horns under the AEW banner! May is still desperate for the approval and acknowledgment of the AEW Women’s World Champion, so she will be fighting as much for that as for herself, while Frost is fighting for to establish her position within the grand scheme of the Women’s Division. Will this rematch go the same way as the first, or can Lady Frost dim May’s spotlight?

AEW INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Orange Cassidy(c) vs. Komander

https://www.youtube.com/embed/o1ZEZaBEUUQ?si=vCwoWqWBJ5gcZbSS

Last night on RAMPAGE, Komander scored the victory on Kip Sabian in the “Freshly Squeezed Four Way” that also included The Butcher and AAA Mega Champion El Hijo Del Vikingo. With that pinfall victory, the AAA World Cruiserweight Champion earned himself a shot at Orange Cassidy’s AEW International Championship this Saturday on COLLISION! This will mark Komander’s first singles opportunity at that title, though he did participate in the 21 Man Blackjack Battle Royale at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2023, as well as the first one-on-one encounter between he and “Freshly Squeezed”. OC does hold a tag team victory over Komander from the January 17th edition of DYNAMITE, and between a desire to even that score, as well as to earn his first AEW championship, Komander will no doubt go all out on Saturday night!

Something else that no doubt will happen on Saturday night is this bout having the eyes of Roderick Strong all over it. Roddy may have the patience to wait until REVOLUTION 2024 to fight Orange Cassidy, but with that willingness to wait comes the possibility it won’t be OC holding the International Title. That means the former ROH World Champion will also have to keep his eyes on anyone Cassidy faces between now and March 3rd, just to stay prepared for whoever may be standing across the ring from him in Greensboro, NC! For Roderick, that fight does not seem to be about the person, but rather about the prize, and it doesn’t appear to matter who he fights as long as they have what he wants!

ELIMINATOR MATCH…

Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston vs. Willie Mack

If wrestling is a matter of respect earned, then there are few men who’ve fought harder to earn it than Eddie Kingston, and not because he was seeking it out like some individuals may be compelled to do. Instead, that respect came from those who watched Kingston grind it out across the independent landscape for the last two decades before he earned his way into All Elite Wrestling. That respect grew in those who watched Eddie struggle publicly with his demons and his mental health, never denying he had issues to work through, and willing to fail in the process of learning. Eddie is respected by fans and most of his peers because he’s willing to be an open, honest man about himself, as well as those around him, but that kind of honesty can cut when it’s pushed towards someone who refuses to hear it.

That someone is Bryan Danielson, that someone is Claudio Castagnoli, and there is nothing that Eddie Kingston can ever do that will make those two men see him as any other than the street kid they first met twenty years ago. Even though they share the Blackpool banner with Jon Moxley, they will never see Kingston the same way Mox does, but after all these years of being ridiculed and derided by men like Bryan and Claudio, it doesn’t matter to Eddie. His love and respect, his time and energy, it will be reserved for those who have earned it, and that is where Willie Mack comes into the picture.

Just like Eddie, and many of their AEW compatriots, Willie Mack has been through the independent grind of little-to-no pay, long drives, small crowds, and yet he still stands, and yet he too has worked his way into fighting on the AEW stage. That is why Eddie Kingston is giving Willie this Eliminator opportunity on COLLISION; all he’s got to do is beat Eddie and a shot at the Continental Crown will be his! History isn’t on the side of Mack, the only Eliminator match in AEW history that’s gone the way of the potential challengers was actually the night Kingston and Jon Moxley beat then AEW World Tag Champions The Young Bucks, but if there’s anyone who can pull it off, it may just be Willie Mack!

TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH…

Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli & Jon Moxley) vs. 

Shane Taylor Promotions (Lee Moriarty & Shane Taylor)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/5OZoqdRXdSY?si=R8LxyloxU__5X606

Short and sweet, after Jon Moxley defeated a very game Lee Moriarty last night on RAMPAGE, the two members of Shane Taylor Promotions did something very few men in All Elite Wrestling had done: left Jon Moxley laying in the middle in the ring. Perhaps it was frustration over both Shane Taylor and Lee taking an “L” from Moxley in the last week, perhaps it’s a bigger picture than just those two matches, either way it marked a new level for Shane Taylor Promotions, and with that leveling up (or down depending on your perspective) comes a whole new level of competition.

That is why this Saturday night on COLLISION, STP will have to answer for this assault and those consequences come in the form of a tag team fight against Blackpool Combat Club! Of the few men Jon Moxley has deemed worthy of partnership in his AEW career, Claudio Castagnoli has been one of his strongest alliances, the two marking an 8-1 record as a team (ironically the same record he holds with Eddie Kingston), whereas Lee and Shane T’s experience working as a team has all been under the ROH banner, but at least they are 4-0 in traditional tag team competition, including a 2/3 Falls victory over The Infantry. 

So will this be Shane Taylor Promotions elevating their game to overcome BCC or will it be, as Robert Southey wrote over 200 years ago, “Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost”?

SCHOOL IS BACK IN SESSION…

459 days; that is how long it has been since Serena Deeb stepped out onto the AEW stage and into an AEW ring to compete in front of the AEW faithful. For 459 days she fought with her mind, body, and soul to get back to a place where she was ready to step back between the ropes and do what she does best: wrestle.

As a former Women’s Champion, many times over, Deeb has made a career out of being spoken of as one of the best technical wrestlers in the game, a woman capable of breaking an opponent’s body down, treating a match like a complete dissection, and making sure her opponent left the match realizing they had a lot left to learn. Serena Deeb is “The Professor of Professional Wrestling”, a woman who teaches lessons in pain and suffering to those hapless enough to be across the ring from her, but one lesson she still has to learn herself is that of an AEW champion.

Despite the accolades she has earned across her career, Serena Deeb has yet to wear a championship around her waist bearing the letters AEW, but with this return to form “The Professor” aims to fix that blemish on her record, to make up for failures against Toni Storm and Thunder Rosa, and show that she herself learned the lessons taught from those championship losses. For all those women in the AEW locker room, and for whoever stands across the ring from Serena Deeb on Saturday night, this fight on COLLISION will be a warning that “The Professor” is back, and she has plenty of lessons to teach the division!

Bossier City, LA and the Brookshire Grocery Arena play host to COLLISION this Saturday night! The House of Black will be locked inside a Steel Cage with FTR and Daniel Garcia, battling one another under Elimination rules, in hopes that this violent affair will bring an end to their rivalry! Danielson versus Nagata, Serena Deeb returns, Mariah May takes on Lady Frost, and so much more in store for your Saturday night fights! The action gets underway at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, and the AEW faithful can get prepared for the action-packed evening by visiting the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s other social media platforms, for highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER, and so much more!

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After an exciting RAMPAGE on Friday night, AEW is right back in the action with an all-new COLLISION, coming to you from the Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis! Last night we saw an amazing clash between Jeff Hardy and Darby Allin, the continuing…something…with Kris Statlander and Stokely Hathaway, Anthony Henry give Penta El Zero Miedo a tremendous fight, and Chris Jericho get back to business in a bout with Matt Sydal! 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/E1Rl4SOBpH4?si=H0gppR37vmTf8rox&start=320

The night begins with COLLISION at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, featuring a huge Grudge Tag match pitting Eddie Kingston and Ortiz against The BCC of Claudio Castagnoli and Bryan Danielson, Adam Copeland laying out another Open Challenge, Buddy Matthews and Daniel Garcia going head-to-head, and Jon Moxley back in the house after a wild trip through New Japan Pro Wrestling! Fans can get prepared for the action-packed evening by visiting the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s other social media platforms, for highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER, and so much more!

TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH…

Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston & Ortiz

vs.

Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/r9kyXdFTxy4?si=3-YHDqE7Q4ieJ_Gl&start=320

As if there wasn’t enough fuel to the fires that burn between Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston and The Blackpool Combat Club, last week during RAMPAGE: HOMECOMING 2024 Eddie beat ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta in a Continental Crown defense, leaving the young man battered and bruised.

So this Saturday night, with Bryan Danielson back on the scene after his New Japan excursion for WRESTLE KINGDOM 18 and NEW YEAR DASH!! 2024, and Claudio coming off a victory over Bryan Kieth Thursday night during ROH ON HONOR CLUB, The Blackpool Combat Club will reunite for tag team action against Kingston and his partner, friend-turned foe-and back again, Ortiz! When last we saw Ortiz and Eddie Kingston engage with one another, the former came to ringside at FULL GEAR 2023 to help the latter in his ROH World Championship match with Jay Lethal. That was on the heels of Sonjay Dutt trying to recruit Ortiz to their little unit, and given that Jeff Jarrett’s guitar ended up around Dutt’s head, that was a clear indication of where Ortiz stood. The question of whether or not that choice had anything to do with Kingston, or was just a response to Dutt, was answered fairly quickly when Ortiz and Eddie stood side-by-side in the ring; it was as if the Stadium Stampede at ALL IN: LONDON got the bad blood out of their system, and now they could move forward as friends.

Hopefully that is the case because Eddie and Ortiz will have to be on the same page when facing The BCC if they want any hope of leaving St. Louis with a victory. Claudio and Bryan are 2-1 as a duo with their last fighting being the bout with Orange Cassidy and Okada in October while Ortiz and Eddie are 9-2, but it’s been over a year since their last time teaming up. Will the bonds forged by The BCC in their time together prove stronger than the ones between Kingston and Ortiz that were so tested in the last year?

ONE-ON-ONE…

The House of Black’s Buddy Matthews vs. Daniel Garcia

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Last Saturday night, in one of the many super trios matches AEW has produced, FTR and Daniel Garcia fell to The House of Black, the end coming after Buddy Matthews smashed Dax Harwood’s face into the canvas for the pinfall. It was an intense, chaotic, hateful battle, but the result doesn’t appear to have settled anything between these six men, or should that be seven given how The House pulled Matt Menard into the fray in the aftermath of their victory.

Garcia and FTR may have ran The House off before they could inflict too much damage, but all that means is the fight will continue in one form or another as long as all these men are still able to throw hands. The next form this explosive issue will take goes down this Saturday night on COLLISION when Buddy Matthews and Daniel Garcia meet in singles competition for the first time! Garcia has come so far in his career since debuting in AEW, and seems to have the number of House member Brody King, but will that success parlay over to Buddy as well? Or will Garcia be the next man whose face Matthews stomps into the mat?

ASK AND SOMETIMES YOU RECEIVE…

Jon Moxley vs. Shane Taylor

Though Jon Moxley has not been seen in All Elite Wrestling since WORLDS END, that doesn’t mean he’s been inactive, sitting on the sidelines, watching the world pass him by. As a matter of fact, it has been quite the opposite as the former 3-Time AEW World Champion returned to New Japan for WRESTLE KINGDOM 18 where he vied for the NJPW Global Heavyweight Title against Will Ospreay and David Finlay. Finlay would be the one who ultimately walked away with the newly created crown, pinning Ospreay to claim the title, and sending Mox to NEW YEAR DASH!! 2024 empty handed. Unfortunately loss would follow Mox to his eight-man tag on that event as well, with TMDK’s Shane Haste pinning Moxley’s partner Tomohiro Ishii to get the victory.

Thankfully Moxley rebounded in his No Disqualification bout at NJPW’s BATTLE IN ALLEY 2024, scoring a victory over Shingo Takagi after twenty-six minutes of hard-hitting, violent action, and subsequently let new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Tetsuyo Naito know that he had eyes on that prize, issuing a challenge for WINDY CITY RIOT 2024 on April 12th.  

But before Moxley gets to that potential championship challenge, he’s coming back home to All Elite Wrestling this Saturday night! And initially we wondered if he was coming for a fight, or was he simply making the trip to St. Louis to let the world know where he’s focusing his energy in the new year; but thanks to one social media follower in particular sharing an older video of Shane Taylor’s, we know now just what’s in store:

Just goes to show that sometimes when you ask for something, you get it, and boy are we all going to get it this Saturday when Shane Taylor throws down with Jon Moxley! These are two of the hardest-hitting, rough and tumble individuals in all of AEW, and Shane Taylor has proven in his fights with Samoa Joe and Keith Lee that he gives as good as he gets in a fight. Aside from the fight with Joe last year, this is Shane T’s biggest match since joining on with AEW, and he aims to leave an impression on the AEW fans, as well as on Jon Moxley’s face! There’s nothing more Mox loves than a fight, and he is now guaranteed to get one on COLLISION!

THE OPEN CHALLENGE CONTINUES…

Adam Copeland vs. ???

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ALtgXeFurtw?si=YMuQ4uuERzKd2xge

Last week it was Shane Taylor Promotions’ Lee Moriarty who answered the call of the Adam Copeland Open Challenge, giving the Hall of Famer a fight he did not anticipate, but one he certainly appreciated, with Moriarty showing the world he’s got the potential down the line to stand with the greats in this business. But that time wasn’t last week, Copeland’s drive to earn himself another stab at Christian Cage is too strong, and it is going to take a very special individual to disrupt this man’s track to the TNT Championship.

Well with “The Rated R Superstar” set to appear on COLLISION for another Open Challenge, someone else will have that opportunity to play spoiler to Copeland’s quest, and given how the competition has escalated with each outing, it’s going to be very interesting to see just who answers the call this week in St. Louis!

LA MERA MERA IS BACK!

It’s been awhile since her last singles match, an August 6, 2022 championship fight with Jamie Hayter during BATTLE OF THE BELTS III to be exact, but this Saturday night Thunder Rosa is back in action! We got a taste of “La Mera Mera” on the December 23rd COLLISION and on DYNAMITE: HOMECOMING 2024, but those were in multi-person bouts, a singles match is a whole different story that could put the former AEW Women’s World Champion to the test! Who will step up to the fight with Thunder Rosa this Saturday in St. Louis?

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COLLISION comes to St. Louis this Saturday night, with the action starting at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, and showcasing a massive Grudge Tag Team fight pitting Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston and Ortiz against Blackpool Combat Club members Claudio Castagnoli and Bryan Danielson! Plus, Adam Copeland plans to lay out another Open Challenge while, after their tremendous trios bout last week, Buddy Matthews and Daniel Garcia will meet one-on-one! We haven’t seen Jon Moxley since WORLDS END as he’s been putting in work with NJPW, but he will be back home this Saturday night! Before showtime, be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s other social media platforms, for highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER, and so much more!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/yKH8L1bj48Y?si=xqj0R1AMH3Xh1n2F

After a loaded week of AEW action featuring FOUR massive events, the week begins anew with AEW’s flagship program returning to South Carolia! This Wednesday night DYNAMITE will emanate from North Charleston for the very first time, featuring three championship matches, including Samoa Joe’s first AEW World Title defense, Christian Cage’s first TNT Championship defense of his second reign, and a huge ROH World Six-Man Championship fight! Plus Deonna Purrazzo makes her return to DYNAMITE when she faces Anna Jay one-on-one, and so much more on tap!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/NrS8zt6d33k?si=vglfnsY7x96A_-iy

AEW DYNAMITE begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, just make a point to drop by the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s assorted social media platforms, for highlights from last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, COLLISION, and BATTLE OF THE BELTS IX, as well as the newest CONTROL CENTER, and more!  Then we head to St. Louis and the Chaifetz Center for an all-new COLLISION on the road to REVOLUTION 2024!

