The calendar keeps slipping away towards All Elite Wrestling's return to Wembley Stadium on August 25th, just eleven days from now, but there is still plenty more fighting to be done before we head across the pond! That continues tonight when AEW returns to Norfolk, VA and the Chartway Arena for a huge night of competition! After going through a rough night Saturday against Tomohiro Ishii, AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland will be in action against Blackpool Combat Club's Wheeler Yuta as he tries to use Bryan Danielson's ally to send a message before their title fight at ALL IN: LONDON 2024.
We will also see The Young Bucks finally defend the AEW World Tag Team Championship against #1 Contenders The Acclaimed nearly two months after Anthony Bowens and Max Caster earned their shot, and TBS Champion Mercedes Moné will put her title on the line against 3-Time AEW Women's World Champion Hikaru Shida! Plus, after the backstage altercation between Hangman Page and Jeff Jarrett last week on DYNAMITE, Jay Lethal steps up to his friend's defense as he takes on the former AEW World Champion in their first-ever match under the AEW banner, and we will see Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada go face-to-face with the man who will challenge him in Cardiff next Wednesday: Claudio Castagnoli!
DYNAMITE launches at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TBS, so make a point to visit the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as our assorted social media platforms, to catch up on the highlights from recent episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, as well as a special look at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024, RJ City and Tomohiro Ishii together, and more!
Then on Saturday, All Elite Wrestling returns to the Esports Stadium in Arlington for the final event of the PATH TO ALL IN: SUMMER SERIES before heading oversees for DYNAMITE in Cardiff, the ALL IN: LONDON CELEBRATION on the 24th, and ALL IN: LONDON 2024 on August 25th!
Singles Bout...
AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland vs. Wheeler Yuta
Last week, after watching Bryan Danielson go to war with Jeff Jarrett in their Anything Goes brawl, a fight that began with “The Last Outlaw” cracking Danielson over the skull with his signature guitar and only got more violent from there, AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland made his way to the ring and informed Bryan that he was going to have to sit ringside in Norfolk to watch as he took down Wheeler Yuta. Swerve's delivery of the entire announcement was as dismissive as could be towards Yuta, the World Champion only locking eyes with Bryan as opposed to the man he was electing to fight as a “warm-up” for ALL IN: LONDON 2024, and only engaging in Yuta at the end when he tossed the microphone at the 3-Time ROH Pure Champion.
All things considered, Yuta took it in stride and did his talking in the ring last Friday night during RAMPAGE when he took on Rocky Romero in singles competition and defeated the world-traveled, multi-time champion. Perhaps Swerve saw something in Yuta that night that raised his eyebrows, something that made him a bit concerned about the DYNAMITE fight he laid out, because Swerve chose to travel to Arlington, TX for COLLISION and chose to lay out an Open Challenge Eliminator Match.
It may have been ego, it may have been a need to respond to Yuta's in-ring message with one of his own, but it's highly unlikely he anticipated “The Stone Pitbull” Tomohiro Ishii to be the man answering the call to action. A 6-Time NEVER Openweight Champion, a 3-Time NEVER Openweight Six-Man Champion, and 2-Time RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Champion, Ishii proved one of the toughest fights Swerve has had since becoming champion at DYNASTY 2024, and that's saying quite a bit considering the level of competition he's faced the last four months.
Swerve survived the twelve-minute war, successfully turning away Ishii's Eliminator challenge to deny him a future World Title fight, but the World Champion absolutely paid a physical price for even laying out that Open Challenge. Yet tonight Swerve will be back in the ring with a man who he absolutely underestimated one week ago, whether purposefully to gain a psychological edge on the BCC member, through an arrogance of his own championship status, or perhaps by making the mistake of looking at Yuta as Blackpool Combat Club's young boy. He isn't the kid carrying luggage, making chanko for the other BCC members, doing their wash, and hoping for a chance to get in the ring; Yuta is a 3-Time ROH Pure Champion because of how good he is inside the squared circle, he's a member of Blackpool Combat Club because he's capable of training with Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Bryan Danielson, three of the unquestionable best professional wrestlers of their generation. He is in the BCC because he's a sponge, soaking up all the knowledge those three individuals have to offer, applying it to his own style, and there's a reason Bryan Danielson has bequeathed the Cattle Mutilation to the man.
