All Elite Wrestling is on the path to ALL IN: LONDON 2024 and our next stop on that journey brings DYNAMITE to Winston-Salem, NC and the LJVM Coliseum! Each night is a huge one as we get closer to Wembley, and this one is no different, especially given that “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson will go one-on-one with “The Last Outlaw” Jeff Jarrett in an Anything Goes Match! In addition, after standing up for his best friend Will Ospreay, “The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher will go one-on-one with AEW American Champion MJF in an Eliminator match, and “Bad Seed” Bryan Keith aims to make Katsuyori Shibata respect Chris Jericho when they go one-on-one tonight!
The action begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TBS, and fans can head over to the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as our other social media platforms, to catch up on the highlights from recent episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION!
After DYNAMITE, All Elite Wrestling heads back to Arlington and the Esports Stadium for Saturday night COLLISION featuring Thunder Rosa and Deonna Purrazzo clashing in a Texas Bullrope Match and with two Sunday sessions of ROH ON HONOR CLUB!
ELIMINATOR MATCH...
AEW American Champion MJF vs. “The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher
MJF doesn't know this feeling of friendship, not really; he thought he did with Adam Cole but that ruse perpetrated by the former multi-time World Champion is why the fans of AEW are suffering with who Maxwell Jacob Friedman has become today. He thought he had a friend, a confidant, a “brochacho”, when in reality he was just being manipulated the same way he'd done to countless individuals throughout his wrestling career. He got a taste of his own medicine from Adam Cole, and now everyone else has to suffer the consequences because it's not like Maxwell would ever sit back and do the work to figure out why Cole did him like that.
It's far easier to say the fans turned their backs on him when they embraced Will Ospreay, despite them still chanting “he's our scumbag” up until the moment he assaulted Daniel Garcia, than it is to admit to himself (or to the fans) that karma came back around, and it was time for the tiger to genuinely try to change his stripes. Far easier to say “I'm a jerk, deal with it” than to say “I'm a jerk, can I change it?” and far easier to insure you're never hurt again (at least not by outside forces) by consciously choosing to be as reprehensible as possible.
MJF won't ever have to worry about having a person in his life like Kyle Fletcher, a man who is willing to step in the line of fire to protect his friend, and to do so regardless of what the other voices in the room are saying. The former ROH World Television knows Don Callis doesn't want him involved in Ospreay's business anymore, but Fletcher is willing to disregard Callis' requests because he is a true friend to Will Ospreay, he is invested in their relationship in a deeper way than his involvement with The DCF, and it seems that is just something Callis has to accept if he wants Fletcher to remain in the Callis Family.
Yes there is a boon to taking this match with MJF since it has now become an Eliminator contest, the possibility of earning a shot at the...American...Championship, but Fletcher challenged MJF to the fight before that stipulation was tacked on by Max himself. Perhaps MJF was feeling especially confident after defeating Templario at CMLL's SUPER VIERNES event on August 2nd at Arena Mexico, or perhaps MJF just thinks so little of Kyle Fletcher that he can't foresee that possibility of Fletcher earning himself a title fight. Whatever Max's motivations were for adding the Eliminator stipulation, he best hope it doesn't turn around and bite him on the backside...
ANYTHING GOES...
“The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs. “The Last Outlaw” Jeff Jarrett
Speaking of adding stipulations to a match, here we have an already intriguing match between “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson and “The Last Outlaw” Jeff Jarrett turned into an Anything Goes match by Jarrett himself! At virtually any other time in Jarrett's career it would be perfectly logical to question if this was just a way to put Bryan in a situation where Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, Satnam Singh, or his wife Karen could interfere to their heart's desire, that's what we saw when Jeff fought Eddie Kingston in a Memphis Street Fight last October, but in the shadow of the 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Tournament it seems Jarrett has rediscovered his moral center.
