After the conclusion of DYNAMITE ON 34TH STREET, league play for the 2024 Continental Classic is over and four men are moving on to WORLDS END 2024 tomorrow night for the final two rounds of this year's C2! Current AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada and “The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher represent the Blue League while “The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay and Ricochet represent the Gold, but only two of them will have the chance to fight for the Continental Title at the end of the night! We also witnessed Toni Storm take on Taya Valkyrie for the “first” time, and so much more!
With less than 24 hours left before All Elite Wrestling's final event of 2024, we present RAMPAGE: NEW YEAR'S SMASH 2024 from the Hammerstein Ballroom in the heart of New York City and it just wouldn't be an NYC event without the self-proclaimed “King of New York” ROH World Champion Chris Jericho; he'll be taking on Anthony Bowens one-on-one, but that's not all we've got in store for you from the Big Apple! Thunder Rosa will prep for her Tijuana Street Fight with AEW Women's World Champion Mariah May with a bout against Leila Grey, AEW World Tag Team Champions Private Party will be in action, and we will see HOOK finally get his hands on Nick Wayne right in The Cold-Hearted Handsome Devil's hometown!
RAMPAGE: NEW YEAR'S SMASH 2024 begins at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT and fans can get themselves ready for the action with by visiting AEW's official YouTube channel to watch highlights from DYNAMITE, as well as previous editions of RAMPAGE and COLLISION, and so much more! Then join us for WORLDS END 2024 tomorrow night in Orlando for the final event of the year, before we kick off 2025 in Asheville, NC with DYNAMITE: FIGHT FOR THE FALLEN 2025 and Julia Hart's return to action against Jamie Hayter!
ONE-ON-ONE...
ROH World Champion Chris Jericho vs. “The Scissor King” Anthony Bowens
Anthony Bowens has formed a bond with Big Boom! AJ and Big Justice over the last few months, and while most of it has been scene in social media posts, it was in full view of the entire world last Saturday night on COLLISION when the former World Tag Champion stood up to ROH World Champion Chris Jericho and his Learning Tree branches on behalf of the social media superstars. It's not a matter of AJ needing someone to stand up for him but rather, as Bowens pointed out, a case of the man being in a walking cast following his FULL GEAR 2024 fight with QT Marshall and not exactly in fighting shape.
Bowens however is quite ready for the fight, and if it means branching out on his own separate from The Acclaimed than so be it. It's clear looking at the video embedded above that he and Max Caster aren't exactly on the same page as of late, something that's been the case since even before their failure to claim the AEW World Tag Titles in the FULL GEAR 2024 4-Way. Yet based on the words of Casater, just because The Acclaimed aren't riding into this fight as a tag team doesn't mean Bowens is riding into it alone either. The self-proclaimed “Best Wrestler Alive” has promised to be in the corner of “The Scissor King”, probably a good thing given Jericho is likely to have either Bryan Keith or Big Bill in his, perhaps even both!
It's been seven months since Bowens last fought in a one-on-one contest, and it will be just his 14th overall since coming to All Elite Wrestling, but don't let that leave you thinking he's unprepared for such an outing. The man was a multi-time singles champion for WrestlePro before he came to All Elite Wrestling, that's how he earned the “Five-Tool Player” moniker, and is ready to show the world what he brings to the table. There's no better way to do that then by facing original AEW World Champion, and current 2-Time ROH World Champion, Chris Jericho head-to-head! It's a huge opportunity for Anthony Bowens, and demonstrative of the confidence he has in his abilities; will it be a breakout success for “The Scissor King” in singles competition?
SINGLES MATCH...
“La Mera Mera” Thunder Rosa vs. Leila Grey
Former AEW Women's World Champion Thunder Rosa is ready to rock tomorrow night at WORLDS END 2024 when she faces current champion Mariah May in a Tijuana Street Fight, and in preparation for their battle, “La Mera Mera” faces the challenge of Leila Grey tonight on RAMPAGE! It's been three-plus years since the last time these two women met inside the squared circle, the 7/5/21 edition of DARK: ELEVATION to be exact, and that night Thunder scored victory in just two minutes.
That night was just one win in a 25-match singles win streak for Rosa that lasted from 3/10/21-9/28/21 while for Leila it was the 8th match of her nascent AEW career, and while both women have undergone quite a lot in the time since that first bout, it is the growth of Leila that is most important to this situation tonight. Has she learned enough since July 2021 to overcome the ferocity of Thunder Rosa, especially a Rosa who's on the warpath headed straight for Mariah May?
GRUDGE MATCH...
HOOK vs. The Patriarchy's Nick Wayne
Fans have been waiting for this one for quite some time, but for HOOK that wait has to feel like an eternity. He's been wanting a fight with The Patriarchy since learning they were responsible for assaulting his father Taz and forcing him to go under the knife for knee surgery. The path to this fight has resulted in HOOK's arm being broken, in Katsuyori Shibata being dropped and pinned in their tag match, but has finally gotten “The Cold-Hearted Handsome Devil” into the ring with The Patriarchy.
Unfortunately it's not the one he wanted, it's not “The Patriarch” Christian Cage himself, he didn't have the courage to answer the challenge himself, instead he'll have to settle for using “The Prodigy” Nick Wayne as a message to his “father”. Will an assault on Nick prompt the #1 Contender to the AEW World Title to step up to HOOK himself, or will he allow his “son” to suffer the for sins of the father?
ALSO FEATURING:
-AEW World Tag Team Champions Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) in action!
-And more!!
RAMPAGE: NEW YEAR'S SMASH 2024 gets started at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT and we will see ROH World Champion Chris Jericho take on former AEW World Tag Champion Anthony Bowens in singles competition, as well as The Patriarchy's Nick Wayne answer for his crimes against New York's own HOOK! Plus, AEW World Tag Team Champions Private Party will be in action in their hometown, and former AEW Women's World Champion Thunder Rosa will take on Leila Grey ahead of her Tijuana Street Fight tomorrow night! The AEW faithful can get prepared for the fights with a visit to the official AEW YouTube channel to catch-up on highlights from DYNAMITE, as well as previous editions of RAMPAGE and COLLISION, and so much more!
Then it's time for WORLDS END 2024 live on pay-per-view tomorrow night from the Addition Financial Arena in Orlando! It's AEW's final event of the year and then we kick off the new year with DYNAMITE: FIGHT FOR THE FALLEN 2025 from Asheville, NC featuring Julia Hart's return to competition against former AEW Women's World Champion Jamie Hayter!