Clockwork Carnage, the match type Will Ospreay created, will decide the AEW World Championship at WrestleDream on October 17.
Tony Schiavone announced the stipulation during Saturday’s AEW Collision, and the broadcast presented it as Ospreay approaching Tony Khan about bringing the concept to AEW. WrestleDream takes place at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Florida, and airs live on pay-per-view at 8 PM ET on HBO Max.
The match has two stages. Two randomly selected wrestlers start, and another randomly selected competitor enters every three minutes until all eight are in. Anyone pinned or forced to submit before the last entrant arrives is eliminated, so the field can thin out early.
When the eighth wrestler enters, everyone still in the match moves into a 15-minute scoring period. Each pinfall or submission in that window counts as one fall, and the wrestler with the most falls when time expires wins the match and the title. The rules AEW released do not address a tie.
Ospreay introduced the concept at EVE last month. The first Clockwork Carnage match took place Friday at EVE Global Thunder Queens Attack, where Kay Lee Ray won and chose EVE Champion Kris Statlander as her title opponent.
What it means for the title
Because the winner is decided by fall count rather than a single pin, the title can change hands without the champion being pinned at all. AEW has not announced the other seven participants. Ospreay would defend against them after retaining over Jon Moxley at AEW All Out.
He has another defense before then. Ospreay faces Kazuchika Okada on Tuesday, October 6 at Grand Slam France in Paris, so the title has to survive Paris before it gets to Orlando.
