AEW New Year's Smash

AEW New Year's Smash
AEW New Year's Smash logo
PromotionsAll Elite Wrestling
First eventJanuary 2021

AEW New Year's Smash is a professional wrestling television special produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Established by the promotion in 2021, the event is held annually around New Year's as a two-part event. The original January 2021 event aired as two back-to-back special episodes of AEW's flagship program, Wednesday Night Dynamite, while the second event, which aired in December 2021, occurred during the same week, first as an episode of Dynamite, then as a special episode of Friday Night Rampage, with future events retaining this format. The Dynamite broadcast for the second event was notable for being the final Dynamite to air on TNT before the show moved to TNT's sister channel TBS; Rampage remained on TNT.

History

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On the December 9, 2020, episode of Wednesday Night Dynamite, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) announced that the December 30, 2020, and January 6, 2021, episodes would be a two-part event titled "New Year's Smash".[1] However, on December 28, it was announced that the event had been postponed to January 6 and 13, 2021, due to the death of AEW wrestler Brodie Lee, with the December 30 episode instead being held as a memorial event for Lee. Night 1 of New Year's Smash aired live on January 6, while Night 2 was taped on January 7 and aired on tape delay on January 13.[2]

On the November 19, 2021, episode of AEW's secondary program, Friday Night Rampage (which began airing in August), AEW announced New Year's Smash would return as the December 29 episode of Dynamite (the final episode of Dynamite on TNT before its move to TBS) and the New Year's Eve episode of Rampage. Dynamite aired live while Rampage aired on tape delay on December 31. This in turn established New Year's Smash as AEW's New Year's event, with future events retaining the Dynamite and Rampage broadcast format.[3]

Events

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# Event Date City Venue Main Event Ref.
1 New Year's Smash (January 2021) Night 1:
Dynamite

January 6, 2021
Jacksonville, Florida Daily's Place Kenny Omega (c) vs. Rey Fénix for the AEW World Championship [4]
Night 2:
Dynamite

January 7, 2021
(aired January 13)
Darby Allin (c) vs. Brian Cage for the AEW TNT Championship [5]
2 New Year's Smash (December 2021) Night 1:
Dynamite

December 29, 2021
Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, and Kyle O'Reilly vs. Best Friends (Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor, and Trent Beretta) [3]
Night 2:
Rampage

December 29, 2021
(aired December 31)
Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Ethan Page for the AEW TNT Championship [3]
3 New Year's Smash (2022) Night 1:
Dynamite

December 28, 2022
1stBank Center Broomfield, Colorado Samoa Joe (c) vs. Wardlow for the AEW TNT Championship [6]
Night 2:
Rampage

December 28, 2022
(aired December 30)
Swerve Strickland vs. Wheeler Yuta
4 New Year's Smash (2023) Night 1:
Dynamite

December 27, 2023
Addition Financial Arena Orlando, Florida MJF (c) vs The Devil's Masked Men[i] in a 2-on-1 Handicap match[ii] for the ROH World Tag Team Championship [7]
Night 2:
Rampage

December 27, 2023
(aired December 29)
Orange Cassidy, Trent Beretta, and Rocky Romero vs. Top Flight (Darius Martin and Dante Martin) and Action Andretti [8]
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Rose, Bryan (December 9, 2020). "AEW announces Holiday Bash, New Year's Smash special events". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved December 24, 2020.
  2. ^ Khan, Tony [@TonyKhan] (December 28, 2020). "AEW New Year's Smash will now take place across the first 2 weeks of 2021, on January 6 + January 13 on @tntdrama. I'll announce the card for this week's #AEWDynamite Celebration of Mr. Brodie Lee's Life in a moment. Thank you to all who have shared their love for Jon this week" (Tweet). Retrieved December 28, 2020 – via Twitter.
  3. ^ a b c Rose, Bryan (November 8, 2021). "Tony Khan confirms Jacksonville return for Dynamite & Rampage". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
  4. ^ Acero, Tony (January 6, 2021). "Join 411's Live AEW Dynamite New Year's Smash (Night One) Coverage". 411 Mania. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  5. ^ Barnett, Jake (January 13, 2021). "1/13 AEW Dynamite results: Barnett's live review of New Year's Smash night two with Darby Allin vs. Brian Cage for the TNT Title, Miro vs. Chuck Taylor, FTR vs. Marko Stunt and Jungle Boy, Serena Deeb vs. Tay Conti for the NWA Women's Title, Pac vs. Eddie Kingston". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  6. ^ "AEW returning to Los Angeles in January 2023". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. October 18, 2022. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  7. ^ Raghuwanshi, Vipin (October 18, 2022). "AEW Dynamite December 27: MJF in Action, Continental Classic Semifinal Set". ITN WWE. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  8. ^ Tessier, Colin (December 28, 2023). "AEW Rampage Spoilers For 12/29 (Taped On 12/27)". Fightful. Retrieved December 28, 2023.

Notes

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  1. ^ At the time of this match, the identities of both team members were unknown, but they were revealed as Matt Taven and Mike Bennett at Worlds End on December 30.
  2. ^ Samoa Joe was originally scheduled to team with MJF to defend the title in place of an injured Adam Cole, but Joe appeared to have been attacked by The Devil's Masked Men before the match, which was later revealed to have been a ruse as Joe attacked MJF after the match.
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