AEW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Samoa Joe(c) vs. FTW Champion HOOK

https://www.youtube.com/embed/IfeHKLkP9bY?si=y_FPm3nMcJVkTJ5z

When Samoa Joe fought his first professional match, HOOK was less than one year old, and when the current AEW World Champion first began his historic 645-day reign as ROH World Championship on March 22, 2003, HOOK was almost four years old. When “The Cold-Hearted Handsome Devil” had his first professional match, Joe had just began his twenty-second year in the sport, and yet despite those differences, in spite of his massive experience disadvantage, HOOK put himself out there as Samoa Joe’s first World Title challenger! 

HOOK may be a young man, just twenty-four years old, but he’s not a stupid one. He’s a man well aware of the advantages Joe has over him, very cognizant of the fact he’s coming into this bout as a massive underdog, but he’s also a man very confident in his own abilities. It isn’t luck that led HOOK to a twenty-five match singles win streak or his thirty-four consecutive wins overall, or brought him the FTW Championship two times over. It was hard work that brought him there, that put him behind only Orange Cassidy on that list of singles win streaks, and tied with Jon Moxley. It was that hard work that earned him the respect of the fans, and causes them to rise to their feet with the opening beats of “The Chairman’s Intent”. HOOK knows that he’s worked his tail off to get to this point, but it’s Samoa Joe he’s got standing across the ring from him on Wednesday night, and it’s going to take something extra to overcome that mountain. Perhaps that extra comes from the knowledge his father Taz holds from being rather close to Joe years earlier in their careers…

That knowledge isn’t experience though, that isn’t coming from someone who was in the ring with Samoa Joe and felt what it’s like to have him staring at you as you walk to the ring, or to have those roles reversed and be the one watching him heading your way. At no point was Taz an opponent of Joe’s, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t learn a few things about how the man ticks during his time with the AEW World Champion, knowledge he may have passed on to his son heading towards this showdown.

But once that bell rings, that knowledge has to be applied, application requires room to breathe, and Samoa Joe isn’t likely to let HOOK do that for very long. He will either look to end this quickly, or be the animal that plays with his food before devouring it, hoping men like Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page are watching to see the fate the AEW World Champion has in store for all who step to his title. Those are the moments HOOK needs to look for, the openings Joe might accidentally give, the spaces between that provide a moment to turn the tide; that is where HOOK will thrive, that is where he will find his successes. Create space, be relentless, and perhaps look for a roll-up victory given that Joe has proven susceptible to those throughout his career. HOOK may be an underdog, he may be the only one who believes he can pull this off, but self-belief goes a long way towards actualization, and given his track record of success in AEW to date, there is certainly a possibility we could be hearing the words “AND NEW AEW WORLD CHAMPION…” at the end of this contest!

TNT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

“The Patriarch” Christian Cage(c) vs. “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes

TNT Champion Christian Cage sure knows how to make enemies, in fact all it takes to be labeled his enemy is to have any association with Adam Copeland, and “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes joined that field simply by teaming up with Copeland during DYNAMITE: HOMECOMING 2024. Now Rhodes wasn’t the only one at Adam’s side, Orange Cassidy and Preston Vance were there too, but Dustin is the only one singled out by Christian, and perhaps that’s because he’s the one without allies by his side. Dustin doesn’t have Best Friends, Danhausen, and HOOK like “Freshly Squeezed” nor La Faccion Ingobernable like “Perro Pelligroso”, he stands alone that majority of the time, and that can’t be a coincidence for why Christian Cage chose to single him out.

But this numbers game the TNT Champion plays, the intimidation factor of Killswitch at his side, it obviously doesn’t faze “The Natural”, after all with 35 years spent lacing up his boots, there’s very little Dustin hasn’t experienced. He’s been the victim of that numbers game countless times, he’s been up and he’s been down, experienced life as both champion and challenger, and still comes back to the fight every day. Still, there are some things he hasn’t accomplished during his illustrious career and one of those is the acquisition of the TNT Championship. Dustin was part of the inaugural tournament back in 2020, defeating Kip Sabian in the opening round before falling to Lance Archer in the next, and he unsuccessfully challenged Mr. Brodie Lee on the September 9, 2020 edition of DYNAMITE. Dustin also tried to fill the role of Interim TNT Champion when he fought Sammy Guevara on the very first BATTLE OF THE BELTS, but the title eluded him that evening as well. 

So now the possibility of finally acquiring AEW gold is upon Dustin once more as he faces Christian Cage this Wednesday night in South Carolina! One of the biggest wins in Rhodes’ career took place in this very venue twenty-seven years ago, can he add another one to his North Charleston record with this TNT Championship fight on DYNAMITE?

ROH WORLD SIX-MAN CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

The Mogul Embassy (Bishop Kaun, Brian Cage, & Toa Liona)(c) vs.

BULLET CLUB GOLD (Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, & Jay White)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/aeZcsA8nvdk?si=mbLvtDNOoyYaB0Hp&start=286

On the heels of defeating The Righteous and “The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer to retain the ROH World Six-Man Titles, Prince Nana actually stepped up to the plate and made the challenge himself for BULLET CLUB GOLD to fight The Mogul Embassy this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE! It wasn’t The Bang Bang Gang chasing after them, although they’ve definitely voiced those intentions, but the champions taking the first shot rather than potential challengers. 

“Switchblade” Jay White and The Gunns had no problem accepting the challenge, nor any qualms about mocking their opponents this week in South Carolina. While that may not be the smartest move, mockery is something in which The Bang Bang Gang is well versed, and frequently uses to play with their opponents before the big fight. These three members of BC GOLD have had a few weeks to rest up, something sorely needed by Jay White after his tour of duty in the Continental Classic, and are ready to bring some gold to their little clique, but to do that, they’ll have to survive three of the biggest, baddest monsters in All Elite Wrestling or Ring of Honor, as well as one of the craftiest managers pro wrestling has seen in the last twenty years!

THE BOYS ARE BACK HOME!

At the close of the night last Wednesday in Jacksonville, Tony Schiavone posited the question to Sting of just who he would face at REVOLUTION 2024 in his final professional wrestling match. Before “The Icon” could even take a breath, the all-too familiar music of The Young Bucks kicked in, and out walked the former 2-Time AEW World Tag Team Champions. Matt and Nick Jackson had been absent from AEW programming since losing their guaranteed World Tag Team Championship opportunity to Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho at FULL GEAR 2023. Brandon Cutler, often disparagingly referred to as their stooge, even tweeted to respect their privacy as they took time away. Then again, perhaps disparagingly isn’t appropriate because Cutler also tweeted that high-fives and hugs erupted upon their return to AEW last week…

Anyway, given the timing of their return, it is quite evident that The Young Bucks are propping themselves up as the REVOLUTION 2024 opponents for Sting and Darby Allin, aiming to be the ones who put “The Icon” out to pasture with a devastating loss rather than triumphant victory. Well this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE we will hear directly from the brothers Jackson about their intentions with that interruption. It’s the first time Matt and Nick have been on AEW programming in two months, so they’ve likely got plenty to say!

ONE-ON-ONE…

“The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo vs. Anna Jay

***AEW WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPION TONI STORM ON COMMENTARY***

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wri-xgnm5wc?si=qkDoggXuiBWZi5Nq

Last Saturday night two of AEW’s women had huge nights, but only one was successful! Deonna Purrazzo made her debut on COLLISION, defeating a very game Red Velvet, and sending a clear message to AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm about why “The Virtuosa” came to All Elite Wrestling; the title is what’s on her mind, and Purrazzo doesn’t intend to let anyone stop her from acquiring that championship!

Anna Jay, however, was less successful with her Saturday night fight as she came up short in a TBS Championship challenge opposite The House of Black’s Julia Hart. It was a very close call, alas not one that went Anna’s way, but that doesn’t mean she’s done striving for her first championship success! That’s why this Wednesday night, Anna Jay is getting right back into the fight and welcoming “The Virtuosa” back to DYNAMITE competition, her first since fighting Mercedes Martinez in May 2022, while the eyes of “Timeless” Toni Storm watch from commentary! 

As the AEW Women’s World Champion gives her unique perspective on this contest, will she also watch as her next challenger ascends to the top?

AEW World Champion Samoa Joe began his reign over AEW at WORLDS END, and will make his first defense of the title this Wednesday night when AEW debuts in North Charleston, South Carolina against FTW Champion HOOK! Plus, The Mogul Embassy will put their ROH World Six-Man Titles on the line against The Bang Bang Gang, Deonna Purrazzo and Anna Jay collide for the first time, and Christian Cage’s TNT Championship will be at stake when he faces Dustin Rhodes one-on-one for the first time since November 2009!It all begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, so be sure to drop in on the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s numerous social media platforms, for highlights from last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, COLLISION, and BATTLE OF THE BELTS IX, as well as the newest CONTROL CENTER, and more!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/4ud-ufxYyw4?si=c2Dn2B4UXjs2glmz

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mHMcD0SIGZs?si=eFbCxasLF_YC69Eg&start=323

Saturday night is loaded up with All Elite Wrestling action as we present three loaded hours of the best professional wrestling action on the planet between two back-to-back programs! For the first time since October 26, 2022, AEW returns to Norfolk’s Chartway Arena and with it comes both COLLISION and BATTLE OF THE BELTS IX! The former will feature “Hangman” Adam Page coming back to Norfolk for the first time since November 2021 where he arrived the new AEW World Champion, Adam Copeland laying out another Open Challenge as he fights towards another TNT Championship opportunity, The Mogul Embassy defending the ROH World Six-Man Championship against Lance Archer and The Righteous, and Deonna Purrazzo making her COLLISION debut against Red Velvet!

For the ninth edition of BATTLE OF THE BELTS, Chris Jericho will use the title opportunity he earned at FULL GEAR 2023 when he teams with Sammy Guevara to challenge Big Bill and Ricky Starks for the AEW World Tag Team Championship titles! Plus, after Anna Jay’s team defeat Julia Hart’s on DYNAMITE this past Wednesday night, “The Queen Slayer” will face “The Princess of the Black Throne” for her TBS Championship title, and Orange Cassidy will put his AEW International Championship on the line against LFI’s Preston Vance!

The night begins with COLLISION at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, followed immediately by BATTLE OF THE BELTS IX, and fans can get prepared for the action-packed evening by visiting the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s other social media platforms, for highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER, and so much more!

COLLISION

OPEN CHALLENGE…

Adam Copeland vs. ???

https://www.youtube.com/embed/06o3F4wbp0c?si=AJXBTu4VjO1UiyyC&start=217

After being robbed of his TNT Championship triumph by Killswitch at WORLDS END, and then having to watch that monster turn his moment over to Christian Cage rather than capitalize on it himself, Adam Copeland is a very angry man. But as someone who understands taking advantage of opportunities when they present themselves, Copeland can’t fault the former Luchasaurus from trying to seize his moment, but he can look towards Christian Cage as the target of his rage. Copeland may be able to claim a rematch as the former champion, but he’s chosen to play the game “The Patriarch” has laid out, start from scratch, and work his way back towards another shot at Christian and the TNT Championship.

It began last week when a brave Griff Garrison slapped Copeland across the face in response to Adam’s first Open Challenge, and although it ended with Griff tapping out, it showed a more aggressive side to the young man than we’ve seen in the past. This week on COLLISION, Copeland will lay out another Open Challenge and wait to see just who answers the call for a fight! There are plenty of men in the AEW locker room who dream of using the Hall of Famer as their own personal stepping stone, but all they have to do is ask Griff Garrison just how different that dream can be from the reality!

ROH WORLD SIX-MAN CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

The Mogul Embassy (Bishop Kaun, Brian Cage & Toa Liona)(c) vs. Lance Archer & The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) 

What an unexpected treat this fight is going to be! Six of the roughest, toughest competitors in professional wrestling locking horns with the ROH World Six-Man Championship titles at stake this Saturday night on COLLISION! The Mogul Embassy are in the midst of their second reign with the titles, having defeated The Elite back on the November 1st edition of DYNAMITE, and sending The Gates of Agony off to New Japan’s World Tag League Tournament on a high note. 

Upon their return, Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona reunited with Brian Cage at ROH’s FINAL BATTLE 2023 event to make their first successful defense of this second reign over TMDK representatives Bad Dude Tito, Kosei Fujita, and Shane Haste. The trio were back in action together this past Wednesday night during DYNAMITE: HOMECOMING 2024, only this time joined by a fourth man in Lance Archer, as they faced Preston Vance, Adam Copeland, Dustin Rhodes, and AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy. Communication broke down, Archer accidentally hit Toa Liona, which in turn led to Brian Cage and Lance Archer coming to blows, and the whole thing falling apart until Bishop Kaun got pinned by Vance.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/6mjKFVojJ_A?si=O8tYddTNOovq1YQW&start=232

So this Saturday night on COLLISION, the ROH World Six-Man Champions look to even the score with Lance Archer, but in order to do so they’ll have to put those titles on the line against the nascent team of The Righteous and “The Murderhawk Monster”! Under the guidance of Jake “The Snake” Roberts, they are a dangerous trio who could easily bring an end to The Mogul Embassy’s grip on this Six-Man Championship titles! Vincent and Dutch are familiar with them, having held the belts with Bateman for 224 days from FINAL BATTLE 2021: END OF AN ERA to DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2022, and would love to have them in their possession once again, especially with a behemoth like Lance Archer at their side!

THE VIRTUOSA COMES TO COLLISION…

“The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo vs. Red Velvet

It was just over a week ago that “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo crashed the in-ring debut of Mariah May, declared herself to be All Elite, and made it clear her sights were set on “Timeless” Toni Storm’s AEW Women’s World Championship! It was the first time Purrazzo had been in an AEW ring since her ROH Women’s World Title fight with Mercedes Martinez on May 4, 2022, but back then she was not a part of the AEW roster. This Saturday night on COLLISION, when she steps into the ring against Red Velvet, Purrazzo will be an official member of All Elite Wrestling, and thus beginning her own march towards the title coveted by all the women under the AEW banner. 

Eleven times in her career Deonna has worn a championship around her waist, including that ROH Women’s World Title and the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship, but her aim to make the AEW crown her twelfth could very well be stifled by Red Velvet with their mutual COLLISION debut! In November, Red returned from a nine month injury layoff hungry to get back into a title picture, but she has instead been frustrated by the competitors she has faced. This moment that Deonna Purrazzo aims to make her own could be the one Red Velvet steals to put the spotlight back on her own quest to become the top women in AEW.

It’s a tremendous opportunity for Red Velvet, but the pressure is certainly on Deonna Purrazzo to deliver in her debut as an official member of the All Elite Wrestling roster! Purrazzo has the experience advantage, ten years already under her belt at just 29 years of age, but AEW has been Red Velvet’s home for nearly four years, and she intends to remind everyone just who stirs it up around here!

TRIOS GRUDGE MATCH…

Daniel Garcia and FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) vs. The House of Black (Brody King, Buddy Matthews

https://www.youtube.com/embed/WooHNQJeWd8?si=aDg2BT3jUP2cYkbz&start=323

Last week FTR defeated The House of Black, as honored by Buddy Matthews and Malakai Black, in their very first tag team contest, but the meatier story was all that surrounded Dax’s pinfall on Buddy. Prior to the end, Brody King made his way to ringside to help his brothers, but was instead cutoff by a chair-wielding Daniel Garcia, the young man serving as equalizer for The House’s attempt to tip the scales in their favor.

