Kevin Knight Set For First TNT Championship Defense On AEW Dynamite

Due to the injury suffered by Kyle Fletcher a few weeks ago, AEW held a gauntlet match at Dynasty to crown the next TNT Champion. Kevin Knight became the new champion after defeating Tommaso Ciampa, RUSH, Bandido, "Speedball" Mike Bailey, El Clon, PAC, Daniel Garcia, Anthony Bowens, and Wheeler Yuta. During the post-show media scrum, Khan informed Knight of his first title defense.

"There's no rest for the champ," Khan said. "You don't get to go on vacation, because as the TNT champion, that means you got to fight. At Spring Breakthru ... this Wednesday night, you're stepping into the fire, because you were in there with the Death Riders."

Khan noted that Knight found himself at odds with several members of the Death Riders in the gauntlet match, including Daniel Garcia. Now, he'll have to face the one member of the faction that didn't wrestle at Dynasty: Claudio Castagnoli. In addition to being Knight's first singles title defense, it'll also serve as a first-time matchup between the two.

Elsewhere in the conversation, Knight reflected on what it means to be TNT Champion and marveled at the fact that this is his first singles titles ever, including NJPW and the indies. "The fact that it happened at the anniversary of my pay-per-view debut here in AEW, a year later, with my tag team partner in the match certainly means a lot for me to be the new face of TNT. It's a lot of pressure, but I think 'The Jet' is built for it. This is the moment we've all been waiting for."

Despite his singles success, Knight seems intent on continuing his tag team with Bailey, stating that the two still intend to win the tag championship together.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit the AEW and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.