AEW Dynamite Preview for March 31, 2021

One week ago DYNAMITE offered up another stellar event capped off with an excellent TNT Title match between Darby Allin and John Silver that was marred only by Matt Hardy's actions in the aftermath. The Hardy Family Office has made The Dark Order their target as a result of what happened between Matt and Adam Page, and it turned the closing moments of DYNAMITE into a wild brawl.

On top of that, Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D took the deserved praised for her bloody brawl with Thunder Rosa and threw it in the face of everyone who offered it. Kenny Omega defeated Matt Sydal in a World Title Eliminator Match only to find himself laid out by The Lucha Brothers and Laredo Kid later in the night. Of course it should be noted that moment followed The Young Bucks rebuking the AEW World Champion's efforts to bring them to his side.

Adam Page put down the massive Cezar Bononi, Tay Conti finally overcame Nyla Rose only to be assaulted by the sore loser, and The Pinnacle had an impressive in-ring debut! This week continues the trend of tremendous edition of DYNAMITE with Christian Cage's first AEW match, an exciting Six-Man contest, an intriguing Exhibition Bout, a Women's Tag Team Grudge Match, and more!

It's all new and it goes down at 8pm EST/7pm CST on TNT, or on AEWPlus.com for our International fans! And be sure to head to the official AEW YouTube (Watch Here) page to catch DARK: ELEVATION, DARK, WRESTLING WITH THE WEEK, and all our other video content to get that full Elite experience!

REVANCHE...

AEW World Champion Kenny Omega & The Good Brothers (Anderson & Gallows)

vs.

The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix) and Laredo Kid

As Omega stated in his diatribe in the video above, last week was a twist on a familiar scenario. It was a throwback to the original FYTER FEST of 2019, but instead of Omega standing side-by-side with his Elite brethren as he did back then, it was Brandon Cutler who stepped up to help his life long friends against The Lucha Brothers and Laredo Kid. Unlike that June evening almost two years back, The Young Bucks and Cutler came up on the losing end of things, and Omega made sure to rub that point in after the bout last Wednesday.

If Kenny's goal was truly to “bring the band back together” he certainly did not accomplish that with his verbal tirade, instead the only thing he accomplished was getting laid out by Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fenix after Matt and Nick walked out on the champion.

That bring us to this week and Kenny's version on the FYTER FEST 2019 theme with the World Champion taking on new partners for this six-man tag. It will be Omega, Anderson, and Gallows squaring up with Penta, Fenix, and Laredo Kid this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE! Omega is quite familiar with all three of his foes, he recently beat Fenix in an AEW World Title Match as well as took the AAA Mega Championship from Rey in October 2019, and that latter championship Kenny also successfully defended against Laredo Kid back in December. As for Penta, he also fell to Omega last year in the Men's World Title Eliminator Tournament, and none of that is looking at the multiple tag team and multi-man encounters in which Omega has faced off with his foes here.

As for The Good Brothers well those two have something in common with their opponents, all are are utterly unfamiliar with one another. Save for the one bout at DYNAMITE: BEACH BREAK where Omega, Anderson, and Gallows defeated Jon Moxley, PAC, and Rey Fenix, there has been no competition between The Good Brothers and these luchadores. That changes on Wednesday night when the two heavy hitters join Kenny in battle once again to face the unpredictable offense of The Lucha Brothers and Laredo Kid!

With The Good Brothers backing him up, will the AEW World Champion garner a measure of revenge for his humiliation last week on DYNAMITE? Or will we see this trio continue the winning ways they demonstrated against The Young Bucks and Brandon Cutler?

THE WORK BEGINS...

Christian Cage vs. Frankie Kazarian

At REVOLUTION 2021, Christian Cage emerged onto the All Elite Wrestling stage as the tremendous surprise teased earlier in the week by Paul Wight. Without word, he signed his contract in the middle of the ring and officially became a member of the roster.

