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Power Book III Raising Kanan Season 3 Episode 2 Recap & Review “Flipmode”Power Book III Raising Kanan Season 3 Episode 2 Recap & Review S3E02 *SPOILERS*Power Book 3 Raising Kanan Season 3 Episode 2Power Book III…
Tonight’s episode of AEW DYNAMITE was broadcast live from the Target Center in Minneapolis, MN!
Excalibur and “The Human Suplex Machine” Taz were the broadcast team for tonight’s event. They were joined by “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson as a guest commentator.
It’s Wednesday night and you know what that means!
Continental Classic Gold League Match!
Blackpool Combat Club’s Jon Moxley vs. Jay Lethal!
Lethal and Moxley exchanged side headlock takeovers. Lethal slugged Moxley with a right fist. Lethal applied a figure four but Moxley rolled under the ropes and both men tumbled to the arena floor.
Jay Lethal rocketed outside with a tope suicida to Moxley. Jon Moxley fired back with a tope suicida of his own. Moxley was wrestling with a sense of urgency, while Lethal was showboating early on. Lethal retaliated with a knee breaker and a dragon screw leg whip, sensing Moxley tweaked his knee on the tope suicida landing.
Moxley scouted the Lethal Injection, but Lethal countered Moxley’s attempt at a jawbreaker with a knee breaker. Jay Lethal dropped an elbow off the top for a near fall.
“This is the Jay Lethal I want to see,” said Danielson.
Moxley nailed Lethal with a cutter. Moxley tried for a piledriver but Lethal pushed Mox into the turnbuckles. Lethal wrenched Moxley’s knee with a dragon screw off the ropes!
“This is a different Jay Lethal than we saw last week,” added Danielson.
Lethal and Moxley traded forearms. Moxley nearly decapitated Lethal with a King Kong lariat! Lethal blocked the Death Rider with the Lethal Combination. Lethal went to apply the figure four but Mox countered with a small package for a near fall.
Lethal locked on the figure four again. Moxley grabbed the ropes to force the ref to break the hold. Lethal swiped at Moxley’s knee with a kick. Moxley baited Lethal in and spiked him with a Paradigm Shift! Moxley hit the King Kong lariat and then a stuffed piledriver, but Lethal kicked out. Moxley transitioned into a rear naked choke and Jay Lethal tapped out! Moxley is the first man with six points in the tournament.
Tony Schiavone was backstage and announced Sting’s final match will be Sunday, March 3rd at the Greensboro Coliseum!
“Nature Boy” Ric Flair and Sting walked onto the set!
Sting: “March 1988, my very first World title match against Ric Flair, and I never would have guessed all these years later, I’d be standing here with Ric. The memories, that night, 45 minutes, draw, commercial free on TV. The big deal to me was I was in the ring with the Nature Boy Ric Flair. Thank you, Ric. He put me on the map. What a fitting place for me to end my career all these years later.”
Ric Flair: “Tony, just like before, the words cannot be spoken to the volume and the emphasis of what’s about to take place in Greensboro. Make no mistake. Sting made himself. I’m 74 years old, I’m lucky. I’m working for Tony Khan. I’m standing next to Sting. I’m honored to be there at your side. This will be one for the ages. Sting and the Nature Boy, and AEW, are coming to Greensboro. Wooooo!”
Sting: “It’s showtime!”
Continental Classic Gold League Match!
Mark Briscoe vs. LFI’s Rush!
Both men charged at one another and began to fight. Rush landed a big strike. Mark followed up with a running dropkick. Mark unleashed rapid fire chops. Rush returned the favor to his opponent.
Rush kicked Mark in the spine. Mark jumped through the ropes with a dropkick, as Rush was playing to the crowd. Rush whipped Rush into the steel barricade. Mark back dropped Rush onto the top of the barricade. Mark dropped the Cactus elbow off the edge of the ring.
Back in the ring, Rush sent Mark flying with a release German Suplex. Mark threw his whole body into a vicious lariat. Briscoe baited Rush in and caught him with an exploder suplex. Rush rallied back with a belly to belly suplex.
Mark speared Rush for a two-count! Mark followed up with a neck breaker. Rush slipped free from the Jay Driller. Mark dropped Rush with a kick to the back of the head. Rush suplexed Mark off the apron and onto the arena floor!
Mark Briscoe smashed Rush with the Froggy Bow for a near fall. Rush fought out of the Jay Driller, backdropping Mark. Rush baited in Mark and suplexed Mark into the turnbuckles. Rush followed up with the Bull’s Horns, right on target, and pinned Mark!
“Rush is on the board!” said Excalibur.
AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm was backstage!
Storm: “I’m feeling very fatigued after the championship celebration. I’ll be fine for my match next week!”
AEW World Champion and one half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions MJF came to the ring next!
MJF: “December 30th, World’s End, it’ll be Samoa Joe against yours truly for the AEW World Championship. When it comes to Samoa Joe as a person, I don’t like him. But professionally, I respect him. I respect what he’s done for this industry, and because he didn’t come here to line his pockets, but because he believes in AEW.
“Now back in the early 2000s, I remember getting a poster in my mailbox for TNA Wrestling. I tuned in and I couldn’t be happier. I saw the ‘Samoan Submission Machine.’ He looked unconventional, and he didn’t seem to care, and neither did we. Now unfortunately, later on in his career, his talents weren’t fully recognized, and he was not afforded the opportunity to be a world champion in WWE. But what Joe did, for this sport, was bigger than that.
“Samoa Joe proved you don’t have to be a massive, male model body builder to be a top guy in this sport. Samoa Joe broke the mold. He proved alternatives matter. And because of the roads he paved, it has allowed a man like me to stand in the ring in front of you today. Without a guy like Joe, there might not be an AEW. As much as it pains me to admit, thank you.
“I’m not too shabby myself, now am I? I managed to pave a road of my own. I’ve helped build a new alternative and I’ve helped build this place brick by brick. And I did that by defeating some of the biggest names in this industry. Guys like Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega, but of all the names I have had to face in this squared circle, the one name I look back on and say, not only was I lucky to be victorious, but I was also lucky to survive, that’d be you, Joe. Samoa Joe you are a wrestling legend. But December 30th is not about your wrestling legacy. December 30th is about my mine!
“December 30th is about can Max outlast the final boss of this sport one more time. So now, I’m going to make a promise. I’m going to make a promise to everyone watching at home and everyone in this arena. Joe, on December 30th, I don’t care if you beat me within an inch of my life, because I promise I am going to show the world it is not about the size of the dog in the fight, it is about the size of the fight in the dog! At World’s End, you are going to have to put me down!”
The arena went dark! Lights in the ring began to flicker. Men dressed all in black, their faces in black masks, with the devil logo on their backs, grabbed MJF and held him down. One of the men had a baseball bat and was about to use it on MJF!
Samoa Joe’s music hit! Samoa Joe sprinted to the ring and the men retreated!
A message on the screen read:
“In the shadows, our game begins. Next week, MJF & Samoa Joe…will you face the unknown in a tag match? Are you a hero, Max?”
MJF grabbed a microphone: “I’m so sick of your Scooby Doo BS! Let me explain something to you! I am not dealing with your crap when I’ve got Samoa Joe breathing down my back at World’s End. I am going to take out all of your men one by one. I am going to unmask you, you coward. And next week, you want a tag match? You’re one!”
Samoa Joe tried to calm down MJF and was upset when MJF accepted the challenge for next week.
Up next: Wardlow vs. AR Fox!
Fox jumped over the top rope and landed on Wardlow, but Wardlow seemed to shrug him off. Wardlow caught Fox and slammed him on the ring apron. Wardlow suplexed AR Fox back into the ring. Fox was sent flying from pillar to post!
Wardlow stalked his prey outside the ring. Wardlow threw AR Fox back into the ring. Wardlow tried to press slam Fox, but Fox escaped. Fox hit a 450 splash, but Wardlow kicked out right away! Fox booted Wardlow in the face. Wardlow absorbed it and then walloped Fox with a lariat.
Wardlow powerbombed AR Fox! Wardlow powerbombed Fox a second time! Wardlow climbed to the top and hit a huge senton on Fox! Wardlow powerbombed Fox again, and the ref stopped the match! Wardlow won via ref stoppage!
Trios Match!
Top Flight—Dante & Darius Martin, and Action Andretti
vs.
The Hardys—Matt & Jeff, and Brother Zay!
Jeff and Matt used tandem offense on Action. Darius and Brother Zay tagged in. Zay crashed into Dante with a shoulder tackle. Darius dropkicked Zay. Dante tagged in and Dante splashed Zay with a stalling senton!
Matt Hardy drilled Action with a Side Effect for a near fall. Action countered a Twist of Fate and clipped Matt with a combo of moves, including a kick to the back of Matt’s head. Dante tagged in and springboarded onto Zay for a near fall. Top Flight had a flurry of offense on the Hardys.
The Hardys hoisted up Dante on their shoulders and Zay dropkicked Dante for a two-count. Dante pinned Zay after a German Suplex! Dante is back and better than ever!
After a commercial break, Renee Paquette interviewed Dante Martin, Darius Martin, and Action Andretti!
Penta El Zero Miedo, Komander, and El Hijo del Vikingo interrupted! It appeared Penta challenged Top Flight and Action Andretti to a trios match!
TBS Championship House Rules Match!
House of Black’s Julia Hart (c.) vs. Emi Sakura!
Emi Sakura picked the stipulation: the match cannot be won by submission.
Julia bashed Emi’s head into the turnbuckles, battering her in the corner. Julia charged into the corner with a lariat to Emi Sakura. Emi chopped at Julia.
Julia rocked Emi with a spinning kick to the head. Outside the ring, Emi reversed an Irish whip and sent Julia crashing hard into the ring steps. Emi followed up with a splash, sandwiching Julia against the ring steps!
Emi stunned Julia with a stalling back breaker! Emi applied the surfboard to Julia and then dropped her hard. Julia dodged a moonsault. Julia locked in the Heartless, but there is no victory via submission tonight. Julia clubbed Emi in the back of the head with a lariat. Julia moonsaulted Emi and pinned her!
RJ City interviewed Mariah May backstage!
Mariah May: “I know I’m the new girl, but I just came here from Stardom in Japan. I’m dying to show AEW what I can do.”
Mariah knocked on Tony Khan’s door and walked into his office.
TNT Champion “The Patriarch” Christian Cage responded to Adam Copeland’s challenge for next week’s Dynamite!
Christian Cage was flanked by AEW security in the ring.
Christian Cage: “What I’d like to do right now is go ahead and invite the Rated R Superstar Adam Copeland to this ring right now. Adam, I know you’re back there. I just want to speak to you about a few things about what you said last week. If you don’t mind making your presence felt, it’d be very much appreciated.
“Adam, I would like to speak to you in the ring, if you wouldn’t mind. If the truck can hit his music, something. Maybe I should come back there and speak to him then.”
Adam Copeland’s music hit, and Copeland stormed to the ring!
Christian: “Management wanted me to have this security. It wasn’t my idea. We don’t need security here tonight. So, I’m going to ask you gentlemen to vacate the ring.
“Last week you challenged me to a match to the TNT Championship December 6th on Dynamite. I’m here to tell you that we’re not going to make it to Montreal next week. We’re not going to make it because I’m sorry. Now look, I know what you’re thinking, that I’m only sorry because I’m on an island by myself. Last week you took out the Kill Switch. You took out the “Prodigy” Nick Wayne.
“I was so mad when you hit Kill Switch with two con-chair-tos, I ran out of my house and drove with the windows down. I just needed to think. It turned into a road trip of soul searching, digging down deep, trying to figure out how I became this guy who does and says such unsavory things. And then on that drive, it started to remind me of those times we borrowed my mom’s car.
“We didn’t care where we went. We were broke. We were having the times of our lives on the road, and we were going to make it. And did we ever make it! We went on to become multiple times tag team champions. The greatest tag team that ever lived. We both became multi time World champions. Take the wrestling part of our relationship away and it runs even deeper.
“Everyone knows you grew up with a single mom, Adam. Everyone knows you didn’t have a father figure. Yes, I’m the patriarch of AEW, but I am your brother. You might not have had a father, but in turn, my father became your father. To this day, he’s still your biggest fan. I’m just going to say, we weren’t just two random guys that were thrown together. I love you, man. We are family.
“And listen to me, when your mom passed away a few years ago, that was the hardest time of your life. But sometime before she passed, she said, ‘What I wouldn’t give to see you guys in that ring tagging one last time.’ And on my drive, I thought, let’s do it for her, let’s go on this journey again. For your mom! Let’s do it for her, man.”
Adam Copeland turned around to contemplate what he just heard from Christian Cage. Christian charged at Copeland, trying to strike with a cheap shot. But Copeland saw it coming and kicked Christian with a low blow!
Adam Copeland: “Nice try, dumb ass. Sit up when I’m talking to you. Shine this belt up real nice, because next week, she’s coming home with me! Oh, by the way, I almost forgot, go f—k yourself!”
Main Event Time!
Continental Classic Gold League Match!
Swerve Strickland vs. Bullet Club Gold’s “Switchblade” Jay White!
Jay White went right after Swerve. White whipped Swerve into the steel barricade. Back in the ring, Jay White went after Swerve’s taped out shoulder. Swerve chopped Jay White. Swerve suplexed Jay right onto the top of the barricade.
Swerve jumped off the apron and stomped on Jay White’s spine. As Swerve was entering the ring, Jay White grabbed him and planted him with a DDT. Swerve got dropped on his head after a suplex from Jay White.
Swerve intercepted a chop and countered with a suplex to Switchblade. Swerve blasted Jay with a flatliner and followed up with a vertical suplex for a near fall. Jay White retaliated with a German Suplex. Swerve rallied back with a discus lariat!
“These two men! How incredible are these two men?!” said Danielson.
The fans chanted “This is awesome! This is awesome!”
Jay White chop blocked Swerve’s knee. Jay White nailed Swerve with a uranage. Jay White applied an arm bar. Swerve escaped and blasted Jay with a kill shot to White’s arm. Jay White almost inadvertently collided with the ref. As the ref had his back turned, Jay White went for a low blow, but Swerve had it scouted! Swerve rocked White with a back breaker. Swerve hit the House Call on Jay White. Swerve connected with the Swerve Stomp, but Jay White kicked out at the two-count!
“You have to be impressed with Jay White’s resiliency here,” said Danielson.
Jay White shocked Swerve with the Blade Runner. Swerve was knocked out of the ring, perhaps a saving grace. Back in the ring, Jay chopped at Swerve, and Swerve fired back with his own shots. Jay White planted Swerve with a sleeper suplex! Swerve countered the Blade Runner, rolling up Jay White and pinned him!
“Impressive roll counter right there,” said Taz.
“Cerebral wrestling from Swerve,” replied Excalibur.
“That got him another three points to put him at six,” added Danielson.
Catch AEW DYNAMITE on TBS next Wednesday live at 8/7ct from the Bell Centre in Montreal, QC!
This Friday tune in to AEW RAMPAGE at 10pm ET on TNT!
Don’t miss AEW Collision on Saturday on TNT at 8/7c from the Erie Insurance Arena in Erie, PA!
And remember…the home of professional wrestling is All Elite Wrestling!
Last Wednesday night the AEW faithful bore witness to the beginning of the 2023 Continental Classic with three first-time matches against six of the greatest athletes in AEW. In the Gold League, 3-Time former AEW World Champion and former International Champion Jon Moxley scored his first three points at the expense of 13-Time ROH World Tag Champion Mark Briscoe, former ROH World Champion Rush fell to former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jay White, and former AEW World Tag Champion Swerve Strickland topped ROH Grand Slam Champion Jay Lethal to get his three.
Then in the Blue League, House of Black’s Brody King beat ROH World/NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion while former ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli beat former ROH Pure Champion Daniel Garcia. This Wednesday night in Minneapolis, with AEW’s return to the Target Center, the Gold League continues with three big-time singles matches, including one first-timer, and we will also hear from TNT Champion “The Patriarch” Christian Cage! And as a special bonus:
The night 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, to get caught up on the action with highlights from recent episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, COLLISION, and this week’s CONTROL CENTER!
Though both competed in Ring of Honor at the same time, though they actually worked together in CMLL, and fought one another in tags and multi-man bouts under the ROH banner, never before have “El Toro Blanco” and “The Sussex County Chicken” locked horns in a singles bout!
That all changes this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE as both men come into this fight having zero points to their name in the Continental Classic! In the case of Mark Briscoe, his loss came at the end of a hard-fought and bloody contest with Jon Moxley, one where Mark survived a nasty Paradigm Shift and came so close to scoring his first three points at the expense of the 3-Time former AEW World Champion. As for Rush, his loss also came at the end of a hard-hitting contest with “Switchblade” Jay White, but it came to an unfortunate end as a result of White’s underhanded tactics, proving he doesn’t need the rest of BULLET CLUB GOLD to find a way to cheat a victory.
This Wednesday night, in their first singles bout, one of these two men will likely lose their zero, and score their first three points of the tournament, although there’s that possibility of a draw and both leaving the Target Center with a single point..
In a rematch of their 3/30/22 DYNAMITE clash, Jon Moxley and Jay Lethal will lock-up in their second bouts of the Continental Classic! Mox is coming into this fight with a strong win over Mark Briscoe, one that did not come easy, but a win nonetheless, while Lethal heads to Minneapolis with a loss to Swerve Strickland on his record for the tournament.
So for Moxley it’s an opportunity to add to his point total, possibly ramping it up to six points with a victory over Lethal, at the very least to four with a draw, while it is Lethal’s moment to actually get on the board with a victory or draw. Between he and Claudio, The Blackpool Combat Club has started off this tournament with two victories, so can Moxley continue that streak for his unit, or will he be the first BCC member to taste tournament defeat?
Swerve Strickland(3) vs. “Switchblade” Jay White (3)
This one is quite intriguing as it is the first Continental Classic bout pitting two of last week’s victors against each other. As mentioned, Jay White got his in large part due to a low blow on Rush while Swerve, coming off that brutal Texas Death match with Hangman at FULL GEAR 2023, got his over Jay Lethal in a tremendous back-and-forth.
Wednesday night the two competitors will clash in their first AEW singles bout, a rematch of a March 12, 2022 NJPW STRONG battle won by “Switchblade”, and it either ends with one man having six, or both remaining tied with four. Swerve is certainly on the bigger role coming into this following his pair of victories over Adam Page, as well as those over Lethal, AR Fox, and Penta El Zero Miedo, while Jay White came up short in his bid to become AEW World Championship prior to finding a way to steal one from “El Toro Blanco” last Wednesday night. It’s going to be a fight for six, that much is for sure, will it be the leader of BC GOLD or the head of The Mogul Embassy who gets this one?
The world heard Adam Copeland’s challenge this past Saturday on COLLISION, he wants a match with TNT Champion Christian Cage on December 6th in Montreal and Adam wants the TNT Championship on the line so he can take Cage’s most prized possession away. It’s been more than 13 years since the last time these two lifelong friends got into the ring as opponents, with a vast majority of their singles matches won by Copeland, so will Christian Cage be willing to step into that ring once more, especially if it means putting the TNT Championship up? We will find out what he has to say this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE!
Just a few days ago on COLLISION Lady Frost attempted to dethrone newly crowned TBS Champion Julia Hart in a House Rules match, and she was shut down in five minutes by the viciousness of the defending champ. This Wednesday on DYNAMITE, just four days after turning back Lady Frost, Hart will once again open the doors of The House to welcome a new challenger to her dark reign.
What woman is brave enough to cross the House’s threshold this Wednesday in Minneapolis? None other than the Queen herself, Emi Sakura! The two women have only ever stood on the opposite sides once before, during a Trios match that took place exactly two years ago on the 11/29/21 edition of DARK: ELEVATION and saw Julia on the losing side of the contest.
The Black Hart of the House is an utterly transformed woman from who she was at that point, but Emi Sakura brings an experience to the table unlike any other competitor Hart has faced in her AEW tenure. Can she find a way to overcome that major disadvantage, along with whatever House Rule is concocted by The Queen? The defending champ does have a bit of home field advantage in Minnesota, but is that a balance for the decades Sakura has on her inside the squared circle?
AEW returns to the Target Center in Minneapolis for DYNAMITE, featuring the continuation of the Continental Classic’s Blue League with three big matches! Plus, TNT Champion Christian Cage will be in the house to address Adam Copeland’s challenge for Montreal, and so much more!
The night 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, to get caught up on the action with highlights from recent episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, COLLISION, and this week’s CONTROL CENTER!
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Tonight’s AEW RAMPAGE & AEW COLLISION shows were broadcast live from the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh, PA!
Tony Schiavone, Kevin Kelly, and Nigel McGuinness were the broadcast team for tonight’s event.
It’s Saturday night and you know what that means! Saturday night’s alright for fighting!
FTW Champion HOOK vs. Rocky Romero!
Rocky escaped a suplex and both men ran across the ring, delivering lariats, knocking one another down. Hook was first back to his feet. Hook hurled Rocky with a bigtime German Suplex. Rocky struck Hook with a rising knee strike and then a vertical suplex on the apron! Rocky followed up with the forever clotheslines back in the ring.
Hook rallied back with a vicious exploder suplex on Rocky. It was a high impact match in a very short time. Hook hit Rocky with body blows in the corner. Hook headbutted Rocky and got a near fall after a Northern Lights Suplex.
Rocky stunned Hook with Sliced Bread #2. Hook employed a leg sweep on Rocky. Hook countered a second attempt at the Sliced Bread with RedRum, and Hook won via ref stoppage!
Kris Statlander vs. Diamante!
Diamante tried to outpower Statlander, but once she realized she couldn’t, Diamante slapped Statlander. Kris knocked down Diamante with a shoulder block. Statlander powerslammed Diamante for a near fall. Mercedes Martinez walked out onto the ramp to scout Statlander.
