AEW Dynamite Preview for November 25, 2020

Betrayal, assault, and championship positioning; that is just some of what fans watched unfold last week on DYNAMITE. The contract signing between Moxley and Omega did not go down as planned, Will Hobbs aligning with Team Taz was certainly not part of the Cody/Darby plan, and neither was TH2 assaulting Top Flight after their breakout match with The Young Bucks.

In addition to the above, we watched The Inner Circle's adventures in Las Vegas play out before our eyes, witnessed PAC make his highly anticipated return to the ring after eight months, Miro clothesline Orange Cassidy's head off, Jade Cargill put a hurting on Brandi Rhodes backstage, plus Thunder Rosa and Serena Deeb compete in one exciting fight over the NWA World Women's Title.

This week, it will be the AEW Women's World Title showcased as The Dark Order's Anna Jay gets her first championship opportunity, the reunited Death Triangle in action, Will Hobbs in his first match wearing the colors of Team Taz, SCU and Inner Circle fighting for tag team rankings, and plenty more on tap!

It's going down at 8pm EST/7pm CST on TNT, or on AEWPlus.com for our International Audience, and kicks off on our official YouTube channel (Click Here) with the Pre-Game Show! And be sure to watch an action packed edition of AEW DARK on Tuesday night at 7pm, loaded up with debuts, The Waiting Room with Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D, Sammy vs. Marko, Matt Sydal vs. Five, TH2 competing, and loads of additional action!

AEW WOMEN'S WORLD TITLE MATCH...

Hikaru Shida (c) vs. (#5) The Dark Order's “Queen Slayer” Anna Jay

April Fool's Day, what a day to make your AEW debut, and on an international platform like DYNAMITE nonetheless. That is how Anna Jay made her first impression on the AEW faithful, debuting under the moniker of “The Star Of The Show”, and having to compete against the future AEW Women's World Champion Hikaru Shida.

Jay put up a fight but succumbed to Shida in just under five minutes, not a bad showing for a women in the first year of her career, but certainly not the kind of memory Anna wanted to leave fans with coming out of her first AEW bout. It would take a bit for Jay to get her feet under her, she'd drop her next two matches to Penelope Ford and Abadon respectively, and that came largely due to the influence of Mr. Brodie Lee and The Dark Order. After Jay was defeated by Abadon on June 17th, Lee and his ilk would extend the offer to “The Star of The Show” to swell their ranks, leading her to walk off with The Dark Order.

But it was not until the July 29th DYNAMITE that Jay would reemerge onto television, fully immersed as a member of The Dark Order, and even christened “99” to go along with the system of Mr. Brodie renaming his followers. Jay would taste her first successes within AEW as part of the Women's Tag Team Cup Tournament where, alongside best friend Tay Conti, she would defeat former Women's Champion Nyla Rose and Ariane Andrew in the Quarter-Finals before falling to eventual winners, Diamante and Ivelisse.

Back in the singles ranks following the tournament, the focus of Jay's career would zoom in on Brandi Rhodes in the aftermath of Mr. Brodie Lee dethroning Cody as TNT Champion on August 22nd. Anna would choke the CBO of AEW out, leaving her body laying alongside all the other members of The Nightmare Family, and that “Star Of The Show” moniker would be replaced with “The Queen Slayer”.

Jay would rattle off a pair of victories over Red Velvet and Skyler Moore, her first ones in singles ranks, before going head-to-head with Brandi on the September 22nd edition of LATE NIGHT DYNAMITE. With a little distraction from her Dark Order cohorts, Jay topped Rhodes on that night, but it has not been the end of the rivalry. Jay actually assaulted Brandi at the conclusion of John Silver's episode of the SHOT OF BRANDI YouTube Show. Anna would then added a fourth consecutive win to her resume on October 27th when she beat Katalina Perez on the October 27th AEW DARK episode.

