Kings of the Black Throne in action on Rampage on TSN+
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Two-thirds of the AEW World Trios Champions, Malakai Black and Brody King, take on Best Friends. Plus, Juice Robinson meets Action Andretti and Sammy Guevara faces off with Konosuke Takeshita. You can catch AEW Rampage on Friday at 10pm et/7pm pt streaming on TSN+.
AEW World Trios Champions Kings of the Black Throne (Malakai Black and Brody King) (w/ Julia Hart) vs. Best Friends ("The Kentucky Gentleman" Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta) - House of Black's Malakai Black and Brody King wrestle as a tag-team in for the first time in over two months on Friday night when they take on Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta. Despite all four men having wrestled in many of the same promotions over the years, sharing a ring together has been a rarity. In January of 2016, the team of Heroes Eventually Die (Black and Chris Hero) defeated Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero) in the EVOLVE Tag Team Title Tournament semi-finals. Then months later in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Black teamed with Taylor, Cedric Alexander, Jeff Cobb and Jushin "Thunder" Liger to defeat Brian Kendrick, Matt Riddle, Pete Dunne, Sami Callihan and Tommaso Ciampa in a 10-man tag. Then in 2019, King defeated Beretta and Jake Atlas in a three-way match, also in PWG. Up until now, these are the only times that these four men have crossed paths in their careers. Friday night's match might not have anything formal on the line, but that doesn't mean it won't be a meaningful one. Black and King have something that Best Friends want. Should Taylor and Beretta score a victory over the Kings of the Black Throne, an AEW World Trios Championship match could be on the cards for Taylor, Beretta and AEW International Champion "Freshly Squeezed" Orange Cassidy. With no shortage of challengers popping up to take their belts, it would behoove Black and King to snuff out this challenge before it even starts. Which of these two teams will come out on top on Friday night?
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Taya Valkyrie vs. "The Problem" Marina Shafir - If Taya Valkyrie's goal was to get in the head of TBS Champion Jade Cargill, then mission accomplished. Cargill initially pretended to be unbothered by Valkyrie's arrival in AEW, but that didn't last for long. On last week's Rampage, Valkyrie made short work of Cargill's Baddie, Leila Grey, beating her in just under :90 with the Road to Valhalla aka Cargill's Jaded finisher. To add insult to injury, Valkyrie also doled one out to Cargill's lawyer, "Smart" Mark Sterling, after the match. This past Wednesday night on Dynamite, Cargill made it clear that she will now pursue a legal avenue to ensure that Valkyrie can no longer use the move. We might get a chance to see just how successful the idea is on Friday night when Valkyrie takes on Marina Shafir. While Valkyrie and Shafir have never faced off before, Valkyrie has taken on one of her close friends in the past, defeating another member of the "Four Horsewomen" in Shayna Baszler in 2017. Shafir heads into Friday's match on a helluva run. Since losing to Ruby Soho on the Feb. 10 Rampage, Shafir has reeled off seven straight wins in singles and tag-team competition. Valkyrie presents the biggest challenge for Shafir in months, but is she up to the task?
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"Rock Hard" Juice Robinson vs. Action Andretti - Before Juice Robinson takes on "Absolute" Ricky Starks on this week's Dynamite from the UBS Arena in Long Island, the Bullet Club member must deal with the challenge of Action Andretti. An ally of Starks's, Andretti and Starks have teamed on a number of occasions as both men were embroiled in a bitter feud with the Jericho Appreciation Society. While Andretti does hold wins over Chris Jericho and Daniel Garcia in his improbable rise in recent months, there remain holes in his game that Robinson can exploit just as Sammy Guevara, who holds multiple wins over Andretti, did. Since arriving in AEW late last year, Robinson has won more matches than he has lost, but he's still looking for a signature victory. A win over Starks on Wednesday night could be just that. Still, he can't afford to overlook Andretti on Friday. The last thing he needs is to drop a winnable match thanks to preoccupation elsewhere. Robinson knows he needs to take care of business with Andretti before he can even begin to think about Starks. Should Robinson turn any focus away from the task at hand, that could provide the opening Andretti needs to pick up a win on Friday night. Who will get their hand raised on Rampage?
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"The Spanish God" Sammy Guevara vs. Konosuke Takeshita - As disappointed as Konosuke Takeshita has been at times with his run in AEW, thus far, he can't possibly think he's dogged it at all. A vast majority of Takeshita's matches in AEW have been against truly top-calibre opposition. Since arriving in AEW, Takeshita has faced off against the likes of AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman, "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston, "Hangman" Adam Page and ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli. It's understandable, then, that his win-loss record hasn't exactly been stellar. But what we've seen from Takeshita is enough to make Don Callis take notice with Kenny Omega's manager seemingly very intent on bringing him into his stable of clients. Takeshita takes on yet another top talent on Friday night in the form of three-time TNT Champion Sammy Guevara. The match is an important one for Guevara, too. In recent weeks, Guevara has made it clear that he wants a shot at MJF's world title. With the other two of AEW's Four Pillars - Darby Allin and "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry - also wanting to challenge MJF, Guevara understands that he's going to need to continually boost his credentials in order to secure a championship match. A win over Takeshita would help to do just that. With a lot riding on the bout for both men, which of these two men will emerge victorious?
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PLUS:
- Fresh off of laying waste to both "Hangman" Adam Page and Kenny Omega on Dynamite, we'll hear from the Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson, ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli and ROH Pure Champion Wheeler YUTA)