Professionals

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Last Wednesday night was jam-packed with three hours of AEW programming, starting with our traditional two hours of DYNAMITE, then immediately followed by RAMPAGE as it aired on a special night! During those three hours, the AEW faithful witnessed Adam Copeland earn back the TNT Championship by going through a hellacious “I Quit” match with Christian Cage, and saw Kazuchika Okada defeat Eddie Kingston to claim the AEW Continental Championship! In addition, Skye Blue and TBS Champion Julia Hart beat Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale in a Street Fight,  Orange Cassidy & Trent Beretta won their Wild Card bout in the Tag Title Tournament, and FTW Champion HOOK defeated Chris Jericho!

This Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, live from Quebec City, QC and the Centre Videotron, we will witness a rematch seven years in the making, one that many thought would never come to pass, when Katsuyori Shibata takes on Will Ospreay! Plus, Konosuke Takeshita will go head-to-head with Swerve Strickland, and the Quarter-Finals of the AEW World Tag Title Tournament begin when The Young Bucks meet Private Party!

Then join All Elite Wrestling in London, ON for Saturday’s COLLISION, live from the Budweiser Gardens,  for The Infantry versus FTR in the Quarter-Finals of the AEW World Tag Team Title Tournament, and so much more!

SEVEN YEARS IN THE WAITING…

“The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay vs. Katsuyori Shibata

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Eleven matches; that is how many times Katsuyori Shibata and Will Ospreay stepped into the ring between January 5th and February 11th of 2017. Seven of those times it was Shibata who came out on top, but only one of those victories came in the form of a singles match, the very last one at NJPW’s THE NEW BEGINNING IN OSAKA 2017 event. The other ten matches were all fought in trios and multi-man bouts, all save that RevPro British Heavyweight Championship fight on February 11th won by Shibata, but unfortunately a rematch never came to pass as Shibata’s career came to an end just two months later after an IWGP Heavyweight Title fight with Kazuchika Okada at SAKURA GENESIS 2017. 

Then the unimaginable happened; four years and six months later, during the G1 CLIMAX 2021 tour, Shibata shocked the world when he stepped into the ring with Zack Sabre Jr. for a five minute Grappling Rules contest! Two and a half months later, at WRESTLE KINGDOM 16, Shibata would get back into the ring with Ren Narita for a full-blow professional wrestling match, then ten months later, on the 11/4/22 edition of RAMPAGE, Shibata would make his in-ring debut for AEW in an International Championship loss to Orange Cassidy. Given the time between those two matches, it was reasonable to question whether or not Shibata was returning to full-time competition or if those were just a couple matches to test his own limits. The answer came on March 31, 2023 when, at ROH’s SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 event, Shibata won the ROH Pure Championship from Wheeler Yuta, and spent the next eight months tearing it up on both AEW and ROH events, as well as traveling to RevPro for their 11TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW. 

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After losing the Pure Championship back to Yuta last November, Shibata returned to Japan, but made a monumental return to AEW action on the March 16th COLLISION when he battled Bryan Danielson in a certified Dream Match. Here were two men that both thought their in-ring careers finished at some point in the years prior, two men who defied the odds and the expectations of medical professionals, two men who were now fighting better than they had at any previous point in their careers, and they were going to war for the AEW faithful. Danielson ultimately won the fight, and there was another man watching on who took what happened as a test he needed to take upon himself.

That man was Will Ospreay, and with his own bout against Bryan Danielson set for AEW DYNASTY on April 21st, he felt the need to test himself against Katsuyori Shibata, to see if he could succeed in 2024 where he did not in 2017, and thus made a challenge to “The Wrestler” for the fight going down this Wednesday night! Can Ospreay follow in Danielson’s footsteps and score a victory over Katsuyori Shibata in Quebec City? Or will Shibata repeat history in this monumental rematch seven years in the making?

ONE-ON-ONE…

“The Alpha” Konosuke Takeshita vs. Swerve Strickland

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Thus far in 2024, Konosuke Takeshita holds a record of 5-1 in singles matches, and 10-2 over the last twelve months in that field. That’s a run that includes victories over Chris Jericho, Darby Allin, Kenny Omega, Kyle Fletcher, as well as Rocky Romero this past Wednesday night, and has shown the world that “The Alpha” is one of the most fearsome competitors in All Elite Wrestling today. 

Over the course of his last eleven one-on-one match-ups Swerve Strickland lost exactly one time, his Continental Classic Gold League fight with Jon Moxley on 12/13/23, and was taken to a 30-Minute time limit draw by Hangman Page on 2/7/24. It’s been an incredible run for Strickland as well, and even if you factor in his two Three Way losses in the Gold League Finals and at REVOLUTION 2024, it doesn’t change that run because wasn’t the man who took the fall in either of those matches. There are few men who’ve been on a hotter streak that Swerve Strickland, and that run has put Samoa Joe’s AEW World Championship in Swerve’s crosshairs.

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For the very first time these two men, each at the top of their game, will lock horns this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, and there is certainly the possibility that the future of the AEW World Championship hinges on the result of this match! Both Takeshita and Swerve have reasonable claims to being the next challenger for Samoa Joe, based on their respective records and, in the case of Swerve, the fact he wasn’t defeated in the Three Way at REVOLUTION ’24. 

