AEW Grand Slam continues on two-hour Rampage
Published
It's Night 2 of AEW Grand Slam on Rampage from Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens as Eddie Kingston meets Sammy Guevara. Plus, Ricky Starks takes on Powerhouse Hobbs in a Lights Out Match and there will be a Golden Ticket Battle Royal for a shot at the AEW World Championship. You can catch a special two-hour edition of AEW Rampage at 10pm et/7pm pt streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN App.
Eddie Kingston vs. "The Spanish God" Sammy Guevara (w/ Tay Melo) - Eddie Kingston and Sammy Guevara renew hostilities on Friday night, not far from Kingston's hometown of Yonkers, NY. While the match will only be the second ever singles match between the two men, the feud between the two men has been burning for several months now with Guevara relishing in his ability to cause problems for Kingston. It was Guevara who interfered in the hair-versus-hair match between Chris Jericho and Kingston's ally Ortiz to give Jericho an ill-gotten victory. Weeks later, Guevara and his wife, Tay Melo, slammed a car door on the hand of another of Kingston's allies in Ruby Soho, breaking it. Then it was interference from Guevara and the rest of the Jericho Appreciation Society to allow Jericho to defeat Kingston in a Barbed Wire Death Match on the July 20 edition of Dynamite. Needless to say, Kingston is out for blood. In a case like this that has become so personal, wins and losses don't matter to Kingston. He's looking for revenge and to make Guevara pay. The only previous singles encounter between the two men came all the way back in 2016 for Inspire Pro Wrestling in Austin, TX in a match where Guevara picked up the victory. Can Guevara continue to frustrate Kingston or will Kingston put an end to this feud once and for all?
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Lights Out Match: "Absolute" Ricky Starks vs. Powerhouse Hobbs - Still reeling from Will Hobbs' brutal betrayal, Ricky Starks took on his former tag-team partner at All Out earlier this month and was summarily defeated. Hobbs barely broke a sweat in putting away Starks and, in his mind, was done with Starks and moving on. But Starks wasn't finished. Recognizing that he let his emotions get the best of him in their first match, Starks wanted another shot at Hobbs, antagonizing him until he agreed to it. What was agreed to, however, wasn't just a normal match. The former partners will meet in a Lights Out Match at Arthur Ashe. The lights going out before a match like this is symbolic. Once they go out and go back on, that indicates that AEW has not sanctioned this match and anything goes. The win and loss here will not be included in a wrestler's official record. It will be only the sixth such match in company history and the second in 2022. The last Lights Out Match saw Orange Cassidy defeat Adam Cole in an absolutely brutal encounter on the Jan. 26 edition of Dynamite. That type of brutality is expected again on Friday night. Will Starks be able to keep his emotions in check in order to finally get revenge on Hobbs?
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FTW Champion Hook and Action Bronson vs. Jericho Appreciation Society ("Daddy Magic" Matt Menard and "Cool Hand" Angelo Parker) - At All Out, Angelo Parker became the latest man to attempt to hand Hook his first defeat in AEW, but like many before him, he fell victim to Redrum, Hook's version of his father's famous Tazmission. After the match, Parker's partner, Matt Menard, jumped into the ring to attack Hook and initiate a two-on-one beatdown. But Action Bronson, the man who recorded Hook's entrance theme, jumped over the guardrail from the crowd, entered the ring and threw both men off of Hook. Embarrassed, Menard and Parker challenged the duo to a tag-team match. Conventional wisdom would dictate that the regular tag team would defeat two men teaming for the first time, especially when one of the two men is a rapper and not a wrestler. But Bronsolino isn't exactly a small man and he isn't here for fun. He and Hook have been training seriously and are out to win. Will Menard and Parker overlook their challengers to their own detriment?
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TBS Championship match: Jade Cargill (w/ The Baddies) vs. Diamante (w/ Trina) - Action Bronson won't be the only rapper in the house on Friday night. On last week's Rampage, Diamante promised Jade Cargill that she would be bringing "Da Baddest B---- from the 305" with her to Arthur Ashe. It certainly seemed like Diamante was referring to somebody specific, but the person that first came to mind isn't a wrestler. Then this past Wednesday night on Dynamite, Diamante confirmed it was, in fact, who everybody thought it might be: Trina. The Love & Hip-Hop: Miami star will accompany Diamante to the ring on Friday as she looks to be the first person to defeat Cargill in AEW. It will be the first ever meeting between Diamante and the 37-0 Cargill. Will Trina's presence be enough to lift Diamante to a victory or will she become the latest in a very long line to fall to the TBS Champion?
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No-disqualification match: Darby Allin and Sting vs. The House of Black (Brody King and Buddy Matthews) (w/ Julia Hart) - The very bitter, very personal and very violent feud between Darby Allin and Sting and the House of Black finally comes to an end on Friday night in Queens. Allin and Sting thought they were finished with the House of Black at All Out when they teamed with "The Redeemer" Miro to dispatch Brody King, Buddy Matthews and Malakai Black. But on last week's Dynamite, King made it very clear that even though they cut the head off, there was plenty of venom left in the snake. During Friday night's match, anything goes and no holds are barred. That could spell disaster when you consider the kinds of violence Allin and King are capable of during the confines of a regular match. Whatever happens on Friday night is unlikely to be for the faint of heart.
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TNT Champion "Mr. Mayhem" Wardlow and ROH Television Champion Samoa Joe vs. "The Premier Athlete" Tony Nese and Josh Woods (w/ "Smart" Mark Sterling) - Mark Sterling might be a good lawyer, but he doesn't have the best track record of knowing when to pull his clients back from escalating a situation. Another example of that will be on display on Friday night when Tony Nese and Josh Woods will have to do battle with the absolutely ferocious tag team of Wardlow and Samoa Joe. Teaming for the first time ever, the prospect of this duo as a regular tag team should send a shiver down the spines of anybody else in the AEW tag-team division. This match probably won't go long and Sterling would be well advised to stay as far away from Joe and Wardlow as possible.
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AEW World Trios Champion Rey Fenix (w/ Alex Abrahantes) vs. Jungle Boy - Rey Fenix and Jack Perry have faced off a number of times in AEW, but never in a one-on-one singles match. Friday night brings this first-ever encounter between two former AEW World Tag Team Champions and one third of the current AEW World Trios Champions. With Fenix and Jungle Boy both capable of the spectacular, this match could steal the show on Friday night. While there is undoubtedly mutual respect between the two combatants, Friday night marks the first time the two have shared a ring since Perry and then-partner Luchasaurus defeated Fenix and his brother, Penta El Zero Miedo, for the tag-team titles on the Jan. 5 edition of Dynamite. Surely, Fenix has not forgotten about that. Of course, there is also the matter of Luchasaurus and Christian Cage. At All Out, Perry faced off against his former mentor Cage, but was blindsided by a vicious attack from his longtime friend and partner Luchasaurus, leading to a Cage victory in under :30. Cage and his underling have made it clear that they're not yet finished with Perry. Will they make an appearance on Friday night?
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PLUS:
- A 20-plus-man Golden Ticket Battle Royal will be held with the winner receiving a guaranteed title shot against AEW World Champion Jon Moxley