Tag: aew tag team title tournament

The tournament to fill the vacant AEW Tag Team Championship continues on tonight’s live Rampage with a wild card bout. 

Orange Cassidy & Trent Beretta will face Powerhouse Hobbs & Kyle Fletcher of The Don Callis Family with the winners advancing to the quarterfinals to face current Ring of Honor Tag Team Champions Mike Bennett & Matt Taven of The Undisputed Kingdom. 

The 10-team field for the tournament will be narrowed to eight following tonight’s Dynamite and Rampage action. The titles were vacated by Sting & Darby Allin following Sting’s retirement match at AEW Revolution earlier this month.

TBS Champion Julia Hart & Skye Blue will team against Kris Statlander & Willow Nightingale in a street fight.

Coming off his victory over Komander last Friday, Konosuke Takeshita will battle Ricky Romero while former Ring of Honor TV Champion Katsuyori Shibata will be back in action after losing to Bryan Danielson last Saturday.

Live from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

…Adam Copeland defeated Christian Cage in an “I Quit” Match for the TNT title.

I’m not sure if this is the overrun from Dynamite or the start of Rampaage. But joined in progress, Copeland tried to submit Cage with a hockey-stick assistant crossface, but Cage couldn’t spit out the words I Quit. The rest of the Patriarchy interfered to help Cage, but Matt Menard and Daniel Garcia came in to even the odds. All the members of the Patricarchy ended up handcuffed to opposite corners of the ring. Well, except Shayna Wayne, who ran to the back After several kicks to the groin, Cage still would not quit. Finally, Copeland pulled out “SPIKE,” and even a shot to the “crotch” (really the turnbuckle but play along) with SPIKE wasn’t enough to get him to quit. Finally, Copeland raised SPIKE above his head, and the threat of that was enough to get Cage to quit. That was a complete and total blowoff to this feud. I missed the first part of the match but the finish was suitably epic. 

– Bullet Club Gold was in Florida in a pre-taped bit, enjoying a vacation as a reward for “saving Darby Allinls life.” I guess injuring him kept him from dying on Mount Everest.  They also repainted Sting’s black bat gold. And The Gunns are ready to retire their father.

– Renee Paquette brought out the Acclaimed in front of the live crowd to retort. Billy Gunn was not cleared to travel after getting jumped by the Bullet Club Gold. Caster got the “A$$ Boys!” chant going. This was very much a time-killing promo while the ring cleaned up the ring from the I Quit match. The upshot of the promo was the Acclaimed want Jay White and the Gunn Club. 

Orange Cassidy & Trent Beretta defeated Klye Fletcher & Powerhouse Hobbs (w/ Don Callis)  in a Wild Card match for the World Tag Team Title Tournament (10:31)

The winner advances to face the Undisputed Kingdom in the quarterfinals.

Hobbs hit Cassidy with a spinebuster immediately and almost got the pinfall. Beretta and Hobbs tossed Beretta into the barricade on the floor. Cassidy tried a dive to the floor, but Hobbs caught him and smashed him against the ring apron several times. Beretta came back for his team, taking both his opponents out with a dive onto the floor.

Back in the ring, Beretta chopped Hobbs in the corner and dumped Fletcher with a German suplex. Beretta went for a spinning DDT, but Fletcher blocked it, and Hobbs and Fletcher took out Beretta with a pendulum bomb.

After a split screen break, Beretta caught Fletcher with a spinning DDT, dumped Hobbs to the floor and got the tag to Cassidy. Cassidy took Fletcher out with a crossbody, then followed up with a spinning DDT for a near fall. Cassidy caught Hobbs with a superkick, but Hobbs floored him with a forearm. Hobbs racked Cassidy, and after a pair of forearms from Hobbs, Cassidy was able to break free and sunset flip Hobbs for a near fall. Hobbs floored Cassidy with a bodyblock.

Fletcher dropped Beretta with a half-and-half suplex. Cassdiy caught Fletcher with the Slumdog Millionaire, then Hobbs barreled through both Cassidy and Hobbs. Hobbs threw Cassidy like a sack of flour into the LED boards. Somehow, Cassidy got Hobbs up for a Beach Break on the floor. Back in the ring, Fletcher hit a spinning tombstone on Cassidy for a near fall. Fletcher was bleeding heavily from the mouth.

Fletcher set Cassidy up for a superplex, but Beretta made the save and hit a half-and-half suplex off the top. Cassidy came off the top on Fletcher with a diving DDT, Beretta took out Hobbs with a spear on the floor, and Cassidy hit the Orange Punch for the pinfall.

This was something else. 

Katsuyori Shibata defeated Kevin Matthews (1:20)

Crowd popped huge for Shibata, who mauled Matthews with forearms and hit the dropkick in the corner. Matthews came back with a clothesline. Shibata escaped a fireman’s carry and locked in a sleeper, than hit the PK for the quick victory. 

Konosuke Takeshita (w/ Don Callis) defeated Rocky “Azucar” Romero (8:52)

Romero lured Takeshita into a hard slap, then caught Takeshita with a step-up rana. Takeshita caught Romero with a sit-out death valley driver, then a dropkick.

During the split-screen break, Romeo countered what looked to be an avalanche back suplex with a sliced break off the top rope. Back to full-screen action, Romero hit a pair of dives on the floor, but on the third one Takeshita caught him and tried for a suplex, with Romero escaped. Takeshita tried for a forearm but Romeo ducked and Takeshita hit the post.

Back in the ring, Romero hit the sliced break for a near fall. Romero snapped Takeshita’s arm, and caught him with a cross-arm breaker. Don Callis jumped up on the ring apron to distract Romero, causing Romero to break the hold. Romero went for the sliced bread again, but Takeshita countered and got Romero into the package tombstone. Takeshita hit a spinning blue thunder bomb for a near fall. Romero mounted another comeback and Takeshita floored Romero with a clothesline. Takeshita leveled Romero with a forearm, then hit the spinning falcon arrow for the pinfall. 

This was great. 

Skye Blue & Julia Hart defeated Willow Nightingale & Kris Statlander (w/ Stokely Hathaway) in a Street Fight

The faces came out with chairs and the heels came out with kendo sticks. That didn’t go well for Hart and Blue. Hart got wedged in the chair. Statlander gave her a backbreaker while she was in the chair, and Nightingale hit a sliding boot on Hart.

Nightingale got a table from under the ring that Statlander set up in the corner. Hart found a spike, but when she went to use it on Statlander, she ducked and Hart spiked Blue instead.

During the split-screen break, Statlander and Hart crashed into the table in a spot I couldn’t really see.

Back to full-screen action. As the crowd was chanting “This is Awesome,” Nightingale slammed Blue on the floor. Nightingale tried to set up Blue for a powerbomb on the commentary table, but Blue countered into a Code Blue on the table.

Back in the ring, Blue dumped a bag of thumbtacks in the ring. Statlander pulled out her own bag of tacks and dumped them in the ring as well. Blue powerbombed Statlander out of the corner and into the tacks for a near fall. Blue put the tacks into Statlander’s mouth and hit a superkick for another near fall. The crowd chanted “You Sick [Person]!” at Blue, who ate it up. Blue tried to go to the top, but Nightingale grabbed her and drove her through a pair of tables with a death valley driver.

Back in the ring, Hart tried for a piledriver on Statlander, but Statlander backdropped her into a pile of chairs. Statlander went for a 450, but Hart got out of the way and locked in Hartless.  Hart got the submission when Statlander tapped out.