All Elite Wrestling is coming back to Huntsville, AL and the Probst Arena for an all-new DYNAMITE! It's been nearly a year since our last visit to Rocket City, but AEW is ready to blast off with the best professional wrestling action from the place where the best wrestle! Tonight we will witness TBS Champion Mercedes Moné enter her 13th title defense, this time against Yuka Sakazaki, after “The Magical Girl” earned her shot with a victory in COLLISION's Four-Way fight. Plus, “The Last Outlaw” Jeff Jarrett faces Claudio Castagnoli with a potential AEW World Title fight against Jon Moxley hanging in the balance, and “The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay renews his fight with The Don Callis Family when he takes on “The Machine” Brian Cage in singles competition! All that and more is coming to the AEW faithful tonight on DYNAMITE!
DYNAMITE begins at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT streaming on MAX, on TBS, and around the world via AEW PLUS and TSN in Canada, so be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel to catch-up on highlights from last week's editions of DYNAMITE and COLLISION, HEY!(EW) with The Hurt Syndicate, and so much more! Then join us on Saturday for COLLISION at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m, then it's off to Atlanta, GA for the first time in five years as AEW debuts at The Gateway Center with a DYNAMITE featuring the long-awaited clash between Swerve Strickland and Ricochet!
TBS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
“The CEO” Mercedes Moné(c) vs. “The Magical Girl” Yuka Sakazaki
This past Saturday night during COLLISION: HOMECOMING 2025, “The Magical Girl” Yuka Sakazaki earned a TBS Championship match via Four-Way victory over Queen Aminata, Serena Deeb, and “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo. It was Purrazzo who ended up on the wrong end of Yuka's pin in Jacksonville, but for the multi-time Tokyo Joshi Pro Princess of Princesses champion that meant the right path to a TBS Championship match!
Luckily for Yuka she does not have to wait long for her opportunity because tonight in Huntsville she will square off with “Four Belts” Moné with that TBS Title on the line! Reigning as champion since DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 when she defeated Willow Nightingale, Mercedes has successfully retained this title on 12 occasions, as well as acquired the NJPW STRONG Women's Title and the RevPro Undisputed British Women's Championship (consisting of RevPro's British Women's Championship belt and Southside Wrestling Entertainment's Queen of Southside belt) along the way. As if that wasn't impressive enough, Mercedes remains undefeated in AEW at 14-0 and she's 16-0 since returning to action at DON '24 following her near career-ending injury. It's hard to say if any another competitor has had as impressive an eight-month run as “The CEO”, but Yuka Sakazaki aims to bring it to an end tonight on DYNAMITE to bring some celebration to her frustrating last eight.
An injury last April knocked “The Magical Girl” out of competition for five months, however when she returned to action, Yuka earned her way into an unsuccessful Women's World Championship challenge against Mariah May at DYNAMITE: GRAND SLAM 2024. She fought one more match in 2024 for Ring of Honor as part of HONOR CLUB #86, but was once again out of action between that October 17th bout and her return to Tokyo Joshi Pro on January 4th. Yuka returned strong though, scoring victory in that TJPW tag team bout, as well as in a trios match at NJPW's BATTLE IN THE VALLEY 2025, followed by last Saturday night's Four-Way win on COLLISION.
Suffice to say Yuka is ready to get right back in the fight tonight in Huntsville and bring the reign of Mercedes Moné to an end while she's seemingly got her thoughts fixed on what GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA has on tap for her in two weeks time
Will the champion celebrate her 33rd birthday with a 13th successful title defense, or will that prove to be The CEO's unlucky number?
ONE-ON-ONE...
“The Last Outlaw” Jeff Jarrett vs. AEW World Trios Champion Claudio Castagnoli
***IF JEFF WINS, HE EARNS A TITLE MATCH WITH JON MOXLEY***
All “The Last Outlaw” Jeff Jarrett wants before his career comes to a close is to wear the AEW World Championship around his waist. He attempted to earn that opportunity in the Casino Gauntlet on January 8th but Wheeler Yuta prevented that from happening on behalf of AEW World Champion Jon Moxley and The Death Riders. That setback didn't end Jarrett's aspirations, it just meant he had to find another way to earn said championship opportunity. Tonight on DYNAMITE that opportunity is at hand when “The Last Outlaw” steps into the ring with Claudio Castagnoli for their very first singles match! The only other time these two competitors shared a ring was as participants in the 2024 Royal Rampage back on July 26th, but that night they shared the ring with 18 other individuals.
In Huntsville, AL it is just the two of them going to battle, and Claudio's sole purpose is to insure that no one gets to Jon Moxley without going through him first. Can Double J find a way to do just that? He may have the experience edge on Castagnoli, but Claudio has every physical advantage over his foe that a wrestler could ask for! If Jarrett doesn't earn his shot at Mox tonight, the opportunity may not come again before Jeff's final contract comes to an end...
SINGLES MATCH...
“The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay vs. “The Machine” Brian Cage
Seven months ago on COLLISION Will Ospreay stepped into the ring with “The Machine” Brian Cage and put his AEW International Championship on the line! At that time, Ospreay was just eight days away from his first (and thus far only) AEW World Championship match going down against Swerve Strickland at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024. At that point, before Cage sold his soul to The Don Callis Family, he actually fought the battle on his own and lasted nearly 18 minutes with “The Aerial Assassin” before Will connected with a Hidden Blade for the victory.
Fast forward to tonight's rematch between these two warriors on DYNAMITE, and we've got quite a different scenario. There may not be any championships involved, but there is the potential for a whole mess of Don Callis Family involvement ever since “The Machine” signed his name on that dotted line. Last Wednesday night on DYNAMITE we witnessed the kind of chaos that exists with these intense hostilities between the DCF, Kenny Omega, and Will Ospreay, and we know that Omega and Ospreay will face AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher at GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA in a little over two weeks, so that puts a great deal of pressure on both competitors.
Ospreay needs to score his second AEW singles (and 4th career) victory over Cage to continue building momentum against The DCF ahead of the trip to Brisbane on February 15th while Cage needs his first-ever “W” over Ospreay to give his people some control over the situation. There's a whole lot on the line tonight at the Probst Arena; will Ospreay be standing tall as he and Omega did last week, or will “The Machine” dismantle “The Aerial Assassin” on Don Callis' behalf?
GRUDGE MATCH...
“Switchblade” Jay White vs. AEW World Trios Champion Wheeler Yuta
Wheeler Yuta has been a thorn in the side of Jay White for several weeks now; from costing him victory at WORLDS END 2024 by hitting referee Paul Turner to stop Jay's certain victory over Jon Moxley in the Four-Way World Title match. He's been a problem over and over again, but tonight “Switchblade” aims to take care of that pest in their very first AEW singles encounter!
They've got their history, starting with their only other singles match on the 9/25/21 NJPW STRONG show, however prior to DYNAMITE: HOLIDAY BASH 2024 they'd never shared the ring in All Elite Wrestling before, and after tonight Jay White hopes he never has to deal with Yuta again!
MJF TALKS..AND TALKS...AND TALKS
He talks and talks and talks and talks, and while he has an exceptional gift for running his mouth, Maxwell Jacob Friedman also has an exceptional gift for running from the fight. Jeff Jarrett wasn't wholly wrong when he said that MJF would rather take the easy route to another championship opportunity than to earn it himself, if wanted to put in the risk without the guarantee of reward he could've entered the Casino Gauntlet just like “The Last Outlaw”, Hangman Page, Jay White, and eventual winner Powerhouse Hobbs. If Max wanted to earn his way to a title bout, he'd shut his mouth, lace up his boots, and do something he's only done twice since ALL OUT 2024: fight.
Instead Max talks and talks and talks and avoids doing what he proved himself more than capable of doing during that record-setting 406-day World Title reign. During that time, he defeated Jon Moxley to earn the belt, he beat Bryan Danielson, he beat Adam Cole, he beat Samoa Joe, he even defeated the legendary “Ace of New Japan” Hiroshi Tanahashi, just to name a few of his successful defenses. Yet now, putting in the works seems to be the farthest thing from Max's mind while everyone else with those same championship aspirations is getting in the ring to fight for it.
Perhaps this unwillingness to fight is why he tucked tail and walked away when faced with Hangman Page last week:
Tonight on DYNAMITE, it seems we will hear MJF do what he does best as he talks, talks, talks about what he wants, but unlike two years ago when he first wore the crown, now seems quite gun shy about actually doing what it takes to get it...
DYNAMITE kicks off at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on TBS, streaming on MAX, as well as around the world with AEW PLUS and TSN in Canada! Tonight TBS Champion Mercedes Moné defends her title against Yuka Sakazaki, Jeff Jarrett pursues an AEW World Title fight when he takes on Claudio Castagnoli, and Will Ospreay renews his rivalry with The Don Callis Family when he faces “The Machine” Brian Cage! Before the action gets underway, make a point to drop by AEW's official YouTube channel to watch highlights from last week's episodes of DYNAMITE and COLLISION, as well as HEY!(EW) with The Hurt Syndicate, and so much more! Then it's COLLISION on Saturday starting at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m on TNT, followed by AEW's long-awaited return to Atlanta, GA as we present DYNAMITE from The Gateway Center and Swerve Strickland versus Ricochet!