Guess who's back on Wednesday night!
This week, AEW DYNAMITE returns to its home time slot LIVE at 8pm Est/7pm CST on TNT, or at AEWPlus.com for our international community! Saturday night's special edition of our flagship program featured two Quarter-Final bouts in the Men's World Title Eliminator Tournament with Eddie Kingston and Bryan Danielson advancing, the first match in the TBS Women's Title Tournament where Ruby Soho was victorious, as well as Cody Rhodes finally redeeming himself in his third meeting with Malakai Black! Plus The Elite wrecked Jungle Boy, The Pinnacle laid out Sting, Hangman Page reunited with The Dark Order, and Bobby Fish raised the ire of one CM Punk!
This Wednesday night, the last match of the Men's Quarter-Finals goes down between former AEW World Champion Jon Moxley and The Dark Order's Ten, Sammy Guevara risks the TNT Title to get The Inner Circle a shot at The MOTY and ATT, Punk will compete in his first DYNAMITE match, and The Dark Order will battle The Elite. In addition, former AEW Women's World Champion Hikaru Shida comes for revenge, her 50th win, and advancement in the TBS Title Tournament when she clashes with Serena Deeb! Join us at The Agganis Arena in Boston, MA on Wednesday night to watch the greatest professional wrestling on the planet LIVE and IN-PERSON! Tickets are available here (Buy Tickets)!
Before that goes down, be sure to hit the official AEW YouTube account to catch highlights from last weekend's editions of RAMPAGE and DYNAMITE, as well as new episodes DARK: ELEVATION, AEW DARK, and the latest ROAD TO special!
TNT TITLE MATCH
“The Spanish God” Sammy Guevara (c) vs. “All Ego” Ethan Page
***IF SAMMY WINS, THE INNER CIRCLE GETS THE 10 MAN TAG***
All Sammy Guevara wants is one more fight between the complete Inner Circle and Dan Lambert's combined forces of The Men Of The Year and American Top Team. All Lambert wants is to see that TNT Title taken away from “The Spanish God”.
Well this Wednesday night one of these men is going to get his wish when the TNT Title is on the line in a match between Guevara and “All Ego” Ethan Page! As a singles competitor, Page has only lost one actual match, the Coffin Match to Darby Allin, with the only other “blemish” being the Face of The Revolution Ladder Match that Scorpio Sky won. Ten singles wins, ten tag team wins, and one trios match victory; that is the record Page brings to the table for this battle that Lambert manipulated his way into, and what's important to note is that two of those wins, one tag and the trios, are over The Inner Circle.
So given that, it makes sense that Lambert would want something for his competitors in return for letting Sammy possibly get what he wants. It's a risk, but so is life as a whole, and it is one Guevara is willing to take for a shot at revenge against Page, Sky, Junior Dos Santos, Jorge Masvidal, Paige VanZant, and of course, Dan Lambert. It's Guevara's championship, thus it his risk to take on behalf of the entire Inner Circle, but hopefully it is not one he lives to regret.
Although, on AEW DARK, The MOTY certainly tried to give Guevara a reason to regret it, along with a sneak preview of their plans for Wednesday night when they left him bloodied:
MEN'S WORLD TITLE ELIMINATOR TOURNAMENT QUARTER-FINAL...
Jon Moxley vs. The Dark Order's 10
***WINNER FACES ORANGE CASSIDY***
This isn't the first time The Dark Order's 10 has stepped into the ring with the former AEW World Champion. On May 20th of last year, without the title on the line, Jon Moxley dropped Ten in four and a half minutes. That night, the bout was essentially Mr. Brodie Lee using his chosen one to wear out Mox prior to their DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2020 World Title match, but what instead happened was the champ using a pair of steel chairs to severely injury Ten's arm, putting him on the shelf for four months as he recovered from the damage.
It was the lone time the paths of these two men crossed, never did one Preston Vance have an opportunity to even the score, and even though 17 months have passed since that injury, reasonable to believe that 10 can still remember that pain. Still, much has changed in the lives of each man since that bout, and perhaps because of those evolutions, Ten's growth as a wrestler and Mox's into a father for examples, it may be best that this rematch is taking place now. If Ten has a thought of delayed revenge lingering in his mind, what better way to get that than by knocking Jon Moxley out of this tournament in match number one?
