With just three week to go before AEW goes all out all week long in Chicago, the action in All Elite Wrestling is getting red hot! Last week, between three huge events, fans saw the ROH World Title, the AEW Women's World Title, and the TNT Title all defended! They witnessed a wild Dumpster Match on Dynamite, as well as Wheeler Yuta give Chris Jericho the fight of his life as they battled over a shot at Jon Moxley's Interim World Championship. Speaking of Moxley, just days away from the fight with Jericho, he took on the World Title Eliminator challenge of a very game Mance Warner, and Madison Rayne made her AEW in-ring debut in advance of this week's TBS Title bout.
As if all that wasn't enough, it has to be noted how Claudio Castagnoli and Konosuke Takeshita engaged in one of the most amazing ROH World Title matches in that championship's twenty year history, and in one of the most shocking moments AEW has seen, Adam Cole and reDRagon assaulted The Young Bucks in the center of the ring only for Hangman Page to save the day!
It was a wild, unpredictable week of All Elite action, and it's going to continue as AEW returns to North Star State! On Wednesday night, AEW is back at the Target Center in Minneapolis, MN for Quake by The Lake, with one of the biggest rematches ever presented on television. For the first time since Revolution 2020, where Moxley dethroned Chris Jericho to claim the AEW World Title, the two competitors will go one-on-one with the Interim World Title on the line! In addition, Jade Cargill will put her TBS Title on the line against the newest addition to the locker room (and the coaching staff) Madison Rayne, Darby Allin will attempt to survive Brody King in a Coffin Match, LFI and The Lucha Bros will collide in a Tag Team Tornado Match, and we will welcome FTR back to AEW for the first time since their ROH Death Before Dishonor 2022 collision with The Briscoes!
Dynamite: Quake by The Lake goes live on TBS at 8pm EDT/7pm CDT, and on AEWPlus.com for our international audience, with the official AEW YouTube page always open for fans to get up to date on last week's action with Dynamite and Rampage highlights, plus the latest editions of AEW Dark: Elevation, AEW Dark, Road To, and The Control Center with Tony Schiavone!
AEW INTERIM WORLD TITLE MATCH...
Jon Moxley(c) vs. “Lionheart” Chris Jericho
On February 29th of 2020, “Le Champion” Chris Jericho walked into the Wintrust Arena in Chicago as the only AEW World Champion in history, having captured the championship 182 days prior some 40 miles away at the Sears Center (presently the NOW Arena). That night, as walked onto the stage while a live chorus lead by Meredith Bell performed “Judas”, Chris presented as the most confident he had ever been, while Santana and Ortiz accompanied him out into the arena. After defeating Darby Allin, Cody Rhodes, and Scorpio Sky in title matches, the first-ever AEW Champion now had to stare down a red-hot Jon Moxley with the World Title on the line. Jericho, along with The Inner Circle, had done his best to make life a living hell for Mox in the weeks leading up to their pay-per-view collision. He and his ilk assault Jon at any opportunity, they even blinded him temporarily, leaving the man to fight with one good eye for several weeks prior to this championship bout.
Ultimately none of it mattered, nothing Jericho or his Inner Circle could do to Jon Moxley was going to break his spirit or his championship drive, and after more than 20 minutes of combat, Mox defeated Jericho to become the second AEW World Champion. Unlike Jericho, who seemed to avoid the fight whenever possible, Jon embraced his role as champion, and during some of the darkest times, in front of little to no fans, he fought his heart out every single opportunity he had, with that AEW World Championship on the line. All told, when Kenny Omega and all the king's men finally found a way to end the run at Winter is Coming 2020, Mox had successfully defended the title nine times over the course of 277 days. He may not have the longest reign, that distinction goes to Omega, but Jon Moxley was the most successful champion, the most prolific fight as champion, and while Jericho may have been the first, Jon Moxley was the man who made the AEW World Title the most important prize in modern professional wrestling.
