Tony Khan has made the road to Clockwork Carnage a risky one for AEW’s champions. Darby Allin and Kazuchika Okada can chase a spot in the WrestleDream main event, but only if they put their titles on the line on Wednesday’s three-hour Dynamite and Collision special.
AEW announced five qualifying matches for the October 14 show from the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, airing live at 8/7c on TBS and HBO Max:
- Darby Allin (c) vs. Hechicero, with the TNT Championship on the line
- Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Myron Reed, with the AEW International Championship on the line
- Adam Copeland vs. Josh Alexander
- Ricochet vs. Ace Austin
- Konosuke Takeshita vs. Brian Cage
The ruling is simple. Top stars can qualify, but any champion who enters has to defend the gold. The extra belts are only at stake in the qualifiers, since Clockwork Carnage itself is for the AEW World Championship.
The field is nearly full. Will Ospreay secured his spot by retaining the title against Okada at Grand Slam France, while Samoa Joe and Mike Bailey have already qualified. Five winners on Wednesday would complete the field of eight. Okada, fresh off that loss to Ospreay, now has exactly one path left, and it runs through Reed.
Khan first signaled the twist on his X livestream on October 6, saying he had “added qualifying matches” to the format Ospreay brought over from Pro Wrestling EVE.
In the match, two wrestlers start and a new entrant arrives every three minutes until all eight are in. A pinfall or submission eliminates a competitor during that stage. A 15-minute scoring period follows, and the wrestler with the most falls wins. AEW WrestleDream takes place Saturday, October 17 at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando.
