Cope & Cage Defeat The Death Riders, Retain AEW World Tag Titles In Dynamite Opener
Adam Copeland and Christian Cage wanted to prove they were fighting champions and were looking for a fight on the July 15 episode of "AEW Dynamite." That challenge was answered by Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta of The Death Riders, a group that both Copeland and Cage have a history with, but in the end, it was the champions who made their second successful defense of their AEW World Tag Team Championship.
The champions had control in the early going as Copeland got the better of Yuta while Cage got under the skin of Garcia. However, when Copeland got in there with Garcia, Yuta was able to distract him by dragging him to the outside and attacking Copeland while he was trapped in the ring skirt. The Death Riders gaining the upper hand continued through the commercial break, with the challengers frequently tagging in and out to keep themselves fresh and keep Copeland worn down.
Coming out of the commercial break, Copeland started to fire up and created enough distance between himself and Garcia to try and tag in Cage, but Garcia got the tag to Yuta in time. Yuta went for a superplex on Copeland but the champion hopped over Yuta and finally tagged in Cage, who took out both challengers with an impactful string of offense, but was only able to get a two-count after a diving headbutt.
The challengers tried to mount a comeback as Garcia delivered a clothesline to Copeland that took them out of the ring, and Yuta landed a German suplex on Cage for a near fall. Yuta took the turnbuckle pad out of the corner, but this only led to Cage landing a low blow on Garcia behind the referee's back. When Yuta realized what had happened, he was launched in the air for Copeland to hit a Spear that put him down for the win as The Young Bucks applauded them from the balcony in the crowd.
After the match, The Dogs and Claudio Castagnoli came out to attack the champions while The Young Bucks looked on helplessly. However, The Bang Bang Gang came out for the rescue, with Jay White even taking David Finlay's shillelagh for himself. Cage initially thought White was going to attack him, but Copeland got everyone on the same page.