The AEW World Championship will be defended in an eight-man ‘Clockwork Carnage’ match at WrestleDream on October 17.
Tony Schiavone announced the stipulation during Saturday’s Collision, with AEW subsequently posting the match rules on social media.
Clockwork Carnage is divided into two distinct stages.
Two of the eight wrestlers are selected at random to begin the match. Another randomly selected competitor then enters every three minutes until the entire field has entered.
During this first stage, a wrestler is eliminated if they are pinned or submitted. That means it is possible for fewer than eight competitors to remain by the time the final entrant arrives.
Once the eighth wrestler has entered, the elimination portion ends and a 15-minute scoring period begins.
From that point, competitors are no longer eliminated by pinfall or submission. Instead, every pinfall or submission earns one fall, with wrestlers able to score multiple times during the 15 minutes.
When time expires, the wrestler with the most falls will win the match and the AEW World Championship.
No participants beyond current champion Will Ospreay have been announced.
The concept originated with Pro Wrestling EVE, which credited Ospreay with devising the format.
EVE staged the first Clockwork Carnage match on Friday at its Global Thunder Queens Attack event in London. Kay Lee Ray won the match to earn a future EVE Championship opportunity, subsequently choosing EVE Champion Kris Statlander as her opponent.
Ospreay’s participation as champion is subject to him retaining the title next week. He is scheduled to defend against Kazuchika Okada at Grand Slam France on Tuesday in Paris.
Ospreay issued that challenge following his successful defense against Jon Moxley at All Out, with Tony Khan making the match official during the post-show press conference.
WrestleDream takes place Saturday, October 17 at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Florida.
