What a ride! Despite some unplanned, unforeseen circumstances, DYNAMITE proved once again why it is the must-see wrestling event each and every week! Fans got a last minute World Title match between Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston, witnessed the exhilarating return of Cody and a challenge laid out by Brodie Lee, the NWA and AEW Women’s champions join forces, and Orange Cassidy give it his all to dethrone the aforementioned Exalted One of The Dark Order!
This week will no doubt be another thrilling one with the World Tag Team Titles on the line in what Tully Blanchard is dubbing “A Brush With Greatness”, Darby and Starks finally colliding, Isiah Kassidy getting the biggest singles match of his life, Cody responding the Lee’s challenge, Kingston setting up Mox, and more!
It’s coming your way at 8pm EST/7pm CST this Wednesday night on TNT, and on AEWPlus.com for all our amazing international fans! And do not forget to check out AEW DARK on our official YouTube channel (Watch Here) for nine tremendous matches, including SCU in action on the eve of their title match, Nyla Rose back in competition, Jurassic Express, Tay Conti, The Natural Nightmares, Dark Order, and more!
AEW WORLD TITLE MATCH & THE MAD KING’S CHOICE…
AEW World Champion Jon Moxley vs. Kingston’s Choice
One week ago, in a match set-up mere hours before DYNAMITE went on the air, “The Mad King” Eddie Kingston was granted an AEW World Title Match against Jon Moxley. The title opportunity came after several weeks of hearing Kingston accurately point out that he was not technically eliminated from the Casino Battle Royale at ALL OUT 2020 by the man who was declared the victor, Lance Archer. And while Archer is still set to receive a championship match on October 14th at the DYNAMITE ANNIVERSARY event, it became a question of just who he would be fighting that Wednesday night.
When the final bell rang, after Referee Bryce Remsburg called for the stoppage via Bulldog Choke, it was Jon Moxley still able to refer to himself as champ, and a bewildered Kingston left confused as to what happened once he regained his wits. What Eddie witnessed as he came to though was indeed a tremendous sight if you were in his shoes, Penta El Zero M and Rey Fenix laying waste to the worn out World Champion, and even the appearance of Will Hobbs wasn’t enough to save Mox. Darby Allin even attempted a rescue, but that was for naught when Ricky Starks crashed the party as well.
In the end, it was a scene of total carnage as Kingston, Penta, Fenix, and Starks, with Taz at their side, stood over the battered bodies of Mox, Allin, and Hobbs. Doesn’t take a crystal ball to predict the obvious point that Moxley wants some righteous vengeance.
And he will get it come Wednesday night, after a fashion, as “The Mad King” himself has been given a chance to select the World Champion’s opponent for the evening, and the AEW World Title will be on the line!
But who will get this chance to dethrone the champ? The most likely candidate would be one of Eddie’s allies, such as Penta El Zero M or Rey Fenix, but it could really be any member of the roster that Kingston feels could defeat the champ. Perhaps Eddie, much like Jake Roberts, made a deal with a devil of the Tasmanian breed? Could he pull someone from outside AEW to get this golden opportunity? Given the roads he has traveled, and the lives he has encountered, there ar a plethora of names out there Eddie could hand-pick for this plush role!
THE NIGHTMARE LIVES…
Almost seven weeks ago fans witnessed the decimation of The Nightmare Family, as well as the end of Cody’s historic run as the first ever TNT Champion, at the hands of Mr. Brodie Lee and The Dark Order. It was a brutal assault that sent “The American Nightmare” out of the arena on a stretcher, left Arn Anderson laid out, and Brandi Rhodes choked out by Anna Jay.
Although Brandi would return to the AEW stage in short order, even fighting Anna Jay in a losing effort on LATE NIGHT DYNAMITE, Cody had not been heard from the entire time. That is until after Brodie bested Orange Cassidy in his second defense of the TNT Championship, and KINGDOM reverberated through Daily’s Place to herald the return of “The American Nightmare”!
