Backstage News On Ricky Starks & Big Bill Winning AEW Tag Team Titles
Following the shocking AEW Tag Team Title change on Collision, more details have come out about Ricky Starks & Big Bill as the new champions.
On AEW Collision last Saturday, FTR defended the AEW Tag Team Titles against the team of Ricky Starks & Big Bill. Going into the match, some fans likely figured that the champions (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler aka FTR) would find a way to win as usual, but instead, the opposite happened.
The two teams would go on to have a short match that went about five minutes with Bill & Starks dominating the match.
Within a few minutes, Cash Wheeler was taken out by Big Bill, who gave Cash a huge Chokeslam through the commentary table. Wheeler had his shoulder taped up, which led people to believe he was dealing with a shoulder injury.
Big Bill continued the attack with three straight Chokeslams to Harwood in the ring, which came at the direction of Starks, who demanded that Big Bill continue the offensive attack. Starks ran the ropes and hit a Spear on Harwood for the pinfall win.
It was a shocking title change not just because of who won, but also because The Young Bucks won a number one contender’s match for a shot at the AEW Tag Team Titles at the WrestleDream PPV earlier this month. It was believed that The Young Bucks would challenge FTR at the Full Gear pay-per-view on November 18 in Los Angeles, which is near where The Young Bucks are from. Instead, FTR doesn’t have the titles anymore.
The team of Ricky Starks & Big Bill won AEW Tag Team Titles thanks to Dax Harwood
Over the last week, there have been numerous stories about the title change. At first, there was a belief that Cash Wheeler had injured ribs and that’s why FTR dropped the titles. However, it has since been revealed that the title change came from Dax Harwood.
In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer detailed how the title change happened.
“Ricky Starks & Big Bill beat FTR for the tag titles on the 10/7 Collision show in Salt Lake City. There is a lot behind this one. This was an angle pitched by Dax Harwood. There were those in the company told Cash Wheeler was injured with broken ribs and that was the reason for it. We’re told he is banged up, enough to where he was X-rayed but we were told the X-rays showed no broken ribs and he doesn’t need time off and could have done a full match.”
“The angle was something pitched for a shock on the show and to build a rematch and get and not to cover for a lengthy absence. The idea of the pitch is to do a match where Wheeler was injured and Harwood had to face both men and got blown out without getting much offense in. The idea of dropping the titles and doing it in such a one-sided way to put over Bill & Starks strong and to do something significant to try and help the Collision show.”
“The match went just 4:47 and was one-sided, as Bill took out Wheeler right away with a chokeslam through the announcers table and Harwood fought alone and basically was destroyed by Bill doing a choke slam and Starks pinning him with a spear. In the post-match promo, Starks & Bill said that FTR will not get a title match.”
As he continued, Meltzer wrote about how the FTR-Young Bucks match may still happen, so perhaps there’s another title change coming soon.
“FTR vs. Young Bucks was definitely the direction the tag title was planned on going previously, with the match planned for either Full Gear or the tapings in Ontario, CA, and it still may end up there. Bill & Starks vs. FTR will likely be on 10/28, or maybe 11/4, with the winners facing the Young Bucks.”
An interesting note about Big Bill’s title win it was his first championship win in either AEW or WWE. He did not win any titles while in WWE as Big Cass.