All Elite Wrestling (AEW) brought Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, Adam Copeland, and many other professional wrestling stars back to the Philadelphia area with a three-hour showcase at The Liacouras Center earlier this week. The last time AEW ran a show in the area was last summer when the company completed a seven-show residency at 2300 Arena, the iconic home of the iconic Extreme Championship Wrestling (aka ECW).
The show opened with fast-rising star Kevin Knight attempting to address the crowd and explain away his actions in turning on Darby Allin, the now-former AEW World Heavyweight Champion. Knight was greeted with a proper Philly welcome with boos drowning out his monologue and laid out former tag team partner “Speedball” Mike Bailey before proudly departing up the ramp. Bailey later challenged Knight to a match next week for the TNT Championship.
As for in-ring action, Jericho defeated Riccochet - a Philadelphia Eagles fan and a "heel", or bad guy (unlike normal Eagles gans) in an entertaining matchup between two ring veterans.
In other actions, Rush took down “Blackhart” Lio Rush, Brian Cage, and Orange Cassidy in a four-way showcase. In the first matchup of the Owen Hart Foundation Men’s tournament - one started honoring the late, great Owen Heart - Brody King prevailed in a hard-hitting matchup over Claudio Castignoli, while AEW National Champion, Mark Davis, smashed his way past Jack Perry in the other quarterfinal matchup of the evening.
Mega stars Will Ospreay, Jon Moxley, and PAC, represnting the "Death Riders" faction, handled The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz, Dezmond Xavier, and Myron Reed). Andrade El Idolo took down Ace Austin. Kris Statlander beat Hikaru Shida in a Lights Out Philly Street Fight to send fans home happy following a dose of violence in AEW Collision’s main event.
AEW is setting up storylines and matchups leading toward AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2026 on June 28 at SAP Center in San Jose, California. Forbidden Door is a unique co-produced wrestling event featuring wrestlers from the United States (AEW), Mexico (Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre), and Japan (New Japan Pro Wrestling & World Wonder Ring Stardom).
AEW President Tony Khan did not announce a return show in the city, and WWE doesn’t currently have the city booked on any released dates. Pro wrestling fans can turn to Major League Wrestling (MLW), TNA Wrestling (TNA), and/or Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) for their dose of high-flying, quick-talking sports action over the coming months.
