Fox & Rob Rich Interview by Big Gold Belt Media “TIME II: Unfinished Business,” set to debut at the Essence Festival on Saturday, July 6, 2024.-Synopsis:”TIME II: Unfinished Business” is a gripping sequel to the Oscar-nominated…

Russ Russo Interview by Big Gold Belt Media-Synopsis:A video editor discovers the power to re-edit the last 24 hours.Bio:Russ Russo stands as a luminary in New York City’s vibrant film and television landscape, having cultivated his…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/KWfIPA12Kfc?si=wF3VQ9tpTikBstLD

DYNAMITE comes to you from the Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, WV, AEW's first time back since August 17th of 2022, and with it comes a loaded night of action! AEW World Champion Samoa Joe faces Dustin Rhodes in an Eliminator contest, the TNT Championship will be at stake when Adam Copeland faces Penta El Zero Miedo, and AEW Women's World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm is apparently planning a Charleston Champagne Toast for Thunder Rosa. In addition, LionHOOK will team with Katsuyori Shibata to do battle with Shane Taylor Promotions while Anna Jay has a rematch with Mariah May, and The Young Bucks have promised to present backstage footage from ALL IN: LONDON! Then for those in attendance who get to experience RAMPAGE before the rest of the world, TBS Champion Julia Hart defends in an Open House match against “Legit” Leyla Hirsch!

All that comes your way this Wednesday night, live on TBS starting at 8pm ET/7pm CT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, but don't forget to drop 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, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER!

Then join us Saturday night at the Truist Arena in Northern Kentucky for COLLISION and BATTLE OF THE BELTS X featuring Rocky Romero facing Roderick Strong in an AEW International Championship Eliminator Match!

ELIMINATOR MATCH…

AEW World Champion Samoa Joe vs. “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes

Aside from both occupying space in a Battle Royal on January 3, 2008, Dustin Rhodes and Samoa Joe have never shared the ring in any traditional match. Not a singles, not a tag or trios, nothing of the sort, but that will change this Wednesday night when the two competitors square off for the very first time! It began with a challenge laid out on the table by “The Natural”, the desire to fight Samoa Joe for the AEW World Championship, but that challenge was rebuked by a champion who does not see Rhodes as deserving of a title match. Depending on how one views it, that's not an inaccurate response, after all Rhodes is 15-13 in singles matches across his AEW career, 2-1 in 2024, and not grouped in the rankings, but only taking that into account is very much a “what have you done for me lately” approach.

At 54 years of age, “The Natural” has been fighting inside the squared circle for thirty-five years of his life, and has won numerous championships throughout the course of that hall of fame career. He's battled everyone from Toshiaki Kawada to Scott Hall, from Giant Baba to Jeff Jarrett, and from Sammy Guevara to Bryan Danielson; he's been an inspiration and a teacher, a friend and a foe, but one thing he's never been is the World Champion, representing a company, holding the title as the man with a target on his back.

This Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, with an AEW World Championship Eliminator opportunity in the palm of his hand, “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes can take the first step towards finally achieving that dream by defeating Samoa Joe. With that victory, as Samoa Joe said in his interview, Dustin Rhodes would become the top contender to the World Championship, jumping the line ahead of Swerve Strickland, who earned his title opportunity at DYNASTY 2024 on April 21st, as well as Bryan Danielson, Will Ospreay, Orange Cassidy, and Eddie Kingston. It's a huge opportunity for Dustin, the closest he has ever been to challenging for the AEW World Championship, but can he take that next step forward and become the top contender? Joe hasn't been beaten in a singles match since GRAND SLAM 2023 when he fell to MJF in their first AEW World Championship match; that's nine consecutive wins, one in a Three Way Match, and eight of those were championship bouts. Rhodes has a tremendous mountain to climb in Charleston; will fans see him step up into the role of challenger after ascending to the summit?

TNT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Adam Copeland(c) vs. Penta El Zero Miedo

https://www.youtube.com/embed/CtCLbC4kfIM?si=TduUfzPe1UBysyn5&start=302

Coming off a tremendous Cope Open TNT Championship defense against Matt Cardona, Adam Copeland was issued a challenge by former AEW World Tag Champion Penta El Zero Miedo for a TNT Title fight! Cope is certainly not going to walk away from any challenge, definitely not turning one down, one can't help but wonder if he knows what he's getting himself into with this fight?

Though most of Penta's All Elite Wrestling tenure has been in the tag team or trios divisions, he's had his fair share of championship challenges in the singles ranks. He last fought for the TNT Title March 25th of last year, falling to Powerhouse Hobbs on that edition of RAMPAGE, but he's also challenged Orange Cassidy for the International Championship, Jon Moxley for the AEW World Title, as well as been involved in multiple contender's matches over the last five years, and that's just in AEW!

Step outside of the realm of All Elite Wrestling, and one will see that Penta El Zero Miedo has had thirteen singles champion reigns across the wrestling landscape! Be it in the United States or Mexico, Penta has proven himself as singles competitor many time over, and depending on what homework Adam Copeland has done, that may come as a surprise to the defending TNT Champion. Now these Cope Opens have forced Adam to stretch himself as a professional wrestler, with fighting a wide range of styles from Minoru Suzuki to Cardona to Dante Martin one doesn't have much choice, and Penta El Zero Miedo represents another way Copeland will have to adapt his game.

Can the former AEW World Tag Champion win his first singles title since 2018, and his first-ever All Elite Wrestling one? Or will this fight demonstrate that Adam Copeland may be the most resilient, adaptable competitor on the AEW roster?

CHARLESTON CHAMPIONSHIP CHAMPAGNE TOAST…

We know that former AEW Women's World Champion Thunder Rosa will face current AEW Women's World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm at DYNASTY 2024 on April 21st in St. Louis, but what we don't know is just what Storm has planned with this Charleston Championship Champagne Toast. It's clear that this is  a heated issue, the words exchanged between Storm and Rosa have been less than complimentary to say the least, so there's zero chance this toast will be a celebration of “La Mera Mera”, more likely the champion giving herself a toast ahead of her next title fight. But how will that play out on Wednesday night at the Charleston Coliseum? Is it going to break down to fisticuffs between Thunder Rosa and Toni Storm?