Hikaru Shida, heading into this fight, is a few weeks removed from a very physical fight with Nyla Rose where the AEW Women's World Title was at stake. Shida successfully defended the championship for the fourth time that night at FULL GEAR 2020, and has been eagerly awaiting AEW officials to name her next challenger since that night.

While that tweet embedded directly above encapsulates the defending champions' initial thoughts on her challenger, this week on DYNAMITE, Shida will get to find out firsthand what Anna Jay has learned since their first meeting almost eight months ago. “The Queen Slayer” has gained ring time, has added training alongside Tay Conti to her routine, and the power of the group as a while must never be forgotten when stepping into the ring with any Dark Order member.

Anna Jay has won four straight while Shida, with ten straight wins, has not taken a fall since a tag team loss in June to Nyla and Penelope Ford. The momentum, the experience, the resume, it all tilts the favor of this title fight into the camp of the challenger, but Anna Jay has a handful of game changing factors on her side, factors with names like Stu Grayson, Evil Uno, Alex Reynolds, and John Silver.

TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH...

The Death Triangle (Pac & Rey Fenix w/ Penta El Zero Miedo) vs. The Butcher & The Blade (w/ The Bunny & Eddie Kingston)

It was a tremendous return for “The Bastard” PAC last week on DYNAMITE, picking up a hard-fought win over The Blade in singles competition, but it was dampened in rapid fashion by The Butcher, Eddie Kingston, and Blade once he recovered from the Black Arrow and Brutalizer submission.

The timely intervention of Rey Fenix slowed down the attack, but the addition of the one man to the fight was not enough to stem the tide and Fenix succumbed to the assault perpetrated by his former “family”. It was only the arrival of his brother, Penta El Zero Miedo, showing up with a chair in hand that brought in an end to the attack. At first, the beating stopped because because Kingston, Butcher, and Blade where unsure which way this Lucha Brother would turn, but once the weapon was brandished in the direction of The Mad King, the trio headed for the hills.

The Death Triangle officially reunited for the first time since March 18th, and in the aftermath, this tag team battle was signed pitting two-third's of Kingston's family against two-thirds of that violent triumvirate. Which trio will assert their dominance on Wednesday night? Tune into TNT starting at 8pm EST to find out!

TAG TEAM ACTION...

The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho & Jake Hager) vs. SCU (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian)

Many moons ago, in the aftermath of his Mimosa Mayhem defeat, Chris Jericho declared his intention to pursue the AEW World Tag Team Titles alongside his personal painmaker Jake Hager. The pair rattled off a series of victories in the division over Sonny Kiss & Joey Janela, Private Party, and The Chaos Effect, but then the Maxwell Jacob Friedman situation reared its head and “The DemoGod” found himself a bit distracted from that declared goal.

When the loss to MJF at FULL GEAR 2020 made that man's path to Inner Circle entry clear, it cleared the plate of Jericho up to once more look to the future, albeit after an MJF funded excursion to Las Vegas for the entirety of the group (Watch Here). This week on DYNAMITE, Jericho and Hager resume their quest to conquer the tag team world and build on their four win, undefeated record in the division.

That mission resumes with stiff competition as the SCU duo of Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian stand in their way. Heading into this one with four wins and three losses on their record, CD and Kaz were victorious in their last tag team battle on the October 27th AEW DARK opposite TH2 of Jack Evans and Angelico. Daniels and Kazarian, while not yet champions under the auspices of AEW, are very familiar with tag team success all around the wrestling world, and were supposed to be the SCU representatives in the original World Tag Team Title tournament. Injuries changed that plan, and Kaz would make history with Scorpio Sky instead, but bouts such as this one set for Wednesday night are the kind where Daniels and Frankie establish their team as a force within the AEW ranks just as they have elsewhere over the course of the last decade.