Statlander was rolled up by Diamante for a two count. Diamante charged at Statlander, but Statlander was waiting for her with a powerslam. Diamante covered Kris after a cutter, but Kris kicked out. Diamante charted at Statlander, but Statlander countered with a discus lariat and scored the pin on Diamante!
Mercedes jumped in the ring and she and Diamante began to double team Kris. Willow Nightingale sprinted to the ring to even up the odds, coming to the rescue of the former TBS Champ Statlander!
The Kingdom—Mike Bennett and Matt Taven came out, asking the audience if they wanted to celebrate #NeckStrengthNovember!
Bennett said that Roderick Strong wasn’t here tonight because he was recovering from the match last week against Action Andretti, but luckily, Roddy is #neckstrong. Taven said MJF was the devil. Taven told MJF they are coming back for what’s theirs.
Duke Davis and Danny Jones got blindsided by the Kingdom, and the match began! Taven hit the Climax on Jones. Bennett spiked Davis on the ramp with a piledriver! Taven then connected with the aurora borealis for the pin!
Rampage Main Event Time!
ROH Pure Championship Match!
Katsuyori Shibata (c.) vs. Blackpool Combat Club’s Wheeler Yuta!
Jerry Lynn, Jimmy Jacobs, and Christopher Daniels were the judges.
The fans chanted “Shi-ba-ta! Shi-ba-ta!”
Shibata applied the bow and arrow submission to Yuta. Wheeler escaped and Shibata followed up with strong knee strikes. Shibata applied a leg submission and Wheeler grabbed the ropes, utilizing his first rope break of the match. Yuta was immediately issued a warning after a closed fist to Shibata’s face.
Shibata dropkicked Yuta’s head against the turnbuckle. Shibata applied the STF and Wheeler managed to reach the ropes, utilizing his second rope break of the match. Shibata put a sleeper on Yuta, but Yuta shucked him off. Wheeler fired himself out of the ring with a tope suicida to Shibata!
Yuta whipped Shibata into the guardrail. Shibata returned the favor, whipping Yuta into the guardrail. Back in the ring, Yuta ducked a PK from Shibata. Yuta knocked Shibata into the ref, hit a low blow while the ref had his back turned, and DDT’ed Shibata right on his head to score the pin!
And new ROH Pure Champion…Wheeler Yuta!
Shibata tried to shake Yuta’s hand after the match, but Yuta nailed Shibata with another low blow and then DDT’ed him.
FTW Champion Hook came down to the ring to check on Shibata. Yuta left, scowling at Hook and holding up the ROH Pure Championship.
The RAMPAGE portion of the evening kicked off!
Continental Classic Match—The Blue League!
Daniel Garcia vs. Blackpool Combat Club’s Claudio Castagnoli!
Claudio Castagnoli quickly hit Garcia with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Claudio followed up with a body slam. Garcia lunged at Claudio with a guillotine, but Claudio muscled his way out of it. Garcia chopped at Claudio, but Claudio fired back with a European Uppercut.
Garcia charged at Claudio, knocking Claudio out of the ring with a running knee. Daniel hammered Claudio with stiff shots to the head. Garcia ran at Claudio, but Claudio caught him and swung him into the steel guardrail.
Claudio applied a sharpshooter in the ring. Garcia managed to trap Claudio and cradle him for a near fall. Claudio blasted Garcia with a European Uppercut. Claudio rocked Garcia with the Ricola Bomb and pinned him, earning three points!
Representing the Patriarchy…Killswitch vs. The Boys—Brent & Brandon Tate!
Brent was thrown overhead by Killswitch with a wheelbarrow suplex. Killswitch choke slammed Brandon over the top rope and down onto the edge of the ring! Killswitch clobbered Brent with a lariat to the back of the head and pinned him!
Killswitch grabbed two chairs and placed them into the ring. Killswitch choke slammed Brent onto the chair! Killswitch grabbed Brandon but then the “Rated R Superstar” Adam Copeland jumped into the ring and cracked a chair over the back of Killswitch! Copeland smashed Killswitch with the con-chair-to!
Killswitch tried to get to his knees but Copeland curb stomped Killswitch onto the chair! Copeland nailed Killswitch with another con-chair-to!
After a commercial break, Lexy Nair interviewed Adam Copeland backstage.
Copeland: “Lexy, I like you, but go. You know what I have to say? I’m coming straight down the barrel to you, Jay. Or should I call you Christian Cage? Or better yet should I call you the Patriarch now? All of this, what just happened to Nick Wayne on Wednesday, what just happened to Killswitch, it’s all because of your insecurity!
“You couldn’t get past your own ego, could you, man? The night I got here, you were about to con-chair-to Sting. Last Wednesday, you were about to have Killswitch con-chair-to Nick Wayne. You know I’ve got a short fuse. You said you were going to break my neck while my children looked at me. You’re not just threatening me and my future, you’re threatening theirs. Now I’m hunting you. I’ve already got two heads on my wall. I’m going to change your soul. I’m going to kick your face in. I am going to take your TNT Title because it’s the most important thing in your world.
“I am challenging you. Dynamite, December 6th, Montreal, Adam Copeland versus Christian Cage for the TNT Championship. And I am going to go places you can’t go, and you haven’t been to because you don’t have that dog in you. I am going to take your TNT Title!”
The House of Black’s Malakai Black & Buddy Matthews
vs.
Komander & Gravity (with Alex Abrahantes)!
Buddy punted Gravity in the face and tagged out to Black. Malakai had a flurry of strikes for Gravity. Komander had a blind tag and caught Black off guard with a hurracanrana. Black planted Komander with a German Suplex for a near fall.
Komander connected with a shotgun dropkick off the top to both House of Black members. Komander nailed Black with a gut buster for a near fall. Gravity took flight with a tope con hiro but Black and Matthews caught him and blocked it. Komander walked the ropes from one turnbuckle from another and then springboarded off the top, taking out Black and Matthews on the arena floor!
Komander and Gravity each jumped off turnbuckles, but Black and Matthews countered by raising their knees. Black cracked Gravity with a knee lift, and Matthews smashed Komander with a knee lift!
Black ravaged Komander with a spinning back elbow and then sat on the mat, waiting for Komander to crawl to him. It was a trap. Buddy curb stomped Komander and then pinned him!
TBS Championship Match! House Rules Match!
Julia Hart (c.) vs. Lady Frost!
Lady Frost chose no count-outs for this match.
Julia Hart whipped Lady Frost into the steel guardrail. The rules were favoring Julia Hart here. Julia picked up a steel chair and placed it on the ground after being admonished by the ref. Lady Frost tried for a moonsault off the ring steps, but Julia dodged it. Lady Frost landed on her feet, but Julia was one step ahead with a thrust kick to the challenger.
Julia propped Lady Frost on the steel chair. Julia ran down the ramp and clotheslined a prone Lady Frost. Back in the ring, Julia applied the Heartless Submission and forced Lady Frost to tap out!
“Julia Hart’s first title defense is a successful one,” said Tony Schiavone.
Lexy Nair was backstage with Don Callis and Powerhouse Hobbs!
Don Callis: “I can’t figure out the calculation that got the Golden Jets—Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega—a tag team title shot. I can’t figure out how you make that calculation when the last time Hobbs had his hands on Jericho and Omega, he broke them, sent them to the hospital. And as Will would say, anyone can get got. And Kenny and Chris, we don’t need two guys to beat the Golden Jets. Hobbs is a one man wrecking crew.”
Powerhouse Hobbs: “It’s simple. I’m big, I’m black, and I’m jacked, and anybody can get it.”
FTR—Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler
vs.
The Righteous—Vincent & Dutch!
Dax used a lariat to knocked Dutch over the top rope. Dax backdropped Vincent out of the ring, and Vincent landed on Dutch. Back in the ring, Dutch splashed Dax for a two-count. Dutch was looking for a senton off the turnbuckles, but Dax dodged it. Vincent grabbed a tag, but Dax used a baseball slide through Vincent’s legs to tag out to Cash!
Cash cleaned house on the Righteous. Dutch grabbed a blind tag and planted Cash with a bossman slam! Dax tagged in and FTR hit the Shatter Machine on Vincent, allowing Dax to score the pin.
Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews walked toward the ring.
Black: “If we would come to the ring right now there would be no one coming to save you. No Claudio, no Yuta. See the misconception is that this place is not the brotherhood that you two think it is.”
The arena went dark. When the lights came back on, FTR were alone in the ring, but the House of Black had vanished.
Action Andretti and Darius Martin were backstage!
Action Andretti: “Eight months, that’s how long it’s been since Darius, and I have been teaming together. Darius, these past eight months, I feel like we’ve grown such a bond together. We’ve had so many great opportunities and I’ve heard that this Wednesday Dynamite is returning to your hometown in Minneapolis.”
Darius Martin: “Yeah, man, we have been building a lot of chemistry. But it seems like there’s something just a little bit off and I think I know what that might be.”
Dante Martin walked onto the scene!
Darius turned to Dante and said, “You ready to step up? It’s time to take flight.”
Dante Martin: “I’m back!”
Tony Schiavone interviewed AEW World Tag Team Champions “Absolute” Ricky Starks and Big Bill!
Ricky Starks: “We thought there was going to be more of a fight from Jericho.”
Big Bill: “These two guys call themselves the Golden Jets. To us you look more like the Golden Girls.”
Starks: “Nice. I like that. They traveled up and down the roads together. Me and Bill don’t even know each other that well. Bill, when’s my birthday?”
Big Bill: “No idea.”
Starks: “Exactly. But what I do know is that you two aren’t built like him.”
Big Bill: “Four years ago when I was in and out of the emergency room having seizures from alcohol withdrawal, I always knew I’d make it back to the top. When I couldn’t get out of bed and I was at the lowest point of my entire life, I always knew I’d make it back to the top! And when nobody believed in me and they counted me out, they said he’s washed, he’s done, I always knew I’d make it back to the top!
“And standing in this ring with this guy, with these titles, I’d say I was right. I made it back to the top. Now Chris and Kenny, we know all about you. We’re very aware of all of the accolades. And you two are two of the best to ever do this. But I don’t think you two realize what you’re dealing with. We are angry, we are motivated, and we’re not only going to beat the living hell out of you, we’re going to embarrass you. When I look at you two, I don’t see Jordan, I don’t see Pippen. When I look at you two, all I see are the dudes that hand Michael Jordan his Bazooka Joe bubble gum before starting lineups are introduced.”
Starks: “I don’t even watch basketball and I know all those people are really good. And I also know two things: one guy tells everybody he’s the best, and the other actually is. After you are done with me and Big Bill, I’m going to let you know one thing. Ricky Starks likes his gum minty fresh and Big Bill likes his Big Red, baby.”
“Limitless” Keith Lee vs. Lee Moriarty!
Lee Moriarty kicked Keith Lee on the thigh. Keith fired back with a kick of his own, but Moriarty ducked it. Keith Lee came back with a pounce on Moriarty!
Lee Moriarty grabbed an arm bar, but Keith Lee pulled him up with a bicep curl. Keith Lee walloped Moriarty with a lariat. Moriarty stunned Keith with a bulldog from the top rope. Moriarty springboarded but Keith countered with a headbutt and then finished him off with a powerslam for the pin!
After commercial break, Lexy Nair interviewed Keith Lee!
Keith Lee: “Initially I planned to come in here and tell you about how good and talented Lee Moriarty is. He is that damned good. But he’s no Keith Lee. And I’m tired of the misrepresentation and the lack of opportunity given to me. And now I’m here to take it. And when I say take it, that means him. You are who I want. And you know who you are.”
Nigel: “Smart money has got to be on Shane Taylor.”
Tony: “That’s the question for us to ponder.”
Main Event Time!
Continental Classic Match—The Blue League!
ROH World Champion & NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston
vs.
House of Black’s Brody King!
Brody and Eddie traded shoulder blocks. Then they exchanged chops in the center of the ring. Brody battered Kingston in the corner with a running cannonball. Outside the ring, Brody pummeled Kingston with more chops and then whipped Kingston into the steel ring steps. Brody charged at Kingston, but Kingston countered with a drop toehold, sending Brody colliding into the steps.
Brody rallied back, splashing Kingston against the barricade. Back in the ring Brody body slammed Kingston and then connected with a senton splash. Brody tried to whip Kingston into the turnbuckles, but Kingston’s legs gave out and he crumbled to the mat.
Kingston collected himself and out of nowhere, in a desperate move, Kingston clubbed Brody with a lariat. Eddie went for an exploder suplex, but Brody countered with a German Suplex. Kingston shocked Brody with a spinning backfist for a near fall!
They traded chops again! Brody switched to forearms. Eddie spiked Brody with a DDT for a near fall! Eddie charged at Brody King, but Brody planted Kingston. Brody was looking for a lariat, but Eddie countered with an exploder and then a half-and-half suplex. Kingston followed up with a third suplex for a two-count on Brody!
Brody nailed Kingston with a piledriver for a two-count. Eddie ducked a lariat and cracked Brody with a spinning backfist! Brody decimated Kingston with Dante’s Inferno and then pinned him! Brody has earned three points!
“Holy smokes! What have we just seen? This is what the Continental Classic is all about,” said Tony Schiavone.
Catch AEW DYNAMITE on TBS next Wednesday live at 8/7ct from the Target Center in Minneapolis, MN!
And remember…the home of professional wrestling is All Elite Wrestling!
What a week it has been in All Elite Wrestling! Starting with FULL GEAR 2023 this past Saturday, and continuing into DYNAMITE on Wednesday night, the landscape of AEW continues to be the most exciting in all of professional wrestling! We know that Samoa Joe and MJF are scheduled to collide at WORLDS END, providing MJF doesn’t end up in a situation where the belt is at risk, but in addition the culmination of the Continental Classic will go down that night in Long Island as well!
This week in Chicago, as part of AEW’s Thanksgiving Eve tradition, fans witnessed Jon Moxley, Swerve Strickland, and Jay White each score three points in the Gold League, leaving Mark Briscoe, Jay Lethal, and Rush with zero points to their names, with the first bouts in the Blue League going down in Pittsburgh this Saturday night!
This Saturday night, with three hours of action between RAMPAGE and COLLISION, the Petersen Center on the campus of Pitt will be rocking! The first bouts in the Blue League of the Continental Classic are set to go down with ROH World/NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston fighting Brodie King and Claudio Castagnoli taking on Daniel Garcia during COLLISOIN. But before that, on a special Satu night edition of RAMPGE, the ROH Pure Championship will be at stake with a SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 rematch between 2-Time champ Wheeler Yuta and the man who dethroned him, Katsuyori Shibata into the mix, and it all begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international fans. Be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s assorted social media platforms, to get caught up on the action with highlights from FULL GEAR 2023, as well as recent episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, COLLISION, and this week’s CONTROL CENTER!
RAMAPAGE
ROH PURE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…
Katsuyori Shibata(c) vs. Blackpool Combat Club’s Wheeler Yuta
Perhaps it’s his experience as a member of the Blackpool Combat Club that has beaten any fear from the former 2-Time ROH Pure Champion, perhaps it is cockiness due to that affiliation, but whatever the reason, it is clear that Wheeler Yuta fears little. Why else would he, all by himself, step the AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy, FTW Champion HOOK, and ROH Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata ahead of their Trios match on DYNAMITE and talk trash on all three of them? There is plenty of history between Yuta and all three of these individuals; Orange served as a mentor to Yuta for much of his career before The BCC came calling while HOOK’s association with OC led to Yuta holding a pinfall victory over the FTW Champion on the November 15th DYNAMITE, and finally, it was Katsuyori Shibata who ended Yuta’s second reign as ROH Pure Champion earlier this year at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023, a loss that Yuta has certainly not forgotten.
It seems the sting of that memory, and standing just feet away from Shibata hold the title belt, encouraged Yuta to dip his toes back into the Pure Division this past Thursday during ROH ON HONOR CLUB (www.watchroh.com), and score a victory over Shane Taylor Promotions member Lee Moriarty.
Earlier in the night, in a tremendous Pure Championship bout, Shibata retained the title over Trent Beretta, a man quite familiar to Yuta albeit the one member of the Best Friends unit who didn’t care for Wheeler’s presence, and as a result of these respective victories, this Saturday night on RAMPAGE, Wheeler Yuta will get the rematch he’s been waiting for since March 31st! With almost 240 days under his belt as champion, Shibata heads into this ninth title defense as strong as he’s ever been, and as imposing a presence as ever, and the history between these two men does not tilt in Yuta’s favor.
In addition to their SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 fight, there was that ALL OUT 2023 tag team bout that may have been won by The Blackpool Combat Club, but Shibata’s offensive barrage actually put Yuta on concussion protocol for several weeks. So while this is primarily about the Pure Championship, and Yuta’s desire to be the only 3-time Pure Champion (he’s already the only two-timer), there’s also a whole lot of other reasons for Yuta to want this fight on Saturday evening!
The Blackpool Combat Club is woefully lacking any championships at this moment, but with Moxley’s victory in his first Continental Classic match serving as a moral booster to the unit, and Castagnoli’s fight with Garcia following shortly after Yuta’s, this could be a week that shines in the history of The BCC. The question may then be whether Yuta or Shibata will bring the violence needed to emerge from this fight as reigning Pure Champion!
ONE-ON-ONE…
Kris Statlander vs. Diamante
Coming off losing the TBS Championship to Julia Hart at FULL GEAR 2023, Kris Statlander is back in action against one of her long-time rivals, a woman she’s got history with dating back to 2018, but who she’s surprisingly never gone one-on-one with in a televised bout! Diamante and Stat had a pair of singles matches on DARK, in addition to two trios bouts, and they even clashed in a tag on COLLISION back in September, but this Saturday night will be their first televised singles match ever!
Statlander certainly holds upper hand in their rivalry, having been on the winning side for four of their five AEW bouts, but will she be there for it after watching the TBS Championship slip out of her grasp last week in Los Angeles? This may be the prime moment for Diamante to strike and score a huge victory over her rival!
COLLISION
CONTINENTAL CLASSIC TOURNAMENT…
BLUE LEAGUE
Blackpool Combat Club’s Claudio Castagnoli vs. Daniel Garcia
They were trapped inside the Blood & Guts Cage together 17 months ago, and they fought in tags and trios over the ensuing months once Chris Jericho defeated Claudio Castagnoli to become ROH World Champion, but this Saturday night in Pittsburgh will be the first time that Claudio and Daniel Garcia fight in singles competition, and what stakes there are at hand!
This bout marks each man’s first in the Blue League of the Continental Classic, and Garcia is undoubtedly the underdog, not just in this match, but in the big picture of the entire twelve-man tournament! Though he is a former ROH Pure Champion, and the current PWG Champion, Garcia is absolutely the dark horse of the Blue League. After all this is a bracket consisting of the men involved in this match as well as Bryan Danielson, Andrade El Idolo, Eddie Kingston, and Brody King. That being said, regardless of how they came to be, Garcia’s record book shows victories over Brody and Bryan, though they are balanced by losses to Andrade and Kingston.
So the question is whether or not Garcia can find an amalgamation of his pro wrestler side and his sports entertainer side, because if he can find a balance of the two, he could evolve into the most dangerous wrestler in the whole of All Elite Wrestling. There is not doubt he is one of the most gifted wrestlers in the game today, he is also one of the most entertaining, but he’s yet to find a balance of the two that leads to consistent success.
With so much at stake in each Continental Classic match it becomes imperative that Daniel Garcia find his identity, and decide who he wants to be. Nothing dictates he has to be one or the other, but he has to figure out a balance between his best attributes if he hopes to defeat the complete package that is Claudio Castagnoli. One would be hard-pressed to find a professional wrestler more adept at every style in the game than Castagnoli, or one more powerful than the former ROH World Champion. Though there are several more matches to be fought before WORLDS END comes, that first victory is imperative to setting the town for the Continental Classic; will it be Claudio’s victory in the record books or will it belong to Daniel Garcia
ROH World/NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston vs. The House of Black’s Brody King
The enhanced stakes of this tournament, the situation where the winner will walk out not only as AEW Continental Champion, but also as ROH World Champion and NJPW STRONG Champion, are a direct result of the fighting spirit that burns in the soul of Eddie Kingston. Call him “The Mad King”, call him “The Last of a Dying Breed”, whatever you call him, you have to call Eddie Kingston a fighter with a respect for professional wrestling above and beyond the call of duty. There is no reason for Eddie to put both his hard-earned championship titles at stake save for his belief that a champion should be defending their title any time they are in a prize fight.
That leads to this situation where Eddie has laid both his championship titles on the line for the ultimate winner of this Round Robin-Style Tournament, thereby creating a modern American Triple Crown Championship, and adhering the Continental Classic winner to three separate promotions. But that’s what comes at WORLDS END for the winner of the entire field, this Saturday night during COLLISOIN, Eddie Kingston will first have to deal with a man he first met in La Boom back in 2018, and first fought in Wilmington, CA one month later: The House of Black’s Brody King!
These two men had issues in All Elite Wrestling earlier this year, problems that created the fissure in the relationship between Ortiz and Kingston that ultimately put those two on opposite sides of the Stadium Stampede at ALL IN: LONDON, but seem quelled based on recent Ring of Honor activity, but the Kingston/HoB issues never put Eddie in the ring with Brody here in AEW.
That all changes this Saturday night on COLLISION when, as part of the Blue League, Eddie and Brody lock horns in singles competition for the first time in AEW, and for the first time time since an AAW title fight in December 2018. These are two men who were inspired to this trade because of their love for Puroesu, because of their love for the concept of Fighting Spirit, and though they’ve traveled very different paths to get to this point, now are engaged in a tournament that owes a great deal of inspiration to those that elevated the men Brody and Eddie love into inspirational figures.
This is going to be a hard-hitting affair, one in which bombs will be thrown from the outset, and neither man will emerge in perfect health. No matter who wins, both Brody and Eddie will know they’ve been through a battle to score their first 3 points, and they will feel the repercussions of the bout throughout the rest of the Continental Classic.
