Two major live events separate cities last week: the first being a trip to Norfolk, VA for DYNAMITE where Jon Moxley successfully defended his AEW World Championship against Penta El Zero Miedo, albeit by the skin of his teeth, and where Swerve In Our Glory became the #1 Contender's to The Acclaimed's AEW World Tag Team Championship titles! The BCC had a celebratory night all-around in Virginia, at least in the ring, as both Claudio and Wheeler won their tag match of Jericho and Garcia while Danielson defeated Guevara. Outside the ring however, that was a different story, as tensions between Yuta and Bryan continued to grow despite Castagnoli's best effort to quell the rising anger.
The second was AEW's first to the Mohegan Sun Arena for RAMPAGE where Mox was again in action, this time in a World Championship Eliminator victory against Matt Menard, while The J.A.S' Tay Melo toppled Madison Rayne, and Wardlow retained the TNT Title over The Kingdom's Matt Taven, only to for he and Samoa Joe to be laid low by the collective efforts of The Embassy and Powerhouse Hobbs.
This week, DYNAMITE returns to Baltimore's Chesapeake Employer's Insurance Arena for a massive episode of AEW's flagship program! The AEW All-Atlantic Championship is up for grabs when Orange Cassidy puts it on the line against BOTH Rey Fenix and Luchasaurus while The Firm's Lee Moriarty attempts to earn a shot at the AEW World Championship bout with Jon Moxley via Eliminator Match. Plus the ROH World Championship is on the line as Chris Jericho invites any former ROH Champion, across all divisions, to come challenge him for the title, and the ROH World TV Championship will be at stake when Samoa Joe welcomes the challenge of “The Machine” Brian Cage! Plus Renee Paquette sits down with Saraya and Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D, we've got the Daddy Ass Birthday Bash, and Jay Lethal will go head-to-head with Darby Allin for the second time!
The fight begins this Wednesday night, live on TBS, starting at 8pm EDT/7pm CDT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international audiences, so be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube page for the latest episodes of AEW Dark: Elevation, AEW Dark, Road To, and The Control Center with Tony Schiavone, to get prepared for the night!
ALL-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Orange Cassidy(c) vs. AEW World Trios Champion Rey Fenix vs. Luchasaurus (w/ Christian Cage)
For the second time in three weeks, Orange Cassidy will defend his All-Atlantic Championship against two challengers simultaneously! The first bout saw “Freshly Squeezed” retain over The Dark Order's Ten and Rush in Jacksonville after inserting himself in their heated issue, and now OC has done it again with Rey Fenix, Luchasaurus, and their personal problems.
See, while on the surface this may just be about Christian Cage's “Right Hand of Destruction” moving on past Jungle Boy, it's impossible to not look at the fact that earlier this year Jurassic Express dethroned The Lucha Brothers as AEW World Tag Team Champions, and in the process, put Rey Fenix on the shelf for weeks as he recovered from a dislocated elbow stemming from a Luchasaurus chokeslam through a table.
So while the issue of who is more deserving of an All-Atlantic Championship Match may have been the surface issue here between Luchasaurus and this half of the Lucha Bros, there's plenty right underneath those rough waters, and it was a perfect situation for OC to slide himself into because, to paraphrase his words in ROAD TO..., he's the All-Atlantic Champion and he can do whatever he wants, including inserting himself into matches between heated rivals, making them a three way, and just letting the other guys do all the work while he reaps the rewards. It's a perfect Orange Cassidy situation on paper, but it's also rife with high-risk in reality! Can OC skate out of Baltimore with the All-Atlantic Championship still in his backpack? Can Rey Fenix bring the title back to The Death Triangle? Or will Luchasaurus score his first AEW singles championship that Christian Cage will certainly take credit for?
GRUDGE MATCH...
Darby Allin vs. Jay Lethal (w/ Satnam Singh & Sonjay Dutt)
Who is this mystery man Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal keep referring to, the one who has shown them the chink in Darby Allin's armor, the one who will seemingly prove the difference maker in this rematch of their October 5th DYNAMITE bout won by the former TNT Champion?
What knowledge has this person bequeathed upon Jay Lethal to help turn the tide in favor of the former ROH World Champion? We will apparently all find out on Wednesday night when AEW comes to Baltimore, and Lethal returns to a city that has played host to some of his highest high's and lowest low's, one of those highs being a victory over Konosuke Takeshita last time AEW came to the campus of UMBC. Conversely, Darby Allin is a clean slate when it comes to the city of Baltimore, having never competed here in match for AEW in our previous excursions to Maryland, but since history seems to be an important part of what's about to go down on the UMBC campus, one has to wonder if Lethal's experience in Baltimore will give him an edge? However, while Baltimore as a whole has been good to Jay, he's 1-6 over his career in the Chesapeake Employer's Insurance Arena.
Is any of that history important here? Or is it only the history surrounding this mysterious font of information that matters come Wednesday night? We will see when DYNAMITE goes live on TBS starting at 8pm ET/7pm CT!
AEW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ELIMINATOR MATCH...
