After a brutal back-and-forth battle on "AEW Dynamite," Tommaso Ciampa is still AEW National Champion after defeating "Speedball" Mike Bailey. After the match, Ciampa went face-to-face with Ilja Dragunov, and it was revealed the pair will go one-on-one for the title at AEW Full Gear.The pair kicked off the match with hard strikes, and Bailey took out Ciampa with a skytwister to the outside. Ciampa hit a draping DDT to his challenger, knocking him out of the ring, where he sent Bailey's head crashing into the ring steps with a knee, splitting him open.Ciampa targeted the wound with hard elbow strikes, then bit Bailey while he was hung up on the middle rope. Bailey battled back to his feet with chops and forearms, but the champion was right back on him. Ciampa looked for the Air Raid Crash from the top, and Bailey countered, but Ciampa was able to hit it from the ring apron.The champion hit a Project Ciampa that Bailey barely kicked out of. He dropped the knee pad and looked for the strike, but Bailey collapsed to avoid it. Bailey hit the moonsault knee drop, followed by a thrust kick, but Ciampa was ready for him and swept his legs, sending the back of Bailey's head crashing into the turnbuckle. Bailey was able to hit the knees again on the apron. He got Ciampa hung up in the corner, but the champion battled back by biting Bailey's toes.Ciampa kicked out of the Ultimo Weapon and Bailey kicked out of an avalanche Project Ciampa off the second rope, then the knee strike. Ciampa hit a second knee strike for the victory. As he was celebrating, the lights went out, then came up red to bring out Dragunov, who pointed to the tron to challenge the National Champion to a Full Gear match.
