Wardlow To Defend TNT Title On 10/28 AEW Rampage

Wardlow will defend his AEW TNT Championship against The Kingdom's Matt Taven on the live episode of "AEW Rampage" this Friday in Uncasville, CT.

The match was set up on the 10/26 "AEW Dynamite" where a promo video recapped The Kingdom's arrival in AEW, and ran down Taven's accomplishments in ROH. Through the video, The Kingdom detailed its motives behind targeting FTR, Wardlow and Samoa Joe following their "AEW Rampage" debut earlier this month. The video ended with Wardlow hyping up his alliance with Joe while declaring that two things are inevitable: Wardlow retains his title, and Taven will be his "next Symphony."

Friday's match will mark Wardlow's fifth AEW TNT Championship defense since he captured the title from Scorpio Sky on July 6. Since then, Wardlow has successfully retained against the likes of Orange Cassidy, Jay Lethal, Ryan Nemeth, Tony Nese and Brian Cage.

The title match on "AEW Rampage" will also be Taven's in-ring debut for AEW. Taven & Mike Bennett wrapped up their stint with IMPACT Wrestling by dropping the IMPACT World Tag Team Titles to Rhino & Heath earlier this month. 

As reported earlier, Taven, Bennett & Maria Kanellis of The Kingdom officially became All Elite Wednesday by signing multi-year contracts with the promotion. It was initially believed that the stable was brought in to bolster AEW's version of ROH, but there's no confirmation of that. With Adam Cole's return from injury looming, fans on social media believe The Kingdom's original leader could be thrust into a storyline with Taven, Bennett & Kanellis.