AEW kicks off year with NC shows, as Charlotte wrestler celebrates 10 with tag-team partner
Professional wrestling has enjoyed a renaissance recently, with more companies competing for viewers, more hours of television during the week, more sellout events, a bigger international presence, and buzz that rivals the late ’90s.
From homegrown promotions like Charlotte’s black-owned ASÉ Wrestling (which launches its own episodic series on YouTube Jan. 9) to WWE Raw’s Jan. 6 debut on Netflix, the New Year promises big changes in how fans can view pro wrestling. And then there’s All Elite Wrestling.
AEW kicks it all off with “AEW Dynamite: Fight for the Fallen,” to be simultaneously broadcast on TBS and MAX live from Asheville on Wednesday, Jan. 1, with proceeds from the charity event benefiting Hurricane Helene victims. That’s followed by a Saturday, Jan. 4 episode of “AEW Collision” live from Bojangles’ Coliseum in Charlotte.
It’s not yet certain which wrestlers will appear at the events. But this is: The New Year also will represent a milestone for two of AEW’s biggest stars, with 2025 marking a decade since current tag-team champions Private Party made their debut. The duo of Charlotte resident Isiah Kassidy, 27, and Brooklyn-based Marq Quen, 30, has spent half that time as original AEW wrestlers, having signed with the promotion when it launched five years ago.
So, winning the titles from the three-time champions/promotion co-founders The Young Bucks in October was a long time coming.
“It solidified everything we’d been through,” said Kassidy, also an NYC native, who moved to Charlotte because he fell in love with the city after AEW debuted here in November 2019. “All the setbacks and trial and error. It made everything we’d been through since the first time I stepped into a training ring worth it.”
One of those aforementioned setbacks included a torn pectoral muscle that required surgery and kept Quen out of the ring and off television for more a year. He returned in January 2024, and Private Party slowly made its way back into the title picture.
Defeating The Young Bucks — after they’d held the title for six months, on the Halloween episode of “Dynamite” — was a bit of a surprise for Private Party as well as fans, because title changes are often reserved for pay-per-view events. While Kassidy said he’d prefer to have won in front of a near-hometown crowd at November’s “Full Gear” pay-per-view event in Newark, N.J., Quen enjoyed the unexpectedness of the mid-week win.
“I liked that it was on ‘Dynamite,’ because it makes it must-see TV,” Quen said.
Instead, Private Party found itself at Full Gear putting its new title on the line while facing three teams at once (including one of its toughest opponents, House of Black) and came out on top.
“I feel like that should count as three title defenses,” Quen said, describing the match as “brutal.” “It’s hard to keep up with who’s legal and what’s happening when you’re off checking on your partner. You also have to have trust not just in your own partner, but in the other teams. If another team doesn’t kick out, you’ve lost your title.”
Now that they’re on top, Kassidy sees their reign as a reset for the tag division.
“We’re the leaders of the tag division and I want to do a fresh restart,” Kassidy said. “(AEW) had the throne for the best tag-team division (in the industry), but I think it’s been forgotten about.”
Next up, Private Party will face the newly formed team of young guns Lio Rush and Action Andretti.
The date of the 2025 match has yet to be set, but they’re already starting to handicap it. “We’re usually the smaller guys,” said Quen, who weighs in at about 180 pounds, same as Kassidy. “Compared to Action and Lio, we’re the bigger guys. I usually like working with a bigger opponent. With this one, maybe it’s us that slows them down. We might have to change it up.”
All things being equal, despite Rush and Andretti’s inexperience as a team, Quen is taking the threat seriously. “They actually beat Top Flight, which makes them credible,” Quen said.
He pauses, before adding — with a laugh: “Hopefully, they screw up.”
AEW in action — live, and on TV
In Asheville: 7:30 p.m. New Year’s Day at Harrah’s Cherokee Center, 87 Haywood St. Tickets are $27.80-$183.10 at www.ticketmaster.com.
In Charlotte: 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Bojangles Coliseum, 2700 E. Independence Blvd. Tickets are $36.40-$254.30 at www.ticketmaster.com.
On TV: “AEW Dynamite: Fight for the Fallen” on TBS and Max at 8 p.m. on New Year’s Day; “AEW Collision: Charlotte” on TNT and Max at 8 p.m. Saturday.