Yuta is the sum of the BCC's parts, he is the iron being sharpened, the blade being honed on the BCC whetstone, and Swerve Strickland needs to recognize this fact before he steps into the ring tonight on DYNAMITE. The AEW World Champion may have laid this match at the feet of Yuta and Danielson thinking it was a chip shot on his way to Wembley, but for his sake he better have realized it's the 18th hole at The Belfry...
TBS Championship Match...
“The CEO” Mercedes Moné vs. Hikaru Shida
A year ago Hikaru Shida walked into Wembley Stadium as the defending AEW Women's World Champion, having defeated Toni Storm twenty-five days earlier to begin her second reign, but unfortunately for her, she left the ring watching Saraya hoist the title overhead as the new champion of the division.
Since that day Shida has reclaimed the title from Saraya, defeating her forty-four days later on DYNAMITE, only to see her third reign end at “Timeless” Toni Storm's hand just thirty-nine days later at FULL GEAR 2023. Since that night, Shida has fought to get back to championship status, fighting ROH Women's World Champion “The Fallen Goddess” Athena at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024 back in April to no avail, then entering the 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Women's Tournament to earn an AEW Women's World Title shot at Wembley Stadium only to be eliminated in the semifinals by eventual winner Mariah May. Now, after falling to Dr. Britt Baker at DYNAMITE: BLOOD & GUTS 2024, Shida is scrambling to make sure she has a place at Wembley Stadium in less than two weeks, and that is why she issued this challenge to TBS Champion Mercedes Moné for tonight's edition of DYNAMITE!
This is likely Shida's last chance to earn herself a spot at ALL IN: LONDON 2024, but to get that opportunity she needs to beat the red-hot TBS Champion and her muscle-at-ringside “The Brickhouse” Kamilla. If Hikaru Shida can accomplish that feat, she will become the first woman to have held both the AEW Women's World Championship and the TBS Championship, thereby squashing the Good Doctor's aspirations of being the first to achieve that feat if she achieves victory at Wembley Stadium. As highly-anticipated as the “CEO versus DMD” clash is to the AEW faithful, it also feels apropos that Shida and Baker would face off at ALL IN: LONDON 2024 given theirs is a rivalry that's endured since the first year of All Elite Wrestling. It's hard to argue that there are two other women who've been more crucial in shaping the face of the Women's Division to this point, but we are talking about the future of said division, and Mercedes aims to steer that ship for quite some time. Can Shida earn her spot at the Wembley table with a victory here, or will “The CEO” make the trip to London for a date with D.M.D?
AEW World Tag Team Championship Match...
The Young Bucks (Matthew & Nicholas Jackson)(c) vs.
The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster)
Two months ago The Acclaimed beat The Young Bucks in an Eliminator match to earn a shot at the AEW World Tag Team Titles that the brothers Jackson have held since DYNASTY 115 days ago. In the nearly four months since Matthew and Nicholas won the Ladder Match over FTR to become 3-Time champions, thanks to “Scapegoat” Jack Perry it should be noted, they have abused their EVP powers to defend the belts exactly zero times and have actually only fought in two tag team matches that entire time including the loss to The Acclaimed. They've avoided showing their face on television since losing at Blood & Guts, something the entire Elite is actually guilty of but at least TNT Champion Jack Perry has appeared in video packages ahead of his ALL IN: LONDON 2024 bout with Darby Allin, yet that all changes tonight at the Chartway Arena when The Young Bucks are finally forced to give The Acclaimed what they earned!
It's been nearly four years since the last time these two teams faced off in a tag team contest, way back on December 17th of 2020, but that was in the infancy of Anthony Bowens and Max Caster working as a tag team. At that point the two men had nine matches under their belt, having won eight consecutive bouts to earn a shot their first shot at the AEW World Tag Titles that night in Jacksonville, but Matthew and Nicholas prevailed. It would take two more years, and challenges against Lucha Brothers, Jurassic Express, and Swerve In Our Glory, before The Acclaimed finally captured the title at the 2022 edition DYNAMITE: GRAND SLAM.
