Weekend TV Guide: Owens challenges CM Punk in Toronto, TNA revives Lockdown, STARDOM 5STAR GP wraps up & more! – POST Wrestling

This weekend’s wrestling schedule features a world title showdown live and free on TV tonight from Toronto, TNA’s first Lockdown event in over 10 years, two tournament grand finals from Japan, ROH action from the world-famous 2300 Arena, and more. Here’s a rundown of all the notable wrestling taking place over the next three days, plus when and where to catch all the action.

Friday

ROH Death Before Dishonor / 7 p.m. ET / WatchROH.com

ROH will present its second special event of the year tonight, heading to the legendary 2300 Arena (also known as ECW Arena) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the 23rd annual Death Before Dishonor.

Bandido has put together some legendary performances as part of his run as ROH World Champion, and I have a feeling he could add to that list of memorable outings when he faces Nick Wayne in tonight’s main event. I wouldn’t expect 21-year-old Wayne to pull out the win here on Bandido, who has surpassed the year-mark as champ by this point, but I think we’re in for one of the bigger showings from the young up-and-comer tonight against the consistent luchador. If there’s only one match from tonight’s card to catch, that’s it.

Other highlights include: Forever ROH Women’s World Champion Athena will be in action against STARDOM’s Hazuki, Lee Moriarty will face short-notice opponent Katsuyori Shibata in a Pure Rules match, “Blackheart” Lio Rush and Action Andretti will bring the violence in a “Fight Without Honor,” and more. If you want to see some hectic action tonight, all you need is a subscription to WatchROH (or MyAEW, depending on the market you’re in).

• Mina Shirakawa & Queen Aminata vs. Viva Van & VertVixen (Pre-Show)
• Red Velvet vs. Marina Shafir vs. Skye Blue vs. Zayda Steel (ROH Women’s Worlds Television Championship)
• Lio Rush vs. Action Andretti (Fight Without Honor) (ROH World Television Championship)
• Deonna Purrazzo vs. Steph De Lander (ROH Women’s Pure Championship)
• Lee Moriarty vs. Katsuyori Shibata (ROH Pure Championship)
• Dalton Castle, Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd vs. Jay Lethal, Blake Christian & Lee Johnson (ROH World Six Man Tag Team Championships)
• Mascara Dorada & Mistico vs. Dante Martin & Darius Martin vs. Matt Taven & Mike Bennett vs. Sammy Guevara & The Beast Mortos (ROH World Tag Team Championships)
• Athena vs. Hazuki (ROH Women’s World Championship)
• Bandido vs. Nick Wayne (ROH World Championship)

WWE Friday Night Smackdown / 8 p.m. ET / USA Network

Kevin Owens has the chance to earn his first world title in nearly a decade tonight when he challenges Undisputed WWE Champion CM Punk. After a 17-month absence from WWE programming due to a neck injury – one that many feared would be career-ending – Owens made his triumphant return at Summerslam, winning a #1 contenders match.

Now, in his home country of Canada, wrestling inside the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Owens will look to end Punk’s reign and put a cap on one of the industry’s more impressive comeback stories as of late.

Part of me wants to see Owens get this moment, as he had to work hard and not give up hope to get into the position he’s currently in. But another part of me also wants to see Punk go further with this title run, a campaign he only started in July, and has only included one title appearance thus far. I’m conflicted. Either way, I think we could be in for a fun one tonight from Toronto.

Along with the world title showdown, it’s expected that Blake Monroe will make her long, long, long-awaited Smackdown debut against fellow STARDOM alum Giulia.

• Giulia vs. Blake Monroe
• CM Punk vs. Kevin Owens (Undisputed WWE Championship)

Saturday

AEW Collision / 8 p.m. ET / TNT

Before heading across the pond for next week’s All In festivities, AEW will present one more show stateside tomorrow night, airing a live edition of Collision from Reading, Pennsylvania. Tomorrow’s show will include the final quarter-final matchups in this year’s Continental Challenge Cup. Who will join Jon Moxley and Nigel McGuinness in the round of four?

Plus, we’ll see AEW Women’s World Champion Willow Nightingale defend her title against TBS champ Maya World. Can World completely destroy AEW’s All In women’s main event, snatching the title from Nightingale just a week before the show? Probably not. But it could be a fun match nonetheless.

• Claudio Castagnoli vs. Eddie Kingston (Continental Challenge Cup Quarter-Final)
• Orange Cassidy vs. Kyle O’Reilly (Continental Challenge Cup Quarter-Final)
• Willow Nightingale vs. Maya World (AEW Women’s World Championship)

TJPW Tokyo Princess Cup Finals / 10 p.m. ET / Wrestle Universe

We’ll have two prominent Joshi tournaments wrapping up within a matter of hours this weekend. First, Tokyo Joshi Pro’s annual Princess Cup will come to an end tomorrow evening with a show from Korakuen Hall. The lengthy single-elimination tournament is down to two names. Will it be International Princess Champion Suzume, who is searching for her first Cup win and hopes to gain double-champ status by earning the Princess of Princess title? Or will it be Rika Tatsumi, who has been left out of the Princess of Princess title picture since 2021, but could climb back into that spot by winning her first-ever Cup and getting a shot at the champ?

