Allin meets Jeff Hardy on Rampage on TSN+

Darby Allin goes one-on-one with Jeff Hardy. Plus, Chris Jericho meets Matt Sydal and Kris Statlander and Penta El Zero Miedo are in action. You can catch AEW Rampage on Friday sat 10pm et/7pm pt streaming on TSN+.

Darby Allin (w/ "The Icon" Sting) vs. Jeff Hardy (w/ Matt Hardy) - If there's one comparison Darby Allin has heard more than any other over the course of his career, it's been to Jeff Hardy. And it's easy to see why. Like Hardy, Allin has never been the biggest competitor. He also has an affinity for face paint and tattoos just like the younger Hardy brother. But the biggest comparison between Allin and Hardy has always been derived from each man's reckless abandon. Never over the course of their careers has either Hardy or Allin thought anything of putting their bodies on the line. Each man routinely takes insane risks that would make normal people sick to even just contemplate them. Allin and Hardy have met just once before back in the spring of 2022 in the inaugural Owen Hart Foundation Cup tournament. The match went exactly the way you would expect it to go with each man attempting to outdo the other at every turn with each move more dangerous than the previous. Hardy emerged victorious and moved on in the tournament that night on Long Island. On Friday night, the two men will give it another go with each wrestler entering 2024 on different paths. Allin is looking ahead to March 3's Revolution pay-per-view where he will compete in tag-team action alongside his mentor, Sting, in his final match. Before then, the duo intends to capture the AEW World Tag Team Championship ahead of "The Icon" hanging up his boots for good. On the other side of the ring, Hardy and his brother, Matt Hardy, find themselves at a crossroads. One of the most decorated tag teams in wrestling history and champions in WWE, TNA and ROH, the Hardys have felt overlooked in the AEW tag-team division in recent months and have vowed to once again show the world why they are 12-time world tag team champions. A win over a title-seeker in Allin would go a long way for Hardy in putting the rest of AEW on notice, but that could be easier said than done. Will Allin continue to build momentum with Revolution on the horizon or will Hardy reassert his credentials in a major match?

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Chris Jericho vs. Matt Sydal - This past Wednesday night on Dynamite, Chris Jericho's frustrations began to boil over. Already down a partner due to Kenny Omega's untimely illness, Jericho's reunion with Sammy Guevara appears to be short-lived thanks to an injury incurred at last Saturday night's Battle of the Belts IX. Jericho and Guevara failed in their attempt to win the AEW World Tag Team Championships from Ricky Starks and Big Bill thanks in large part to the intervention of the Don Callis Family. Because the title match was no-disqualification, Jericho and Guevara found themselves in what was basically a four-on-two, having to contend with Konosuke Takeshita and Powerhouse Hobbs on top of just Starks and Bill. The numbers game became too much and the champions retained their titles. Jericho made it clear that he wasn't finished with Takeshita and wants payback, but before that could happen, he was approached in the back by Matt Sydal. Sydal told him that the Jericho he knew wouldn't be busy talking, he would get busy doing and challenged Jericho to take on somebody who had defeated him in the past: himself. Jericho and Sydal have met on numerous occasions in singles action over the years with Sydal holding an 8-2 edge. Of course, Jericho and Sydal haven't shared a ring in years with their last match coming in 2010. Jericho will have the opportunity to test out Sydal's hypothesis, that he would be better served to get back in the ring than to keep stewing on revenge fantasies. Besides, competition against somebody the calibre of Sydal will only hone Jericho's in-ring acumen as he prepares to once again do battle with Takeshita. Can Sydal continue his mastery over Jericho or can the eight-time world champion channel his anger into a victory?

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Kris Statlander vs. Queen Aminata - Queen Aminata is coming closer to a signature victory in AEW and she knows it. On the Jan. 3 edition of Dynamite, the Guinean-born wrestler fell to "The Glamour" Mariah May in the latter's AEW debut. Then on last week's Rampage, Aminata gave three-time AEW Women's World Champion Hikaru Shida all she could handle before succumbing to her patented Katana spin kick. It was the second time that Aminata had faced off with Shida and the match was far more competitive than their previous match, something Shida acknowledged after the bout when she gave Aminata her endorsement. Aminata will once again be out for that win on Rampage when she takes on another high-calibre opponent in former TBS Champion Kris Statlander. As Statlander looks to get back into championship contention, she currently finds herself dealing with the advances of Stokely Hathaway. The ever-annoying Hathaway seems intent to get back into the managerial game and has very aggressively offered his services to Statlander after attempting to drive a wedge into her friendship with Willow Nightingale. Say what you will about how grating Hathaway can be, but he's never failed to get the job done for his clients. If Statlander can get past how generally repellent he is, his offer might be one worth considering. Obviously before she can even contemplate that, she must ensure that she isn't the person from whom Aminata earns her biggest AEW victory to date. With much on the line here for both women, who will come out on top?

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Penta El Zero Miedo (w/ Alex Abrahantes) vs. Anthony Henry - Two wrestlers with a predominant focus on the tag-team division face off on Friday night when the Lucha Bros.' Penta El Zero Miedo takes on Anthony Henry of the WorkHorsemen. While the two men have faced off on numerous occasions in the past in both tag-team and multi-men action, this will be the pair's first-ever singles match. Henry will be buoyed by the performance of partner JD Drake this past Saturday night on Collision. While he didn't win, Drake took former AEW World Champion "Hangman" Adam Page to the limit and gave him everything he could. Henry will try to channel that kind of energy against Penta, who is a former world champion in his own right, having previously held the Impact World Championship in 2018. Though he hasn't wrestled a singles match in AEW since November, Penta enters Friday night's match having dropped his last three singles contests in AEW to Swerve Strickland, "Switchblade" Jay White and Samoa Joe. This losing streak is something that is undoubtedly still weighing on a proud competitor like Penta who will do whatever he can to end it on Friday night. Of note, Penta has won every one of his previous four matches with Henry. Can Penta stop his skid or will Henry finally pick up a win against the masked man?

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PLUS:

- With Chris Jericho in action, "Daddy Magic" Matt Menard takes his place on commentary