As announced Tuesday night by AEW GM Tony Khan, this match will determine the next challenger for Samoa Joe’s AEW World Championship! With that added factor, there is no doubt Samoa Joe will have his eyes on this contest as his next contender is determined!

AEW WORLD TAG TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTER-FINAL MATCH…

The Young Bucks (Matthew & Nicholas Jackson) vs. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen

On October 9, 2019, in the very first match of the original AEW World Tag Team Title Tournament, Private Party shocked the world when they defeated The Young Bucks to advance out of the Quarter-Finals. Though Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen would fall to The Lucha Brothers in the Semi-Finals, the impact was made, and the world had been forced to stand up and recognize Private Party.

A year later The Young Bucks would even up the score, pinning Isiah Kassidy to win a Four Way #1 Contenders match on 10/21/20, and would follow that up with a traditional tag team victory over Private Party on November 4th a few weeks later. Since that bout over three years ago, the two teams only met in one Trios match, though Isiah has a little more experience fighting the brothers Jackson with other partners during Marq Quen’s injury recovery, but not one other tag team match between Private Party and The Young Bucks since 2020.

That all changes this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE when, in the Quarter-Finals of the AEW World Tag Title Tournament, The Young Bucks and Private Party meet again! Since Marq Quen’s return to action in 2024, Private Party is 2-2 in tag team action, though one of those losses came in a Three Way tag with Top Flight and Bryan Keith/Komander where neither Quen nor Kassidy were the ones pinned to lose the match.  As for The EVPs, in 2024 they are 3-1 in tag team action, but to be honest about their record, two of those victories came over local competitors who frankly had no chance at actually beating the former 2-Time AEW World Tag Champions. 

The Young Bucks have a mission of becoming the first 3-Time AEW Tag Champions while Private Party have one to capture those belts for the very first time, and only one team can get closer to their objective. Will it be The Young Bucks or Private Party who advances to the Semi-Finals? And will it be The Undisputed Kingdom or the Orange Cassidy/Trent Beretta tandem who meets them there?

AEW WORLD TAG TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTER-FINAL MATCH…

The Undisputed Kingdom (ROH World Tag Team Champions Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) vs.

Orange Cassidy & Trent Beretta

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The AEW World Tag Title Tournament kicks off in full-force this Wednesday night with the aforementioned Young Bucks/Private Party match, and this Quarter-Final match pitting ROH World Tag Team Champions Matt Taven and Mike Bennett against Orange Cassidy and Trent Beretta!

Though OC and Trent have never faced this Undisputed Kingdom tandem in a tag match, Cassidy’s fight with Roderick Strong have made them all quite familiar with one another, in fact the former 2-Time International Champion beat both Taven and Bennett in singles matches on the road to REVOLUTION 2024. But on that same road, as part of their mission to remove Cassidy’s support system, The Undisputed Kingdom put a hurting on Trent Beretta, so that makes this tag team encounter as much a method of revenge as it is an opportunity to move forward in the tournament to face the winner of the Private Party/Young Bucks bout!

TBS CHAMPIONSHIP #1 CONTENDER MATCH…

Kris Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale vs. Skye Blue vs. Anna Jay

***Mercedes Moné on commentary***

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The TBS Championship is a prize greatly coveted by the women of All Elite Wrestling, and this Wednesday night four competitors will clash to see who moves on to DYNASTY 2024 to face Julia Hart! All four of these women have plenty of story with Julia Hart, especially Statlander, Nightingale, and Skye Blue given their months of battle since FULL GEAR 2023, but Anna Jay has her own reasons for wanting another fight with Julia Hart.

Hart has been the bane of Anna Jay’s AEW existence, in three bouts it has been Julia who’s won each one, including a TBS Championship fight at BATTLE OF THE BELTS IX back in January. Statlander is the woman that Julia Hart took the TBS Championship from, though technically she did not defeat Kris to win in, but Statlander has yet to be granted a rematch. Coincidentally, Julia earned that title fight at FULL GEAR 2023 by defeating Willow Nightingale in an Eliminator Bout, and of course there’s the relationship between Hart and Skye Blue that’s blossomed since Hart misted Skye many months ago. At first they were at odds, but over time the two women became thick as thieves, and have come to operate as quite the fearsome tag team, actually beating Stat and Willow in a Street Fight last Wednesday night on RAMPAGE!

This is quite the intriguing Four Way, and it will be interesting to see how TBS Champion Julia Hart responds to the outcome of the fight, especially if it is Skye Blue who earns herself the DYNASTY 2024 title match!

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Join us Wednesday night for DYNAMITE, hailing from the Centre Videotron in Quebec City, QC, and featuring the first Quarter-Final match in the AEW World Tag Title Tournament between The Young Bucks and Private Party, Takeshita versus Swerve, and a rematch years in the making between Katsuyori Shibata and Will Ospreay!!!

The meets us this Saturday in London, ON at the Budweiser Gardens for the return of COLLISION featuring former 2-Time AEW World Tag Champions FTR taking on The Infantry in a Quarter-Final match-up of the AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament!