Tony Khan officially announces big rematch involving former WWE star after 3,073 days on AEW Collision
Tony Khan has announced a massive rematch for AEW Collision this week, featuring a former WWE Superstar, pitting him against an opponent 3,073 days since their last meeting. The talent in question is Roderick Strong.
The July 19, 2024, episode of Rampage featured a trios bout which saw members of The Undisputed Kingdom - ROH World Tag Team Champions Matt Taven and Mike Bennett along with Roderick Strong - take on The Conglomeration, represented by Kyle O'Reilly, Orange Cassidy, and Tomohiro Ishii.
The end of the bout saw The Freshly Squeezed star deliver an Orange Punch to Taven to pick up the win for the newly-founded babyface faction. After the bout, Cassidy would be blindsided by Kyle Fletcher of The Don Callis Family, seemingly as retribution against the former AEW International Champion for taking out Trent Beretta last week on Collision.
This prompted Cassidy's Conglomeration stable-mate and ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe to run down to make the save, but the latter, in turn, would be laid out by Roderick Strong, who will face Briscoe for his title at ROH Death Before Dishonor 2024.
Ahead of the upcoming July 20, 2024, episode of Collision, AEW President Tony Khan took to X/Twitter to announce that Strong will be in action on the Saturday night show in Arlington, Texas against Tomohiro Ishii. This will mark the first singles encounter between The Messiah of the Backbreaker and The Stone Pitbull in over three thousand days, their last match having taken place on February 19, 2016, in a show jointly organized by ROH and NJPW. The bout saw Ishii defeat Strong for the ROH World TV Title.
"TOMORROW, Sat, July 20. Arlington, TX. Saturday Night #AEWCollision. On TNT, 8pm ET/7pm CT, tomorrow. @roderickstrong vs. Tomohiro Ishii. After tonight's Undisputed Kingdom/Conglomeration war on #AEWRampage, in a Collision 3,073 days in the making, Roddy vs. Ishii. Live on TNT. TOMORROW," wrote Tony Khan.
Check out Tony Khan's tweet below:
What else transpired on this week's episode of AEW Rampage?
Following The Conglomeration's victory, this week's episode of Rampage saw a tag bout between The Outrunners and the team of Big Bill and Chris Jericho. The Learning Tree could be seen texting on his phone while The Redwood single-handedly took down Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd before Jericho finally made a tag only to pin the latter Outrunner and pick up the win.
Ahead of his FTW Championship match against Jericho next week on Dynamite, Minoru Suzuki defeated The Butcher in singles action. Kris Statlander continued to build momentum with a dominant victory over Sydni Winnell. The main event of Rampage witnessed another epic tag match between The Lucha Bros and Private Party, with the former AEW World Tag Team Champions securing the win.
It remains to be seen what Tony Khan and All Elite Wrestling have in store for fans as the build to All In 2024 continues this Saturday.