Toronto was amazing on Wednesday night for AEW’s first international edition of DYNAMITE, and now we are back for the first-ever international episode of RAMPAGE! On AEW’s flagship, ROH World Champion Chris Jericho defeated “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson to retain the title for the second time, and ROH Pure Champion Daniel Garcia was absolutely a deciding factor there. Plus, insult was heaped on injury when, after Swerve Strickland beat “Daddy Ass” Billy Gunn, “Smart” Mark Sterling revealed he had trademarked “Scissor Me”:
Plus AEW Interim Women’s World Champion Toni Storm and Hikaru Shida defeated Dr. Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter, Luchasaurus defeated Jungle Boy, and a new All-Atlantic Champion was crowned when Orange Cassidy defeated “The Bastard” PAC!
https://www.youtube.com/embed/7KRgyY2ok6Q
AEW comes right back this Friday night at the Coca-Cola Coliseum for Canada’s first RAMPAGE, and the AAA/IWGP/ROH World Tag Champions FTR will reunite with Shawn Spear to take on The Embassy of Brian Cage and The Gates of Agony! Plus, Canada’s own “All Ego” Ethan Page takes on Private Party’s Isiah Kassidy with a whole lot of contractual issues on the line, The Butcher & The Blade meet The BCC’s Claudio Castagnoli and AEW World Champion Jon Moxley in tag team action, and the faux-TBS Champion Nyla Rose welcomes the challenge of Anna JayA.S, much to the chagrin of the real TBS Champion Jade Cargill.
The action kicks off at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for our international audiences, and you can get set for all the action with a visit to the official AEW YouTube channel for Dynamite highlights, Dark: Elevation, AEW Dark, Road To, and this week’s Control Center with Tony Schiavone!
TAG TEAM BOUT…
AEW World Champion Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli
vs.
The Butcher & The Blade (w/ The Bunny)
Stepping up to the plate on behalf of Rush, The Butcher and The Blade want a little bit of revenge after The Blackpool Combat Club trio of Claudio, Mox, and Yuta defeated Private Party and Rush last week on RAMPAGE. It’s pretty straight-forward, Butch and Blade want a fight, they want to hurt Mox and Claudio, and if any pair in AEW can do it, it is certainly these two rough-and-tumble competitors.
As for Mox and Claudio, while they clearly have a solid relationship built on a love of pro wrestling, mutual respect, and bad jokes, it has been over seven years since the last time they wrestled a match as a tag team. They united in trios bouts prior to AEW, they’ve been inside (and outside) the Blood & Guts cage together, and were quite dominant in their victory last Friday night, but just the two of them, it’s been since July of 2015 when they last teamed up.
That being said, both men are at the top of their game at the moment; Moxley has undoubtedly become the heart and soul of All Elite Wrestling, as the only 3-Time World Champion the company has seen Mox has fought with a passion that few others can even match, and proudly carried the flag for AEW. Claudio, since coming into the fold at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2022, has been a dominating force himself. He achieved a life-long dream when he defeated Jonathan Gresham to become ROH World Champion, and although Chris Jericho nefariously robbed him of that dream, Claudio was an honorable champion who defended the belt at every opportunity. Take the two of them together, everything they bring to the table as wrestlers, and the Mox/Claudio pairing may be the most potent BCC duo yet!
This is going to be a heck of a fight, and it’s going down Friday night in Toronto as part of AEW very first Canadian edition of RAMPAGE!!!
ONE-ON-ONE…
“All Ego” Ethan Page vs. Isiah Kassidy
***IF KASSIDY WINS, PRIVATE PARTY IS FREE OF THE FIRM***
***IF PAGE WINS, MATT HARDY JOINS THE FIRM***
The status of Private Party has been quite out of their control for quite some time now; they were abused by Matt Hardy and suckered into his HFO, they were then, through no decision of their own, put into a larger unit with Andrade and The AHFO. Now Isiah and Marq did make their own choice to turn away from Hardy in spite of Matt owning up to the mistakes he made with their relationship, but now they find themselves trapped, a victim of their own choices, and Jose The Assistant kept reminding them of that fact.
Only now, instead of being beholden to Jose’s whims, Kassidy and Quen’s contracts are now in the hands of Stokely Hathaway and The Firm! For months now, the two members of Private Party have had to sit idly by and watch as other men pulled the strings on their careers, but because of “All Ego” Ethan Page, they finally have a chance to free themselves from the ouroboros that has become their AEW existence.
In front of Page’s home country, Isiah Kassidy will fight “All Ego” with the opportunity to free himself and his Private Party partner Marq Quen from the latest person controlling their career. But nothing from The Firm comes without a cost, and Isiah had to be willing to gamble something as well, and in this case Ethan Page has anchored the career of Matt Hardy to the result of this contest. Should Ethan win this bout in front of his family and friends, then Hardy will be as bound to The Firm as his former proteges. Hardy has expressed his belief in Private Party, and now that belief will be put to the ultimate test when the fate of his career is in their hands, just as their careers were once in his!
A CHALENGE…
“The Native Beast” Nyla Rose (w/ Marina Shafir & Vickie Guerrero) vs. Anna Jay A.S.
Nyla Rose is a thief; that is something everyone is aware of, and only she and her Vicious Vixens of Vickie Guerrero and Marina Shafir would deny that’s the case. Nyla is not the TBS Champion, has never been the TBS Champion, and if Jade Cargill has her way, she will never become the TBS Champion either.
That being said, “The Native Beast” is in physical possession of the championship belt and as such, has decided she can hold her own Open Challenges in the same manor that the undefeated Cargill has since becoming champion over 280 days ago. With an added boost of confidence that has come with her alliegance to The Jericho Appreciation Society, Anna Jay A.S. was the first woman to step-up to the answer the call, setting up a first-time match between the faux-champion and “The Queen Slayer”.
While they may have never collided in singles action, the two women are quite familiar with one another in tag team and trios situations, and it’s Anna Jay A.S. who owns the record books there. Anna and her partners have been victorious six out of their seven matches, five of them consecutively, with the most recent on the June 15th edition of AEW DARK. It’s a record for Anna to be proud of, but it’s not one-on-one, and that is quite a difference.
Can Anna Jay A.S. topple “The Native Beast” in their first singles meeting and take physical possession of the TBS Championship? Would Nyla even let her walk away with the belt should she win, or will The Vicious Vixens stop any such action from happening? Tune in Friday night on TNT to see how this plays out, and to see if Jade Cargill makes a play to get back what is rightfully hers!
TRIOS MATCH…
AAA/IWGP/ROH World Tag Team Champions FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) & Shawn Spears
vs.
The Embassy (Brian Cage, Kaun, & Toa Liona w/ Prince Nana)
It’s been a long time since Cash Wheeler, Dax Harwood, and Shawn Spears have stood on the same side of the ring together. Since October 5th of 2021 to be exact, when the three of them united with Wardlow for a DARK victory, but as a trio, it’s a victory over The Dark Order on the September 8th edition of DYNAMITE. They were riding high as members of MJF’s Pinnacle, but that all fell apart as Wardlow chaffed under Max’s reins, and eventually the undefeated team of Wardlow and Spears imploded. The end result of that implosion would be Spears getting decimated by “The WarDog” inside a Steel Cage, just a few days before Wardlow earned his freedom with a victory over MJF.
Since that defeat, Spears has been AWOL from AEW while his former Pinnacle partners continued to championship successes of their own. FTR continues to reign as AAA, IWGP, and ROH World Tag Team Champions while Wardlow earned the crown as TNT Champion, but Shawn Spears remained absent. That is until this past Wednesday night when FTR re-introduced St. Catherine, Ontario’s own “Perfect10n” Shawn Spears to the AEW faithful as their partner for trios action against Prince Nana’s Embassy!
The most fascinating aspect of this played right before our eyes as Wardlow and Spears locked eyes. See, while Spears and Wardlow may have dissolved any alliance (in part thanks to MJF), FTR remained close to both men. Cash and Dax had no falling out with Shawn or Wardlow, in fact they’ve done nothing but have Mr. Mayhem’s back, so it will be quite interesting to see how he responds to this new wrinkle.
That part is going to have to wait though, because this reunited Pinnacle has to face three absolute terrors in Brian Cage, Kaun, and Toa Liona, with the dastardly Prince Nana guiding their way. They are three of the most powerful specimens in AEW or Ring of Honor, and The Pinnacle have their work cut out for them on Friday night. Will Cash, Dax, and Spears fall into the same successful groove a year since their last trios outing? Or will The Embassy spoil this family reunion?
https://www.youtube.com/embed/iZ3H-wXCNTY
The AEW faithful are in store for an action-packed night this Friday when RAMPAGE comes to Canada! The excitement beings on TNT at 10:00pm ET/9:00pm CT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for our international audiences! The reunited Pinnacle versus The Embassy! “All Ego” versus Isiah Kassidy! Rose versus JayA.S.! And The BCC against B&B!
https://www.youtube.com/embed/1wqvHJt0g9A
Get ready for all the action with a trip to the official AEW YouTube channel with Dynamite highlights, Dark: Elevation, AEW Dark, Road To, and this week’s Control Center with Tony Schiavone
Article source: allelitewrestling.com