AEW WrestleDream 2023 - October 1st, 2023

 

AEW WrestleDream 2023

Date: October 1st, 2023

Venue: Climate Pledge Arena 

City: Seattle, Washington

Attendance: 7,108

Previous PPV:  AEW ALL OUT 2023

Next PPV: AEW Full Gear 2023

AEW WrestleDream 2023 was the inaugural WrestleDream pay-per-view produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It took place on October 1st, 2023 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washingon, making it AEW's first PPV to be held in the state of Washington. The events name was in tribute to New Japan Pro Wrestling founder Antonio Inoki, who passed away one year prior on the same date (October 1st, 2022). 

14 matches were contested at the event, including 4 matches on the "Zero Hour" PPV Pre-Show. In the main event, Christian Cage defeated Darby Allin by 2-1 in a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match for the AEW TNT Championship. In other matches, Bryan Danielson defeated Zack Sabre, Jr. and Swerve Strickland defeated "Hangman" Adam Page. The event was notable for the AEW debut of Adam Copeland (formerly known as Edge in WWE). 

Event Background:

On October 1st, 2022, (September 30th in Eastern Time), Antonio Inoki, the founder of the Japanese professional wrestling organization New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), passed away. Prior to his death, the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) began a working relationship with NJPW in early 2021. This resulted in the annual co-promoted event, AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, which was first held in June 2022, with a follow-up event a year later in June 2023. 

In April 2023, AEW filed to trademark "AEW WrestleDream". During the AEW ALL IN: LONDON media scrum on August 27th, 2023, AEW President Tony Khan officially announced that AEW would hold a pay-per-view event titled WrestleDream, which would be held in honor of Inoki, who was someone Khan looked up to in the industry. The event was scheduled to take place on October 1st, 2023 - the one-year annicversary of Inoki''s passing. The name of the event refers to Inoki, who Khan called "wrestling's greatest dreamer". Tickets for the event went on sale on September 8th, 2023. 

Storylines Heading Into Event:

Bryan Danielson w as originally set to face NJPW's Zack Sabre, Jr. at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door in June 2022, but was unable to due to an injury and was replaced by the debuting Claudio Castagnoli. Over a year later on the September 9th, 2023 episode of AEW Collision, Danielson said that with his career winding down, the next person he wanted to face in the ring was Sabre. Later, a match between the two was officially annnounced for WrestleDream.

During the AEW ALL IN: LONDON 2023 pre-show, Better Than You Bay Bay (Adam Cole and MJF) won the ROH World Tag Team Championship. At Rampage: Grand Slam on September 22nd, The Righteous (Dutch and Vincent) won a 4-Way Tag Team Match to earn the title shot at WrestleDream. However, two days prior at Dynamite: Grand Slam, as Cole came out to support MJF in his AEW World Championship defense against Samoa Joe, Cole broke his foot jumping off the entrance ramp. The following week, Beter Than You Bay Bay initially announced that they would have to relinquish the ROH World Tag Team Championship, bit MJF instead decided that he would defend the titles in handicap style matches, first starting with The Righteous at WrestleDream.

After racking up wins and taking out her opponents in post-match attacks, on the September 23rd episode of Collision, The House of Black's Brody King announced that Julia Hart wanted to face Kris Statlander for the AEW TBS Championship and if Statlander did not accept, Hart would continue laying out opponents. Later that night, it was made official that Statlander would defend the AEW TBS Championship against Julia Hart at WrestleDream. Hart's last loss with against Statlander on an episode of AEW DARK in April 2022. 

After Luchasaurus won the AEW TNT Championship in June, his accomplice Christian Cage claimed that he himself was the real champion and carried around the title. On September 23rd at Collision, Luchasaurus defended the title against Cage and Darby Allin in a 3-Way Match. In the end, Allin performed a coffin drop on Luchasaurus but Cage threw Allin out of the ring and proceeded to pin Luchasaurus himself to become the actual AEW TNT Champion. Later, Cage challenged Allin to a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match for the title at WrestleDream, in Darby's hometown of Seattle, Washington. 

