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***CONTAINS SPOILERS*** Tony Schiavone, Kenny Omega, and “The American Nightmare” Cody kicked off the show from the broadcast table, running down tonight’s card! And the opening contest was “The American Nightmare” Cody vs. Jimmy Havoc! Brandi Rhodes was the ring announcer tonight! She gave Cody a kiss as he entered the ring. Havoc got Cody down with some leg sweeps, and an arm drag. Cody used his bulk and brawn to push Havoc into the corner, but Havoc rolled through for a near fall. “I think the more this match becomes a mat-based contest, the more it favors Cody,” said Kenny Omega. Cody hit a cutter off the ropes, and then went for a figure four leg-lock. Havoc poked Cody’s eyes to break the hold. Cody knocked Havoc outside and then blasted him with a tope suicida! They brawled on the outside, and this style favored Havoc. Jimmy Havoc suplexed Cody into the turnbuckle, wrenching Cody’s legs on the ropes in the process. Havoc stomped on Cody’s hands and right elbow. Cody went back to the entrance tunnel, ran down the ramp, and used a running lariat on Jimmy Havoc…”shades of the Great Muta!” said Tony Schiavone. Cody attempted a cutter but was caught in an arm bar by Havoc! Cody rolled to the ropes, and Havoc took him down with a clothesline. Jimmy Havoc was laying in the shots in the corner, but Cody put the brakes on it. Down to the mat they crashed as Cody gave Havoc a reverse suplex! Cody spiked Havoc with two CrossRhodes for the victory via pin fall! Jake “the Snake” Roberts had a message for Cody, played over the big screen. Cody watched from inside the ring. “Lance Archer is chomping at the bit just to get in the ring with somebody from All Elite Wrestling,” Jake said. “Here I am, the best mind that wrestling’s ever had, yet not a phone call when All Elite Wrestling started last year. And not a phone call for Lance Archer, who was in Japan, romping and stomping. Because you guys were afraid. Bring your people. Bring Arn Anderson. Bring all of ‘em. Give us something to sign that says you, Cody, will meet us, one time. One time! That’s all I’m asking for Cody. What are you going to do? It’s up to you, Cody. Trust me.” Cody joined Tony Schiavone at the broadcast table. Tony asked Cody about Jake’s challenge. “I’m aware of Lance Archer’s work in Japan, but he doesn’t have a body of work here. I don’t want to be a whiny babyface so Lance can debut next week. Spoiler!” replied Cody. Next was “SuperBad” Kip Sabian (with Penelope Ford) vs. Darby Allin! “Do you get the young Sting vibes when you look at Darby Allin?” asked Cody. “I get that,” replied Schiavone. Darby got tremendous elevation off the top rope and pulled Kip down with an arm drag. Things escalated quickly on the outside of the ring, with Darby getting launched into the metal barricade. Penelope Ford got physically involved in the match, and Cody compared her to legendary pro wrestling valet Baby Doll. Darby smashed Kip with the John Woo dropkick, and then a stunner, good for a two count! From the ring apron, Ford grabbed Darby’s legs, giving Kip enough time to switch gears. Kip smacked Darby with a right hook, but Darby pulled out the win using the Last Supper leg submission! “Big Hurt” Jake Hager squared up with Chico Adams! Hager rammed Chico into the corner post. He followed up with a Vader Bomb! Chico tried to fight back but Hager squashed him with a chokeslam. Hager put him to sleep with an arm triangle in a quick, decisive victory! The AEW World Champion Jon Moxley walked down to the ring. Moxley wasted no time and nailed Hager with the Paradigm Shift! Hager rolled up and snatched Moxley’s leg, applying the ankle lock! Hager retreated out of the ring as Mox swung the AEW championship belt at him! There was a camera backstage and Mox had some choice words for Hager. “I’m 100% good to go, cleared for action, and I’m ready for blood! When this belt is on the line, you’re not walking away, you’re getting carted out on a stretcher, or I’m gonna die trying!” In a video package taped earlier, Brodie Lee was shown eating a steak dinner as two of his Dark Order minions waited for permission at the table to have their first bite. “Strength in numbers. This is the new Dark Order. We do what we want, when we want to now, ok? You understand that? We are the lions of AEW. We prey on the weak. What is wrong with you two? You don’t eat before I’m done. You understand that? That’ll smarten you!” yelled the Exalted One. QT Marshall vs. “The Exalted One” Brodie Lee was next! “QT has an uphill battle for sure,” said Cody on commentary. Brodie booted QT to the mat! He slammed QT into the metal barricade on the outside. Brodie used a running back elbow in the corner and then two vertical suplexes! “QT may have a stinger,” said Cody. Brodie picked up QT and after a few glimmers of hope from QT’s offense, Brodie gave him a spinning sidewalk slam. Brodie then turned QT inside out with a discus lariat. Brodie was victorious in his AEW debut! One of the minions dropped a Dark Order mask onto the torso of QT Marshall, who was writhing in pain. Tony Schiavone said there was an update on Nick Jackson’s condition, brought to us via Vanguard 1 (v 2.0). The drone flew down to Nick Jackson’s house in Rancho Cucamonga, California, where it transmitted its signal. Vanguard 1 spied Nick training his way back to good health! Jackson’s recovery was reported as being at 61%! In an AAA Mega Campeon Championship Match—Kenny Omega defended the title against “Spanish God” Sammy Guevara! “Sammy needs to stay light on his feet here,” said Tony Schiavone. Sammy and Kenny grappled on the mat until Sammy gouged Kenny’s face. They went to the outside and traded chops, slugging it out. Sammy lured Kenny in and clocked him with a forearm! Sammy ducked a clothesline but Kenny followed up with a vertical suplex onto the floor. “I love Kenny but he’s a shark and he smells blood,” said Cody. Kenny went up top for a crossbody block on Sammy. Kenny missed a splash and Sammy countered with an arm bar. Kenny forced the break when he touched the ropes. Sammy continued to work over Kenny’s arm and hand. Sammy missed a moonsault and Kenny capitalized with strikes and a head-butt. Somehow Sammy managed to roll up Kenny with a pinning combination but Kenny kicked out! The AAA Mega Campeon was in trouble as Sammy was connecting with serious shots to Kenny’s jaw! Sammy was rocked with a swift boot from Kenny! He followed that up with double ax handles to Sammy G.! Kenny hooked Sammy and attempted a snapdragon suplex but Sammy rolled out and stomped onto the Cleaner with double boots to the midsection! Sammy used the ropes to springboard and drop Kenny with a cutter! Sammy was caught by Kenny, who powerbombed the Spanish God, then used a V-Trigger! Sammy escaped a Liger Bomb attempt by Kenny! Sammy missed a shooting star press, as Kenny moved just in the nick of time! Kenny wiped out Sammy with a V-Trigger, and then another! Sammy flipped out of Kenny’s snapdragon suplex, but Kenny outsmarted Sammy with the J-Driller! Kenny Omega grabbed the victory after the One-Winged Angel! Le Champion Chris Jericho and Matt Hardy met face to face inside an AEW ring for the first time! “Those arrogant S.O.B.’s got Matt Hardy to pledge his allegiance to The Elite last week. Come down to the ring Matt Hardy.” Vanguard 1 flew down to the ring instead. Jericho said Vanguard 1 was a piece of trash. And then Jericho asked the drone to join The Inner Circle. Vanguard 1 flew away and it outraged Jericho. Matt Hardy was standing at the top of the arena, and then in the blink of an eye, he was teleporting to different parts of the arena, until finally appearing ringside. “Maker of pain, you knew I’d come!” said Matt Hardy. “How did you do that?” asked Jericho. “Because I am magic!” replied Matt Hardy. “When you show up in AEW, you want to align yourself with me, not with the arrogant Elite,” said Jericho. “No, I owe the Bucks of Youth a debt, because they helped resurrect me. And AEW represents freedom. It is my Arcadia. And I cannot allow you and The Inner Circle to run roughshod on AEW!” said Hardy. “I’m gonna give you another shot to join The Inner Circle.” “I am Damascus. And Damascus is over 3,000 years old,” said Hardy. “Then you must be extremely wise. Outside you look very different. But inside you’re the same Matt Hardy that I’ve known for 25 years. Always living in the shadow. The shadow of your brother, the shadow of bad booking, and now the shadow of Le Champion. I’m gonna ask you one more time: are you Inner Circle or are you Elite?” asked Jericho. “Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete!” shouted Matt Hardy. Hardy continued: “Take off your sunglasses because I want you to take a good look at the entity that will delete you and The Inner Circle!” Jericho slapped Hardy, but Hardy punched back, knocking Jericho to the mat! Sammy G. jumped Hardy from behind. Kenny Omega and Cody ran down to help Matt Hardy, swinging steel chairs at Sammy and Le Champion! Catch all the explosive action as AEW DYNAMITE is broadcast on TNT next week! ...