Cage made his intentions within AEW clear as crystal when he stepped into the ring opposite Kenny Omega, and very nearly drove the champ's skull into the mat, something only avoided thanks to the timely intervention of Don Callis. Christian Cage, as with likely every man on the AEW roster, has aspirations to become the World Champion and Omega is certainly very aware of that fact now.

Another man very aware of that is one Frankie Kazarian, and although SCU has been focused on tag team work as of late with their 8-0 record in 2021, Kaz is quite capable of flying solo. That was powerfully indicated by his victory over Danny Limelight on Monday night's AEW DARK: ELEVATION, a victory mind you that Christian Cage kept a close eye on, as he strolled out to the stage following the match and applauding his soon-to-be foe for the victory.

Regardless of those adulations, clearly from their little face-to-face captured in the video embedded above, Kazarian has an issue with the hyping of Christian Cage's arrival in AEW that apparently stems from Frankie's standing as a day one member of the roster. Now these two competitors, as they each discussed, are quite familiar, having been on both the opposite and same sides multiple times in their IMPACT Wrestling tenures. They were even tag team foes twenty years ago in the now defunct UPW promotion in California, but their most recent of encounters were over a decade ago and clearly neither is the same animal.

Christian Cage has not seen active competition since March 24th of 2014 when he was forced to step away from wrestling to heal a body worn down from twenty years of grinding. This is a man who helped revitalize tag team wrestling, and innovated the Ladder Match for tag team competitors, before going on to great championship successes as a singles competitors. Christian Cage is a man lauded by peers for his in-ring acumen, hailed as one of the best of his generation, and now, with some time to allow his body to heal, looks to be in the best physical condition of his life. He is a wrestler who has always had the desire to be the best, who gave every once of his being to become one of the greats, and now he stands in AEW with a hunger to renew that hunt to cement his status.

Frankie Kazarian has not had that recovery time like Christian Cage, a fact he made sure to point out when he interrupted the man's conversation with The Varsity Blonds and Dante Martin, and the sixty matches he's had in AEW thus far are testament to how much work he has put in since the inception.

Now Kaz wants make an example out of Christian Cage by scoring the biggest singles victory of his AEW career, and proving a point as to just who the wrestling world should be focusing on here. In Frankie's eyes, he has been putting in the work non-stop, not just from the moment AEW opened up shop, but since the very first time he laced up his boots twenty-two years ago.

Come Wednesday night, the world shall see just who outworks who in this one-on-one contest!

ARCADE ANARCHY...

Chuck Taylor & Orange Cassidy vs. “The Best Man” Miro & Kip Sabian (w/ Penelope Ford)

This is it; after months and months of antagonizing each other, it all comes to a head this Wednesday when Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy go to battle with Miro and Kip Sabian in what's being billed as ARCADE ANARCHY!

This whole rivalry started when Trent (Watch Here) accidentally demolished a game cabinet Miro gifted to Penelope Ford and Kip Sabian for an engagement present. That simple accident has since led to Trent being put on the shelf by Miro for the foreseeable future, saw Chuck indentured to The Best Man as his butler for several weeks, and ultimately he and OC ruining the grand Ford/Sabian wedding during DYNAMITE: BEACH BREAK.

Then, heading into REVOLUTION 2021, OC and Chuckie T actually challenged Miro and Kip to a match with a “Circle Yes or No” note like it was an ask to the fifth grade dance! Poking the bear is certainly standard operating procedure for Orange and Chuck, but unfortunately for them it did not pay off at the pay-per-view as Miro would snag the win for his team. Now Penelope did end up getting sacrificed in the process, something that did not exactly sit well with Kip, but for Miro a win is a win and you take it however it comes. “The Best Man” is pretty transparent that what happens inside the ring with he and Kip is not reflective of their friendship outside of it...

Despite this little tension, or perhaps because of it, Miro and Kip continue to function as a tremendous tag team. After DARK this Tuesday, they've racked up a solid 5-0 record in their time together but this time the situation is a little different than your standard tag team affair...