What followed was an all-out assault by The House perpetrated on Dax, Cash, and Garcia, while TBS Champion Julia Hart rang the bell in what can only be likened to a ten bell salute. The message was clear, as was The House’s intent to bury these three individuals, and it looks like the former AEW World Trios Champions will have their opportunity this Saturday night on COLLISION! Aside from a common foe, the only crossing of paths between Daniel Garcia and FTR was a superb HOUSE RULES: TUPELO fight between Garcia and Dax Harwood back in June. They are an inexperienced trio fighting former Trios Champions who hold the record for longest reign in the history of the titles; there’s no doubt FTR and Daniel Garcia are at a disadvantage from the standpoint of working together, but their hunger for a fight, and for revenge after last week, may just be the x-factor that carries them to victory in Saturday night’s fight!

BATTLE OF THE BELTS IX

AEW WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP STREET FIGHT…

Big Bill & Ricky Starks(c) vs. Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara

https://www.youtube.com/embed/UV3EB0jr7ZI?si=IkKODBEKCD9uUHOt&start=217

Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara are no strangers to tag team competition, they netted their very first tag team victory on the second episode of DYNAMITE way back on 10/9/19, and unsuccessfully challenged for the AEW World Tag Titles a month later against Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian. All told, the pair are 7-5 as team since the inception of All Elite Wrestling, but this championship bout on Saturday night comes after a strained relationship turned to betrayal which in turn led to a reunion only a few weeks ago. Jericho and Sammy lived through The Inner Circle together, through the Jericho Appreciation Society together, and even after The J.A.S. fell apart, it seemed Guevara would at least be the one who remained a Jericho-supporter. Yet shockingly, “The Spanish God” did betray Jericho to ally himself with Don Callis and even fought Jericho at WRESTLEDREAM 2023 with Takeshita and Will Ospreay as his partners.

But that match would ultimately tell Guevara everything he needed to know about the poor choice he had made in picking Don Callis, not to say that Jericho himself was a saint over the course of AEW, but neither was Guevara. See “The Spanish God” suffered a serious concussion over the course of that Trios fight in Seattle, and while he was absent from AEW competition, so too was he absent from the mind of Don Callis. No contact, no care, Callis showed not the least bit of concern for Guevara’s health, and that became abundantly clear when Guevara did finally return to AEW during Callis’ self-congratulatory Boxing Day Celebration.

Guevara ended up on the wrong end of an assault from The Don Callis Family, not that it was a surprise Callis sicced his dogs on “The Spanish God”, but what was a shock was Chris Jericho rushing to the aid of his former friend. An even bigger shock was the two men hugging after the fact, Sting and Darby Allin helping them out when an Ricky Starks and Big Bill launched an attack of their own, and the foursome actually beating Starks, Bill, Takeshita, and Powerhouse Hobbs at WORLDS END. 

With that victory it was clear that Guevara and Jericho were back on the same page, and that in turn led Chris Jericho to choose Sammy as his partner for this AEW World Tag Team Championship bout! The title shot came about from Jericho and Kenny Omega defeating The Young Bucks at FULL GEAR 2023, but when Omega was forced to step away from AEW to handle his diverticulitis, that left Jericho without a partner to take advantage of the championship opportunity. After all, given everything he’d done to the men in AEW, who would possibly want to team up with “Le Champion” even with a guaranteed title match as part of the deal?

To look towards the future, Jericho certainly had to repair the past, and apparently make amends for what he’d done to Sammy Guevara, and presumably “The Spanish God” also making his apologies for those actions taken several months ago. So now that they’re back on the same page, now that the bond of friendship has been reignited, can they topple Big Bill and Ricky Starks? Unlike Jericho and Guevara, the defending champions are not friends, their relationship is not contingent on being best friends, in fact sometimes it seems like they barely know one another outside of the time they spend fighting side-by-side. The important part to Big Bill and Ricky Starks isn’t a personal relationship, but rather a professional one that keeps the AEW World Tag Team Championship in their possession as long as humanly possible, and if the day comes that it ends, the two men will bid each other farewell and head back onto their own paths. 

So in some ways, this fight is a question of which method of conducting your business proves better? Is it the bonds of friendship that make for stronger tag team success, or the bond of business? Will the history of Sammy and Chris be their key to ending the reign of Big Bill and Ricky Starks, or will all their drama over the last five year be their undoing? We will see this Saturday night during BATTLE OF THE BELTS IX!

TBS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Julia Hart(c) vs. Anna Jay

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cj6GocblbIw?si=fQ34jXmVlB3Ksm6o&start=217

This past Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, TBS Champion Julia Hart and Anna Jay were on opposite sides of an Eight-Woman Tag, with the latter competing in memory of her late-mentor Mr. Brodie Lee. Perhaps it was Lee’s memory, perhaps it was being back in Jacksonville at Daily’s Place, whatever the case may be, it motivated Anna Jay’s team towards victory, with “The Queen Slayer” herself scoring the deciding pinfall over Julia Hart!

Clearly it was a very emotional situation for Anna Jay, but that victory has catapulted her into this championship situation on Saturday night during BOTB IX! Riding on the motivation of that Wednesday night victory, Anna Jay has to remember that Julia Hart holds two decisive victories over her, one in a wild No Holds Barred Match back on May 10th of 2023. Conversely, Anna Jay has no wins over Julia, not directly at least, just this multi-man pinfall over a member of Hart’s team on Wednesday night. In addition, this match marks Anna Jay’s fifth TBS Championship bid since the title’s inception at the beginning of 2022, will it be the night she finally claims it as her own?

AEW INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Orange Cassidy(c) vs. LFI’s Preston Vance

https://www.youtube.com/embed/6mjKFVojJ_A?si=tkhRQc6Pu3aML1Ga&start=323

On Wednesday night, as part of DYNAMITE: HOMECOMING 2024, AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy and Preston Vance were on the same side of an eight-man tag bout, a match won by Vance when he pinned Bishop Kaun. As a reward for that victory, Orange Cassidy has offered Preston Vance an opportunity to vie for the International Championship this Saturday night during BATTLE OF THE BELTS IX, coincidentally also the last championship Vance challenged for back in October 2022. That night it was as part of a Three Way bout with RUSH and then All-Atlantic Champion Orange Cassidy, with Cassidy in the earliest days of his historic championship reign, making his first defense after defeating PAC a week prior.

Fast forward some 15 months and these two competitors will meet again, only now in a singles bout, their first since September 30, 2020, and with the International Championship at stake! Can Vance take that next step in his career and rise to championship status? Or will Cassidy continue on in his goal to surpass the records he set with his previous title run?

The night begins with COLLISION at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, followed immediately by BATTLE OF THE BELTS IX, and fans can get prepared for the action-packed evening by visiting the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s other social media platforms, for highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER, and so much more! Between the two events, we’ve got an AEW World Tag Team Championship match, a ROH World Six-Man Championship Match, a TBS Championship fight, Adam Copeland in action, Hangman Page returning to Virginia, and so much more! Do not miss out on this loaded night featuring the premiere professional wrestlers of All Elite Wrestling!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/j1e5Rf4r3Ns?si=bIUiDqbq-6u9abm-&start=217

DYNAMITE: HOMECOMING 2024 continued an amazing start to the new year for All Elite Wrestling. From the wild fight between Hangman Page and Claudio Castagnoli to AEW World Champion Samoa Joe being confronted by three different men gunning for his title to The Young Bucks returning to lock eyes with Sting and Darby Allin, it was a remarkable return to Daily’s Place!

This Friday RAMPAGE comes to the AEW faithful from our home at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, FL and gets underway at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans! The Continental Crown will be on the line when Eddie Kingston defends against 3-Time ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta, plus Angelo Parker, Matt Menard, and Jake Hager take on The Dark Order in Trios action! In addition, former 3-Time AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida will be in action, and Swerve Strickland competes at Daily’s Place for the first time! Before the show begins, drop in on the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, to catch up on highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE, as well as previous episodes of RAMPAGE, COLLISION, and the latest CONTROL CENTER!

CONTINENTAL CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Eddie Kingston(c) vs. ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta

Wheeler Yuta is a supremely egotistical human, one whose status within the Blackpool Combat Club and stature as a 3-Time ROH Pure Champion has driven his self-importance to astounding levels. There’s no doubt he’s a gifted professional wrestler, particularly in the realm of pure wrestling, but still a person in denial about how he’s gotten to the status he’s achieved. Just ask Katsuyori Shibata what actually went down the night Yuta won the belt; regardless, that ego is now driving Wheeler Yuta to challenge Eddie Kingston to fight him this Friday night on RAMPAGE. The audacity it takes for Yuta to say “you beat Moxley, Bryan, and Claudio, but you won’t beat me” is astounding, putting young Wheeler into an extraordinary position where he could leave Daily’s Place with four championships around his waist, or remain strictly the Pure Champion. There is no risk for Yuta, only reward, but for Kingston, it’s the possibility of losing everything he fought so hard to achieve just to satisfy the challenge of the loudest mouth in the room.

But that’s what Eddie is…a fighter…and he’s going to answer any challenge thrown in his direction. Kingston holds one singles victory over Yuta to date, a NJPW STRONG Openweight Title defense back on August 30th of last year, but RAMPAGE has been good to Yuta over the course of 2023. He’s won nine straight matches on the program dating back to the February 10th edition of RAMPAGE, and is banking on that streak helping to lead him to victory over “The Mad King”, as well as enjoying a new status as the Continental Crown Champion!

TRIOS CONTEST…

The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds, Evil Uno, & John Silver)

vs.

Cool Hand Ang, Daddy Magic, & Jake Hager

Daily’s Place is the spot where The Dark Order grew from a group of individuals into a true family, in part due to the guidance from Mr. Brodie Lee during his life, and in part to honor him after his passing. And though their ranks have changed in the years since, the core unit of Evil Uno, Alex Reynolds, and John Silver have remained together through thick and thin, and are set to return to Jacksonville for Trios action against another unit who have maintained in the face of their own adversity.

Angelo Parker, Matt Menard, and Jake Hager were brought together under the auspices of The Jericho Appreciation Society, and maintained membership in the group for quite some time, until they could no longer stand being under his thumb. In some cases, the members of a group may go their separate ways in this situation, but those three individuals have kept it together in the months since, and though their success rate has not been consistent, at least they have remained together through their trials and tribulations.

Now these two units, groups that have become family by choice rather than blood, will lock horns on RAMPAGE in trios competitions! In a non-televised bout on December 20th, The Dark Order group took the loss to Parker, Menard, and Hager, but perhaps a trip to the place that shaped The Dark Order will lead them to victory, and net this trio their twelfth trios win!

ONE-ON-ONE…

Hikaru Shida vs. Queen Aminata

https://www.youtube.com/embed/gCa36s6EizQ?si=2MyUipAJ9zHkslzB

As was the case with so many others in All Elite Wrestling, Daily’s Place was where Hikaru Shida was shaped into the world class competitor we know today. She was always talented, always one of the best women in professional wrestling, but the Jacksonville experience honed her edge, made her AEW Women’s World Champion for the first time, and introduced her to the worldwide audience. This Friday night Shida gets to return a former 3-Time AEW Women’s World Champion, in front of a packed Daily’s Place, and compete against one of the most promising young women to set foot in AEW as of late.

A week ago Queen Aminata stood opposite the debuting Mariah May, and rather than let the former Stardom champion run right over her, Aminata gave as good as she got, hit as hard as she got hit, and gave Mariah May a fight she certainly didn’t expect. Queen Aminata made Mariah earn that first AEW win, and there’s no doubt she’s going to give the same to Hikaru Shida on RAMPAGE! Will Shida have a triumphant homecoming, or will Queen Aminata hand her an upset?

SINGLES MATCH…

Swerve Strickland vs. Matt Sydal

Swerve Strickland is riding high heading into 2024; not only did he have the best pinfall record in the Continental Classic with his shoulders only put to the mat one time, he also experienced a giant swell in fan support coming out of his fights with Hangman Page, particularly the Texas Death Match at FULL GEAR 2023. Now he has his eyes set on the biggest prize in all of AEW, the World Championship now in the hands of Samoa Joe, and showed no fear when he confronted Joe during DYNAMITE. Swerve wants to be the champion, the first African-American AEW World Champion, and has stated that goal repeatedly; this Friday night on RAMPAGE that journey continues when Swerve goes into singles competition against Matt Sydal! Swerve holds a victory over Sydal from their lone singles bout six years ago during a DEFY event in Seattle, and now they go for round two this Friday night! Can Sydal throw a roadblock in Swerve’s path to a championship challenge?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/k7rLm_KrMas?si=mrw8nMtdh36-tEdX&start=217

Hailing from Jacksonville, FL and AEW’s home at Daily’s Place, RAMPAGE:HOMECOMING 2024 begins at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, and features ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta challenging Eddie Kingston for the Continental Crown, Hikaru Shida taking on Queen Aminata, Swerve Strickland fighting in Daily’s Place for the first time, and The Dark Order in Trios action against Parker, Menard, and Hager! Before the show begins, drop in on the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, to catch up on highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE, as well as previous episodes of RAMPAGE, COLLISION, and the latest CONTROL CENTER!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/a3qJ6fopmEY?si=n4qpiXDHxnLbvF1y

It’s been 15 months since the last time All Elite Wrestling came home to Jacksonville, FL and Daily’s Place, but this Wednesday night the time is upon for a Homecoming! For some competitors it is a return to the familiar, for many it means a first time trip to AEW’s home base, one of those being AEW World Champion Samoa Joe. In addition to Joe’s first time live in Duval, “The Icon” Sting will have his final match at the place where his AEW journey began, two big singles bout, and two loaded eight-person tag matches on tap as well!

AEW DYNAMITE gets underway at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, so make sure to swing by the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s assorted social media platforms, for highlights from last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, the newest CONTROL CENTER, and more! This is just the beginning of a loaded week for AEW, capping off with BATTLE OF THE BELTS IX and COLLISION in Norfolk! 

THE CHAMPION ARRIVES!

The AEW World Champion is set to be in Jacksonville this Wednesday night, live for the very first time with that title over his shoulder, and he is willing to fight everyone who wants a piece of his AEW World Championship! He specifically mentioned Hangman and Swerve Strickland during the WORLDS END Media Scrum, but there is undoubtedly a slew of other competitors ready to step up as challengers. One of them let himself be heard loud and clear on COLLISION this past Saturday:

Currently reigning as FTW Champion for the second time, HOOK was less than a year old when Samoa Joe stepped into a wrestling ring for his first professional match, just shy of four years old when when Joe’s historic ROH World Championship began, and had his first professional match just after Joe marked his twenty-second year in the sport. Despite that experience disadvantage, both in life and in wrestling, HOOK is quite clearly fearless if he’s calling out Joe for a fight. Will Joe address that challenge on Wednesday night? What else does the champion have to share with the AEW faithful in Daily’s Place and those watching around the world?

ONE-ON-ONE…

AEW World Tag Champion Ricky Starks vs. Sammy Guevara

It has been five years since the last time Ricky Starks and Sammy Guevara went one-on-one inside the squared circle, just not an AEW squared circle. See theirs is a history that predates the existence of All Elite Wrestling, matches as far back as 2014 on the Texas independent circuit, but it wasn’t until January of 2023 that they ever met under the auspices of AEW. That night it was a tag team bout stemming from Starks’ issues with Chris Jericho, Guevara teaming with Jericho while Starks had Action Andretti in his corner, and it was The J.A.S. team that was victorious.

Ten months later at FULL GEAR 2023, Jericho stood beside a different partner, a former foe named Kenny Omega, and together they laid claim to the AEW World Tag Team Championship opportunity that belonged to The Young Bucks. While the brothers Jackson have not been seen since that November loss, Kenny and Chris prepared to face AEW World Tag Team Champions Big Bill and Ricky Starks at WORLDS END, at least that was the plan. Omega not only had to pull out of that match due to diverticulitis, but he had to step away from professional wrestling period in order to get the necessary treatment. That left Jericho with a championship match still owed him, but with no partner to claim it. That all changed the night Chris Jericho came to the aid of Sammy Guevara when “The Spanish God” was assaulted by The Don Callis Family; the former allies mended their battered fences, and are now a unified front barreling towards BATTLE OF THE BELTS IX and their Tag Team Championship opportunity.

