After a fierce back-and-forth battle”AEW Dynamite:Tommaso Ciampa remains the AEW National Champion after defeating “Speedball” Mike Bayley. After the match, Ciampa went head-to-head with Ilya Dragunov and it was revealed that the pair would face off at AEW Full Gear for the title.
The pair opened the match with some stiff punches and Bayley took out Ciampa with a springboard to the outside. Ciampa hit his opponent with a draped DDT, knocking him out of the ring, where he sent Bayley’s head crashing into the ring steps with his knee, knocking him out.
Ciampa peppered the wound with hard elbow strikes, then bit Bayley as he hung on the middle rope. Bayley got back to her feet with chops and forearms, but the champion was right on top of her. Ciampa looked for the Air Raid Crash from the top and Bayley countered, but Ciampa was able to hit it off the ring apron.
The champion hit Project Ciampa, which Bayley barely kicked out of. She dropped a kneepad and looked for a dropkick, but Bayley ducked to avoid it. Bayley hit a moonsault knee drop followed by a dropkick, but Ciampa was ready for her and swept her legs, causing the back of Bayley’s head to crash into the side of the turnbuckle. Bayley was able to hit her knees on the apron again. He hung Ciampa in the corner, but the champion fought back, biting Bayley’s fingers.
Ciampa kicked out of the Ultimo Weapon and Bayley hit a Project Ciampa avalanche off the second rope followed by a knee drop. Ciampa landed a second knee strike for the win. As he celebrated, the lights dimmed, then flashed red to bring out Dragunov, who pointed to the tron to challenge the national champion to a Full Gear match.