What kind of chaos will unfold with these four men, and Penelope Ford, when the ring is surrounded by video game machines? Can Orange and Trent finally conquer this mountain that no one has been able to climb since Miro made his AEW debut? We already witnessed how unhinged Miro is on AEW DARK: ELEVATION when he and Kip assaulted their DYNAMITE foes after Miro launched into an incoherent verbal tirade in which he seemingly said he wanted to crack open Chuck and Orange's skulls and drink their blood!

Miro is utterly maniacal heading into this Arcade Anarchy, and you best tune into TNT on Wednesday night to watch how it all plays out!

MJF'S GIFT...

Last week, The Pinnacle made an impactful debut at the expense of The Varsity Blonds and Dante Martin before delivering the speeches in the video embedded above. This is not a unit interested in a Dinner Debonair or Mimosa Mayhem matches, this is a group of men looking to dominate All Elite Wrestling by doing what they all believe they do best: wrestling. Whether it be The Inner Circle, Jurassic Express, The Young Buck, or anyone else up and down the roster, these six individuals aim to run the show.

But that's not what this week on DYNAMITE is seemingly about for Maxwell Jacob Friedman, this week it is about presenting Cash Wheeler, Dax Harwood, Shawn Spears, Tully Blanchard, and Wardlow with some sort of gift. What that gift may be is anyone's guess, but a look at history shows that MJF took the whole of The Inner Circle to Las Vegas for the weekend. That could not have been a cheap venture, and considering that was all done as part of Max's long con to disintegrate The Inner Circle, it is quite intriguing to think of what he may gift this group he is actually invested in building up rather than tearing down.

SPECIAL EXHIBITION MATCH...

“The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes vs. QT Marshall

***Special Guest Referee: Arn Anderson***

Clearly QT Marshall is bristling at his current place in life, specifically within The Nightmare Family, and it seems to all stem from the ever-present shadow of “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes. Cody brought QT into All Elite Wrestling, something they delved into together back in October 2019 when Marshall was featured on “UNDESIREABLE TO UNDENIABLE” (Watch Here). Since the time that was filmed, the life of QT has only gotten busier as he's taken on producing TV, training students at The Nightmare Factory, working alongside Dustin Rhodes as The Natural Nightmares, and even serving as a manager to talent like Lee Johnson, Nick Camoroto, and others in The Nightmare Family. Suffice to say he had a lot on his plate and a great deal of it went on in places the camera did not see. For every minute QT spent working in front of the people, there are fifty-nine of them working behind the scenes to insure the bread gets made.

So it is perhaps understandable that QT is looking for some acknowledgment of the work he puts in, of just how much of a driving force he is for the shape of All Elite Wrestling each and every week. If anyone doubts it and thinks it's just baseless hyperbole QT is throwing out, even AEW GM Tony Khan publicly acknowledged the work:

Yet even with that recognition from TK, Marshall has issues at clearly deep-seeded. Even looking back to the end of last year, when he seconded Lee Johnson (Watch Here) to the ring for a match with The Dark Order's Stu Grayson, QT has appeared unsettled in The Nightmare Family. It really came to a forefront during the Casino Tag Team Royale at REVOLUTION 2021 when he abandoned Dustin Rhodes in the middle of the fray. QT hasn't exactly been there in times of need for the Nightmare Family either, running just a little behind everyone else, but he swears that all is good in the big picture even after that PPV incident with Dustin and the last several tense weeks.

Speaking of Dustin, in spite of what happened at REVOLUTION 2021, he tweeted in support of his Natural Nightmares partner...

...and QT successfully teamed with Lee Johnson on this week's DARK: ELEVATION. Looking at those things, there is not some huge fracture in The Nightmare Family but there is something rotten in that state, and whether it is just QT's desire to step beyond the shadow of Cody Rhodes and be acknowledged as his own man or something more, we shall find out this week on DYNAMITE!

TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH...

AEW Women's World Champion Hikaru Shida & Tay Conti

vs.

