Appearing in a pre-taped segment on tonight’s AEW Dynamite, Maxwell Jacob Friedman announced how the company will determine his opponents for this weekend’s AEW All Out pay-per-view, as well as AEW Grand Slam later in September. The AEW World Champion revealed that the promotion will hold a tournament in the coming days to decide who will challenge for the world title at Grand Slam, while Friday night’s AEW Rampage is set to include a tag team battle royale. The winners there will face MJF and Adam Cole on Sunday for the Ring of Honor World Tag Team Championships.
The segment, taking place following MJF’s main event title defense against Cole at AEW All In, showed MJF icing his neck in the locker room. The world champ complained about Cole hurting him in the match, as well as making him wrestle more often in the last few months. However, it seems the friendship between the two in-ring rivals is still going strong for now.
A little bit later in the show, Cole appeared live in front of the Chicago crowd, reassuring everyone that both he and MJF would be ready for their title defense on Sunday. However, Cole was confronted by his former allies in The Kingdom – Roderick Strong, Mike Bennett, and Matt Taven. The three men took turns running Cole down on the mic, pointing out the many different ways in which he has failed them. Cole went on to tell the trio that they needed to accept that Cole was his best friend, prompting Strong to declare himself for the upcoming tournament and promise to take the title from MJF. Though they didn’t reveal anything, it seems like a strong possibility that Taven and Bennett will enter the battle royale on Rampage, as well.
Sunday’s pay-per-view saw Cole and MJF team up to defeat Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis of Aussie Open in the pre-show, becoming the new ROH World Tag Team Champions. Later on, in the show’s main event, MJF was able to overcome Cole to retain the AEW World Championship, with both men declining to cheat against one another, helping keep their friendship alive – for now.