THE CHAMPIONS SPEAK…
After assaulting Chris Jericho following the FULL GEAR 2023 Media Scrum, reigning AEW World Tag Champions Ricky Starks and Big Bill will be on-hand this Saturday during COLLISION for an interview with Tony Schiavone.
With that Ladder Match victory under their belt, the duo were already riding high, but putting the boots to Jericho the way they did, and doing more damage to the arm already injured by The Young Bucks has left them even higher on the hog than they were. There’s no doubt Starks and Big Bill will have a lot of gloating to do on Saturday, but eventually they will have to answer for their attack, and given that The Golden Jets are owed a championship match, the champions’ actions may cost them the titles!
This past Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, fans watched in horror as Christian Cage prepared to deliver a One-Man Conchairto to Shayna Wayne. If it wasn’t for the timely intervention of Adam Copeland, one can imagine the kind of damage that would’ve been done to Nick Wayne’s seemingly-estranged mother. Unfortunately for Nick, it was young Mr. Wayne who ended up with his head sandwiched between chairs and felt the cold sting of the steel across his skull, but also unfortunate was the fact this happened right in front of Shayna.
Whether or not “The Rated R Superstar” even realized there was a distraught mother crumbled in the corner crying for a stay of execution is something only Adam can answer, and perhaps that’s what he will address this Saturday night on COLLISION!
TAG TEAM BOUT…
FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) vs. The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent)
FTR were within moments of claiming the AEW World Tag Team Titles at FULL GEAR 2023 but Ricky Starks played spoiler to their moment of redemption, and instead pulled down the titles to keep them around the waists of himself and Big Bill. Frustrating as that may be, it’s not the first time Cash and Dax have been on the losing end of a fight and it certainly won’t be the last, and that loss is not going to stop them from getting right back into the hunt for a third reign as champions!
The road that hopefully ends in another title opportunity begins tonight on COLLISION when FTR faces The Righteous for the very first time! Dutch and Vincent recently took up with Jake Roberts, a match certainly made in the most devilish of fires, pooling a wealth of knowledge with a bent towards wickedness that could certainly lead The Righteous towards championship success.
Will Dutch and Vincent be able to blaze that trail at the expense of FTR, or will Dax and Cash rebound from their PPV heartbreak and set their sights right back on the AEW World Tag Titles?
SINGLES BOUT…
“Limitless” Keith Lee vs. Shane Taylor Promotions’ Lee Moriarty
The issues between Shane Taylor and Keith Lee date back over a decade to the earliest days of the wrestling careers, into their time in Ring of Honor as The Pretty Boy Killers, even spilled over into the New Era of Honor with their fight at FINAL BATTLE 2022 last December, and into AEW with their Mixed Tag Team bout during the ZERO HOUR for WRESTLEDREAM 2023. Now, with Shane Taylor having recruited Lee Moriarty into his fold, it looks like Pittsburgh’s own is taking up the fight on his mentor’s behalf!
It was just a little over two years ago that Moriarty wrestled his first match for AEW, losing to Dante Martin on the August 17, 2021 edition of DARK, and his drive to become one of the best in the game led him to championship bouts with Orange Cassidy, HOOK, Wardlow, and Katsuyori Shibata, to mention a few, and caught the attention of Shane Taylor.
Stepping up this Saturday to fight Shane’s former tag partner, will Lee Moriarty come to regret his choice of partnering with STP, or will that association be the thing that bolsters the master of #TaigaStyle to the level he has been striving for since coming into AEW?
TAG TEAM BOUT…
The House of Black (Buddy Matthews & Malakai Black) vs. Gravity & Komander
FULL GEAR 2023 was not an ideal night for the men of The House of Black, though Julia Hart did bring the TBS Championship into their fold, all three of the men honoring The House were unsuccessful in their respective fights. Buddy Matthews fell to Claudio Castagnoli during the ZERO HOUR, while The Kings of the Black Throne came up short in the AEW World Tag Team Championship Ladder Match.
Thankfully for all three of them, today is a new day for a fresh fight, and while Brody King is embroiled in the Continental Classic Tournament and his opening fight with Eddie Kingston, Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews will team for the first time to take on the high-flying duo of Gravity and Komander! The Luchador duo have been sporadically tagging up for several years, though this will be there first time working as a team in All Elite Wrestling, and what a challenge they face in this House pairing!
AEW presented Full Gearlive from the KIA Forum in Los Angeles, CA!
It’s Saturday and you know what that means!
The Zero Hour portion of the show kicked off!
Your announce team for Zero Hour was Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, and Nigel McGuinness.
ROH World Championship Match!
Eddie Kingston (c.) vs. Jay Lethal (with Jeff Jarrett, Karen Jarrett, Sonjay Dutt, & Satnam Singh)!
Stokely Hathaway joined the broadcast booth for this match.
Kingston clotheslined Lethal over the top rope, sending Lethal crashing onto the arena floor. Back in the ring they traded stiff chops. Lethal pulled Kingston out of the ring and sent the champ headfirst into the steel ring post. Lethal took Kingston down with a snap suplex. Lethal followed up with a beautiful overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Lethal executed the Lethal Combination. Kingston countered the Lethal Injection with a suplex.
Karen Jarrett distracted the ref while Lethal crawled towards Jeff Jarrett’s guitar. Ortiz appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the guitar and smashed it over Dutt’s head. Kingston countered the Lethal Injection again and then pinned Lethal after a spinning backfist!
Blackpool Combat Club’s Claudio Castagnoli
vs.
House of Black’s Buddy Matthews!
Buddy Matthews went right after Claudio right out of the gate. Claudio blasted Buddy with a European Uppercut outside the ring. Buddy rocked Claudio with a rising knee and Claudio answered with a lariat. Buddy tried for a meteora, but Claudio caught him and countered with the Big Swing!
Buddy employed the hammer and anvil elbow strikes. Claudio deadlifted Buddy into a cutter. Claudio accelerated into an uppercut. Claudio planted Buddy with the Ricola Bomb and then placed Buddy in the sharpshooter, forcing Buddy to tap out!
ROH World Tag Team Championship Match!
MJF (c.) & Samoa Joe vs. The Gunns—Austin & Colten!
MJF stomped Colten in the corner. MJF hit the Gunns with a double clothesline. Samoa Joe tagged himself in. Samoa Joe wiped out the Gunns with a tope suicida. Joe connected with a senton on Colten. Joe jabbed away at Colten.
Colten swiped MJF with a clothesline as the ref was distracted. Austin Gunn grabbed a tag and kicked MJF in the back. The Gunns employed quick tags and worked over MJF with tandem offense.
Samoa Joe tagged in and cleaned house on the Gunns. Samoa Joe powerslammed Austin for a near fall. Samoa Joe was setting up Austin for a muscle buster, but MJF tagged in. MJF went for a muscle buster of his own on Austin but Colten dropkicked MJF. The champ fired back with a double DDT on the Gunns. MJF was looking for the kangaroo kick, but Samoa Joe tagged himself in. The Gunns escaped muscle busters from MJF and Samoa Joe. The Gunns nailed Samoa Joe with the 3:10 to Yuma. MJF broke up the pin attempt.
Adam Cole came out and walked down the ramp on crutches. As the Gunns were distracted, Samoa Joe finished off Colten with a submission. MJF and Adam Cole hugged outside the ring.
After the match Samoa Joe got in MJF’s face. Samoa Joe and MJF shook hands, with MJF being a man of his word. Samoa Joe is now in line for a shot at the World title, as he helped MJF defend the ROH Tag titles tonight. Samoa Joe left and then the Gunns blindsided MJF in front of Adam Cole. Colten held down MJF while Austin cracked MJF in the leg with a steel chair! Adam Cole was forced to watch helplessly on crutches. Ref Paul Turner called for Doc Sampson to check on MJF who was writhing in pain.
MJF was stretchered out of the ring by the AEW medical team. MJF was loaded into an ambulance, and he yelled at Adam Cole, “Promise me you won’t let them take my championship!”
“How can Adam Cole live up to that promise, a man with one leg,” wondered Nigel.
The main portion of Full Gear began.
Trios Match!
“Rated R Superstar” Adam Copeland, Darby Allin & Sting (with “Nature Boy” Ric Flair)
vs.
TNT Champion Christian Cage, Luchasaurus, & Nick Wayne!
Nick Wayne cracked Darby Allin with a cheap shot. Darby grappled Nick Wayne to the mat. Darby followed up with two deep arm drags. Sting tagged in and threw Nick Wayne through the ropes and to the floor. Sting whipped Nick Wayne into the steel barricade.
Copeland tagged in and Christian Cage immediately tagged out to Luchasaurus. Luchasaurus charged at Cope with a clothesline. Cope escaped a chokeslam attempt. Darby tagged in but ate a right hand from Luchasaurus. Luchasaurus choke slammed Darby over the top rope and onto the ring apron.
Christian Cage stomped on Darby and then tagged out to Nick Wayne. Nick punted Darby in the shoulder. Luchasaurus entered the ring and slammed Darby, and then Nick Wayne followed up with a senton for a near fall. Darby nailed Nick with a Code Red from the top turnbuckle. Christian Cage crawled under the ring, popped up on the other side, pulled Copeland down and rammed him into the ring post! Christian taunted Darby, telling him to make the tag. Christian poured on the punishment.
Adam Copeland entered the match and unleashed hell on Luchasaurus. Copeland rocked Luchasaurus with an Impaler. Copeland threw Wayne over the top rope at Luchasaurus. Darby rocketed out of the ring with a tope at Nick Wayne and Luchasaurus!
Sting and Copeland hammered Luchasaurus. They hit Luchasaurus with a tandem Scorpion Death Drop. Luchasaurus battered Copeland with a lariat to the back of the neck. Christian Cage taunted Ric Flair and Flair chopped Christian. Christian connected with a low blow. Christian Cage tried to hit Copeland with the championship belt, but Copeland ducked, and Cage inadvertently hit Luchasaurus. Christian Cage abandoned his team. Sting splashed Luchasaurus and then Copeland hit the spear! Darby nailed Luchasaurus with the Coffin Drop and then Copeland pinned Luchasaurus!
Tony Schiavone was on the ramp with ref Bryce Remsburg and called out representatives of Bullet Club Gold—The Gunns. Instead “Switchblade” Jay White came out. “Tell them old man,” said Jay White.
Tony Schiavone: “I hate to say this, but unfortunately MJF is injured and will not be able to defend the title tonight. The match tonight between MJF and Jay White has been cancelled. And now by default, your new AEW World Champion is Jay White—”
Adam Cole’s music hit!
Adam Cole: “Jay, there is not a shot in hell you’re leaving the KIA Forum with Max’s championship. I made a promise to my friend, and I had a talk with Tony Khan and if MJF can’t defend his title tonight, I will do it for him, one leg or not. Tonight’s main event will be Jay White versus Adam Cole baybay!”
Jay White: “Let me refresh your damaged memory. I took you out once before. If you want to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong, I’ll take you out once and for all!”
AEW International Championship Match!
“Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy (with HOOK)
vs. Blackpool Combat Club’s Jon Moxley (with Wheeler Yuta)!
Taz joined the broadcast booth for this match.
Moxley sent Cassidy onto the announcers’ table. Mox hoisted up Cassidy and dropped him across the barricade. Moxley chopped at Orange and taunted him. Moxley drove Orange to the mat with a Bossman slam.
Orange rocked Mox with a diving DDT. Moxley was busted wide open. Orange flew out of the ring with an elbow suicida to Moxley. Orange hit Mox with another one! Orange cracked Mox with a third elbow suicida, right on the jaw!
Orange countered a Death Rider with a Stun Dog Millionaire! Mox grounded and pounded Orange Cassidy and then transitioned into a bulldog choke on Orange! Orange jumped on Mox’s back and applied the Red Rum! Moxley was able to get to the ropes, forcing the ref break. Moxley stunned Orange with a cutter and then a Gotch style piledriver for a two-count!
Orange dropkicked Moxley and Moxley collided headfirst into an exposed turnbuckle corner. Orange pulped Mox with three Orange Punches! And then a fourth! And then a fifth Orange Punch! And a sixth Orange Punch! Orange followed up with the Beach Break and pinned Jon Moxley!
It was announced that Tony Khan made the match official for tonight’s main event: “Switchblade” Jay White vs. Adam Cole for the AEW World Championship!
Additionally, Mark Briscoe was announced as the next participant in the Continental Classic, which begins this Wednesday on Dynamite!
AEW Women’s World Championship Match!
Hikaru Shida (c.) vs. “Timeless” Toni Storm (with Luther the Butler)!
Storm and Shida exchanged forearms. Shida stormed Toni with a running knee strike. Mariah May was watching on a monitor backstage. Shida chopped Storm in the chest. Toni backed Shida into the corner with rapid fire chops. Storm pounced on Shida with a running bulldog.
Luther handed Toni two shoes. The ref saw one of the shoes and pulled it away, but Storm had a second shoe hidden in her trunks. Storm cracked Shida in the head with the shoe while the ref had her back turned. Shida fired back with a Strong Zero. Shida hit the question mark kick and then a Falcon Arrow for a near fall on “Timeless” Toni Storm!
Storm avoided a meteora and Shida’s ankle buckled on the landing. Storm applied an ankle lock. Shida reached the ropes, forcing the ref to break the hold. Storm pulled off one of Shida’s boots. Shida grabbed a kendo stick, but Luther tried to pull it away. Shida wrecked Luther with the kendo stick.
Storm walloped Shida with a German Suplex. Storm had a metal tray in her trunks. Storm bashed Shida with her hip attack and pinned Shida!
And new AEW Women’s World Champion… “Timeless” Toni Storm!
Mariah May walked out and handed Toni Storm a bouquet of flowers.
Renee Paquette was backstage with ROH World Champion Eddie Kingston!
Eddie Kingston said he had his eyes on the Continental Classic. He said he wanted to up the game a little bit. “I want to put the New Japan Strong Openweight Championship and the ROH World Championship on the line in each of my matches in the tournament. Let’s make this the biggest and best tournament in pro wrestling.”
AEW World Tag Team Championship Ladder Match!
Big Bill & “Absolute” Ricky Starks (c.)
vs.
FTR—Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood
vs.
LFI—Dralistico & Rush
vs.
Kings of the Black Throne—Brody King & Malakai Black!
Dax starched Malakai with a right hand. Malakai knocked a ladder into Dax’s mouth. Rush and Cash whacked one another with nasty shots, forearms and elbows. Cash threw his body through the ropes at Brody, Rush, and Big Bill! Dralistico jumped over the top with a tope con hiro and took out the pile!
Ricky Starks climbed to the top, but Malakai knocked him off his perch. Malakai moonsaulted out of the ring and onto the pile! Dax superplexed Starks out of the ring and onto the men outside!
“There are bodies everywhere on the outside. You knew it was going to be physical,” said Taz.
Big Bill and Brody King collided with one another in the center of the ring, exchanging wild, clubbing shots. Rush and Dax rammed them with ladders. Dax threw his ladder at Rush. Dralistico dropkicked Dax, who had his head in between rungs of the ladder. Dralistico staggered Cash with a corkscrew kick. Dralistico climbed the ladder, but Cash shoved the ladder down!
Cash powerslammed Rush, catching Rush midflight. Cash started climbing the ladder, but Malakai pulled Cash down. Black slingshotted a ladder into the face of Wheeler.
The fans chanted “This is awesome! This is awesome!”
Cash Wheeler spiked Black with a piledriver on a ladder! Brody attempted a tope suicida, but Big Bill pulled up a ladder and Brody crashed into it. Starks speared Dralistico and then speared Rush. Starks drilled Dax with a swinging DDT. Starks sent Black overhead with a suplex into a ladder.
Brody King cannonballed Dax, who was against a ladder that was propped against the turnbuckles. Brody began to climb the ladder toward the titles, but Big Bill yanked the ladder out from beneath Brody. Dralistico lunged off the ropes with a lung blower to Big Bill. Rush rammed Big Bill with a ladder, sandwiching Big Bill in the corner. Rush rocked Big Bill with the Bull’s Horns, kicking a ladder into Bill’s face!
Starks and Rush climbed opposite sides of the ladder. Dax grabbed a taller ladder and began the climb towards the titles. Cash grabbed another ladder, but Brody backdropped him. Dralistico planted Brody with a poison rana. Brody decimated Dralistico with a Gonzo Bomb on a ladder that was propped up between the ring and the guardrail!
Cash Wheeler climbed to the top rope and splashed Brody on the ladder, sacrificing his own body. Dax climbed up a ladder toward the titles, but Ricky Starks met him up top. Black pulled Dax down and connected with the End. Starks grabbed the titles and the champions retained!
TBS Championship Match!
Kris Statlander (c.) vs. Julia Hart vs. Skye Blue!
As Skye Blue was making her entrance, she removed her baseball cap, stomped on it, and put a crown on.
Kris body slammed Julia and then body slammed Skye. Skye Blue rolled up Kris from behind for a near fall. Julia jumped on Statlander’s back, but Statlander shucked her off. Skye Blue clocked Kris with a knee strike. Statlander double suplexed Skye and Julia on the arena floor, reversing their attempt on Statlander.
Skye Blue offered her hand to Julia and Julia accepted it…and then began to bounce Skye Blue’s head off the mat repeatedly. Blue mounted Julia and began to pound her with shots. She followed up with the PK to Julia. Kris charged at Skye and Julia with knee strikes.
Skye nailed Kris with a neck breaker. Julia rallied back with an elbow to Skye Blue. Julia took Statlander off her feet with a lariat. Skye Blue rocked Hart with a thrust kick. Julia moonsaulted Skye Blue but Statlander pulled Julia off Blue to break up the pin attempt. Statlander powerslammed Julia on the arena floor. Skye Blue blasted Kris with a Code Blue for a near fall!
Julia applied the Heartless Lock to Skye Blue, but Kris grabbed Julia and sent her overhead with a German Suplex! Then Kris sent Skye flying high with a German Suplex. Kris crushed Skye with the Saturday Night Fever and went for the pin, but instead Julia knocked Kris away, covered Skye, and won the match!
And new TBS Champion…Julia Hart!
“Man, she stole that win and it was perfectly done,” said Taz.
Tony Schiavone was in the ring for the blockbuster contract signing!
“Ladies and gentlemen let’s bring in the newest member of All Elite Wrestling,” said Schiavone.
Will Ospreay walked down to the ring!
Will Ospreay signed the contract and made it official!
Ospreay: “It feels great! Listen up. I’m happy to be a part of the team, but I am not going to come in just yet. When I was 22 years old, I was part of New Japan Pro Wrestling. I’m 30 years old now, so I’m begging all of you, let me finish up, and then I’ll be on the road to Revolution. And then I’ll be all yours, but more importantly, I am All Elite, bruv! Mr. Tony Khan, do us a favor. Line up the best that you got, especially for Wembley Stadium, because I’m going to show ‘em all what elite really looks like, bruv!”
Texas Death Match!
“Hangman” Adam Page vs. Swerve Strickland (with Prince Nana)!
Page cleaned Swerve’s clock with a Buckshot Lariat right at the bell. Hangman taped Swerve’s wrists together. Hangman had a staple gun and began stapling Swerve’s body! Page plastered Swerve in the side of the head with a steel chair!
“Hangman Adam Page is completely unhinged,” said Excalibur.
Page grabbed a steel chair wrapped in barb wire. Page swung it at Swerve, but Swerve saved himself by kicking Page between the legs. Prince Nana had scissors and cut Swerve free of the tape.
Swerve pulled the staple gun and stapled Page right between the eyes. Swerve sent Hangman headfirst into the barbed wire wrapped steel chair.
“I feel like I’m back in Philly. This is wild!” said Taz.
Swerve pulled a cinder block out from beneath the ring. Hangman and Swerve brawled on the ring apron. Swerve spiked Hangman with a Death Valley Driver on the cinder block!
The fans chanted “This is awesome! This is awesome!”
Swerve delivered a piledriver on top of the guardrail! Back in the ring, Page planted Swerve with a fallaway slam. Page sent Swerve flying with another fallaway slam. Page wrapped barbed wire around Swerve’s head. Page trapped Swerve’s arm against his body by wrapping the barbed wire around him. Page hit another fallaway slam. Page moonsaulted off the post and landed on Swerve with the barbed wire wrapped steel chair!
“This is hard to watch,” said Nigel.
Swerve intercepted the Buckshot Lariat attempt. Swerve booted the chair into Page’s head. Page reversed a tombstone and dropped Swerve onto the barbed wire wrapped steel chair with a tombstone piledriver of his own!
“This goes beyond pro wrestling. This is evolutionary,” said Nigel.
Swerve power bombed Page onto the barbed wire wrapped chair and followed up with the Swerve Stomp! Swerve grabbed a black bag from beneath the ring. Swerve spilled the bag onto Page’s back. It was full of broken glass. Swerve connected with a 450 splash onto Page, who had glass all over his bag. Swerve followed up with the JML Driver!
Swerve placed a board covered with barb wire and bridged it between two chairs in the ring. Page chomped down on Swerve’s forehead. Page planted Swerve with a fallaway slam off the top and followed up with a Dead Eye on the barbed wire!
Page wrapped the barbed wire around Swerve’s head and face. Page blasted Swerve with a Buckshot barbed wire lariat! Prince Nana pulled Swerve out of the ring to break the ref’s count. Brian Cage ambushed Page from behind and power bombed him! Brian Cage pulled out a table and set it up on the arena floor. Page cracked Cage with a barbed wire wrapped rolling elbow. Adam Page almost broke Nana in half with a Dead Eye through the table! Swerve shattered the cinder block on Hangman Page!
Swerve wrapped a chain around Page’s throat, and then Swerve yanked on the chain after it was draped across ring post. Page couldn’t answer the ten count and Swerve was declared the winner!
“By the grace of God, this one is over,” said Nigel.
Tag Team Title Opportunity vs. Tag Team Break-up!
