Switchblade, Cassidy in action on TSN+
"Switchblade" Jay White goes one-on-one with Matt Sydal. Plus, Zak Knight makes his in-ring debut against Angelo Parker and Julia Hart defends the TBS Championship against Leyla Hirsch and Orange Cassidy is in action. You can catch AEW Rampage on Friday sat 10pm et/7pm pt streaming on TSN+.
ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion "Switchblade" Jay White (w/ Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn) vs. Matt Sydal - Based on their anger, it's becoming increasingly clear that AEW World Trios Champions The Acclaimed ("Platinum" Max Caster and "The Five-Tool Player" Anthony Bowens) and "Daddy Ass" Billy Gunn might have been the only people who didn't see the dissolution of the Bang Bang Scissor Gang coming. Since Bullet Club Gold ("Switchblade" Jay White, Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn) turned on the trio last month, Caster, Bowens and Gunn have been consumed with rage. A match on the Apr. 3 edition of Dynamite between White and Billy Gunn ended in a disqualification with King Switch escaping a vicious beating by hitting Gunn with a low blow. Before White can once again deal with the Acclaimed and Gunn, he's in singles action on Friday night against crafty veteran Matt Sydal. The match will mark the first ever singles meeting between the two and the first time the two men have shared a ring in nearly eight years. White and Sydal faced off in a number of tag-team and multi-man matches in New Japan Pro-Wrestling in the past and the duo once even teamed together in 2016 when they were defeated by the CHAOS duo of Rocky Romero and YOSHI-HASHI. In the matches where the two were on opposing sides, Sydal won all of them. In their most recent meeting, a 10-man tag in June of 2016, the team of Sydal, Juice Robinson, Captain New Japan, KUSHIDA and Katsuyori Shibata defeated White, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Kyle O'Reilly, Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata. Much has changed since then with White emerging as one of the best wrestlers in the world with a cabinet full of titles and he will be out to show Sydal that this isn't the same Young Lion he's dealt with in the past. Will White demonstrate his growth or will Sydal pick up yet another win over Switchblade?
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Zak Knight (w/ Saraya and Harley Cameron) vs. "Cool Hand" Angelo Parker (w/ Ruby Soho) - Zak Knight makes his long-awaited in-ring debut on Friday night when he takes in Angelo Parker with no shortage of enmity between the two. Knight, the older brother of Saraya, has spent the past several weeks making life a living hell for Parker as he's attempted to navigate his budding relationship with Ruby Soho. After several backstage brawls and blindside attacks, the two will finally meet in the ring. While he's new to AEW, Knight is far from a rookie. A fixture on the British wrestling scene for the past several years, Knight has taken on the likes of AEW Continental Champion "The Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada, the Undisputed British Heavyweight Champion Michael Oku and Bullet Club's Gabe Kidd. Knight has primed himself for his AEW debut with a four-match winning streak in ROH. Though Parker is undoubtedly ready for this match, he can't let his emotions cloud his judgment. On top of that, Parker is a tag-team specialist and will be in Knight's realm of singles competition. In fact, the match is Parker's first one-on-one contest in AEW since he lost to Hook in an FTW Championship match at All Out 2022. Will ring rust be a factor here? Can Parker get some revenge on Knight or will Knight's first match end with his arm raised?
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TBS Championship Open House match: Julia Hart (c) vs. "Legit" Leyla Hirsch - Julia Hart has a lot on her plate right now. At Apr. 21's Dynasty pay-per-view, she is scheduled to defend her TBS Championship against Willow Nightingale. Before that can happen, she will be teaming with House of Black stablemate "Big, Bad" Brody King this Wednesday night on Dynamite to take on the team of Nightingale and the TNT Champion "The Rated R Superstar" Adam Copeland. And then there is the matter of Mercedes Moné. This past Wednesday night on Dynamite, the "CEO of AEW" was speaking to Alex Marvez backstage when the lights went out. When they came back on, Moné was on the ground, having been attacked. While nobody can prove anything, the attack had the hallmarks of one of Hart's and Moné is scheduled to wrestle for the TBS Championship at May's Double or Nothing PPV. Was this Hart sending a message to a potential future opponent? Hart will need to put all of that on the backburner in time for Friday night when she defends her title against Leyla Hirsch in an Open House match. The House of Black's Open House rules dictate that there are no rope breaks, a 20-second countout is enforced and the challenger is allowed to add a stipulation of their choosing. It's unclear as of yet what Hirsch's might be. The match will mark Hirsch's first on AEW TV in over a year with a majority of her time in the last 12 months spent in ROH. Hart and Hirsch have never faced off before and the bout will be Hart's seventh defence of the title she won from Kris Statlander at last December's World's End PPV. Will Hirsch return with a bang or will Hart keep hold of her title?
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"Freshly Squeezed" Orange Cassidy (w/ "The Kentucky Gentleman" Chuck Taylor) vs. Alex Reynolds (w/ John Silver) - Orange Cassidy lost more than a match on the Apr. 3 edition of Dynamite. After he and Trent Beretta were defeating by the Young Bucks (Nicholas Jackson and Matthew Jackson) in the AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament semi-final, Cassidy was laid out by a flying knee from his partner when they, along with Chuck Taylor, went in for the Best Friends' trademark group hug. The betrayal shocked Cassidy and now Taylor finds himself in the middle. Beretta didn't offer any reason for his decision, but did whisper something in the ear of Kris Statlander after the match. With that fresh in his mind, Cassidy returns to singles action on Friday night when he takes on a man he knows very well in Alex Reynolds. Cassidy and Reynolds have faced off with one another for over a decade now in multiple promotions including Combat Zone Wrestling, CHIKARA and New York Wrestling Connection. The match will be the first singles match between the two in nearly five years. Cassidy and Reynolds are 1-1 against one another in one-on-one action with Cassidy winning the most recent meeting. With Cassidy preoccupied with what's happening with Beretta, can Reynolds use that as an advantage? Which of these two men will win their rubber match?