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00:00The existence of All Elite Wrestling has not only given professional wrestlers,
00:04many of them ex-WWE guys and gals, another major league option to work for,
00:09it's also given Tony Khan the opportunity to book some familiar match-ups.
00:13The presence of former WWE stars in AEW has, in recent years, led to matches being made for TV
00:20and pay-per-view that, in a few cases, hadn't been done for more than a decade on WWE programming.
00:26And sometimes, these sequels in new surroundings were able to far surpass the originals.
00:32I'm Sam Driver from Cultaholic Wrestling, and these are 10 matches done in both WWE and AEW.
00:39Join us!
00:4110. Evan Bourne vs. CM Punk and Matt Seidel vs. CM Punk
00:46When discussing CM Punk's AEW run, it's hard not to dwell on the negative aspects
00:52and the way it all spectacularly fell apart in the end.
00:55But it's also worth remembering that the straight-edge superstar routinely brought his A-game
01:00and had good matches with a variety of opponents, including many that he'd never been in the ring with before.
01:06One man he squared off with in the past was Matt Seidel, formerly known as Evan Bourne in WWE.
01:12Bourne and Punk met twice on Raw in 2010, the first match coming on the April 26th edition of Raw,
01:19and the second, a qualifying match to make Team Red at bragging rights on October 10th.
01:24Both times, it was an easy night's work for Pepsi Phil, who recorded quick victories.
01:30Things were a bit different when the two men met in a more competitive match on the October 15th, 2021 edition of AEW Rampage.
01:38The result remained the same, however, with Punk picking up the dub.
01:41Of course, the two men wrestled in singles matches before ever making it to WWE, having a pair of matches for the IWA Mid-South promotion in 2004 and 2005.
01:52No prizes for guessing who won those, either.
01:559. Antonio Cesaro vs. Adrian Neville and Claudio Castagnoli vs. Pac
02:01Before they were wreaking havoc as members of the Deathriders stable, Claudio Castagnoli and Pac were wowing audiences with their athletic displays against one another.
02:11The Swiss Superman and the man that Gravity forgot are natural opponents, at least from a stylistic standpoint,
02:16as Castagnoli is a strong, powerful base, and Pac is one of the most spectacular wrestlers, well, ever.
02:24Having wrestled against each other for independent outfits Chikara and PWG in their pre-WWE days,
02:30the two Globetrotters put on a tremendous show in front of the NXT crowd when the then-United States Champion Antonio Cesaro made the trip to Full Sail,
02:39defending his title on a special Clash of the Champions edition of NXT TV in April of 2013.
02:45It would be more than a decade for their next televised singles match,
02:49which saw Claudio retain his Ring of Honor world title at Death Before Dishonor 2023.
02:54Nearly a year later, the Bastard gained a measure of revenge by knocking Castagnoli out of the 2024 Owen Hart tournament with a victory in a rollicking quarterfinal match.
03:05Number 8. Rusev vs Andrade Cien Almas and Miro vs Andrade El Idolo
03:11During the course of the year 2018, Rusev and Andrade Almas butted heads on close to 30 different occasions,
03:19whether in singles matches at non-televised live events or in mixed tags also featuring Lana and Zelina Vega.
03:25Their sole televised WWE singles outing came on the July 24th, 2018 edition of SmackDown.
03:32It was a decent nine-minute affair that ended when Aiden English's meddling accidentally caused the Bulgarian brute to be distracted,
03:39and he ate the L.
03:41On Rusev Day. Of all days.
03:44After Rusev and Andrade's WWE releases in April 2020 and March 2021 respectively,
03:50they resurfaced in Tony Khan's promotion.
03:53It's fair to say that neither man's run, outside of a few highlights here and there, fulfilled its promise,
03:59and there were some backstage issues with both men that led to them spending long periods of time sitting on the bench.
04:05It was somewhat apt, then, that both of their AEW runs came to an end on the same night,
04:11and against one another in their lone AEW singles meeting.
04:15At the World's End 2023 pay-per-view, Miro and Andrade slugged it out for 15 solid minutes,
04:22as the Redeemer had his hand raised following game over.