But first, a stop on the road, to the place where Ricky Starks first appeared in AEW to answer the TNT Open Challenge of Cody Rhodes, and where Guevara went through the hell of two Stadium Stampedes, as well as the first Blood & Guts Cage. Guevara hasn’t competed inside Daily’s Place since December 2021, while for Starks it’s been since April of that same year, but it is still the place that shaped each of them as competitors and their AEW careers. This Wednesday night, when Starks and Guevara face off for the first time in AEW, it will also shape their impending AEW World Tag Team Championship fight 

A CHALLENGE…

Claudio Castagnoli vs. “Hangman” Adam Page

Claudio Castagnoli and “Hangman” Adam Page are no strangers to one another; over the course of this past year they were on opposite sides of a few of the most violent matches in AEW’s history. Between Anarchy in the Arena at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2023, and Blood & Guts III in July, not to mention FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 and other DYNAMITE fights, they’ve gone to war plenty of times in the last twelve months. 

But one thing Claudio and Hangman have never done is go one-on-one, but that changes on Wednesday night when Hangman returns to Daily’s Place, a site of both triumph and tragedy for his career, to take on “The Swiss Superman” for their very first singles bout! Hangman is on a warpath, looking to fight anyone and everyone, though much of his rage is focused on Swerve Strickland, and Claudio Castagnoli is more than happy to give Page that fight!

This is going to be a hard-hitting clash, of that there is no doubt, but will it be won by the anger of The Hangman or the focus of The Blackpool Combat Club? 

TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH…

Darby Allin & Sting vs. The Don Callis Family (Konosuke Takeshita & Powerhouse Hobbs)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/gXCPY5kldYM?si=_3y4IJqNgYxTCk95

Sting is on the highway to REVOLUTION 2024 and his final professional wrestling match, but with so much road between now and then, there’s plenty of stops along the way for fans to experience “The Icon” one last time, and for his foes to try and take one last stab at The Stinger! Over the last few weeks one of those foes, or rather a group of them, has set their sights on Sting and Darby Allin. It all began when the painted pair helped Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara defeat The Don Callis Family and the AEW World Tag Champions at WORLDS END, and continued last week on DYNAMITE when Konosuke Takeshita defeated Darby Allin in singles competition

Now coming off of a victory over The Workhorsemen on COLLISION, Sting and Darby Allin are ready to head back to where it all began again for “The Icon”, where WINTER IS COMING 2020 brought him to AEW for the first time, and started this magnificent 26-0 winning streak Sting has been on since REVOLUTION 2020. Being a man who loves to ruin everything around him, Don Callis has taken it upon himself (or rather put it upon his collection of combatants) to add that first loss to Sting’s record before AEW gets to REVOLUTION 2024. Can they pull it off at HOMECOMING 2024, or will The Don Callis Family be another victim of The Stinger/Darby Allin team?

EIGHT-MAN TAG…

AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy, Adam Copeland, Dustin Rhodes, & LFI’s Preston Vance

vs.

ROH World Six-Man Champions The Mogul Embassy (Brian Cage, Bishop Kaun, & Toa Liona) and Lance Archer

Daily’s Place will always be a special venue at the heart of All Elite Wrestling; not only is it home base for the company, but for sixteen months it was our only home. It was the place where everyone involved in AEW bonded with one another, where AEW grew into a family, a building where every crevice of the facility was explored, where a lounge became known as The Dark Order Room, and became the location for so many memorable moments featuring Evil Uno, Stu, Alex and John, Anna, Alan, Ten, Cabana, Hangman, and others. But one of the biggest parts of what made that room special, what gave Jacksonville such life, was the presence of the late Mr. Brodie Lee. Just over three years since his passing, the shadow of Brodie still looms large over AEW and those who knew him, those who loved him, and returning home to Jacksonville, stepping foot back into Daily’s Place, it serves as another reminder of the great man we all lost way too soon. 

That is why this Wednesday night The Exalted One’s hand-picked pupil, Preston Vance, will forego uniting with his La Faccion Ingobernable brethren, and instead stand side-by-side three of the AEW fan’s favorite competitors! Just as he did on December 30, 2020 as part of the Tribute Show, Vance will team up with Orange Cassidy, only now their group will be rounded out by one of the men who went to war with Brodie over that TNT Championship, Dustin Rhodes, and one of the newest entrants into the AEW family: Adam Copeland.

Standing across the ring will be four of the most fearsome competitors on the AEW roster, ROH World Six-Man Champions The Mogul Embassy of Kaun, Toa, and Brian Cage, as well as “The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer! Preston Vance’s quartet certainly has their work cut out for them in this fight, but with the memory of Mr. Brodie Lee fueling them, they aren’t going to back down from the fight no matter the odds!

EIGHT-WOMAN TAG…

Anna Jay, Kris Statlander, Thunder Rosa, & Willow Nightingale

vs.

TBS Champion Julia Hart, Ruby Soho, Saraya, & Skye Blue

And speaking of those inspired by the memory of “The Exalted One”, Anna Jay was brought into The Dark Order by Mr. Brodie Lee as well, given the number “99” as a nod to the legendary Wayne Gretzky, and under his tutelage, she learned quite a bit in her earliest years as a professional wrestler. Now Anna Jay returns to the site where her AEW career truly began, having transformed from who “The Star of the Show” was in 2020, into a woman who truly embodies that nickname in 2024. Wednesday night she will team up with three other fan favorites in Willow Nightingale, Kris Statlander, and the newly-returned Thunder Rosa to do battle with the rather intriguing quartet of TBS Champion Julia Hart, Skye Blue, and The Outcasts of Ruby Soho and Saraya. Hart and Skye have made quite the fearsome pair over the last few weeks since Skye Blue fully embraced the darkness the TBS Champion spat into her soul, but The Outcasts duo have not exactly been on the same page as of late. It felt at one point like Saraya was trying to pull Anna Jay into their orbit, and now it’s Harley Cameron standing at their side, though she’s acting like quite an unhinged individual.

On the other side of the ring, Stokely Hathaway has been trying, quite unsuccessfully, to drive a wedge between Willow and Statlander, while this is just Thunder Rosa’s second match since returning to action after 16 months rehabilitating injuries. It should be noted that the first match back for the former AEW Women’s World Champion was a tag team victory over Julia Hart and Skye Blue with Abadon at her side! So in addition to Anna Jay wanting to pay homage to her mentor and friend Brodie Lee, this one has a load of other threads wrapped around the eight women involved in this bout!

The era of AEW World Champion Samoa Joe began at WORLDS END, and for the first time-ever he will be in Jacksonville this Wednesday night for DYNAMITE: HOMECOMING 2024! In addition, AEW World Tag Champ Ricky Starks takes on Sammy Guevara ahead of their BOTB XI championship clash on Saturday, Castagnoli versus Hangman, two huge eight-person tags, and so much more on tap! It all begins again at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, so be sure to swing by the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, for highlights from last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, the newest CONTROL CENTER, and more!

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https://www.youtube.com/embed/v9x8utAq7iU

Coming out of ,,WORLDS END and kicking off 2024, All Elite Wrestling began a new chapter with Samoa Joe taking the helm as AEW World Champion and the revelation that Adam Cole had been The Devil in MJF’s life the whole time. Those two elements changed the landscape of AEW moving into the new year, and then there was the arrival of Deonna Purrazzo on the heels of Mariah May’s in-ring debut, but at least some things remain the same, like Orange Cassidy still AEW International Champion after his fight with Dante Martin Wednesday night, and Wheeler Yuta still ROH Pure Champion after Friday’s fight with Komander.

The new era for AEW continues this Saturday with 2024’s first COLLISION, but it comes with a mix of something old and something new! The rivalry between The House of Black and FTR has been simmering for months, and will explode in tag team warfare this Saturday night while Eddie Kingston defends his Continental Crown for the very first time against Trent Beretta! It comes with AEW’s return to the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, NC this Saturday night for COLLISION, live on TNT, begin at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT! Get prepared for the night’s festivities by visiting the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s other social media platforms, for highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as moments from WORLDS END 2023, plus the latest CONTROL CENTER, and so much more!

TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH…

FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) vs. The House of Black (Buddy Matthews & Malakai Black)

On the October 7th edition of COLLISION, Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood were decimated by Big Bill and Ricky Starks resulting in the loss of the AEW World Tag Team Championship. It was a heartbreaking, physical dissection of the defending champs, one that left FTR still feeling the bruises on October 21st when they returned to in-ring competition. Just a minute into that tag team match the lights in the arena went out, and when they returned Malakai Black stood opposite Cash and Dax. Before either could react, the lights were doused once again, and this time when they flared back to life, it wasn’t just Malakai standing there, he’d been joined by Buddy Matthews and Brody King, leading to a 3-on-2 assault on FTR.

It seemed a similar scenario would play out a week later when, after Starks defeated Dax in singles competition, the lights went out once more and The House of Black, who’d been watching the bout from a distance, appeared inside the ring. It was only the arrival of LFI that balanced the scales, leading  to the most unlikely of temporary alliances between FTR and LFI, but one that was destined to be short-lived as FULL GEAR 2023 put FTR, LFI of RUSH and Dralistico, as well as Brody King and Malakai Black, in a Ladder Match against Big Bill and Ricky Starks with the AEW World Tag Titles hanging in the balance.

Starks and Bill would retain, the end coming when Starks smashed one of the hanging belts into the skull of Cash Wheeler, but that did nothing to quell the fires burning between FTR and The House. Malakai and company were on the spot to make verbal allusions after FTR beat The Righteous, and when FTR came to fight The House after they defeated Matt Sydal and Christopher Daniels, Cash and Dax were instead subjected to, first, an offer to join The House, and then a brutal assault they left both unconscious in the ring.

Then it got personal; three weeks ago, the December 16th edition of COLLISION, Buddy Matthews and Malakai Black put Dax’s wife and child into the conversation, burning a picture of the three of them, and telling FTR that The House was their family now. The challenge for this tag team fight was finally made when Cash and Dax came to the aid of Daniel Garcia and Matt Menard following Garcia’s victory over Brody King. 

So it all comes down to this Saturday night as former 2-Time AEW World Tag Champions FTR meet The House of Black as honored by Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews; the tension, the animosity, the vitriol between these two units has reached a fever pitch, and it will explode live on COLLISION come Saturday night! With as personal as their issue has gotten, the AEW official tasked with maintaining order is going to have their hands full… 

AEW CONTINENTAL CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Eddie Kingston(c) vs. Trent Beretta

https://www.youtube.com/embed/MjBqv_m4wKQ

This is a match full of firsts; not only is it the first defense of the Continental Crown since its creation at WORLDS END last Saturday night, it is also the first time Eddie Kingston and Trent Beretta will step into the ring for a fight! They stood on the same side of the ring at ALL IN: LONDON in Stadium Stampede, and both were part of the ALL OUT 2020 Casino Battle Royale, but this will be the first time they’ve ever been foes in a traditional match.

But this isn’t just a match is it? This is Eddie Kingston fighting for his life’s work, something he already put at risk when he laid the ROH World Championship and NJPW STRONG Openweight Title on the line to create, along with the AEW Continental Title, this Continental Crown. Every fight Kingston had during the Continental Classic Tournament put his status as a double champion at risk, but “The Mad King” persevered through adversity and loss to win the Blue League, capping it off with a victory over Jon Moxley in the Finals at WORLDS END.

There is no way Kingston will let this crown slip off his head easily, Trent Beretta is going to have to utterly incapacitate Eddie in order to win this match, but there’s just something about Beretta as of late that makes it seem like he’d be willing to go to such lengths. Fans have seen the man get down and dirty in Parking Lot Brawls before, so they know Trent Beretta is capable of the violence it may take to put Eddie Kingston down.

The thing with Eddie though is that he knew the second he beat Jon Moxley, he’d become a target for any individual striving for championship success. It’s not a matter of shattering a dream, Kingston isn’t a dreamer, he’s a fighter and one who knows that as long as he laces up the boots, the fight will never end. Every day someone will be gunning for him, after all he’s a man hoarding three different championships from three different companies, making him a target for people from every single one. Trent Beretta just happens to be the first, and even if Kingston makes it past him, there will be another and another and another waiting to take their shot at the Continental Crown upon The Mad King’s head!

STING’S FINAL CHARLOTTE APPEARANCE!

Darby Allin & Sting vs. The Workhorsemen (Anthony Henry & JD Drake)

Ahead of their fight with The Don Callis Family on ,,DYNAMITE: HOMECOMING 2024 in Jacksonville, Darby Allin and “The Icon” Sting will be in tag team action this Saturday night! It’s a huge opportunity for The Workhorsemen of Anthony Henry and JD Drake, facing Darby and Sting, given the amount of respect and admiration the pair have for “The Icon”, but it’s also so much more than that. See this night at Bojangles Coliseum will be Sting’s last fight in Charlotte, a wrestling city synonymous with his career, where he’s fought Eddie Gilbert, battled inside War Games, as well as fought the likes of Sid Vicious, Cactus Jack, and yes, Ric Flair, for championship gold!

In fact, the last match Sting had in Charlotte took place at the Bojangles almost five years ago to the day, and featured him defending a World Championship! So now he returns to Charlotte, with both Darby Allin and Ric Flair at this side, to bid farewell to the fans of the Queen City, and give The Workhorsemen the kind of wrestling lesson that can only be given by someone with his experience! Join AEW this Saturday night in Charlotte as we continue on the Road to ,,REVOLUTION 2024 and Sting’s final professional wrestling match.

ADAM COPELAND RESPONDS…

At WORLDS END 2023 Adam Copeland managed to experience ultimate triumph and catastrophic tragedy within minutes of one another. In a vicious No DQ Match with Christian Cage, Copeland defeated “The Patriarch” to become the new TNT Champion but taking advantage of the situation, Killswitch brutally assaulted Copeland in hopes of using the TNT Championship match contract he’d earned during ZERO HOUR. Unfortunately for the former Luchasaurus, he was convinced by Christian to hand over the contract, and the ex-champion took back the TNT Championship he’d lost only moments earlier.

Well the world heard what Christian Cage had to say about the situation this past Wednesday on DYNAMITE, basically denying he ever lost the title and this is one continuous run, so this Saturday night we will hear from the other half of that equation! Adam Copeland has to have a lot on his mind about this situation, and we will get a piece of it on COLLISION!

All Elite Wrestling is back in Charlotte, NC at the ,,Bojangles Coliseum this Saturday night with the first COLLISION of 2024! In one of the most anticipated tag matches in recent memory, FTR will finally fight The House of Black as honored by Buddy Matthews and Malakai Black, and Eddie Kingston will defend his Continental Crown for the very first time against Trent Beretta after that Best Friend won DYNAMITE’s Four Way bout! Those two stellar contests, and more, are set to come your way when COLLISION kicks off at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT. All you need to do is get prepared by dropping in on the official AEW YouTube channel to watch highlights from this week’s editions of DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as events from WORLDS END 2023, and the latest CONTROL CENTER!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/88BC1eIW23k

https://www.youtube.com/embed/iLhfgLwLuDs?si=mz5nydv2Mg7xBoii

WORLDS END proved to be exactly that for Maxwell Jacob Friedman as, in front of his hometown audience, he saw the AEW World Championship slip away to Samoa Joe and witnessed his best friend Adam Cole reveal himself as The Devil. Flanked by The Kingdom of Matt Taven and Mike Bennett, Roderick Strong, and Wardlow, Cole watched as his associates demolished the dethroned champion. Why Cole and these men have traveled this path remains to be learned, though it’s been clear for months Wardlow’s wanted Max’s head, and perhaps we will find out more soon.