With neither pair ranked as of this writing, a victory on DYNAMITE will certainly amplify the presence of either duo in AEW's loaded tag team roster. Which pair will rise to the occasion with everyone in the division having their sights set on being the ones to dethrone The Young Bucks?

PAYBACK....

TH2 (Angelico & Jack Evans) vs. Top Flight (Darius & Daunte Martin)

In the last several weeks, Angelico and Jack Evans have made it abundantly clear they feel overlooked in the tag team ranks of All Elite Wrestling, and AEW's newest signees Top Flight became a target of their animus this past week on DYNAMITE. The attack perpetrated in the video above took place right after the Martin brothers proved they have the right stuff in a fight with The Young Bucks. A true example of making the most of an opportunity, Darius and Daunte elevated their wrestling game in front of the entire world and earned contracts with AEW.

But there are always those jealous of success, those who don't want anyone but themselves to succeed, and that appears to be the case with The Hybrid2.

Although their anger, and their message, was supposedly aimed at the World Tag Team Champions, it was Top Flight who received the beating, not Matt and Nick Jackson, and thus it is Darius and Daunte who will step into the ring this week on DYNAMITE to get a measure of vengeance against the Angelico and Evans.

Both teams have the world to gain here; it's another opportunity for the Martin brothers to step up their game and start stacking up wins to get into the rankings for a future title opportunity. It is a chance for Jack and Angelico to prove they deserve to be in any championship conversation against The Young Bucks. Their track record in tag team competition has been inconsistent, sitting at a 5-9 record after defeating Griff Garrison and Brian Pillman Jr on this week's edition of AEW DARK, and giving them two consecutive tag team victories. TH2 needs this win to continue to push the issue of deserving a fight with The Young Bucks with those belts on the line...

GET BACK ON THE HORSE...

“Hangman” Adam Page vs. John Silver

The above clip from BTE comes from the “FULL GEAR FALLOUT” episode after both John Silver and Hangman Page lost their respective matches on that pay-per-view extravaganza. For Silver it was a defeat at the hands of Orange Cassidy, a devastating loss for The Dark Order member, and one that clearly stung, but in the big picture, did not cost him nearly as much as Page's defeat cost him.

Page, as a finalist in the World Title Eliminator Tournament, was one win away from challenging for the AEW World Title, one win away from being able to redeem that loss to Chris Jericho over a year earlier, the one that crowned “The DemoGod” as the first AEW World Champion. Unfortunately for the former Elite member, Page had to fight his former championship partner Kenny Omega in that final bout, and suffered a soul crushing defeat at The Cleaner's hands.

That sad display in the video above, that looks like a man who may have, finally, found his rock bottom, but instead of climbing out, instead decided to swim in the self-loathing waters he found there. And of course he is doing it surrounded by The Dark Order, who, in their own dysfunctional way, helped Silver from going into his own little pit of despair moments earlier.

Page may also shown The Dark Order that he is ripe for the picking, after all, who could be more susceptible to their offerings than a man like Hangman who has driven away every friend he had, lost every opportunity he had to prove he's capable of standing on his own, and is swimming in a whiskey stupor more often than not?

Adam Page's ledge keeps crumbling away under his feet, it can only get so small before there's nothing left to stand on, and losing to John Silver on DYNAMITE this week might just be what it takes to turn the remnants to dust. Perhaps The Dark Order will be there with a net to catch him when he falls? Or maybe, finally, something will click within Page if he wins, maybe he will have his moment of clarity, and start climbing up out of this personal hell instead of descending deeper down the spiral...

“Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to the light” - Milton “Paradise Lost”

THE POWERHOUSE COMPETES...

One week ago, to the utter disappointment and disgust of both fans and colleagues, Will Hobbs made the choice to align himself with Team Taz. After weeks of Taz extending the offer for Hobbs to side with Brian Cage and Ricky Starks, and Will seemingly rebuking the offer at numerous instances, the powerhouse declared his ultimate intention with a crack of the FTW Title across the skull of Cody Rhodes.