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With the world in an unpredictable state right now, All Elite Wrestling comes to you once again this Wednesday night with another exciting edition of “Dynamite” on TNT! Hitting the airwaves LIVE at 8pm EST/7PM CST, the athletes of AEW aim to bring to you the unique and exciting in-ring action fans have to come to anticipate with each & every event! Last week's chaos saw the arrival of Matt Hardy to apparently aid The Elite in their eventual Blood & Guts battle with The Inner Circle, and Brodie Lee revealed himself as The Exalted One behind The Dark Order! This week we've got the AAA Championship match between champion Kenny Omega and challenger Sammy Guevara, and one hell of an interesting singles match-up on tap between Cody and Jimmy Havoc! Plus, for the first time in their mutual history, former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho and “Broken” Matt Hardy (or perhaps it's Damascus as Matt has referred to in tweets and on #FREETHEDELETE (Watch Here) will have an in-ring battle of words. ***RANKINGS AS OF MARCH 18TH*** HARDY AND JERICHO... December of 1999 marked the first time Chris Jericho and Matt Hardy competed against one another inside the squared circle. It was just a random handicap tag match in New York City, the three-on-two variety, and it would mark one of barely thirty confrontations over the course of the next decade. Their final meeting was just over a decade ago, a singles match in February 2010 in Memphis, and each man would go their totally separate ways from that point forward. Their paths have been quite different, each one evolving in drastically different fashions from the other, and expanding their horizons (physical, spiritual, mental, etc) far beyond the original habitat which the two shared. To say they are as far beyond where they started as they are far apart from one another wouldn't do justice to the evolution of either individual. And yet, in all that time, despite the varied fashions in which they have battled one another, Jericho and Hardy have never found themselves engaged in a head-to-head war of words. Both are quite gifted in that aspect of their game, but Hardy (in his current incarnation) comes at his opponents from a realm far beyond the ken of your average bear. It's metaphorical, psychological, bizarre, and yet still cuts just as deep the very direct insults of Jericho's verbiage. The former World Champ leans towards the very direct, very crass, occasionally juvenile brand of insult, but still has no problem going straight for the jugular when the moment strikes. Pit these two minds against one another this week on “Dynamite”, and see what kind of verbal trauma is unleashed... AAA MEGA CAMPEON CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH (#3) Kenny Omega (c) vs. Sammy Guevara It has been over 150 days since Kenny defeated Rey Fenix at “Heroes Immortales XIII” in Veracruz, Mexico, and in that time he has successfully defended the championship on two occasions. One against Dragon Lee at “Triplemania Regia” in December, and the other. a few weeks prior against Jack Evans on an episode of “AEW Dark” from Indianapolis. But this 3rd defense will mark the first time Omega has defended his championship on “Dynamite”, and the first time a non-AEW Title is defended on an event since “All Out” when the AAA Tag Titles were defended in La Escalera de la Muerte between The Young Bucks and The Lucha Bros. This is a history-making contest going down on “Dynamite” this week, and who better to be involved than Kenny Omega. A week ago, his Elite brethren said they were in need of the version of Kenny worthy of being dubbed “The Best Bout Machine” and “The Best Wrestler In The World”, and this match will be the chance to show them just how strong that Omega lives inside the heart of the man. But, it's also the perfect spotlight for “The Spanish God” Sammy Guevara to showcase what he has inside. The talent is clearly there, after all Chris Jericho isn't going to waste his time recruiting someone without top shelf skill into The Inner Circle, and he has the quality of wins against men like Christopher Daniels and Dustin Rhodes to back it up (nevermind how he may have gotten there). He also has some AAA experience of his own, last competing there in August of 2019 on the same “Triplemania XXVII” card where The Young Bucks & Cody were defeated by The Lucha Bros & Laredo Kid. But here in AEW, this opportunity is undoubtedly the biggest one Sammy has experienced. That is not short-changing the two matches mentioned above, nor the ones opposite Darby Allin, Jon Moxley, or his failed bid at capturing the World Tag Team Titles from SCU with Chris Jericho. Rather this chance is one all his own, his first crack at a singles title since coming to AEW, and in the Mega Campeon Title, one