Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks are the first-ever AEW World Trios Champions.
Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson defeated Hangman Page, John Silver, and Alex Reynolds in the World Trios title tournament finals Sunday at All Out to become the first champs.
The finish of the title match left plenty of room for interpretation and future stories, as Page clipped Silver with a Buckshot Lariat when Omega rolled out of the way to lead to the finish. Page is a former member of The Elite, and once held AEW’s World Tag Team titles with Omega. The two also faced off for the AEW World title at Full Gear in November 2021, with Page defeating Omega for that championship in Omega’s last match before a nine-month hiatus due to injury.
The Elite defeated Andrade El Idolo & Rush & Dragon Lee in the eight-team tournament’s first round, United Empire’s Will Ospreay & Aussie Open in round two, then defeated Page and Dark Order in the finals on their way to the Trios titles.
AEW’s Ruby Soho suffered a broken nose in the opening match of Sunday’s All Out Zero Hour event.
Soho’s injury came at the conclusion of the Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo vs. Ortiz and Soho AAA Mixed Tag Team title match as Soho took a Tay KO from Melo directly to the face. Soho immediately covered her face with her hands as Melo pinned her, then was checked on by referee Rick Knox. Soho continued to hold her hands over her face as she left the ringside area.
Earlier in the contest, Soho took an awkward landing on her neck, and also landed awkwardly on a superplex to the floor spot, appearing to land with her tailbone directly on the floor.
Melo and Guevara won the match to retain the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship, concluding the Guevara and Melo vs. Ortiz and Soho trilogy that began on the August 26 Rampage episode.
Jim Ross feels there are logistical concerns to address regarding the build to Jon Moxley vs. CM Punk at AEW All Out.
JR appeared on a fundraiser for Steve “Mongo” McMichael on Saturday along with Conrad Thompson, Ric Flair, Jeff Jarrett, and Tony Schiavone. During the panel discussion, JR was asked about Sunday’s pay-per-view.
“Well, I think it’s going to be very unpredictable because I don’t know how you book this card. I don’t know how you have a match on Wednesday and your champion gets his ass whipped like a government mule and then you expect to return it Sunday. Why do I need a return? You just got your ass whipped. So there’s logical things we have to address, quite frankly. I think it’s going to be a very challenging show for Tony Khan to book but it’s loaded.”
JR then shared his concerns about the length of the show.
“My biggest concern is the fact that I will definitely be wearing darks because a brother’s got to piss,” JR said.
“This is going to be a 5-hour show. I’m not in favor of any 5-hour show. It’s just too long. Our attention spans are not going to maintain what it needs to be. It’s a chance for a lot talents to clear the deck and make a name for themselves. I say that at every pay-per-view.”
The AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship will be on the line at Sunday’s AEW All Out Zero Hour show.
In a match announced on Friday’s Rampage, Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo will defend the AAA Mixed Tag titles against Ortiz and Ruby Soho.
The bout will be a rematch from this week’s Rampage, as well as last week’s Rampage episode. Each team has won a bout in the series.
15 matches are now official for AEW’s Sunday shows. All Out Zero Hour begins at 7 p.m. Eastern time and airs on YouTube and AEW’s social media channels. The All Out pay-per-view card begins at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
Here are the lineups for Sunday’s shows:
All Out —
AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley (c) vs. CM Punk
AEW World Trios Championship finals: Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks vs. Hangman Page, John Silver & Alex Reynolds
AEW Interim Women’s World Championship: Toni Storm vs. Britt Baker vs. Jamie Hayter vs. Hikaru Shida
TBS Championship: Jade Cargill (c) vs. Athena
AEW World Tag Team Championship: Swerve In Our Glory (c) vs. The Acclaimed
Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Jericho
Sting, Darby Allin & Miro vs. Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews & Brody King
Jungle Boy vs. Christian Cage
FTR & Wardlow vs. Jay Lethal & Motor City Machine Guns
Casino Ladder Match for a future AEW World title shot: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Wheeler Yuta vs. Penta Oscuro vs. Rey Fenix vs. Rush vs. Andrade El Idolo vs. Dante Martin vs. TBA
Ricky Starks vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
All Out Zero Hour pre-show —
AEW All-Atlantic Championship: PAC (c) vs. Kip Sabian
FTW Championship: Hook (c) vs. Angelo Parker
Eddie Kingston vs. Tomohiro Ishii
AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship: Sammy Guevara & Tay Melo (c) vs. Ortiz & Ruby Soho
One of the biggest weekends of the year, one with three major events from WWE and AEW, likely not coincidental, is upon us.
WWE has Clash at the Castle on 9/3 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. For such a major event, it’s really a one-match show with Roman Reigns defending his Universal title against Drew McIntyre.