As for Jericho, following that championship defeat, his career path took him from battles with The Elite in the first Stadium Stampede to Mimosa Mayhem with Orange Cassidy, and from meeting The Pinnacle in Stadium Stampede II to being thrown off the roof of the first Blood & Guts Cage. He failed to snag the World Tag Titles at Revolution 2021, went through a serious of hellacious labors, found love from the fans once again, and then threw it (and The Inner Circle) all away after Eddie Kingston submitted him in front of the world at Revolution 2022.
He created The Jericho Appreciation Society with Matt Menard, Angelo Parker, Jack Swagger, and Daniel Garcia. He welcomed Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti into the fold after months of estrangement following the collapse of The Inner Circle, and now Anna Jay can be added to the list of J.A.S members as well, following her best friend into the fold just a few weeks ago during Barbed Wire Everywhere. In all that, through a second Blood & Guts Cage and Anarchy in the Arena, with everything Jericho has done since 2/29/20, the one thing he has never done is challenge for the AEW World Title.
Meanwhile, Jon Moxley has gone through hell and back to be in the position he is now; a member of The Blackpool Combat Club, on a 16 match singles win streak, and in good standing as the reigning AEW Interim World Champion after defeating “The Ace of New Japan” Hiroshi Tanahashi at Forbidden Door 2022. There is no man in All Elite Wrestling on a bigger streak than Jon Moxley, no one more ready to fight each and every week, and finally, after two years and five months, he will fight Chris Jericho for a second time in All Elite Wrestling, and that Interim World Title will be on the line!
While the man who holds that Interim Title at moment of his return has a standing date with AEW World Champion CM Punk, there is no guarantee it will be either of these two individuals, but Jon Moxley aims to do everything he can to insure it is he who “The Best In The World” must contend with when the time comes. Having turned back two challengers in Rush and Brody King, and squashed the championship dreams of Takeshita and Mance Warner in Eliminator Matches, Mox aims to be just as much of a fighting champion, in spite of his Interim status, as he was in his proper World Title reign.
For Jericho, as with everything, this title bout is about his ego and his ego alone. It's about revenge for being beaten at Revolution 2020, it's about proving his J.A.S is better than Moxley's BCC, and with Mox's challenge for Jericho to dig deep into his personal vault and pull out “The Lionheart”, it's about proving that every version of Chris Jericho is the best there is at what he does. Moxley challenged the very fiber of Jericho's being in a manner similar to what Kingston did before their meeting, and did so knowing that Jericho's character would force him to prove he still has that athlete in him, that he's not just magic tricks and goon squads.
Can Jericho live up to the challenge and bring that “Last Survivor of the Hart Family Dungeon” to bear against Jon Moxley? Will Moxley repeat history and topple Jericho as he did in 2020? This is undeniably one of the most important matches to ever go down on Dynamite, and it happens this Wednesday night LIVE on TBS!
FTR RETURNS...
It's been awhile since FTR has graced the television screens of the AEW faithful on Dynamite, but this Wednesday night at Quake by the Lake, Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler return to TBS, and they are bringing their ROH World Tag Team Titles, their AAA Tag Team Titles, and their IWGP World Tag Team Titles along with them!
After having gone to war with Jay and Mark Briscoe in the main event of ROH's Death Before Dishonor 2022 pay-per-view event several weeks ago, what will the number one ranked team in All Elite Wrestling have to say for themselves? It's probably not too hard to figure out, after all they've been in AEW's top five rankings for the entirety of 2022, been the number one ranked team since April 6th, and yet have not received a single championship match the entire year.
Put yourself in those shoes, tag team champions of three different companies from around the world, winning fans over simply by putting in the hard work, and yet...
TBS TITLE MATCH...
Jade Cargill(c) vs. Madison Rayne
Jade Cargill is on the precipice of history yet again; she already has the longest winning streak in the entire Women's Division, both as a singles competitor (32 wins) and overall (35 wins), as well as the longest singles winning streak across divisions with those 32 wins. No man, no woman, and no tag team is even close at this point, and with this TBS Title match on Wednesday night, Jade could very well become the record holder for the longest overall streak as well. That magic 35 number puts Cargill in a tie with Colten Gunn's year long streak between 11/17/20 and 11/24/21, putting Jade in a prime position.