TRIOS MATCH…

LionHOOK (Chris Jerisho, FTW Champion HOOK, & Katsuyori Shibata) vs.

Shane Taylor Promotions (Anthony Ogogo, Lee Moriarty, & Shane Taylor)

Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty may have lost the fight to LionHOOK last week, but it certainly did look like it in the aftermath of the match, not when “The Guv'nor” Anthony Ogogo was throwing fists alongside the members of Shane Taylor Promotions. Having been absent from the AEW landscape for eleven months, Ogogo made a return to AEW screens during the ZERO HOUR prior to ALL IN: LONDON, but disappeared for another seven months until the tremendous impact Ogogo made upon Chris Jericho's face with this return following the LionHOOK victory over STP on last week's COLLISION. It was quite a shock to see “The Guv'nor” back in All Elite Wrestling after he'd been utterly silent for so long, but he wasn't just sitting at home doing nothing during his time away.

In fact Ogogo was doing the best thing possible for his career and putting in ring work outside of All Elite Wrestling. He's put in the work with RevPro and PROGRESS in England, competed for Southern Honor Wrestling in Atlanta, as well as several other United States independents, all to keep himself in prime fighting condition and garner more experience until the time came to return to AEW action. Well that call came from Shane Taylor ahead of this past COLLISION, and we will see if it pays off this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE when Ogogo, Shane Taylor, and Lee Moriarty take on LionHOOK and their surprising third man, Katsuyori Shibata!

Now this will mark Ogogo's first match on DYNAMITE in nearly three years, as well as his first time uniting with STP in a match, but so too is it Shibata's first outing with Jericho and HOOK as his partners, though not his first time standing side-by-side with the FTW Champion. That took place last November when he, HOOK, and Orange Cassidy were victorious over Jericho's former JAS allies of Daddy Magic, Cool Hand Ang, and Jake Hager.

As much of a statement as STP made last COLLISION, Shane Taylor Promotions is definitely in need of a statement victory and one over LionHOOK and Shibata certainly fits that bill! Can they accomplish that this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE?

REMATCH…

Mariah May vs. Anna Jay

https://www.youtube.com/embed/cFyl7iyLGIo?si=pFKJzG9_lUrpF6sT&start=302

Coming off a tremendous victory over Stardom's Momo Kohgo at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024 this past Friday, but still quite frustrated from her loss to Thunder Rosa last week, Mariah May comes to DYNAMITE looking for another fight, and it looks like she's got one waiting from Anna Jay!

It was only two months ago on the February 23rd edition of RAMPAGE that Mariah May defeated Anna Jay in their first meeting, so the memory is still quite fresh in the mind of both competitors. The question is which one will rise to the occasion Wednesday to take home the victory? Will it be Mariah May redeeming herself for the loss to Thunder Rosa, or will it be Anna Jay bouncing back from three straight AEW losses?

ALL IN: LONDON REVISITED…

This Wednesday night, All Elite Wrestling returns to the Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, WV for the first time since August 17th of 2022, and with it comes a huge night of action and drama! AEW World Champion Samoa Joe fights Dustin Rhodes in an Eliminator Match, The Young Bucks are promising to show never-before-seen footage from ALL IN: LONDON, AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm is promising a Championship Champagne Celebration for Thunder Rosa, and her understudy Mariah May will face Anna Jay in a rematch of their April encounter! All that and more comes to you this Wednesday night live on TNT starting at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, but don't forget to drop 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, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER!

Then Saturday night, from the Truist Arena in Northern Kentucky, AEW presents a huge night of action with COLLISION and BATTLE OF THE BELTS X including AEW International Champion Roderick Strong fighting an Eliminator Bout against a man he called ally many years ago: Rocky “Azucar” Romero!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/W8bxCukt88k?si=6xxBDXP-MNch9BQ1

This Saturday COLLISION is back to its regular schedule, and with it comes a loaded night of action from the greatest professional wrestlers on the planet! It’s going down in London, ON, Canada at the Budweiser Gardens, and features two East Bracket bouts in the AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament, each involving a former AEW World Tag Championship duo! Plus Adam Copeland reignites the Cope Open, only now it will be with his newly-won TNT Championship on the line, and fresh off their excursion to CMLL on Friday night, The Blackpool Combat Club will be in Trios action against The Righteous and “The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer! All that, and plenty more, is coming your way this Saturday night as All Elite Wrestling heads down the road to DYNASTY 2024 in St. Louis!

The night begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, and fans around the world can get prepared by visiting the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, to watch highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER! Then come join us next Wednesday in Worcester, MA at the DCU Center stacked DYNAMITE featuring The Young Bucks versus Orange Cassidy & Trent Beretta in the Semi-Finals of the World Tag Title Tournament!

EAST BRACKET: WORLD TAG TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTER-FINAL…

FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) vs. The Infantry (Capt. Shawn Dean & Carlie Bravo)

***FACES WINNER OF TOP FLIGHT VS. STARKS/BIG BILL***

Though they owe a debt of gratitude to Mark Briscoe for helping to facilitate their victory over The House of Black in the Wild Card Round, The Infantry of Carlie Bravo and Capt. Shawn Dean find themselves in the Quarter-Finals of the AEW World Tag Team Championship tournament, and faced with one of the greatest teams in professional wrestling history. It’s the biggest moment in their entire tag team career, and it plays out before the entire world this Saturday on COLLISION.

FTR, Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler, had a Hall of Fame resume before they debuted for All Elite Wrestling, and since coming into AEW in the fall of 2020, have only bolstered that resume with two AEW World Tag Team Championship reigns, a ROH World Tag Team Championship reign, a AAA World Tag Title reign, and an IWGP World Tag Title reign. They are perpetually in the conversation of which team in AEW is the best, and have been on the hunt for a third AEW World Tag reign since Big Bill and Ricky Starks defeated them last October. 

For both FTR and The Infantry, this Saturday night is a pivotal moment in their careers, and though it’s obvious why that is the case for Carlie Bravo and Capt. Shawn Dean, perhaps it’s less so for the case of FTR. The fact that they’ve already won so many championships in their tag team career doesn’t mean Dax and Cash aren’t always gunning for another run atop the division, it doesn’t make any victory mean less because they’ve been there before, in fact it’s quite the opposite. FTR know how much it means to be hold the AEW World Tag Titles, they know what that experience is like, and they crave having it once again by coming out on the top of this tournament.