In addition, the bums around the world rejoiced as Eddie Kingston defeated Jon Moxley in the finals of the Continental Classic to not only retain his ROH World & NJPW STRONG Openweight Titles, but to also become the first Continental Champion, and the holder of the Continental Crown! It was one of the most emotional moments in AEW’s history, and likely the biggest in the career of Eddie Kingston. WORLDS END was also a night that saw the wildest TNT Championship situation imaginable, including the shortest title reign in history, and Killswitch make a surprising decision in the heat of the moment. Toni Storm retained her AEW Women’s World Championship, as did Julia Hart with the TBS Title, and so much more went down on AEW’s final PPV presentation of 2023!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kd_y2aHDV8U?si=6pkvtfqY9T7IXOX9&start=196

With a new year upon us, and a new AEW World Champion at the helm, All Elite Wrestling embarks down a new path but starting on familiar territory. The Prudential Center in Newark, NJ will host the first DYNAMITE of 2024 and with it comes an AEW International Championship Match where Orange Cassidy will defend against Top Flight’s Dante Martin! In addition, after two months of anticipation, Mariah May will finally make her in-ring debut this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE! 

The first AEW event of 2024 begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, so be sure to drop in on the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, for highlights from WORLDS END, as well last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, the newest CONTROL CENTER, and more!

THE CHAMP IS HERE!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Eq-EqNtsEBg?si=BEIPdt-m66293ecS

At WORLDS END this past Saturday, the longest reigning ROH World Champion and ROH World Television Champion of all-time added another accolade to his resume: AEW World Champion. Samoa Joe, after eighteen minutes of a tremendous fight, choked Maxwell Jacob Friedman unconscious to end the longest and most successful AEW World Championship reign experienced since Chris Jericho first won the crown at ALL OUT 2019. 

While the way the remainder of the evening played out for MJF will haunt him for some time, knowing that he is no longer the champion will likely linger the longest, especially as he watches DYNAMITE this Wednesday night, healing up from the various injuries sustained over his championship run, and sees Samoa Joe walk to the ring with the AEW World Championship over his shoulder. The added knowledge that the Triple B is in a dumpster somewhere on Long Island may just make it even more painful…

But that’s MJF’s burden to handle; the question at hand is where does Samoa Joe go from here? He made it abundantly clear in the Media Scrum that anyone can try to step to the champ, that he’d fight Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland and anyone else who wants a piece of the action. So who will be brave enough to be the first? We already witnessed Hangman and Joe have a confrontation in recent weeks, will it be him? Will it be Swerve who said his road to the title started December 31st? We will find out soon enough if anyone is willing to put it all on the line for a shot at greatness…

THE DEVIL REVEALED…

Why Adam? Why? That’s the question on everyone’s mind after seeing Adam Cole sitting in that chair Saturday night, surrounded by Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, Wardlow, and Roderick Strong, with The Devil’s Mask tossed on the broken body of former AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman. After spending months tolerating Max’s behavior, helping him grow into a legitimately better version of himself, and seemingly driving a wedge into his relationship with Roderick Strong, why did Adam Cole put in all that effort to drive a knife between the shoulder blades of MJF? Has this been the plan since the Blind Eliminator Tournament over the summer? Since after ALL IN: LONDON? Or maybe after Cole got hurt at GRAND SLAM 2023 trying to help MJF in his first match with Samoa Joe? 

It’s all speculation at the moment, but tonight on DYNAMITE, we expect to get some answers from Adam Cole about why he donned The Devil mask and betrayed Maxwell Jacob Friedman!

AEW INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Orange Cassidy(c) vs. Top Flight’s Dante Martin

https://www.youtube.com/embed/CdGgD0Sl6cI?si=L4B9Vy3vdvQ8qfOW&start=110

The last time Dante Martin challenged for a singles championship was on the June 3, 2022 edition of RAMPAGE when he challenged Scorpio Sky for the TNT Championship. Obviously that was not his night to claim a singles title, but it was one of many nights that proved with getting experience under his belt, Dante was destined for success with his brother, as well as on his own. Unfortunately a freak injury at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 derailed Dante’s career for months on end, but in truth he’s fortunate the injury didn’t flat out end his wrestling journey.

But since returning from that injury with a November 29th Trios victory on DYNAMITE, Dante has looked superb both in AEW and ROH action. He’s racked up victories in five of the six matches he’s been involved in, the only loss coming to Daddy Ass and The Acclaimed in an AEW World Trios Championship bout, and seemingly hasn’t missed a step. Dante’s confidence is high, something that can often be lacking when returning from injury, and that helped boost his trio to a victory last Friday night on RAMPAGE over Roppongi Vice and AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy.

It may not have been a pinfall on Orange Cassidy, but it was still Dante scoring the pinfall win over his OC’s team, and as such the fighting International Champion is willing to give this half of Top Flight an opportunity to end the run! Can Dante begin the new year by marking the first title change of 2024? Or will “Freshly Squeezed” ground the man’s dream and move forward into the year with the title still in his backpack? 

THE DEBUT…

Mariah May vs. Queen Aminata

November 8th; that is the day All Elite Wrestling officially announced the signing of Mariah May. May, a standout from the Japanese promotion Stardom reigned as a Goddesses of Stardom Champion alongside Mina Shirakawa during her tenure with the company, with her primary motivation for touring there being to follow in the footsteps of Toni Storm. See “The Timeless One” called Stardom home from 2016 until 2019, and even reigned as the World of Stardom Champion for 258 days, so being thus inspired by the path of Toni Storm, it was an experience Mariah May had to take.

After wrapping up in Stardom on September 30th, May showed up in AEW with aspirations of meeting Toni Storm, becoming friends with Toni Storm, and just being in the proximity of the current AEW Women’s World Champion. Mariah’s even asked Toni to be at ringside for this debut match, but it seemed like “Timeless” couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge the request being made by a woman whose name she couldn’t be bothered to remember.

Still, even if Toni Storm can’t remember her name, it’s clear from the reaction of the AEW faithful in the arenas, as well as those online, that they know who Mariah May is and have been patiently waiting for her in-ring debut. Well that day is finally upon us, so it’s all on Mariah to make it a memorable one and leave an impression on the AEW Women’s World Champion, otherwise it will be Queen Aminata who makes her mark by spoiling the AEW premiere of “The Glamour”!

ONE-ON-ONE…

Swerve Strickland vs. Daniel Garcia

The last several months in the careers of these two men could not be more different; since WRESTLEDREAM, Swerve Strickland has been on an absolute tear in All Elite Wrestling, winning nine of his last twelve bouts, including that unforgettable Texas Death Match with Hangman Page at FULL GEAR 2023, and had the best pinfall ratio in the Continental Classic. After scoring three straight victories in the Gold League, Swerve experienced his first pinfall loss at the hands of Jon Moxley. Still, with a victory in his final points match-up, Strickland managed to work his way into a Three Way League Final with Mox and Jay White, only to see Moxley pin White to advance to the overall Finals. But with Moxley losing to Eddie Kingston in the tournament finals, that means Swerve was the only man in the entire Continental Classic to only be pinned one time, and he capped off his year with a win over Dustin Rhodes in lieu of Keith Lee being unable to compete.

As for Daniel Garcia, he’s experienced just three victories in his last twelve matches with two of those coming over the course of the last week. It’s been a rough road for the man as of late, a frustrating one that’s often put him at odds with friend Matt Menard, but when he pinned Brody King in their final Blue League match, it felt like perhaps it had all been worth it. That feeling was further amplified at WORLDS END where, as part of the All-Star Eight-Man Tag, Garcia actually scored the winning pinfall for his team, a unit consisting of Blackpool Combat Club members Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli, as well as Mark Briscoe. 

It was a triumphant way to end the year for both men, but DYNAMITE marks the beginning of a new one for All Elite Wrestling, and that means nose right back to the grindstone. Swerve stated in the WORLDS END Media Scrum that his mission of becoming World Champion began the day after the pay-per-view, and that means a fight with Daniel Garcia on his plate for Wednesday night! For both men this is the kind of fight that can shape the rest of the year, and neither wants to let 2024 start on a bad foot. This will be two men fighting with every thing they’ve got in their body and soul; may the best one win…

CHRISTIAN CAGE’S 2024 STATE OF THE UNION…

What on Earth just happened? That had to be the thought spiraling through the mind of Adam Copeland after seeing the TNT Championship ripped away just minutes after he pinned Christian Cage to claim it for himself. From the moment Paul Turner’s hand counted three to end Cage’s first TNT Championship run to the second it hit three to begin his second, just three minutes and thirty-two seconds had passed, officially making Copeland the shortest reigning champion in AEW history. It should have been a moment of triumph for Adam, putting to rest the toxic relationship with Christian Cage, but ever the opportunist, “The Patriarch” managed to take Killswitch’s moment and make it his own. Whatever Cage whispered to the former Luchasaurus was enough to make the monster surrender the TNT Championship match he’d earned earlier in the night into Christian’s hands after Killswitch had done all the dirty work to incapacitate Copeland.

So now Christian Cage walks into DYNAMITE as a 2-Time TNT Champion, and it looks like we will all have to suffer through him delivering a State of the Union-style address to the AEW faithful. It will undoubtedly be filled with heaping of self-praise, with little credit given to Killswitch for doing the actual work, and likely little acknowledgment of the fact Adam Copeland beat him in the middle of the ring at WORLDS END. The question Christian Cage should be asking himself as he prepares to deliver this speech is whether or not Adam Copeland will be watching, listening, waiting, for his opportunity to deliver much-deserved retribution?

A new era is upon us with 2023, the era of AEW World Champion Samoa Joe, and it begins when All Elite Wrestling returns to the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ for the first DYNAMITE of 2024! On tap is an AEW International Championship Match pitting Orange Cassidy against challenger Dante Martin, as well as the greatly anticipated in-ring debut of Mariah May, and so much more! 

It all begins again at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, so be sure to drop in on the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, for highlights from WORLDS END, as well last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, the newest CONTROL CENTER, and more!

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The end of 2023 is upon us and this Saturday night marks the final event of the year for All Elite Wrestling! Appropriately entitled WORLDS END, this pay-per-view offering features multiple championship matches, as well as the finals of the historic Continental Classic, which itself is also a title fight as the winner will be crowned the first Continental Champion, as well as ROH World Champion and NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion, creating an all-new North American Triple Crown!

Preceded by ZERO HOUR on the official AEW YouTube channel, WORLDS END begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT and hails from the historic Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island! Be sure to watch all the COUNTDOWN content to get up to speed for the latest happenings leading to AEW’s year-end extravaganza, and do not miss out as the stage is set for 2024!

AEW World Championship Match…

MJF(c) vs. Samoa Joe

https://www.youtube.com/embed/y3mVgI4K3Xg?si=Ct4giTEtXpTRiiij&start=45

Betrayal; is there any other way to encapsulate the last month of MJF’s life since he beat Jay White at FULL GEAR 2023? Samoa Joe stepped up, after vacating the ROH World Television Championship and declaring the AEW World Championship as his sole focus, and told Maxwell Jacob Friedman that no matter what he would chauffeur the AEW World Champion to WORLDS END intact. Joe took it upon himself to be MJF’s bodyguard, to protect the hot-headed AEW World Champion from himself, and insure Max made it to December 30th at peak physical condition so there would be no excuses if he lost the AEW World Championship to Joe live on pay-per-view.

But this past Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, after Samoa Joe seemed to be taken out by The Devil and his lackeys ahead of a scheduled ROH World Tag Team Championship defense against said masked men, the entire situation went a drastic overhaul. MJF, as he’d done with The Righteous at WRESTLEDREAM 2023, elected to go solo in a tag title defense, only to be laid out by the superior numbers of The Devil’s henchmen, and watch the championship he’d earned with Adam Cole slip away just like that.

For MJF it was more than just losing a title, it was also breaking a promise to his best friend Adam Cole, the only man who’d given Max an opportunity to prove himself a better man than the scumbag he’d shown the world the last four years. After Adam Cole got hurt at GRAND SLAM 2023 while trying to come to MJF’s aid in his last fight with Samoa Joe, Friedman promised Cole he’d keep the ROH Tag Titles around his waist until Cole could return, but the machinations of this Devil made it a difficult situation, and the willingness of Samoa Joe to do business with the masked man turned it into an impossibility. As much heart as MJF as where it comes to Adam Cole, even he can’t overcome the multitudes willing to serve The Devil, much less Samoa Joe’s apparent willingness to do anything for an edge heading into WORLDS END this Saturday.

So with that broken promise to Adam Cole hanging over his head, with the various injuries MJF has sustained during his record-setting AEW World Championship reign, what chance does he have fighting the monster that is Samoa Joe? 

After all, Joe is the man who held both the ROH World Championship and the ROH World TV Championship longer than any man who came before him. He is the man who, unarguably, changed the landscape of professional wrestling for all those who came after him, and the man who broke the mold of what being Samoan meant as a professional wrestler. Samoa Joe traversed the independent landscape, battled across Japan, took Kenta Kobashi to his limit in game changing Ring of Honor fight, and tested a generational competitor like Brock Lesnar like no man before or since. Once upon a time Samoa Joe would look into a camera and unblinkingly tell the world “I am Pro Wrestling” in the same tone with which he now tells the world he is “The King of Television” and there is no doubt that he believes it with every fiber of his being. Ask anyone who has stood in that ring waiting for Samoa Joe’s arrival and they will tell you there are few individuals of this generation, maybe Jay Briscoe, who struck fear into the hearts of their foes before they ever stepped between the ropes. As soon as Joe steps before the people, the man standing in the ring knows he is in for the fight of his life, and that is what Maxwell Jacob Friedman has awaiting him on Long Island this Saturday night.

It’s not the first big-time fight of MJF’s AEW career, this is a man who has beaten Cody Rhodes, Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson, and even Samoa Joe over the last four years, just to name a few, as well as the other Four Pillars of Jack Perry, Darby Allin, and Sammy Guevara. He’s been big-time for almost as long as he’s been in All Elite Wrestling, and although he has beaten Samoa Joe in the recent past, he’s never come at “The Samoan Smashing Machine” under these circumstances. Max is hurt, he’s fighting from behind, he’s got the specter of The Devil over his shoulder, but he’s fighting on his home turf and with everything to lose. His body may want to give up the ghost, but his spirit, that indomitable Fighting Spirit, isn’t ready to call it quits on this historic AEW World Championship reign just yet…

Continental Classic Championship Finals…

Gold League Winner Jon Moxley vs. Blue League Winner Eddie Kingston

https://www.youtube.com/embed/lTXNt4T0XQA?si=QnEoSdoKxmPTtByx&start=408

The AEW website took a deep dive into the history between Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston on Thursday night with “You Always Hurt The One You Love”, reflecting on the violence that has gone down between these two friends, these brothers-by-choice, ever since Kingston first came to AEW.

