AEW Rampage Preview for July 8, 2022

Wednesday night's edition of Dynamite witnessed not one, but two championship matches, and as seen above, we've got a brand new TNT Champion as a result! We are now living in Wardlow's championship world and it will be interesting to see what the future brings with this new face of TNT carrying the title!

On top of that Jon Moxley retained the AEW Interim World Title in a total slugfest with Brody King, The Young Bucks set up a Three Way Tag Team Championship fight for next week, and the ROH World TV Title match for Death Before Dishonor 2022 on July 23rd was made official! Also for that tentpole Ring of Honor event, in a continued escalation of the Jericho Appreciation Society/Blackpool Combat Club hostilities, Daniel Garcia will challenge Wheeler Yuta for the ROH Pure Title in Lowell, MA!

This Friday night there's plenty more action on the way when Rampage hits the airwaves on TNT at 10pm EDT/9pm CDT on TNT, as well as on AEWPlus.com for our international audience. Eddie Kingston and Takeshita will go head-to-head and the contentious duo of ROH Women's World Champion Mercedes Martinez and Serena Deeb will be in tag team action! Plus Tully Blanchard leads his Gates of Agony duo into battle with Lee Moriarty and the ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham while Orange Cassidy locks horns with “The Premier Athlete” Tony Nese! Get prepared for the action by heading to the official AEW YouTube channel, the AEW Twitter feed, and the official Facebook page to catch up on Dynamite highlights, and watch the latest episodes of Dark: Elevation, AEW Dark, Road To, and the Control Center with Tony Schiavone!

TAG TEAM BOUT...

ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham & Lee Moriarty

vs.

Gates of Agony (Khan & Toa Liona w/ Tully Blanchard)

Tully Blanchard has legendary status in professional wrestling; it's a hard-earned position achieved after years of first fighting inside the ring, then leading men into combat as he did with Shawn Spears and FTR in All Elite Wrestling. Now Tully's eyes have turned towards the Ring of Honor landscape where, as witnessed at Supercard of Honor 2022 back in April, he has brought “The Machine” Brian Cage and The Gates of Agony, Khan and Toa Liona, under his learning tree. Still, despite all his successes over the last several decades, ROH is a new playing field for Tully and as such, it takes a lot of gumption to talk about himself and his men like they're the top of the mountain, especially when ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham is standing right there.

See Gresham has been the standard-bearer for ROH for the last several years, in the time between ROH's hiatus following Final Battle 2021 and Tony Khan's acquisition of the company, “The Foundation” was the man traveling the wrestling world to defend his ROH Championship and keep the name alive. Gresham took the load upon his shoulders, carried it across the independent wrestling landscape, and presented to the world his vision of professional wrestling.

So for Tully to enter into the ROH landscape with that kind of arrogance, well it understandably wouldn't sit well with the man whose held the ROH World Title for over 200 days. It's a reign that has surpassed that of Roderick Strong, Dalton Castle, Cody, Eddie Edwards, and Christopher Daniels. It has dwarfed the championship reigns of men like CM Punk, James Gibson, Low Ki, Homicide, and Jerry Lynn. Gresham, should he maintain championship status for a couple more months, will become one of the top ten champions in the companies twenty year history, so it is no surprise he has taken such umbrage with Tully's comments.

For Lee Moriarty, Gresham is no stranger, they've battled each other in two superb matches since 2020, but this will be a first working as The Foundation's partner. Their mindset does seem to be of similar bent, their in-ring styles will likely prove complimentary, but they will be in the ring with two monstrous men in Khan and Toa. With Death Before Dishonor 2022 looming just two weeks away, this is an all-important fight for all involved, will it be the World Champion's team who comes out ahead, or Tully Blanchard Enterprises who proves the superior force?

SINGLES MATCH...

Eddie Kingston vs. Konosuke Takeshita

Eddie Kingston isn't done with hurting Chris Jericho and his Appreciation Society, not by a longshot, but neither are they done hurting “The Mad King” or the people he cares about. Clearly, as evidenced by Tay Conti's assault on Ruby Soho, Jericho and his cronies intend to make this all as personal as possible, but they can't possibly be naive enough to think that hurting his loved ones will make Kingston stop. If anything, it will only serve to fuel his rage and that hunger to taste Jericho's blood, a coward's blood as Kingston has described it.

But this Friday night on Rampage Eddie will have no choice but to either set aside all that rage, or use it as fuel for the raging fires in his belly, because he is tasked with fighting the ultra-impressive Konosuke Takeshita! Whether it be in bouts with Rhett Titus, Hangman Page, Jay Lethal, or Nick Comoroto, Takeshita has been one of the most amazing talents to enter AEW in 2022. Since entering the United States, this DDT Pro Wrestling import has been putting in the work in AEW, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and any independent promotion he can find around the country.

Now he brings all that experience, plus the wealth of knowledge cultivated fighting in Japan, to bear when he steps into the ring with “The Mad King” on Friday night. Kingston's anger could be a boon in a fight like this, or it could be his undoing; either way, Takeshita is going to give Eddie every bit of fight he's got in his heart, and the winners here are absolutely the fans in attendance and watching around the world on TNT!

ONE-ON-ONE...

Orange Cassidy vs. Tony Nese

***IF NESE WINS, CASSIDY SIGNS HIS P.A.S.S PETITION***

AEW's resident lawyer, “Smart” Mark Sterling, has created his People Against Swerve Strickland petition with aim towards removing Strickland from the AEW roster. Tony Nese, Ricky Starks, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Max Caster were all captured on film signing the petition, the latter mostly just to get Nese and Sterling to go away more than out of any concern for the P.A.S.S petition, but Sterling overplayed his hand on a couple occasions, particularly going for Keith Lee:

He also bit off a bit more than anticipated when confronting The Best Friends collective for their autographs on the P.A.S.S. It's doubtful Sterling anticipated a back-and-forth with Danhausen when aiming for Orange Cassidy's signature, but that is exactly what he got, and in return Tony Nese got a match with “Freshly Squeezed” for this Friday night's Rampage!

Can this little endeavor of Nese and Sterling's payoff with an OC signature, or is there just some Orange Punch in store for both individuals?

TAG TEAM ACTION...

Mercedes Martinez & Serena Deeb in action!

Four matches, four straight victories, and a whole lot of tension between the two competitors! Mercedes Martinez, the reigning ROH Women's World Champion, and “The Professor” Serena Deeb have proven quite successful as a team. The only problem is the two women don't exactly get along, and in large part because of that ROH Women's World Title around Martinez's waist. It's a championship Deeb never captured, one she would like to add to her trophy case, and there's a definite possibility that match could come down the line, but in the meantime, the champ and Deeb will keep battling as a top shelf tag team, and showing the wrestling world how dominant a duo they can be!

On Friday night, Rampage comes at you with a group of tremendous bouts featuring the ROH World Champion, the ROH Women's World Champ, Eddie Kingston, Takeshita, OC, “The Professor”, “The Premier Athlete”, and more! The action kicks off 10:00 EDT/9:00pm CDT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international audiences!

Be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel to get caught up with Dynamite highlights, the latest episodes of Dark: Elevation, AEW Dark, Road To, and this week's Control Center with Tony Schiavone!