Cage, Copeland I Quit Match headlines three hours of AEW from Toronto on TSN2
Published
An I Quit Match for the TNT Championship between hometown competitors Christian Cage and Adam Copeland headlines three straight hours of AEW live from Toronto. You can catch two hours of AEW Dynamite followed by AEW Rampage LIVE beginning at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2, streaming on the TSN App and on TSN.ca.
I Quit Match for the TNT Championship: "The Patriarch" Christian Cage (c) (w/ Killswitch, "The Prodigy" Nick Wayne and Mother Wayne) vs. "The Rated R Superstar" Adam Copeland - The bitter feud between longtime tag-team partners and best friends reaches its crescendo in the pair's hometown as Christian Cage once again puts his TNT Championship on the line against Adam Copeland. Since Copeland's arrival in AEW in October, he's found himself at odds with the man with whom he's held the WWE World Tag Team Championships on seven occasions. Copeland's offer to once again team with Cage was soundly rebuffed by "The Patriarch" and it became clear very quickly that this was not the same man with whom he traveled all over the world. This new version of Cage is bitter, sadistic and only concerned with keeping grip on his TNT Championship and holding sway over Killswitch and Nick Wayne. When the two first met for the title in December in Montreal, Cage managed to retain his championship thanks to the intervention of Mother Wayne. Then at the Worlds End pay-per-view later that month, Copeland managed to defeat Cage and capture the title in a brutal and bloody spectacle. His joy was short-lived, however, because he was immediately laid out by Killswitch afterwards. Before the hulking masked man could cash in the title shot he won earlier in the night in a 20-man battle royal, Cage convinced him to give it to him. Killswitch acquiesced and Cage immediately pinned a prone Copeland to regain his title only minutes after he had lost it. This time around in Toronto, the only way to settle things will be to force the other man to say "I quit." And Copeland has made it quite clear that he has no intentions of easing up on his friend. On Collision this past Saturday night, Copeland revealed "Spike," a two-by-four with nails sticking out of it, that he constructed after a conversation with "The Hardcore Icon" Mick Foley. He said he's bringing it to Dynamite with him and he's prepared to use it. Which of these two men is leaving Toronto as TNT Champion?
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AEW Continental Championship match: ROH World Champion and New Japan Strong Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston (c) vs. "The Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada - Over his 17-year career in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Kazuchika Okada was no stranger to championships and on Wednesday night, he has the opportunity to claim his first AEW title in his first AEW singles match when he challenges Eddie Kingston for the AEW Continental Championship. During his time in NJPW, Okada was a seven-time IWGP (World) Heavyweight Champion and a NEVER Openweight 6-Man Champion alongside Tomohiro Ishii and Hiroshi Tanahashi and he and the rest of this new iteration of The Elite (Nicholas Jackson and Matthew Jackson) would love nothing more than to open his account in AEW in Toronto. The match marks only the sixth time Okada has ever wrestled in Toronto and the first time since he fell to "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson in the main event of last summer's Forbidden Door. Wednesday night's match will be the first time that Kingston has defended the Continental Championship - won in the Continental Classic Final over Jon Moxley at Worlds End - on its own and not part of the Continental Crown Championship (a triple crown that also includes his ROH World Championship and New Japan Strong Openweight Championship). He's defended that successfully on three occasions, defeating Trent Beretta, Wheeler YUTA and Danielson, most recently, at Revolution earlier this month. Wednesday night's match will be the first ever singles encounter between Kingston and Okada. On last week's Dynamite, The Elite defeated Kingston and Death Triangle (Penta El Zero Miedo and PAC) in trios action when Nicholas Jackson hit Kingston with a low blow before Okada finished him off with a Rainmaker. While that doesn't bode well for Kingston in Toronto, Wednesday night's match will be wrestled under Continental rules, meaning that no seconds can accompany either wrestler to the ring and interference will result in the offending party being fired from AEW. With that in place, it will be up to the better man to prevail. Will Okada add some new gold to his trophy case or will Kingston keep the Continental Championship around his waist?
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AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm and Mariah May (w/ Luther) vs. "The Virtuosa" Deonna Purrazzo and Thunder Rosa - Deonna Purrazzo isn't finished with Toni Storm just yet. Purrazzo has every right to feel cheated out of the AEW Women's World Championship the way things went down earlier this month at Revolution. Her match with Storm was littered with interference from Luther and Mariah May and undoubtedly cost her the title. At one point, Purrazzo had her former friend in a Fujiwara arm bar. As she sunk it in, Luther distracted the ref, who missed Storm furiously tapping out to the hold. Shortly thereafter, May distracted Purrazzo long enough for Storm to connect with Storm Zero and retain her title. Still irate, Purrazzo has drafted a new ally into the fight and somebody who also has designs in the women's title in the former of Thunder Rosa. Recall that when "La Mera Mera" stepped away from competition to deal with serious injury, she was the AEW Women's World Champion. After winning the title from Britt Baker in March of 2022, Rosa went on to defend her title on six occasions before being forced to relinquish it. Rosa has never lost that title and has made it clear she intends to get back what she considers still hers. Since returning to action just before Christmas, Rosa is 6-0 in singles and tag-team competition. She's hungry to get her title back and Wednesday night will be the perfect opportunity for Rosa to show Storm that firsthand. Will Purrazzo and Rosa declare their intent or will Storm and May fend off her potential challengers?