Unfortunately, in order to get there, Cargill has to contend with one of the most experienced women in All Elite Wrestling, the newest addition to the coaching staff, a five time former Women's Champion, Madison Rayne! She may be a fresh face on the scene in AEW, but Rayne has been competing inside the squared circle for as many years as Cargill has months, and been in there with the best competitors over the last twenty years. Taya Valkyrie, Dr. Britt Baker, Kiera Hogan, Mickie James, Amazing Kong, Sara Del Rey, Allison Danger, Mercedes Martinez, Serena Deeb, over the course of her career Madison has been in the ring with them all, and know aims to impart all she learned on the women in the AEW locker room.
Sometimes though, the only way to share that knowledge is inside the ring, and this Wednesday night Rayne aims to directly share her experiences with Jade Cargill by snapping that undefeated streak and taking the TBS Title for herself! Rayne may be the one who finally figures out the keys to victory, after all Cargill seems to be drastically underestimating her opponent here, actually inviting Madison to accept the TBS Championship Open Challenge on Dynamite. It's either a case of Cargill not being fully aware of the resume Madison Rayne carries, or believing her own hype so fully that she doesn't think she can possibly lose to Rayne.
The former seems to be the case, after all Cargill has not been so willing to accept the championship challenge of Athena since she came to AEW. In fact it has been quite the opposite and Jade has put multiple obstacles in the path of “The Fallen Goddess” in lieu of facing her in a TBS Title match. This ego may be the downfall of Jade Cargill, it won't be the only thing that brings an end to her historic reign, after all she is facing one of the most experienced women in the game today, but it will absolutely be a factor in Jade's downfall, whether it be Rayne, Athena, or someone else down the line.
Can Rayne shock The Jade Brand at Quake on the Lake, and show Cargill why she was brought into to coach in the first place? Or will Jade, Stokely, and The Baddies celebrate another historic victory this Wednesday night in the Target Center?
COFFIN MATCH...
Brody King vs. Darby Allin
There have been two Coffin Matches in All Elite Wrestling history, both won by Darby Allin, the first over “All Ego” Ethan Page and the second against Andrade El Idolo. In each instance, even in the lead-up to the battles, Allin survived the kind of punishment that few men endure and yet that is what he did: he endured. And when it came time for the actual Coffin Match, Allin did what he does better than almost any man or woman in the AEW locker room, he thrived in the chaos. It drives Darby, much the same way it does Jon Moxley, and every blow in these kind of battles seems to become fuel for the relentless fire that burns in his soul.
It is this fire that Brody King desperately wants to extinguish, and he wants to do so with his arms around the throat of Darby. King wants to break the former TNT Champion like no one has done before, and leave Allin crumbled in a lifeless heap as he closes the lid on that casket Wednesday night. The size disparity, the strength differential, it's obvious, it's not even close, Brody unquestionably dominates in those aspects. What's scary though is that Brody King is a fast monster on top of all that, he's an absolute threat to anyone standing in the ring, every one in All Elite Wrestling, and it is unfortunate for Darby Allin that he is the chosen victim of King's wrath.
Regardless of Darby's claims of being the reason Brody King is in AEW, regardless of their past relationship, the here and now of their relationship is darkness and violence. It doesn't get much darker than two foot wide and six feet deep...
TAG TEAM TORNADO MATCH...
The Lucha Brothers (Penta Oscuro & Rey Fenix)
vs.
La Faccion Ingobernable (Andrade El Idolo & Rush)
Disrespect upon disrespect upon disrespect upon disrespect; that is what's been heaped upon The Lucha Brothers by La Faccion Ingobernable. It began with Andrade El Idolo perpetually trying to pull Penta and Fenix away from PAC and their Death Triangle unit, and with the introduction of former 2-Time ROH World Champion Rush to the picture, it has taken a much more violent tone.