04:257. Matt Hardy vs. Christian and Matt Hardy vs. Christian Cage
04:30Matt Hardy and Christian have wrestled one another on countless occasions,
04:36mostly in tag team matches also involving Jeff Hardy and Edge, or in other multi-man bouts.
04:41As far as televised singles matches between V1 and Captain Charisma,
04:46their first one took place on the August 20th, 2001 episode of Raw,
04:50with Matt retaining his European Championship in less than three minutes.
04:55Amazingly, they only had one more televised singles match in WWE,
04:59which, again, took place on Raw on the December 1st, 2003 episode.
05:04And once again, Matt Hardy got the Duke,
05:07beating Christian in around six and a half minutes in a match where Matt's then IRL girlfriend Lita
05:12accompanied the CLB to ringside.
05:15A few house show matches here and there were the only other singles matches between the two
05:19before they joined AEW.
05:22In 2022, Christian Cage beat Hardy in two televised matches on the July 14th,
05:27and then August 3rd episodes of Dynamite.
05:30Both matches were pretty average,
05:32but it was nice to see the TLC legends run it back more than two decades after they first started feuding.
05:396. Chris Jericho vs. Samoa Joe
05:43Once upon a time, say circa 2005,
05:47Samoa Joe vs. Chris Jericho would have been looked at as a certifiable dream match.
05:52And had Y2J went to TNA during his break between WWE runs,
05:57it most certainly would have happened.
05:59Alas, fans had to wait until 2017,
06:02by which point the Samoan submission machine had made the move to WWE
06:06for it to finally transpire.
06:09Their first singles match on the March 6th episode of Raw was,
06:12regrettably, a colossal disappointment,
06:15as it ended with Joe winning via countout in just three minutes.
06:20The next time they were put together on the April 17th Raw,
06:23they were able to give a much better account of themselves,
06:26having a decent nine-minute scrap that ended with Joe going over.
06:30Fast forward more than seven years,
06:32and Joe and Jericho were both members of the AEW roster.
06:35On the July 10th, 2024 episode of Dynamite,
06:39they met in a stampede street fight.
06:41A so-so brawl, stuffed with shenanigans and plentiful interference,
06:45it ended with Jericho hoisting Joe up with a forklift
06:48and putting him through a wall.
06:50This not only let Jericho get a big win,
06:52but it also wrote Joe off TV for a while,
06:55and it served as the final test
06:57for Le Champion's forklift driver's certification course.
06:59Number 5, Edge vs. Christian and Adam Copeland vs. Christian Cage
07:05Best friends from a young age,
07:07Jay Riso and Adam Copeland knew that they both wanted to become professional wrestlers
07:12when they grew up and had the dream of winning the WWE tag team titles together.
07:17They did all that and then some,
07:19solidifying themselves as one of the best tag teams in history.
07:22But both before and after their tag triumphs,
07:25Riso and Copeland fought against each other.
07:27The two initially feuded with one another
07:29when Christian turned on edge during the Invasion storyline in 2001,
07:34fighting over the Intercontinental Championship on TV and pay-per-view,
07:37which included a ladder match at No Mercy and a cage match at Rebellion.
07:42Amazingly, their next significant singles match
07:45came on the May 17, 2010 episode of Raw,
07:49the Canadian besties serving up a compelling match for the Toronto crowd.
07:53And it was also in Canada, Montreal to be exact,
07:55that they had their next major singles match,
07:58more than 13 years later on Dynamite.
08:02The cage-Copeland feud over the AEW TNT title was really, really strong stuff,
08:08with their No Disqualification blinder at World's End being the pick of the matches,
08:12the I Quit match sitting not too terribly far behind it.
08:164. Stardust vs. Goldust and Cody Rhodes vs. Dustin Rhodes
08:21The transformation of Cody Rhodes into Stardust represented a real low point in the American
08:26Nightmare's career, as the talented second generation star saw himself drift into mid-card
08:31obscurity with a gimmick he was never fully comfortable doing.
08:35But hey, if nothing else, at least he got to team with Big Brother Dustin, aka Goldust,
08:40leading to a dream match between the siblings, right?
08:42Well, the mooted dream match ended up being far from it,
08:46as Dusty's kids were lumped on the Fastlane 2015 undercard after a very weak build.