Since siding with Don Callis at AEW Double or Nothing 2023 in May, Konosuke Takeshita vowed to destroy Callis' former client Kenny Omega, gaining upset wins over Omega in the two prior PPV events, ALL IN: LONDON in a 6-Man Tag Match and at ALL OUT in a singles match. In order to further hurt Omega, Callis and Takeshita annoucned their next target as Omega's former Golden Lovers tag partner, Kota Ibushi, with the duo shown to have completed their assault on Ibushi in Japan on the September 27th episode of Dynamtie. Subsequently, Callis also began a feud with longtime friend Chris Jericho, who he betrayed in August. Callis then helped Will Ospreay to defeat Jericho at ALL IN: LONDON. Following this, Jericho's protoge Sammy Guevara betrayed Jericho on September 20th at Dynamite: Grand Slam, defecting to join Callis/. Following Omega saving Jericho from an attack by Callis, Takeshita and Guevara, it was announced that Omega would team with former rival Jericho and a returning Ibushi to face The Don Callis Family (Takeshita, Guevara and Ospreay) at WrestleDream. 

Aftermath:

During the post-event media scrum, Tony Khan revealed that WrestleDream would continue as an annual pay-per-view event for AEW.

Also during the media scrum, it was conformed that Adam Copeland had signed full-time with AEW. Additonally, it was announced that he would make his Dynamite debut on October 4th to address his appearance at WrestleDream with his first official AEW match scheduled for a special Title Tuesday edition of Dynamite on October 10th where he would face Luchasaurus. On October 4th at Dynamite, after listing off names of potential opponents he had never fought, Copeland explained that he came to AEW because he saw an opportunity to reunite with Christian Cage one last time and end their careers together as a team, and also warned him that Luchasaurus and Nick Wayne would eventually turn on him. Cage embraced Copeland, but then crudely rejected him. Luchasaurus and Wayne then came out but Copeland fended them off. Copeland then defeated Luchasaurus in his AEW in-ring debut on October 10th at Title Tuesday edition of Dynamite. This would then lead to a 6-Man Tag Team Match at Full Geat 2023, pitting Copeland, Sting and Darby Allin against Luchasaurus, Christian Cage and Nick Wayne. 

RESULTS:

Pre-Show Matches:

• 8-Person Mixed Tag Team Match: Athena, Billie Starkz, Keith Lee and Satoshi Kojima def. Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty), Diamante and Mercedes Martinez
• Claudio Castagnoli def. Josh Barnett
• Luchasaurus def. Nick Wayne

Main Show Matches:

• AEW World Trios Championship: Billy Gunn and The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens and Max Caster) (c) def. TMDK (Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls and Bad Dude Tito) to retain the titles
• 2-on-1 Handicap Match for ROH World Tag Team Championship: MJF (c) def. The Righteous (Dutch and Vincent) to retain the titles*
• ROH World Championship and NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship: Eddie Kingston (c) (c) def. Katsuyori Shibata to retain the titles
• AEW TBS Championship: Kris Statlander (c) def. Julia Hart to retain the title
• 4-Way Tag Team Match: The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) def. The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fenix), The Gunns (Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn) and Orange Cassidy and HOOK**
• Swerve Strickland def. "Hangman" Adam Page
• Ricky Starks def. Wheeler Yuta
• Bryan Danielson def. Zack Sabre, Jr. 
• 6-Man Tag Team Match: The Don Callis Family (Konosuke Takeshita, Will Ospreay and Sammy Guevara) def. Chris Jericho and The Golden Elite (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi)
• AEW World Tag Team Championship: FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) (c) def. Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis) to retain the titles
• 2-out-of-3 Falls Match for AEW TNT Championship: Christian Cage (c) def. Darby Allin 2-1 to retain the title

*Note: *Match was originally scheduled to be Better Than You Bay Bay (Adam Cole and MJF) defending the ROH World Tag Team Championship against The Righteous (Dutch and Vincent), however, Adam Cole sustained an ankle injury on the 9/20/23 Grand Slam edition of AEW Dynamite that is going to sideline him indefinitely. So, MJF will be defending the titles in a Handicap Match against his regularly scheduled opponents. The expected time for Cole isnt known yet but he said on the 9/27/23 edition of AEW Dynamite that his injury will require surgery as the injury is worst than first thought. 

**Note: Winning team became the number one contenders for the AEW World Tag Team Championship.

WATCH: Countdown to AEW WrestleDream 2023:

WATCH: AEW WrestleDream 2023 Zero Hour PPV Pre-Show: