https://www.youtube.com/embed/MKk7eFNkqow?si=bwGetmud79t5KQyK
Wednesday night began the final few days before WRESTLEDREAM goes down this Sunday night in Seattle. Fans learned that Adam Cole suffered an injury at GRAND SLAM 2023 that necessitated pulling himself from the ROH World Tag Team Championship match, but as seen above, rather than vacate the belts, MJF will fight The Righteous himself. In addition, through their contract signing, we all witnessed the kind of aggression Hangman Page is bringing to his fight with Swerve Strickland:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/6cOQ4haG0Rs?si=S9hg9eCKa_d0cfH6
But that wasn’t all; Rey Fenix defeated Jeff Jarrett to retain his AEW International Championship while Nick Jackson defeated both Claudio Castagnoli and Brian Cage to earn the next shot at said title. Success wasn’t universal for The Young Bucks though as Matt Jackson ate the pinfall in his Four Way PPV preview bout. A lot of the pieces for WRESTLEDREAM fell into their final place, and that will continue this Friday night on RAMPAGE! The bouts begin at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for our international audiences, so visit the official AEW YouTube channel before RAMPAGE begins to see highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE, as well as previous episodes of RAMPAGE and COLLISION, plus THE CONTROL CENTER, and much, much more!
NJPW STRONG OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…
Eddie Kingston(c) vs. Rocky Romero
It’s been two years since the last time Rocky Romero and Eddie Kingston collided inside the squared circle, a fight won by Kingston, but not one in which any championships were involved. They celebrated July 4th with NJPW STRONG this year, teaming up to fight, and defeat, BULLET CLUB’s KENTA and Gedo in tag action one day before Eddie beating KENTA to earn the NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship.
This Friday night on RAMPAGE the circle comes back around as, after being Eddie’s ally two months ago, Rocky steps up as the next challenger for the NJPW STRONG Openweight title, and just two days before Kingston is set to defend both it and the ROH World Championship against Katsuyori Shibata. Should Kingston fall to Rocky, then obviously only the ROH World Championship would be on the line at WRESTLEDREAM, but win or lose, with a foe like Romero gunning for him on Friday, what kind of condition will Eddie be in on Sunday?
AEW WORLD TRIOS CHAMPIONSHIP OPEN CHALLENGE…
The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Daddy Ass, & Max Caster)(c)
vs.
Brother Zay & The Hardys (Jeff & Matt)
Ever since defeating The House of Black to claim the World Trios Championship titles, The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass have made it a point to be defending champions, taking on anyone willing to step up to the challenge, defending the belts on three occasions in the 33 days since ALL IN: LONDON. This week on RAMPAGE there will be another trio who answers the call to arms, forming a unit for the very first time, Brother Zay and The Hardys will take on the World Trios Champs!
Isiah Kassidy has been under the tutelage of Matt Hardy for quite some time now, both through good and bad, meaning they’ve united on plenty of instances, and there have been a few multi-man instances like The Firm Deletion, but this is the first time it’s just been Matt, Jeff, and Brother Zay.
The Hardys know plenty about being champions, though they’ve yet to achieve that here in All Elite Wrestling which is additional common ground with Zay, but that could all change this Friday night on RAMPAGE! Will the Scissor Party be brought to an end?
TITLE TUESDAY OPPORTUNITY…
Ruby Soho vs. Hikaru Shida
This could have some very interesting ramifications; for the very first time Ruby Soho and Hikaru Shida will lock-up in a one-on-one match and to the victor comes an AEW Women’s World Championship opportunity on DYNAMITE: TITLE TUESDAY on October 10th. So there is a possibility that, for the second time in as many weeks, Saraya will have to defend her title against someone who has stood by her side as an Outcast! Difference between Toni Storm and Ruby Soho though is that Ruby is still loyal to Saraya, making that potential title bout rife with potential drama.
The other possibility is that Hikaru Shida earns the opportunity to become the first 3-Time Women’s World Champion and beat the woman who ended her second reign in the process. Though Saraya may have been the one to leave ALL IN: LONDON as the new champion, it wasn’t the woman defending her title who she pinned but rather Toni Storm. That also makes this fight with Ruby one step away from revenge on Saraya, and one step away from Shida redeeming the indirect loss of her championship.
Will we see the remaining Outcasts have wedge drive in-between them, or will Shida get her shot at redemption for what happened at Wembley?
THE RIGHTEOUS IN ACTION!
After learning that their ROH World Tag Team Championship match at WRESTLEDREAM will now be a handicap match against AEW World Champion MJF, Dutch and Vincent have to be quite ecstatic about their impending Sunday night fight.
Before they get their though, The Righteous will be in tag team action on RAMPAGE, one final tune-up before their date with destiny on pay-per-view! There has to be a great deal of confidence on their part knowing they’ll have a man advantage in the championship fight, hopefully it doesn’t make them overconfident in this Friday night fight and leave them ripe for an upset.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/qdzMHOM-4p0?si=3XTNmlbyHOyEjwR4
RAMPAGE gets underway at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for our international audiences, so drop in on the official AEW YouTube channel prior to the show for highlights from Wednesday’s DYNAMITE, as well as previous episodes of RAMPAGE and COLLISION, plus THE CONTROL CENTER, and much, much more!
https://www.youtube.com/embed/DEK-YaX7YNw?si=8s7lz2_PRpgKXarYArticle source: allelitewrestling.com