08:52And any chance of a rematch at WrestleMania 31 flew out the window
08:56after the Stardust and Goldust match stunk the joint out.
09:00The creation of AEW offered Cody and Dustin the opportunity to redeem themselves as themselves,
09:05as they were booked in one of the marquee matches at AEW's first ever show,
09:09double-and-nothing 2019. And boy oh boy did they ever redeem themselves,
09:16putting on a 5-star instant classic that was fuelled by emotion and damn well stole the show
09:21with what remains one of the best matches in AEW history.
09:253. Rusev vs. Daniel Bryan and Miro vs. Bryan Danielson
09:30As mentioned earlier, Miro's AEW run may have been a disappointment that ended on a sour note,
09:35but you can't accuse God's favourite champion of not putting his working boots on for some big
09:41matches. Perhaps the best bout of his AEW run came, unsurprisingly, against Bryan Danielson.
09:47Competing in the final of the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament at Full Gear 2021,
09:53the American Dragon and the Bulgarian Brutes slugged it out in their bid to earn a future shot
09:58at the gold. It was a stiff 20-minute battle that ended when Danielson forced Miro to pass out
10:04on the guillotine choke, but just three and a half years prior, it was a different story.
10:09On the only other occasion the two men clashed in singles action,
10:13Rusev beat Daniel Bryan in the main event of the May 18th, 2018 episode of SmackDown.
10:19In something of a surprising finish, Rusev got the clean win after hitting D-Bry with a matchka
10:24kick in order to qualify for the men's money in the bank match.
10:28Finally, something to celebrate on Rusev Day!
10:31Number 2, Isaiah Scott vs. Tony Nese and Swerve Strickland vs. Tony Nese
10:37Given the massive star he's become in Tony Khan's promotion, it's easy to forget that Swerve
10:43Strickland ever wrestled for WWE. Hit row member Isaiah Swerve Scott only ever worked one match
10:50on SmackDown, having spent most of his WWE run competing on NXT and 205 Live.
10:55The Cruiserweight only show might have felt like an ultimately pointless endeavour, but
11:00it did play host to some under-the-radar bangers, such as the match between Isaiah and Tony Nese
11:05on the June 26th, 2020 episode.
11:08Familiar with each other from the indies, and having recently had a short match together
11:12on NXT TV, Scott and Nese put on a doozy, ending when Swerve hit a big stomp after Nese
11:19attempted to bring in a steel chair.
11:21Perhaps TK was impressed by the match's quality too, as he picked Nese to be Strickland's
11:25opponent for Swerve's in-ring AEW debut in the main event of the March 11th, 2022 episode
11:31of Rampage. Strickland picked up the win, making a strong first impression with his
11:35ring work as he did so, as Nese continued to demonstrate his pawnshot for making his
11:40opponents look good.
11:42And number 1, CM Punk vs. Dean Ambrose and CM Punk vs. Jon Moxley
11:47CM Punk and Dean Ambrose were linked from the beginning of the Lunatic Fringe's WWE
11:53career, with The Shield interfering in the main event of Survivor Series 2012 and helping
11:58the straight-edge superstar retain his WWE title.
12:01A year later, Punk was at odds with the Hounds of Justice, leading to a series of singles
12:06and multi-man matches against Rollins, Reigns, and Ambrose.
12:09Having previously clashed on an FCW Live event in 2011, Punk and Ambrose went one-on-one
12:15on back-to-back episodes of SmackDown and Raw in December of 2013.
12:20Punk won both, with the Raw effort being the longer, superior match.
12:25The next time their paths would cross in singles, it would be in much more unusual circumstances,
12:30as interim AEW champion Jon Moxley squashed injured AEW champion Punk to unify the titles
12:37on the August 24th, 2022 edition of Dynamite.
12:40Controversy followed them to All Out a couple of weeks later, where Punk regained the gold
12:45in an excellent match that was nonetheless wholly overshadowed by his rant during the post-show
12:51press conference, which was also followed by the infamous backstage brawl with The Elite.
12:56It might not have been as memorable as a very tired, very angry man scoffing muffins and
13:01burying his enemies, but the match was still pretty damn good.
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