Tonight All Elite Wrestling brings DYNAMITE to Manchester, NH and the SNHU Arena as we barrel towards FULL GEAR 2024 on November 23rd in Newark, NJ! Last week we saw new AEW World Tag Team Champions crowned when Private Party dethroned The Young Bucks, followed by The EVPs fleeing the scene as AEW World Champion Jon Moxley and his crew assaulted Brandon Cutler. We watched Adam Cole defeat Buddy Matthews, Kris Statlander beat Kamille just to get laid out by TBS Champion Mercedes Moné, and Swerve Strickland best Shelton Benjamin only for Bobby Lashley to arrive on the scene and decimate the former AEW World Champion! Tonight we continue to watch the madness unfold as The Hurt Syndicate will be in the house in Manchester, Adam Cole is set to fight Malakai Black, and former AEW Women's World Champion Jamie Hayter takes on Penelope Ford! We will also find out who Ricochet brings as a partner for a fight against Kyle Fletcher and AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita while Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy reunite as a team to fight “The Bastard” PAC and Claudio Castagnoli!
DYNAMITE gets under way at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TBS, and can be seen around the world as well, so be sure to drop by AEW's official YouTube channel to watch highlights from recent episodes of DYNAMITE, COLLISION, and RAMPAGE, and so much more! Then join us tomorrow in Providence, RI for a special Thursday night taping of COLLISION where The Outrunners clash with Top Flight in the Full Gear 4-Way Contenders Series and Nick Wayne faces AR Fox!
Tag Team Bout...
The Don Callis Family (AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita & Kyle Fletcher) vs. Ricochet & ???
Last week we heard AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita and “The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher challenge Ricochet to find a partner and meet them in a tag team fight tonight in New Hampshire. The challenge was made with that Don Callis Family duo in a safe place as Ricochet was in Japan taking care of other business, namely attacking IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. and challenging him to a fight at WRESTLE DYNASTY on January 5th. Despite being in Japan, Ricochet still heard the DCF challenged and had the following to say regarding the match:
So just who will Ricochet have at his side tonight on DYNAMITE? Tune in tonight to find out right alongside Fletcher and AEW International Champion Takeshita!
One-On-One...
House of Black's Malakai Black vs. Undisputed Kingdom's Adam Cole
This past Wednesday night Adam Cole returned to in-ring competition for his first match in 13 months, a hard-fought victory over Buddy Matthews that not only demonstrated Cole still had the fight in him, but also got him one step closer to that possible match with Maxwell Jacob Friedman at FULL GEAR 2024. Buddy pushed Cole to his limits, tried his best to break Adam, and show the world he's a brittle, fragile man, but Cole persevered through the physical onslaught, proving to himself and to fans that he's ready to go.
Tonight he gets tested once again, only this time it isn't a man Adam has never fought before but rather one who knows him quite well, who he's battled many times over the last seven years, and who he's never beaten in their one-on-one meetings.
Listening to those words, Malakai Black seems to be at a personal crossroads and is looking towards this fight with Adam Cole to determine the path he travels into the future. The proprietor of The House of Black is coming to drag Adam Cole into the blackest pit and see if he can survive a second battle inside the confines of The House. If so, Cole will be one victory away from his end game of that FULL GEAR 2024 fight with MJF, but if Adam can't escape that pit, if he is once more consumed by the darkness of Malakai Black's world, than perhaps one of the other Undisputed Kingdom members can pick up his sword and continue the fight. Roderick Strong is already one match deep, will the MJF quest fall on his shoulders?
Tag Team Grudge Match...
Darby Allin & Orange Cassidy vs. AEW World Trios Champion Claudio Castagnoli & AEW World Trios Champion “The Bastard” PAC
The war is at AEW's door but thankfully there are men lining up to fight against the onslaught of AEW World Champion Jon Moxley, Marina Shafir, and the AEW World Trios Champions. Though it took watching Chuck Taylor get violently assaulted to push him into the fray, “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy has come to the forefront and will in fact challenge Moxley for the World Title at FULL GEAR 2024. As the man responsible for Moxley vying for the AEW World Title at WRESTLEDREAM 2024, Darby Allin has also thrown himself into the war with all the fervor one would expect from the 2-Time TNT Champion, possibly seeking redemption for opening that door to Moxley in the first place.
After all, if Darby hadn't lost to Mox at DYNAMITE: GRAND SLAM 2024 than Jon never would've been in that match with Bryan Danielson in the first place and we could have been talking about AEW World Champion Darby Allin instead of wondering if anyone can stand up to Mox and his soldiers. Tonight on DYNAMITE Orange Cassidy and Darby Allin are certainly going to try...no that's not accurate, we are well beyond the point of Orange Cassidy just trying. The 2-Time International Champion isn't just trying, he is doing and tonight on DYNAMITE he is bringing that fight straight to Claudio Castagnoli and “The Bastard” PAC with Darby Allin at his side!
It's been a minute since Darby and OC teamed up, their last bout together taking place on 7/12/23 during the Blind Eliminator Tag Tournament, but during the four months they were unified, Cassidy and Allin racked up an impressive 8-1 record. Had they chosen to pursue tag team wrestling, based on how they looked over those nine matches, the two men could very well have been World Tag Champions but their paths took different routes only to converge once more tonight in New Hampshire!
Can these two men, two competitors who hold All Elite Wrestling near to their heart, overcome the physical dominance that PAC and Claudio Castagnoli represent? Last week we watched Claudio break the announcer's table with Darby's body without even trying, and saw how dominant PAC was over Action Andretti in their short but violent fight, but can these two World Trios Champions do that in this match? Can they put a damper on Orange Cassidy's championship chase with a victory tonight in this tag team affair? Or will OC and Darby Allin send a message to Moxley with this bout?
Singles Match...
Penelope Ford vs. Jamie Hayter
Prior to the October 26th edition of COLLISION, it had been more than 750 days since Penelope Ford competed in a match on All Elite Wrestling television (the 10/5/22 DYNAMITE to be precise), and 740 days since her last AEW match on DARK: ELEVATION #85. Since then Ford has been dealing with injuries compiled over the course of her wrestling career, but clearly that DYNAMITE: ANNIVERSARY 2022 bout lingered in her mind the entire time. She obviously latched onto the outcome of that match, a trios loss where Serena Deeb and Jamie Hayter served as her partners, because that's been the fuel to Penelope's fire since she returned to television several weeks ago and Jamie Hayter has been her target.
Tonight Penelope Ford gets her opportunity to settle this grudge she holds against Hayter, and though Jamie may not have bore an ill will towards Ford a few weeks ago but that certainly isn't the case now. Hayter is looking to “mop the floor” with Penelope after listening to her run her mouth in the above embedded interview, while Ford intends on taking out all her frustrations on the former AEW Women's World Champion! Who will get their hand raised in this heated confrontation?
Fight Without Honor Six Man Tag Team Match
The Learning Tree (ROH World Champion Chris Jericho, Big Bill, & Bryan Keith) vs.
The Conglomeration (Kyle O'Reilly, Mark Briscoe & Tomohiro Ishii)
Two weeks ago Chris Jericho defeated Mark Briscoe in Ladder War to become a 2-Time ROH World Champion, but as with most accomplishments in Chris Jericho's AEW career, there should be an asterisk in the records books. In this case that asterisk should be roughly seven feet tall and weigh 314 pounds, and this symbol even has a name: “The Redwood” Big Bill! Without Bill, Mark Briscoe would still be ROH World Champion but the involvement of The Learning Tree members was inevitable once Mark challenged Jericho to fight him in a match with absolutely no rules. Rocky Romero did his best to level the playing field, taking out “Bad Apple” Bryan Keith when he tried to interfere, but there was no one to counter Bill's involvement when he chokeslammed Mark through a table and carried Jericho to the top of the ladder so “The Nueve” could pull the ROH World Title belt down.