Either pick is a great one, I feel. Tatsumi is an established name who could provide a fun mix-up to the main title, and Suzume has proven ready to finally get elevated to that part of the booking as well.

• Shion Kanzaki vs. Momo Sato
• Sakura Hattori vs. Haru Kazashiro
• Hyper Misao, Mahiro Kiryu & Shino Suzuki vs. Yuki Aino, Raku & Pom Harajuku
• Yuki Kamifuku & Wakana Uehara vs. Sumire Natsu & Mifu Ashida
• HIMAWARI & Toga vs. Chika Nanase & Kira Summer
• Miu Watanabe, Arisu Endo & Ren Konatsu vs. Mizuki, Mei Suruga & Uta Takami
• Yuki Arai & Miyu Yamashita vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Shoko Nakajima
• Suzume vs. Rika Tatsumi (Tokyo Princess Cup 13 Finals)

Sunday

STARDOM 5Star Grand Prix Night 16 / 3:30 a.m. ET / Stagecrowd PPV

STARDOM’s marathon tournament, the 5STAR Grand Prix, will end on Sunday with a pay-per-view broadcast. After 16 nights, including block action and a single-elimination bracket, a new tournament winner will be crowned soon.

The semi-finals and finals of this year’s tournament will go down as part of Sunday’s show. One half of the bracket sees 19-year-old Rina (who many will recognize from recent AEW cameos) look to have the biggest night of her career thus far by possibly winning the tournament, attempting to get past 2024 GP winner Maika along the way.

The other side of the bracket includes defending World of STARDOM Champion Suzu Suzuki trying to repeat the success of her 2023 bracket run, meeting vet Starlight Kid in the semis. Starlight Kid has competed in seven different 5STAR GPs but never made it as far as the finals. Could that change this weekend?

There are a few intriguing matchups on Sunday’s card apart from the tourney. It’s worth highlighting that the soon-to-retire Natsupoi will appear in the co-main, wrestling against former tag partner Saori Anou.

• Maika vs. Rina (5STAR Grand Prix Semi-Final)
• Suzu Suzuki vs. Starlight Kid (5STAR Grand Prix Semi-Final)
• Yuna Mizumori & Anne Kanaya vs. Konami & Fukigen Death vs. Mei Seira & Emma Maishima vs. Koguma & Matoi Hamabe
• AZM, Miyu Amasaki, HANAKO, Maki Itoh & Waka Tsukiyama vs. Ami Sohrei, Hina, Lady C, Tomoka Inaba & Kiyota Kotatsu
• Rina Yamashita, Itsuki Aoki & Akira Kurogane vs. Tora Natsuko, Ruaka & Azusa Inaba
• Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara vs. Rian & Kikyo Furusawa (STARDOM NEW BLOOD Tag Team Championships)
• Hanan & Saya Iida vs. Saya Kamitani & Momo Watanabe
• Natsupoi vs. Saori Anou
• Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix Finals

TNA Lockdown / 6 p.m. ET / TNA+

This weekend will come to an end with TNA’s fourth Premium Live Event (PLE) of the year, Lockdown. From the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, Lockdown was a frequent part of TNA’s schedule. Every match on a Lockdown card took place in a cage, with some featuring different rulesets (Escape the Cage, Street Fight, or the famous Lethal Lockdown match were a few we’ve seen before).

After the event was retired for a decade, Lockdown will make its return this Sunday as part of a show from the Credit Union 1 Arena in Chicago, Illinois.

The main event will see TNA World Champion Nic Nemeth attempt to become a double champ, chasing the brand’s tag belts alongside brother Ryan. But standing in their way is one of the most prolific tag teams of the past three decades, The Hardys.

There’s a lot of stuff on this card that I’m so-so on. Here are some matches I think could be fun: Mustafa Ali’s rivalry with TNA International Champion Jason Hotch has been one of the strong points of Impact programming recently. Their first singles meeting a few weeks back was stellar, and I expect them to deliver another fun one when they meet in two days. I’m also looking forward to Leon Slater facing Cedric Alexander. They’ve battled three times by this point, but each encounter has been loads of fun. Weird “if Slater loses, his reign as X-Division champ gets erased from the history books” stipulation aside, that could be madness.

• Vincent & Dutch vs. BDE & Rich Swann (Pre-Show)
• Trey Miguel vs. Agent Zero (Pre-Show)
• Cedric Alexander vs. Leon Slater (Last Man Standing) (TNA X-Division Championship)
• Allie & ??? vs. Heather & M By Elegance (TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Championships)
• Jason Hotch vs. Mustafa Ali (TNA International Championship)
• Xia Brookside vs. Elayna Black (TNA Knockouts World Championship)
• Brian Myers, Bear Bronson, Eddie Edwards & Alisha Edwards vs. Fabian Aichner, Ricky Sosa, KC Navarro & Jada Stone (Lethal Lockdown)
• Elijah vs. AJ Francis (The Final Encore)
• Moose vs. Frankie Kazarian (Escape The Cage Match)
• Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy vs. Nic Nemeth & Ryan Nemeth (TNA World Tag Team Championships)