A dissection of their relationship can be read there, this is a look at the immediate history and what brought these two men to WORLDS END and the Continental Classic Finals! For Jon Moxley the road to Gold League success began on the November 22nd edition of DYNAMITE, one night before American Thanksgiving, with a match against Mark Briscoe. It was a first-time collision between the two men, and was every bit as hard-hitting as one would anticipate given their history as fighters. The end came with Mark Briscoe surviving one Death Rider, but eventually succumbing to a second, only after Moxley had to stomp Mark’s skull into the canvas: three points for the 3-Time AEW World  Champion.

Moxley’s second foray into the Gold League came against Jay Lethal, and that too went in his favor, but again only after stringing together a succession of moves that, under some circumstances would’ve put a lesser man away. Lethal survived a Paradigm Shift, a King Kong Lariat, and a piledriver, kicking out of the last maneuver at a 2.5 count, only to end up tapping out to Moxley’s Rear Naked Choke: two matches down, six points to his name, and three more to go.

For his halfway point Moxley welcomed a fight with RUSH, a man capable of matching Jon’s capacity for violence, but who ultimately fell to The Blackpool Combat Club member. In this case the leader of La Faccion Ingobernable survived a massive King Kong Lariat and Death Rider, kicking out just before the three, but could not escape the same choke that tapped out Jay Lethal a week prior. Unlike Lethal, RUSH never tapped out or said he quit, it was a matter of referee stoppage to protect the safety of the unconscious RUSH. It was a decision that did not sit well with RUSH, but it was final, and sent Moxley into his fourth bout with nine points to his name.

Enter Swerve Strickland, another man with nine points to his name, and one of the other favorite’s to win the entire Continental Classic. The winner of this bout would be etched into the Gold League Finals with twelve points, and though it was hard-fought by the head of The Mogul Embassy, it was Mox who squeaked out with a victory, but not with a lariat or Death Rider or choke, but rather via roll-up with a little pulling of Swerve’s tights. By hook or crook, Jon Moxley became the only man with 12 points to his name, and guaranteed himself a spot in the League Finals.

Then came the last night of the points competition, Moxley versus “Switchblade” Jay White, and perhaps it was the rigors of what had come the previous four weeks, but with this fifth tournament bout, Jon Moxley finally tasted defeat after being dropped with a Blade Runner. That victory by Jay, combined with Swerve’s over RUSH, meant the Gold League Finals would be contested in a Three Way match, and as we all saw this past Wednesday on DYNAMITE, it ended with Moxley’s hand raised after evening the score with Jay White as Swerve watched on from the outside. 

For Eddie Kingston, the tournament first began with him upping the ante from just the Continental Championship awaiting the winner to it being a Triple Crown situation involving both Eddie’s ROH World Championship and his NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship. It was a huge risk no doubt, and one that very nearly backfired in Kingston’s face as he dropped his first match with Brody King as well as his second with Bryan Danielson, sending “The Mad King” to the halfway mark with zero points to his name. He had to rebound with his third fight, a bout with long-time rival Claudio Castagnoli, and that’s exactly what happened after a series of counters ended with Kingston scoring the pinfall victory. 

There was a definite change in Kingston through this tournament, rather than a man beaten down by his losses, he was a man who fought through them, through the self-loathing that they could bring, and instead lived off the phrase “Humble in victory, humble in defeat”. It seemed his role as a dual champion had made an honest change to Kingston’s usual mentality, and it paid off as he racked up a victory over Daniel Garcia in his fourth Continental Classic match, and another in his fifth against Andrade El Idolo. Neither came easy, both took a toll on the champion, but he persevered through both and found himself, through hard work and determination, in the finals of the Blue League opposite “The American Dragon”. 

Despite the fact that he’d never beaten Bryan Danielson in their prior encounters, be it in AEW or elsewhere, Eddie Kingston latched onto the Fighting Spirit that had motivated him from the first time he saw an AJPW tape, powered through Danielson’s relentless punishment, and dropped the man many consider the greatest of this generation with that Kawada-style Folding Powerbomb that beat Claudio at GRAND SLAM 2023. 

With that victory it became locked in stone that Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston would fight at WORLDS END in the finals of the Continental Classic with ownership of the ROH World Championship, the NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship, and the brand-new Continental Championship all at stake. It’s a modern-day North American Triple Crown, one that will belong to either Jon Moxley or Eddie Kingston in this battle of brothers by choice rather than blood, but can their relationship survive yet another blow after everything it has endured since Kingston first challenged Moxley for the AEW World Championship more than three years ago?

AEW Women’s World Championship Match…

“Timeless” Toni Storm(c) vs. Riho

https://www.youtube.com/embed/O67wxotbvCQ?si=KMqs2pF3soazKzzj&start=45

Over the course of the last several months the AEW faithful have watched Toni Storm spiral out; it began when Hikaru Shida ended her second championship reign back in August, and kicked into full gear (no pun intended) as Storm neared her rematch with Shida at FULL GEAR 2023 on November 18th. Now RJ City and Renee Paquette have had to endure the “Timeless” experience more than any others, while Luther has thrown himself fully into the experience as her…butler, but the entire Women’s Division has had to take a step back and question what has happened to Storm.

She seems trapped in a delusion of Old Hollywood stardom, of key parties, of celluloid dreams, and only vaguely aware of anything going on outside of her own head. Toni’s barely cognizant of Mariah May’s fawning presence, despite the former STARDOM champion actively helping her fight Riho, and only remotely aware of an entire division of competitors gunning for the title around her waist. That division includes women that Toni, as part of The Outcasts, made a point to verbally denigrate and physically assault, women like original AEW Woman’s World Champion Riho!

That “Timeless” moniker matters not to Riho, no matter what she’s called Toni Storm is still part of the Outcast trio that took Riho out of AEW action many months ago, and she returned with a vengeance to right those wrongs. It started with a victory over Ruby Soho, continued with a #1 Contender’s victory over Saraya, leaving just Toni Storm and her AEW Women’s World Championship to be conquered this Saturday night at WORLDS END!

Can Riho etch her name into the AEW history book as a 2-Time Women’s World Champion, or will “Timeless” Toni Storm continue to live out her fantastical delusions with the title belt securely strapped around her waist?

TNT Championship No Disqualification Match…

Christian Cage(c) vs. Adam Copeland

https://www.youtube.com/embed/-4WAjPlrWS0?si=1V7FZJZ55llJnbnD&start=294

What can possibly be said about this championship match that adequately encompasses what it means to the two men involved in the battle. Christian Cage and Adam Copeland have been part of each other’s lives for more nearly four decades, they have fought side-by-side and been champions many times over, they’ve even battled one another on multiple occasions, and each man has seen the other have to give up their professional wrestling dreams when their body decided enough was enough. 

Each man has also seen the other fight back against the body that betrayed their dream, has watched the pain and sacrifice the other has experienced to get back inside the squared circle, and celebrated the moment each returned to the ring to continue living the dream they’d each had for as long as they could remember. And that’s the thing about dreams like the professional wrestling one; no matter the championship successes, the time spent on television and pay-per-view, or the opportunity to step into the ring with the legends one admired as they came up themselves, it’s a dream that is never fully realized. There is always something more to dream about, though for Adam Copeland the culmination of that dream was ending his career standing alongside Christian Cage, the best friend Jay Reso he’d grown up with before either actually laced up a pair of boots, the man with whom he’d changed the landscape of tag team wrestling.

Christian had other ideas…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/XzQCnL4IzzY?si=g12hkWW_J5vWselF

So after saying he would never fight his brother, Copeland had to come to a hard realization that Cage did not feel the same way and, in fact, was willing to break Adam’s neck if that’s what it took to insure their relationship was quits. Christian invoked the names of Copeland’s wife and children to express just how much animosity he had towards the very idea of every reuniting the band, and it took “The Icon” Sting, a man quite familiar with betrayal by those he called his friends, to convince Copeland that the man he considered his best friend was anything but. That resulted in the two colliding in Montreal during a recent edition of DYNAMITE, and showed just how far Christian Cage would stoop in order to see that he remained the top man in the Cage/Copeland dynamic…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q_Z4gJPwYjg?si=YtN4RE_7Nq-v5bre&start=172

Whether it was something Cage expected or not, the choice Shayna Wayne made to align herself with her son’s surrogate father figure changed the landscape of the game, putting even more forces against Adam Copeland, and that one largely because of choices Adam made in the heat of the battle. After all, what mother could watch their son’s head get caved in with a chair and not choose to oppose the individual who inflicted the pain? 

So now we enter WORLDS END and Adam Copeland’s challenge to face “The Patriarch” Christian Cage in one more TNT Championship match, only this time under No Disqualification rules. It was made clear by how Copeland responded to the idea of a sit-down interview with his former best friend just how this fight is likely to go down. There’s no quarter asked, and none likely to be given, between these two men who’ve gone up-and-down the wrestling roads together. 

After this there will likely be no more family dinners, no more “Uncle Jey”, nor the possibility of ending their hall of fame careers standing side-by-side as AEW World Tag Team Champions. This TNT Championship match on Saturday night may indeed be the end of the Copeland/Reso world and regardless of if it’s Adam Copeland or Christian Cage who walks away from the battle as TNT Champion, both will have to ask themselves whether it was worth sacrificing something built over a lifetime…

TBS Championship Match…

Julia Hart(c) vs. Abadon

https://www.youtube.com/embed/7G-QxEwAdTk?si=qjYGnvPRgLAFy9eU&start=45

A darkness has fallen over the TBS Title, the shadow of The House of Black dimming the light once brought to this championship by Kris Statlander’s reign, replaced by something wicked, something intensely scary with the reign of Julia Hart.

Thus perhaps it is apropos that this Saturday night at WORLDS END the Princess of The House defends her championship against “The Living Dead Girl” known as Abadon! With just four loses on their singles record, they are one of the most successful competitors in the Women’s Division, with two of the longest singles win streaks in AEW’s history to their name, seventeen matches between 1/26/21 and 10/22/21 and fifteen from 12/21/21 to 10/27/23. Abadon has drawn blood from foes with their own teeth, struck fear in the hearts of even the strongest competitors, and even in those few losses, come so close to the AEW Women’s World Championship on two occasions. Hikaru Shida has been the bane of Abadon’s existence, responsible for three of those losses, while the other has Dr. Britt Baker’s name attached to it in a Trick of Treat Match two years ago. Other than that, Abadon has been largely untouchable and unfazed by any opponent who’s stood across the ring.

Their desire for the TBS Championship that’s built up over these past few weeks has even led to some very strange bedfellows as Skye Blue, after weeks of successfully fighting against the darkness Julia Hart spat into her soul, finally succumbed to the House and aligned with the TBS Champion against Abadon. In turn, that alignment brought Thunder Rosa away from the commentary table and back into active competition as the former AEW Women’s World Champion chose to stand alongside “The Living Dead Girl”. Their tag team victory over Skye and Julia during last week’s COLLISION certainly gave an edge to Abadon heading towards this PPV battle, even if it was Thunder pinning Skye to bring the win for their team. 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/7G-QxEwAdTk?si=-w2xc8MNSHEEWyC8&start=172

This past Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, Julia Hart played a decisive role in helping Skye Blue defeat Kris Statlander, as well as assisting in the post-victory assault on the former TBS Champion that only ended with the arrival of Willow Nightingale. As the two women fled the scene of their crime, Abadon appeared on the stage, essentially trapping Skye and Julia between the proverbial rock and hard place, forcing them to flee to the side of the stage to escape from any repercussions. 

But Saturday night there will not be any running from the situation, there will not be an opportunity to flee from this TBS Championship fight, no hiding from Abadon when the bell rings at WORLDS END! “The Living Dead Girl” has been a dominating force from the moment they debuted in AEW, only Hikaru Shida has really had their number, but a title has eluded Abadon thus far. Perhaps that will all change on Long Island, perhaps The House of Black will lose its hold on the only championship under its roof, and watch it fall into a different kind of darkness.

This will be a fight unlike any other Julia Hart has experienced during her time in All Elite Wrestling, but if she can survive Abadon, she will have proven herself truly worthy of the mantle she ripped away from Kris Statlander. This is the abyss staring back at The Princess of the Black Throne, will she blink?

EIGHT-MAN TAG…

Chris Jericho, Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara, & Sting vs. AEW World Tag Champions Big Bill & Ricky Starks and The Don Callis Family (ROH World Television Champion Kyle Fletcher & Powerhouse Hobbs)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/lHfYiBHaMHE?si=iiw3Jwh4Tf10rRyp

Just a few weeks ago Chris Jericho was set to fight Big Bill and Ricky Starks for the AEW World Tag Team Championship with Kenny Omega as his partner, with the match scheduled for WORLDS END this Saturday night. Unfortunately Kenny Omega was struck down before the match, a diagnosis of diverticulitis forcing him away from the ring for an indefinite amount of time, and leaving Chris Jericho without his #1 Contender partner. Of course this made Don Callis extraordinarily happy, seeing his two former friends in pain and misery, even though the situation at that moment had nothing to do with him.

Unsurprisingly Callis chose to celebrate himself and, to a degree his “Family”, this past Wednesday night on DYNAMITE. He considered it a Boxing Day celebration, recognition of the holiday celebrated around the world, and chose to give each member of his Family a painting of himself, with them of course, but in each one Callis looked every bit a conquering hero. Still, he seemed quite surprised when one member of his family returned to the fold that night, one who’d been injured fighting for Don, and who’d also celebrated the birth of his baby during that time spent healing up; none other than “The Spanish God” Sammy Guevara!

It wasn’t all that long ago that Guevara chose Don Callis over Chris Jericho, turning his back on a history dating back to the very first DYNAMITE, but it only took a fraction of that amount of time for Don Callis to forget all about Sammy. That’s why Guevara said what he had to say upon his arrival, about how Callis leeches off the men he surrounds himself with, and uses them to keep himself in the spotlight rather than doing anything to bolster their careers. Perhaps the truth hurt because it only took moments for Callis to unleash his hounds upon Sammy Guevara, but “The Spanish God” was as shocked as everyone else to find Chris Jericho the man coming to the rescue, and it was not just because of his issues with Callis.

Guevara actually stood up and embraced Jericho, only for Ricky Starks and Big Bill to jump on the two men for a vicious assault, and then to the shock of the former Le Sex Gods, another save was made, only this time by Darby Allin and Sting! Considering that just six months ago Darby and Sting were beating up Jericho and Guevara in a Tornado Tag on DYNAMITE, it was absolutely a surprise to see them stepping to the assistance of these two. It wasn’t as if there was some pressing matter against Big Bill and Ricky Starks either, the bad blood between Sting, Darby, and Starks had been put to bed at REVOLUTION 2021 in that unforgettable Street Fight. 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/owgfbdGtSu0?si=ZBZd9Sqc8ges_nCS&start=196

Perhaps this is just Darby Allin and Sting doing the right thing, helping out two men who were being assaulted by an uneven numbers game, and offering their services as “The Icon” heads down the road to his final match at REVOLUTION 2023. It’s quite the intriguing scenario as this brings Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs back on the same side of the fence after their relationship soured some time ago, puts Darby and Sammy Guevara on the same side after years of back-and-forth, and gives Le Sex Gods an opportunity to heal their wounds in real time combat. 

This has all the elements to be quite explosive if tempers flare the wrong way, very combustible elements all crammed together in an unpredictable 8-Man tag! 

ONE-ON-ONE…

“Limitless” Keith Lee vs. Swerve Strickland

On July 13, 2022, during DYNAMITE: FYTER FEST N. 1, Swerve In Our Glory won a Three Way battle over Team Taz and The Young Bucks to become the 8th AEW World Tag Team Champions. Together Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee would reign over the division for seventy days, successfully defending on three occasions before The Acclaimed took the crown at DYNAMITE: GRAND SLAM 2022. There partnership was tense, to say the least, as Swerve Strickland leaned towards a darker bent while Keith Lee wanted to travel the more righteous path. Those differences in philosophy made the partnership difficult, but yet successful, at least until the point it reached the point where it just wasn’t anymore.

