All Elite Wrestling is seven days away from crowning a new world champion. Following AEW All Out, CM Punk was forced to vacate his AEW World Championship due to a triceps injury, for which he was forced to undergo surgery for and will consequently be on the shelf for upwards of eight months. Beyond the injury, Punk’s controversial comments at the AEW All Out press conference has just about erased him from AEW programming, as his name and image have been omitted from recent broadcasts. Despite the injury, AEW President Tony Khan wasted no time in regards to making a new plan.
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As announced last week on AEW Dynamite, All Elite Wrestling kicked off a “Tournament of Champions” to determine its next titleholder. Former AEW World Champions Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho received first round byes. In those quarterfinal match-ups, Sammy Guevara defeated Darby Allin and Bryan Danielson successfully pinned “Hangman” Adam Page.
Tonight on AEW Dynamite, Moxley opened the show by defeating Guevara in his semifinal match, sending him to AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam. Come the end of the show, Danielson got his win back over Jericho, who had beat him weeks prior at AEW All Out, to advance to the finals. Danielson’s win didn’t come without a cost, as he seemingly injured his ankle midway through the bout. Jericho then turned his offense to target Danielson’s foot, indicating that it is a storyline injury. Moxley and Danielson will engage in a Blackpool Combat Club civil war at Arthur Ashe Stadium on September 21st to determine the next AEW World Champion.
This will be the latest match between Moxley and Danielson, who have in-ring history that goes back nearly a decade. The two did battle on numerous occasions in WWE, including in Moxley’s first main roster match. At WWE TLC 2012, Moxley, then known as Dean Ambrose, teamed with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins to take on Danielson, then known as Daniel Bryan, who tagged with Kane and Ryback. Ambrose and Bryan would have a couple of singles contests throughout 2013 as well, and would be friendly acquaintances in 2016 when Ambrose reigned as WWE Champion on SmackDown Live at the time that Bryan was that brand’s general manager.
Recently, Moxley and Danielson fought each other at AEW Revolution in March. Moxley picked up the victory with a roll-up, which led to the two men brawling after the match. That was when William Regal made his unexpected debut, uniting his two former proteges as the Blackpool Combat Club.
Coincidentally enough, this is not Moxley’s first time reaching the finals of a vacant world title tournament. At WWE Survivor Series 2015, Ambrose (Moxley) fought Reigns over the WWE Title, which was abandoned by Rollins after he suffered a leg injury.
AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam goes down next Wednesday, September 21st.