Clad in all black, with his bright blonde hair also benighted, the figurehead of The Nightmare Family went into all out assault mode on The Dark Order while their standard bearer fled from the scene to escape Cody’s fury. So embrace the irony of Lee then issuing the following challenge to the former TNT Champion as if he was the one who needed to be entrapped to compete:
A Dog Collar match; that is now what Cody must decide, and what he will inform us all about this Wednesday night when DYNAMITE takes to the airwaves. Will Cody willing chain himself, at the neck, to a monster like Mr. Brodie Lee in order to get his revenge for the assault almost two months ago? Will “The American Nightmare” subject himself to a stipulation that has proven throughout pro wrestling history to turn into one of the most violent exhibitions contested inside the squared circle?
It may seem like a foregone conclusion, after all this is the same man who willingly took ten lashes in the ring and went into a cage with Wardlow in order to get what he wanted at REVOLUTION, but nothing is to be taken for granted. Cody may have a stipulation of his own in mind when it comes to Mr. Brodie Lee, when it comes to that TNT Championship that you know he wants back, and it may not involved strapping a chain around his throat. It does keep Brodie chained to him, but it also leaves Cody chained to Lee in a position potentially making him fair game to the rest of The Dark Order.
Which way will “The American Nightmare” sway when it comes to this Dog Collar decision? We shall see soon enough…
AEW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH
***20 MINUTE TIME LIMIT***
FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood w/ Tully Blanchard) (c) vs. SCU (Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky)
A brush with greatness is what Tully Blanchard referred to this as last week on DYNAMITE, the opportunity for tag teams to get into the ring with the World Tag Team Champions and attempt to wrest the belts from their grasp. The stipulation attached to this by Blanchard though involved getting the time limit for these title matches changed from the traditional one hour time limit, down to a twenty minute bout. Cash, Dax, and Blanchard figure that if their opponents cannot beat them in that time limit, then it will go down as a win for FTR, rather than a time limit draw, and the champs will move onto the next challengers. Keep in mind with this, it took Wheeler and Harwood just shy of a half-hour to beat Hangman Page and Kenny Omega to become the third ever AEW World Tag Team Champions.
So for the first-ever title match under these new guidelines, FTR reached out not to any of the teams in the top five rankings, but rather to the first-ever AEW World Tag Team Champions Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky! It marks the duo’s second opportunity to reclaim the belts, having challenged Page & Hangman unsuccessfully in a rematch a few weeks after their championship loss, and just their second tag team bout since June 9th (the first being on DARK this Tuesday).
They are indeed a championship caliber pair, but Kazarian and Sky are a little out of practice with nearly eight months having passed since that return bout with Page & Hangman. It almost feels as if FTR doesn’t believe this SCU pairing has a shot, possibly enhanced by the fact they beat the Chris Daniels and Kazarian pairing in June, and are throwing them the bone also as a slap in the face to Best Friends, Jurassic Express, and the other top five units.
Perhaps FTR needs to check their AEW history books to see that SCU captured the World Tag Team Titles the first time by beating The Lucha Brothers in just over twelve minutes, and that it took Cash and Dax nearly fourteen to accomplish the same feat. The arrogance of the champs could prove to be their undoing…
GRUDGE MATCH…
Darby Allin vs. “Absolute” Ricky Starks w/ Taz
Darby Allin has been suffering at the hands of Team Taz for far too long, from the night Brian Cage made his AEW debut in the Casino Ladder Match at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2020 to the mockery of Ricky Starks dressing up like The Relentless One to being powerbombed inside a bodybag filled with thumbtacks. He has been attacked, belittled, and mocked at every turn by Taz’s crew, and has been unable to give it back like you know he wishes he could. Even this past week on DYNAMITE, when he attempted to help Jon Moxley, Darby ended up the victim of Ricky Starks one more time.
As for Mister Absolute, well to say he has been absolutely fabulous since making his All Elite Wrestling debut would be underselling the man. Aside from his initial loss to Cody in that TNT Championship match, Starks has not been beat in a singles match, and is coming off his biggest victory yet over Christopher Daniels on the September 22nd edition of DARK.