Their reign lasted 140 days before The Gunns dethroned them on February 8th of 2023, and in the nearly eighteen months since, Bowens and Caster's only other challenge to reclaim the titles took place at REVOLUTION 2023in San Francisco. They focused on Trios competition with Daddy Ass, claiming those titles from House of Black last year at ALL IN: LONDON 2023, and holding them for a record 238 days. They got embroiled in issues with the Bang Bang Gang, actually put some trust in Jay White's ilk and called themselves the Bang Bang Scissor Gang for a brief time, but as all that imploded, as the Trios Titles fell out of reach, they found a new calling, a new focus: standing up for All Elite Wrestling.
Once again, their paths circles back to The Young Bucks and the AEW World Tag Titles, only now we are in a situation where The EVPs have chosen, over the course of 2024, to actually apply the EVP powers they never cared about before, but instead of doing so for the betterment of AEW, they're only doing it to better themselves, to protect themselves. As shown, they've ducked actually fighting to keep their belts, they've avoided being seen on-screen since losing Blood & Guts, they've avoided doing anything that requires them to step up and be the teams they were five years ago when this all started, even three years ago when they were acting like complete clowns but at least fighting inside the squared circle.
Now they have no choice, tonight The Young Bucks will be in the ring, they will put the AEW World Tag Titles on the line, and The Acclaimed will finally get what they earned. When the dust clears from this one, the eyes of the winning team will likely turn towards Wembley Stadium, but they may find the eyes of FTR meeting them...
One-On-One...
Jay Lethal vs. “Hangman” Adam Page
July 1, 2017, NJPW G1 SPECIAL IN USA, the first round of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Title Tournament, that was the last time Hangman Page and Jay Lethal met in a one-on-one contest, and both have been through it in life over the last seven years. Be it professionally or in their personal life, each man has undergone a great deal of change, but it all ultimately brought them both to All Elite Wrestling. Adam Page was a founding father, a man who has been here since the first announcement was made regarding AEW, and who, over the last five years, has been AEW World Champion, AEW World Tag Team Champion, and even claimed the ROH World Six-Man Titles for a second time alongside The Young Bucks. That's a great deal of triumph, but with it came the tragedy of losing his entire support system, eventually regaining that friendship with Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, then losing it all again as a result of the brothers Jackson abuse of power. The only reason he agreed to their terms of coming back was to get at Swerve Strickland via the Owen Hart Foundation Men's Tournament, and when that failed he only agreed to help them at Blood & Guts in order to get his hands on Swerve there.
And here is where the tie binding Hangman and Jay Lethal tonight comes into the picture; see while Hangman has lost all his friends, Lethal's circle has only gotten stronger through adversity, and even expanded with the addition of Satnam Singh to their contingent. Sonjay Dutt, Jeff Jarrett, Karen Jarrett, those three individuals have been at Lethal's side for quite some time now on-screen, but off-screen it has been even longer that they've been there for each other through the trials and tribulations of life. Sonjay and Lethal go back to the earliest days of their wrestling careers, Jeff and Jay not nearly as long, but it's still a bond whose life existed long before they came together in All Elite Wrestling.
So when Hangman decided that Jeff Jarrett was a deserved target of his frustrations at failing to get to Swerve, of course Jay Lethal was going to step up to his friend's defense and call out the former AEW World Champion for this fight tonight! The history books show Lethal is 3-1 against Adam Page in singles matches since their first clash at ROH's CAGED HOSTILITY event twelve years ago, and in fact Lethal was on the four-man team that defeated The Elite in their final ROH match back in December of 2018. History is in favor of Lethal, but in the present he is dealing with a Hangman who is quite unhinged and may care more about inflicting pain on Lethal than actually winning the match. It's a good thing that Jay has the one thing Hangman does not if just such a situation breaks down, the support of friends, including that “Last Outlaw” Jeff Jarrett that Page feels has gotten in his way...
Who Wants To Be #1?
