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AEW TNT Championship
Katsuyori Shibata versus Jack Perry (c)
The Scapegoat Jack Perry was unsuccessful in becoming AEW Men’s World Champion in his match with Bryan Danielson at All Out, but at least we (I) got a reunion between Killshot (Luchasaurus) and Jack Perry. Nothing happened, but it was the first time in a long time the two acknowledged they even existed on the same show.
Jack has taken his loss by defending the TNT Championship against Lio Rush and Christopher Daniels. He then defended at Collision: Grand Slam against Minoru Suzuki. The ending was fantastic as Jack won the match by countout. I’ve personally felt that AEW is far too reluctant on having countout finishes and it’s pointless for the referee to even bother counting if everyone makes it to 10. Perry used the countout to his advantage. It wasn’t an accident, it was the plan. Why pin Suzuki when you can just incapacitate him on the outside? I loved it.
Soon after, Katsuyori Shibata came out to save Minoru Suzuki in the post-match. Perry would attack Shibata when he asked for the TNT Championship shot later on. Shibata would get on the win column against The Elite when Shibata and Private Party defeated Jack Perry and The Young Bucks on Rampage.
The TNT Championship is traditionally an open challenge title. You are not expected to need a great win/loss record and it’s more about the champion accepting your challenge. That said, Shibata in 2024? Formidable singles record. 4-0 in Ring of Honor. 5-3 in AEW with losses to Bryan Danielson, Chris Jericho, and Will Ospreay. His most recent AEW wins were against Bryan Keith and Jay Lethal, while he has wins against Evil Uno, Josh Woods, Ariya Daivari, and Brandon Cutler since July in ROH.
The handling of Shibata in AEW has been interesting to me. He’s 44 but doesn’t look it at all. He was essentially gone from pro wrestling for six years after the skull injury in one of the greatest matches of all time against Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Sakura Genesis in 2017. Shibata would have an exhibition grapple with Zack Sabre Jr. in October 2021 and a match against Ren Narita at Wrestle Kingdom 16 at the start of 2022, but wouldn’t start wrestling in AEW (and regularly wrestling again) until November 2022 when he faced Orange Cassidy for the AEW All-Atlantic Championship. He has since been a regular in ROH and AEW, capturing the ROH Pure Championship at Supercard of Honor 2022.
Shibata isn’t the wrestler he was in 2017, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a great wrestler anymore. He’s clearly been working safe and hasn’t had any injuries since, so he can be relied upon. I love Shibata in AEW. He doesn’t exactly make sense in All Elite Wrestling and in some weird way that makes him fit in the company all the better. His interactions with Hook and Samoa Joe were great a few months back.
Jack Perry is doing with the TNT Championship what I wanted him to do after he won it. He’s defending it a lot. Three defences in September alone is more than the defences he had prior to the Danielson match. I still think if Daniel Garcia returns to AEW, then the guy he should be going after is Jack Perry and his TNT Championship.
I shouldn’t overlook Shibata, who worked WrestleDream 2023 against Eddie Kingston in a great match for the ROH World Championship and New Japan STRONG Openweight Championship. He was unsuccessful there but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to see him beating Perry here. Unlikely sure, but I would love to see Shibata winning the TNT Championship. He’s earning every minute of his second chance at a pro wrestling career in All Elite Wrestling.
