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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