What has to float around in Starks’ head coming into this, despite Team Taz’s general domination of Darby, is the fact that his only other loss came in a tag team match where Allin pinned Ricky after some help from a skateboard adorned in thumbtacks. That humiliating loss is what Starks has been chasing ever since, but no pain inflicted on Darby can take that notch out of the L column.
With Darby, he looks to make last week the last time he ends up suffering at the hands of Ricky Starks. He aims to leave “Absolute” laying the same way he did back in July, and perhaps put Team Taz in his rearview. Allin has made his goals in AEW very clear time and again, to claim a championship as his own, but he cannot get back to that mission until this beast has been laid to waste.
THE CHALLENGE…
“The DemoGod” Chris Jericho vs. Isiah Kassidy
One other match since 2015, just one other singles match; that is what Isiah Kassidy said on his Twitter (@isiahkassidy) in reference to this impending one-on-one match with former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho. Much like when his compatriot Marq Quen challenged Cody for the TNT Championship, this one is certainly outside the comfort zone of Kassidy, but it does not matter. Kassidy has nothing to lose by taking this shot, by giving Jericho the kind of fight “The DemoGod” is certainly not expecting, and leaving it all in the ring.
Kassidy has taken up this fight in defense of his mentor Matt Hardy, and in defense of himself following the utter disrespect that took place after Jericho and Jake Hager beat Private Party in a tag team bout on September 16th. Even though The Inner Circle pairing had won the match, it was not good enough for Chris and he elected to apply the Walls of Jericho on Kassidy after the match had concluded. Marq Quen may have been able to break it up and ward Jericho off, but the insult was not forgotten.
So last week when Jericho and The Inner Circle elected to interrupt Matt Hardy’s attempt to talk to the fans, both Hardy and Quen offered themselves up to fight the self-proclaimed “Million Viewer Man”, but Isiah stepped up to the plate, and the rest can be seen in the video above.
The saying goes “you miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take” and Kassidy is taking the biggest shot he can by going toe-to-toe with Jericho as he approaches his thirty year anniversary celebration on the October 7th DYNAMITE. Win or lose, fans will remember that Kassidy stepped up to the former champ and said bring it on…
ONE-ON-ONE…
“Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy vs. Dark Order’s Ten
Coming off a crushing defeat at the hands of Mr. Brodie Lee in his TNT Championship contest, Orange Cassidy is getting right back in the ring to fight one of the man’s lackies. Having suffered an injury shortly afterwards, the man formerly known as Preston Vance has not competed in a singles match since May when Jon Moxley beat him on DYNAMITE.
But Ten, recovered and restored, return to action for The Dark Order on the September 4th DARK in an attempt to stop the Natural Nightmares just before their ALL OUT 2020 battle against Brodie Lee and his men. Ten and Five were unsuccessful that night, but fared much better in their next tag team go-round on the 9/22 DARK episode. Still, regardless of Ten’s recovery and that tag team victory, those opponents were not Cassidy caliber and it was not a fight where he had to stand alone inside the ring with his opponent.
Cassidy, possibly feeling a frustration boiling up after losing his first AEW championship opportunity, will likely be looking to fight his way back into contention. As fans witnessed during Orange’s bitter rivalry with Chris Jericho, underneath the who cares exterior beats the heart of a warrior, one who packs a helluva punch, and will be looking to knock Ten out.
THE DOCTOR IS IN…
The good doctor has been relatively quiet since losing the Tooth and Nail fight at “ALL OUT 2020” to Big Swole, but Dr. Britt Baker makes her return to the AEW stage this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE! What will she have to say for herself, and who will she step into the ring with for her first match in nearly a month? Tune into TNT to find out what the future holds for AEW’s resident dental expert!
An all new DYNAMITE is bringing the boom to you this Wednesday night on TNT, kicking off at 8pm EST/7pm CST, and on AEWPlus.com for all our international fans! With the tag titles on the line, the World Champion in action, Cody back in the house, and plenty more on tap, AEW is showing once more why DYNAMITE is THE must-see wrestling event each and every week!
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