Allin, Guevara reignite rivalry on Rampage
Published
Longtime rivals Darby Allin and Sammy Guevara meet once again in an AEW Grand Slam Tournament of Champions match. Plus, Claudio Castagnoli defends the ROH World Championship against FTR's Dax Harwood and Samoa Joe makes his return. You can catch AEW Rampage at 10pm et/7pm pt streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN App.
AEW Grand Slam Tournament of Champions match: Darby Allin vs. "The Spanish God" Sammy Guevara (w/ Tay Melo) - Two of AEW's most dynamic young stars meet again on Friday night in another high-stakes encounter as Darby Allin goes one on one with the Jericho Appreciation Society's Sammy Guevara in a AEW Grand Slam Tournament of Champions match. The winner will move on to face Jon Moxley this Wednesday on Dynamite in a semi-final match. Both Allin and Guevara qualified for the tournament to crown a new AEW World Champion by virtue of being for champions themselves. Allin defeated Cody Rhodes for the TNT Championship at Full Gear 2020 and held the title for 186 days, while Guevara is a three-time TNT Champion, having held the title for a combined 140 days. Neither man has captured AEW's top prize just yet. To get the opportunity to challenge for it, Allin and Guevara will have to get through each other first. Friday night's match will be the latest in a rivalry that started all the way back in 2017 before AEW's existence. Allin and Guevara met in promotions like AAA, Black Label Pro and Major League Wrestling before their first AEW match in 2019. Friday's match marks the 20th time the two have shared a ring. All told, the series is split 7-7 in matches where there was a direct finish. In singles matches, Allin holds a 5-3 edge. In AEW, the edge is decidedly in Guevara's favour with a 5-2 record against Allin. They last met on the March 4 edition of Rampage where Guevara kept his TNT in a three-way dance that also included Andrade El Idolo. There will be no surprises on Friday night between two men who know each other very well. Allin intends for this to be as straightforward as possible and has instructed his associate "The Icon" Sting not to accompany him to ringside. Guevara has not made the same promise, so there is always the chance for some JAS chicanery. Which of these two of the "Four Pillars of AEW" will emerge victorious in this latest chapter of the rivalry?
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ROH World Championship match: Claudio Castagnoli (c) (w/ William Regal) vs. AAA, ROH and IWGP World Tag Team Champion Dax Harwood - The Blackpool Combat Club's Claudio Castagnoli makes the fourth defence of his ROH World Championship against a man he has never met before in singles competition in FTR's Dax Harwood. While obviously a tag-team specialist, Harwood is in the running for best wrestler of the year for not only a number of thrilling matches alongside Cash Wheeler, but terrific one-on-one encounters against the likes of Adam Cole, Will Ospreay and Rocky Romero. Harwood has never been better and will present a real challenge to Castagnoli. Now, while the two have never met in a singles match before, that doesn't mean Castagnoli and Harwood are strangers to one another. The duo met on a number of occasions in WWE in tag-team matches with Castagnoli teaming with Sheamus to take on Harwood and Wheeler. In those matches, The Bar was 4-0. Wheeler will have to dig deep to do what Konosuke Takeshita, Dustin Rhodes and Ari Daivari couldn't do and wrest the ROH World Championship away from Castagnoli. Can Wheeler pick up his first singles gold or will the champion keep on rolling?
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"The Professor" Serena Deeb vs. Madison Rayne - Two of the AEW women's divisions most tenured veterans meet for the first time in AEW and for only the second time ever on Friday night when Serena Deeb faces off with Madison Rayne. Since failing in her challenge for Mercedes Martinez's ROH Women's World Championship at Death Before Dishonor in July, Deeb has rebounded by reeling off five straight wins in singles competition. All told, she's won 16 of her last 18 singles matches with her only losses coming to Deeb and Thunder Rosa in an AEW Women's World Championship match at Double or Nothing in May. The last time we saw Rayne, she was beaten by the undefeated Jade Cargill in a TBS Championship match on the Aug. 8 edition of Rampage and will look to bounce back with a win over Deeb. As mentioned, the two have met before, but it was 16 years ago and in a four-corners match. At ROH's Southern Hostility event in 2008, Deeb and Rayne were defeated by Sara Del Rey in a match that also featured Daizee Haze. Each woman now has the opportunity to prove just how much she's learned since then and pick up a victory to remain as they jostle for spots in the title picture. Which of these two savvy veterans will grab a win on Friday night?
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PLUS:
- After making his return to AEW at All Out when he helped Wardlow and FTR fend off a beatdown from Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt and Satnam Singh, we will hear from the ROH Television Champion Samoa Joe for the first time in months