AEW Dynamite Preview for February 9, 2022

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Dynamite returns to New Jersey this Wednesday night, and for the very first time, it will emanate from The Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City (Buy Tickets)! After Friday night’s pair of title matches, the revelation that the AEW Women’s World Champion and Mercedes Martinez have a deal, and the announcement of a new acquisition for the AEW locker room, this Wednesday on TBS is going to be wild!

Plus after MJF (with more than a little help from Wardlow) defeated CM Punk last week in Chicago, it is a certainty the 3-Time Dynamite Diamond Ring holder will have something to say, and Chris Jericho has called a mandatory meeting of The Inner Circle as AEW’s original faction appears to be drifting apart.

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Dynamite may be in Atlantic City, but it is no gamble that when AEW comes to town, fans are in-store for the greatest wrestling available anywhere today! It hits your television screens LIVE on TBS starting at 8pm EST/7pm CST, or at AEWPlus.com for the international audience, but the Elite week begins every Monday night with Dark: Elevation! Just head over to official YouTube channel to experience that, as well as brand new episodes of AEW Dark, Road To, and The Control Center to get you ready for Wednesday night’s action!

AEW WORLD TITLE TEXAS DEATHMATCH…

“Hangman” Adam Page(c) vs. “The MurderHawk Monster” Lance Archer

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Hangman Page has wanted challenges since the moment he captured the AEW World Title from Kenny Omega at Full Gear 2021, but the only person who stepped right up to the forefront was “The American Dragon”. Bryan Danielson, for two decades considered one of the absolute best professional wrestlers on the planet, gave Page two of the hardest fights of the World Champion’s career. The first at Dynamite: Winter Is Coming 2021 took Hangman to depths he had never traversed, the longest match of his entire career, and at the end of an hour, the decision stood at a draw.

But a battered, bloodied Hangman showed the world that he too earned the right to be part of that “best wrestler in the world” conversation. The rematch that opened the very first TBS edition of Dynamite was another violent affair, one that bloodied both men, but one that came to a decisive ending with the World Champion retaining his championship. Hangman bested a wrestler many consider the greatest of his generation, and that’s a feat he could’ve hung his championship laurels on, but it was absolutely not enough for the Cowboy.

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Dan Lambert may have been the voice that responded to Hangman, but it was the violence of “The MurderHawk Monster” Lance Archer that answered the call with a devastating Blackout to Adam through a chair.

A week later, coming to the aid of Frankie Kazarian as Archer assaulted him post-match, the World Champion responded to Lance’s attack with one of his own, sending the erstwhile challenger over the top rope and stumbling to the floor. The next week at Dynamite: Beach Break would bring about an escalation to championship picture that was probably not as unexpected as one may think:

The Texas Death Match; somewhat of a calling card for Lance Archer, and one that has brought him championship success right here in All Elite Wrestling. The last time he engaged in just such a fight was last during Dynamite: Fyter Fest 2021, and it ended with “The MurderHawk” beating Jon Moxley to claim the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, making him just one of two men to defeat Mox in singles competition.

As if that Death Match statistic didn’t hold enough weight, last week on Dynamite, as seen in the video embedded at the top, Archer drove the defending World Champion through the time keeper’s table with a Blackout. First a chair, now a table, and coming just weeks after the physically punishing second title fight with Danielson, one can imagine how the body of Hangman Page must feel for this trip to Atlantic City.

Archer has an advantage going into this fight on so many levels; be it the physical comparison, the punishment Hangman has endured at his hands, or the Texas Death Match stipulation, “The MurderHawk Monster” has to be feeling pretty good heading into the fight. But the one thing that cannot be measured, the one thing Archer will likely never measure up to, is the heart of this World Champion. Hangman fought through tremendous odds, both internal and external, to get to the top of the mountain, and Page then battled the hardest 90 minutes of his in-ring career to insure he remained at the top.

Can “The MurderHawk Monster” use his monstrous physical presence and the stipulations of the fight to rip that heart out of Hangman’s chest, or will AEW’s resident cowboy rise to the occasion once more to continue his run as World Champion? Just who will reign supreme come Revolution 2022 (Buy Tickets) in Orlando?

MJF SPEAKS…

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The saying “by hook or by crook” certainly applied to Maxwell Jacob Friedman’s victory over CM Punk last week on Dynamite, with a definite emphasis on the crook part of that old adage. For thirty-eight minutes, MJF did everything he possibly could to try and defeat Punk, and to be fair “The Best In The World” did the exact same. Punk even dipped deep into his bag of trick with that top rope Pedigree once dubbed the Pepsi Plunge, an old signature move he hadn’t used in seventeen years, but even that did not lead to victory.

