DYNAMITE was as explosive as ever, a night where The Hurt Syndicate told the world where they stand and Swerve Strickland challenged Bobby Lashley to meet him at FULL GEAR 2024. It was a night where AEW World Champion Jon Moxley and his Death Riders went to war against Orange Cassidy and Darby Allin, a war that has now also pulled in The Conglomeration. Powerhouse Hobbs returned to the fold as Ricochet's partner against The Don Callis Family while Will Ospreay came back from his Kyle Fletcher-inflicted injuries to assist them against the numbers game. We also learned about the FULL GEAR 2024 4-Way Contenders Series that will determine Private Party's AEW World Tag Team Championship challengers for the pay-per-view on November 23rd, and it's brought us to RAMPAGE tonight!
We've got four big matches on tap including the return of “The Ace” Hikaru Shida to AEW competition, round two between Lio Rush and Komander, a 3-Way Tag pitting Dark Order against Undisputed Kingdom and The Infantry, as well as Top Flight preparing for the COLLISION clash with The Outrunners by facing BEEF and JD Drake!
RAMPAGE begins at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, so be sure to visit out AEW's official YouTube channel to catch highlights from DYNAMITE, as well as previous editions of RAMPAGE and COLLISION, as we all head towards FULL GEAR 2024 and Jon Moxley's AEW World Championship defense against “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy! Then join AEW on Saturday for COLLISION featuring Nick Wayne versus AR Fox, a World Trios Championship match between The Death Riders and The Conglomeration, and the first FULL GEAR 4-Way Contenders Series match between Top Flight and The Outrunners! After that it's off to Bridgeport, CT and the Total Mortgage Arena for a DYNAMITE where Adam Cole faces AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita and FTR faces House of Black in the second FULL GEAR 4-Way Contenders Series bout!
THE REMATCH...
Komander vs. Lio Rush
Last week on RAMPAGE these two high-flying super-speed sensations met for the first time and the resulting contest was every bit as exciting in reality as it presented on paper. Unfortunately for Lio Rush it was Komander who picked up the victory with his rope walk Shooting Star Press known as Cielito Lindo, but this week Lio has an opportunity to even the series!
The thing with a first-time fight, a competitor only knows what their opponent brings to the table by watching tape but the second time around, they can be prepared based off first-hand knowledge and that could be all the difference in this rematch. Both Lio and Komander learned more about how the other operates inside that squared circle, meaning they can game plan just a little better than one week ago, and concoct counters to each other's offensive combinations. There is also the fact Komander is coming into this after suffering a devastating loss to “The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher last week on COLLISION, and the question of if that will prove a motivational tool for Komander or an exploitable weakness for Lio Rush.
However this one goes, the AEW fans are in for a treat with this rematch between two of the best high-flying athletes in the business today!
TAG TEAM CONTEST...
Top Flight (Dante & Darius Martin) vs. BEEF & JD Drake
Tomorrow night on COLLISION Top Flight kicks off the FULL GEAR 2024 4-Way Contenders Series against The Outrunners of Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd. The winner of each Contenders Series bout will move on to FULL GEAR 2024 to participate in a 4-Way AEW World Tag Team Championship match with newly the crowned Private Party, and among the six teams involved in the Series, there are probably known who want a shot at Zay and Quen more than the Martin brothers!
When Private Party finally returned to tag team competition after injuries kept Marq Quen on the sidelines for the whole of 2023, they kicked off their comeback with a victory over Top Flight on the January 17, 2024 DYNAMITE. Dante and Darius did even the score a few weeks later on RAMPAGE, but a rubber match between the two teams never took place, though Top Flight did get a victory in a 3-Way Tag with Bryan Keith & Komander with Komander taking the fall in that contest.
Though FULL GEAR 2024 wouldn't give Top Flight a head-to-head battle with Private Party, it would at least give them a bout with the World Tag Titles at stake, but even thinking about November 23rd is counting the proverbial chickens before they hatch. There is still a matter of getting past The Outrunners and the youngest men alive in the business today are bringing their gains train to Providence!
Top Flight holds a pair of victories over The Outrunners from DARK: ELEVATION 92 in December 2022 and ROH's DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024: ZERO HOUR back in July, but that was before Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd got on the roll they're currently experiencing. Wins in three of their last four AEW tag team bouts, participants in the first-ever Tag Team Casino Gauntlet, running buddies with FTR; suffice to say the last few months of 2024 have been good to The Outrunners and they are looking to keep that fire burning by qualifying for their first AEW World Tag Team Title match!
Will Top Flight soar into contention at FULL GEAR 2024, or will it be The Outrunners who bring their vascularity to pay-per-view on November 23rd?
