AEW President Tony Khan opened this week’s AEW Dynamite by confirming that both AEW World Champion CM Punk and AEW World Trios Champions Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks have been stripped of their championships as a result of the locker room brawl they took part in after All Out on Sunday night. The trios titles will be awarded to the winner of Death Triangle vs. Best Friends that evenign on Dynamite, while the new world champion will be crowned via a six-man single elimination tournament.
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The opening round will see Hangman Page vs. Bryan Danielson and Sammy Guevara vs. Darby Allin. The winner of those respective matches (taking place tonight) will face Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley next week. The winner of those two matches will clash at AEW Grand Slam in two weeks at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York.
Khan described the six-man bracket as the Tournament of Champions and explained why all six men earned their spot in the tournament — “The AEW World Championship is the single most prized title in all combat sports, and it will be decided in the grandest way possible. The AEW Grand Slam Tournament of Champions features seven-time world champion Chris Jericho, former AEW World Champion and AEW World Tag Team Champion Hangman Page, Six-Time world champion Bryan Danielson, the all-time longest reigning TNT champion Darby Allin, three-time TNT champion Sammy Guevara, and three-time world champion Jon Moxley fighting in a huge series of matches, starting tonight. And a world champion will be crowned two weeks from tonight at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City at AEW Dynamite Grand Slam. I promise you that tonight is going to be a great night of professional wrestling and aw will be at our very best these next few weeks on the road to AEW Grand Slam. Thank you again.”
MJF also cut a promo early in the episode, explaining that he won’t enter the tournament because he already won a title shot via the Casino Ladder Match. He indicated he won’t cash in his title match until after the fact, and once confronted by Moxley he outright claimed he’ll use the title as a bargaining chip once his contract is up in 2024.
