American Top Team (professional wrestling)
| American Top Team | |
|---|---|
| Stable | |
| Members | Dan Lambert (leader) Jorge Masvidal Junior Dos Santos Andrei Arlovski Paige VanZant Austin Vanderford Dalton Rosa Ethan Page Scorpio Sky |
| Name(s) | American Top Team |
| Debut | July 7, 2021 |
| Years active | 2021–present |
American Top Team is a professional wrestling stable. The stable is currently performing in All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The stable is lead by Dan Lambert, and is also composed of Jorge Masvidal, Junior Dos Santos, Andrei Arlovski, Paige VanZant, Ethan Page, Scorpio Sky, Austin Vanderford, and Dalton Rosa. The team's gimmick is based on each member's legitimate MMA background.
History
Formation
On July 7, 2021 at AEW Road Rager, Lambert, along with Jorge Masvidal and Amanda Nunes were at the crowd, and were interviewed by Tony Schiavone, during which Lambert went on a tirade about the fans, whom Lambert referred to as "marks", and expressed his disappointment in the current AEW roster, and of professional wrestling overall, until he was attacked by Lance Archer. At Fyter Fest, Lambert appeared once again in AEW programming, running down AEW for not being as good as wrestling was in his youth. In the following months, Lambert was joined by Junior Dos Santos and Masvidal in his tirades against AEW, and they would ally themselves with the Men of the Year (Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky), continuing to deride AEW and its fans.
On the September 15 episode of AEW Dynamite, American Top Team, now joined by Paige VanZant, Kayla Harrison, and Andrei Arlovski, were confronted by The Inner Circle's Chris Jericho and Jake Hager. Citing his own shoot fights in locker rooms over the years as well as Hager's undefeated record in Bellator MMA, Jericho challenged Page and Sky to a match, which Lambert accepted on their behalf, and it was scheduled for AEW Rampage: Grand Slam on September 24, in which Page and Sky emerged victorious after American Top Team interfered in the match.[1]
On the October 6 edition of Dynamite, it was announced that Dos Santos would be making his professional wrestling debut on the October 15 edition of Rampage, teaming with Sky and Page to take on Jake Hager, Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara in a trios match, in which Dos Santos and Men of the Year emerged victorious after interference from VanZant and Masvidal[2][3]
References
- ^ Hiergesell, Dan (September 24, 2021). "Video: Jorge Masvidal destroys Chris Jericho with flying knee during AEW show". MMA Mania. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
- ^ Alexander K. Lee (October 7, 2021). "Video: Junior dos Santos gets physical with champion in AEW segment, set for pro wrestling debut next week". MMAFighting.com. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
- ^ "AEW Rampage Results for October 15, 2021". 16 October 2021.