So now we shift from one of the most dangerous matches ever concocted in ROH to another whose origins date back to the original GLORY BY HONOR event on 10/05/02 and Samoa Joe's debut. That first Fight Without Honor was a physically punishing match, devoid of weapons save the hands and feet of the warriors involved, and it set a ridiculously high bar for any FWH's to come. In the 22 years since ROH has hosted a total of 24 Fights Without Honor, they've taken the form of singles matches as well as tags and trios, and watched men like Bryan Danielson, Eddie Kingston, Nigel McGuinness, Jay Lethal, Adam Cole, The Briscoes, and even Shelton Benjamin get their hands dirty in these wars. Sometimes titles have been on the line, more often it's simply a case of the animosity between competitors reaching a point where rules and structure become utterly irrelevant.
The last time we witnessed a Fight Without Honor was SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024 between Dalton Castle and Johnny TV, while the last time Mark Briscoe engaged in one was at FINAL BATTLE 2023 when he and FTR battled The Blackpool Combat Club of Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, and Jon Moxley. Tonight Mark Briscoe has laid out the challenge to Jericho and his Learning Tree for a return to that lawless environment, his third overall FWH, with Conglomeration members Tomohiro Ishii and Kyle O'Reilly joining him in the fray. Despite his extensive ROH history, Kyle never fought in a Fight Without Honor, nor have any of the other four men who will be involved in this battle. All Elite Wrestling has never experienced a FWH either, thankfully the official ROH YouTube account has several examples for fans to peruse.
Will Mark Briscoe and The Conglomeration even the score with Jericho and The Learning Tree? Can this score actually be evened given the filth that has spilled out of Jericho's mouth regarding the late Jay Briscoe? “The Nueve” made this far more personal than a battle of the ROH World Championship, and though he's paid a physical price for that in the matches with Mark, he's the one holding the title now. If there is a way to balance these scales, it may only be with a pound of flesh...
The Hurt Syndicate Has Arrived...
In the aftermath of Swerve Strickland's victory over Shelton Benjamin, MVP grabbed his cell phone and made a call while the former AEW World Champion and Prince Nana watched on from inside the ring. What they couldn't have anticipated was that call going out to a multi-time World Champion by the name of Bobby Lashley! The association between MVP and Lashley goes back years, but it was still an utter shock to watch him stroll out onto the AEW stage and embrace his long-time friend and business partner.
What was not a shock however was Lashley backing MVP's plays when he assaulted Swerve Strickland as Prince Nana was forced to helplessly watch. The words “Guess who's back in business?” echoed through the arena at FRIGHT NIGHT DYNAMITE last week, and tonight we find out what that means for All Elite Wrestling!
Will Bobby Lashley officially become All Elite? What does MVP's Hurt Syndicate have planned for Swerve Strickland moving forward? Is there anyone else in their sights? Tune in tonight to see what MVP, Shelton Benjamin, and Bobby Lashley have in store for All Elite Wrestling?
Tonight DYNAMITE comes to Manchester, NH for the first time and the show gets started at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TBS, as well as the world. Orange Cassidy and Darby Allin are set to clash with two-thirds of the AEW World Trios Champions, Claudio Castagnoli and “The Bastard” PAC, ahead of OC's World Championship fight at FULL GEAR 2024, plus Penelope Ford will square-up with Jamie Hayter, Ricochet is bringing a mystery partner to a tag fight with The Don Callis Family, and The Hurt Syndicate will be in the house! Plus, The Learning Tree and The Conglomeration are going to war in a Trios Fight Without Honor and Adam Cole faces Malakai Black for the first time in All Elite Wrestling! Ahead of tonight's fights, make a point to visit the official AEW YouTube channel to catch up on highlights from DYNAMITE, COLLISION, RAMPAGE, and so much more great AEW content! Then it's off to Providence, RI for a special Thursday night taping of COLLISION where The Outrunners are set to take on Top Flight in the first match of the FULL GEAR 4-Way Contenders Series and Nick Wayne goes head-to-head with AR Fox!