So will we see FTR add more accolades to their championship resume, or will The Infantry find another way to upset the apple cart and move on to the Semi-Final round of the East Bracket? The winner of this contest will meet either Top Flight or Big Bill and Ricky Starks in that round, and it’s a safe bet who FTR would want to fight should they advance to the Semi’s!

EAST BRACKET: WORLD TAG TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTER-FINAL…

Big Bill & Ricky Starks vs. Top Flight (Dante & Darius Martin)

***FACES WINNER OF FTR/INFANTRY***

Big Bill and Ricky Starks have not been seen inside an AEW ring since the February 7th edition of DYNAMITE when Darby Allin and Sting defeated them for the AEW World Tag Team Championship. Starks, generally a prolific poster on his social media, hasn’t shared anything since February 25th, while Big Bill has only shared posts about upcoming AEW events. Overall they’ve been quite quiet, leading to a whole lot of speculation about their status in All Elite Wrestling, and their status as a team. They were never a duo made up of best friends, they aren’t brothers or related in any fashion, they were simply allies of convenience who ended up making a tremendous team, and tasted rapid success by claiming the AEW World Tag Titles from FTR in their second fight as a tag team. 

Overall Bill and Ricky went 6-0 as a team prior to losing the titles to Darby and Sting, defeating two different BCC teams, The Dark Order of Reynolds and Silver, Jericho and Guevera, FTR of course, and won the FULL GEAR 2023 Ladder Match over three other tag teams, but one team they never faced during that time was Top Flight. 

So given the silence from Big Bill and Ricky Starks, it came as a bit of a surprise when they were announced as participants in this tournament to crown new champions after Darby vacated the titles in the aftermath of Sting’s REVOLUTION 2024 retirement. But here the former champions are, ready to get back into the hunt this Saturday night on COLLISION, and they kick off this campaign to regain the titles with a first-time bout against Top Flight.

It’s been over a year since the lone AEW World Tag Title opportunity that Dante and Darius ever had, a loss to The Gunns on the 3/22/23 edition of DYNAMITE, and they would love to run the table on this tournament and finally rise to the top of AEW’s stacked tag team division! Will it be the former champions who advance on Saturday, or the two young men who’ve never held a championship in AEW or ROH? The winner of this one faces the winner of the aforementioned FTR/Infantry battle also taking place on COLLISION…

COPE OPEN TNT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Adam Copeland(c) vs. ????

He was battered and bruised, broken and bloody, but it certainly felt like Adam Copeland had rarely been happier than he was in the aftermath of his TNT Championship victory over Christian Cage. Making his former best friend, a man his children called Uncle, say the words “I Quit” brought a sense of relief and satisfaction to Cope, but also the realization that the work had only just begun. Everything it took to get the TNT Championship, the wear and tear it put on his body, the heartbreak it put on his family, it was all just part one of the journey.

Part two begins this Saturday night on COLLISION when Adam begins The Cope Open anew only now with the TNT Championship at stake! It’s a return to how the TNT Championship was first introduced, and how it was carried by nearly every champion not named Christian Cage. Men like Cody Rhodes, Darby Allin, and Sammy Guevara carried on an Open Challenge tradition for that belt, and that is reborn now that the title is around the waist of a stand-up competitor like Adam Copeland!

That question is who will step up to the challenge and try to wrestle the TNT Championship away from Adam in his first defense? Previous Cope Open competitors included Dante Martin and Minoru Suzuki, each pushing Adam in different fashions, so who will it be this time? Will it be another young talent trying to break through to the next level? Will it be a well-established warrior looking for a title they’ve never held? Or maybe someone from outside the auspices of All Elite Wrestling hoping to earn their way in as Ricky Starks and Eddie Kingston did in the early days of the TNT Championship? 

It’s an exciting thing to speculate on just who may step up to the plate and take a swing at Adam Copeland’s TNT Championship, but will it be a gamble that blows up in the defending champion’s face?

TROIS BOUT…

“The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer & The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) vs.

Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli) and Katsuyori Shibata

https://www.youtube.com/embed/1G7tE_vacoo?si=MTb3dUN6VOtumN2Y

Two weeks ago on COLLISION, Claudio Castagnoli and Lance Archer met in a battle of AEW behemoths, but unfortunately the bout came to an unsatisfying conclusion for all as The Righteous assaulted Castagnoli just as he began to Giant Swing “The Murderhawk Monster”! Bryan Danielson tried to stem the assault, but he got dropped by The Righteous as well. It was only the arrival of Katsuyori Shibata, and the chair he had in hand, that sent Dutch, Vincent, and Archer heading for the hills.

That assist was a tremendous show of respect from “The Wrestler”, stemming from the fight he and Bryan had earlier in the night, and now that sign of respect has blossomed into a full-blown alliance, at least for one night, as he teams with Bryan and Claudio to take on Archer and The Righteous in Trios competition!

The two BCC members are fresh off a fight at Arena Mexico for CMLL’s HOMENAJE A DOS LEYENDAS event, having hopped on a flight to Canada early Saturday morning to get to London for this fight, but there are no excuses when it comes to The Blackpool Combat Club, and they will be ready to throw down on COLLISION! Archer and The Righteous have a slight experience advantage as a Trio, but is it enough to overcome the onslaught that Shibata and The BCC will bring to bear?

FIGHTING LIKE A CHAMPION…

Thunder Rosa vs. Lady Frost

Last time she set foot in the ring, Thunder Rosa accomplished something no one else had done since GRAND SLAM 2023 when she pinned Toni Storm’s shoulders to the mat for a tag team victory. It may not have sat well with Deonna Purrazzo, that forced tag that got Thunder into the match in the first place, but it was a win for their team nonetheless, though Rosa’s “when I win you can have the first shot” comment could be taken as rather condescending.

That’s an issue for another time though, right now is time for Thunder Rosa to prepare for another fight on her road back to the top of AEW’s Women’s Division, not to celebrate her seventh consecutive victory since returning from a near career ending injury. This Saturday she steps into the ring with Lady Frost, a woman she’s never faced in AEW and only encountered once in their careers back in May 2021, and someone who has been on the cusp of breaking out with her incredible combination of heart, skill, and athleticism. She’s gave Kris Statlander two tremendous fights in TBS Championship bouts, and one to Julia Hart as well, not to mention the battles with Mariah May and Serena Deeb this year, but Frost hasn’t quite been able to put it together for a victory quite yet. 

