https://www.youtube.com/embed/EbyCK2_KDTE
All Elite Wrestling is getting ever closer to opening the FORBIDDEN DOOR and meeting New Japan in Toronoto, ON, Canada on June 25th live on pay-per-view! But before we get there, a few stops along the road are necessary, and one of those takes place this Wednesday night when AEW returns to the birthplace of DYNAMITE, the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C.!
It’s been far too long since AEW has graced these hallowed halls, and so we are coming back with an absolutely jam-packed event featuring two championship matches, MJF actually fighting on TBS, and two huge multi-man Grude Matches! The night shall begin at 8pm ET/7pm CT LIVE on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for our international fans, and you must visit the official AEW YouTube channel beforehand to catch-up with highlights from last week’s episodes DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as this week’s editions of ROAD TO, THE CONTROL CENTER, and more!
AEW MEN’S WORLD TITLE ELIMINATOR MATCH…
MJF(c) vs. Adam Cole
https://www.youtube.com/embed/5W2koonFv_0?start=278
The world heard everything Maxwell Jacob Friedman had to say last Wednesday night, and most importantly, Adam Cole heard it all from his front row seat sharing the ring with the AEW World Champion. We all heard MJF rant about how he turned to Adam Cole for his hero worship after Punk abandoned him, heard Max run down Cole like he was reading the most vitriolic of Twitter threads, coming across more like an edgelord troll than the World Champion of the most prestigious professional wrestling company on the planet.
And Adam Cole made sure that MJF knew it, made sure Max knew exactly what he sounded like, and how weak everything he had to say was, and ultimately, the back-and-forth of their dialogue is what has led us to this first-time ever bout taking place on Wednesday night in Washington D.C.!
While the AEW World Championship may not be at stake in D.C., there is definitely a ton of pride on the line, as well as a potential bid for said title down the line. The rules of the Eliminator Match are quite simple, beat the champion to earn an opportunity at their title, and while there are few instances of the champion losing since AEW first introduced the concept (Miyu Yamashita defeating AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa and AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks losing to Penta El Zero Miedo/Eddie Kingston), the possibility is always there, especially when the champion is faced with as daunting a foe as Adam Cole.
Although he hasn’t competed in a plethora of them, MJF is unbeaten in singles matches since returning to the fold at ALL OUT 2022 when he won the Casino Ladder Match, and that seven match streak has seen Max defeat Jon Moxley to win the AEW World Championship, beat Bryan Danielson in a 60-Minute Iron Man match, survive three title challengers at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2023, top Ricky Starks in a fight for both the title and the Dynamite Diamond Ring, and escape Takeshita in Max’s only other Eliminator fight. While MJF’s fights have been few and far between since September, at least they’ve been big match situations with high stakes, so while Cole is right about MJF doing as little work as possible to be where he is today, at least the work he has put has meant something.
This Wednesday night Maxwell Jacob Freidman will have to add one more big fight to that resume, as will Adam Cole, arguably the biggest since his return to action at the end of March given the World Championship implications. Should Cole defeat the holder of the Dynamite Diamond Ring, he will earn his first AEW World Championship match since the Texas Death with Adam Page last April.
Can Cole humble the champion this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, or will MJF find another way to stay a step ahead of his competition?
AEW WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…
Toni Storm(c) vs. Skye Blue
https://www.youtube.com/embed/sYBdqAmBf5I
Last Friday night on RAMPAGE, when Skye Blue, Nyla Rose, Dr. Britt Baker, and Mercedes Martinez entered the ring to compete in a Four Way for this title opportunity, it’s highly unlikely Skye would’ve been the pick to pull out the victory. With two former AEW Women’s World Champions in the mix, as well as a former ROH Women’s World Champion, not to mention the personal motivations Britt has for wanting a shot at Toni Storm, on paper Skye was the least likely to pull out the victory.
And yet…
With a pin on “The Native Beast” to win that match, Skye Blue now has the biggest opportunity of her AEW career this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, and in the very building where Riho became the first AEW Women’s World Champion. For the first time on television, after two opportunities during the most recent HOUSE RULES weekend, Skye will have a chance to dethrone Toni Storm as the reigning AEW Women’s World Champion, but there’s a lot of history running against her. As mentioned, during the Tupelo and Huntsville events Skye had two opportunities to top Toni, one in a singles bout and the other in a Four Way, but in both instances it was Skye who ended up pinned to the mat with Storm retaining her title.
