First AEW World Championship Defense Announced for AEW on TNT in Philadelphia

Chris Jericho and “Hangman” Adam Page will battle each other at the upcoming All Out pay-per-view to crown the inaugural AEW World Champion. On Wednesday the company announced when that the new champ will make their first title defense on AEW’s live TNT show.

The match, according to AEW’s Twitter account, will take place at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Oct. 16.

On top of promoting All Out, the company has also announced a handful of matches for their first three television shows. The premiere episode on Oct. 2 will feature Cody Rhodes vs. Sammy Guevara, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks vs. Chris Jericho and two mystery partners and the crowning of the first AEW Women’s World Champion.

The Oct. 9 episode will see Jon Moxley take on Shawn Spears and The Young Bucks vs. Private Party in the first round of the AEW World Tag Team Championship tournament.

As for All Out, the headlining matches alongside Jericho vs. Page include Spears vs. Rhodes, Omega vs. Moxley and The Lucha Bros. vs. The Young Bucks in a ladder match.

AEW first confirmed its TNT premiere and schedule in late July.

“Focused on fast-paced, high-impact competitions, AEW offers fans more athleticism along with real sports analytics,” a press release regarding the premiere read. “Wrestlers are also given freedom to explore their characters and highlight their athletic abilities. Introducing statistics to wrestling for the first time ever, AEW will raise the stakes for its matches and deepen fan engagement by tracking each competitor’s wins and losses as wrestlers pursue championships. Their moves and damage to their opponents will also be analyzed on-air to provide insights into their winning streaks.”

Not long after AEW’s announcement reports began popping up that WWE would be moving its weekly NXT show from the WWE Network to Fox Sports 1 in order to compete with the new company, effectively creating a “Wednesday Night War.” WWE has not officially confirmed the move, though Triple H hinted at it in a recent media conference call.

“Contrary to what I’ve heard, because you hear people speculate and I’ve seen the conversations around FS1 or whatever it is with NXT and all that stuff, and then immediately, people come in with counterprogramming talk,” he said. “We have content all over the place, and if people want to talk about counter-programming and bring that up in the conversation – like, Wednesday has been the home of NXT forever. Right? That’s where it’s sat; it’s been on our network on a Wednesday’s time slot now forever.