Kyle O'Reilly vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Roderick Strong
In AEW's Casino Battle Royale situation, being the first man in the ring is not a boon to winning the contest, in fact it could be looked at as a huge drawback because a competitor has to survive not only the other four individuals in the group they entered the ring with, but also sixteen more competitors vying for a victory. Yet in the Casino Gauntlet Match introduced earlier this year, being number one or two is the most advantageous position a fighter can draw because that match can end at any time, regardless of if there are two people in the ring or ten. That's why Orange Cassidy, Kyle O'Reilly, and Roderick Strong will fight tonight on DYNAMITE to see who can pull the number one spot for the ALL IN: LONDON 2024 Casino Gauntlet Match! At Wembley the competitors will be fighting for a future World Title shot, but tonight it's all about earning the right to be the first man out to the ring on August 25th and hopefully increasing the chance of winning that title opportunity.
With all the history between Roddy and Kyle dating back more than a decade, with the newly discovered bond between Kyle and OC that laid the foundation for a Conglomeration, and with the International Championship history between OC and Roderick Strong, this is going to be quite the heated dynamic. Will Strong continue to try and sway O'Reilly to his side of the fight against Orange Cassidy, or has Roddy finally given up that ghost and accepted Kyle isn't coming to The Undisputed Kingdom?
Face-To-Face...
Blackpool Combat Club member Claudio Castagnoli earned himself a Continental Championship match eleven days ago on COLLISON when he bested Tomohiro Ishii and ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty in a Three Way #1 Contender bout. After being frustrated in multiple contender's situations since the FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 Casino Gauntlet back in May, Castagnoli finally secured a championship opportunity, and against a wrestler many regard as the best of this generation, Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada.
Now Claudio has a bit of experience in the ring with Okada, he, Jon Moxley, and Shota Umino were defeated by Okada, Ishii, and Hiroshi Tanahashi at last year's NJPW DOMINION event on June 4th, but he and Bryan Danielson were able to defeat Okada and Orange Cassidy in a DYNAMITE tag last October ahead of WRESTLEDREAM 2023. Yet as odd as it seems to say, that was a very different “Rainmaker”, that was a fighting man who wanted to mix it up with the best wrestlers in the world, as opposed to this Elite version of Okada who has chosen to hide behind the EVP powers of his long-time buddies in The Young Bucks, and follow their example of being an avoidant champion rather than a fighting one.
So choice has been removed, Okada will fight Claudio for the Continental Championship next week in Cardiff, and tonight he will have to show up on television ahead of that title bout when he meets Castagnoli face-to-face! The thought of Claudio Castagnoli versus Kazuchika Okada is a wrestling fan's dream, but will we get “The Rainmaker” who earned the love and respect of fans around the world, or this Elite iteration who has milked a staple gun to the finger for weeks since Blood & Guts?
LOOK FOR THE SIGNAL...
After his return to the AEW stage last week, 2-Time FTW Champion HOOK will be in the house tonight on DYNAMITE and he is sure to have words for Chris Jericho, Big Bill, and Bryan Keith after what “The Learning Tree” and his branches have done over the last few months to “The Cold Hearted Handsome Devil”, Katsuyori Shibata, and Samoa Joe! Then again, knowing HOOK, it may not be words he's got in mind for Jericho and more like fists...
PLUS:
AEW is back at the Chartway Arena in Norfolk for DYNAMITE featuring the TBS Championship and the AEW World Tag Team Championship titles at stake, AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland in action against Wheeler Yuta, and Hangman Page fighting Jay Lethal. Plus Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada will meet his next challenger, Claudio Castagnoli, face-to-face and three men willl battle it out for the #1 Spot in the ALL IN: LONDON 2024 Casino Gauntlet bout! AEW's flagship begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TBS, so check out the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as our other social media platforms, to watch highlights from recent episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, as well catch a special look at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 with Rocky Romero!
From there All Elite Wrestling returns to Arlington and the Esports Stadium on Saturday for our final event on the PATH TO ALL IN: SUMMER SERIES! Then it's ALL IN: LONDON 2024 week as we head to the United Kingdom for DYNAMITE in Cardiff on the 21st, the ALL IN: LONDON CELEBRATION at Boxpark Wembley on the 24th, and culminating on August 25th with ALL IN: LONDON 2024 from Wembley Stadium!