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FTW Champion Hook vs. "Lionheart" Chris Jericho - In recent weeks, Chris Jericho made it clear to Hook that he sees something in him. He said that during the All-Star Scramble match at Revolution, Hook hitting him with a suplex and dropping him on his head made Jericho understand the hype around the FTW Champion. He reminded Jericho of his father, "The Human Suplex Machine" Taz, an opponent who Jericho did battle with on a number of occasions in both ECW and WWE. Since earning his respect, Jericho and Hook teamed in a winning effort on last week's Dynamite against the Gates of Agony (Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona). After the match, Jericho said that he sees future world championship potential in Hook, but the only way for him to truly know more about him is by facing off with him in a one-on-one match in Toronto. Jericho was 5-1 all-time against Taz, but losses for Hook come few and far between. Since his debut in late 2021, Hook has only been defeated twice. Even as a decorated champion, Jericho will have to produce something special to pick up a victory against Hook? And even if Jericho is looking to be impressed on Wednesday night, it's unlikely that Hook will play along. The unflappable Hook will treat this match like any other and attempt to lock Jericho into the Redrum like he's done with almost every opponent he's ever taken on before. Will Jericho make it like father, like son with a win or will Hook continue to roll?
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AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament wild-card match: Best Friends ("Freshly Squeezed" Orange Cassidy and Trent Beretta) (w/ "The Kentucky Gentleman" Chuck Taylor) vs. The Don Callis Family (ROH World TV Champion Kyle Fletcher and Powerhouse Hobbs) (w/ Don Callis) - The second of two wild-card round matches of the AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament goes down in Toronto as Orange Cassidy and Trent Beretta take on Kyle Fletcher and Will Hobbs. The winners of Wednesday night's match move on to meet the Undisputed Kingdom's ROH World Tag Team Champions, Mike Bennett and Matt Taven. This past Saturday night on Collision, The Infantry (Capt. Shawn Dean and Carlie Bravo) picked up the upset win over the House of Black's Brody King and Buddy Matthews to move on to a match with FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) on the other side of the bracket. Wednesday night's match is an interesting one as each team features an experienced tag-team wrestler teaming with somebody other than his regular partner. With Chuck Taylor still on the shelf, Beretta is teaming with Cassidy and the duo is 3-0 in tune-up matches heading into the tournament. On the other side of the ring, Fletcher is a former IWGP World Tag Team Champion and ROH World Tag Team Champion, but his Aussie Open partner Mark Davis remains sidelined, so he's teaming with Don Callis Family stablemate Hobbs. As a team, Fletcher and Hobbs are 1-0. Which of these two teams will move on to continue their drive for the vacant AEW World Tag Team Championships?
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No-disqualification street fight: TBS Champion Julia Hart and Skye Blue vs. Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale (w/ Stokely Hathaway) - The bitter feud between Julia Hart and Skye Blue and Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale will culminate in a brutal street fight in Toronto on Wednesday night where all bets are off. Let's cut to the chase here - since Statlander and Nightingale have associated with Stokely Hathaway there has been very obvious tension among all three due to Hathaway's willingness to cut corners and Statlander and Nightingale's unwillingness to do so. But in recent weeks, it seems that Hathaway is slowly swinging Statlander towards seeing things his way. Is he unethical? Does he cheat? Yes to both, but Hathaway puts his clients in a position to win matches and this is something that Statlander seems to understand. What that means for her friendship and partnership with Nightingale remains to be seen, but it's clear that it's not sitting well with her. That can be put on the backburner on Wednesday night because there are no disqualifications and each team can go for a victory by any means necessary. No holds are barred and the use of foreign objects will not result in disqualification. This will play right into Hathaway's wheelhouse and he will undoubtedly be encouraging Statlander and Nightingale to use the stipulation to their advantage. But Hart and Blue are just as likely to benefit from the stip and it would be a huge strategic error for Nightingale and Statlander to forget that. In a match that's unlikely to be pretty, which two women will come out on top?
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PLUS:
- A week after her AEW debut, we will hear from "The CEO" Mercedes Moné