Even before Toni became champion, neither of these women’s encounters went in favor of Wednesday night’s challenger. Their first singles bout went down on March 22nd of this year and saw Toni Storm pick up the victory, and their subsequent tag match on April 12th, with Ruby Soho and Riho as their respective partners, also ended with The Outcasts as the victors.
Suffice to say history is not in Skye’s favor, but the fans certainly are, Washington D.C. certainly will be, as will the majority of the women in AEW’s locker room who actually respect what has been built since Riho collided with Nyla Rose back on October 2, 2019 during the first episode of DYNAMITE. That night marked the beginning of a new era for All Elite Wrestling, and with the premiere of COLLISION only days away, so too does this Wednesday night. Can Skye Blue shock the world and lead the Women’s Division moving forward, or will it be Toni Storm and The Outcasts who continue to denigrate the division as we trek towards COLLISION and FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023?
AEW TNT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…
Wardlow(c) vs. Jake Hager
It’s been two years, almost to the day, since the last time Wardlow and Jake Hager locked horns in 1-on-1 situation, and even that was not under the most typical of circumstances. That night in Jacksonville, the two foes were locked inside a MMA-style cage, and under those rules it would be Jake Hager who emerged victorious.
But that wasn’t their only entanglement that year; in a traditional singles match earlier in the year it was Wardlow who smashed his way past Hager, just as in a July 2021 Trios match it was Wardlow’s Pinnacle team that came with the victory over Hager’s Inner Circle unit, and of course the second Stadium Stampede and first Blood & Guts must be mentioned as each man was involved in those landmark clashes. Thus it’s safe to say they are no strangers to one another, but the growth and change each man has experienced since that last collision, particularly Wardlow, makes this a rather intriguing match-up. In the time since, “The War Dog” has become his own man, free from the whims of Maxwell Jacob Friedman, and stands as a 3-Time TNT Champion while Hager has shifted from Inner Circle member beholden to the wishes of Chris Jericho to Jericho Appreciation Society member beholden to the wishes of “The Ocho”, who at least he likes his hat.
Given Hager’s natural athletic gifts, his amateur and professional resumes, devastating power, and surprisingly dry wit, it’s rather shocking that nearly four years since Jericho first brought him into AEW, Jake is still by the man’s side. For better or worse, his loyalty is strong and thus he’s always been taking care of by Jericho and whomever Chris has surrounded himself with, and perhaps that will come into play this Wednesday when Jake challenges Wardlow for the TNT Championship! It’s Hager’s second-ever shot at the belt, the first coming about three years ago during Cody’s reign at FYTER FEST 2020, and his first title opportunity since falling to Orange Cassidy in an All-Atlantic Championship bout last November.
Can Hager bring gold back to The J.A.S. for the first time since Jericho lost the ROH World Championship at FINAL BATTLE 2022? Can he bring the group their first AEW championship since coming together, out of the ashes of The Inner Circle, last March? Or will Wardlow continue to build on his legacy as TNT Champion with the kind of title reign that men like Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and QT Marshall stopped with Wardlow’s first two reigns?
TRIOS GRUDGE MATCH…
The Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley, & Wheeler Yuta) vs. The Elite (Adam Page, Matt Jackson, & Nick Jackson)
Though it was a challenged issued by “Hangman” Adam Page on behalf of The Elite, Anarchy In the Arena did not go in their favor at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2023. It could be argued that it was ultimately Don Callis and Konosuke Takeshita who swung the balance in The Blackpool Combat Club’s favor, but that would be ignoring the sheer brutality inflicted upon The Elite by The BCC throughout the course of that battle. It would be giving short shrift to all that Claudio, Moxley, Yuta, and “The American Dragon” did to Omega, Page, and The Young Bucks before Don Callis and Takeshita inserted themselves into the outcome.
