After watching two titles change hands at Grand Slam – three if you count the vacant World Championship – AEW is immediately putting the straps on the line once more with not one but two championship matches scheduled for the fallout edition of Dynamite coming to fans live from the “Home of Extreme,” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Ring of Honor World Championship will be on the line mere miles away from where the first-ever ROH event was held on the campus of Temple University, and on the very same card, AEW's barbed wire-wielding champion will look to eliminate the chances of a fellow former IWGP United States Champion earning a World Title shot of his own in Tony Khan's company.

And yet, when the names Juice Robinson and Bandido flashed across the screen on Dynamite and Rampage, some folks took to Twitter to ask versions of the same two questions: 1. who are Robinson and Bandido, and 2. why are they getting title shots?

Fortunately, in 2022, the professional wrestling world is the smallest it's ever been, so it's not too hard to familiarize yourself with the duo before they make their Dynamite debuts.

Get to know AEW challengers Juice Robinson and Bandido

3. Juice Robinson is looking to re-establish himself as a solo star

Juice Robinson has been wrestling professionally since 2008, when he started wrestling for indie promotions like IWA, AAW, and the NWA. Though these early performances drew the interest of WWE, who signed him to a developmental deal and gave him the in ring name CJ Parker, the Illinois-born performer's tenure was largely underwhelming, with his 143 matches, according to Cagematch, failing to capture the hearts of NXT fans.

After asking for, and being granted his release, Robinson worked the indies before becoming a fixture of NJPW, where he wrestled both as a solo performer and in the tag team FinJuice with David Finlay, who once wrestled “Hangman” Adam Page on Dynamite in the leadup to Forbidden Door. Robinson won the IWGP United States Championship twice in 2018 and 2019, won the IWGP Tag Team Championships with Finlay, and even won the Impact Wrestling World Tag Team Champion as part of NJPW's invasion of the Jeff Jarrett-founded promotion.

Since the unofficial split of FinJuice, Robinson has joined the Bullett Club, won the IWGP United States Championship again, though he had the title stripped because he had appendicitis, and even wrestled the seventh match of his career against Moxley at NJPW Strong's Capitol Collision, where he won the US strap in a four-way match that also featured Will Ospreay and then-champion Hiroshi Tanahashi. After failing to wrestle Moxley solo for the IWGP Unites States Championship when either performer had the belt, why not enter the Forbidden Door to see who is the better performer in 2022, especially since Robinson's wife, Toni Storm, is also a champion in TK's company.

https://youtu.be/grRE-EVXJjs?t=9065

2. Bandido is the Most Wanted Luchador on the indies

Though Chris Jericho is the current Ring of Honor champion, his first challenger, Bandido, has far more experience with the strap.

The luchador star officially became a fixture of American professional wrestling in 2018, when he joined Ring of Honor on a full-time basis and began making appearances at Los Angeles-based promotion Pro Wrestling Guerilla. He is a two-time Ring Of Honor champion who won the ROH World Six Man Championship with Rey Horus and Flamita under the MexiSuad banner in 2020 and then took the ROH World Championship off of AEW regular Rush to become the final fighting World Champion of the Sinclair Broadcasting era of the company before Jonathan Gresham won the interim title at Final Battle 2021.

Bandido has wrestled in matches for the ROH World Championship on six occasions, winning five of them, and has since gone on to challenge for belts in West Coast Pro, PWG, Prestige, Lucha Libre AAA, Impact, Ibg Lucha, and MLW. Though he may no longer be the hottest in-demand free agent in the game – as there was once a time when AEW, ROH, and WWE all desperately wanted his services (more on that here) – Bandido is still one of the best performers in the game and may ultimately re-spark a bidding war for his services in the not-too-distant future.

1. Juice Robinson is a self-declared free agent

Though he was announced as a representative of NJPW and Gedo, the promotion's head booker, took a picture with Moxley and Khan in Philadelphia before the fallout edition of Dynamite post-Grand Slam, Robinson contests that claim. Speaking with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Finlay's former partner boldly declared himself a free agent.

“I’m no longer representing New Japan, and I want that to be clear,” Robinson declared. “I carried that New Japan flag for seven years. I’ve got no unfinished business there. I sang that song and I danced that dance, and we’ve gone our separate ways. That’s in the rearview mirror. I’m totally free right now. I’ll fight whoever, wherever and whenever I want as long as it’s the right match against the right opponent on the right night of the week. Dynamite is the hottest show, and I’m wrestling their champ on the hottest night of the week in wrestling. This is the biggest match of my career, and I’m ready for it.”

Could Robinson parlay a big eliminator win into a full-on championship match with Jon Moxley and potentially a full-time contract in AEW? Or will Robinson fall like so many others who challenged Mox before him and return to NJPW, Strong or proper, with his tail between his legs? Only time will tell, but his SI interview certainly adds an interesting wrinkle to the match's storyline.