Even if there is no thought of that injury on Ten's mind, there would be no better way to start this tournament than by beating the most prolific AEW World Champion to date. The headlines this Dark Order member would immediately garner from defeating Moxley on Wednesday night would only be rivaled by how many eyes would then fall on Ten as a favorite to win the whole thing. He would become just the third man to actually defeat Jon Moxley in All Elite Wrestling, joining Kenny Omega and Lance Archer in that illustrious club. As the winner of the Casino Ladder Match, Hangman Page may technically hold a victory over Moxley, just as he technically does over the five other men in the match, but to paraphrase Jon, that was a climbing contest, Adam Page did not pin or submit Mox. This is a career opportunity for Ten, one of several he has experienced since joining AEW, and it is up to him to make the most of it against the most unpredictable force in AEW.
Jon, on the other hand, has nothing to prove to anyone and as he stated in the tweet embedded above, ultimately no longer cares about anyone or anything save getting home to his baby girl. The problem for everyone else in AEW, specifically this tournament, is that Mox is going to do everything he needs to in order to accomplish that. Perhaps that's why he ran through Wheeler Yuta as quickly, and violently, as he did on October 16th's DYNAMITE. At just forty-seven seconds, it was Moxley's second fastest singles match in AEW, and left Wheeler reeling in the aftermath. He wasn't prepared for the ferocity of the assault, and if that expediency is how Mox aims to proceed in his AEW career, than everyone in this tournament best be ready to start the fight in fifth gear.
TBS WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH...
Serena Deeb vs. Hikaru Shida
So there are two ways to look at the moments that led to this match; one is that AEW officials were simply preparing for one possibility when making the trophy to honor Hikaru Shida's 50th win BEFORE she'd even set foot in the ring with Serena Deeb. It is not an uncommon practice, other professional sports organizations do it with every championship game when they create shirts for both teams vying for the respective title. One version of the shirt, the winning team's, makes it out into the public eye while the other ends up distributed to those in need of clothing around the world by various charitable organizations. AEW could have just been getting ahead of the game in case Shida won that night, but were that the case, perhaps the trophy should have been kept in private until after the fact.
Because, quite frankly, putting into the public eye before the opening bell of the match even rang certainly gave off the impression, at least to Serena Deeb, that the 50th victory was a guarantee despite “The Woman of 1,000 Holds” impressive resume. It is not hard to see just how Deeb may be insulted by this, however it was quite hard was seeing Serena, after submitting the former AEW Women's World Champion to prevent that 50th win, crack Shida across the skull with said trophy and throwing it down in disgust, breaking it apart in the process. Sure Serena demonstrated an ultra-aggressive side throughout the match, but it felt more like an indication of how badly she wanted the win, it did not feel like a predecessor to that kind of unnecessary assault on the most successful woman on the AEW roster.
Now the chance for Shida to even the score has been presented with higher stakes than just that elusive 50 on the line. Not only is it that record-setting win, not only is it revenge, it is also happening in the first round of the TBS Women's Championship Tournament! It's another opportunity for history to be made by one of these warriors as they battle in this first of four matches to become the inaugural TBS Champion, and the winner will advance to face “The Native Beast” Nyla Rose in the Quarter-Finals, as that former Women's Champion received a first round tournament bye.
Will it be Shida who claims revenge, claims her 50, and claims her Quarter-Final spot? Or will it be Deeb who establishes her dominance over Hikaru and further frustrates all of those aforementioned aspirations of the former AEW Women's World Champion?
ONE-ON-ONE...
CM Punk vs. “The Infamous” Bobby Fish
Prior to Saturday night, there had been three times in the last 17 years that Bobby Fish and CM Punk even occupied the same building on a wrestling show. Twice inside a long-abandoned building known as The Rexplex and once in a National Guard Armory in Philadelphia, yet even though they were in they same space, they were nowhere near each other in stature on the wrestling landscape. At that time in 2004/2005, Punk was a certified main event talent with some of the most lauded matches in recent memory on his resume while Fish, then competing as Jerk Jackson, was fighting for recognition in a landscape very crowded with talent.
The story of Punk from that point on is well known as the trajectory of his wrestling career played out on a worldwide stage with millions of eyes upon it. Fish, as has been discussed previously, saw his career grow much slower with the experience garnered in the dojos and rings of Pro Wrestling NOAH proving to be the most definitive aspect of his wrestling life. That choice to travel to Japan in the Spring of 2006 changed everything for Fish, and in the years that followed, would prove the starting point for when his career opened up, and the eyes of wrestling fans and pundits alike begin to open to to what Bobby had to offer.