It was a physically taxing fight, exhausting both men, leaving Punk’s legs essentially unwilling to cooperate with the rest of his body, but no matter what MJF did, Punk was not about to give up the ghost. Unfortunately, after such an epic clash that served to demonstrate Max is actually as adept in the ring as on the microphone, that showed he is capable of hanging with a world-class wrestler like Punk, after all that, MJF turned to the two shortcuts he relies on the most: Wardlow and the Dynamite Diamond Ring.

For the first time in his AEW career, maybe his entire wrestling life, Max had the opportunity to prove he could do it on his own, but as the match crept towards that forty minute mark, MJF took the easy way out to finally bring the fight to its end. A better man would not find glory in that victory, but a better man would not have even gone there in the first place, and Max has proven time and again that, at least morally speaking, he is not a better man. He takes pride in the win, no matter how he got there, and is going to take an exceptional amount of it in this win because it was over CM Punk.

That will no doubt be on display in full force this Wednesday night come when Max walks out onto the stage with the biggest smile plastered across his face, and proceeds to endlessly praise himself once a microphone is placed in his hand. The question is not if he will pat himself on the back, but just how much and if he will pull a muscle in the process? The question is also if he will have anything else of substance to say beyond being self-congratulatory?

Are his sights on championships now? Is he going to fight to break into the rankings for the first time not only this year, but since January 27, 2021? What does the future hold for MJF now that he has handed CM Punk his very first AEW loss? We shall all find out this Wednesday night in Atlantic City!

FACE OF THE REVOLUTION QUALIFYING MATCH…

Isiah Kassidy vs. ???

After a tremendous outing against Sammy Guevara last Friday, Isiah Kassidy earned his way to this Qualifying Bout for the Face of the Revolution Ladder match set to take place at the Revolution 2022 pay-per-view. The winner of said Ladder Match will earn a future shot at the TNT Title, just as Scorpio Sky did last year when he challenged Darby Allin on the 3/10/21 edition of Dynamite. It’s a golden opportunity for one-half of Private Party, but so too is it one for…someone.

Who is that someone?

AEW GM Tony Khan is playing the answer close to the vest, only promising that this individual will walk through The Forbidden Door, sign a contract, and slam the door shut behind them. That has left AEW fans wildly speculating as to the identity of this individual, and just who may get the opportunity to ascend the ladder, both proverbial and actual, in rapid fashion.

Isiah Kassidy is definitely fighting from an inopportune position in that he has no idea who his foe will be, but that opponent has plenty of time to game plan heading into Wednesday night. Still, if he can pull out the victory over unknown odds, Kassidy will no doubt earn his keep within the AFHO, but it looks like all of us will have to wait until Dynamite to have the answer to this mystery!

INNER CIRCLE TEAM MEETING…

Things are not good within The Inner Circle, that much is blatantly obvious, and no matter how successful they were against 2point0 and Daniel Garcia at Dynamite: Beach Break 2022, it does not change how far apart the members of the group are from when they formed. Ortiz and Santana are questioning how Jericho’s various problems have pulled them away from a focused hunt for the World Tag Team Titles, and Eddie Kingston has been right there to remind them of that perception.

Sammy Guevara is off on his own trip as TNT Champion, and aside from wearing his Inner Circle vest, has not felt like a part of this unit since the Full Gear 2021 fight with The Men of The Year and American Top Team.

As far as Jake Hager, well who knows what’s going through his head at any given moment. His tendency to silently sit back and watch things unfold doesn’t really give anyone a clue as to his perception of the last couple months.

And Jericho, well the original AEW World Champion is clearly trying to pull it all back together, and get everyone back on the same page. Hence this mandatory attendance meeting playing out in front of the whole world Wednesday night on Dynamite. The last time things came to a head like this with The Inner Circle was over the inclusion of MJF in the group; while that ultimately brought the unit closer together as they sided with Chris over Max, and gave them a common foe in The Pinnacle, this situation has no big bad to unify against or a face to collectively punch.

These moments on TBS Wednesday night will undoubtedly shape the future of The Inner Circle; the question is if that future will keep them all together, or if the ties that have bound them all together for over two years will be severed!

AEW debuts in Atlantic City this Wednesday night with a jam-packed edition of Dynamite! Revolution 2022 is getting closer and everyone wants a piece of that action! Will it be Lance Archer or Hangman Page who carries the AEW World Championship into that pay-per-view extravaganza Will Isiah Kassidy make it to the Face of The Revolution Ladder Match or will it be his mystery foe? What will MJF aim for now that he’s beat “The Best In The World”? And what will The Inner Circle look like after this mandatory meeting? It’s going down on TBS starting at 8pm EST/7pm CST, as well as on AEWPlus.com for our international audience!

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The AEW wrestling begins Monday night’s with AEW DARK: Elevation on the official AEW YouTube channel and continues on Tuesday and Wednesday morning with AEW Dark, Road To, and the latest Control Center to get you prepared for Dynamite!

Article source: allelitewrestling.com