THREE-WAY TAG...
Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) vs. The Infantry (Carlie Bravo & Capt. Shawn Dean) vs. Dark Order (Alex Reynolds & John Silver)
This is a match quite loaded with history and most all of it has gone down in Ring of Honor competition over the last year. The Infantry and The Undisputed Kingdom have been at each other's necks since the very first episode of ROH ON HONOR CLUB from 3/2/23, and it culminated during Taven and Bennett's 3rd reign as ROH World Tag Team Champions. On the road to SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024 Carlie Bravo and Capt. Shawn Dean took the ROH World Tag Champs to a time limit draw in Proving Ground competition, meaning they earned a future ROH World Tag Team shot. Though The Infantry was unable to capitalize on that opportunity at SOH '24, at least they knew it was largely due to Wardlow's involvement in the match rather than because Taven and Bennett beat them on their own. Three months later Bravo and Dean would get another opportunity to take the straps from Undisputed Kingdom, but that HONOR CLUB 76 bout also went in favor of the defending champions.
So that makes this match an opportunity for The Infantry, now under the guidance of Shane Taylor and the umbrella of Shane Taylor Promotions, to get some revenge on The Undisputed Kingdom but they've also got to contend with the Dark Order tandem of Alex Reynolds and John Silver to do so! The Infantry and Dark Order have a little history, one tag match dating back to DARK #118 three years ago, but that was well before Carlie Bravo and Shawn Dean found themselves as a team, but there's also the matter of a trios match from HONOR CLUB #72 where The Infantry and Lee Johnson defeated Dark Order, not to mention this wild Four Corner Survival Trios from HONOR CLUB #68 that involved both teams but was won by neither.
And finally there is the Undisputed Kingdom/Dark Order history which doesn't run deep, but it does date back to a 2015 bout at Fete Music in Providence, RI that was won by Taven and Bennett. They operated as a unit for an eight-man bout during HONOR CLUB #78 but the Dustin Rhodes, Sammy Guevara, and Von Erichs quartet handed them a loss there.
Ultimately what this all comes down to, the bits of history wrapped up between these three teams, it's all about contention for the AEW World Tag Team Titles and whoever may hold them after FULL GEAR 2024's 4-Way bout. Now that they are freed from the clutches of The Young Bucks, it feels as if new life as been breathed into the tag division, and everyone is gunning to be the next team who is wearing those belts around their waists!
THE ACE RETURNS...
Hikaru Shida vs. Viva Van
It's been almost two months since “The Ace of the Women's Division” Hikaru Shida has graced an AEW ring with her presence, but tonight on RAMPAGE she returns to the fold to remind everyone why she's the most successful AEW Women's World Champion of all-time! With three title reigns to her name, 12 overall defenses, and a grand total of 436 days spent as champion, it's hard to argue with Shida's statistics. Unfortunately Shida wasn't been able to recapture the domination of her original 372 day championship reign with her subsequent ones, but that doesn't mean she'll ever stop trying to become the first 4-Time Champion and aim to surpass her own historical record. It starts tonight on RAMPAGE with Viva Van, an impressive young competitor who recently took part in a tour of CMLL alongside ROH Women's World TV Champion Red Velvet, but who has yet to find her footing in All Elite Wrestling. It almost goes without saying what kind of boon it would be to Viva Van's career to steal a victory over Hikaru Shida tonight on RAMPAGE, but getting there will be the hardest fight of Van's six-year career!
RAMPAGE gets underway at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, and it features a rematch between Lio Rush and Komander, as well as the return of “The Ace” Hikaru Shida, a 3-Way Tag between Undisputed Kingdom, The Infantry, and Dark Order, as well as Top Flight in action against JD Drake and BEEF! Before the night begins, drop by AEW's official YouTube channel to catch highlights from DYNAMITE, previous editions of RAMPAGE and COLLISION, and so much more as we continue down the road to FULL GEAR 2024 and AEW World Champion Jon Moxley defending against 2-Time International Champion “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy!
Then tomorrow night on COLLISION we will see Nick Wayne take on AR Fox, as well as a World Trios Championship defense pitting The Death Riders against The Conglomeration, and the first of three FULL GEAR 2024 4-Way Contenders Series matches takes place between Top Flight and The Outrunners! Following that, AEW returns to Bridgeport, CT and the Total Mortgage Arena where DYNAMITE hosts AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita taking on Adam Cole in a non-title affair arranged by MJF, as well as House of Black renewing their rivalry with FTR in the second of the FULL GEAR 2024 4-Way Contenders Series bouts!