Reigns goes in with a two-year run as champion. With him wrestling The Rock as the current WrestleMania plan, it doesn’t need to be a title match. But they’ve kept the title on him for so long that most figured it was because they didn’t want to beat him prior to the match. The reality is that McIntyre could win, and lose it back before Mania and they could still do Reigns vs. Rock, and/or the Money in the Bank winner.
The advantage of McIntyre is obvious. They would have a champion who would appear on television once or twice a week, on every PPV show and on the house show circuit. With a new regime that may want to rebuild house shows and maximize television numbers, a champion in play full-time would help. But Reigns is also the biggest star in the company, and Levesque likely comes from the school where the champion should be the biggest star because if he’s not, you’re really devaluing the title itself.
AEW announced two new main card matches for Sunday’s All Out pay-per-view, plus two new Zero Hour pre-show matches during Wednesday’s Dynamite.
As expected, Jon Moxley vs. CM Punk for the AEW World Championship was officially announced for the Sunday, September 4 show during Dynamite. Moxley left an open contract for the bout, and Punk signed it after urging from long-time friend Ace Steel.
Also added to All Out, Sting, Darby Allin, and Miro will team against House of Black’s Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews, and Brody King in a trios bout.
A pair of title bouts have also been added to Zero Hour.
After interference from Kip Sabian cost his team a match in the Trios title tournament, PAC will look for revenge as he defends the All-Atlantic title against Sabian on Sunday’s pre-show.
In the other new Zero Hour title match, Hook will defend the FTW Championship against Jericho Appreciation Society’s Angelo Parker.
Sunday’s pre-show begins at 7 p.m. Eastern time, with the main card kicking off at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Here is the updated lineup for All Out and Zero Hour:
All Out —
AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley (c) vs. CM Punk
AEW World Trios Championship finals: Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks vs. TBD
AEW Interim Women’s World Championship: Toni Storm vs. Britt Baker vs. Jamie Hayter vs. Hikaru Shida
TBS Championship: Jade Cargill (c) vs. Athena
AEW World Tag Team Championship: Swerve In Our Glory (c) vs. The Acclaimed
Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Jericho
Sting, Darby Allin & Miro vs. Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews & Brody King
Jungle Boy vs. Christian Cage
FTR & Wardlow vs. Jay Lethal & Motor City Machine Guns
Casino Ladder Match for a future AEW World title shot: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Wheeler Yuta vs. Penta Oscuro vs. Rey Fenix vs. Rush vs. Andrade El Idolo vs. Dante Martin vs. TBA
Ricky Starks vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
Zero Hour pre-show —
AEW All-Atlantic Championship: PAC (c) vs. Kip Sabian
CM Punk vs. Jon Moxley in a rematch for the AEW World title is set once again for All Out this Sunday.
On Dynamite Wednesday, Punk signed an open contract to face the champion after his trainer and AEW producer Ace Steel persuaded him to take the chance.
Moxley opened the show saying he had an open contract to face him for the title, leaving it in the ring and walking out. Steel came out, grabbed the contract, and left. Later, Punk came out and talked about his recent loss to Moxley, as well as his foot injury. He said while his foot was ready, he wasn’t sure if he was.
Steel came back out and cut a passionate promo, telling Punk that he didn’t let anyone down and encouraged him to fight at All Out. Punk then went into the Chicago crowd and signed the contract, saying that all of Chicago was coming for the AEW World Championship on Sunday.
Moxley later came out and said if Punk wants to go out on his shield, then fine. He said if Punk has one miracle in him, he better find it now.
Here is the current card for All Out, scheduled for this Sunday:
AEW World Champion Jon Moxley defends against CM Punk
AEW World Trios Championship finals: The Elite vs. Best Friends or Dark Order
AEW Interim Women’s World Championship: Toni Storm vs. Britt Baker vs. Jamie Hayter vs. Hikaru Shida
TBS Champion Jade Cargill defends against Athena
AEW Tag Team Champions Swerve In Our Glory defend against The Acclaimed
Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Jericho
Jungle Boy vs. Christian Cage
FTR & Wardlow vs. Jay Lethal & Motor City Machine Guns
Casino Ladder Match
Ricky Starks vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
Casino Ladder Match: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Wheeler Yuta vs. Penta Oscuro vs. Rey Fenix vs. Rush vs. Andrade El Idolo vs. Dante Martin vs. TBA
Pre-show: Eddie Kingston vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Pre-show: FTW Champion Hook defends against Angelo Parker
Pre-show: All-Atlantic Champion PAC defends against Kip Sabian
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including Joe Doering, AEW Dynamite tonight, the line-up for All Out, gigantic RAW numbers, NXT 2.0 review with great improvements of late, Bryan vs. Tom, and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Job Listing: Onlamp php/mysql developer. Experience with vbulletin and drupal/WordPress a plus. Email [email protected] with subject PHP DEVELOPER with resume.
