AEW Road Rager

AEW Road Rager
PromotionsAll Elite Wrestling
First event2021
Last event2022

AEW Road Rager was an annual professional wrestling television special produced by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in the summer. Established in 2021, the inaugural event aired as a special episode of the promotion's flagship weekly television program, Wednesday Night Dynamite. In 2022, it was expanded to a two-part event, with the second part airing as a special episode of Friday Night Rampage. The 2022 event would be the final Road Rager as the event was not held in 2023.

History

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that began effecting the industry in mid-March 2020, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) held the majority of their programs from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida;[1] these events were originally held without fans, but the company began running shows at 10–15% capacity in August, gradually increasing as time went on, before eventually running full capacity shows in May 2021.[2] Also in May, AEW announced that they would be returning to live touring, beginning with a special episode of Dynamite titled Road Rager on July 7, in turn becoming the first major professional wrestling promotion to resume live touring during the pandemic.[3] Road Rager was announced to be held in Miami, Florida at the James L. Knight Center and was the first of a four-week span of special Dynamite episodes as part of AEW's "Welcome Back" tour, which continued with the two-part Fyter Fest on July 14 and 21 and concluded with Fight for the Fallen on July 28.[4][5]

Events

# Event Date City Venue Main Event Ref.
1 Road Rager (2021) Dynamite:
July 7, 2021 		Miami, Florida James L. Knight Center The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) (c) vs. Eddie Kingston and Penta El Zero Miedo in a Street Fight for the AEW World Tag Team Championship [6]
2 Road Rager (2022) Night 1:
Dynamite
–
June 15, 2022 		St. Louis, Missouri Chaifetz Arena Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) (c) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) in a Tag team ladder match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship [7]
Night 2:
Rampage
–
June 15, 2022
(aired June 17) 		Darby Allin vs. Bobby Fish [8]
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

See also

References

  1. ^ Mealey, Jason (March 13, 2020). "AEW moves show from Rochester to Jacksonville due to coronavirus". News4Jax.com. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  2. ^ Johnson, Mike (May 5, 2021). "Double or Nothing 2021 PPV notes". PWInsider. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
  3. ^ Heydorn, Zack (May 10, 2021). "AEW announces a return to touring starting in July (w/ Heydorn's Analysis)". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  4. ^ Nason, Josh (June 11, 2021). "AEW ANNOUNCES DATES FOR FYTER FEST, FIGHT FOR THE FALLEN, ROAD RAGER". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved June 13, 2021.
  5. ^ Casey, Connor (June 11, 2021). "AEW Announces Welcome Back Tour for AEW Dynamite's July Episodes". ComicBook. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  6. ^ Powell, Jason (July 7, 2021). "7/7 AEW Dynamite results: Powell's live review of The Young Bucks vs. Eddie Kingston and Penta El Zero Miedo in a Street Fight for the AEW Tag Titles, Andrade El Idolo vs. Matt Sydal, Cody Rhodes vs. QT Marshall in a strap match, Santana, Ortiz, and Jake Hager vs. FTR and Wardlow". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  7. ^ Powell, Jason (June 15, 2022). "6/15 AEW Dynamite results: Powell's live review of Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus vs. The Young Bucks in a ladder match for the AEW Tag Titles, Chris Jericho vs. Ortiz in a hair vs. hair match, Toni Storm vs. Britt Baker, Will Ospreay vs. Dak Harwood, Ethan Page vs. Miro in an All Atlantic Title qualifying match". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
  8. ^ "Spoilers For This Week's AEW Rampage". 411mania. Retrieved June 17, 2022.