Danielson/Moxley headlines AEW Grand Slam on TSN2
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A match between Blackpool Combat Club stablemates Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley for the vacant AEW World Championship headlines AEW Grand Slam on Dynamite from Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens. The match will be one of five title matches on Wednesday night's show. You can catch AEW Grand Slam LIVE at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2, streaming on the TSN.App and on TSN.ca.
AEW Grand Slam Championship Tournament final for the vacant AEW World Championship: "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson vs. Jon Moxley - Blackpool Combat Club stablemates Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley will square off one more time on Wednesday night with AEW's top prize on the line. The two multiple-time world champions will look to once again wear gold in a match for the vacant AEW World Championship. Moxley, who had a first-round bye, reached the final with a win over Sammy Guevara on last week's Dynamite. Danielson had no bye and had to go through a pair of former AEW World Champions in "Hangman" Adam Page and Chris Jericho to reach the final. For Moxley, it's the chance to become the first-ever three-time AEW World Champion and a four-time world champion overall. Danielson, a former ROH World Champion, four-time WWE Champion and one-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion, has yet to win a title in AEW, having recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of his arrival in the company. If history is any indicator, these two men will beat the hell out of each other, friendship be damned. Danielson is 8-2-1 all-time against Moxley in singles matches, but 0-1 in AEW. Their only match to date in AEW came at Revolution this past March. In a brutal 21-minute match, Moxley powered out of a triangle choke to get the three-count with a trap pin. One thing is for certain on Wednesday night: the AEW World Championship is headed to the Blackpool Combat Club and it could make it two world champions in the group to go along with Claudio Castagnoli's ROH World Championship (more on that later). But which man - Moxley or Danielson - will be wearing the title when it's all said and done?
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AEW World Tag Team Championship match: Swerve in Our Glory (Shane "Swerve" Strickland and "Limitless" Keith Lee) (c) vs. The Acclaimed ("Platinum" Max Caster and "The Five-Tool Player" Anthony Bowens) (w/ Billy Gunn) - Max Caster and Anthony Bowens came oh, so close to winning the AEW World Tag Team Championship at All Out, but came up just short in their bid to unseat Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee. They'll have another opportunity to do so on Wednesday night in what is expected to be a very pro-Acclaimed crowd. Perhaps already the most popular act in AEW currently, Caster and Bowens will be wrestling in front of what is close to a hometown crowd in Queens with Caster hailing from Long Island and Bowens a native of Nutley, NJ. Despite how difficult it was to put Caster and Bowens away at All Out and the hostile reception they're likely to receive on Wednesday night, one can't help but get the feeling that Swerve and Lee are overlooking The Acclaimed. Strickland and Lee have come across as patronizing in their interactions with the duo and still don't seem like they're taking this challenge seriously. Since winning the titles from The Young Bucks (Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) in a three-way match that also included Team Taz (Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs) in July, Strickland and Lee have successfully defended them twice, most recently against former champions Lucha Bros. (Penta El Zero M and Rey Fenix) on Rampage. Can Swerve and Lee get past what could be the most serious challenge to their reign on Wednesday night?
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Four corners match for the AEW Interim Women's World Championship: Toni Storm (c) vs. Dr. Britt Baker, DMD (w/ Rebel) vs. "The Fallen Goddess" Athena vs. "The Professor" Serena Deeb - After becoming AEW Interim Women's World Champion at All Out, Toni Storm makes the first defence of her title on Wednesday night and the stakes couldn't be higher or more unpredictable. Storm faces the very real prospect of losing her title without getting pinned. In this four corners match, any of the four competitors can pin another to win the title. But one of the four women - former NWA World Women's Champion Serena Deeb - just pinned Storm herself in a tag-team match on last week's Dynamite that featured all four women in Wednesday night's match thanks to the presence of a steel chair brought into the ring by Britt Baker. After that match, all hell broke loose and a brawl ensued. It was during that brawl that Jamie Hayter made her presence known at ringside, nailing Athena with a chair. But Hayter has distanced herself from former associate Baker in recent weeks, seemingly still blaming her for costing her the title at All Out. Will Hayter emerge as a factor at Grand Slam?
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ROH World Championship match: Claudio Castagnoli (c) (w/ William Regal and Wheeler YUTA) vs. Chris Jericho (w/ Jericho Appreciation Society) - Chris Jericho is out for "the Ocho." Seven times a world champion (a former AEW World Champion and a six-time world champion in WWE), Jericho has never held the ROH World Championship and wants to add it to his collection as the eighth. Doing that might be easier said than done, though, because Claudio Castagnoli has yet to taste defeat in AEW. Having defeated Jonathan Gresham for the title at Death Before Dishonor in July, Castagnoli has since made successful title defences against Konosuke Takeshita, Dustin Rhodes, Ari Daivari and, most recently, Dax Harwood. But Jericho is somebody that Castagnoli has had problems with in the past and a man who he's shared a ring with on more than a couple of occasions. In his career against Jericho in singles matches, Castagnoli is 4-13. While that doesn't bode well for the champion, the last time the two men met one on one was in 2016 and much has changed since then. Castagnoli will feel good heading into the match with the knowledge that nobody in AEW has yet been able to solve him. Can the Swiss Superman hang onto his title or will it once again be time for Le Champion?
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AEW All-Atlantic Championship match: "The Bastard" PAC (w/ Alex Abrahantes) (c) vs. "Freshly Squeezed" Orange Cassidy (w/ Danhausen) - Just as Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee seem to be discounting the challenge from The Acclaimed, it's very clear that AEW All-Atlantic Champion PAC thinks very little of Orange Cassidy. Originally laughing off Cassidy's challenge, PAC was forced to take it more seriously when he ate an Orange Punch during last Friday's Rampage. Cassidy and PAC are from strangers. PAC and the rest of Death Triangle (Penta El Zero M and Rey Fenix) defeated Cassidy and Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta) for the vacant AEW World Trios Championship on the Sept. 7 edition of Dynamite. At Revolution 2020, PAC memorably defeated Cassidy in a hard-fought encounter. They both fell short in a three-way AEW World Championship match at Double or Nothing 2021, losing to then champion Kenny Omega. Both men are eminently aware of what the other is capable, even if PAC doesn't care much for his opponent. Since defeating Malakai Black, Clark Connors and Miro to become the inaugural All-Atlantic Champion at Forbidden Door in June, PAC has successfully defended his title on four occasions, most recently against Kip Sabian at All Out. Will "The Bastard" keep rolling or will Cassidy claim his first piece of hardware in AEW?