Four title matches headline Rampage on TSN+
Published
It's a night of title matches on AEW Rampage including El Hijo del Vikingo defending the AAA Mega Championship against Komander and Dralistico and Willow Nightingale making the first defence of her NJPW Strong Women's Championship against Emi Sakura. You can catch AEW Rampage on Friday at 10pm et/7pm pt streaming on TSN+.
AAA Mega Championship match: El Hijo del Vikingo (c) vs. Komander vs. Dralistico (w/ Jose the Assistant) - AAA's top prize is up for grabs on Friday night as El Hijo del Vikingo puts his Mega Championship on the line against old rivals Komander and Dralistico. Vikingo claimed the vacant Mega Championship in a five-way match at TripleMania Regia 2021 in a match that also featured Bandido, Jay Lethal, Bobby Fish and Samuray del Sol. Since then, he's defended it across North America, including in AEW where he defeated Dralistico in a singles match on the April 22 edition of Rampage. All told, this will be the 13th title defence for Vikingo. On the other side of the ring will be Komander, a man he's shared a ring with on 10 previous occasions, and Dralistico, an opponent he's met five times before. The downside for Vikingo in a three-way match is obvious. He can lose his title without getting pinned or submitted, which obviously will change the equation for him during the match. The other major point of intrigue is that these three men are very familiar with one another, so it will be difficult to spring any surprises on opponents who know exactly what you're capable of and that too will alter each man's calculations in the match. Dralistico could hold an ace up his sleeve in the form of La Faccion Ingobernable. Vikingo and Komander will need to be leery about a potential appearance from Jose the Assistant, Preston Vance or Rush, Dralistico's brother. In any event, this match should be spectacular. Can Vikingo leave this bout with his hand raised and his title retained or will we see a new champion on Friday night?
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New Japan Pro-Wrestling Strong Women's Championship match: Willow Nightingale (c) vs. Emi Sakura - For the first time ever, the NJPW Strong Women's Championship will be defended on Friday night when inaugural champion Willow Nightingale makes her first defence against crafty veteran Emi Sakura. Nightingale won the title in a one-night tournament at May 21's New Japan Resurgence show in Long Beach, CA. In her opening round match, Nightingale put away Stardom's Momo Kohgo with a power bomb to advance to the final against one of pro wrestling's biggest stars in former six-time WWE Women's Champion and former IWGP Women's World Champion Mercedes Moné, who defeated CMLL's Stephanie Vaquer in her opening-round match. In a hard-fought encounter, Nightingale hit a pair of Doctor Bombs to pull the upset and claim her first major singles title. But a champion's first title defence can often be their most precarious and Nightingale's first will be a tricky one against an experienced opponent who is more than capable of making her title reign a very short one. With nearly 30 years of competition under her belt, Sakura has held dozens of championships over her career. While Nightingale and Sakura have met on a number of occasions in the past over their AEW tenures, this will mark the first ever singles match between the two. Nightingale is 5-1 against Sakura in their previous tag-team and trios matches. Will Nightingale start her reign with an impressive win or will Sakura put an end to it before it even gets started?
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New Japan Pro-Wrestling World TV Championship match: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Action Andretti - For the first time since Forbidden Door last June, one of pro wrestling's finest technical competitors competes in an AEW ring when The Mighty Don't Kneel's Zack Sabre Jr. puts his NJPW World TV Championship on the line against Action Andretti. ZSJ is the inaugural TV champion, having emerged from a 16-man tournament to claim the title at Wrestle Kingdom 17 back in January. To reach the final, Sabre went through Alex Zayne, David Finlay and EVIL. In the final, he defeated Ren Narita. Since winning the title, Sabre has made successful defences against Tomohiro Ishii, "Filthy Tom Lawlor and Rocky Romero among others. For Andretti, the match represents the opportunity to not only claim the biggest prize of his young career, but also to break out of a slump that has seen him lose a string of singles matches of late to the likes of Aussie Open's Kyle Fletcher, "Rock Hard" Juice Robinson and Sammy Guevara. The experience gap is obviously a huge one here and Andretti will have a massive task ahead of him in trying to match wits with a master in ZSJ. Because the match will be fought under TV Championship rules, there is a 15-minute time limit. Can Andretti pick up the biggest victory of his career or will Sabre keep rolling?
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Ring of Honor Pure Championship match: Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. Lee Moriarty - One of AEW's best young technicians meets a stiff challenge when Lee Moriarty vies for Katsuyori Shibata's ROH Pure Championship. The match will be Shibata's third defence of his championship since claiming the title from the Blackpool Combat Club's Wheeler YUTA at Supercard of Honor at the end of March. Since then, Shibata has defeated "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels and Alex Coughlin. The match will be contested under Pure Wrestling Rules. What does that mean? Each wrestler only has three rope breaks. Any additional rope breaks will not be honoured and submissions and pin attempts under the ropes will be considered legal from that point forward. While punches are legal, closed-fist strikes to the face are not. The first punch to the face will be cautioned. A second will result in a disqualification. The so-called "champion's advantage" does not exist under Pure Wrestling Rules, meaning that a title change will occur upon a DQ or count out. Any outside interference will result in the interfering party's contract termination. Should no winner be declared before the match reaches its time limit, the victor will be determined through a three-person judging panel. If Moriarty can pull the upset, he will join an impressive list of champions that includes AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Nigel McGuinness and "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson. Which of these two competitors will bring home gold on Friday night?