AEW World Champion Jon Moxley vs. Lee Moriarty (w/ Stokely Hathaway)
The Firm certainly left a mark on both Jon Moxley and MJF last Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, but on RAMPAGE the AEW World Champion let it be known that he was still standing, and as long as he could, he would welcome any fight sent his way.
Given the history between The Blackpool Combat Club and Lee Moriarty, it was only appropriate that #TaigaStyle be the man to actually step out of the pack of hooligans who committed the assault on Mox. See even before The BCC existed, Moriarty was one of the men, along with Yuta and Garcia, who were name dropped by Bryan Danielson as talent he had his eyes on to help train and mold as professional wrestlers. Moriarty even stepped into the ring with “The American Dragon” back in February, a good month before The BCC even had a name, and showed in defeat the kind of skill that made him a top prospect to Danielson.
Still, as history shows, it wasn't Moriarty who stood by the side of The BCC once the pieces came together, it was Wheeler Yuta. In fact, one of Yuta's first matches under their banner was a trios victory against Lee Moriarty, one that included Brock Anderson and Dante Martin as his partners. After that, it was as if Danielson forgot all about Lee as one of those prospects while Stokely Hathaway did a public slide into Moriarty's DM's.
Unveiled as part of Stokey's Firm at ALL OUT 2022, Moriarty has been itching for an opportunity just like this, a chance to show the skills he feels have been underutilized in AEW, and what better way to do that than by defeating a 3-Time AEW World Champion, the current champion at that, and earning himself a future World Championship bout?
Moxley may be on a tear inside the squared circle, having won six consecutive singles matches and eight straight overall, but he's also tearing up that body in the process. These haven't been easy matches, no cake walks for Mox, and logic would dictate the pace eventually catching up to the World Champion. That being said, this is also the same man who won 25 consecutive singles matches at one point in his AEW career, 18 at another, so he is accustomed to pushing it as hard as possible for as long as possible. Will this be something Moriarty and The Firm can take advantage of on Wednesday night and throw a monkey wrench into the FULL GEAR 2022 plans?
DADDY ASS BIRTHDAY BASH...
First off, happy 59th birthday to Billy Gunn! Know that you are celebrated not only here in AEW, but also worldwide by all the fans you've earned over your lifetime of competing inside the squared circle. That being said, after last week, it is quite clear there is at least one man who does not count among your fans, that being Swerve Strickland. The look on Keith Lee's face during that ordeal certainly lent itself to an individual who had no idea what his partner was up to, and that sort of malicious assault does not feel like activity Lee would condone had he known what Strickland was planning.
That is one question that hovers over Swerve's actions, another is just how much of a celebratory mood Billy will be in this Wednesday in Baltimore, and a third would be IF he is even capable of celebrating. Well Anthony Bowens has said Gunn is a bit better soooo....
Bring your scissors (pretend ones, and don't run), bring your signs, and bring your best birthday singing voices, because the Daddy Ass Birthday Bash is still on for this Wednesday night in Baltimore! Swerve Strickland isn't stopping this party!
ROH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Chris Jericho(c) vs. A Former ROH Champion
Chris Jericho may be a successful Ring of Honor World Champion, having first defeated Claudio Castagnoli to claim the title, then beating Bandido, Bryan Danielson, and Dalton Castle to retain the championship, but he's far from an honorable champion. In fact, “The Ocho” has intentionally been the exact opposite, doing whatever he can to tarnish the rich history of the company that birthed so many of wrestling's modern greats, and inspired so many other to lace up their boots in the first place.
With that in mind, after being pinned by Claudio in The J.A.S' tag match last week, Jericho challenged any former champion in Ring of Honor's history to come meet him in Baltimore for a championship bout, and Jericho was very clear that his challenge was open to ANY former champion, not just World Champions. In the history of ROH, that means the World Championship, the Pure Championship, the World TV Championship, the World Tag Team Championship, the World Six Man Championship, the the Women's World Championship, even the defunct Women of Honor and Top of the Class Trophy Championships!
It's a challenge clearly made by someone with either such arrogance he doesn't care who answers the call, someone who has no idea of the competitors who have been champions over ROH's two decades of history, or perhaps a bit of both. There have been plenty of names bandied about online, mostly focusing on former World Champions, but look outside to competitors who never held that title but others under the ROH banner and you've got Dragon Lee, Brody King, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Rocky Romero, Frankie Kazarian, Scorpio Sky, Mark Briscoe, Kenny King, Will Ospreay, Amazing Red, Tomohiro Ishii, Hangman Page, and since Jericho mentioned the female competitors of ROH, add Sumie Sakai and Deonna Purrazzo to the list as well.
There are a plethora of men and women who have come through the ranks of Ring of Honor, many of whom were fortunate enough to earn championships, and all who are now fair game to answer the call of “The Ocho”. Who will step up in Baltimore, and vie to restore honor to the ROH World Championship just over nineteen years since the first time honor came to Maryland?