Will Saturday night be the night Lady Frost finds the key to her first AEW win, or will she be another brick in Thunder Rosa’s road a championship fight with “Timeless” Toni Storm?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/eRQKx_wWgsE?si=809bOPDqLYhK4Aay

With two AEW World Tag Title Tournament Quarter-Final bouts, a TNT Championship contest, and The BCC in Trios action against The Righteous and Lance Archer, COLLISION is bringing a wild one to London, ON, Canada and the Budweiser Gardens! The night gets underway 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, and fans everywhere can get ready for it all by swinging by the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s assorted social media outlets, to catch highlights from Wednesday’s DYNAMITE and Friday’s RAMPAGE, as well as the CONTROL CENTER with Tony Schiavone! Then meet All Elite Wrestling next Wednesday at the DCU Center in Worcester, MA for a loaded episode of DYNAMITE featuring another Don Callis Family clash, this time between Will Ospreay and Powerhouse Hobbs!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/RGrTWzsUELE?si=1TTktPGv-ZapW9VH

Anthony Boyle Interview by Big Gold Belt Media with @CamsCollection-Synopsis:Based on the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning nonfiction book from author James L. Swanson, “Manhunt” is a conspiracy thriller about one of the best…

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Creator: Monica Beletsky Interview by Big Gold Belt MediaCreator-Synopsis:Based on the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning nonfiction book from author James L. Swanson, “Manhunt” is a conspiracy thriller about one of the best known…

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ManHunt review by Big Gold Belt Media with @CamsCollection-Synopsis:The upcoming, seven-part true crime limited series is set to make its global debut on Apple TV+ with the first two episodes airing on Friday, March 15, 2024,…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/A3SGmQo48no?si=xVEacLinUhU3FDvG

In the aftermath of REVOLUTION 2024 and “The Icon” Sting’s amazing final match, All Elite Wrestling returns to the Gas South Arena in Duluth, GA for TWO huge nights of professional wrestling starting on March 6th with DYNAMITE! With Sting going out undefeated, and as ½ of the AEW World Tag Team Champions, what does the future of those titles look like? During the REVOLUTION Media Scrum AEW GM Tony Khan mentioned holding a tournament to crown new champions, so what shape will that take? And knowing that we are now on the road to DYNASTY 2024 on April 21st in St. Louis, how will the AEW locker room step up for that pay-per-view extravaganza coming to the Chaifetz Arena Do not miss out on this Wednesday’s DYNAMITE as the future of AEW takes shape!

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 REVOLUTION 2024, DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, COLLISION, the latest CONTROL CENTER, and so much more! Then join us this Thursday night right back at Gas South for a night of COLLISION!

SINGLES MATCH…

ROH World TV Champion Kyle Fletcher vs. “The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay

What a fight Will Ospreay had on Sunday night at REVOLUTION 2024! He and Konosuke Takeshita, despite both being Don Callis Family members, decimated one another in hopes of achieving victory, but ultimately the decision went to “The Aerial Assassin”. So taxing was the battle that during the post-PPV media scrum AEW GM Tony Khan noted that Ospreay might not be medically cleared to compete in this contest with Kyle Fletcher that was announced during the REVOLUTION broadcast. Thankfully for all parties involved, but primarily for the health of Ospreay, he was cleared to compete and this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, we will witness two friends collide in their first singles match since October 2020! 

The in-ring relationship between Fletcher and Ospreay dates back to December 2018 and battles over the PROGRESS Tag Team Championships, including a near 45-minute Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match won by Aussie Open of Fletcher and Mark Davis. The two would also unite Melbourne City Wrestling in Australia to challenge for that company’s tag team championship, as well as go head-to-head over RevPro’s Undisputed British Heavyweight Title held by Ospreay. Their fights as foes, and their time as allies, led Ospreay to recruit Aussie Open to his United Empire group in NJPW, and that collective proved a most formidable force in New Japan, RevPro, OTT, and here in AEW where they took part in the inaugural tournament to crown the first AEW World Trios Champions. 

Though it’s been many months since Fletcher and Ospreay occupied the same space, their friendship has endured, but now that they’re both under the AEW umbrella, and in the Callis Family, the sky is the limit on what they could accomplish together! But before that possibility becomes a reality, the current ROH World Television Champion and the former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion are going to go one-on-one! For Ospreay this will mark his first match on DYNAMITE since 8/31/22, and his first singles bout on AEW’s flagship since 6/15/22, so he’s going to be coming in to make a statement to the fans watching around the world as well everyone in the AEW locker room. For Fletcher this also carries the potential for a statement victory, and as ROH World TV Champion (a title Ospreay himself held for 2 days in 2016) would be a huge bolster to his profile heading towards SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024 in Philadelphia.

One question need be asked though; how many intrafamilial fights can The Don Callis Family withstand? 

ONE-ON-ONE…

Former TBS Champion Kris Statlander vs. Former Women’s World Champion Riho

It’s been over four years since the last time Kris Statlander and Riho met inside the AEW ring for a one-on-one match, long before the creation of the TBS Championship, and just three months into Riho’s reign as the first AEW Women’s World Champion. Unfortunately for Riho, it also turned out to be her final successful title defense as Nyla Rose would bring her reign crashing to an end one month later. 

Stat and Riho would compete against one another in a Four Way in March 2020, and be partners in a pair of Trios match in 2021, but have not shared a ring since the 11/16/21 edition of DARK, but with Riho’s return to AEW competition last Friday night on RAMPAGE, and Kris’s tag team victory on the REVOLUTION 2024: ZERO HOUR, the two will meet once more this Wednesday night!

It’s clear from Stokely’s post-match comments that championships are the ultimate goal of Statlander and Willow Nightingale, and scoring a victory over the first-ever Women’s World Champion would be a huge boost for Statlander in that regards, just as a win over the former TBS Champ would be a boon to Riho’s return, after all she’s never challenged for the championship currently around the waist of Julia Hart. As for Stat, she hasn’t yet received a rematch for the TBS Championship she wasn’t actually beaten for, nor has she challenged for the AEW Women’s World Title since ALL OUT 2021 during Dr. Britt Baker’s reign, so this is going to be a hotly contested battle between two women looking to become contenders!

