The Motor City Machine Guns have secured a shot at the AEW World Tag Team Championships after defeating FTR 3-2 in a best-of-five series that concluded on the November 11, 2026 episode of AEW Dynamite. The show was part of a special three-hour Dynamite and Collision go-home broadcast for Full Gear 2026, taped from West Valley City, Utah.
Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin defeated Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler in the fifth and deciding match of the series, with the Machine Guns reportedly pulling off the win with only seconds remaining on the clock. The victory capped a series that had been tied at two wins apiece heading into the finale, making the last match the true decider of the contenders’ race.
According to Fightful, AEW announced before the deciding match that the winning team would go on to challenge for the AEW World Tag Team Championships following Full Gear. That stipulation raised the stakes considerably for what was already a tightly contested series between two of the most decorated tag teams in professional wrestling, giving the final match direct championship implications rather than simply bragging rights.
The best-of-five format between the Motor City Machine Guns and FTR had played out across multiple weeks of AEW programming, with each team trading victories before the series reached its 2-2 deadlock. With the title shot on the line, the November 11 main event carried the added weight of determining the next challengers for the AEW World Tag Team Championships in the direct aftermath of Full Gear 2026.
Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin, who make up the Motor City Machine Guns, now move forward with a confirmed opportunity at tag team gold once the Full Gear pay-per-view concludes. Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler, wrestling as FTR, came up just short in the decisive match despite the series being level entering the final bout. No further details on the specific timing or opponent confirmation for the Machine Guns’ upcoming title challenge were included in the available reporting.
The result closes out an extended program between two teams built around a mutual respect for tag team wrestling fundamentals, with the Machine Guns earning their place as the next contenders through a series that was decided in the closing seconds of its final match.