The Golden Jets—Chris Jericho & Kenny Omega
vs.
The Young Bucks—Matt & Nick Jackson!
Don Callis joined the commentary team for this match.
Chris Jericho and Matt Jackson chain wrestled. Jericho chopped at Matt and then Omega tagged himself in, allowing Matt some time to step away from Jericho and his swarm of chops. Matt mauled Omega with a flurry of shots to the back of the head. Omega answered with a hurracanrana. Omega launched himself with the Terminator Dive and landed on Matt Jackson!
Chris Jericho slid into Nick Jackson with a baseball dropkick. The Bucks went to work on Jericho’s arm, trying to take out the arm Jericho uses for the Judas Effect. Jericho dropkicked Nick Jackson from the middle rope and then tagged out to Omega.
Omega took Matt down with a snapdragon suplex. Omega wiped out both Bucks with his offense. Omega moonsaulted out of the ring and onto Matt Jackson. Omega followed up with a crossbody press to Nick, but Nick countered by rolling through for a near fall. Omega smashed Nick with a knee strike.
Jericho lionsaulted onto both Young Bucks! Jericho was looking for the Walls, but Matt Jackson kicked Jericho in the injured arm. Nick Jackson connected with a rolling roundhouse to Jericho. Matt was looking for a rana, but Jericho put the brakes on and sat down with the Walls of Jericho. Matt used the heel of his boot to kick Jericho in the arm and escape the hold.
Matt Jackson sent the Golden Jets flying with double Northern Lights Suplexes. Jericho lawn darted Matt Jackson’s face into the mat. Matt held Jericho while Nick connected with a senton. Nick Jackson kicked Jericho between the legs. The ref admonished Nick and while she had her back turned, Matt kicked Omega between the legs!
Nick Jackson rocked Jericho with the Judas Effect! The Bucks bashed Jericho with the BTE Trigger. Somehow Jericho kicked out of Matt’s pin attempt. Nick Jackson superkicked Jericho on the injured arm. Omega tagged in and stunned Nick with a V Trigger. Omega lifted off Nick for a One Winged Angel, but Nick reversed it with a rana. Matt planted Omega with a One Winged Angel and Nick covered Omega, but the Cleaner kicked out!
The fan chanted “This is awesome! This is awesome!”
Omega drilled Matt Jackson with a German Suplex. Nick Jackson starched Omega with a superkick. Jericho ate a superkick from Matt Jackson. Omega clocked Matt with a V Trigger and then finished him off with the One Winged Angel to score the pin!
“And now Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho can challenge for the AEW World Tag Team Titles anytime they choose,” said Excalibur.
Nick Jackson was furious at the loss and began tearing apart the announcers’ desk. Omega extended his hand to the Bucks, but the Bucks stormed off.
Main Event Time!
AEW World Championship Match!
Originally scheduled as: MJF (c.) vs. Bullet Club Gold’s “Switchblade” Jay White!
Adam Cole came to the ring on crutches.
Jay White was introduced and walked to the ring with the Gunns by his side.
Justin Roberts announced Adam Cole as representing MJF.
“This is going to be a massacre,” said Taz.
Before the bell rang, an ambulance driven by MJF pulled into the back of the arena. MJF hobbled to the ring!
MJF slapped Switchblade in the face, but Switchblade went right to work on MJF’s injured left leg. Jay White diverted the attention of the ref while the Gunns stomped on MJF outside the ring. The ref eventually saw the Gunns interfering and ejected them from ringside.
MJF turned the tables on Jay White and chomped down on White’s forehead. MJF fired up and hit the kangaroo kick on Switchblade. Jay White dropkicked MJF in the bad leg. Jay White spiked MJF with a DDT. Jay White planted MJF with a uranage for a near fall.
“I hate to say it, but I think the presence of Adam Cole at ringside is distracting MJF,” said Excalibur.
MJF gouged at Jay’s eyes and then DDT’ed him on the floor. MJF slammed Jay White onto the announcers’ desk. MJF dropped an elbow from the top turnbuckle right onto Jay White on the arena floor!
The fans chanted “He’s our scumbag! He’s our scumbag!”
Back in the ring, Jay White employed a dragon screw leg whip on MJF. Jay White tied up MJF in the Tree of Woe. Jay White climbed to the top, but MJF yanked White down to the mat. Jay White climbed back up and nailed MJF with an avalanche uranage for a two-count!
MJF countered the Blade Runner with a spinning elbow. Jay White answered with a release German Suplex. MJF spiked White with a tombstone piledriver. MJF jumped over the top rope and caught Jay White with a cutter, planting him on the arena floor!
“We are witnessing MJF take risks like he never has in his entire career,” said Excalibur.
Back in the ring Jay White went back to work on MJF’s injured leg. Jay White spat at Adam Cole and then applied the figure four to MJF. Adam Cole had a towel and was contemplating throwing it into the ring to end the match. MJF reversed the figure four. Jay White made a desperate dive and grabbed the bottom rope to force the break. Adam Cole had his ROH Tag Title and was thinking about using it against Jay White, but Jay White grabbed it away and smacked MJF in the head with it! Jay White covered MJF but MJF kicked out at two!
Jay White was yanking on MJF’s leg, but MJF shoved him away, with White colliding with the ref and knocking him down. Adam Cole slipped the Dynamite Diamond Ring into the ring, but before MJF could retrieve it, Jay White grabbed it. MJF hit White with a low blow before White could use the Dynamite Diamond Ring. MJF slipped the Dynamite Diamond Ring on his hand. The Gunns ran down and MJF clocked them! Jay White was looking for the Blade Runner, but MJF cracked Jay with the Dynamite Diamond Ring and pinned Switchblade!
And still AEW World Champion…MJF!
Missed what the entire wrestling world is buzzing about? Order the replay of the historic AEW Full Gear 2023! It’s available on all traditional cable and satellite providers in the United States and Canada, Bleacher Report, Fite International, PPV.COM, and more! See AEW Full Gear 2023 for yourself!
Catch the fallout from Full Gear on AEW DYNAMITE on TBS next Wednesday live at 8/7ct from the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, IL!
And remember…the home of professional wrestling is All Elite Wrestling!
All Elite Wrestling returns to pay-per-view this Saturday night, November 18th, for FULL GEAR 2023 live from the fabulous KIA Forum in Los Angeles, CA! AEW’s return to the West Coast has already been an exciting endeavor, and now it comes to a head with multiple championship bouts, epic grudge matches, strained friendships, and the top shelf professional wrestling the world has come to expect from the athletes of All Elite Wrestling! Click here for all the details on how the AEW faithful around the world can watch our November tradition, then sit back, strap in, and get ready for a rocket ship of a ride in Cali!
On November 1st, just four days after beating Kenny Omega on COLLISION, Maxwell Jacob Friedman became the longest reigning AEW World Champion in AEW’s history, surpassing the 346-day marker set by “The Cleaner” between WINTER IS COMING 2020 when he beat Jon Moxley and FULL GEAR 2021 when he lost to Hangman Page. One week later, on the November 8th DYNAMITE in Portland, MJF defeated Daniel Garcia in a World Championship defense, thereby tying the mark of 9 successful defenses set by Moxley during his reign from REVOLUTION 2020 where be bested Chris Jericho to the aforementioned WINTER IS COMING 2020 loss.
These are two huge milestones in the history of All Elite Wrestling, as well as in the professional career of Maxwell Jacob Friedman, not to neglect his fifth consecutive victory where the Dynamite Diamond Ring is concerned, but unfortunately MJF has had to celebrate both this championship milestones without his precious Triple B, the AEW World Championship title. For weeks now “Switchblade” Jay White has been parading around with the physical title belt and using his possession of it to proclaim himself the real AEW World Champion. While White is certainly championship material, his status as a former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion is testament to that, he is not the AEW World Champion regardless of his physically holding the title belt.
While he’s not champion, what “King Switch” has been is a thorn in MJF’s side that he’s been unable to remove, a foe Max has been unable to get a leg up on, and man surrounded by three other men willing to get their hands dirty in order to lend “Switchblade” an assist when it is need. Jay White is also one of just two people who’ve pinned MJF’s shoulders to the mat since he returned to the fold at ALL OUT 2022, the other being Dax Harwood the night Better Than You BayBay challenged FTR for the AEW World Tag Team Championship. To say Jay White has the psychological edge heading into this fight would be an understatement, and though initially it seemed the Devil-masked individual, and their gang of black clad thugs, that have encircled this bout was MJF’s balance to everything White had done, it became clear after White’s victory over Mark Briscoe that they (a) The Devil was not MJF and (b) they were not on the side of the World Champion either. Even though their initial arrival on the scene was at the expense of Jay White, this time around they left The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass laying, even chucking Anthony Bowens through a window.
So after everything that has gone done between MJF, his allies, Jay White, and BULLET CLUB GOLD, the two men will finally go one-on-one for the AEW World Championship! It’s MJF’s chance to become the most successful champion in AEW history by breaking Mox’s record, it’s Jay White’s opportunity to ascend to the throne in All Elite Wrestling just as he did in New Japan, and it plays out this Saturday night live on pay-per-view from the legendary KIA Forum!
Though it’s been a little more than ten years since the very first time Toni Storm and Hikaru Shida stepped into the ring with one another, that fight from the REINA promotion is their lone fight away from All Elite Wrestling and a tag team one won by Storm and her partner.
It would be nine years before Storm and Shida saw each other inside the squared circle again, only now they were working as partners on DARK: ELEVATION #74, teaming with Willow Nightingale as their third to top Emi Sakura, Marina Shafir, and former AEW Women’s World Champion Nyla Rose. The two women would actually team up several more times in 2022, actually proving quite successful both as a team and a trio, but the AEW Women’s World Championship would enter the picture.
At ALL OUT 2022, with the title having been vacated as a result of Thunder Rosa’s injury, Toni Storm bested Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D, Jamie Hayter, and Shida to win her first title, acquired by pinning Hayter, and since she was not the woman pinned, lining up Shida for a title fight of her own. That first singles bout between the women would go down on TITLE TUESDAY 2022, and end with Toni Storm still the reigning champion.
The two women would go their separate ways, reconnecting in May 2023, but unlike Shida who had stayed true to the side of angels, Toni Storm had aligned herself with Ruby Soho and Saraya to form The Outcasts. The alliance-turned-rivalry would blossom into a Women’s World Championship match at the 200th episode of DYNAMITE and that fight would end with “The Shining Samurai” becoming a 2-Time World Champion. Sadly it was a short-lived title reign as Saraya would bring it to an end just 25 days later at ALL IN: LONDON, though not by pinning Shida, but rather by putting down Toni Storm to claim the victory. That pinfall on Toni would prove a breaking point for Storm’s role in The Outcasts as she began to spiral out into the woman we see now, and the Women’s World Champion defeating Toni at GRAND SLAM 2023 completely broke the camel’s back.
The Women’s World Championship would end up back in Shida’s possession after TITLE TUESDAY 2023, making her the first 3-Time champ in the division, but as for Toni Storm, a week prior to Shida’s win at DYNAMITE: 2023 ANNIVERSARY, we all witnessed Toni spiral out on RJ City before making her “Timeless” declaration.
Now lost in this “Timeless” Hollywood starlet delusion, Toni has declared this year’s FULL GEAR event as her “Hollywood Homecoming” and “Quest for the Gold”, heaping a great deal of the blame for her woes on Shida’s lap despite it being The Outcasts, Toni’s former friends, who caused much of that misfortune. As for Shida, while Toni has been experiencing this break from reality, she has posted three successful title defenses against Ruby Soho, Willow Nightingale, and that unforgettable Fright Night Fight with Abadon on COLLISION. Meanwhile Storm has not been inside the ring since an October 7th victory over Kiera Hogan, which means she may be well-rested and healed up from any nagging issues, but heading into FULL GEAR 2023 is she ready for a fight, especially the type of fight Hikaru Shida will undoubtedly bring?
The defending Women’s World Champion does not want this third reign to end as abruptly as the second, and thus she will throw every bit of her arsenal at “Timeless” Toni Storm to insure this go-round isn’t a repeat of the second. While she may hold the spot as longest-reigning Women’s World Champion of all-time at 372 days, so too does Shida hold the position for shortest with that 25 days reign, and if Toni beats her on Saturday night, she’ll also have the second shortest time with the title as well. That’s not the history Shida intends to make…
After 326 days and 31 championship defenses, Orange Cassidy had the AEW International Championship ripped from his waist by former 3-Time AEW World Champion Jon Moxley at ALL OUT 2023. It was a violent bout, one in which Cassidy was brutalized like never before in his career, but it was a beating that earned him the respect of Mox, not an easy thing to acquire by any means.
Unfortunately for Moxley, his time as International Champion did not come close to touching the records set by Cassidy during his reign because on his fourth defense of the title, just 17 days in, Rey Fenix dropped Moxley hard, and wrested the championship from The BCC member’s grasp. It was a shock to be certain, a win many considered an upset despite Fenix’s championship pedigree, and one that actually put Mox on the injury list for several weeks as far as AEW was concerned, though that didn’t stop the man from fighting for OTT in England and Ireland, for NJPW in Osaka, and at NJPW STRONG’s event at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, the home of FINAL BATTLE 2023.
Meanwhile, during the month that Moxley was kept on the sidelines before his OTT trip, Orange Cassidy had the opportunity to challenge Fenix for the International Championship, a one-on-one rematch of their 11/2/22 Three Way title fight early in Orange’s reign, and just like that fight, it ended with “Freshly Squeezed” getting his hand raised in victory. So not only was OC the longest-reigning International Champion in that title’s short life, not only is he the most successful champion in all of AEW history with those 31 defenses, but now he is also the only 2-Time Champion in the history of the International Title.
Seeming somewhat lost after losing the title to Mox, Cassidy seems rejuvenated by his reclamation of the championship, as if it helped salve the lingering injuries he’d sustained over those 326 days, and reinvigorated him for this second run atop the division. He’s already bested John Silver and Mox’s BCC brother Claudio Castagnoli in championship defenses, but this Saturday night at The KIA Forum, he’s got to get back into the fight with the man who battered him not that long ago.
It’s obvious that Cassidy wants this fight, why else would he have shoulder-bumped Mox after the show of respect Moxley gave him after their fight, provoking the man, almost rubbing it into his face that OC had taken the belt back from the man who beat Moxley. The situation began to blow up this past Wednesday on DYNAMITE as The BCC of Moxley and Yuta met Cassidy and HOOK in a tag team battle, and not only did The BCC defeat championship pair when Yuta pinned HOOK, but Moxley ate a straight shot from an Orange Punch and did not even go down to a knee! It very clearly shook OC to see his primary weapon have no effect on the man he’s got to fight on Saturday night; will we see the same reaction if Cassidy scores with an Orange Punch in the championship match, or can it actually put the 3-Time AEW World Champion and former International Champion down?
Moxley says FULL GEAR 2023 will be a course correction, a moment where he shows the world that Cassidy is actually who Jon Moxley says he is, and he puts the 2-Time International Champion back in his place. Will this be the case when the final bell rings, or will Cassidy do what he has done repeatedly since coming to All Elite Wrestling and show Jon Moxley he is as real as The BCC?
Swerve Strickland came into this entire ordeal with former AEW World Champion Hangman Page with the intent of proving he was worthy of a top spot in the AEW pantheon. A former AEW World Tag Champion, just like Hangman, Swerve has relentlessly pursued that top tier status ever since violently parting ways with Keith Lee and nothing has deterred those aspirations, not even being locked in a coffin by Darby Allin and Sting.
So when Page and Swerve went into battle at WRESTLEDREAM, Strickland viewed it as his opportunity to snatch the spot while Hangman saw it as his moment to get back on track with his own career after spending a great deal of 2023 wrapped up in Elite business with Blackpool Combat Club and then, surprisingly, winning the ROH World Six-Man Titles from Swerve’s allies in The Mogul Embassy. But instead of Swerve proving his merits on his own, he resorted to an assist from Prince Nana and his crown to defeat Hangman, and shortly thereafter, when the opportunity arose to fight Bryan Danielson for a shot at TNT Championship, Swerve tried the same tactic. Thankfully Hangman was on the spot to stop that crime from being committed, but that only served to escalate the issues, and next thing Hangman knew, Swerve and Prince Nana were breaking into Page’s house.
That disturbing scenario is best left untouched, suffice to say that Swerve committed the heinous sin of dragging family into this issue that started as a professional jockeying for position, making it as personal as any issues experienced in All Elite Wrestling. We heard Hangman speak his mind about this, tearing Swerve down to the core with every bit of personal drama Strickland has experienced, and capping it all off by assaulting Nana since the two Texas Death combatants were forbidden from any physical content on DYNAMITE.
But that rule doesn’t extend beyond the borders of AEW…
At Pro Wrestling Revolver’s UNREAL event, as Swerve and Nana stood in the ring talking about the FULL GEAR 2023 fight, Hangman attacked out of nowhere, and promised that he would beat Swerve’s ass this Saturday night. Swerve chose to make this personal, messing with a man’s family, so much so that it led others like Penta El Zero Miedo to fight the him, but once Hangman chose to oblige Swerve and join him in the muck and mire, it was bound to get ugly. Fans have seen the former AEW World Champion in Texas Death before, he’s undefeated in that stipulation here in AEW, and that’s because he’s willing to get uglier and dirtier than anyone else when the fight comes.
Swerve led this into ugliness by his actions outside the ring, will he be able to get that ugly when the bell rings on Saturday night?
TRIOS MATCH…
Adam Copeland, Darby Allin, & Sting vs. TNT Champion Christian Cage, Luchasaurus, & Nick Wayne
It was a huge moment at WRESTLEDREAM when “The Rated R Superstar” Adam Copeland arrived on the scene in All Elite Wrestling and stood side-by-side with Sting and Darby Allin in opposition to TNT Champion Christian Cage, Luchasaurus, and sadly also Nick Wayne. In the weeks since then, we have heard Sting announce to the world that he would bring his legendary career to its end at REVOLUTION 2024, we heard Copeland repeatedly say he would not fight his best friend, we saw Ric Flair come into the equation to ride this home stretch out with “The Icon”, and we’ve watched Christian Cage continue to be a horrible human being.
But after hearing Cage after being attacked by Cage’s “sons”, after hearing Christian threaten to break his neck, Adam Copeland has agreed to ride into battle alongside Sting and Darby Allin this Saturday night at FULL GEAR 2023! We witnessed these three men get their first reps in as a trio against The Righteous and Lance Archer, and though they looked very solid in action, they are still new to the idea of working with one another. In truth, it’s not all that different from the situation with Christian’s Patriarchy, much like Darby and Sting, Christian and Luchasaurus have spent a great deal of time together and formed their own dynamic, and much like Adam Copeland, Nick Wayne is a new ingredient to that formula. Unlike the Darby/Sting/Copeland trio though, The Patriarchy all fall under the direction of Christian Cage, they do not think for themselves, they follow the direction of their erstwhile father figure, and only his direction.
Their opponents are individuals, allies, friends; it’s not a case of Darby falling into a subordinate role just because of Sting and Copeland’s seniority or being led by their direction. This will be a trio operating on the same page but making use of their varied levels of experience, pooling their assorted resources and knowledge, and applying each other’s best attributes to the fights. There is obviously a concern about the history between Christian Cage and Adam Copeland, how all that friendship, those roads traveled together, those championships held as a team, the time spent with each other’s families, how will all that play into this Trios fight at FULL GEAR 2023? All of it has to be nagging at the back of Copeland’s skull, but will it effect his ability to fight? We will all see this Saturday night…
TAG TEAM BATTLE…
The Golden Jets (Chris Jericho & Kenny Omega) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)
***TAG TEAM TITLE OPPORTUNITY VS. TAG TEAM BREAK-UP***
It was at WRESTLEDREAM that The Young Bucks earned a future shot at the AEW World Tag Team Titles at a moment of their choosing; they did so by defeating The Lucha Brothers, The Gunns, as well as the team of HOOK and Orange Cassidy. Since that PPV event, we’ve seen Nick Jackson lose to AEW International Champion Nick Jackson, The Young Bucks & Hangman Page lose the ROH World Six-Man Championship back to The Mogul Embassy after just one successful defense, and watched The Young Bucks completely lose their cool after that championship defeat.
Over the last few months we’ve also seen Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho form one of the most unlikely pairings in AEW’s history, brought together by their mutual issues with Don Callis and his Family, putting aside their own sordid history in order to fight against Callis’ relentless onslaught. Clearly this is not a situation that sits well with the brothers Jackson; call it jealousy over the relationship with Jericho or call it caution given that the history between Jericho and The Elite created Stadium Stampede, either way it is driving a rift between Omega and The Young Bucks.
Now we now from history that The Young Bucks do not deal well with their friends having other friends, we witnessed it many moons ago with Adam Cole and reDRagon, but when it’s a man such as Jericho with whom there was so much bad blood from the first year of AEW, it’s got to be infinitely worse. That is why this match is going down, after all when there’s an issue between professional wrestlers the best place to settle it is inside the squared circle, and why not amp up the stakes when both teams have something to lose?
And what are those stakes? If The Young Bucks win, then the existence of The Golden Jets comes to an end. There will be no more team of Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho, no more fighting the good fight together against a common foe, they will just be quits as soon as that bell rings. But if The Golden Jets win, then Matt and Nick will have to say goodbye to the World Tag Team Championship match they earned at WRESTLEDREAM! That opportunity will belong to The Golden Jets, no Young Bucks championship match on the horizon, just Jericho and Omega maintaining their dynamic to challenge whoever wins Saturday night’s Ladder Match. And what of the relationship between Omega and The Young Bucks? Well it has survived a great deal, and it has endured, but they haven’t been at this point before where so much hostility has put them at odds.
Previously that was Hangman with Omega trying to keep the peace as best he could for as long as he could; only now there is no cooler head trying to prevail, just four men looking to fight, and we shall see if the friendship between The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega can survive the ordeal.