THE FUTURE OF THE TAG TEAM TITLES?

Though it was quite the unforgettable, emotional, historic night this past Sunday at REVOLUTION 2024 as All Elite Wrestling honored the iconic career of Sting, one thing that cannot go unmentioned is the fact that he and Darby Allin ended the night still the reigning AEW World Tag Team Champions. It was a milestone for Sting to retire undefeated in AEW, and an even greater accomplishment to do so with the championship around his waist, but with his retirement from competition, and Darby with no plans to continue on as tag team without Sting, the AEW World Tag Team Championship was declared vacant by AEW GM Tony Khan during the post-PPV Media Scrum. In addition, Tony Khan also made mention of a tournament being held to crown new champions, something akin to AEW’s own March Madness brackets, and that’s already led to several AEW tag teams throwing their names into the hats.

So what will this tournament look like? How will the future of the AEW World Tag Team Championship titles take shape? Only time will tell, but it is a question on the lips of teams around the world who love nothing more than to be the ones to claim the vacant crown as their own! Also, given their defeat in Sunday night’s World Tag Team Championship match, one can’t help but wonder if the above post from The Young Bucks has anything to do with this situation…

FTW CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

HOOK(c) vs. “The Machine” Brian Cage

It’s been building for weeks now, reaching a fever pitch during the All-Star 8-Man Scramble Sunday night, and finally on Wednesday night, “The Machine” Brian Cage will clash with FTW Champion HOOK with the title on the line! Given the history of the two men under the Team Taz banner, not to mention the sheer fact that HOOK’s father was the one who not only brought Cage to AEW but also bequeathed him the FTW Championship in the first place, this is going to be a heated affair. 

In addition to the REVOLUTION 2024 Scramble, these two competitors have been on opposing sides of a pair of multi-man matches in 2024 with Brian Cage’s side winning both bouts, but this will mark their first-ever singles match. Between his two reigns with the title, HOOK has been FTW Champion for 549 out of the last 588 days, with his first reign comprising 357 of those days, leaving him twenty days shy of surpassing Cage’s tenure as champion, and twenty-one shy of Ricky Starks’ record of 378. 

Can HOOK make it past “The Machine” this Wednesday on DYNAMITE and continue the long trek towards breaking the records set by his former Team Taz allies? Or will Brian Cage, with the support of Prince Nana and The Mogul Embassy, begin a second reign of domination as FTW Champion?

IS THE UNDISPUTED AGE UPON US?

Coming out of REVOLUTION 2024 there is one thing for certain, The Undisputed Kingdom is on top of the world! Not only did Roderick Strong dethrone 2-Time AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy to claim that title as his own, but Wardlow also dominated in the All-Star 8-Man Scramble match to earn a future AEW World Championship match with Samoa Joe. Between Strong and Taven/Bennett, The UK already has two championships in their camp, with the potential for a third down the line, and thus are clearly riding high based on the words shared in the video above. Yet an unknown variable was inserted into the mix this past Sunday night when Kyle O’Reilly made his long-awaited return to All Elite Wrestling following Strong’s victory over OC! For a moment it seemed like Kyle would fight his friends, then like he would join their ranks, but ultimately Kyle simply whispered something into Roderick’s ear before walking away from the ring with eyes full of emotion. 

While The Undisputed Kingdom has much to celebrate, there are many questions to be asked, such as what does their future hold as it pertains to Kyle O’Reilly and how long will Wardlow have to wait for his shot at AEW World Champion Samoa Joe? Tune in this Wednesday night to DYNAMITE to see how it all unfolds for O’Reilly, Adam Cole, new AEW International Champion Roderick Strong, ROH World Tag Champions Taven & Bennett, and new #1 Contender Wardlow!

Even though we are all still recovering from REVOLUTION 2024 and Sting’s farewell to in-ring competition, All Elite Wrestling has to move forward and that means a return to the Gas South Arena in Duluth, GA for DYNAMITE, and starting on the road to DYNASTY 2024 in St. Louis on April 21st!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mkPKGzxo4Nc?si=J5WW-U0t747h1Rru

DYNAMITE comes your way at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, with ROH World TV Champion Kyle Fletcher taking on Will Ospreay, former TBS Champion Kris Statlander battling the original Women’s World Champion Riho, and plenty more on tap! Make a point to visit the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s assorted social media platforms, for highlights from REVOLUTION 2024, as well as last week’s episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, COLLISION, the latest CONTROL CENTER, and so much more! Then join us this Thursday night right back at Gas South for a night of 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!

Halo Season 2 Episode 5 Review & Recap “Aleria” by Big Gold Belt Media with @AroundTheGeek-Episode Synopsis:Episode 5 – “Aleria”In the aftermath of defeat, the survivors struggle to pick up the pieces. On the desolate planet…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/NkbintHOOdc?si=KFibaQrb2WSSD2nT&start=244

This Friday night RAMPAGE hails from The BOK Center in Tulsa, OK, and we are back at our traditional start time of 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, and there is quite an exciting night of combat lined up for the AEW faithful! In the aftermath of his No DQ fight with Jeff Hardy last week, we will hear from “The Spanish God” Sammy Guevara, plus Mariah May locks up with Anna Jay, The Young Bucks will apparently be in action to prepare for REVOLUTION 2024’s fight with Darby Allin and Sting, Roddy takes on Oklahoma’s own Jake Hager, and let’s not forget the wild 3-Way Trios going down in Tulsa! 

Before the night 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!

ONE-ON-ONE…

Roderick Strong vs. Jake Hager

In one of the more unexpected moments of one competitor coming to another’s rescue, this past Wednesday night on DYNAMITE it was Jake Hager who arrived on the scene to help AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy as he once more fell victim to a Undisputed Kingdom assault. Without Chuck Taylor, Trent Beretta, or Rocky Romero anywhere in the vicinity to lend a hand, it seemed OC was destined to be battered by Roderick Strong, Matt Taven, and Mike Bennett, but with AEW being in his home state, Hager took it upon himself to do the right thing.