with a strong lineage that includes Rey Fenix and Dr. Wagner Jr. in its history. Oh, and one last thing to keep in mind when watching this match; the shadow of Blood & Guts looms strongly over this one, just as it will any time a member of The Elite and The Inner Circle square off until the day inevitably comes that they are all locked inside that massive steel structure. ONE-ON-ONE... (#4) Cody vs. Jimmy Havoc Undefeated in 2020, wins in four out of his last five matches, and one of the most intimidating presences on the AEW roster. One would think that Cody was the competitor being described here, but it is in fact Jimmy Havoc carrying those impressive statistics into this Wednesday night's edition of “Dynamite”. That being said, Cody only carries two blemishes on his 2020 record and the lone singles defeat comes from the battle against MJF at the “Revolution” PPV event. He was taken to the limit, but won, against Darby Allin, survived a Cage Match against “The War Dog” Wardlow, and Cody even survived the ten brutal lashings from Max. He has been pushed to his physical and emotional limits already in 2020, just shy of four months into the year, but has persevered in the face of it all. Yet he still has not seen anything like Jimmy Havoc. Well that's not entirely true, three years ago they did compete against one another in a singles bout in Georgia, but both have grown so much in the time since that April 2017 evening. Unfortunately for Cody, much of Jimmy's growth has been of a rather violent, sadistic bent, and many a man in AEW has experienced that firsthand. Still, blood and guts is only a part of what Havoc brings to the table. He has demonstrated on numerous occasions throughout his career as equally capable of grappling and chain wrestling as he is wrapping a chain around his fist to punch a face. Havoc brings something to the table much harder to predict than possibly any opponent Cody has faced in AEW, and in the rather unpredictable situation that Wednesday nights have become, Havoc may be the one best suited to thrive. SINGLES MATCH Kip Sabian vs. Darby Allin Two men who have been labeled as the future of professional wrestling, yet two men who could not be more different on every level save their desires to be the best at what they do (even if sometimes what they do is not very nice). Sabian definitely ticks all the boxes: stylish, attractive, beautiful girl on his arm, damn good at his chosen profession, he knows it, and intends to make sure everyone else knows it too. Not bad things necessarily, but the arrogance that comes with the Sabian/Penelope Ford package, the sense of entitlement, the willingness to bend (or break) the rules at leisure, those are the things that can make even the most talented individuals in the world utterly insufferable. Darby Allin, on the other hand, is someone who has proven, since even before he set foot in the ring, that he's willing to grind it out to accomplish his goals. He's been homeless, he's done the monotonous hours of driving for little-to-no money while cutting his teeth, he's suffered career threatening injuries during the evolution of his career, yet has stood in face of that opposition and said “more”. No matter the bump or bruise, whatever the hurdle of life, Darby has remained, as his tattoo says, relentless, and his career thus far in AEW is testament to that. He was the man who stood up when Jon Moxley demanded a fight. He was the one who took Cody to a time limit draw the first time out, and then pushed “The American Nightmare” to his limits in the rematch. Several weeks ago, just days removed from “Revolution”, he even fought Sammy Guevara and Chris Jericho BY HIMSELF, after The Inner Circle assaulted Moxley to remove from the match. Do any of these things sound like something Kip Sabian would step up to, much less ask for himself? Does he have the inner reserves of Darby to fight every second as if life depended on it? Fans will find out this week on “Dynamite” when Sabian takes on Darby in their very first televised singles match! During the Jericho Cruise back in January, the two competitors had a match only witnessed by the fans on the ship, and that ended in a victory for Darby. But this one carries the weight of live TV and getting witnessed worldwide, and, most importantly, of being reflected in the AEW record books. Who will step up to the challenge in that contest? And what will happen with Jericho and Hardy in the ring together? Can Guevara ascend to that next level, or will The Best Bout Machine rear its head for this AAA Mega Campeon title bout? Will it be Havoc or Cody who has their hand raised in that singles contest? All this and more comes to our fans this Wednesday night on “AEW Dynamite”, dropping on your television screens at 8pm EST/7pm CST! ...

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