It was certainly adding insult to injury as Cody and Darby Allin had just fallen to the Cage and Starks combination in a heated tag team battle, most definitely an unexpected twist of fate for the current and former TNT Champions. Up until that point, Hobbs had seemed willing to grind it out and work for his successes in All Elite Wrestling. Through many a bout on AEW DARK, including a loss in one of the shortest matches in AEW history, Hobbs demonstrated his willingness to improve, to fight on, and do whatever it took to make an impression.

His power, mobility, and presence raised eyebrows, but it was Hobbs' participation in the 2020 Casino Battle Royale at ALL OUT 2020 that really made people stand up and take notice. He only scored one elimination, that of The Blade, but hung in for 20 minutes before Lance Archer dumped Hobbs and Brian Cage simultaneously.

That night must have also marked a turning point internally for Will Hobbs because he has been on a tear ever since, winning six of his last seven singles matches, with the lone blemish being to Brian Cage in an FTW Title match. He stood up alongside Jon Moxley in opposition to Team Taz and Lance Archer, he seemed to align with Cody and Darby to fend off those same forces as well, but based off his actions last week, it was all a ruse.

But at what point did Hobbs make his choice? If one were to go back and watch the tape, Hobbs has not actually made physical contact with either member of Team Taz. He never exactly made a direct statement declining the offer, much more a case of letting his actions speak than ever uttering the word “NO” to The Human Suplex Machine and his crew. What made this seemingly honorable man choose the orange-and-black colors of FTW? Perhaps we will all find out on DYNAMITE when Will Hobbs competes in his first match as an official members of Team Taz!

WE CANNOT STOP THE WINTER...

DYNAMITE, December 2nd, “Winter Is Coming” and Kenny Omega is set to receive the AEW World Title match he earned when he defeated former partner Adam Page in the finals of the World Title Eliminator Tournament at FULL GEAR 2020.

The stage was set last week for the two men to meet in the ring in order to sit down and sign on the dotted line. The match was supposed to be made official last Wednesday night, but as seen in the video above, that is not what happened. Due to an attack perpetrated by an unknown assailant, only Kenny Omega was present to put his John Hancock on the contract, while Moxley (who had just told the world he and his wife are expecting child) was left in need of medical attention somewhere backstage.

So who did it? Who felt it necessary to incapacitate the World Champion just moments prior to the contract signing? Kenny Omega, despite being the next man in line for a title shot, seems a highly unlikely suspect given his general method of conducting business as well as the simple fact he was getting ready to make his entrance in the moments the attack likely took place.

Eddie Kingston vociferously denied any involvement in the attack, stating he would have come at Moxley face-to-face, and although he may bring Butcher and Blade with him in this hypothetical moment, Kingston has proven true to his own twisted sense of honor.

That leaves a whole mess of other individuals on the AEW roster who would be willing to waylay the champion for assorted reasons, there's probably even individuals not on the roster who would love that opportunity if they could take it, especially if it meant they could force a challenge for the title.

Look at Lance Archer, Brian Cage, and MJF; three men all had their World Title aspirations stopped by Mox and two of them sit in the top five rankings hoping for another opportunity. Ricky Starks is at the number five and has stated himself that wants to move up in the world, what better way than by taking down the champ in an attempt to force Mox into a fight. Shawn Spears always wants a bigger spotlight, perhaps Dark Order or Inner Circle members looking for a higher profile, when the most important prize in all of professional wrestling is wrapped up in the discussion, anything is possible. Hopefully this week on DYNAMITE, we all get some answers!

On the eve of Thanksgiving, All Elite Wrestling gives its own thanks to the wonderful fans worldwide by presenting another thrilling edition of DYNAMITE! Coming to you at 8pm EST/7pm CST on TNT, or on AEWPlus.com for the International audiences, join us as we prepare for Winter with the most exciting professional wrestling action on the planet!