It may have been the first time since arriving in AEW that Hager actually did the right thing, but late is better than never, and it couldn’t have come at a more crucial time for Orange Cassidy, insuring he remained intact for his REVOLUTION 2024 championship defense against Roddy. But apparently good deeds do not come without consequence, and this Friday night on RAMPAGE Jake Hager faces his consequences in the form of a singles match with Roderick!

This will mark the first time these two men have ever gone one-on-one inside a wrestling ring, and just the second time they’ve even been in the same match in their entire careers. It’s liable to be a hard-hitting affair, but one that will likely see Matt Taven and Mike Bennett stalking around ringside. Can Hager counteract their presence at ringside? Will OC return the favor Hager did for him by attempting to neutralize The UK members? Tune in Friday night to find out how this one goes down!

SINGLES MATCH…

Mariah May vs. Anna Jay

Anna Jay is coming off a hard-fought loss to Queen Aminata last week on RAMPAGE, one that ended with a show of respect between the two women, a sign of appreciation for the fight they gave one another, and Anna’s recognition of Aminata finally scoring her first singles victory in All Elite Wrestling.

Unfortunately Anna Jay isn’t likely to see that same sort of respect this Friday night, regardless of how the match goes, because her opponent is Toni Storm’s biggest fan: Mariah May! Mariah remains rather desperate to get Toni Storm’s attention on her actual in-ring work rather than just on her slavish fan-girl devotion to the AEW Women’s World Champion, but there always seems to be a reason for Storm to not partake in viewing Mariah’s bouts. 

That makes this an interesting bout to watch unfold as Anna Jay really needs a win to not only get back on track, but to also push towards joining the rankings. Mariah, on the other hand, has occupied the number five spot for the first two weeks of the reborn rankings, and a victory would not only keep her there, but also possibly boost her up towards the top spot. That is an interesting situation in itself, the idea of Mariah in the top spot, but one that can wait until after REVOLUTION 2024 to see where the AEW Women’s World Championship rests.

3-WAY TRIOS MATCH…

Action Andretti & Top Flight (Dante & Darius Martin) vs. Bryan Keith, Komander, & Penta El Zero Miedo vs. Matt Sydal & Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen)

With the rankings back, one segment of AEW that was never part of their original incarnation was the Trios Division. So while The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass sit atop the division as champions, there are plenty of men who want to ascend to the status of contender, who want that opportunity to score an AEW championship, and those willing to create their own trio could be in a prime spot to take over the rankings!

That’s what we have here this Friday night on RAMPAGE when these three trios, two of which are uniting for the first time, come together in what is sure to be a wild, high-flying affair! Action Andretti and Top Flight are obviously the most experienced unit in this contest, with victories over Isiah Kassidy (as he teamed with The Hardys), Penta and Komander (as they united with El Hijo del Vikingo), and the CHAOS trio of OC, Trent, and Rocky Romero. That being said, their foes in this Three Way are also quite experienced in their own ways, and then there’s the recent history between Private Party and Top Flight that plays into this dynamic as well. Which trio will rise to occasion on Friday night, and perhaps make enough of an impact to crack the rankings? Whichever trio it may be, all three are going to have their work cut out for them trying to score a win among the inevitable chaos!

ALSO FEATURING:

-The Young Bucks in tag team action!

-We’ll hear from Sammy Guevara!!

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The BOK Center in Tulsa, OK hosts this Friday night’s edition of RAMPAGE and we are back at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, with a wild Three-Way Trios match pitting Andretti & Top Flight versus Sydal & Private Party versus Bryan Keith, Penta, and Komander! Plus, Anna Jay battles Mariah May, The EVPs Matthew and Nicholas Jackson will apparently be in action, and Roderick Strong will tackle Oklahoma’s own Jake Hager! We will also hear from Sammy Guevara following his No Disqualification battle with Jeff Hardy, and more!

Before bell time, swing on by the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s assorted 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!

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Coming off a red-hot RAMPAGE and a history-making DYNAMITE, this Saturday night All Elite Wrestling comes to Henderson, NV and the Dollar Loan Center for a stacked edition of COLLISION! After their fight on Wednesday, and the locker room clearing situation that erupted afterward, The Blackpool Combat Club of Claudio Castagnoli and Jon Moxley will take on CMLL’s Esfinge and Star Jr. in tag team action! Plus, AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm is in action once again, this time against the hard-striking Queen Aminata, Mark Briscoe takes on The House of Black’s Brody King, and Deonna Purrazzo will be in a fight with Kiera Hogan!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/cJi1G1vJ6iY?si=wxs8T7mK1SnmjwSS&start=228

The night begins 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!

AEW INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Orange Cassidy(c) vs. “The Stone Pitbull” Tomohiro Ishii

Despite his date with Roderick Strong on March 3rd, Orange Cassidy still plans to be a fighting champion on the road to REVOLUTION 2024, willing to take on any competitor, be it friend or foe, enemy or ally. That’s why this Saturday night on COLLISION, the AEW International Champion will take on one of his CHAOS allies in “The Stone Pitbull” Tomohiro Ishii!

This seems to be a bit of an issue for Trent Beretta, though he hasn’t outright said it, but it’s not as if OC didn’t give Beretta an opportunity during his first International Championship reign, it’s not as if Ishii is the first friend Orange has fought over the title, Rocky Romero had one too. In fact, in the eyes of Cassidy, it seems like giving “The Stone Pitbull” a title shot is the right thing to do because of the times he’s been there for OC and The Best Friends. 

It’s difficult to say is the toughest challenge of Orange Cassidy’s second reign as champion, after all he went to battle with Claudio Castagnoli and Jon Moxley in his first month, but Ishii is certainly one of the toughest of either run with the International Title, certainly one of the hardest hitting who will not hesitate to blister Cassidy the way he blistered Chris Jericho in their ROH World Championship bout back on Thanksgiving Eve 2022. Cassidy is going to have to fight for every inch in this meeting on Saturday, and do his best to avoid a striking situation as Ishii’s hands are like stone. If nothing else, getting hit by those hands will at least prepare Cassidy for what it feels like to get chopped by Roderick Strong…

ONE-ON-ONE…

AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm vs. Queen Aminata

Queen Aminata has had numerous opportunities over the past several weeks to fight the best AEW has to offer, the likes of Thunder Rosa, Mariah May, Serena Deeb, and Willow Nightingale to name a few, and though she’s looked impressive in each, Aminata has yet to secure victory in AEW singles competition. Seventeen singles losses since her April 2021 debut, six of those in 2024, and no matter how much you may hear commentary and fans sing your praises, and discuss your strong suits in the ring, it becomes frustrating to be so close to breaking through.

But that doesn’t mean stop, that doesn’t mean lay down and die, that means keep fighting until there is no fight left in your body, keep fighting until you break through to that next level, keep fighting until you’re standing on top of that mountain and prove all that praise was well-deserved. That is the path of Queen Aminata at this point, that is her struggle, and this Saturday night she has the biggest opportunity of her AEW career because it will be AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm standing across the ring.

This may not be a championship bout or even an Eliminator fight, but it is still a match with the World Champion and that means a victory will garner headlines, earn respect, and prove Queen Aminata belongs among the elite. Toni has her focus on Deonna Purrazzo at the moment, and their impending championship fight at REVOLUTION 2024, meaning she may be ripe for the picking by another foe, meaning this could be Aminata’s opportunity to rise up the ranks with a quickness. Can she finally get the “W” that’s eluded her in AEW thus far?

SINGLES MATCH…

(#1) Deonna Purrazzo vs. Kiera Hogan

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander; if Toni Storm is going to be in action against a top tier opponent to stay tuned up for REVOLUTION 2024, than so too will Deonna Purrazzo! That is why Saturday night on COLLISION, “The Virtuosa” will go one-on-one with “The Girl on Fire” Kiera Hogan for the first time since October 2016!

They’ve fought in a handful of matches since that victory by Deonna, four way and three ways and multi-woman affairs, but nothing one-on-one until this evening in Nevada. Though her championship challenge is set for March 3rd on pay-per-view, each time “The Virtuosa” steps into the ring, she is putting her title opportunity at risk, as well as that #1 spot in the rankings. If she loses to someone like Kiera Hogan who, though a supremely talented a competitor she may be, is not a ranked combatant, will it play against Deonna’s championship opportunity? Or does it simply serve to slide Hogan into a better position for the aftermath of REVOLUTION 204 should Purrazzo defeat Toni Storm?

However it plays out, Toni Storm better keep as close an eye on this one as Deonna will keep on Storm’s Saturday night fight!

TAG TEAM BATTLE…

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

Esfinge is the current Mexican National Light Heavyweight Champion, Star Jr. is a former CMLL World Trios Champion with Volador Jr. and Atlantis Jr., and together they make their in-ring debut for All Elite Wrestling on Saturday night! In what appears to be their first tag team bout (though they are quite versed in trios competition together) these two CMLL representatives will take on two of AEW’s best in Claudio Castagnoli and Jon Moxley!

Coming off a RAMPAGE where Mistico was victorious over Matt Sydal, but a DYNAMITE where The BCC defeated Hechicero, Mascara Dorada & Volador Jr., this fight marks the latest in the ever-escalating battle between The Blackpool Combat Club specifically, AEW as a whole, and the CMLL contingent. 

Thus far, with Danielson’s victory over Hechicero as well as the aforementioned win on DYNAMITE, The BCC hold dominance over the luchadors from CMLL, and this will be an interesting test as you’ve got a BCC duo that’s 9-1 as a team versus a first-time tag pairing, though Star Jr. and Esfinge’s experience as trios allies may prove a boon for this bout.

Can the CMLL duo score their units first victory over The Blackpool Combat Club, and prove themselves equals to “the elite of the elite”, as Moxley referred to his unit? Or will this be The BCC continue to prove why they are the most dominating force in professional wrestling today?

SINGLES MATCH…

Mark Briscoe vs. The House of Black’s Brody King

Mark Briscoe had every intention of being there for FTR against The House of Black, and he was more than willing to step inside that Steel Cage in Daniel Garcia’s stead after the assault perpetrated on Garcia put his status in doubt. The House of Black had different idea though, and made sure the 13-time former ROH World Tag Champion was taken out of the equation before anyone set foot inside the cage.

But if The House thought that would be the end of Mark Briscoe in their life, well they’ve got another thing coming, and Brody King absolutely should’ve known better. See Mark and Brody are no stranger to each other, from Ring of Honor to GCW to the NWA, these two men have gone into battle in tag team situations, as well as trios, and have fought over several different championships. They’ve taken the measure of one another with partners at their side, and as a result of all that, Brody King should’ve known Mark Briscoe wasn’t just going to fade away; he should’ve know a fight was coming, and coming fast.

That fight is here this Saturday night on COLLISION when Mark Briscoe and Brody King lock up in their very first one-on-one match! Each man went through it in the Continental Classic, and now they step back into singles competition as Mark aims to bring the battle right to The House’s front door!

SINGLES CHALLENGE…

Daniel Garcia vs. Shane Taylor

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Daniel Garcia wants that TNT Championship, and even though he got the victory in the trios match last week, he’s going to need to build up his resume to get a shot at Christian Cage, and that begins this Saturday night on COLLISION with a fight against Shane Taylor!

Taylor, along with Lee Moriarty, are primed to ascend up the AEW ladder and take the respect they feel they’re owed. We all saw it with the fight they gave The Blackpool Combat Club, and Shane Taylor will throw those same blows at Daniel Garcia in their impending one-on-one battle! It’s a huge opportunity for both men to assert themselves in the singles ranks, a realm in which both previously had championship success under the ROH banner, but neither have managed to be a title holder in All Elite Wrestling as of yet.

Who will step up in the ranks on COLLISION, and who will be left frustrated in defeat?

This Saturday night, All Elite Wrestling brings some Saturday night fighting to Henderson, NV and the Dollar Loan Center! We’ve got The BCC fighting CMLL, “Timeless” taking on Queen Aminata, Orange Cassidy defending his AEW International Championship against CHAOS mate Tomohiro Ishii, Kiera Hogan fights Deonna Purrazzo, Mark Briscoe meets Brody King in singles competition, and more!

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!

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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! 

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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

https://www.youtube.com/embed/_kQ63q_taBY?si=Hbbev1ftZqPx7Vm2&start=320

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. ???

