# AEW New Year's Smash

AEW New Year's Smash is a professional wrestling television special produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Established by the promotion in 2021, the event is held annually around New Year's. The original January 2021 event aired as two back-to-back special episodes of AEW's flagship program, Wednesday Night Dynamite, while the second event, which aired in December 2021, occurred during the same week, first as an episode of Dynamite, then as a special episode of Friday Night Rampage, with the events in 2022 and 2023 retaining this format. The 2024 event reduced it to Rampage due to Dynamite airing as a different special that week.
The Dynamite broadcast for the second event was notable for being the final Dynamite to air on TNT before the show moved to TNT's sister channel TBS; Rampage remained on TNT. The 2024 event was notable as it was the final episode of Rampage due to the program's cancellation.

## History

On the December 9, 2020, episode of Wednesday Night Dynamite, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) announced that the December 30, 2020, and January 6, 2021, episodes would be a two-part event titled "New Year's Smash". However, on December 28, it was announced that the event had been postponed to January 6 and 13, 2021, due to the death of AEW wrestler Brodie Lee, with the December 30 episode instead being held as a memorial event for Lee. Night 1 of New Year's Smash aired live on January 6, while Night 2 was taped on January 7 and aired on tape delay on January 13.
On the November 19, 2021, episode of AEW's secondary program, Friday Night Rampage (which began airing in August), AEW announced New Year's Smash would return as the December 29 episode of Dynamite (the final episode of Dynamite on TNT before its move to TBS) and the New Year's Eve episode of Rampage. Dynamite aired live while Rampage aired on tape delay on December 31. This in turn established New Year's Smash as AEW's New Year's event, with the 2022 and 2023 events retaining the Dynamite and Rampage broadcast format. The 2024 event reduced it to just Rampage due to Dynamite airing as a different special that week. It was also the final episode of Rampage as the program was not included in AEW's media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery that took effect on January 1, 2025.

## Events

| # | Event | Date | City | Venue | Main Event |
| 1 | New Year's Smash (January 2021) | Night 1: Dynamite – January 6, 2021 | Jacksonville, Florida | Daily's Place | Kenny Omega (c) vs. Rey Fénix for the AEW World Championship |
| 1 | New Year's Smash (January 2021) | Night 2: Dynamite – January 7, 2021 (aired January 13) | Jacksonville, Florida | Daily's Place | Darby Allin (c) vs. Brian Cage for the AEW TNT Championship |
| 2 | New Year's Smash (December 2021) | Night 1: Dynamite – December 29, 2021 | Jacksonville, Florida | Daily's Place | Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, and Kyle O'Reilly vs. Best Friends (Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor, and Trent Beretta) |
| 2 | New Year's Smash (December 2021) | Night 2: Rampage – December 29, 2021 (aired December 31) | Jacksonville, Florida | Daily's Place | Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Ethan Page for the AEW TNT Championship |
| 3 | New Year's Smash (2022) | Night 1: Dynamite – December 28, 2022 | 1stBank Center | Broomfield, Colorado | Samoa Joe (c) vs. Wardlow for the AEW TNT Championship |
| 3 | New Year's Smash (2022) | Night 2: Rampage – December 28, 2022 (aired December 30) | 1stBank Center | Broomfield, Colorado | Swerve Strickland vs. Wheeler Yuta |
| 4 | New Year's Smash (2023) | Night 1: Dynamite – December 27, 2023 | Addition Financial Arena | Orlando, Florida | MJF (c) vs The Devil's Masked Men in a 2-on-1 Handicap match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship |
| 4 | New Year's Smash (2023) | Night 2: Rampage – December 27, 2023 (aired December 29) | Addition Financial Arena | Orlando, Florida | Orange Cassidy, Trent Beretta, and Rocky Romero vs. Top Flight (Darius Martin and Dante Martin) and Action Andretti |
| 5 | New Year's Smash (2024) | Rampage: December 22, 2024 (aired December 27) | Hammerstein Ballroom | New York City, New York | Hook vs. Nick Wayne |
| (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match |||||||