There seems a genuine desire to do things the right way, with honor and integrity as opposed to using his contingent to sway the odds in Jeff's favor, but beyond that he has demonstrated an interest in seeing that the individual who actually won the Men's Tournament fully give himself over to what that victory means. Upon hearing the words Bryan Danielson spoke to Renee Paquette, Jeff made a point to give Danielson a piece of his mind, to let him know what being the winner of The Owen means, and that only committing half of himself to the task Bryan earned at Wembley was essentially an insult to everyone who believes in “The American Dragon”.
Jeff's words struck a chord with the former multi-time World Champion, a competitor many consider the greatest professional wrestler of his generation (if not all-time), as was evident with the words he shared last week on DYNAMITE and the self-imposed stipulation he added to his ALL IN: LONDON 2024 World Championship fight with Swerve Strickland. It's the World Championship or it's his career; not the transition to a part-time schedule as Bryan stated were his intentions last year, but rather calling it quits in the middle of Wembley Stadium on August 25th if he doesn't defeat Swerve Strickland to earn the title he's been chasing since he's ALL OUT 2021 arrival in All Elite Wrestling.
Beyond the words shared with the fans last week, beyond the ones exchanged with the AEW World Champion, there was also the challenge laid out to Jeff by Bryan just moments later. Yet just as Bryan raised the stakes on his ALL IN: LONDON 2024 fight, Jeff raised the stakes on this fight with his Anything Goes addition, and now the ball is in Danielson's court to show “The Last Outlaw” just how all in he is while AEW's special guest, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, watches from ringside! Last time we saw Steamboat around town he served as Guest Timekeeper for Sting's final match at REVOLUTION 2024; what will we from “The Dragon” this time when he visits AEW ?
ONE-ON-ONE...
“Bad Seed” Bryan Keith vs. Katsuyori Shibata
“Bad Seed” Bryan Keith has made it his mission in All Elite Wrestling to see that everyone gives FTW Champion Chris Jericho the respect Keith feels Jericho is due. Be it other competitors, announcers, fans, this branch of “The Learning Tree” is here to insure they give Jericho his due no matter what. Well in this case that means stepping between Katsuyori Shibata, the man whose arm he helped injure and put on the shelf for several weeks, and the FTW Champion.
Shibata's desire to even the score is clear, even with the 3-1 advantage Jericho's ilk has over the former ROH Pure Champion at this time, but no disadvantage is going to stop Shibata from coming to put Keith down for the count, or from taking his shots at Big Bill and the FTW Champion if either choose to insert themselves into the bout. Bryan Keith better be watching his tapes and coming up with a strong game plan for fighting “The Wrestler”, or he's going to learn quite quickly how Shibata earned that nickname!
ONE-ON-ONE...
“The Glamour” Mariah May vs. Viva Van
Last week “The Glamour” Mariah May sat down with Renee Paquette, quite reluctantly it felt, and discussed her violent attack on AEW Women's World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm. Mariah delivered her words in such a cold, calculated manner, it's hard to believe there was ever any real care for Toni regardless of what Mariah claims to have felt, to still feel.
We also saw Toni Storm have something of a breakdown on the stage, striking herself in the head with the heel that Mariah used on her weeks ago, while screaming for all the world to hear. As unsettling as it was to see Toni initially transform into “Timeless” when she lost the AEW Women's World Championship, this has been far scarier to see unfold, but the woman who will be in action tonight on DYNAMITE has seemingly gotten what she wanted when she first hit Toni across the skull with the Owen Hart Foundation Women's Tournament belt.
Will we see “Timeless” Toni Storm make her presence known tonight when Mariah May takes on the tough Viva Van in singles competition? Given how erratic and unpredictable the Women's World Champion is right now, anything is plausible!
DYNAMITE gets underway at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TBS, and the best way to get prepped for the actino is to visit the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as our assorted social media platforms, to watch highlights from recent editions of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION! Following DYNAMITE, All Elite Wrestling returns to Arlington's Esports Stadium for a live COLLISION where Thunder Rosa will fight Deonna Purrazzo in a Texas Bullrope Match on Saturday night, and then Sunday we present two sessions of ROH ON HONOR CLUB for the ROH faithful!