AEW Rampage Preview for June 30, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/embed/BAJKk8aCeoc?start=180

The FORBIDDEN DOOR has essentially closed, and a new one has opened for All Elite Wrestling, one that opens towards ALL IN: LONDON, towards Boston and BLOOD & GUTS III, and towards the Owen Hart Finals at the Calgary Stampede!

After hearing Jack Perry express his rationale for betraying HOOK, after watching MJF shamelessly pander to Adam Cole, and after watching “The Icon” Sting commit some crazy acts to put down The Painmaker and “The Spanish God”, AEW is coming to you this Friday night with the newest edition of RAMPAGE! The bouts begin at 10:00PM ET/9:00pm CT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for our international audiences, and features Claudio Castagnoli defending his ROH World Championship against Komander, Taya Valkyrie meeting former AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida, QTV fighting The Hardy Party in tag team action, and Hamilton’s own Shawn Spears in action against The Blade!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/eo0CqTuuOX0?start=180

Before the night begins, be sure to drop by the official AEW YouTube channel for highlights from recent episodes of DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as the latest edition of THE CONTROL CENTER, highlights from FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023, and so much more!

ROH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Claudio Castagnoli(c) vs. Komander

Having won his last four matches in Ring of Honor, the high-flying Komander will have an opportunity to challenge Claudio Castagnoli for the ROH World Championship this Friday night on RAMPAGE! For Komander, it is just his third singles bout under the ROH banner, and his first opportunity to vie for a Ring of Honor championship. That being said, his style of combat lends itself to being unpredictable, and that unfamiliarity with one another may be the key to dethroning a champion as dominant as Castagnoli has been since reclaiming the ROH World Title from Chris Jericho at FINAL BATTLE 2022.

With eight successful defenses to date, the 2-Time ROH World Champ has bested men such as Christopher Daniels, New Japan’s Robbie Eagles, Josh Woods, as well as Eddie Kingston, just to name a handful. He’s been a dominating force in AEW with The Blackpool Combat Club, just look at the Elite chaos left in their wake this past Wednesday on DYNAMITE, and now he will meet Komander for the very first time this Friday!

There may not be a man better equipped to handle the Lucha stylings of Komander, after all Castagnoli was trained in that style very early in his wrestling career by the legendary Skayde, and as such is capable of truly impressive Lucha-esque feats for a man his size. He’s powerful, agile, fast, and as technically sound as it gets inside the professional wrestling ring, plus, in his days since joining the BCC, proven he’s quite capable of violence and bloodshed.

Komander has his work cut out for him trying to dethrone this champion, but it could be a night that the world gets a shock!

ONE-ON-ONE…

Hikaru Shida vs. Taya Valkyrie

https://www.youtube.com/embed/bqoXJsMwf6M?start=180

Taya Valkyrie is looking to rebound after her slew of TBS Championship losses to Jade Cargill and Kris Statlander, but unfortunately for her, in order to do that she must contend with the former, record-setting, AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida! With the records for both longest reign, and most successful title defenses, Shida has already notched her name in the AEW history books, but she seems bent on adding another record to her annals, that of being the first woman to hold both the TBS and AEW Women’s World Championship!

While Taya comes in having lost 3 TBS Championship matches in two months, Shida is entering this bout with victories in 10 of her last 12 bouts, and some vested interest in the ongoing battle pitting the women of All Elite Wrestling against The Outcasts.

So can Taya get back on track, or will Shida continue her push towards reclaiming her spot atop the Women’s Division?

TAG TEAM BOUT…

QTV (Johnny TV & QT Marshall) vs. Hardy Party (Brother Zay & Matt Hardy)

Last week on RAMPAGE, The Acclaimed were confronted by QTV crew as they simply wanted to entertain the masses. Harley Cameron initiated the entire thing, but it came to a head when a pair of masked individuals came to her side before The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass, only for QT Marshall and Aaron Solo to show up on the stage, drawing Max and Anthony away from the ring, leaving Daddy Ass to be assaulted by the masked individuals, one who revealed himself to be Johnny TV!

He’d previously appeared in AEW to fight Samoa Joe and Miro, but now he’d clearly aligned himself with QTV, and this Friday night on RAMPAGE he’ll have his first outing as part of QTV! Teaming with QT Marshall, Johnny TV will face The Hardy Party of Matt and Brother Zay who will know doubt be forcing Hamilton’s own Ethan Page to accompany them to ringside.

Can this QTV contingent make a good first impression as a team, or will The Hardy Party celebrate in style with QTV’s cancellation?

SINGLES MATCH…

Shawn Spears vs. The Blade

https://www.youtube.com/embed/kCJqp3SRs7w?start=180

It’s been a couple months since we last saw Shawn Spears in action here in All Elite Wrestling, but while he may not have been on your television screens, Spears was putting in the work on the HOUSE RULES events in Kentucky, Alabama, and Mississippi, and looks forward to coming home to Hamilton, Ontario, to compete for All Elite Wrestling, but for this homecoming bout, Spears has pulled a hard-fighting foe in The Blade!

Now these two are no strangers to one another, their pre-AEW relationship dates at least back to September 2011 when they fought one another for a independent company in Dehli, Ontario, but it has been eleven years now since their last time doing battle. So while their two one-on-one meetings may have each gone the way of Spears, this will be a test of just how much each man has grown in the years since.

Will the AEW faithful see a celebratory homecoming for Shawn Spears, or one spoiled by The Blade?

With FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 behind us, and an all-new COLLISION on Saturday night, RAMPAGE is bringing the heat this Friday night at 10:00pm ET/9:00pm CT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for AEW’s international fans! We’ve got a ROH World Championship Match between Claudio Castagnoli and Komander, Taya Valkyrie versus Hikaru Shida, The Blade battling Canada’s own Shawn Spears, and QTV duo of Johnny Television and QT Marshall making their tag debut against The Hardy Party!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xH5tk7qsYTY?start=180

Before the night gets underway, visit the official AEW YouTube channel for highlights from this week’s episode of DYNAMITE, as well as the latest edition of ROAD TO, FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 highlights, and more!

Article source: allelitewrestling.com