So while The Elite as a whole have their issues with Don and Takeshita for what they did to Kenny, the trio affectionally called The Hung Bucks also have theirs with the members of The Blackpool Combat Club, which is why the challenge was issued by Hangman and The Young Bucks for this Trios Grude match taking place in Washington D.C.! It’s been a long time since The Hung Bucks have teamed up as a trio, since ROH WRESTLING #359 (available on Honor Club) that aired on 8/4/18 to be exact, but they were quite the successful unit in their time, reigning as ROH World Six-Man champions for 201 days, dethroning Dalton Castle and The Boys to start their reign, and defending it on eight occasions before SCU knocked them off the top of the mountain.
Meanwhile, though they’ve been operating together for less than a year, and it’s only been eight months since their first match as a Trio, Moxley, Claudio, and Yuta have coalesced into a deadly unit. They are 8-0 together, with victories over Hangman & The Dark Order, Dalton and The Boys, The Best Amigos, CHAOS, and the Kip/Butcher/Blade trio, just to name a few, and have been absolute bloodthirsty monsters in each of those fights. They are at the top of their game, both individually and as a group, and have been training together consistently since the moment Claudio walked into AEW at last year’s FORBIDDEN DOOR event.
Conversely, The Hung Bucks are only just beginning to find their footing as a group after being estranged for the better part of the last 3 years, much of that time quite acrimonious, and only in the last month finally coming together in the face of their common foe. It was as if the threat of The Blackpool Combat Club finally allowed these three men, and Kenny Omega, to finally see what was actually important in their lives and in their careers: family.
So that’s what The BCC will face this Wednesday night in D.C., not training partners or uneasy allies, but a family that has fought side-by-side, that has fought each other, and has been through it all with one another both inside and outside the confines of the locker room. They are bonded in a way The Blackpool Combat Club are not, at least not yet, and that may be their key to finally overcoming the violence and brutality that is The BCC’s strongest bond.
EIGHT-MAN FIGHT…
Mogul Embassy (Brian Cage, Kaun, Swerve Strickland, & Toa Liona) vs. Darby Allin, Keith Lee, AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy, & Sting
https://www.youtube.com/embed/wZo3MRFa01c
The Mogul Embassy has made quite a few enemies during their tenure together, and it looks like quite a few of them are coming for retribution this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE! The issues between Swerve Strickland and Orange Cassidy really warmed up in the Blackjack Battle Royale at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2023, and then got white hot with their AEW International Championship match last week.
Never ones to just take a loss and come back to fight another day, The Mogul Embassy attempted to assault the victorious Cassidy after Swerve lost the bout, but the arrival of Sting and Darby Allin prevented the group from laying a beating on the already battered Cassidy. The fact that Swerve, for the second time, could not find a way to end the championship reign of “Freshly Squeezed” is clearly eating him and his affiliates up, but their vent for that frustration was further stiffled by “The Icon” and the former 2-Time TNT Champion.
So that brings us to this Wednesday night in D.C. where those three individuals, along with another “Limitless” Keith Lee, another whose long-standing issues with Swerve have yet to be settled, will unite their forces to exact some retribution against The Mogul Embassy. It’s clear Prince Nana’s troupe has little interest in taking on a fight when the numbers are balanced, so we shall see how they fare when they do not have a choice in the situation. It’s certainly not due to lack of skill or a matter of The Mogul Embassy members lacking in talent, they are each a fearsome opponent in their own right, but rather a matter of wanting to take their shots in the easiest fashion possible.
How will they fair when the sides are equal, and they have no choice but to face the repercussions of their actions head-on?
https://www.youtube.com/embed/epBkyeGfas4
This Wednesday AEW returns to the place where DYNAMITE began, the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C.! With the debut of COLLISION in just a few days, and AEWxNJPW: FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 coming fast, the landscape around here is getting red hot! AEW World Champion MJF will fight Adam Cole in a Championship Eliminator bout with a future title match at stake for Cole, plus both the TNT and AEW Women’s World Championships will be on the line, The BCC and The Elite will go to war once more, and The Mogul Embassy will answer for their crimes against a quartet of their enemies!
The night begins off at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TBS, as well as at AEWPlus.com for our international audiences, just be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel prior to showtime to catch DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE highlights, as well as this week’s editions of ROAD TO, THE CONTROL CENTER, and much more!
Article source: allelitewrestling.com