At last nights tapings for AEW Rampage, a huge match was announce for next weeks AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam. On AEW Rampage, Chris Jericho vs Claudio Castagnoli for the Ring of Honor World Championship was announced and added to the already stacked show.
The pair wrestled previously in WWE, when the ROH Champion was known as Cesaro. They also battled recently in many multi-man matches in the feud between the Blackpool Combat Club and the Jericho Appreciation Society, trading wins in increasingly brutal matches.
Chris Jericho vs Claudio Castagnoli
Claudio Castagnoli made his AEW debut at Forbidden Door, replacing Bryan Danielson in his match against Zack Sabre Jr. He picked up the win and announced his entry into the Blackpool Combat Club and quickly entered into a feud with Jericho’s faction.
Meanwhile, Chris Jericho is an AEW Original, being one of the first men to join AEW. He is a former world champion and recently entered the AEW Championship tournament after CM Punk’s rumoured firing forced him to vacate the title. However, Le Champion lost the Bryan Danielson in the tournament before turning to the American Dragon’s teammate.
Chris Jericho has never challenged for the ROH Championship. He has never even wrestled for Ring of Honor, having been in WWE for 19 years. He did appear at ALL IN, the ROH produced “indie supershow” put together by Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks, but did not wrestle (and the show wasn’t really an ROH show anyway).
Chris Jericho is a former 7 time World Champion, stretching accross both WWE and AEW. He has also won titles in WCW and NJPW and has historically been much more successful than Claudio Castagnoli. However, the Swiss Superman is renowned as one of the world’s best wrestlers and will be more than a match for the future WWE Hall of Famer.
On AEW Rampage, Claudio Castagnoli was joined by Wheeler Yuta inside the ring to talk about the Blackpool Combat Club and Yuta’s recent ROH Pure Championship loss to Daniel Garcia. Chris Jericho then interrupted from commentary and bragged about The Jericho Appreciation Society and Garcia’s victory before saying the one promotion he’s never held the World Title is ROH (clearly forgetting his runs in ECW, WCW and NJPW).
Jericho claimed he wanted “Ocho” (eight) World Title reigns and challenged him for the ROH Championship at AEW Grand Slam. The Swiss Cyborg accepted and Chris Jericho vs Claudio Castagnoli was booked for the big show at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The match currently has not been given a particular stipulation so is expected to be a regular singles match. Chris Jericho winning the ROH Championship would be a huge thing for the brand and could help get them a TV deal, especially after how Jericho was the catalyst in getting AEW their original deal with TNT.
However, the win for the former Cesaro would help legitimise him as a main event talent in ROH and would give the brand a younger, more hungry champion to build the back of the promotion on. The worry for ROH would be that Jericho as World Champion could be a rehash of his maiden AEW title reign, although I’m sure Tony Khan would not like to re-tread those footsteps too soon.
AEW Grand Slam 2022 Card
The match will take place on Night 1 of AEW Grand Slam 2022. The full match card can be read below;
AEW Grand Slam Night 1 – AEW Dynamite (Sept. 21)
- AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Bryan Danielson
- AEW World Tag Team Championship: Swerve In Our Glory vs. The Acclaimed
- Interim AEW Women’s World Championship: Toni Storm vs. Serena Deeb vs. Athena vs. Dr. Britt Baker
- AEW All-Atlantic Championship: Pac vs. Orange Cassidy
- ROH World Championship: Chris Jericho vs Claudio Castagnoli
AEW Grand Slam Night 2 – AEW Rampage (Sept. 23)
- Action Bronson & Hook vs. Matt Menard & Angelo Parker
- Sting & Darby Allin vs. Brody King & Buddy Matthews (No Disqualification)
- Samoa Joe & Wardlow vs. Team Sterling
- TBS Champion: Jade Cargill vs. Diamante
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