The lead story concerns AEW and WWE and the momentum changes, the current business environment for both companies, when momentum shifted and reasons, a listing of all the turns on AEW television of late, and goes into detail on the AEW issues with CM Punk & Adam Page, Eddie Kingston & Sammy Guevara, Thunder Rosa’s injury and it is real and so much more. It’s a major story and talks about the key things for AEW’s future as well as the talent meeting. Also in the issue:
Update on Clash at the Castle and All Out including business notes
Hot ticket sales for AEW & WWE shows
UFC 278 coverage in detail by Ryan Frederick
A fascinating historical piece on UK star Bert Royal and the Royal Brothers tag team, why they are so important in different aspects of the changes in UK wrestling in the 50s and 60s
How the pandemic has affected the Japanese wrestling business as compared to other sports and sports franchises, as well as the hierarchy of popularity and how it has changed from pre-COVID until today including the percentage increase or decrease in attendance of the major groups.
G1 Climax star ratings, as well as readers voted best match of G1 and G1 MVP
More on the New Japan and Stardom joint show
The death of Howard Brody and his contributions to pro wrestling
DDT Peter Pan show
Television ratings for the past week
Arena Mexico Grand Prix
Next major Stardom event
Next major New Japan matches around the country
Update on Dark Side of the Ring
One of the best wrestling announcers who never got a break looks to be leaving
A look at both nights of the RevPro 10 year anniversary shows
Time slot changes in October for Dynamite and Smackdown
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Monday News Update
Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw and all the latest wrestling news with Wrestling Observer Radio. You can send questions to the show to [email protected]
WWE released a video today on social media of Seth Rollins and Riddle brawling in the parking lot before the show in Pittsburgh. I thought that was pretty clever.
AEW sent out a few releases today for the PPV show on Sunday, including a Bleacher Report release for the streaming PPV and a joint release for Joe Hand Promotions for movie theater locations. The nine matches that are being advertised is all that is listed, with Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Jericho pushed in the main event spot on the top of the listings followed by Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland vs. The Acclaimed as second from the top in importance. They do say additional matches will be announced before Sunday but there’s not a hint of an AEW title match to be announced later, no names for the ladder match although they are advertising the winner gets an AEW title match. It looks weird to have an AEW PPV lineup with no title match main event nor any listing for Jon Moxley, CM Punk, Adam Page, Young Bucks, Kenny Omega nor others who one would expect would end up on the show in some form.
Raw is tonight in Pittsburgh with Kurt Angle on the show. The finals of the women’s tournament with Raquel Rodriguez & Aliyah vs. Dakota Kai & Iyo Sky for the titles and Bobby Lashley vs. The Miz for the U.S. title are announced. The Usos and Sami Zayn are announced. Obviously the Rollins-Riddle thing will be followed up on.
Judgment Day is scheduled to go to Cardiff for the PPV. Most likely if they are in a match, it would be either Edge & Rey Mysterio vs. Finn Balor & Damian Priest of a trios mach with Beth Phoenix and Rhea Ripley added. Based on last week’s TV, one would think it is the mixed trios. One would think that angle and announcement should come tonight.
A DAZN interview with FTR. Regarding the video game story of them not in the first release (as noted on last night’s Observer Radio show, they are likely to be in a later DLC release), they said it was no big deal.
Conrad Thompson will be doing a 9/3 at 1:30 pm. Eastern time show on FiTE.TV with Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Jarrett, Mick Foley, Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone raising Money for Steve McMichael, who is battling ALS.
Thanks to Jesse Scardina, Nick Alaimo, Jordan Sayle, Jesse Scardina and Alex Dudley for reports on the weekend WWE shows in Springfield, MA and Manchester, NH.
A couple of notes, a correction from yesterday’s report in that Raphael Assuncao is facing Victor Henry on 10/15, not Ricky Simon. Simon was Assuncao previous opponent.
Bellator announced hat the Vadim Nemkov vs. Corey Anderson light heavyweight Grand Prix final for a $1 million bonus and the division championship will take place on 11/18 at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago. The show will also feature Patricky Pitbull Freire defending the lightweight title against Usman Nurmagomedov, who is 15-0.
Bellator also announced bantamweight Grand Prix tournament semifinal fights on 12/9 at the Mohegan Sun Casino with Raufeon Stots (18-1), the interim champion (champion Sergio Pettis is out with an injury) defending his title against Danny Sabatello (13-1) and Patchy Mix (16-1) vs. Magomed Magomedov (19-2).
Other Notes
WAR United We Stand on 9/10 in Lima, OH at the Empowered Sports Center.
Pro Wrestling EVE on Thursday at 229 The Venue in London features EVE champion Alex Windsor defending her title against Hikari Noa of Tokyo Joshi Pro, plus EVE International champion Laura Di Matteo defends against Skye Smitson. EVE champion Jetta & Charlie Morgan & Millie McKenzie face Emersyn Jayne & Lizzy Evo & Nina Samuels, plus Kanji vs. Alexxis Falcon.
Game Changer Wrestling has three shows planned for Japan which have all sold out.
After several months of build, TBS Champion Jade Cargill will defend her TBS title against Athena at All Out.
The match was made during Friday’s Rampage in a backstage promo where Cargill laid out a challenge to Athena followed by the challenger running in from off-screen. The two brawled briefly before they were separated.
Athena (the former Ember Moon in WWE) targeted Cargill when she first arrived in AEW at May’s Double or Nothing, but this will be their first singles match. They were on opposite sides of a July tag team match where Cargill and Kiera Hogan defeated Athena and Willow Nightingale.
Cargill will be looking to remain undefeated in singles action at 33-0 while this will be Athena’s first shot at any AEW gold.
Here’s the current lineup for All Out on Sunday, September 4th:
Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Jericho
AEW World Trios Championship finals
AEW Interim Women’s World Championship: Toni Storm vs. Britt Baker vs. Jamie Hayter vs. Hikaru Shida
TBS Champion Jade Cargill defends against Athena
AEW Tag Team Champions Swerve In Our Glory defend against The Acclaimed
Jungle Boy vs. Christian Cage
FTR & Wardlow vs. Jay Lethal & Motor City Machine Guns
The fortunes of WWE and AEW have gone in opposite directions in recent months.
WWE is doing great business-wise, with Raw at its highest point of the year and live show attendance up across the board.
AEW last week did its second lowest 18-49 number of the year and while live attendance was great in May and June, the last two months haven’t been as good, and aside from New York, Toronto, and Uncasville, CT, most cities are doing lukewarm. For much of the year, Dynamite was drawing larger paid crowds than Raw and just behind Smackdown. In the last two months, the numbers have not been competitive. AEW hasn’t slipped that much but has slipped some, and WWE has grown tremendously.
Some will attribute this to Paul Levesque taking over from Vince McMahon, and that would be fair to a degree. Ratings for Raw have been up a lot. Smackdown hasn’t been up nearly as much although the past two weeks’ numbers with football moving the shows really aren’t indicative of where things really are with that show.
According to Dave Meltzer, an AEW World title rematch between unified champion Jon Moxley and former champion CM Punk is the main event for next Sunday’s All Out.
Speaking at the beginning of the post-Dynamite Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer said the rematch is the main event but isn’t sure if they are adding stipulations or when they will announce it. He then urged the company to announce the match as soon as possible while also conceding that the decision to buy pay-per-views is usually a last minute one.
On Wednesday, Moxley defeated Punk in roughly three minutes to unify the AEW World titles. On a head kick, Punk played up that he re-injured his surgically repaired foot, leading to Moxley running roughshod over him and pinning him after a Death Rider in a one-sided match.
It was Punk’s first match since a June trios match on Dynamite alongside FTR where he first got the injury that put him out of action just days after he defeated Hangman Page for the AEW World title.
It was a wild night of wrestling, the August 24th edition of AEW Dynamite had a lot of fans asking a lot of questions.
The Jon Moxley vs CM Punk match played out differently that many had expected, Thunder Rosa is out with an injury, lots of matches were made for AEW All Out! Join on-camera personality Denise Salcedo as she reacts and breaks down the events that took place!
The card for next month’s AEW All Out got nearly fully rounded out during Wednesday’s Dynamite with a slew of new matches being added.
The AEW Tag Team titles will be on the line as Swerve In Our Glory (Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland) defend against The Acclaimed. The champions came out to aid The Acclaimed Wednesday as they were taken out by Gunn Club as they tried to aid a beaten down Billy Gunn. They stared each other down and The Acclaimed challenged the champions in a backstage promo afterward.
In a grudge match, Jungle Boy will face Christian Cage. In an intense promo Wednesday, Cage accepted Jungle Boy’s recent challenge that he initially turned down. That resulted in a massive brawl that Jungle Boy got the best of, laying Cage out.
In another grudge match, Ricky Starks will take on former tag team partner Powerhouse Hobbs. Starks issued his own challenge Wednesday during another intense promo after Hobbs took him out several weeks ago in a surprise attack.