Fish proved it as a tag team wrestler, holding multiple championships in the United States and Japan, and he proved it as a singles competitor. That is why, when he became a free agent for the first time since 2017, All Elite Wrestling was quick to open that Forbidden Door for “The Infamous” Bobby Fish. And just as he had done prior to crossing the threshold, Bobby proved it once again with that first AEW fight against TNT Champion Sammy Guevara, and hasn't ceased to demonstrate why he belongs in every subsequent fight, particularly his battle with “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson. This week on DYNAMITE though, he demonstrated something else to the world, Fish showed everyone just why he has been dubbed “The Infamous” when he attacked Anthony Greene following a rather decisive victory over the young competitor.
The assault surprisingly brought out “The Best In The World” CM Punk to run Fish off, assist a battered Greene to his feet, and while Punk stared a hole through a retreating Fish, Bobby just taunted the undefeated Punk from afar. Suffice to say, it did not take long for AEW GM Tony Khan to make this match official for DYNAMITE's return to Wednesday night! And 24 hours before their meeting, after his victory on AEW DARK, Bobby Fish had some words to share with the AEW faithful and CM Punk:
MULTI-MAN TAG TEAM ACTION...
The Dark Order (Colt Cabana, Evil Uno, John Silver, Stu Grayson) vs. The Elite (Adam Cole, AEW World Champion Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson w/ Don Callis)
As seen in the clip embedded above, The Dark Order is far from done with The Elite in any of its manifestations nor, thankfully, are they done with Adam Page. Hangman reconnected with his erstwhile extended family after inadvertently creating that internal strife The Dark Order has only recently worked through, and in the process gave them the idea that has led to this match.
It is the entirety of The Elite versus The Dark Order but it certainly doesn't feel like Kenny Omega and company are taking any of this very seriously, not The Dark Order nor their former brother-in-arms Hangman Page:
Given the track record between The Elite and The Dark Order, it is of little surprise they aren't taking this seriously. Aside from one dysfunctional battle where FTR teamed with The Elite to fight Dark Order, the purple-and-black squad has been the loser on every occasion, most recently the SATURDAY NIGHT DYNAMITE from Miami on October 16th. Still, there is one thing about The Dark Order that remains true since their inception: they are damn persistent. Just look at the aforementioned relationship with Adam Page and how it evolved into a rather familial dynamic, that only came about from The DO's unwillingness to give up on Hangman, and that same persistence is what they bring to the table in these ongoing battles with The Elite! Will it be the ticket this Wednesday night when DYNAMITE returns to its home time slot? We will all find out soon enough!
MJF IN ACTION...
Last Wednesday night Sting came to the ring with the intent of updating the AEW fans worldwide on the status of Darby Allin on the heels of the October 16th assault perpetrated by masked men who were quite clearly The Pinnacle in disguise.
Before “The Icon” could even utter a word, he was interrupted by Maxwell Jacob Friedman who would, of course, denigrate the denizens of Orlando, Sting, and even Lex Luger. The final comments about “The Total Package” would get MJF punched in the face with a right hand from The Stinger. Fortunately for Max, before the right hand turned into a beating, The Pinnacle were immediately on the spot to assault the legend. As the crowd chanted Darby's name, hoping beyond hope that he was in the building to save his mentor, Shawn Spears would rain chair shots down on their fallen foe.
When Wardlow and Spears were finally done, of course Max would then choose to assert some dominance over “The Icon” by cradling Sting's unconscious head in his arms while verbally running down Darby. Not satisfied with the beating, MJF elected to punch Sting in the head one last time, with the Dynamite Diamond Ring on his hand of course, before leaving the ring. Sting was left decimated inside the squared circle, the worst beating he has taken since coming to AEW last December, while MJF and The Pinnacle laughed about it. Still, once that moment past, it wasn't all fun and games for Max's crew:
Whatever “accountabillabuddy” means, that is unlikely what will be on MJF's mind this Wednesday night when he steps into the ring with the intention of sending Darby Allin another message about what's in store if/when the former TNT Champion returns to All Elite Wrestling!
At the close of business on Wednesday night, AEW fans will know the complete Semi-Finals for the Men's World Title Eliminator Tournament as well as whether Shida or Deeb will be the second woman earning her way into the TBS Title Tournament Quarter-Finals. They will also have witnessed CM Punk's first match on the flagship and a sure to be wild multi-man battle between The Elite and The Dark Order. Plus, fans will either see a new TNT Champion crowned in Ethan Page or they will witness Sammy Guevara retain for a second time PLUS earn a fight between The Inner Circle and Dan Lambert's MOTY/ATT crew.
Prepare yourself for the greatest in-ring action available anywhere by visiting the official AEW YouTube account, the home for highlights of last weekend's RAMPAGE and DYNAMITE editions, as well as the latest offerings from AEW DARK: ELEVATION, AEW DARK, and the amazing ROAD TO series!
Commentaires