Wednesday night during Dynamite: Fight For The Fallen 2022, Night One fans witnessed Jon Moxley retain his AEW Interim World Title over Rush, Thunder Rosa maintain her grasp on the AEW Women's World Title after Miyu Yamashita's challenge, and Ricky Starks defeat Danhausen in a FTW Title fight only to lose it to HOOK minutes later!
Plus, in a shocking upset, Daniel Garcia (with a little help from his friends) defeated “The American Dragon” in Bryan's return to action after two months on the shelf recovering from injury! It was a shocking end to a night where Chris Jericho challenged Jon Moxley to fight him in a title bout, where Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus had words for Christian Cage, and we heard the announcement of a tournament to crown the first AEW World Trios Champions!
Fight for the Fallen 2022 continues this Friday night on Rampage: Night 2 and gets kicked off with a Trios Bout putting Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh, and Sonjay Dutt in action against The Best Friends and Orange Cassidy! Plus Matt Sydal fights Lee Moriarty, Leon Ruffin gets another crack at Ethan Page, and in the main event, Anna JayAS battles an injured Ruby Soho. The action starts Friday night on TNT at 10pm EDT/9pm CDT on TNT, and on AEWPlus.com for our international audience, but be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel, the AEW Twitter feed, and the official Facebook page to catch up on Dynamite highlights, and witness the latest episodes of Dark: Elevation, AEW Dark, Road To, and the Control Center with Tony Schiavone.
ONE-ON-ONE...
Anna Jay vs. Ruby Soho
A week ago, Anna Jay made the life decision to assault Ruby Soho, reunite with her best friend Tay Conti, and turn her back on The Dark Order in favor of The Jericho Appreciation Society. It was quite surprising, TayJay hadn't been a thing in months, the women hadn't even teamed since February, and Conti has been all wrapped up in Sammy Guevara's business throughout 2022.
Thus when Anna came to ringside during the Barbed Wire Everywhere Match, it seemed as if she was there to talk sense into her best friend cheating on behalf of The J.A.S, but instead it proved to be “The Queen Slayer” realigning with Tay to deck Ruby, slam her head into the corner post, and free The J.A.S from their shark cage entrapment.
In that moment, the future of Anna Jay was set, and a collision with Ruby Soho was made inevitable. Fortunately for “The Runaway”, she didn't have to wait long because this Friday night on the Fight For The Fallen 2022 edition of Rampage, Ruby and Anna will go one-on-one for the very first time! These two women are no stranger to one another, they established a nice little 3-0 record as a tag team during 2022, and even teamed up in several trios bout, including one with Tay Conti, but they've never gone as opponents.
That changes on Friday when Ruby, still healing up from Tay's assault on her arm, returns to AEW competition for the first time since that attack. Anna, on the other hand, comes into this bout at 100% and with the support of Tay Conti, but that's not about to stop “The Runaway” from bringing every ounce of fight she has to bear. In this latest iteration of the ever-escalating battle against The Jericho Appreciation Society, will it be their newest addition who comes out on top or will we see Ruby get some revenge for her busted wing?
TEACHING A LESSON...
Lee Moriarty vs. Matt Sydal
Lee Moriarty has been sitting under the learning tree of Matt Sydal for a good portion of his AEW career, and been watching him as an inspiration for some time prior to that. It's a relationship that has taught Moriarty quite a bit, his singles record stands at 10-2 during 2022 after all, but it hasn't been championship success, nor has he managed to win when the spotlight has been the brightest. He lost to CM Punk, he lost to Shawn Spears, he lost to Bryan Danielson, and perhaps most importantly to this discussion, he lost to Jonathan Gresham in their ROH World Title Match.
And perhaps it was that loss, the lesson he got from that match, that led Moriarty to use the ropes for leverage to pin Dante Martin in their one-on-one bout last week. It wasn't the best lesson, certainly not one Matt Sydal would have wanted him to take from the championship bout, but here we are with Moriarty being propositioned by Stokely Hathaway, cheating to beat Dante Martin, and now battling his mentor in their first-ever singles!
Even though Moriarty refused Hathaway's card last week, that doesn't mean Big Stoke is going to give up so easily. Will Hathaway get involved in this bout on Friday, will Moriarty dip into that same bag of tricks that helped him beat Dante, or will we see the mentor and his protege battle in a fair fight?
DARK: ELEVATION REMATCH...
“All Ego” Ethan Page vs. Leon Ruffin
Five minutes and thirty-eight seconds; that was how long it took Ethan Page to beat Leon Ruffin on the July 18th edition of Dark: Elevation, and in the book of Ego, that was about five minutes too long. He was disappointed in himself for the result, Ethan even tweeted he “needs a haircut and to cut some weight” after the match, acknowledging that it had been a rough couple weeks since Scorpio Sky lost the TNT Title, but he was going to get it back on track.
But clearly that match with Leon Ruffin stuck in his craw since this rematch is coming about because Ethan Page demanded it. It's not because Ruffin upset Ego with a victory, or anything like that, it's because Page think he should've done better. This Friday he's got his chance, but with that comes the risk of Leon Ruffin scoring a major upset on Rampage!
Based on his tweets, Ethan is clearly unhappy with his TV time (or lack thereof), but he's going to be even more miserable if Leon finds a way to even the score from Dark: Elevation. Once upon a time Scorpio Sky used to say “this is the worst town I've ever been”, but it seems Ethan Page wants to tweak that to “this is the worst place I've ever worked” with tweets like the one below:
TRIOS MATCH...
Chuck Taylor, Orange Cassidy, & Trent Beretta
vs.
Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh, & Sonjay Dutt
Lethal, Singh, and Dutt have had their issues with Orange Cassidy and The Best Friends for several months now, ever since Samoa Joe defended the ROH World TV Title against Trent Beretta, which in turn led to OC stepping up to Satnam Singh. The animosity between the two camps has built over the weeks, and came to a head on Dynamite in the face-to-face confrontation witnessed above where Sonjay Dutt let his mouth get away from him.
So this Friday night on Rampage, The Best Friends and OC will go into Trios action against Lethal, Satnam Singh, and in his AEW in-ring debut, Sonjay Dutt. Once known as “The Original Playa from the Himalaya”, Sonjay has not competed inside the squared circle in nearly five years, but his overzealous mouth has now put him, and his best friend, along with their “One In a Million” monster, into competition as part of Fight For The Fallen 2022, Night 2”.
Will this be the proverbial “mouth your butt can't cash” in the case of Sonjay, or can “The Franchise” and Satnam Singh pick up the slack? If not, this one is going to be a celebratory night for OC and The Best Friends!
Friday night brings Rampage: Fight For The Fallen 2022, Night 2 to the airwaves with Lee Moriarty battling his former mentor Matt Sydal, Ruby Soho and Anna Jay colliding, a huge trios match, and Ethan Page in action! It all begins at 10:00pm EDT/9:00pm CDT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for our international audiences, so make sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel to get caught up with Dynamite highlights, the latest episodes of Dark: Elevation, AEW Dark, Road To, and this week's Control Center with Tony Schiavone!