AEW Rampage: New Year’s Smash 2022 Preview For December 30th

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2022 is almost at its end, but that doesn’t mean All Elite Wrestling is going to stop delivering the hits! Wednesday night during DYNAMITE: NEW YEAR’S SMASH 2022 fans witnessed The Elite force a seventh match in their series against Death Triangle, meaning the AEW World Trios Championship will be on the line in Escalera de la Muerte II when AEW returns to Los Angeles on January 11th! Plus, TayJayAS stole one from Ruby Soho and Willow Nightingale, The Acclaimed dropped their latest rap on Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal, and Samoa Joe managed to retain the TNT Championship against Wardlow thanks, in part, to a pre-game assault on the former champion.

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This Friday night on RAMPAGE: NEW YEAR’S SMASH 2022, AEW is going out with a bang on the final AEW event of the year, as two championships will be on the line and Shane Strickland collides with The BCC’s Wheeler Yuta in a first-time match-up! It kicks-off at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, and is also available at AEWPlus.com for our international fans, and before that gets underway, make sure to visit to the official AEW YouTube channel to get up to speed on the week’s action with DYNAMITE highlights, as well as the latest episodes of AEW DARK: ELEVATION, AEW DARK, and the CONTROL CENTER with Tony Schiavone!

ALL-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

“Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy(c) (w/ Danhausen) vs. Trent Beretta (w/ Chuck Taylor)

While the machinations of Kip Sabian did not bring him the All-Atlantic Championship match he has so desired these past several weeks, his attempts to end-around his way to a title fight have inadvertently pit two Best Friends against one another on this final RAMPAGE of 2022!

Orange Cassidy and Trent Beretta have been bonded since the very beginning of All Elite Wrestling, standing together with Chuck Taylor as one of the most enduring trios to compete in AEW, but now they must face one another with OC’s prized All-Atlantic Championship on the line, and all because the defending champion simply turned Kip’s logic against him. Kip eliminated OC, Trent eliminated Kip, therefore Trent is more deserving of a title opportunity, and Cassidy makes it happen.

The question now is what, if any, damage this may do to the cohesiveness of The Best Friends unit? They’ve weathered many a storm together, including that Arcade Anarchy deal that involved Kip several years ago, and have always maintained their bond, but this is the first time they’ve faced each other with a championship at stake. More accurately, this is the first time Orange Cassidy has ever fought Trent Beretta in any fashion anywhere during their respective wrestling careers! While Chuck and OC have fought a few times before, the last one mere weeks before DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2019, never before have Trent and the All-Atlantic Champion locked horns under any circumstances so this one is liable to be fire!

Hopefully, no matter who wins or loses, the ties that bind prove stronger than titles because it would be a shame to see the schemes of Kip Sabian drive a wedge into this happy home…

TBS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Jade Cargill(c) vs. Kiera Hogan

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It wasn’t that long ago that Kiera Hogan was riding side-by-side with Jade Cargill as one of the TBS Champion’s Baddies. Kiera, Red Velvet, Leila Grey, all three of them were so enmeshed in the Jade Cargill brand that they were willing to do anything to help Jade maintain her undefeated status and thus her reign as TBS Champion.

And yet, despite the best efforts of Hogan during her time at Cargill’s side, Kiera was still ousted from The Baddies by Jade for the flimsiest of reasons, and left to once again fend for herself in AEW competition. This was not a choice made by Kiera, in fact if left to her own devices she may even still be ride-or-die with the TBS Champion, but the reality is that Hogan was removed from the pack of sycophants by Jade herself.

That’s left some unfinished business between the two women, and the best way to handle that here in AEW is inside the squared circle! And the best way to handle that business when we’re talking about an undefeated champion is to put her in a position where both streak and title are at stake; that is why this Friday night on RAMPAGE: NEW YEAR’S SMASH 2022, Kiera Hogan will get her opportunity to get back at Jade when they collide in a TBS Championship bout!

Jade is coming off an impactful Eliminator Match victory while Hogan comes in having just lost to Athena in a ROH Women’s World Championship match on the 12/26 edition of DARK: ELEVATION. So Cargill comes in riding high on her undefeated streak, while Kiera comes to RAMPAGE fighting from a place of anger and betrayal. Angry she lost her shot against Athena, angry that Jade tossed her aside and betrayed her despite Kiera loyally standing by the champion’s side and helping on numerous occasions to insure Jade remained TBS Champion over the last year.

