AEW Announces Welcome Back Tour for AEW Dynamite's July Episodes

All Elite Wrestling will return to touring next month, and to commemorate the event the promotion [...]

By Connor Casey

All Elite Wrestling will return to touring next month, and to commemorate the event the promotion announced four special episodes of AEW Dynamite across the month of July. The four events will incliude Road Rager (July 7 in Miami), Fyter Fest Night 1 (July 14 in Austin, Texas), Fyter Fest Night 2 (Dallas) and Fight for the Fallen (Charlotte, NC). Tickets for all four shows are officially on sale now. AEW's schedule will then turn towards the premiere of AEW Rampage on Aug. 13 on the All Out pay-per-view in Chicago on Sept. 5.

In an interview with ComicBook ahead of Double or Nothing, AEW star and executive vice president Cody Rhodes talked about the importance of adding Rampage for the company's weekly schedule. He explained, "The format for Dynamite is always fun to look at, unique, and the challenge of every week covering so many stories, determining the most important stories, appeasing the stories that do well with the audience itself, because we're a data company at heart. Chris Harrington and Tony Khan are looking at what moves the needle, and that's what's going to be out there, and that's what's going to be prioritized.

"I think having Rampage will help considerably," he continued. "That way we can share the wealth. However, Dynamite's a very hard show to get on. The best wrestlers in the world are on Dynamite. We have a very full locker room, and on the way to the ring, you walk by a lot of people who are on the bench that week. I think you'll see a lot of that bench get unloaded for Rampage, and that's very, very exciting. And the two shows will have their own identities surrounding the AEW championships that kind of tether us all together. But other than the logo for Rampage, the details are all still forthcoming, other than I think it will be really great for our locker room."

Rhodes also talked about the move all AEW programming will make from TNT to TBS beginning in January — "Tony [Khan] was able to facilitate the best possible deal for All Elite Wrestling, and that means more money for the content, and then more importantly, the term that Brett [Weitz] at WarnerMedia used is the best term, it truly is an expansion. We're just expanding our brand on to TBS, that being Rampage, coming over to TBS, Dynamite itself, four specials, a la Clash of the Champions, our Saturday Night's Main Event. Those were kind of comparable. Having those on TNT, we're really all over, and just watching the upfronts for WarnerMedia to see our penetration and presentation, made me really proud that we've been such a nice success story.

"So for me, I was excited. I'm always kind of the eternal ... I'm very reserved in what I think, and so we put it out there on the medium, but it would be remiss if I didn't think of the fact that TBS has been a part of my life since I was a little kid," he added. "Tony Schiavone texted me that morning, and of course he said, "We're going back to the mothership." And the mothership is what my father used to call TBS, for good reason, because they took that first chance on WCW and Jim Crockett Promotions. And now they'll have all of the wrestling and some familiar names, and a very unique bell-to-bell product. So I'm ecstatic. Plus I'm a psycho American Dad fan. Just to share the space with them and perhaps to do a little cross-promotion would be a really fun thing to do."

Update: The first match for the four-show lineup was also confirmed, pitting Cody Rhodes against QT Marshall in a four-corner strap match on July 7.

0comments
Start the Conversation

of