AEW Rampage will be presenting a “Championship Friday” edition, this week where four titles are scheduled to be on the line. None of these titles will be from the AEW roster but from the NJPW and ROH rosters. But, nonetheless, the title defenses will make this night a must-watch for the All Elite Wrestling fanbase.
The possible main event of this week’s AEW Rampage will see the newly crowned and first-ever NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Willow Nightingale defending her title against Emi Sakura. This match marks the first title defense of Willow who benefitted from an injury of Mercedes Mone fka Sasha Banks to pick up her debut title win, just a few days ago.
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At New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s 2023 Resurgence event last month in Long Beach, California, Willow Nightingale squared off against the former WWE Superstar in the debut NJPW Strong Women’s Title Match. Willow defeated Momo Kohgo in the semi-finals of the tournament earlier that night, while Mone defeated Stephanie Vaquer in the semis to set up the main event of Resurgence.
A report from Fightful Select confirmed that Mone was scheduled to win that match to become the inaugural NJPW Strong Women’s Champion but Mone realized that she was injured during the match. Despite the fact that “the NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship was created with her in mind,” Willow got the opportunity to pick up the title, and now on AEW Rampage, she will have her first title defense.
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NJPW World TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. is also scheduled for a title defense on AEW Rampage against Action Andretti. Sabre, a regular face on ROH programming will only be having his second match at an AEW event. His first AEW match occurred at the first-ever Forbidden Door event, last June which was a loss to Claudio Castagnoli.
El Hijo del Vikingo will also be in attendance at AEW Rampage, this Friday night to defend his AAA Mega Championship in a three-way match against Dralistico and Komander. At this point, El Hijo holds the AAA Mega Championship for over 500 days. Plus, Katsuyori Shibata will defend his ROH Pure Championship against Lee Moriarty when AEW’s weekly Friday night show this Friday night from the Viejas Arena, San Diego, California.