ROH WORLD TV CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Samoa Joe(c) vs. “The Machine” Brian Cage (w/ Prince Nana)
As two pivotal players in Ring of Honor's formative years, Prince Nana and Samoa Joe are quite familiar with one another. They shared a locker room for the better part of five years, Joe fought quite a few of Nana's Embassy members over those years, and once at ROH's TRADITION CONTINUES event on October 2003, he even choked out Nana in an impromptu match to kick off ROH's debut in Maryland. So suffice to say, there's a fair amount of history and that Nana's had plenty of time to scout the ROH Triple Crown winner.
With that in mind, there may be few men around the AEW/ROH scene better equipped to advise someone in pursuit of a fight with Samoa Joe, and clearly that's what “The Machine” Brian Cage has been spoiling for. As a former FTW Champion, Cage has had a taste, albeit unofficially, of what it's like to be champion under the AEW banner, but it's not something he's ever even had a chance to experience under the ROH one. In fact, prior to SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2022, the closest “The Machine” had come to competing in a ROH match was in one of the 2018 Jericho Cruise's most unique matches, and the ROH World Title #1 Contender Battle Royale at ALL IN, but that was it.
No actual ROH-branded events, no ROH championship matches, but since making his ROH-proper arrival at SoH '22, and becoming part of The Embassy at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2022, Cage has been in no mood to wait for the opportunity to come to him. He went after Wardlow's TNT Title, he and his Gate of Agony allies went after FTR, and then they added Samoa Joe to the list when he entered into the fray as well.
Brave souls, coming after Samoa Joe like that, he remains the longest-reigning World Champion in Ring of Honor's twenty-year history, as well as a former ROH Pure Champion, and thus with his current World TV Championship reign, Joe's also a ROH Triple Crown winner. He's one of the most intimidating presences to enter a ring in decades, he commands respect in every locker room he's ever entered, he took the legendary Kenta Kobashi to the limit in one of the most celebrated wrestling contests of the last twenty years, and evidently none of that intimidates Brian Cage.
Cage wants the title, and he will show Samoa Joe no respect in this bid to claim it as his own. Brian Cage will show Joe his obscene power, that speed and agility unseen by men with his musculature, and he will take that ROH World TV Championship from Joe's hands. At least that's what Cage hopes will happen on Wednesday night, conversely he could learn one of life's important lessons: don't spit into the wind, don't tug on Superman's cape, and most importantly, do NOT make Samoa Joe mad...
TBS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Jade Cargill(c) vs. “The Problem” Marina Shafir
Back in April, Marina Shafir had her first opportunity to claim the TBS Championship from Jade Cargill and just like every opponent before her, “The Problem” fell to the undefeated Cargill. While the undefeated part remains for Cargill, as does her status as TBS Champion, the location of that championship title has definitely had a change of address. That change in location also reflects a change in the world of Marina Shafir since that battle almost seven months ago; see in that time, “The Problem” has gotten closer to “The Native Beast” Nyla Rose and Vickie Guerrero, joining those women as a Vicious Vixen.
Shafir and Rose have made quite a successful team, going 7-1 with six consecutive victories, while Marina has been the victor in five of her last six singles bouts, including an utter thrashing of Kennedi Copeland on Tuesday night's edition of DARK. “The Problem” has only continued to hone her skills since her last dance with Cargill, while Jade (who picked up her 40th victory on DARK:ELEVATION) seems quite distracted with Nyla's theft of the TBS Championship title.
Will that distraction prove the key to Marina ending the streak and the championship reign of Jade Cargill? Or will “The Problem” be solved for a second time as Jade continues to pursue a fight with Nyla and the reclamation of her TBS Championship title?
RENEE, SARAYA, AND THE GOOD DOCTOR...
The issue between Dr. Britt Baker and Saraya has been right out front since the moment Saraya made her presence known at DYNAMITE: GRAND SLAM 2022. It's been verbal, it's been physical, it has been ever-present, and it seemed to be destined for a tipping point in the above embedded video until Renee Paquette's cooler head prevailed.
So now Renee finds herself in the middle of this situation between Saraya, a women who's Twitter bio literally says “Renee Paquettes sidekick”, and Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D, who was actually fighting with Saraya around ringside. This is not the most ideal situation for Renee to be essentially placed in the role of moderator, but that's what's going down this Wednesday night! Can Renee keep the peace in order for these two women to actually speak their mind, or will it all fall apart as it did in that interview above?
This Wednesday night, DYNAMITE is back in Baltimore at the Chesapeake Employer's Insurance Arena, and we are bringing a loaded night! The AEW World Champion will be in action in Eliminator action against Lee Moriarty, the All-Atlantic Championship is a stake in a three-way, the TBS Championship is up for grabs between Jade and Shafir, the ROH World Champion will put his championship on the line against any former ROH champion, and the ROH World TV Championship is at stake between Samoa Joe and Brian Cage! Plus Allin/Lethal II, the Daddy Ass B-Day Bash, and Renee Paquette mediating a hostile situation.
DYNAMITE is bringing it all to you live on TBS starting at 8pm ET/7pm CT this Wednesday night, and the official AEW YouTube channel is your home for all the latest with Dynamite and Rampage highlights from Virginia and the Mohegan Sun Arena, as well as the latest editions of AEW Dark: Elevation, AEW Dark, and Road To!