This is Kiera’s chance to begin making up for all her wrongs during her tenure as a Baddie, and her opportunity to humble the undefeated Cargill as her record draws closer to 50 consecutive wins in All Elite Wrestling. Can Kiera be the one to add a one to the other side of Jade’s record? Or will she ended up Jaded just as she did in 2021 when they first clashed on the second-ever edition of RAMPAGE?

ONE-ON-ONE…

Swerve Strickland vs. ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta

Swerve and his Mogul Associates made a brutal impact at the expense of Keith Lee last week, but with two bruisers like Parker Boudreaux and this other mysterious tattooed man at his side, it’s hard to be anything except brutal. But brutality, violence, now that is speaking the language of The Blackpool Combat Club and in this case, specifically the ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta. While he may excel in pure contests of professional wrestling, 2022 has repeatedly demonstrated that Yuta is more than capable of getting violent when the time comes. That violence doesn’t just come in blood and plunder either, but also in the physical punishment of a foe, the dissection of limbs, the pleasure in inflicting suffering on an opponent. Violence is inherent in professional wrestling, but the joy that the Blackpool Combat Club finds in it has been what separates those individuals from the pack.

Can Swerve, who we have seen relishes in cruelty and violence, match a BCC member in those aspects of combat? And just how much of a role will Strickland’s two associates play in this bout? It’s an inevitability they will get involved in some capacity, be it their sheer physical presence serving as intimidation or laying hands upon Yuta, so will the ROH Pure Champion also look to his allies for support or go this road alone?

TONY AND MOX…

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Coming off a tremendous tag team battle against Top Flight on Wednesday, former 3-Time AEW World Champion Jon Moxley will be in the house on Friday night to chat with Tony Schiavone. One topic of interest will certainly be an outlook on 2023 for Moxley and The BCC, but another is undoubtedly connected to the moment captured below:

Where is Jon Moxley at regarding Hangman Page, and the constant thorn in Mox’s side that Page has been since returning to television after the injury suffered at Mox’s hands? A fight is definitely on the horizon, one a little more official than Hangman’s relentless assaults on Mox at every available opportunity, but when and where and how remains to be seen? We heard Hangman mention Los Angeles, can Mox wait that long?

THE WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPION SPEAKS

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Fans recently watched the AEW Women’s World Champion Jamie Hayter engage in an absolute war with Hikaru Shida, defeating the greatest holder of that title in its three-year history, and announcing to the world that she was now standing atop the mountain. This Friday night on RAMPAGE: NEW YEAR’S SMASH 2022, as AEW heads into 2023, we will hear from Hayter herself, well unless the Good Doctor decides she wants to speak for Hayter…again.

DARBY WANTS ANOTHER SHOT..

After Samoa Joe defeated Wardlow in the main event of DYNAMITE: NEW YEAR’S SMASH 2022, the self-proclaimed “King of Television” had the choice to either show “Mr. Mayhem” respect for the battle they just shared, or to disrespect Wardlow in some new fashion. Samoa Joe chose the latter, first physically attacking the already-injured former TNT Champion, and then electing to cut Wardlow’s hair off his prone body. It was only the timely involvement of Darby Allin that prevented the situation from getting even uglier, and now Allin has some things to say as he heads into a championship rematch with Samoa Joe next Wednesday night in Seattle!

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DYNAMITE: NEW YEAR’S SMASH 2022 on Wednesday was just the beginning of AEW’s year-end celebration, and it continues on Friday with the final event of the year, RAMPAGE: NEW YEAR’S SMASH 2022! The excitement begins at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, and on AEWPlus.com, kicking off with the All-Atlantic Championship bout between Orange Cassidy and Trent Beretta! Plus the TBS Championship will be on the line as Kiera Hogan looks to even the score with the undefeated Jade Cargill, fans will hear from AEW Women’s World Champion Jamie Hayter as well as LFI’s Preston Vance, and Wheeler Yuta goes to battle with Swerve Strickland in the main event!

Head over to the official AEW YouTube channel to get ready for the action with DYNAMITE highlights, plus the latest episodes of AEW DARK: ELEVATION, AEW DARK, ROAD TO…, and the CONTROL CENTER with Tony Schiavone!

Article source: allelitewrestling.com