Jim Ross joins the announce team for this one, which feels fitting. All three men head to the center of the ring when the bell rings, with Swerve Strickland and Hangman Adam Page staring each other down until both get beaten up by Samoa Joe.
The champ does his walking away spot on Swerve, which gets the fans to pop. Joe hits a tope suicida on Strickland and quickly turns to prevent Hangman from doing the same to him. Joe lights up some chops until the challengers can send him to the outside.
Page delivers a fallaway slam, but Swerve is up quickly to hammer him with a high boot and corner stomps. Strickland hits the Griddy as he’s put Page down, then makes sure Joe stays down on the floor and has time to dance again.
Swerve is back in with a dropkick to Page, but it’s only good for one. Joe re-enters the fray and battles it out with Strickland before nailing Page with a running knee shot. A vicious powerbomb forces Hangman to kick out at two, so the champ transitions right into an STF. Swerve breaks that hold as he flies back in.
Strickland slugs it out with Joe, which might be a mistake. They end up atop the top rope together, though Swerve falls all the way to the floor after a headbutt. Swerve returns with thoughts of powerbombing Joe, then gets help from Hangman to pull off the move.
Page peppers Strickland with right hands, drawing only laughs from Strickland. A slick counter has Strickland looking for a pin that is broken up by Joe.
The champ blunders into a kick to the head out on the floor, but Strickland is caught by Page going back into the ring. They counter each other several times until Page moonsaults into a tombstone, forcing Joe to hustle to break that up as well.
A high boot smacks Joe back down to the mat, leaving Page to hunt a Deadeye on Strickland … who counters with a powerbomb that leads to a flurry of offense ending with a vertical suplex. For the third time, Joe needs to break up a pinfall attempt.
Hard chops from the champ drop Strickland, and Joe sets his sights on a Muscle Buster to Hangman. That’s in target, but Strickland immediately hits Joe with a Swerve Stomp. A House Call also finds the mark on Joe, but Swerve is occupied with Hangman.
The House Call hits Page in the back of the head, but he kicks out at 2 1/2. Now it’s Joe and Swerve left to battle amidst themselves, and Strickland hits a big DDT out of the corner. There’s a 450 splash onto Joe’s back, though Swerve can’t cover. So he goes up top again, hitting the Swerve Stomp. It looks like the end until Page hauls the ref out to the floor.
Hangman grabs the title belt and annihilates Strickland with it. He yells down at Swerve on the floor, saying “you will never have this,” then returns to the ring for a Buckshot on Joe … then another. He covers but realizes that there’s no ref. A second ref arrives to count but gets to only two.
Joe sees a third Buckshot coming and drops back into the Coquina Clutch. Swerve is up too and hits a sky twister press to break up the pin.
Prince Nana tries to give his boss a weapon to win but he shakes it off. Swerve might win it anyway, but Hangman pummels a second ref to keep the match going. An angry Swerve is beating on both of his opponents until Page drops him with a clothesline and Joe does the same to Hangman.
A Buckshot floors Joe, and Strickland does the same to Page. A JML Driver smashes Page, but Joe chucks Strickland out of the way and chokes out Hangman until he taps out, with original referee Paul Turner crawling back in to see the submission.
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