The Bunny (w/ Matt Hardy) & “The Native Beast” Nyla Rose (w/ Vickie Guerrero)

The issues between Nyla Rose and Hikaru Shida have raged on-and-off for nearly a year, since before Shida defeated “The Native Beast” for the AEW Women's World Title at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2020. They have pulled in other women such as Dr. Britt Baker, Kris Statlander, Penelope Ford, as well as Thunder Rosa, and have led to Rose getting one championship rematch at FULL GEAR 2020 in which she was unsuccessful in reclaiming the title.

That has not stopped Nyla and Vickie Guerrero from perpetually making their presence felt not just in Shida's life, but in the life of almost everyone in the AEW Women's division. Just look at the aftermath of the World Title Match at REVOLUTION 2021 between Shida and Ryo Mizunami; Rose, Baker, and Maki Itoh all hit the ring to attack the participants and it was only the arrival of Thunder Rosa that evened the odds.

This past Wednesday on DYNAMITE, as can be seen in the video embedded above, it was the longest reigning champion in All Elite Wrestling who had to insert herself into Rose's life this time. Humiliated after losing to Tay Conti, the former champ began to assault the judo black belt which brought out Hikaru Shida to counteract the sneak attack.

Then something rather unexpected happened, The Bunny hit the ring to target the Women's Champion and, through the voice of Big Money Matt Hardy, declared that the Women's World Title Eliminator was a sham because it did not include The Bunny. It had only been 24 hours since The Bunny had returned to active competition with a victory over Jazmin Allure on AEW DARK, her first bout since September 4th, and Hardy laid the blame for that at the feet of AEW overlooking her, The Butcher, and The Blade.

Clearly that would be the case no more as The Bunny and Nyla would, in the words of Excalibur, “lay waste to Tay Conti and Hikaru Shida”. Bunny inserted herself back into the Women's division with a vengeance, and this week on DYNAMITE she takes her first official stab at the heart of the roster in a tag team affair with Rose as her partner.

Conti and Shida will unite in opposition to Bunny/Rose, and the pair got in their first reps as a team Monday night on DARK: ELEVATION with a victory over Jazmin Allure and Tesha Price. Although they will be facing another nascent team in Nyla and The Bunny, it is a pair with a great deal of experience individually and a ravenous hunger to take away that which Hikaru Shida has fought so hard to hold onto for over 310 days.

Which pair will make their territory this Wednesday night on TNT?

THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY...

Jon Moxley vs. Cezar Bononi

Monday night on AEW DARK: ELEVATION, Bill Collier was the individual who got to feel the rage and pain of Jon Moxley. He was on the receiving end of all the pent-up aggression that the former AEW World Champion had to offer after the beating inflicted upon him and Eddie Kingston the other week on DYNAMITE. Collier put up his best fight, but the man who stands as the longest reigning holder of that title put Bill down for the count. This Wednesday night another man will step up to the plate, and it is certainly a tall order for Mox.

Last week, between AEW DARK and DYNAMITE, Cezar Bononi had two tremendous fights that showed what the massive man has to offer inside the squared circle. The former was a victorious bout against John Skyler while the latter was a not so successful head-to-head with “Hangman” Adam Page. Each one served as demonstration of the skills Bononi brings to bear, and even in defeat on DYNAMITE last week, he impressed enough to earn another spot this week:

Any individual who gets in the path of Moxley as he barrels towards Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers is in for a world of hurt, but when that individual is as impressive a physical specimen as Cezar Bononi, Jon is no doubt in for his favorite pastime: a fight!

Wednesday night on TNT, an all-new DYNAMITE is coming at you fast starting at 8pm EST/7pm CST or on AEWPlus.com for our International audience! With a marvelous six man tag pitting the AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers against The Lucha Bros & Laredo Kid, Cody versus QT, Moxley in action, and a highly combustible women's tag, we are loaded up for another unforgettable Wednesday night!

And don't forget to check out AEW DARK: ELEVATION, AEW DARK, in addition to the DYNAMITE Pre- and Post-Game shows available exclusively on the AEW YouTube Channel!

Also, be sure to grab your tickets to join us on April 7th for the next LIVE edition of DYNAMITE, as well as April 9th for our very first non-televised event! Check out the information below for all the details!