We are live and in living color this week for AEW “Dynamite”,coming to you at 8pm EST/7pm CST on TNT! Last week the Finals of the TNT Championship Tournament were set with Cody and “The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer defeating their respective opponents. With their collision scheduled for “Double or Nothing” on May 23rd, who knows what the next several weeks may bring between the two men! We saw Marko Stunt give it his all against Mr. Brodie Lee but fall to “The Exalted One”, we witnessed Wardlow decimate a man, as well as The Best Friends come out on top in a crazy tag team battle with Kip Sabian and Jimmy Havoc!
This week it's another loaded event with the World Champion in action against a former World Tag Team Champion, both Cody and Lance Archer competing, and the momentous AEW in-ring debut of “Broken” Matt Hardy with a huge Street Fight!! All this and more is coming on “Dynamite”!
***RANKINGS AS OF 4/29***
TAG TEAM STREET FIGHT...
LE SEX GODS (CHRIS JERICHO & SAMMY GUEVARA) VS. “BROKEN” MATT HARDY & KENNY OMEGA
Many weeks ago, “Broken” Matt Hardy made a shocking debut on “Dynamite” to align himself with The Elite in opposition to Chris Jericho and The Inner Circle. Another week brought us Jericho and Hardy exchanging words inside the squared circle, words that ultimately led to physical interaction betwixt the two men, and left fans hungry for more. We even got to witness Vanguard-1 paying Jericho a visit at the former World Champion's Compound where the Drone was courted to join The Inner Circle!
Since then though, the circumstances of the world have kept Hardy from being with All Elite Wrestling in-person, but still using assorted social medias to communicate, to even invite The Inner Circle to his compound, and to share his feelings (those of Damascus as well as Matt himself) on Jericho and his allies. Meanwhile Le Champion has used his position at the commentary booth to disperse his thoughts about anything, everything, and everyone.
But that all ends this week on “Dynamite” when Matt Hardy will align with one of The Elite to makes his highly anticipated in-ring debut for AEW! Hardy and one-half of the World Tag Team Champions, Kenny Omega, will collide with the self-dubbed “Le Sex Gods”, Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara, in a Street Fight!
Taken as individuals, Matt Hardy has proven time and again, to be one of the most accomplished tag team wrestlers of the last two decades while Chris Jericho has also experienced his own share of tag team championship glory during his storied career. Kenny Omega is currently seated at the top of the tag team mountain in AEW with Hangman Page, while Sammy Guevara has been under the Jericho learning tree in The Inner Circle with several tag victories under their belts.
There is a wealth of experience on both sides of this contest, and even though the pairing of Jericho and Guevara have the clear advantage competing as a team, the nature of this beast may just render that point moot. Does a team's cohesion really matter when the rules are relatively obsolete? Does the track record of a duo mean much when the traditional confines of tag team wrestling have been deleted? We shall all find out on Wednesday night when this tag team Street Fight is unleashed upon “Dynamite”!!
FIRST TIME EVER...
AEW WORLD CHAMPION JON MOXLEY VS. FRANKIE KAZARIAN
“When you step up to the World Champion, you do so at your own risk!”
Those are AEW World Champion Jon Moxley's own words from the video embedded above, and the repercussions for stepping to Mox are something he has made more than evident since the day he arrived at in AEW. Be it Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, Joey Janela, or PAC, anyone who has stood across from Jon Moxley has felt what those words mean. And now, this week on “Dynamite”, it looks like former AEW World Tag Team Champion Frankie Kazarian is the next man willing to take that risk!
For the very first time since All Elite Wrestling's inception, Kazarian will step into the ring as a singles competitor to show the world what his twenty-plus years of experience has taught him. Kazarian has spent a great deal of the last several years competing as a tag team wrestler alongside Christopher Daniels and Scorpio Sky, capturing many titles in the process, including the right to forever be known as part of the first AEW World Tag Team Championship team.
But Kazarian has also had a great deal of success as a singles competitor over two decades, claiming numerous championships throughout his career before coming to AEW, before focusing his energies on becoming one of the premier tag team specialists in pro wrestling today. But this week he steps back into the singles ranks to contend with the king of AEW's mountain in one Jon Moxley.
Is it confidence or insanity? Maybe a little bit of both, but either way this is Kazarian's biggest individual opportunity in All Elite Wrestling, and it comes in his first AEW singles match . Much the way Scorpio Sky had his chance to shine when he fought Chris Jericho for the AEW World Title many months back, so too does Frankie have this match to show and prove.
ONE-ON-ONE...
(#2) CODY VS. “THE BAD BOY” JOEY JANELA
From Cody's own mouth in the clip above, this is a match that he specifically wanted to happen in AEW. It provides a test going as the TNT Tournament Finals draw near, a test against someone very different than his previous opponents, keeps the wrestling blood pumping if you will, and against someone who is not afraid to bring it to his opponent.
Just ask Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega what “The Bad Boy” Joey Janela brings to the table when he steps inside the ring. Ask Kip Sabian, Rey Fenix, Shawn Spears, ask them all what kind of fight Janela brings to the table, and if they are being honest, they will admit it was one of the toughest they've had in AEW.
And that is because Joey is not afraid nor intimidated by anyone who stands across the ring from him; nearly 15 years of fighting under all sorts of circumstances, and against all manner of opponents, has forced him to face all that, and persevere.
So when “The Bad Boy” gets back into an AEW ring for the first time since March 18th, Joey will contend with a man in Cody who is on a collision course with a monster, a Murderhawk Monster to be precise, in just a few short weeks. But Janela cannot bank on Cody being distracted by that inevitability, as Cody clearly views this match with Joey not as a warm-up or distraction, but rather a way to keep ready for the TNT Championship match. Instead Janela must be prepared to snatch every opportunity that may come his way in this match-up because, as he demonstrated against Darby Allin a week ago, Cody is very aware of any that open up for him. Just as with Kazarian, this is Janela's biggest chance to show the worldwide AEW audience what he is capable of once the bell rings.
ANOTHER VICTIM?
(#4) “The Murderhawk” Lance Archer vs. QT Marshall
One week ago Lance Archer advanced to the finals of the TNT Championship Tournament after taking every shot Dustin Rhodes had to offer, yet still leaving the 30-year veteran bloodied and battered in defeat. It seemed simultaneously a demonstration of Archer's dominance as well as a message to Cody who had advanced to the finals earlier that night. The familial factor was an added bonus in that message as well...
Now, as “Double or Nothing” draws closer, another member of The Nightmare Family will attempt to slow the monstrous momentum of The Murderhawk. QT Marshall, the other half of The Natural Nightmares, Dustin's hand-selected tag team partner, and close friend of Cody will have to square up with Archer this week on “Dynamite”. Over the last several weeks, QT has had an opportunity to see Archer in action; now was it scouting or just a glimpse at his own inevitability? That is the question Marshall will have to answer for himself Wednesday night when he's staring into the eyes of that madman across the ring.
Perhaps QT can be the one to find a chink in the armor, perhaps he can help find the ingredient that will be required to halt the dominance of Lance Archer, perhaps Marshall will be the one to make the noble sacrifice that exposes just what Cody needs to defeat The Murderhawk Monster at “Double or Nothing”. Or perhaps QT Marshall will be just another victim...
With the AEW in-ring debut of Matt Hardy, Jon Moxley fighting Kazarian in the latter's first AEW singles match, plus both Cody and Archer in action, this week's “Dynamite” is an absolute can't-miss! It hits the airwaves at 8pm EST/7pm CST and it is LIVE on TNT, with all roads leading to “Double or Nothing” on May 23rd!