TBS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…
Kris Statlander(c) vs. Julia Hart vs. Skye Blue
Kris Statlander is a breakneck pace as the TBS Champion; in the span of 174 days, Stat has successfully defended the title on 16 occasions against fourteen different women. For perspective, by that point in her historic TBS Championship reign, the longest title reign in AEW history across all divisions, Jade Cargill had only defended the title eight times while Orange Cassidy, the most successful champion across all divisions in AEW, was also heading towards his 17th defense against Dralistico.
This Saturday at FULL GEAR 2023, Statlander heads into her 17th defense against two foes she’s already beaten in one-on-one contests, but who she now must contend with in a Three Way situation. To make matters more intriguing, there is an entire other dynamic between Julia Hart and Skye Blue that has little to do with Statlander. Ever since Hart misted Skye, the latter has taken a turn towards the dark, so much so that there was absolutely a concern she’d walk through the doors of The House of Black and be lost to her friends forever. Though Skye would repeatedly rebuke the handshake of help of the TBS Champion, when the moment came between choosing between Willow Nightingale and Julia Hart, Skye turned and sprayed her own blue mist into the face of The House of Black’s Hart.
So with each woman’s position set, the light of Statlander, the dark of Julia, and the chaotic middle of Blue, they will now collide on Saturday night with the TBS Championship on the line! This will mark the first defense for Stat that’s involved multiple challengers, will that be the ticket to ending this potentially historic reign? Or will the strife between Julia Hart and Skye Blue be the key to the champion retaining her championship?
AEW WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP LADDER MATCH…
Big Bill & Ricky Starks(c) vs. FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) vs. LFI (Dralistico & Rush) vs. The House of Black (Brody King & Malakai Black)
A Ladder Match, only one other time in the history of AEW have the World Tag Team Titles been at stake in a Ladder match, and that was the night The Young Bucks beat Jurassic Express to start their defenseless 28-day second reign, as well as the night Christian Cage first stabbed Jack Perry in the back.
But four teams fighting to climb the rungs to championship status? That is a whole new ballgame, and one likely to end up in plenty of pain, suffering, and punishment! Just yesterday the AEW faithful witnessed the chaos that erupted between these eight men, especially Dax and Rush as they battled to a No Contest, now put that into a situation with no rules, the freedom to use weapons, and with a title at stake. This will be an intensely physical situation, and even though Ricky Starks is the one who laid the stipulation on the table, not necessarily the best one for the champions to retain their titles. They may not have to worry about a pinfall or submission happening to someone else to lose their status, but Big Bill and Ricky Starks constantly have to be concerned about stopping someone else climbing the ladder. There are six bodies besides theirs all with the same goal, but only one has to ascend to the top of the ladder and pull down the belts.
All Elite Wrestling is back on pay-per-view this Saturday night with FULL GEAR 2023 coming to you live from the KIA Forum in Los Angeles! This PPV experience is loaded with multiple championship bouts, including a Four Way Ladder Match for the AEW World Tag Titles, as well as huge grudge matches, and all the elite class professional wrestling fans expect from an All Elite Wrestling pay-per-view! All the details on how to watch FULL GEAR 2023 can be found here, so if you can’t be there in-person, you have to join us through your preferred method for the greatest PPV experience professional wrestling has to offer! And don’t forget to join us for the FULL GEAR: ZERO HOURprior to the start of the PPV where the ROH World Title and the ROH World Tag Team Titles will be defended!
Tonight’s episode of AEW DYNAMITE was broadcast live from the Toyota Arena in Ontario, CA!
Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, and “The Human Suplex Machine” Taz were the broadcast team for tonight’s event.
It’s Wednesday night and you know what that means!
AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy & FTW Champion HOOK
vs.
Blackpool Combat Club’s Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta!
Cassidy and Hook ran into the crowd to get the jump on Mox and Yuta! The fight broke out onto the arena floor with all four men brawling! Moxley stomped on Orange. Yuta and Hook got in the ring and the match was officially underway!
Yuta body slammed Hook. The FTW Champ threw Yuta with the El Camino. Moxley tagged in and ate an elbow strike from Hook. Moxley held onto Hook and Yuta dropkicked Hook after a tag. Hook t-boned Moxley and tagged out to Orange Cassidy. Orange planted Mox with a diving DDT! Orange was holding his ribs.
Cassidy was looking for a DDT, but Mox held onto him, and Yuta rushed in with a lariat to Orange. The BCC were working beautifully as a team. Moxley taunted Orange with kicks and slaps. Orange fired back with a dropkick.
Hook tagged in, as did Yuta. They traded strikes in the center of the ring. Hook backed Yuta into the corner with a headbutt and followed up with a Northern Lights Suplex. Yuta tossed Hook with a German Suplex. Yuta followed up with a rolling elbow strike. Moxley ran in and nailed Hook with a blindside shot.
Hook leveled Yua with a lariat. Moxley ran in and stunned Hook with a cutter. Orange blasted Moxley with the Orange Punch and Moxley simply absorbed it, eating it for lunch. Hook tried to apply the Red Rum, but Yuta hit Hook from behind. Moxley impaled Hook with the Death Rider and Yuta pinned Hook with the seatbelt rollup!
“We just saw the FTW Champion get pinned by Wheeler Yuta!” said Excalibur.
“You ain’t pinning Hook and walking away. This is just getting started. I promise you,” added Taz.
Mox: “Orange Cassidy, you are nothing, you ain’t never been nothing, this weekend at Full Gear, I’m gonna grind you into dust and walk out International Champion and there’s not a damn thing you can do to stop me!”
Ahead of their Texas Death Match this Saturday at FULL GEAR, Swerve Strickland and “Hangman” Adam Page had a face-to-face with Tony Schiavone in the ring!
If the two men attack each other tonight, both will be banned for the rest of 2023.
Swerve Strickland and Prince Nana came to the ring first. “Hangman” Adam Page came out next, and he marched straight to the ring, his eyes locked with Swerve.
Hangman Page: “Why did Swerve go into my house? Because you are a coward. You are a fraud. You are a worthless waste of human life. You told me two months ago that you wanted to be World Champion, but I can look at you and you don’t have it in you. You can’t cut it. You are not the man that you think you are. Look at me! You’re the one who wanted to make this personal!
“You surround yourself with ‘yes men’. And if you weren’t so dumb, you’d realize Nana is just here to use you. Swerve, Prince Nana makes his living off of your back. Look at me! You are not a man at all. You are a child. I worked with kids for a long time, and I taught them a lot of lessons, and this Saturday I teach you the last lesson of your pathetic life. You should never have come into my house. We don’t need lawyers or cops because at Full Gear I am your judge, jury and executioner.
“And Swerve, one thing I forgot to mention. Tonight’s stipulation was that you and I couldn’t lay hands on one another. But Nana, they didn’t say anything about us!”
Hangman Page jumped on Prince Nana and grounded and pounded him! Security separated Page from Nana and Page nailed the security team, blasting one with the Buckshot Lariat!
Lexy Nair was backstage with Roderick Strong and the Kingdom!
Roddy said he knew who the devil was and needed to call his best friend, Adam Cole. They called Adam Cole over Skype. “It’s definitely Max!”
Adam Cole: “Max is not the devil! With all the accusations, maybe you’re the devil, Roddy.”
Adam Cole hung up.
“Why will he not listen to me?” asked Roderick Strong.
TBS Title Eliminator Match!
Red Velvet vs. Skye Blue
The winner moves on to the TBS Title Match at Full Gear on Saturday.
Red Velvet grabbed a wrist lock on Blue but Blue escaped and countered with a hammer lock. TBS Champion Kris Statlander was watching the match from backstage.
Red Velvet swept out Skye’s legs and hit her with a standing moonsault. Red Velvet boxed Blue in the corner. Skye Blue rocked Red Velvet with a DDT on the apron. Blue whipped Red Velvet into the steel guardrail.
Skye Blue cracked Red Velvet with a thrust kick. They exchanged rollups and then knocked each other down with simultaneous thrust kicks. Red Velvet nailed with double knees to the back. Skye Blue hit the Skye Fall on Red Velvet for a near fall! Red Velvet countered a rising knee from Skye Blue with a powerbomb for a two-count!
The fans chanted “This is awesome! This is awesome!”
Skye Blue countered the Just Desserts with a thrust kick. Red Velvet returned first. Skye Blue intercepted a corkscrew and pinned Red Velvet after the Code Blue!
Julia Hart was seen watching from backstage.
“The Redeemer” Miro had words for CJ Perry!
“My eyes have been open for awhile now. Truth is, CJ doesn’t just bring out the worst in herself. She brings out the worst in me too. Let the Redeemer give you a piece of advice Daniel Garcia. I don’t pray to God anymore, but you should start. This is the word of the Redeemer!”
Mariah May was backstage with RJ City, waiting to meet Toni Storm!
Mariah knocked on the door and the butler let her in. Toni Storm was on a couch, resting. Toni Storm didn’t give much time for Mariah, and then told Luther to have him contact Tony Khan to book her a tune-up match for Friday.
Samoa Joe vs. Jon Cruz!
Samoa Joe jabbed at Cruz. Samoa Joe splashed him in the corner. Samoa Joe leveled Cruz with the lariat and then won via tap out!
Samoa Joe: “My name is Samoa Joe. And I come from Southern California. So MJF, since you’re in my hood, once again I extend my offer of friendship. And trust me, the time is limited Max, because you’re going to find out whether you have my friendship or not, because I am Samoa Joe and I am inevitable!”
The Young Bucks—Matt & Nick Jackson
vs.
Penta El Zero Miedo & Komander (with Alex Abrahantes)!
Komander and Nick Jackson traded a flurry of fiery offense. All four men entered the ring and the Bucks superkicked their opponents, while Penta and Komander had the same idea with thrust kicks. The Bucks shook the hands of their opponents and then superkicked them!
“The Bucks firing on all cylinders here tonight,” said Excalibur.
Komander connected with a crossbody on Matt Jackson. The Bucks were there waiting though and hit Komander with their tandem offense. Komander took down Nick Jackson with a step up hurracanrana. Komander did the tightrope walk into a hurracanrana on Nick, and then sent Nick flying onto Matt Jackson on the arena floor!
Penta flipped over the top rope and crashed onto Nick with a tope con hiro! Penta blasted the Bucks with thrust kicks. Komander nailed the Bucks with a double DDT off the shoulders of Penta. Penta rocked Matt with a Made in Japan for a near fall!
The fans chanted “This is awesome! This is awesome!”
Matt Jackson tossed Komander and Penta with a double Northern Lights Suplex! The Bucks were looking for a Meltzer Driver, but Komander sent Matt crashing into Nick. Penta destroyed Nick with a Fear Factor on the apron! Komander surprised Matt with a hurracanrana for a near fall!
“That was super close!” said Taz.
“I’ve seen things here in this match that I’ve never seen before,” replied Tony Schiavone.
Matt Jackson and Penta El Zero Miedo traded shots in the center of the ring. Penta stunned Matt with a thrust kick, but then Matt fired off a superkick. Nick Jackson tagged in and scored with a superkick. Komander springboarded but Nick Jackson cracked him with a low blow and followed up with the Judas Effect! The Bucks bashed Komander with the BTE Trigger and scored the pin!
“I’ve seen the Bucks stretch the rules before but never blatantly kick a man between the legs when the ref’s back was turned,” said Tony Schiavone.
“Will this be a taste of what the Golden Jets get on Saturday at Full Gear?” wondered Excalibur.
Lexy Nair was backstage with the Young Bucks after a commercial break.
Kenny Omega approached them and questioned why they cheated during their match tonight.
Nick Jackson: “Our heat is not with you. It’s with Jericho.”
Chris Jericho: “Don’t waste your time with these jackasses. We’ve got a match to win tonight.”
Matt Jackson shoved Chris Jericho and security had to separate them.
The Gunns—Austin and Colten Gunn (with Juice Robinson)
vs.
Peter Avalon and Jacoby Watts!
The Gunns made a statement win with the 3:10 to Yuma, quickly winning the match!
Colten: “Max, that match was two on two, so imagine at the pay-per-view when it’s two on one. Those titles are about to be gone!”
“Who will MJF find? Will he turn to Samoa Joe to tag with him this Saturday to defend the ROH World Tag Team Championship? Or will it go to Bullet Club Gold?” asked Excalibur.
A highlight package aired of Wardlow!
“Max, as God as my witness, I’m going to make the devil my b—ch!”
Like A Dragon Gaiden Street Fight!
Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, & Paul Wight
vs.
“The Machine” Brian Cage, & The Don Callis Family—Konosuke Takeshita, Kyle Fletcher, & Powerhouse Hobbs!
Don Callis joined the commentary team for this match.
The teams began to brawl on the ramp! Jericho hit Fletcher with his baseball bat. Hobbs went right after Paul Wight. Paul Wight choke slammed Fletcher off the stage and through a table!
Takeshita hit Ibushi with an elbow strike, but Ibushi absorbed it. Omega jumped in the ring and face planted Takeshita. Paul Wight smacked Hobbs into a car outside the arena. Jericho rattled Cage with a crate over the head!
Takeshita whipped Omega headfirst into a sign! Ibushi rode a bike down the ramp, but Cage struck him with a lariat! Hobbs body slammed Paul Wight onto the hood of a car! Takeshita swung the bike around the ring and hit Jericho, Omega, and Ibushi. Takeshita nailed Ibushi with a brain buster on the bike!
Omega pulled a table out from beneath the ring and set it up. Takeshita and Jericho brawled out to the VIP Club area of the arena. Cage and Fletcher isolated Omega in the ring. Cage and Fletcher suplexed Omega onto a pallet in the ring! Omega connected with a jumping knee strike and followed up with a snap dragon suplex on Cage. Omega had a bottle in his hand and smashed it on Fletcher’s head!
Takeshita jumped off a refrigerator, but Jericho sprayed a fire extinguisher at him and then nailed him with the Judas Effect. Hobbs charged in the ring and nailed Omega and Ibushi with double clotheslines. Hobbs drove Omega down with the World’s Most Dangerous Slam! Brian Cage superplexed Omega out of the ring and through the tables on the arena floor! Hobbs planted Ibushi with a spinebuster!
Hobbs splashed Jericho in the corner. Fletcher rocked Omega with a snap dragon suplex. Fletcher grabbed Ibushi and spiked him with a piledriver off the apron and through a sign that was propped up on steel chairs!
Omega connected with a rising knee strike to Hobbs and Jericho followed up with the Judas Effect! Jericho and Omega taped Hobbs to the ropes! Omega smacked Hobbs with a glass bottle! Cage drove Jericho down into the mat and then tried for a Drill Claw on Omega. Omega escaped and spiked Cage with a reverse hurracanrana! Omega fired off the V Trigger on Cage and then on Hobbs. Omega pinned Cage after spiking him with the One Winged Angel!
AEW World Champion & ROH World Tag Team Champion MJF had some strong words after last week’s brutal attack on the Acclaimed and Daddy Ass!
MJF: “It’s become very apparent to me that no matter how hard I try to outrun my past, it’s going to catch up with me. And every time I try to open myself up, those people get hurt. So, what I’d like to say to the Acclaimed is the same thing I said to Adam Cole—I’m sorry that you got hurt and I hope you feel better.
“Ever since I could remember all I wanted to be was a World Champion and I have spent every moment of my life trying to make that happen. I am proud to say that I have made it to that mountain top. The air up here is thin. And as I look down this mountain, I see men climbing with the only intention to shove me off the top.
“And I’m afraid I could lose everything I worked for in the blink of an eye. And I’m afraid I’m going to let you guys down. The old me in this situation would have tucked and ran. But I’m done letting the past dictate my future. Yeah, I’m afraid, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give up my spot at the top of the mountain. You’d better send a whole damn army up that mountain to knock me down!
“Jay White, November 18th at Full Gear, you have a chance to take my spot. But I don’t think you can. I don’t think anyone can because my name is MJF, and I am better than you and you know it! And a message to the man who stole my devil mask who hired those goons. I am going to find out who you are and when I do there will be hell to pay!”
“Switchblade” Jay White walked onto the ramp!
Jay White: “Max, you’re going to make me sick so just stop. Drop the act because you are embarrassing yourself. You’re trying so hard to be the hero and that’s not who you are. You are the villain. Always have been, always will be. And you’re not fooling anyone. You’ve told us time and time again, you are the devil. You’re not the hero, Max. You’re not these peoples’ hero.
“Max you should know better. You should know how quickly they will drop you because you mean nothing. You haven’t changed. I know that you know that I am speaking truth right now. And I know that you know your days as the AEW World Champion are numbered. You know at Full Gear you will bleed with the Switchblade. And if you’re not down with that I have two words for you: get him.”
Bullet Club Gold jumped into the ring. Max was able to fend off the Gunns for a bit but then Juice Robinson blasted MJF with his infamous left hand punch. The Gunns spiked MJF with the 3:10 to Yuma. Switchblade rocked MJF with the Blade Runner and mockingly pinned him for the three count!
Samoa Joe was watching on a monitor backstage.
“That offer still stands, MJF. You might want to take Joe up on it,” said Taz.
Catch AEW DYNAMITE on TBS next Wednesday live at 8/7ct from the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, IL!
Special Programming note: this Friday tune in to AEW COLLISION at 8/7c and then RAMPAGE at 10/9c on TNT!
This Saturday witness history live on pay-per-view and order AEW FULL GEAR 2023 from the KIA Forum in Los Angeles, CA!
And remember…the home of professional wrestling is All Elite Wrestling!
Tonight’s AEW COLLISION was broadcast live from the Oakland Arena in Oakland, CA!
Nigel McGuinness and Tony Schiavone were the broadcast team for tonight’s event.
It’s Saturday night and you know what that means! Saturday night’s alright for fighting!
Andrade El Idolo vs. Daniel Garcia (with Matt Menard & Angelo Parker)!
Before the match began, CJ Perry walked down the ramp and stood next to Andrade. They nodded and smiled at one another.
“It looks like Andrade and CJ Perry have made an agreement,” said Tony Schiavone.
Miro was watching on a monitor backstage.
Garcia and Andrade locked up with a stiff collar and elbow tie up. Andrade grabbed a full arm twist, but Garcia escaped. Andrade applied a side headlock.
Garcia was about to perform his dance, but Andrade rocked him with a shoulder tackle. Garcia fired off forearm shots to Andrade El Idolo. Garcia dropkicked Andrade. Garcia missed a knee drop. Andrade jumped off the top turnbuckle with a big crossbody to Garcia.
Daniel Garcia caught Andrade with a dragon screw leg whip through the ropes. Garcia charged at Andrade El Idolo with a running knee strike. Garcia danced in front of CJ Perry.
Daniel Garcia nailed Andrade with a German Suplex. Garcia attempted a superplex but Andrade El Idolo headbutted Garcia, knocking him to the mat. Garcia grabbed an ankle lock on Andrade. Garcia wrenched on the leg. Andrade tried to fight the pain instead of going to the ropes. Garcia chop blocked Andrade, but Andrade retaliated with two dragon screw leg whips. Andrade hit Garcia with a running forearm shot!
Andrade got a full head of steam and rammed Garcia with a double knee strike in the turnbuckles! Garcia managed to pick up Andrade with a vertical suplex. Andrade returned the favor with vertical suplexes of his own. Garcia answered with a brainbuster for a near fall!
Andrade scoop slammed Daniel Garcia. Andrade climbed to the top turnbuckle and connected with a moonsault for a two-count.
The fans chanted “This is awesome! This is awesome!”
Garcia absorbed a flurry of forearms from Garcia. Andrade connected with a pump kick and applied the figure four. Andrade transitioned into the figure eight and forced Daniel Garcia to tap out!
CJ Perry hugged Andrade after the match. Miro was watching backstage, grinning at the sight of CJ Perry and Andrade celebrating Andrade’s victory.
Nick Wayne (with TNT Champion Christian Cage & Luchasaurus)
vs.
Dalton Castle (with The Boys)!
Dalton Castle grappled Nick Wayne to the mat. Dalton Castle suplexed Nick Wayne and rammed his knee into Wayne’s back. Castle rocked Wayne with another gut wrench suplex.
Nick Wayne stunned Castle with a flying forearm shot. Nick Wayne followed up with a snap mare. Nick Wayne countered a German Suplex attempt with a forward roll. Dalton Castle threw Nick Wayne with a suplex. Nick Wayne tried for Wayne’s World, but Castle blocked it with a German Suplex.
Luchasaurus chokeslammed the Boys on the arena floor! Dalton charged at Nick, but Nick moved, sending Dalton right into the ring post. Nick Wayne planted Dalton with Wayne’s World and won the match via pin fall!
“Hangman” Adam Page was backstage with words for Swerve Strickland!
Page: “At Full Gear, I take you down into a fiery abyss for eternity. And you’ll face me in a Texas Death Match!
“Take some time and look around your house. Look at pictures of your family and imagine every single moment that you could have had with them. I want you to know that you will never be there, not while you can walk, not while you can talk, Swerve. Because at Full Gear I take you to the bottom. I take you to the abyss. And every November, I’ll walk with my son, and I’ll piss on your grave. Swerve Strickland, what could have been.”
LFI’s RUSH & Dralistico (with Jose the Assistant & Preston Vance)
vs.
The Workhorsemen—Anthony Henry & JD Drake!
Dralistico and Henry chain wrestled at the start of the match. Henry back kicked Dralistico in the stomach. JD Drake tagged in and splashed Dralistico. Dralistico chopped Drake but Drake absorbed it.
Rush tagged in and traded chops with JD Drake. Rush rocked Drake with a shotgun dropkick and then stomped Drake. Henry ran in but Rush shoved Henry over the top rope, sending Henry tumbling to the arena floor.
Rush and Dralistico connected with a double dropkick on JD Drake. The Workhorsemen double teamed Dralistico. Rush tagged in and cleaned house on the Workhorsemen. Rush clobbered Henry with a spinning forearm.