That led to DYNAMITE: HOLIDAY BASH 2022 where Swerve and his new assembled Mogul Affiliates destroyed Keith Lee, leaving him easy prey for Strickland to Swerve Stomp a cinder block on the chest of “Limitless”. It officially marked the end of Swerve In Our Glory, but it never felt like Keith Lee got his chance to right the wrong done to him. Sure he partnered up with Dustin Rhodes to swing at The Mogul Affiliates, and later was able to team with Darby Allin, Sting, and Orange Cassidy for a shot at The Mogul Embassy, a conglomerate of Swerve’s Affiliates and Prince Nana’s Embassy, but satisfaction was never achieved. 

Even when the Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament forced the two men back together for one night, it didn’t lead to a resolution for Swerve’s betrayal, or Keith’s need to avenge it. They both continued their mutual business, Swerve building The Mogul Embassy up, competing in the Continental Classic while Keith Lee stepped to Samoa Joe, dealt with his past with Shane Taylor, and let it be known after his FINAL BATTLE 2023 victory that it was time for “him”. Initially the assumption was that the “him” to which Keith Lee kept referring was Shane Taylor, but he quickly put that notion to bed following the Taylor victory.

A confrontation with The Mogul Embassy, sans Swerve Strickland, made it quite clear who “Limitless” was talking about, and a victory over Brian Cage got the man one step closer to that goal of finally fighting Swerve one-on-one. Of course there was the matter of the Continental Classic, but Swerve’s loss in the Three Way Gold League Finals this past Wednesday on DYNAMITE left him free and clear for competition at WORLDS END, and he wasn’t going to wait any longer to settle this score.

So while Keith Lee left the contract, Swerve still had to put pen-to-paper, putting the ball fully in his court as to whether or not this bout would happen. It should come as no shock that after being frustrated in the Continental Classic Gold League Finals, after seeing the match slip away when Jon Moxley pinned Jay White, Strickland was looking for a fight. Thankfully Keith Lee is ready to give him that fight and finally put this issue to bed like he did the decade-old one with Shane Taylor.

As 2023 comes to its close, so too will the saga of Swerve In Our Glory, but only one of these two men can walk away with the victory…

A FIGHT…

“The Redeemer” Miro vs. Andrade El Idolo

At ALL OUT 2023, after Miro defeated Powerhouse Hobbs, his wife CJ Perry emerged as Hobbs began a post-match assault. Perry delivered a relatively ineffective chairshot of her own to Hobbs, ineffective but providing Miro enough time to recover and smack Hobbs with a chair of his own. To say “The Redeemer” was surprised to see his “hot and flexible wife” would be an understatement, he half-thought she was a delusion come to taunt him for forsaking his God.

But CJ Perry was all too real, and if her husband was going to reject her as his manager, then she was going to find herself new clientele within the AEW locker room. Unfortunately Miro made sure that any competitor who even thought about taking on his wife as a manager paid a price for her consideration. Action Andretti, Ryan Nemeth, and Daniel Garcia all paid the price for showing interest in CJ Perry’s offers, but her most recent consideration was not one who’d easily suffer the same fate as those individuals.

Andrade El Idolo, heading into the Continental Classic, agreed to take CJ Perry on as his manager and even though she wasn’t allowed at ringside during those bouts, he excelled in the tournament with her working in that role. Three straight wins, nine points, and likely a fourth if Claudio hadn’t resorted to a low blow to get his victory; it announced to the world that Andrade El Idolo and CJ Perry were a combination to be reckoned with, but there is one man who wants that reckoning.

For “The Redeemer”, knowing his wife is overseeing the career of another individual has not sat well, and he clearly sees her presence as poisoning this well of professional wrestling. For Miro, that means expunging the poison from his life, i.e. removing Andrade El Idolo from the equation. No Andrade means no one for CJ Perry to manage meaning no reason for her to remain with All Elite Wrestling. That’s Miro’s logic going into this fight on Saturday night, with his mission to end the world as he knows it and begin something new where CJ Perry is not in the picture. 

ALL-STAR EXTRAVAGANZA…

Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia, & Mark Briscoe

vs.

Brody King, Jay Lethal, Jay White, & RUSH 

What is there to say about this one? Eight of the best men in professional wrestling, all who fell short in the Continental Classic, battling it out on the final pay-per-view event of 2023! Some came within a blink of being in the finals, some left the field without a point to their name, but all are elite-level athletes who will unite this Saturday night in an all-star tag team battle! Will they all get along? Probably not, but victory is more important than the individual squabbles that may exist because of the Continental Classic, or perhaps existed before the tournament even started; either way, this is an all-star extravaganza of talent, and it can only be witnessed as part of WORLDS END!

ZERO HOUR

FTW CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH/FTW RULES…

HOOK(c) vs. ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta

https://www.youtube.com/embed/sL4V7e96a3Y?si=3mpl3EY4vevdQ07D&start=196

TNT CHAMPIONSHIP #1 CONTENDER’S BATTLE ROYALE…

ONE-ON-ONE…

Kris Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale

WORLDS END emanates from the historic Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island this Saturday night, and live on pay-per-view around the world! Samoa Joe will challenge MJF for the AEW World Championship, former champion Riho will take on “Timeless” Toni Storm with the AEW Women’s World Title at stake, and TBS Champion Julia Hart defends against “The Living Dead Girl” Abadon! Plus, Christian Cage puts his TNT Title on the line against former best friend Adam Copeland in a No DQ Match, the FTW Title is up for grabs in a FTW Rules match between champion HOOK and challenger Wheeler Yuta, and the landmark Continental Classic comes to an end with ???? taking on ???? with the winner crowned the first Continental Champion, as well as ROH World Champion and NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion, to form the new North American Triple Crown!

With ZERO HOUR beginning at 7pm ET on the official AEW YouTube channel, WORLDS END starts at 8pm ET/7pm CT, so make a point to visit that YouTube channel to catch up on the latest happenings leading to WORLDS END, including the COUNTDOWN special, as well as highlights from this week’s edition of DYNAMITE, the CONTROL CENTER, and more! This pay-per-view event not only marks the end of AEW’s 2023, but will set the tone as we move forward into 2024 and the first event of the new year in Newark, NJ! 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/EV-DRnjamZA?si=RD8yXylXeNWAlyCG

First recorded in 1944 by The Mills Brothers in 1944, the song bearing the title of this retrospective has been covered by Connie Francis, Fats Domino, Ringo Starr, Michael Buble, and even Ryan Gosling in the heartbreaking film “Blue Valentine”. The lyrics include lines such as “You always break the kindest heart with a hasty word you can’t recall, so if I broke your heart last night, it’s because I love you most of all.”

It’s a song very easily projected onto a romantic relationship, but that’s just one type of love, and if nothing else, since the two men first became entangled in All Elite Wrestling, it’s been pretty clear that there is a lot of love between Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley. Love built on shared experiences, on treading common grounds, on time spent together both inside the ring and out, knowing each other’s families, not to mention spilling blood along similar roads en route to the promised land of AEW. 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/7xFaEkZaWkA?si=Cr44zLuC9_9RQRQ-&start=137

Moxley got here first, making his impact on as grand a scale as possible in the closing moments of DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2019, taking out both Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega, and beginning the path that led him to his first AEW World Championship at REVOLUTION 2020, just weeks before the wrestling landscape as we knew it, as well as the world at large, became a different place under pandemic restrictions.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hc9zLtDRvzk?si=4EFNOcqJfOM1UWLL&start=137

That’s the world in which Eddie Kingston was birthed into AEW, a world where fans were only able to watch from the safety of their own homes, a world where the hard-traveled Kingston was forced to sell his wrestling boots in order to make rent. So with nothing left to lose, and then-TNT Champion Cody Rhodes holding an Open Challenge for his title, Kingston took his shot and called out Cody during one of the few independent wrestling shows running at the time. This led to Eddie walking out on the stage on the July 22, 2020 DYNAMITE, no pomp or circumstance, and fighting Cody in a No DQ match for that championship. Eddie failed to become the champion, but he made such an impact on the AEW landscape that nine days later, Kingston got his “…IS ALL ELITE” graphic.

While Moxley went about building the AEW World Championship up with one of the most impressive streak of defenses amassed to date, Kingston drew men like Butcher, Blade, and The Lucha Brothers to his side, and when the opportunity opened up to take his shot again, Kingston didn’t hesitate to take aim at a man who had been his friend for years…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/skgfWPFhKgo?si=V5WjRGrRbVLLVSM-https://www.youtube.com/embed/UZ6swFRwGLo?si=ZzaG2JFxl_pow7wU

That fight did not go the way of “The Mad King”, but the aftermath of it set the table for the violent affair that would result at FULL GEAR 2020, a match that would turn out to by Moxley’s final successful title defense before losing to Kenny Omega at DYNAMITE: WINTER IS COMING 2020. Suffice it to say, the “I Quit” bout was twenty minutes of two men hurting the one they love, and came to an end with Kingston failing to claim the crown he’d risked destroying his friendship over…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yww6gAVlr_A?si=HkcxhsdT2C3fQyOz

Shockingly, despite how that fight came to its conclusion, when Moxley fought Kenny Omega in an Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match at REVOLUTION 2021, it was Eddie Kingston who came to the aid of Jon Moxley. That moment of sacrifice, Kingston’s choice to put his own safety at risk to protect his brother, that was a defining example of the core relationship between Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley. They were brothers, two men who cared about and supported one another, whose passion for pro wrestling bonded them, and whose capacity for violence mirrored one another’s. This reunion led Eddie and Mox into tag team competition, and a march towards The Young Bucks and the AEW World Tag Team Championship…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/5pyed4-IM3Q?si=qL-jsMZ4qm5adiNf&start=59

Though that DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2021 championship bout did not go in favor of Kingston and Moxley, it solidified their bond before the AEW faithful, and created a duo that continued on throughout the remainder of 2021, including a wild Lights Out fight with Minoru Suzuki and Lance Archer at RAMPAGE: GRAND SLAM 2021. Then the FULL GEAR 2022 Eliminator Tournament began, and though the layout of the brackets meant Moxley and Kingston could collide in the finals, Mox having to pull out of the field ended that possibility, and Eddie losing to Danielson in the Semi-Finals nixed his hopes of challenging for the title. 

Moxley would return to the fold in January 2022, refreshed and ready for the fight, a return that would lead him into battle with Bryan Danielson at REVOLUTION 2022, and then into the formation of The Blackpool Combat Club alongside “The American Dragon” and William Regal. At the same time, Kingston was in the midst of battle with Chris Jericho, a battle he actually won at REVOLUTION 2022, but would only be the precursor to much greater wars as Jericho abandoned The Inner Circle in the aftermath and formed The Jericho Appreciation Society. The paths of Kingston, Santana, Ortiz, and The Blackpool Combat Club would converge at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2022 when they and The J.A.S. went to battle under Anarchy In The Arena rules. Perhaps it should have been clear before the unit even stepped into Las Vegas that the inherent strife between Kingston’s side and Mox’s side would make success unlikely…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/GSQmwGSbo_0?si=FrjAOTWOhjPpM-vk&start=406

Still, the attempt was made, Kingston tried to work with Bryan Danielson as best he could, but in one of the most horrifying visuals in AEW history, it ended up with Eddie dumping gasoline on Bryan, as well as his foes, in a failed attempt to actually light them all on fire! Perhaps it was fate that Danielson got injured during the course of Anarchy in the Arena and was unable to compete in the Blood & Guts cage match that followed, but much to the chagrin of Eddie Kingston, his friend Jon Moxley would ally himself with yet another of Kingston’s hated foes, perhaps the most hated of them all, Claudio Castagnoli.

The history between Kingston and Claudio has been well-documented since “The Swiss Superman” came into AEW, suffice it to say that it took everything Kingston had in him to fight alongside Castagnoli rather than rip his head off and chuck him off the top of the cage. The fact that Castagnoli, in Eddie’s eyes, stole the victory for their team from him did not help matters, and it sent Kingston back on his own path, completely separate from Moxley, as Jon and The BCC pursued theirs.

But those paths would once again intertwine, as friendships often too, only this time the circle had come back around to their AEW beginning, and Kingston was standing alongside Moxley’s enemies in The Elite, men he himself could not stand and did not respect, but his hate for Claudio burned far hotter. Strange bedfellows indeed…

This animosity put Eddie opposite his brother-by-choice at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 and during the course of that match, in unarguably the most emotional portion of the fight, the two actually came to blows. The scene would repeat two months later at ALL IN: LONDON, albeit with a twist, as Kingston allied himself with The Best Friends, Orange Cassidy, and Penta El Zero Miedo to fight Moxley, Yuta, Claudio, Ortiz, and Santana in Stadium Stampede! Eddie’s team actually won the fight, though he and Moxley would throwdown with one another yet again, and it certainly left a question as to the status of their relationship moving forward. 

For Eddie moving forward meant finishing his issues with Claudio Castagnoli once and for all, and that meant facing him at DYNAMITE: GRAND SLAM 2023 with both Kingston’s NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship and Claudio’s ROH World Championship on the line. In front of his hometown, his family, and his loved ones, Kingston put the final nail in the coffin of his rivalry with Claudio Castagnoli, and became the holder of both the NJPW STRONG title and the ROH one!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/aai5io9JX28?si=lKd3qj2S0ZL-jxr3&start=406

For Moxley moving forward meant capturing a championship of his own, one he’d never held before, the AEW International Championship held by Orange Cassidy. That came to be at ALL OUT 2023, though the triumph turned to tragedy quite quickly when Rey Fenix dethroned him just 17 days later, and putting Moxley on the injured list for the next few weeks. Moxley’s return to AEW competition meant failure in regaining the AEW International Championship, once again held by OC who’d beaten Fenix himself in Jon’s absence, but then finding a new focus as the Continental Classic was announced.  Another man who found focus in the tournament was Moxley’s brother Eddie, only he chose to up the ante on the entire game, putting both of his championship belts in the mix, to create an American Triple Crown Championship…

Thus on November 22nd, with the field split into two groups dubbed the Gold League and the Blue League, twelve men began their trek towards WORLDS END, the Continental Championship, and now both the ROH World Championship and NJPW STRONG Openweight Title. For Moxley the road began with Mark Briscoe, and was followed in successive weeks with fights against Jay Lethal, RUSH,  and Swerve Strickland. Four consecutive victories meant 12 points for the 3-time former AEW World Champion, and berth in the finals of the Gold League, all that remained was his final match with Jay White to either solidify his spot atop the Gold, or to turn the League Final into a more complex situation with a “Switchblade” victory. But that’s exactly what Jay White did, he squeezed out a victory to tie up Moxley at 12 points, then Swerve did the same against RUSH in their fifth bout, thus leaving the Gold League with a three way tie to determine the victor. As we witnessed this past Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, Moxley would get his back on Jay White, and earn his spot in the Continental Classic finals this Sunday night!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/pKLg8JfgRAQ?si=QQq_7Jk097Qtas89&start=137

With Kingston slotted into the Blue League, there was a possibility that he and Jon Moxley could end up in the finals together, but the road to get there would be long and arduous for “The Mad King”. Though his two championship titles were not at stake in each of his five matches, each loss brought him closer to losing hold of them without technically being beaten for them in a title bout, but that was the risk Kingston took when he threw them into the pot for the Continental Classic. Unfortunately for Eddie, he started the tournament off on bad footing by dropping matches to Brody King and Bryan Danielson in his first two bouts, the latter especially stinging given the dismissive rhetoric Danielson has long used towards Eddie.

Those losses also put Kingston in a position where each match became a must-win situation if he hoped to have a shot at keeping the two titles in his camp, and gaining the Triple Crown he’d created with his choices. The third match of Kingston’s journey put him opposite Claudio Castagnoli, a man he’d only ever beaten once in their careers, and somehow Eddie found a way to make it two straight wins over this Blackpool Combat Club member. It was as if somewhere along the way, possibly the night he first held the ROH World Championship overhead in front of his mother and father, Eddie learned how to best handle his demons. He knew they were creeping up behind him, just waiting for him to slip up and stumble into their waiting arms, but instead of slipping, Eddie Kingston kept moving forward “humble in victory, humble in defeat”, and that made the difference as he rattled off a second victory in the tournament over Daniel Garcia, and secured himself a spot in the Blue League finals with a win over Andrade El Idolo.

That set Kingston versus Danielson as the match, and put Eddie in a situation where he had to do something he’d never done before: beat Bryan Danielson. Without a twenty-minute time limit hanging over their heads, the two warriors brutalized each other for nearly twenty-five, absorbing blow-after-blow, suplex-after-suplex, and surviving multiple submission attempts, before it came down to Kingston dropping Bryan with the same Kawada-style Folding Powerbomb that defeated Claudio at GRAND SLAM 2023 some months earlier.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/lTXNt4T0XQA?si=xEEp_G5ADWJUhmAI&start=137

With their respective wins in the Gold and Blue Leagues, for the first time since FULL GEAR 2020’s “I Quit” match, Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley will go one-on-one at WORLDS END in the Continental Classic Finals with the winner walking away as a Triple Crown Champion, simultaneously holding the ROH World Championship, the NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship, and the Continental Championship! It also means, if Eddie doesn’t want to see his last day as champion of the first two titles, he has to do something else he’s never done before: beat Jon Moxley. 

This Saturday night on pay-per-view, as part of AEW’s WORLDS END presentation, Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley will do to each other what they’ve done for years now, hurt the one they love, and in the end they will either embrace one another as brothers, happy for the success of the other, or they will see the rift in their friendship gutted even deeper. For as important as the championship aspect of this fight is, for as historic a contest as it is, this is undoubtedly the most personal fight of either man’s career…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/V2wQUTjEBvo?si=8jdkwiqvYAQCyEZ9

The end of the year is upon us, and All Elite Wrestling intends to close 2023 with a bang! The celebration begins this Wednesday night in Orlando with the League Finals of the Continental Classic and a ROH World Tag Team Championship match with huge implications for both the WORLDS END pay-per-view event going down Saturday night, as well this entire Devil mystery that’s been looming over MJF, and by proxy anyone around him, for the last couple months!

The final DYNAMITE of 2023 begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, so be sure to drop in on the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, for highlights from last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, as well as the newest CONTROL CENTER, a wild HEY!(EW) with Danhausen, and more!

CONTINENTAL CLASSIC LEAGUE FINALS…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/LU3wnm1bPS8?si=0FduJdMmtMZqim86

Final Standings

Gold League

Jon Moxley (12)

Swerve Strickland (12)

Jay White (12)

Rush (6)

Mark Briscoe (3)

Jay Lethal (0)

Blue League

“The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson (10)

ROH World Champion/NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston (9)

Andrade El Idolo (9)

Brody King (6)

Claudio Castagnoli (6)

Daniel Garcia (3)

BLUE LEAGUE FINALS

“The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson(10) vs. 

ROH World & NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston(9)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/j6aos9OJbgM?si=b9CqoTfFE790s3nU

There is a glee quite apparent in Bryan Danielson when he throws insults at Eddie Kingston, when he disrespects the ROH World Champion. It was there when he came out after Kingston’s extremely hard-fought victory over Andrade El Idolo, and it was there when Danielson provided his thoughts on the Finals after event ended. “Bum” is Danielson’s favorite label for the NJPW STRONG OPENWEIGHT Champion, and he intends to stomp that into the consciousness of the AEW faithful, as well as Eddie’s skull, this week in Orlando…

As for Kingston, he is the underdog, but he’s the one still standing, the one who is still here, and who takes pride in being “the king of the bums”. He is the man Bryan, as well as others, have judged harshly since the beginning of his career, and while some of that judgment has been warranted (Eddie himself is the first one to own up to his own mistakes), what those people have never done is accepted, or acknowledged, his growth as a person. They still see the same Eddie they met twenty years ago, not the man he’s become through his struggles and mistakes and problems, and thus they don’t see the fighter he has become inside the ring either. They don’t see the man who earned the ROH World Championship from Claudio, and won the NJPW STRONG OPENWEIGHT Championship over KENTA. They don’t see a man who, this year alone, beat Minoru Suzuki, Satoshi Kojima, beat SHINGO while competing in his first G1 CLIMAX tournament, fought in DDT Pro Wrestling alongside Jun Akiyama, and is the man responsible for Jay White being excommunicated from New Japan Pro Wrestling. Eddie Kingston is also the reason the winner of this tournament will walk away a Triple Crown Champion because he was brave enough to put his two championship titles into the mix…

With the Continental Classic Finals taking place as part of WORLDS END, all that remains is to determine the winner of each league, and this massive grudge match is all the remains of the Blue! Bryan Danielson has won all three of their previous singles matches, and was on the winning side of a 2009 Trios match that featured Bryan teaming with Claudio and Dave Taylor to take on Kingston, the late Brodie Lee, and Grizzly Redwood. Coincidentally, the only time the two men ever stood on the same side of the ring, Anarchy in the Arena at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2022, they lost the battle when Danielson was choked out by The Jericho Appreciation Society. 

Suffice it to say there is a lot on the line with this battle, some of it going far behind the standard win and loss. It’s a berth in the finals at WORLDS END, it is Kingston’s status as the ROH World and NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion, it’s the potential to challenge for the American Triple Crown, it is pride and respect and all the things that make professional wrestling the greatest sport on Earth!

GOLD LEAGUE FINALS

“Switchblade” Jay White(12) vs. Jon Moxley(12) vs. Swerve Strickland(12)

As the Gold League barreled towards its conclusion it became clear that Jon Moxley, due to the 12 points he carried into the last night of the points battle, would be part of the Finals taking place this Wednesday in Orlando. The only question was just who would Moxley be facing in the Gold League Finals, and what condition he would be in for that fight. The elusive concept of momentum was certainly on Mox’s side, he’d won four straight bouts in the tournament not to mention fourteen of his last sixteen one-on-one bouts, with two of those losses coming in AEW International Championship situations while the third was in a Three Way bout where Trent Beretta pinned Penta El Zero Miedo. 

Then the hammer fell in the fifth fight of the tournament, Jay White versus Jon Moxley, with Jay White’s tournament future hanging in the balance. If “Switchblade” lost, he was entirely dependent on Swerve Strickland falling to RUSH in order to have some hope of making it to the Finals, and even then he, Swerve, and RUSH would’ve been locked in a three way tie at nine points that wouldn’t have guaranteed White anything. So the end result of “King Switch” sliding out of a Paradigm Shift attempt to drill Moxley with a Bladerunner and score the pinfall victory was the perfect outcome for Jay White; it insured that he, at least, was tied with Moxley at 12 points while also holding a victory over the man. 

In the remaining match affecting the Gold League Finals, Swerve Strickland was able to rebound from his loss to Moxley the week prior and overcome RUSH, meaning Strickland was also part of the 12-point club, and forcing the League Finals to be contested as a Three Way bout. After all in the head-to-head battles, Moxley beat Swerve, Swerve beat Jay White, and White beat Moxley, meaning no one man had a definitive case for being selected ahead of the other as was the case in the Blue League where while Eddie and Andrade were tied in points, Kingston held the head-to-head victory on El Idolo. 

So that brings us to Orlando where Moxley, Swerve, and “Switchblade” will fight it out in a Three Way Bout to determine who heads to WORLDS END for the Continental Classic Finals! While the Blue League Finals are loaded with the personal issues between Danielson and Kingston, this fight is all about who will be the better wrestler on Wednesday night! It’s about the love of competition, the desire to be the best, and the grit to fight against all odds just to get one step closer to that American Triple Crown Championship awaiting the tournament winner on Saturday! This fight here, this entire tournament, is a testament to what professional wrestling can be and why so many strive to make it their profession. This is heart and love and passion and guts and glory all rolled into one tournament, and as it draws closer to its end, the world sees just who has the deepest well on the deepest roster of talented assembled under one roof!

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

MJF(c) & Samoa Joe (Substitute for Adam Cole)

vs.

???????

https://www.youtube.com/embed/MfbA8lbQrOI?si=3Mf4nYG_pjOza0aW

For three months a Devil has lurked among the locker rooms of the arenas where All Elite Wrestling has traveled, first announcing their arrival with an assault on Jay White at the close of the September 27th DYNAMITE, and most recently challenging MJF to put the ROH World Tag Titles on the line this Wednesday night in Orlando. The details between those two events is where the Devil’s mystery has lived, making a victim of individuals who align themselves with Maxwell Jacob Friedman (such as The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass) just as much as those who oppose the AEW World Champion (Hangman Page and Jay White), and apparently even MJF himself, though as Samoa Joe pointed out, the assault on Max just happened to be the only one not at least partially captured by cameras.

We’ve heard Roderick Strong and The Kingdom shout at the top of their lungs to all who will listen that it’s all just MJF pulling a ruse, that he himself is The Devil and simply using the tools at hand to pull the wool over everyone else’s eyes. They’ve got a group of masked individuals carrying out the attacks, they’ve yet to stand in the same space as MJF much less breathe the same air, and all interaction between the two has been over a video screen that could just be pre-recorded. It’s not impossible for MJF to pull this off, difficult yes, but not impossible, and the fact he’s spent the vast majority of his time in AEW being generally detestable also makes it a bit more reasonable he could be the man behind the mask.

Yet MJF is answering the challenge for a ROH World Tag Team title fight this Wednesday on DYNAMITE despite the impending AEW World Championship fight with Samoa Joe on Saturday, or perhaps, to be more accurate, that should read Samoa Joe is accepting a fight with The Devil (or his lackeys or both) on MJF’s behalf. Up until that moment last Wednesday, Samoa Joe had tried to be a voice of reason, a cooler head, while the AEW World Champ was running off taking every fight he presented, or picking ones he didn’t need . Yet in that moment, it was Joe who threw rationality out the window and accepted this tag title fight against a pair of unknown opponents, presumably to finally remove it as a distraction from the AEW World Championship fight ahead.

So will we all finally get to see what’s behind the mask of the Devil? Or will this be just another part of the game as it was last time Joe and MJF anticipated fighting their masked men? Will the final DYNAMITE of 2023 bring MFJ’s final night as ROH World Tag Champion, or the final night of The Devil’s games?

MARIAH MAY & RENEE…

While “Timeless” Toni Storm may be perpetually unaware of who Mariah May is, it is very clear that the fans of AEW know given their response to Mariah stating she’s medically cleared and her wrestling license is good to go. They are aware of her history with STARDOM, her work put in throughout England, and are eager to see what she brings to the table for All Elite Wrestling’s Women’s Division. It seems it is just a matter of time until Mariah May makes her debut, and maybe Toni Storm will even be in attendance for it, so perhaps there will be some answers to be head when Renee Paquette is joined by the former Goddesses of Stardom (Tag Team) Champion! Will we finally get a date for that debut match?

A FRIENDSHIP FRACTURED…

Kris Statlander vs. Skye Blue

They were friends, allies, at one point, but Skye Blue being affected by Julia Hart’s black mist changed all that. She and Kris Statlander have drifted ever since that date, despite efforts Willow Nightingale made to keep fences mended, but perhaps Skye’s failure to capture the TBS Championship on COLLISION, and watching it go to Julia Hart on FULL GEAR 2023, fully broke the woman and turned her to Julia’s side against Abadon.

Now these two former friends will clash once again, but the status quo of their relationship is quite different now, meaning this one is going to be a bit more violent than the others. There is animosity, betrayal, and disappointment, and now they can have it out before the end of 2023!

The last DYNAMITE of 2023 comes to you from Orlando, FL this Wednesday with the Blue & Gold League finals in Continental Classic as well as a ROH World Tag Team Championship match with potential ramifications on the AEW World Championship match at  WORLDS END this Saturday! We will see Eddie Kingston and Bryan Danielson fight for the top spot in the Blue League while Jon Moxley, Swerve Strickland, and Jay White battle for leadership of the Gold League! Plus Samoa Joe teams up with MJF one last time to defend the ROH World Tag Titles against…someone…from the Devil’s camp. Could it be the Devil himself? More masked men? We will see this Wednesday in Orlando, and perhaps the mask will finally come off! 

The night’s fights begin at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, just be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel for all the highlights from recent episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, as well as this week’s CONTROL CENTER!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/RFklO9-KTv4?si=YjU6p81ZgjjPcdzw

“AEW: Worlds End” PPV Available in Select Out-Of-Home Establishments on Saturday, December 30

Dec. 22, 2023 – AEW and Joe Hand Promotions will bring All Elite Wrestling’s “AEW: Worlds End”

pay-per-view event to select out-of-home establishments including theaters and

bars/restaurants across North America Saturday, December 30 starting at 7 p.m. ET.

To locate a participating establishment, fans in North America can check the Joe Hand

Promotions website HERE.

The card for “AEW: Full Gear” includes the following match-ups:

• AEW World Championship: MJF (c) vs Samoa Joe

• AEW Women’s World Championship: Toni Storm (c) vs. Riho

• Continental Classic Tournament Finals: Blue League Winner vs. Gold League Winner

*Card subject to change

“We are thrilled to stand alongside AEW as they deliver another epic event in the form of Worlds

End,” said Joe Hand, Jr., President of Joe Hand Promotions. “Our commitment to the AEW

community remains unwavering, and we anticipate an unforgettable night of wrestling action on

Dec. 30. Whether you gather at select Dave & Buster’s locations or experience the event in your

favorite premier movie theaters across the nation you will witness the excitement and

camaraderie that make AEW events truly special.”

ABOUT AEW

Founded by CEO, GM and Head of Creative Tony Khan in 2019, AEW is a red-hot professional

wrestling promotion featuring a world-class roster that is injecting new spirit, freshness and energy

into the industry. “AEW: Dynamite” airs every Wednesday from 8-10 p.m. ET on TBS, “AEW:

Rampage” airs every Friday from 10-11 p.m. ET on TNT, and “AEW: Collision” airs every Saturday

from 8-10 p.m. ET on TNT. For more info, check out Twitter.com/AEW; Instagram.com/AEW;

YouTube.com/AEW; Facebook.com/AEW

ABOUT JOE HAND PROMOTIONS

Joe Hand Promotions brings fan communities from mainstream sports and entertainment into

the top corporate and independently owned bars and restaurants, theaters, casinos, and other

commercial establishments to provide the best viewing experience outside of the arena. As the

commercial content partner for some of the nation’s top live-sports media properties, Joe Hand

Promotions is the leader in the out-of-home live sports and entertainment media distribution industry. For over 50 years, Joe Hand Promotions has seamlessly connected commercial

establishments with live sports, which has successfully driven traffic and increased revenues,

time and time again. The Joe Hand Promotions team is more than the distributor, but also the

advisor in this fast-growing industry.