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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!

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On the final DYNAMITE of 2023, the AEW faithful watched as Samoa Joe stabbed AEW World Champion MJF right between the shoulder blades to cost him the ROH World Tag Team Championship to The Devil’s Masked Men! We also witnessed both Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston advance to the Continental Classic Tournament Finals taking place at WORLDS END, Sammy Guevara apparently reunited with Chris Jericho, Mariah May announce her in-ring debut for the first DYNAMITE of 2024, and so much more! It was an action-packed edition of AEW’s flagship as we barrel towards WORLDS END this Saturday night on pay-per-view!

There’s only one more sleep until WORLDS END, but before you close your eyes, there’s a matter of Friday night RAMPAGE! Coming to you from Orlando, the night begins at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, and features AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy, Rocky Romero, and Trent Beretta in Trios action against Action Andretti and Top Flight, plus Ruby Soho goes one-on-one with Marina Shafir, but now with Harley Cameron apparently attached to her side! And less than 24 hours before he engages in a FTW Rules fight with HOOK, ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta puts his title on the line against former ROH Tag Champion Matt Sydal!  We will also hear from Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara after their moment with The Don Callis Family as well as AEW World Champion MJF after he was betrayed by Samoa Joe!

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!

TRIOS MATCH…

AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy, Rocky Romero, & Trent Beretta

vs. Action Andretti & Top Flight (Dante & Darius Martin)

For the second week in a row, AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy has taken the off-handed comments of someone as a challenge. Last week it was his own friend Rocky Romero, and this time around it is the high-flying trio of Action Andretti and Top Flight who “Freshly Squeezed”, and apparently Trent Beretta, assume are looking for a fight!

Well this Friday night on RAMPAGE, less than twenty-four hours before AEW’s last PPV presentation of the year, Cassidy and his friends will clash with Action and his in a huge Trios match! Andretti and the Martin brothers are coming off a hard-fought loss in their AEW World Trios Championship challenge last Saturday night on COLLISION, and are hungry to get another shot at The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass. A victory over the International Champion, Trent Beretta, and Rocky Romero would go a long way towards the three young men achieving that goal, and who knows, if they can get that victory by beating OC, it could even mean a future date with the AEW International Championship!

Knowing what these six men are capable of, this match is certainly going to be a wild one full of high-flying action, hard-hitting offense, and the finest trios competition you’ll see anywhere in professional wrestling today!

ONE-ON-ONE…

Ruby Soho vs. Marina Shafir

Well it seems whether she likes it or not, Ruby Soho has a…helper…in the form of one Harley Cameron. It’s quite clear that Soho does not want this, but Saraya is making it happen no matter what her friend wishes. Obviously that phone call from Angelo Parker was more important to Soho than anything Saraya had to say, but perhaps this is all the former AEW Women’s World Champion’s way of apologizing for her treatment of Soho the last several weeks.

It was only a couple weeks ago that Soho challenged Saraya to go it alone against Riho to earn the WORLDS END championship match with Toni Storm, and the former champion failed to rise up on her own merits. So maybe employing Harley is as much a birthday present as a mea culpa, but regardless of the reason, hopefully it pays off for The Outcasts and isn’t just another distraction for Ruby Soho. That’s the last thing she needs when having to deal with a problem like “The Problem” Marina Shafir!

ROH PURE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Wheeler Yuta(c) vs. Matt Sydal

Though Yuta has a FTW Championship match at WORLDS END: ZERO HOUR on tap, one contested under FTW Rules, he is set to take on a challenge to his ROH Pure Championship at RAMPAGE, less than 24 hours prior to his clash with HOOK. His opponent this Friday night in Orlando: former ROH Tag Team Champion Matt Sydal!

Though Sydal was part of the 2020 Pure Title Tournament that reintroduced the championship after a fourteen year hiatus, Sydal has never fought in a Pure Rules match, much less a Pure Title bout, making this uncharted territory for the veteran of the mat wars. 

Is it wise for Yuta to step into a championship bout so close to his FTW Rules fight with HOOK?  Is it worth risking injury, or worse, losing the Pure Championship before WORLDS END? Apparently for someone the mindset of Yuta, someone with The Blackpool Combat Club mentality, the answer is yes. Hopefully Yuta doesn’t go to sleep Friday night regretting his decision…

JERICHO AND GUEVARA REUNITED???

https://www.youtube.com/embed/lHfYiBHaMHE?si=DyYPVFudZGq4oVPk&start=294

The relationship between Sammy Guevara and Chris Jericho, likely because it dates back to the dawn of DYNAMITE, has been quite tumultuous over the last four years. They’ve generally stood on the same side of the battle, though it has occasionally been a tense situation, justifiably so given the power dynamic of the relationship. Jericho has often seen Sammy as his understudy, as beneath him, while at a certain point the former 3-Time TNT Champion felt he’d proven himself an equal. It popped up during the dissolution of The Inner Circle, when Jericho was reigning as ROH World Champion, and blew up completely in the aftermath of The Jericho Appreciation Society. The final straw, or so it seemed at the moment, was Guevara choosing to stand alongside Don Callis in opposition to “The Ocho”.

Shortly thereafter “The Spanish God” suffered a serious concussion, and during his recovery from that injury, witnessed the birth of he and Tay Melo’s child, and it made a shift in where Guevara’s head is at. No longer dredging in the same depths as Don Callis, Guevara would’ve ended up another victim of a Callis Family assault if not for the arrival of Chris Jericho, followed by Darby Allin and Sting.

So where does that leave Chris Jericho and Sammy after that surprising save? We will hear what the original AEW World Champion has to say about the matter this Friday night on RAMPAGE!

It’s the final night before WORLDS END, and that means Friday night RAMPAGE is on deck! Emanating from Orlando, matches begin at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans, and include Action Andretti and Top Flight fighting AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy, Rocky Romero, and Trent Beretta in Trios action as well as plus Ruby Soho going head-to-head with Marina Shafir. In addition, Matt Sydal will challenge ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta just 24 hours before The BCC member steps into a FTW Rules match with HOOK!  We also anticipate hearing from Chris Jericho after what happened with The Don Callis Family and Sammy Guevara!

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!

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.

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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…

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