An AEW World Title match pitting the champ, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, and former champ “Hangman” Adam Page headlines the card for this weekend’s “Revolution” pay-per-view (Sunday, 7 p.m. ET).
The card also has a Women’s World Title match with Thekla, the defending champ, facing former champ Kris Statlander, and a World Tag Team Title match with the defending title-holders, FTR, facing former champs The Young Bucks.
Strong card, top to bottom, with the focus at the top, with MJF, whose second World Title reign began with his win in a four-way title match at the Dec. 27 “Worlds End” show in which he dethroned reigning champ Samoa Joe.
What’s interesting here is the stipulation that Page, an Aarons Creek, Va., native and Virginia Tech alum, agreed to ahead of the match – that if he loses, he will not be able to wrestle for the AEW World Title again.
This, we could refer to as, the Cody Rhodes stip – Rhodes, you may remember, agreed to the same terms when he challenged the inaugural AEW champ, Chris Jericho, at the 2019 “Full Gear” show, and lost, and never again challenged for the World Title thereafter.
Nothing in pro wrestling is irrevocable, so, I can see the Cody Rhodes stip being used here to provide a good excuse to get Page out of the title picture for a while, so that MJF can focus on the rest of the top-of-the-card roster – guys like Swerve Strickland, Kenny Omega, Andrade El Idolo, Brody King, eventually Will Ospreay, when he returns from injury.
Down the line, AEW could always go back on the stip – Tony Khan could give Page an eliminator match to get back into the title picture, he could turn heel and bring in a manager who claims that there is some sort of legal loophole, whatever.
It’s pro wrestling.
What I’m getting at: don’t assume Page is going to win this weekend because of this stipulation.
The rest of the card
- AEW World Tag Team Championship Match:FTR vs. The Young Bucks
- AEW Continental Championship No Time Limit Match:Jon Moxley vs. Konosuke Takeshita
- AEW Women’s World Championship Match:Thekla vs. Kris Statlander
- AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship Match:The Babes of Wrath vs. Megan Bayne & Lena Kross
- AEW World Trios Championship Match:Kazuchika Okada, Kyle Fletcher, and Mark Davis vs. Místico and JetSpeed
- Toni Storm vs. Marina Shafir
- Brody King vs. Swerve Strickland
- Bandido vs. Andrade El Idolo
- Darby Allin, Orange Cassidy, and Roderick Strong vs. The Dogs
Zero Hour
- AEW TBS Championship Match:Willow Nightingale vs. Lena Kross
- AEW National Championship Blackjack Battle Royale:Ricochet, Tommaso Ciampa, 19 more competitors TBA