JD Drake and Anthony Henry staggered Dralistico with tandem offense. Drake connected with a cannonball on Dralistico. Drake went for a moonsault, but Dralistico dodged it. Rush charged at Drake with the Bull’s Horns and pinned JD Drake!
“A great win for the LFI,” said Tony Schiavone.
The House of Black were backstage!
Malakai Black: “Perhaps we have not been direct enough. How about we obtain the one thing that you desire the most in this company and make you chase us?”
Brody King: “Big Bill, Ricky Starks, the Kings of the Black Throne are coming for the AEW World Tag Team Championships.”
Julia Hart: “How about if I beat Willow tonight on Collision, you, Kris Statlander, have to give me a rematch for the TBS Title at Full Gear?”
Darius Martin (with Action Andretti) vs. Roderick Strong (with The Kingdom)!
The Kingdom rolled Roderick to the ring in a wheelchair.
Strong bullied Darius into the corner. Strong wrenched on Martin’s arm and wrist. Darius retaliated with a beautiful dropkick.
Darius connected with a big cross body off the top rope for a near fall on Roderick Strong. Roddy lured Darius in and then blasted him with a back breaker. Roddy chopped Darius in the corner. Roderick followed up with another back breaker.
Roderick hit Darius with a perfect dropkick. Darius stunned Roderick with a jawbreaker. Darius battered Roderick in the corner with chops. Roderick waffled Darius with the Sick Kick and finished him off with the End of Heartache, scoring the pin on Darius!
“The King of Neck Health Awareness, Roderick Strong, victorious tonight,” said Nigel.
The Kingdom assaulted Darius after the match with the wiener punch and then a spiked piledriver. Action Andretti sprinted to the ring, but the Kingdom ran away.
The House of Black’s Julia Hart (with Brody King) vs. Willow Nightingale!
Willow pointed at her eye, remembering what Julia Hart did to her. Willow hurled Julia across the ring. Willow body slammed Julia Hart.
Skye Blue was watching on a monitor backstage.
Willow planted Julia with a side slam. Outside the ring, Julia and Willow traded strikes. Willow connected with a vertical suplex on Julia on the arena floor.
Back in the ring, Julia stomped on Willow’s left arm and hand. Willow powered out with a clothesline to Julia Hart. Willow splashed Julia with a hip attack in the corner. Willow booted Julia in the chest. Willow planted Julia with a spinebuster for a near fall.
Julia charged at Willow with a hip check in the corner. Julia applied the Heartless Lock, but Willow stood up. Julia hammered away at Willow’s back. Willow pounced Julia! Outside the ring, Willow shoved Julia into the steel ring steps. Willow charged at Julia, but Julia moved, sending Willow crashing into the steps. Willow slammed Julia with a half and half full nelson for a near fall. Julia cracked Willow with a lariat to the back of the head. Julia scored the pin after a moonsault press!
“The bride of darkness wants revenge!” said Nigel.
Powerhouse Hobbs (with Don Callis and Kyle Fletcher) vs. Alexander!
Paul Wight joined the commentary team for the next match.
Hobbs clubbed his opponent and then planted him with a spinebuster. Hobbs quickly pinned his opponent and then stared at Paul Wight.
Don Callis: “I have one thing to say. The Don Callis Family is the greatest family in the history of professional wrestling. In just a few short days the family will be involved in the street fight on Dynamite. Not too long enough Will Hobbs broke Chris Jericho. So, what did Jericho do? Jericho found the last friend he had after I deserted him and he picked up the phone and he called the last friend he could call, would just happens to be the biggest man in professional wrestling, Mr. Paul Wight.
“And when Chris called, I’m sure Paul said, ‘Anything you need my friend.’ Paul, I’m thinking you got shortchanged in the brain department because only an idiot would face the Don Callis Family after what we’ve done to Omega, Jericho and Ibushi. But Paul, it’s not too late. Paul, we both know Jericho is going to try to use you like he tried to use me.
“Paul, I’m a big fan of your work. It’s not too late to pull the pin and leave Jericho hanging in the street fight. I see a scared giant. It’s okay to be scared of me because I run things up in here. I think I might just have to do a little something here. I buried two giants in my career and I’m happy to do it to a third. Will, bury this fool!”
Hobbs taunted Paul Wight and Paul Wight did not back down!
Main Event Time!
Trios Match!
Sting, Darby Allin, & “The Rated R Superstar” Adam Copeland
vs.
“The MurderHawk Monster” Lance Archer, & The Righteous—Vincent & Dutch (with Jake “The Snake” Roberts)!
The fans chanted “This is awesome! This is awesome!”
Big Dutch knocked Copeland down to the mat. Copeland connected with a flying lariat and tagged out to Darby Allin.
Darby put Vincent in a side headlock. Vincent kicked Darby in the face and headbutted Darby’s jaw. Lance Archer tagged in, and Sting demanded Darby tag him in.
Sting ducked a lariat from Archer. Sting chopped at Archer. Sting knocked Archer over the top rope with a clothesline.
Sting punted Dutch off the top turnbuckle pad. Archer caught Sting midflight and planted him. Archer and the Righteous worked over Sting in their corner. Vincent chomped down on Sting’s forehead. The Righteous collided with Sting in the corner with running elbows, one after another. Lance Archer stomped on Sting.
Sting rocked Vincent with a shoulder tackle. Darby tagged in and blasted Vincent with a shotgun dropkick. Darby tried for a Code Red on Vincent but Dutch nailed Darby with a lariat.
Lance Archer launched Darby with a suplex. The Righteous tried tandem offense but Darby shoved Vincent into Dutch! Archer pulled Sting off the apron and rammed him into the guardrail. Copeland tagged in and flew off the top turnbuckle with a double clothesline for the Righteous. Copeland speared Lance Archer. Copeland jumped through the rope with a tope suicida onto the Righteous and Archer!
Darby Coffin Dropped Archer outside the ring. Copeland went for the spear, but Dutch countered with a Bossman slam! Sting grabbed Dutch in a Scorpion Death Drop and Copeland dropped an elbow on Dutch! Sting splashed Vincent in the corner and Copeland speared Vincent for the pinfall victory!
“Big win, to say the least,” said Tony Schiavone.
TNT Champion Christian Cage, Luchasaurus, and Nick Wayne walked onto the ramp!
Christian Cage raised his title overhead and smirked at Sting, Copeland, and Darby!
Catch AEW DYNAMITE on TBS next Wednesday live at 8/7ct from the Moda Center in Portland, OR!
And remember…the home of professional wrestling is All Elite Wrestling!
Tonight’s special episode of AEW DYNAMITE was broadcast live from the Moda Center in Portland, OR!
Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, and “The Human Suplex Machine” Taz were the broadcast team for tonight’s event.
It’s Wednesday night and you know what that means!
Tony Schiavone was backstage with AEW World Champion MJF to kick off the show!
MJF: “Congratulations Jay White, because you are not going to pin me again like you did last week!”
MJF’s phone began to vibrate, and it was Adam Cole calling.
MJF: “Adam, what’s going on?”
Adam Cole: “Hey man, I’m really worried about you man. It kills me that I can’t be there with you, but I have to tell you this as your best friend. Full Gear is coming up. This match against the Gunns and I know you really don’t want to hear this but if you want to win this match, I think you’ve gotta take Samoa Joe up on his offer.”
MJF: “Again with this? You’ve been telling me all week. It’s not happening, and I don’t need him. I can defend our titles and that’s a promise. I’m going to handle Bullet Club Gold after I handle Daniel Garcia.”
Daniel Garcia interrupted MJF by walking onto the set with Matt Menard and Angelo Parker!
Garcia: “You’re going to handle me, huh?”
MJF: “You want to have a chat? Why do you think I agreed to this World title shot tonight? Do you think it’s because of your perfect win-loss record? Nah, I don’t think so. It’s because I believe in you. It’s because I see a little bit of myself in you back when I would listen to quote-unquote veterans, trying to tell me how to run my business. I’ve proven it’s talent over tenure. So, tonight am I getting Danny Garcia the sports entertainer or am I getting the professional wrestler?”
Garcia: “Tonight, you get a professional wrestler.”
Roderick Strong and the Kingdom rolled onto the set.
Roderick Strong: “Yo, Max, I know you already know this, but I am a wrestling legend, and I could easily give you some tips, dude.”
MJF: “You know what’s funny? You were a wrestling legend. You have turned into a complete joke. Adam, I’ve gotta go wrestle. I love you.”
Roderick: “Adam, don’t you see that. That’s exactly what the devil would do, dude. He would walk away.”
Adam Cole hung up.
Roderick: “It’s time to remind everyone exactly who the hell I am!”
AEW World Championship Match!
MJF (c.) vs. Daniel Garcia (with Matt Menard & Angelo Parker)!
MJF locked up with Garcia and then taunted Garcia by doing Garcia’s dance. Garcia grappled MJF to the mat. MJF offered his hand to Garcia as a sign of sportsmanship. Garcia slapped it away and MJF thumbed Garcia in the eyes.
MJF began to work over Garcia’s arm, concentrating his offense there. Garcia fired back with a flurry of forearms and strikes. Garcia followed up with a high release German Suplex. Garcia nailed MJF with a brainbuster for a near fall.
MJF double stomped on Garcia’s elbow. MJF rocked Garcia with a shoulder breaker. MJF stunned Garcia with a DDT for a near fall.
“Garcia deserves a lot of credit kicking out of that hammer lock DDT because that was nasty,” said Taz.
Garcia dodged a Panama Sunrise from MJF and then chopped the champ down with kicks to the legs. Garcia spiked MJF with a piledriver for a near fall. Garcia locked in the Dragon Tamer! MJF countered and transitioned with the Salt of the Earth arm bar, forcing Garcia to tap out!
MJF offered his hand to Garcia as a sign of respect. Garcia reached for it, but Angelo Parker and Matt Menard pulled Garcia away.
Darby Allin & Sting vs. The Outrunners—Turbo Floyd & Truth Magnum!
The Outrunners double teamed Darby in their corner of the ring. Sting tagged in and he and Darby chopped Turbo Floyd. Sting knocked Turbo over the top with a lariat. Truth pulled Darby out of the ring and whipped him into the barricade. Sting clubbed the Outrunners with lariats. Sting applied the Scorpion Death Lock and won via tap out!
Earlier in the day there was a sit-down interview between AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida & “Timeless” Toni Storm, conducted by Tony Schiavone!
Shida: “What happened to you Toni Storm? You want this title? I don’t think so. You want attention paid to your silly acting!”
Toni Storm: “You happened to me, darling. I was meant to walk into Wembley with that title, and then you happened. You don’t happen anymore. I happen. I couldn’t make history, so I became history. You may have that title, but you will never have the spotlight.”
Shida: “You know what? What will happen is what always happens. I will beat you at Full Gear.”
Toni: “Very well. There’s a saying in showbusiness. Chin up, t!ts out, and watch for the shoe!”
Shida knocked the shoe away and Shida and Toni glared at one another.
Swerve Strickland (with Prince Nana) vs. Penta El Zero Miedo (with Alex Abrahantes)!
“Hangman” Adam Page was banned from ringside for this match.
Swerve nailed Penta with a diving European uppercut. Swerve wrenched down on Penta’s fingers. Penta El Zero Miedo and Swerve traded chops. Swerve stomped on Penta’s fingers.
Penta planted Swerve with a backstabber. Swerve rolled out of the ring, Penta ran for the tope suicida, but Swerve countered with a European Uppercut. Swerve dropped Penta on the steel ring steps. Penta jumped over the top rope with a tope con hiro on Swerve!
Swerve blocked the Made in Japan. Swerve was looking for the JML Driver, but it was blocked. They knocked each other down with lariats, each man having the same idea! Penta hit two sling blades on Swerve. Penta hit a driver on Swerve for a two-count.
Penta El Zero Miedo blasted Swerve with a destroyer on the apron! Penta connected with diving foot stomps for a two-count on Swerve.
“What a match! Holy smokes,” said Tony Schiavone.
Swerve stomped Penta over the top rope, landing on Penta’s ribs! Swerve climbed to the top turnbuckle and attempted a 450 splash, but Penta dodged it. Penta snapped back on Swerve’s arm! Penta crushed Swerve with the Made in Japan but Swerve kicked out at two!
Penta punted Swerve on the arm. Penta tried for the Fear Factor, but Swerve escaped. Swerve drove Swerve down hard and then stomped on Penta’s arm. Swerve stomped, crashing down on Penta and pinning him for the victory.
After the match, Swerve began to pull at the mask of Penta El Zero Miedo, but “Hangman” Adam Page ran into the ring with a steel chair. Page chased Swerve out of the ring and waffled Swerve in the back with a steel chair!
“Hangman is like a man possessed! He’s crazy,” said Tony Schiavone.
Hangman jumped off the stage with Swerve, spiking him through a table with the Dead Eye!
Alex Marvez was backstage with Bullet Club Gold’s “Switchblade” Jay White, Juice Robinson, and the Gunns!
Jay White: “I am here with the Bang Bang Belt. We took a vacation, but I still turned in to Collision and what did I see? After I pinned MJF last week on Dynamite, he said, ‘Hey Jay, what don’t you go compare our names on some graph chart on the internet. Max, you want me to play along? I’ll indulge you. Maybe the graphs are like that because you spend all your time searching your name hoping one day, you’ll see those graphs in a way that will appease all those insecurities of yours.
“Jay White will always be better than you and everybody knows it. I am truly elite, and I will show that tonight against Mark Briscoe. MJF you just sit back, watch, and breathe.”
Renee Paquette interviewedthe Golden Jets—Chris Jericho & Kenny Omega, ahead of their Dynamite match against The Don Callis Family that’ll be taking place next Wednesday.
Jericho: “I think when Don proposed this match, he didn’t think that Kota Ibushi and Paul Wight would have our backs and be our partners. You see, we’ve got some good friends.”
The Young Bucks—Matt and Nick Jackson, walked onto the set and interrupted.
Matt Jackson: “You know, we actually set up camp with the extras in the broom closet. Because there’s no space in our locker room. Chris’ bag is so big. Hey, but I like what you’re doing here. This whole tag team thing? Sweet promo. I even heard you had a really cool, new name. The Golden Jets! I bet you came up with that, huh, Chris?
“You know another cool name? I remember one. The Elite. The guys who started this whole damn place. That’s a cool name too.”
Jericho: “That’s so funny, you didn’t have Kenny’s back when Will Hobbs was beating the hell out of him a few weeks ago with a steel chair. I remember essentially it was the four of us starting AEW, who helped get this company off the ground.”
Matt Jackson: “You would say that. You would put yourself up on the pedestal with us. Because the way I remember it, we created the revolution and you just waltzed in and cashed another big check, didn’t you Chris?”
Jericho: “I want you to remember who you’re talking to here. You’re talking to Kenny F’n Omega and Chris Jericho. We’re two of the greatest to ever do this in the history of pro wrestling. So even though you might be the greatest tag team in the world, I’ll give you all the credit for that. I still think that Jericho and Omega can beat you.”
Nick Jackson: “Can beat us? There’s a big show coming up.”
Matt Jackson: “The light bulb just went off. I don’t think you guys are booked either. It’s called Full Gear. How about Kenny Omega, our best friend, and Chris Jericho, against Nick and Matt Jackson, the Young Bucks, the best damn tag team of all time. You said it yourself.”
Chris Jericho: “Well, uh, I kinda like that idea. But let’s put a little more steam on it. How about when Jericho and Omega beat the Young Bucks at Full Gear, and we will beat you, that guaranteed title shot that you’re sitting on, goes to us.”
Matt Jackson: “I like the way you’re thinking here Chris. How about when we beat you, and we will, right in the middle, clean as a whistle, how about this whole Golden Jets thing is no more. And we can start doing the Elite again, how about that Kenny?”
Kenny Omega: “Look, if this is about who is the greatest tag team of all time, it’s you. I don’t want to wrestle you guys. But if you’re asking me, do I think I can beat you? We’ve been down that road. I’ve done it before. You want to talk about Ibushi? You want to talk about Hangman? Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho can rise to the challenge. We can do it. So, if you guys really want to face us, we’ll do it. And then maybe you’ll clean up your act and then maybe you’ll start acting like real adults instead of sissy, bitchy children. I think you had to hear it from someone like me. So, see you in L.A. at Full Gear.”
Jericho: “Bucks, I’ll be happy to take you to the woodshed and beat your little spoiled brat asses. And by the way, I have my own dressing room.”
ROH World TV Championship Match!
Samoa Joe (c.) vs. “Limitless” Keith Lee!
Samoa Joe and Keith Lee locked horns like two massive bulls. Samoa Joe took a side headlock on Keith Lee. Joe gouged Keith’s eyes and then dropped him with a running shoulder block.
Keith Lee fired back with a shoulder tackle of his own. Keith Lee pounded Joe in the corner with big hooks. Samoa Joe chopped at Lee and then began to work over Lee’s body with jabs, pounding him down in the corner.
Keith Lee came back with a cross body to Samoa Joe. The champ hoisted up Keith Lee and dropped Lee with a knee breaker. Samoa Joe began to stomp Keith Lee.
Keith Lee got back up to his feet, but Samoa Joe took him down with a dragon screw leg whip. Joe followed up with a Manhattan drop. Keith Lee countered the senton with a German Suplex to Samoa Joe!
Keith Lee blocked a lariat from Samoa Joe. Keith Lee smashed Samoa Joe with a pop up powerbomb for a near fall. Samoa Joe slipped behind Keith Lee, locked in the hooks for the rear naked choke, and the ref stopped the match. Samoa Joe was awarded the match as Keith Lee faded.
Samoa Joe: “What stands before you is the greatest Ring of Honor Television Champion of all time. But I did not come here to merely be your television champion. I said hunger is what defines the greats. Well consider me officially hungry.
“As of tonight, I vacate the ROH Television Championship. Because the next gold that is going to be on my shoulder will be the AEW World Championship whether you like it or not, Max!”
AEW International Champion “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy and FTW Champion HOOK were backstage!
Orange Cassidy: “Jon Moxley, you must have lost your mind, saying that I overlooked you, that I don’t respect you. You are the only person that I have been thinking about since you left me in a pool of my own blood in Chicago after taking my International Championship. And I’m sorry that when the opportunity knocked, I didn’t pick up the piece of Rey Fenix, I picked up the pieces of the International Championship that you dropped. And now holding it, it doesn’t feel the same. Because I need to beat you. I have to beat you in order to be the International Champion that I know I am. And at Full Gear, I will beat you.”
The Gunns—Austin & Colten (with Juice Robinson)
vs.
The Bollywood Boyz!
The Gunns quickly hit the 3:10 to Yuma and won the match, right out of the gates!
Colten: “Hey Max, you are a liar. You have been lying to these people for years. You are not a generational talent. You’ve been telling sob story after sob story. That’s not what a generational talent does. Me and Austin, we were made for TV. We’ve been doing this for three years. We are former AEW Tag champs. We are about to be ROH Tag Champs because we are generational talents.”
Austin: “Max, you’re an embarrassment as a champion. For the past three months, you’ve defended the ROH Tag titles one time! Now the only friends you have left are on the other side of this guardrail. And I pray to God you pick one of them as your partner for Full Gear so we can send them on a ride on the 3:10 to Yuma. Max, Full Gear, November 18th, the ROH Titles go back in the hands of a real tag team!”
AEW World Champion and ROH Tag Team Champion MJF was watching on a monitor backstage when Samoa Joe approached him. MJF walked away.
Jon Moxley was backstage with Wheeler Yuta!
Moxley: “We heard what Orange Cassidy had to say and I knew it! I’ve been getting calls all week to let Orange off the hook. I knew that Orange knew exactly what he was doing. It’s about the laws of nature. This business is a jungle. And the BCC are a dominant pack of predators. What kind of example would I be setting for young Wheeler if I didn’t beat the piss out of you, Orange? What kind of example would you be setting for Hook? Teaching him he can just do and say what he wants, and it’ll be fine? You don’t even deserve to get to Full Gear. So, the minute we land at LAX, it’s on. Gang warfare. You and whoever you want to bring.”
Wheeler: “Hook, you might think you’re some tough guy, but I guarantee you, you crossed the wrong crew. See you in Cali, pretty boy.”
The House of Black’s Julia Hart vs. Red Velvet!
Julia shoved Red Velvet into the turnbuckles. Red Velvet rolled up Julia Hart for a pin attempt. Red Velvet used an arm drag to take down Julia Hart.
Red Velvet hammered Julia in the corner with body strikes. Red Velvet splashed Julia Hart with double knees and then a standing moonsault press for a two-count. Red Velvet pulled Julia off the top turnbuckle with an iconoclasm.
Julia stomped on the ribs of Red Velvet. Julia smashed Red Velvet with a moonsault and pinned Red Velvet! Julia locked in Heartless after the bell.
Skye Blue came down to the ring and had a stare down with Julia Hart. TBS Champion Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale walked to the ring. Willow checked on Red Velvet. Julia glanced over at Kris Statlander and then left.
RJ City was backstage to introduce the newest AEW signing…Mariah May!
Mariah May: “I’m so excited to be in AEW. I’ve wrestled all over the world. I just came from Stardom in Japan and I’m so excited to be a part of the AEW Women’s division. And I’m a big fan of your work. Toni Storm is the reason I’m here. I went to Japan because Toni went to Japan. Toni’s in AEW so I’m in AEW.”
RJ: “Maybe next week I could introduce you.”
Mariah May: “You’re going to introduce me to Toni Storm?!”
Main Event Time!
“Switchblade” Jay White (with Bullet Club Gold) vs. Mark Briscoe!
The Full Gear 2023 title shot is on the line here.
Mark Briscoe spiked Jay White with a side suplex. He followed up with a vertical suplex for a two-count on Jay White. Mark knocked Jay White out of the ring with his redneck kung fu. Mark jumped off the apron with a running elbow to Jay White on the arena floor!
Juice Robinson diverted the attention of the ref while the Gunns grabbed Mark Briscoe’s boot. Jay White dodged Mark Briscoe and planted Mark with a DDT!
Jay White pretended his knee was injured. The ref turned to check on Jay White while Bullet Club Gold stomped on Mark Briscoe outside the ring.
Mark Briscoe tried to build some momentum with a dropkick off the top rope. Mark and Jay White traded shots in the center of the ring. Mark hammered away with chops and elbow strikes. Mark Briscoe nailed Jay White with a neck breaker for a near fall.
Mark Briscoe hit a fishermen’s buster on Jay White for a two-count, Jay White just barely escaping. Jay White gouged at Mark’s eyes. Jay White connected with a dragon screw on Mark’s leg. Mark fired back with a Death Valley Driver. Mark climbed to the top for the froggy bow, smashed Jay, and covered him for a near fall!
Jay White rocked Mark Briscoe with a uranage. Jay White planted Mark with the Kiwi Crusher for a two-count! Jay White chop blocked Mark Briscoe. Mark escaped the Blade Runner with an exploder suplex. Mark walloped Jay with a lariat. Mark called for the Jay Driller, but Jay White backdropped his way out of it. Jay White targeted the neck of Mark with a sleeper suplex. Jay spiked Mark with a brainbuster.
Mark countered the Blade Runner with redneck kung fu. Jay served up with sleeper suplex and then spiked Mark! Jay White finished off Mark with the Blade Runner and pinned Mark Briscoe!
After the match, MJF snuck into the ring and cleaned house on Bullet Club Gold with the Dynamite Diamond Ring. Only Jay White was left in the ring with MJF! “Switchblade” Jay White retreated out of the ring!
MJF: “Look at me Jay White. I hope you’ve had fun playing dress up as top guy. Because pretty soon play time is almost over. Because you’ll have to get in the ring with the real World champion. With a generational talent. With MJF! When I won that title, I made a promise to myself that I was going to go down as the greatest AEW World Champion of all time or die trying. And that’s what you’ll be dealing with Jay.
“You’ll have to kill me to beat me. I’m not fighting just for me anymore. For the first time in my life, I’m fighting for everyone who has been on this journey with me since day one. I am fighting for Adam Cole. I am fighting for you watching at home. I am fighting for everyone in this arena! ‘Cause I’m not just a scumbag. I’m their scumbag! So, I got one question Jay. Full Gear, will the leader of the Bang Bang Gang, will you be able to be the first man to pull the trigger?!”
The arena lights went out! Footage played from backstage of masked men attacking the Acclaimed and Billy Gunn!
“It seems like whoever helps MJF is in harm’s way,” said Excalibur.
The footage scrambled and then a person wearing a devil mask appeared on the screen for a split second!
The lights turned back on in the arena and MJF was standing in the ring alone. MJF sprinted to the back to check on the Acclaimed!
Samoa Joe approached MJF backstage. “Looks like you’re running out of friends, champ,” said Samoa Joe, as he laughed and walked away.
Catch AEW DYNAMITE on TBS next Wednesday live at 8/7ct from the Toyota Arena in Ontario, CA!
Special Programming note: This Friday tune in to AEW RAMPAGE live at 10/9c on TNT!
Don’t miss AEW Collision on Saturday on TNT at 8/7c from the Oakland Arena in Oakland, CA!
And remember…the home of professional wrestling is All Elite Wrestling!
Last week was another exciting one in the world of All Elite Wrestling, and it all began with AEW World Champion MJF teaming with AEW World Trios Champions Daddy Ass & The Acclaimed to take on BULLET CLUB GOLD in a wild eight-man tag! Unfortunately for the World Champ, the bout ended with Jay White pinning his shoulders to the mat, but at least it bonded the one Max with the other, and garnered the World Champ with some friends besides Adam Cole. Then on Saturday night at COLLISION, the World Trios Champs got to celebrate 69-Day in a fashion only they could, and capped off their 69th day as champions with a record-setting victory over Dalton Castle & The Boys!
We also saw FTR and LFI defeat the AEW World Tag Champions and The Gates of Agony in their own 8-Man Tag on COLLISION, watched Darby Allin and Lance Archer go to battle in a fight lost by Archer, but one in which he and Jake “The Snake” Roberts garnered new allies in The Righteous. Willow Nightingale defeated Emi Sakura, The Kingdom continued to deliver their #NeckStrong message with a “miracle” for Roderick Strong, and much more as AEW barrels towards the Fabulous Forum for FULL GEAR 2023!
AEW is returning to Portland, OR but this time it’s with DYNAMITE and marking our debut at the Moda Center, the home of the Portland Trailblazers! We’ve got MJF, with FULL GEAR 2023 getting closer, defending his AEW World Championship against Daniel Garcia as well as ROH World TV Champion Samoa Joe acecpting the challenge of “Limitless” Keith Lee! Plus Swerve versus Penta, Julia Hart versus Red Velvet, and Mark Briscoe battling Jay White; the action begins at at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, and at AEWPlus.com for international fans. Be sure to drop by the official AEW YouTube channel to watch highlights from last week’s DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, as well as this week’s CONTROL CENTER, plus so much more!
AEW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…
MJF(c) vs. Daniel Garcia
Prior to last Friday night’s edition of RAMPAGE, Daniel Garcia had not competed in an AEW match that wasn’t a tag, trios, or multi-man since the Four Way International Championship match at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023, with his last one-on-one encounter being in a top-shelf fight with Dax Harwood only seen by those in attendance for HOUSE RULES: TUPELO on June 2, and his last televised being a loss to Roderick Strong on the May 24th edition of DYNAMITE. As a man whose AEW resume includes victories over Brody King, Ricky Starks, and Bryan Danielson, it has clearly been frustrating for the former ROH Pure Champion, and the interpersonal issues he and his friends have been experiencing since walking away from The Jericho Appreciation Society have not helped matters.
Perhaps that is why Garcia, after his victory over Trent Beretta, chose to grab the microphone and shoot his shot by challenging Maxwell Jacob Friedman to put his AEW World Championship on the line. Clearly Garcia is tired of fighting with his friends, both inside and outside the ring, and tired of feeling overlooked despite being one of the best technical wrestlers in the game today. In Daniel’s eyes this is a fight that should’ve happened a long time ago, not MJF specifically but rather a World Championship opportunity, and he just had to take it upon himself to breath it into existence.
To MJF’s credit (it still somewhat bristles to write that), despite coming off that COLLISION clash with Kenny Omega and the 8-Man bout on DYNAMITE that saw him pinned by Jay White, he still plans to face Daniel Garcia this Wednesday night and to put the AEW World Championship on the line! That means, by the end of DYNAMITE, fans could see the entire face of the FULL GEAR 2023 championship match change! We could end up with Mark Briscoe taking on MJF, or Mark Briscoe versus Daniel Garcia, as well as the possibility of Jay White versus Daniel Garcia, in addition to the scheduled White/MJF bout. There could be a shake-up on the horizon for All Elite Wrestling, but should MJF survive the night with the championship still…well…not in his possession…but at least attached to his name, then he will tie the 9-defense record set by Jon Moxley during his first reign, making FULL GEAR 2023 the night Maxwell could add “most successful” to the “longest reigning” credit in his championship bio.
Can Garcia step up to that next level of competition and conquer AEW’s own devil? Or will Maxwell Jacob Friedman survive another day as champion and be able focus his sights on the KIA Forum, Jay White, and FULL GEAR 2023? The challengers are circling all-around…
ROH WORLD TV CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…
Samoa Joe(c) vs. Keith Lee
When the calendar turned from Wednesday November 1st to Saturday the 2nd, Samoa Joe officially became the longest-reigning World Television Champion in Ring of Honor history, surpassing Jay Lethal’s record that had stood since October 23, 2015, and with no seeming end in sight. When Samoa Joe walks into Portland on Wednesday night, he will stand with 575 days as champion to his resume, a number that actually puts the ROH Legend just 71 days away from breaking his own 645-day record as ROH World Champion, maintaining Joe’s status as the longest-reigning champion across all titles in ROH’s nearly 22-year history only now with the Television Championship rather than the World.
Though Samoa Joe felt he’d cleared out all challengers after putting down former TV Champion Rhett Titus on the October 28th COLLISION, and has thus devoted a good deal of his focus on MJF’s AEW World Championship, there was a man willing to step up to that challenge this past Saturday night, someone with a bit of ROH experience of their own, but who has never shared the ring with Samoa Joe: “Limitless” Keith Lee!
Though he’s only made one ROH appearance in the new era of honor, that being at FINAL BATTLE 2022, Keith Lee first competed in Ring of Honor, alongside Shane Taylor, on the May 29, 2015 event known as ROAD TO BEST IN THE WORLD 2015: NIGHT 1. Though never title holders, The Pretty Boy Killers (as Keith and Shane were known) did face top teams like The Briscoes, War Machine, and the All Night Express before Keith Lee left Shane Taylor in February 2017 following UNDISPUTED LEGACY. That’s a whole other issue, one Taylor and Lee still need to sort between each other, merely brought up to show that ROH is not unfamiliar territory to Keith Lee.
That bring multiple questions to bear regarding this fight set for Wednesday’s DYNAMITE: will we see Keith Lee return to Ring of Honor as a champion? Can Samoa Joe continue his run as the “King of Television” and press own towards breaking his own championship record come January 19, 2024? Though both men have issues beyond this title fight, Joe with MJF and Keith with Shane Taylor, they will no doubt be focused on the battle at hand, a battle pitting two of the biggest behemoths in All Elite Wrestling or Ring of Honor against one another!
ONE-ON-ONE…
Jay White vs. Mark Briscoe
***FULL GEAR 2023 TITLE SHOT ON THE LINE***
Once upon a time in 2016, a young lion named Jay White left the New Japan Pro Wrestling Dojo and traveled to the United States on excursion. This is a common happening among the young men coming out of the NJPW Dojo, though the destination is not always the same, and in the case of Jay White it was a year-long voyage to Ring of Honor. Yes he spent time in promotions like RevPro in the UK, fought in American indies like PWG, IWC, and House of Glory, but Ring of Honor was his home until October 28, 2017.
During that time, Jay White would find allies in a group known as Search and Destroy that consisted of White, The Motor City Machine Guns, Lio Rush, and Jonathan Gresham, and with that unit would end up in a several battles with two pillars of Ring of Honor: Jay and Mark Briscoe. One of White’s earliest matches in ROH was a 20-Minute draw with Jay Briscoe, and he would first collide with the brothers from Sandy Fork on the 9/3/16 edition of ROH WRESTLING with Lio Rush at his side. Though that S&D team was unsuccessful, Jay White would find success against The Briscoes at ALL-STAR EXTRAVGANZA VIII when he, ACH, and KUSHIDA defeated Jay, Mark, and Toru Yano in the inaugural World Six-Man Title Tournament and again when he, Lio, Sabin, and Shelley bested Jay, Mark, Silas Young, and Jay Lethal in an 8-Man tag.
As the young lion in those situations, Jay White took his beatings even in victory, and it all helped him prepare for the inevitable birth of “Switchblade” that came with his return to NJPW in November 2017. Jay and Mark would clash with White on one more occasion in May 2022, after “King Switch” had ascended to the head of BULLET CLUB and brought a young man named Chris Bey into the fold, but as it was in their only other straight-up tag match, The Briscoes claimed victory over Jay White and his partner.
All that being said, with that history lesson on the relationship between Mark Briscoe and Jay White, it’s a brand new day and both men are now members of the All Elite Wrestling family. Jay White and his BULLET CLUB GOLD brethren have absconded with MJF’s AEW World Championship title belt, leaving “Switchblade” to walk around AEW and claim himself the true champion. The old saying goes “possession is 9/10ths of the law”, but it’s tantamount to “finder’s keepers, losers weepers” here with Jay White, and Mark Briscoe has decided to put his foot down on the shenanigans he’s watched unfold over the last several weeks.
That is what has led the former 13-Time ROH World Tag Champion to challenge Jay White to this fight on DYNAMITE, a fight in which White’s FULL GEAR 2023 World Championship opportunity will also be on the line! Mark Briscoe’s got nothing to lose and everything to gain with this one, and in just his second match back from injury he could be the next challenger to either MJF or Daniel Garcia. Mark will likely have to contend with the full Bang Bang Gang contingent in Jay’s corner, but perhaps someone in the back with their own BC GOLD issues will be watching Briscoe’s back.
PARA LA FAMILIA…
Swerve Strickland vs. Penta El Zero Miedo
Alex Abrahantes could not have made it more clear; this fight is about something greater than just the match itself. Much like Mark Briscoe standing up for what he sees as wrong, this challenge made to Swerve Strickland on Penta El Zero Miedo’s behalf is also about what the latter sees being done wrong by the former.
After watching what Swerve did at “Hangman” Adam Page’s home, that complete violation beyond the pale of professional wrestling, Penta was disgusted and as a man who cherishes his family, decided to do something about it. So for the first time in AEW, and for the first time since December 2018, Swerve Strickland and Penta El Zero Miedo will go one-on-one on DYNAMITE! History tilts in the favor of Strickland, three previous meetings and all won by the boss of The Mogul Embassy, but this week Penta fights with his family in mind, with Hangman’s family in mind, and that’s the kind of motivation that will push a man to some dark deeds.
Then again, Swerve seems to thrive in those dark deeds as well based on his invasions of both Nick Wayne’s and Hangman Page’s private spaces, and clearly has no issues about crossing the lines decent human beings won’t, and certainly not in the name of a professional wrestling contest. Whose darkness is going to win out in this one-on-one clash?
SINGLES MATCH…
Julia Hart vs. Red Velvet
The last time Julia Hart was inside the squared circle was a month ago at WRESTLEDREAM 2023 after Kris Statlander bested her in their TBS Championship bout. Not only was that night a championship loss for The House of Black member, it was also the loss that snapped a 28-match win streak that Julia had built since May 2, 2022. The other night when The House of Black returned to the COLLISION stage in full force, so too did Julia Hart arrive, and with them the AEW landscape shuddered.
The last time Red Velvet appeared inside an AEW ring was on the February 1st edition of DYNAMITE when she fell to Jade Cargill in their TBS Championship bout, suffering an injury in the process that has kept her out of action for the last nine months.
That marks two things these women have in common, a TBS Championship loss in their last match, and some time off following that fight. Obviously for Velvet it was a far less of a choice to remain away from the ring, where as with Hart it was more of a regrouping alongside The House.
This Wednesday night the path of these two women will intertwine once more, the first time since their bout on the July 19, 2021 edition of DARK: ELEVATION, a match won by Red Velvet on her road to fighting Dr. Britt Baker for the AEW Women’s World Championship on the very first episode of RAMPAGE.
While Velvet has never contended with this dark, twisted version of Julia Hart, neither has Hart dealt with the Red Velvet of today who learned so much from her time as a Baddie, her challenges for the TBS and Women’s World Titles, and the motivation of long-term injury recovery. What will each bring to the table this Wednesday evening, and whose eyes will be watching it go down?
TAG TEAM TUSSLE..
Darby Allin & Sting vs. The Outrunners (Turbo Floyd & Truth Magnum)
Ahead of their COLLISION trios bout where Adam Copeland will join Darby Allin and Sting to fight Lance Archer and The Righteous, Darby and “The Icon” will be in tag team action against a team who’s been very impressive in their AEW outings to date: The Outrunners!
The Outrunners, Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd, have been in the ring with The Acclaimed, Butcher & Blade, The Kings of The Black Throne, Aussie Open, and The Gunns, just to name a few of their AEW opponents, and they’ve managed to impress in their losses.
This Wednesday night they’ve got a huge opportunity when they square off with Darby Allin and Sting on the home stretch of The Icon’s career! This could be the biggest night in the lives of The Outrunners, can they take advantage of the situation, particularly all the damage done to Darby by Lance Archer?
Last week, following Hikaru Shida’s AEW Women’s World Championship defense against Willow Nightingale, Toni Storm made her way to the DYNAMITE stage and stole the spotlight from the champ for the third time. This time Shida had had enough, and as Storm rolled about on the stage, the 3-Time Champion came charging up the ramp, knocking down Luther, and delivering a solid knee strike to Toni’s face.
Storm went scurrying away with Shida in pursuit, but there will be no running this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE when both women, ahead of their FULL GEAR 2023 title fight, sit with Tony Schiavone for a chat! Will tempers flare up and turn this interview into a disaster not seen since THE ROOM?
AEW is back in Portland, OR this Wednesday night for DYNAMITE and our debut at the home of the Portland Trailblazers: the Moda Center! The AEW World Championship will be on the line, as well the ROH World Television Title, plus Swerve Strickland takes on Penta El Zero Miedo, Red Velvet is back in action for the first time in nine months to take on Julia Hart, Mark Briscoe and Jay White clash, and plenty more on top for AEW’s flagship! The night gets underway at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, and at AEWPlus.com for international fans so make a point to visit the official AEW YouTube channel to catch-up on highlights from recent episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, as well as this week’s CONTROL CENTER, and so much more!
Last Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, fans were witness to a must-see clash between Orange Cassidy and Claudio Castagnoli over the AEW International Championship, and in the aftermath, with OC still standing as champ, we all witnessed Jon Moxley’s response to the win. In addition, while AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida bested Willow Nightingale, AEW World Champion MJF and The Acclaimed fell to BULLET CLUB GOLD with Maxwell himself getting pinned by “Switchblade” Jay White. Plus, Adam Copeland agreed to side with Sting and Darby against TNT Champion Christian Cage and company, Julia Hart returned only to be surprised by Skye Blue, and The Elite lost their ROH World Six-Man Championship back to The Mogul Embassy!
AEW RAMPAGE get underway this Friday beginning at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for our international audiences, just be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel before the show begins to catch highlights from last Wednesday’s DYNAMITE, as well as previous episodes of RAMPAGE and COLLISION, THE CONTROL CENTER, and a great deal more!
Lucha del Día de los Muertos…
AAA Mega Champion El Hijo del Vikingo vs. AAA World Cruiserweight Champion Komander vs. Penta El Zero Miedo
What a match this will be when three of the world’s premier Luchadores collide in a Three Way bout this Friday night on RAMPAGE! All three of these individuals are quite familiar with one another, particularly Penta El Zero Miedo and El Hijo del Vikingo whose relationship dates back to 2019 bouts in AAA, and they even teamed up a pair of times on episodes of ROH ON HONOR CLUB (www.watchroh.com) during the summer, but this will be the first time they’ve competed against one another in this format! Penta and Vikingo clashed in singles competition for AAA in April 2020, Komander won the ROH World Title #1 Contender’s match on RAMPAGE a month ago that also featured Penta, while Vikingo holds seven singles victories over Komander as well as an additional six in multi-man matches that featured both men, including a AAA Mega Championship match on RAMPAGE back on June 2nd.
Suffice to say there is a great deal of history between Vikingo and Komander, and with both reigning as champions in AAA, there are a great many eyes on this contest, and given the skill sets of both men, it is quite the unpredictable bout! Now add in Penta El Zero Miedo, himself a former champion in AAA, and this is going to be one of the wildest fights could hope for! They can all fly, they can all hit, and Penta especially has a sadistic streak when it comes to inflicting pain; one can’t help but wonder, with two AAA champions involved, if this outcome could have an impact on those title pictures, but even if not, this match honoring Dia de los Muertos will be a showstealing affair!
Click here for detailed information on just what Dia de los Muertos means, and to read about its history.
As seen in the above embedded clip, this past Wednesday night fans finally got a clearer idea of where Skye Blue’s head has been since being misted by Julia Hart. Though we’ve all seen her adopt a darker look, bend the rules a bit, and repeatedly refuse the handshake/help of Kris Statlander, she hadn’t gone full-Julia in this descent from the bright, shiny disposition the AEW faithful had grown to know and love. There was certainly a fear that was Skye’s trajectory, but on Wednesday night, when she misted Julie with her own blue-tinted variation on the theme, it became clear that while Skye had been changed by her experience, she was not signing on with Julia and The House!
So with that in mind, this Friday night on RAMPAGE Skye will back in action against a familiar foe! Marina Shafir and Skye Blue have gone into battle eight previous times against one another since 2022, three of those in singles competition, with “The Problem” holding a 5-3 edge overall, and a 2-1 in their singles matches. Their most recent bout went down on September 13th in Cincinnati and was won by Skye, leaving Shafir hungry to get one back.
With the skies looking a little more clear, and fans seeing what Blue meant when she said she’d handle Julia, it will be interesting to see how she approaches this next fight with Marina Shafir! Though Skye Blue will likely never be the same woman she was when 2023 began, will she continue forward with a bent towards the shadows, or will the light of friends like Willow Nightingale shine through the darkness?
Tag Team Action…
The Gunns (Austin & Colten Gunn) vs. Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal
Coming off The Bang Bang Gang’s major victory on DYNAMITE, and with their ROH World Tag Team Championship opportunity pending during FULL GEAR 2023: ZERO HOUR, Austin and Colten Gunn will be in tag team action this Friday on RAMPAGE! Looking to build greater momentum before they get to L.A., the Gunns will take on two men who held the ROH World Tag Team Championship over 15 years ago, and who now want to add the phrase “2-Time” to their resume!
Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal reigned from November 25, 2006 until February 24, 2006, dethroning The Kings of Wrestling (Claudio Castagnoli & Chris Hero) before being bested by Jay & Mark Briscoe, and netted themselves three successful championship defenses during that time. Though the partnership was short-lived, the bond remained strong, and in the new era of honor Daniels and Sydal have reunited to once again pursue ROH championship success.
So to see The Gunns jump the line and basically corner MJF into a championship shot at FULL GEAR 2023: ZERO HOUR has not sat well with the two veterans of the squared circle, and this Friday on RAMPGE they mean to teach The Gunns about repercussions for their actions! Austin and Colten are riding high after Wednesday night’s victory, as are the rest of BC GOLD, so you know they won’t be traveling alone to this shindig. Can the former ROH Tag Champions contend with the BC GOLD numbers and put a damper on the Bang Bang Gang party?
Singles Match…
Daniel Garcia vs. Trent Beretta
It’s been awhile since the AEW fans have seen Daniel Garcia in a singles match on TV, since May 24th to be exact when Roderick Strong defeated him, with his last one overall taking place at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 when he was part of the AEW International Championship Four Way with Shibata, Zack Sabre Jr., and defending champion Orange Cassidy. That’s quite a long time for the self-proclaimed “greatest technical sports entertainer in the world” to go competing in only tags, trios, and battle royals, but this Friday night Garcia is back at it!
His opponent for this return to singles action is none other than Trent Beretta who, while certainly versed in singles competition, has spent a great deal of his AEW career embroiled in tag team action with Chuck Taylor, or Trios situations with Orange Cassidy. With Chuck on the injury list and Cassidy engaged in his work as a 2-Time International Champion, Beretta is going it solo once again!
Both are hungry for competition, and to prove their skills once more, but who’s will to win will prove stronger this Friday night on RAMPAGE?
RAMPAGE begins at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for our international audiences, so be sure to drop in on the official AEW YouTube channel before to the show for highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE, plus previous episodes of RAMPAGE and COLLISION, THE CONTROL CENTER, and much, much more! This Friday night, with the Lucha del Dia de Los Muertos Three Way, Skye versus Shafir, Garcia taking on Beretta, and The Gunns in tag team action, is going to be action-packed!
Leon Slater, Mark Haskins, Grado & Rhino Set for Action on Countdown to Turning Point News / November 1, 2023 / by IMPACT Wrestling Staff The action begins on Countdown to Turning Point streaming LIVE…
Saturday night’s edition of COLLISION brought the AEW faithful an epic World Championship match between Kenny Omega and Maxwell Jacob Friedman that saw the defending champion top his challenger to not only retain, but to also cement his status as the longest-reigning AEW World Champion of all time. As of Wednesday November 1st MJF has officially hit the 347-day mark of his reign atop the mountain, thus surpassing Kenny Omega’s record, and leaving him with one World Championship record left to break, that being Moxley’s nine successful defenses. A win over Jay White at FULL GEAR 2023 would tie that marker, but Max still has a ways to go before he gets to The KIA Forum, and part of that is his fight with The Bang Bang Gang on DYNAMITE!
Also last Saturday, Hikaru Shida continued her third reign as AEW Women’s World Champion by defeating Abadon in a Fright Night Fight, the aforementioned BULLET CLUB GOLD was successful in picking up two victories in their Saturday night fights, and Samoa Joe continued his march towards breaking Jay Lethal’s 567-day record reign as ROH World TV Champion with his victory over Rhett Titus!
DYNAMITE is stacked for AEW’s debut in Louisville, KY at the KFC YUM! Center with MJF possibly taking on the entirety of BULLET CLUB GOLD by himself, Hikaru Shida facing Willow Nightingale’s challenge, the AEW International Championship on the line, and more! The night begins at at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for our international fans, so swing by the official AEW YouTube channel to watch highlights from last week’s DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, an unforgettable COLLISION, as well as this week’s CONTROL CENTER, and so much more!
EIGHT-MAN TAG MATCH…
AEW World & ROH World Tag Champion MJF, ???, ???, & ???
vs. BULLET CLUB GOLD (Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, Jay White, & Juice Robinson)
As of Wednesday, after topping Kenny Omega in their epic COLLISION bout, Maxwell Jacob Friedman has officially become the longest-reigning AEW World Champion in history, surpassing Omega, with the only record associated with that championship left to break being the most championship defenses. That record is currently held by Jon Moxley during his first title reign, holding steady at nine, with MJF having the potential to tie it at FULL GEAR 2023 when he faces “Switchblade” Jay White in his next title defense. The fact that Jay has physical possession of the MJF’s prized Triple B is meaningless to the actual lineage, just merely a tool for “King Switch” to use to antagonize the actual champion as long as the belt sits in the BC GOLD camp.
Clearly the issue is getting to Max as he attempted, despite having that match with Omega on his plate later in the night, to reclaim the title belt following Jay White’s victory over AR Fox. Once again unsuccessful in his attempt, MJF now has to take on the whole of The Bang Bang Gang this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE if wants to get the Triple B back from Jay White. There’s only one problem, Max has essentially told everyone willing to help him out to kick rocks, not The Kingdom, not Roderick Strong, not The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass, and as far as Samoa Joe’s offer, well Max didn’t scream Joe’s name for help, but he didn’t say no either.
So who will it be? Will it even be anyone? Is there anyone MJF will accept help from, or who will even be willing to stick their neck out for him? After all, despite his recent titling towards the side of the angels, this man is still The Devil who perpetrated a great deal of pain and suffering on many individuals throughout All Elite Wrestling, and why anyone would trust him is generally beyond logic. Yet here is Joe offering a hand, albeit with that championship caveat, and Max Caster searching for friendship based on their shared history at the Create A Pro Academy, while The Kingdom and Roderick Strong are doing it to stay in Adam Cole’s good graces.That’s a lot of firepower that could be on Max’s side, but he doesn’t want a part of any of it, even with the full power of BULLET CLUB GOLD standing in front of him. There’s brave, and then there is foolhardy, and it is very clear which of the two that the AEW World Champion is choosing…
AEW INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…
Orange Cassidy(c) vs. Claudio Castagnoli
On Wednesday night in Philadelphia, Claudio Castagnoli pinned AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy to win the bout for the Blackpool Combat Club. Unfortunately that victory came at a cost to “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson as Claudio detailed Saturday night on COLLISION. Whether it was The Rainmaker Clothesline or The Orange Punch, the end result was Danielson suffering a fracture to his orbital bone. So while Claudio had the thrill of pinning a champion, he also had the agony of knowing his BCC brother was down at the hands of their opponents.
For Claudio, there can at least be some solace knowing that he can get revenge for Danielson in short order because, as a result of pinning Cassidy on DYNAMITE, the former 2-Time ROH World Champion will challenge for the AEW International Championship! This marks the first time Castagnoli, a former 2-Time ROH World Champion, will challenge for a singles title in All Elite Wrestling, with that recent AEW World Tag Title loss to Big Bill & Ricky Starks being Claudio’s only other AEW title fight.
Orange has proven he won’t back down from any fight, he even had the gumption to shoulder into Jon Moxley unprovoked which nearly led into a brawl of its own at BATTLE OF THE BELTS VIII, and he has stated his intention to move forward in his second reign as International Champion just like he did with the first. That means defending at every opportunity against every opponent who wants an opportunity, despite the physical and mental toll it took on the man. It was obvious, and OC didn’t hide it, that losing the title shook him to the core and he lost some sense of identity without it around his waist. Reclaiming it, albeit from Rey Fenix rather than Mox, restored some of that identity, but it is not a reach to assume Cassidy wants another fight with Moxley; why else purposefully run into the man? But before that’s even a possibility, Cassidy has to survive the onslaught of The Swiss Superman in his next championship defense! Will the AEW International Championship return to The Blackpool Combat Club this Wednesday night in Louisville?
TAG TEAM CHALLENGE…
Daddy Magic & Cool Hand Ang vs. Golden Jets (Chris Jericho & Kenny Omega)
Much to the chagrin of Daniel Garcia, and the utter annoyance of Anna Jay, last Friday on RAMPAGE Daddy Magic, Cool Hand Ang, and maybe even Jake Hager, seemed buy into the garbage that Don Callis was selling to them. It certainly took some of the focus of Anna’s attempts to earn that COLLISION title match with Shida, in fact she was the one that Abadon defeated to take the title match, and perhaps knowing that some of her friends were focused on other business kept her from focusing 100% on her own.
Disappointingly, Menard and Parker have decided to take Don Callis up on his offer and this Wednesday night in Louisville, they will face Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho in tag team action! The Golden Jets, as Jericho dubbed them, are coming into this one with Omega fresh off a hard-fought AEW World Championship bout with MJF this past Saturday night and Chris Jericho hopefully recovered from the assault he suffered at the hands of Powerhouse Hobbs!
Will Callis’ newfound allies be successful against the two former AEW World Champions, or will the unlikely allies be victorious and frustrate Callis?
Coming off a COLLISION’s Fright Fight with Abadon, the AEW Women’s World Champion is right back in action defending her title against all-comers, and the next one to step up to the plate is fan favorite Willow Nightingale!
As of late Willow has invested her time in whatever is going on with Skye Blue since both were misted by Julia Hart’s “spooky dust” (as Willow dubbed it), and we’ve all seen it bring some changes to Skye while Nightingale has remained true to herself. TBS Champion Kris Statlander tried to bridge the gap on COLLISION to no avail, and now with this opportunity on her table, Willow Nightingale is really going to have to put Skye on the back burner and focus on the task at hand. This is just Willow’s second opportunity at the title, the first coming back at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 against Toni Storm, and her second ever match with Hikaru Shida with the first actually taking place on the Jericho Cruise earlier this year.
Will Willow be frustrated by Shida in this championship bid, or can the first-ever NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion add an AEW title to her trophy case as well? Tune in Wednesday night to see how it all goes down!
DYNAMITE comes your way with AEW’s Louisville, KY debut hailing from the KFC YUM! Center. We will see AEW World Champion MJF, and perhaps some partners, taking on the whole of The Bang Bang Gang, Hikaru Shida defends her title against Willow Nightingale, AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy fights The BCC’s Claudio Castagnoli, and much more in store! The show kicks off at 8pm ET/7pm CT live on TBS, and at AEWPlus.com for our international fans, so drop in on the official AEW YouTube channel to catch highlights from last week’s DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, COLLISION, as well as this week’s CONTROL CENTER, and so much more!
Harley Hudson Wins Gut Check Tryout in Conventry News / October 30, 2023 / by IMPACT Wrestling Staff As part of this past weekend’s UK Invasion Tour, the “Hot and Not Bothered” Liverpudlian pocket rocket,…
Tonight’s AEW COLLISION was broadcast live from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT!
Nigel McGuinness, Kevin Kelly and Tony Schiavone were the broadcast team for tonight’s event.
It’s Saturday night and you know what that means! Saturday night’s alright for fighting!
AR Fox vs. “Switchblade” Jay White (with Bullet Club Gold)!
Jay White grappled Fox to the mat with a side headlock takedown. Fox came back with a cutter. Fox followed up with a swift kick to Jay White, knocking White out of the ring. Fox nailed Jay White with a shooting star press, posting off the turnbuckles and landing on White on the arena floor.
Back in the ring, Jay White threw Fox into the turnbuckles with a half and half suplex. Jay White spiked AR Fox with a DDT. AR Fox regained momentum, hitting Bullet Club Gold with a tope con hiro, and then he hit one on Jay White! AR Fox smashed Jay White with a twisting vertical suplex and then a 450 splash off the top for a near fall on “Switchblade”!
The fans chanted “This is awesome! This is awesome! This is awesome!”
Jay White rocked Fox with a half and half suplex and then finished him off with the Blade Runner, scoring the pin.
“You make one mistake against Jay White, and he will make you pay every single time,” said Kevin Kelly.
After the match, MJF snuck to the ring in a hoody and tried to steal his world title back from Jay White. He was outnumbered by Bullet Club Gold and had to leg go of the title, discretion being the better part of valor.
AEW Trios Champions The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass said next week on Collision they’re going to celebrate 69 days as champs!
The Boys—Brandon & Brent (with Dalton Castle)
vs.
The Gunns—Austin & Colten (with Bullet Club Gold)!
The Boys showed off their quickness, getting in some great tandem offense on Austin. The Gunns fired back with the 3:10 to Yuma and won in decisive fashion.
The Gunns will be facing MJF and a yet-to-be-named partner at AEW Full Gear: Zero Hour, on Saturday, November 18th for the ROH World Tag Team Championship.
Lexy Nair was backstage with “Hollywood Hunk” Ryan Nemeth!
Ryan: “I have a huge surprise. Big movie coming out next month. National comedy tour. But I want the success I’m having in Hollywood translate to success in AEW, which is why I brought you here.”
Nemeth turned and pointed to the dressing room door of “Hot And Flexible” CJ Perry.
Nemeth knocked on the door and “The Redeemer” Miro answered! Miro invited him in, the door closed, and Miro mauled Nemeth!
Fright Night Fight!
AEW Women’s World Championship Match!
Hikaru Shida (c.) vs. Abadon!
Shida and Abadon locked up. Abadon was looking to bite Shida, but Shida kicked her away. Abadon grabbed a skeleton bone and swung it at Shida, but Shida countered with a dropkick.
Abadon hid under the ring and tried to pull Shida under the ring. Abadon snuck up from the other side and ambushed Shida. Abadon cracked Shida across the back with a trash can lid.
Abadon and Shida collided against each other with double clotheslines, both having the same idea. Abadon found a baseball bat, but Shida got behind Abadon and choked her with it. Abadon cracked Shida with a kick in the face. Abadon poured out a bucket of candy and smashed Shida with a blockbuster on the candy!
Shida rocked Abadon with a shot from the kendo stick. Shida placed a pumpkin on top of Abadon’s head and smashed her with the katana kick, scoring the pinfall victory!
“What a win for Shida,” said Tony Schiavone.
“Timeless” Toni Storm came out and pranced around the ring.
ROH World Television Championship Match!
Samoa Joe (c.) vs. Rhett Titus!
Rhett wrenched on Samoa Joe’s wrist. Samoa Joe bulldozed his way right through Titus. Samoa Joe drove Titus down with jabs in the corner. Samoa Joe chopped at Titus. Rhett Titus jumped off the top turnbuckle, but Samoa Joe simply walked out of the way.
Rhett Titus ran into Samoa Joe with two big boots. He went for a third time, but Samoa Joe planted Titus and then forced Titus to tap out!
“Domination made flesh!” said Kevin Kelly.
Footage aired from last night’s Rampage of Renee Paquette interviewing the QTV crew!
QT Marshall said that when he won the AAA Latin American Title, he told the world he was going to defend it with honor and prestige across the world. “I’m back in AEW and I plan on defending it against some of the luchadores because I’m told AEW has the best luchadores in the world.”
Up Next: An Injury update on the “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson!
Claudio Castagnoli said Danielson had a broken orbital bone and it was either from the Orange Punch or the Rainmaker. “I don’t know, and I don’t care because I’m going to make both of you pay for what you’ve done for my friend. Okada, be it in the Unites States or Japan, I am coming for you. I will find you and I will make you pay.
“Orange, you and me on Wednesday on Dynamite for your International Championship. I know what I’m going to do and what I’m capable of and it frightens me. You hurt one of the Blackpool Combat Club and now I’m going to hurt you. See you on Wednesday. Good luck.”
FTR’s Dax Harwood (with Cash Wheeler)
vs.
AEW World Tag Team Champion “Absolute” Ricky Starks (with Big Bill)!
Before the match began the lights in the arena went dark.
The lights came back on, and The House of Black were seen scouting the match.
Dax and Starks chain wrestled. They traded arm drags. Dax grabbed a side headlock takeover.
“What is the House of Black’s motivation for being here?” wondered Tony Schiavone.
Dax tried for a diving headbutt, but Ricky moved out of the way. Starks nailed Dax with a leg drop across the throat while Dax was on the edge of the ring. Dax went for a baseball slide, but Starks trapped him in the ring skirt. Starks started to pummel him with shots and then nailed him with a suplex on the ramp.
Dax rallied back and superplexed Ricky Starks. Both men hit the mat hard! Ricky rammed Harwood with a lariat. Dax clobbered Ricky with strikes. Dax grabbed an inside cradle for a near fall.
Dax blocked a tornado DDT and countered with a brainbuster for a near fall on Starks. Starks went for the spear, but Dax cracked him with a rising knee. Dax spiked Ricky with a piledriver. Dax went for the cover, but Big Bill pulled Dax out of the ring by the boot. Back in the ring, Ricky crushed Dax with a piledriver and pinned him!
“That’s the door closing on FTR, at least for the time being,” said Kevin Kelly.
“I’m not so sure about that,” replied Tony Schiavone.
The arena went dark again. This time when the lights returned on, Julia Hart was standing on the ramp surrounded by a shroud of fog. The lights went back out and this time when the came back on, the House of Black were in the ring, circling Ricky Starks and Big Bill!
“They’ve surrounded the champions,” said Kevin Kelly.
The House of Black then turned their attention to FTR!
La Faccion Ingobernable stormed down to the ring!
“It’s LFI!” said Tony Schiavone.
“Who are they looking at?” asked Kevin Kelly.
LFI helped FTR and began to slug it out with the House of Black! Big Bill and Ricky Starks retreated!
“LFI and FTR together in the ring! Incredible! Who would have thought this?” said Schiavone.
Lexy Nair was backstage with Andrade El Idolo!
Lexy asked about Andrade’s dealings with CJ Perry, as well as the return of LFI.
Andrade El Idolo: “I am a businessman. This is my business. Nobody else.”
TBS Champion Kris Statlander was backstage with Lexy Nair.
Statlander asked for some time to speak with Willow Nightingale and Skye Blue. Statlander said whatever was going on between Willow and Skye needed to be settled now.
Willow: “Skye, I felt this tension between us, and it’s growing stronger. And ever since we both got misted from Julia, something is getting worse with you.”
Skye: “Anything that I have to say with Julia is between her and I.”
Blackpool Combat Club’s Claudio Castagnoli
vs.
“Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams!
Claudio Castagnoli clobbered Tracy Williams with repeated European Uppercuts! Claudio clubbed Tracy with lariats. Claudio finished off “Hot Sauce” with a European Uppercut and then pinned him.
MJF was seen getting warmed up backstage.
MJF was approached by Samoa Joe.
Samoa Joe: “I could be your friend, Max. You just need to give me a rematch at your championship. If you find yourself in a bad way tonight, you just gotta scream my name and I’ll be your friend. Good luck. Dangerous opponent. I’ll keep my ears pricked up.”
Main Event Time!
AEW World Championship Match!
MJF (c.) vs. Kenny Omega!
Jim Ross joined the broadcast booth to provide his main event analysis.
Both men had each other scouted out early in the match, going hold for hold with one another. MJF offered his hand to Omega as a sign of good sportsmanship. Omega accepted and then MJF poked Omega in the eyes.
Omega backdropped MJF out of the ring. Omega hit the Terminator Dive on MJF! The champ fired back, jumping over the top rope and flipping onto Omega!
Omega jumped off the top rope with a cross body press to MJF. Omega tried for a hurracanrana, but MJF countered with a powerbomb back breaker combo. MJF planted Kenny with a stuffed DDT, good for a near fall.
Omega nailed MJF with a snapdragon suplex. Omega dropkicked MJF’s kneecap. Omega wiped out MJF with a lariat, sending MJF to the arena floor. Omega followed up with a moonsault to MJF. Omega rocked MJF with a missile dropkick from the top rope to the back of the head. Omega went for a moonsault, but MJF countered by raising his knees!
MJF chomped down on Omega’s forehead. MJF arm whipped Omega into the turnbuckles. MJF cracked Kenny with the kangaroo kick.
Omega connected with a sliding baseball kick, sending MJF into the broadcast booth. Kenny pulled a table out from beneath the ring. Back in the ring, they exchanged cradles. Kenny buckle bombed MJF, but the champ came out of the corner with a massive lariat to the Cleaner!
They battled on the ring apron. Kenny drilled MJF with a snapdragon suplex on the edge of the ring! Omega powerbombed MJF off the apron and through the table on the floor!
“My God what a main event here on Collision!” said Jim Ross.
Back in the ring, Kenny connected with a knee strike. MJF countered the One Winged Angel with a Poison Rana! Omega fired back with a Poison Rana of his own!
“Back and forth, back and forth!” said Jim Ross.
The fans chanted “Fight forever! Fight forever!”
MJF hit a double stomp on Omega’s arm. Omega rallied back with a jumping knee strike. MJF planted Omega with a Blue Thunder Bomb for a near fall.
“State of the art pro wrestling,” said Nigel.
MJF stunned Omega with a thrust kick. Omega came back with a piledriver, but MJF got his boot on the rope to stop the ref’s count. Omega powerbombed MJF on the guardrail. Omega removed the protective guard from the rail. He threw MJF back into the ring, so they didn’t get counted out.
Kenny was on the top turnbuckle, but MJF charged into the ropes, knocking Omega down. MJF climbed to the top, but Omega countered with a snake eyes from the top. Omega drove his knee into the back of MJF’s head. Omega blasted MJF with a snap dragon suplex and a running knee strike for a near fall! Kenny smashed MJF with the V Trigger. He followed up with another V Trigger. Omega hoisted up MJF for the One Winged Angel, but Don Callis ran to the ring. Omega put MJF down when he saw Callis.
As Omega was distracted by a screwdriver wielding Callis, MJF rolled up Omega from behind. Omega countered by reversing the rollup. MJF kicked out but Omega came back with a running knee strike! MJF kicked out of the pin attempt!
Don Callis climbed the ring steps. Ref Paul Turner ejected Don Callis. Omega hoisted up MJF for the One Winged Angel again, but MJF rolled forward for a pin. Omega rolled back to counter. It was another stale mate.
MJF caught Kenny in the Heat Seeker, but Kenny kicked out at the two-count! MJF went for the Panama Sunrise on Kenny and Kenny ended up countering with a pin attempt, but MJF kicked out! MJF kicked Kenny in the face and drilled Kenny with the Panama Sunrise. MJF finally finished off Omega with another Heat Seeker, pinning the Cleaner!
Samoa Joe was shown watching the match from backstage. Wardlow was also seen scouting the match from backstage. Powerhouse Hobbs was watching the match too. Jay White and Bullet Club Gold were taking mental notes as well.
“Everybody gunning for MJF,” said Tony Schiavone.
Kenny Omega and MJF hugged after the match.
Catch AEW DYNAMITE on TBS next Wednesday live at 8/7ct from the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, KY!
And remember…the home of professional wrestling is All Elite Wrestling!