Andrade and Rush cannot be contained, they cannot be tethered, and clearly they have no respect for the heritage of the mask as repeatedly displayed in their flagrant disregard for the ones adorning the faces of The Lucha Brothers. LFI have ripped the masks right off their faces of Fenix and Penta, and done so with glee. Their only purpose with all this flagrant disrespect has been to destroy The Lucha Brothers just to prove they can.
Well this Wednesday night, under Tornado Tag Team Rules, LFI will have their chance to prove it insde the Target Center! It will be the first outing as a tag team for Rush and Andrade in AEW, and their first since a November 1, 2015 bout for Lucha Libre Elite (LLE) in Guadalajara. On the other hand, Penta and Fenix stand as former AEW World Tag Team Champions and the record holders for longest winning streak in the history of AEW's tag team division. They've been inside a Cage and battled in Escalera de la Muerte with The Young Bucks, they've fought the best AEW teams has to offer and beaten them all, so now they just have to apply that all to this Tornado Tag Match and put down LFI this Wednesday night!
If they can't, if Rush and Andrade El Idolo once more humiliate the Lucha Brothers in front of the world, what then will be left of the former World Tag Team Champions? The AEW faithful watched Penta be pushed into the realm of Oscuro by The House of Black, are there even scarier places that reside in the man and his brother if LFI keep pushing?
ONE-ON-ONE...
“Absolute” Ricky Starks vs. Aaron Solo
St. Louis, MO...Austin, TX...Ireland...England; since 2015, the careers of former FTW Champion Ricky Starks and Factory member Aaron Solo have been intertwined. They traveled the roads together as independent wrestlers fighting to break out from the pack, and consistently striving to improve their game. As a tag team dubbed Extra Talented, Starks and Solo found early success, both in Texas and around the world, competing against the likes of Rey Fenix & Laredo Kid, The Boys, Roppongi Vice, The Besties in the World, and even Dax and Cash one Monday night in San Antonio back in 2018.
For a time, Aaron and Ricky knew each other like the proverbial back of the hand, but it all came to an end in 2019, and the two would go their separate ways, albeit for a very brief time. June 17th and July 21st of 2020, those are the days Ricky Starks and Aaron Solo respectively made their debuts for All Elite Wrestling. The former made his on Dynamite in a TNT Title Open Challenge opposite Cody Rhodes while the latter first arrived on AEW Dark with a loss to Scorpio Sky. From there each man would find his way into a unit: for Starks it was as a member of Team Taz, which in turn led him to set records with the FTW Title before he was crushed by HOOK several weeks ago, and for Solo it would be as part of The Factory under the tutelage of QT Marshall, an experience that has taught Solo quite a bit, but has not led to great successes nor championship victories. But at least it has surrounded him with many talented individuals like QT, Anthony Ogogo, Nick Comoroto, and now Cole Karter, who have been watching his back.
So given their history, or perhaps in spite of it, when QT extended a hand to Starks after HOOK beat him, Powerhouse Hobbs betrayed him, and Taz put their unit out to pasture, it was not something Aaron Solo was exactly keen on. His perception is clearly that Ricky is only about Ricky, and would not be there for The Factory. Ricky's perception is simply that he wants none of what QT has to offer, and perhaps even considers it an insult to be offered a slot in The Factory after riding with Team Taz.
This Wednesday night during Quake by the Lake, Starks and Solo will have a chance to settle those differences when they go one-on-one for just the third time in their lengthy relationship! The last took place in 2018 where the Cagematch database reports Solo defeated Ricky in under two minutes, while the first happened back in November 2015 and ended with a victorious Starks.
Consider this a rubber match of sorts, but time has certainly changed both of these men since they traveled together, roomed together, and teamed together. They've been exposed to the knowledge of wrestling greats through their time in AEW, and each has fought the best the world has to offer. Now Starks and Solo can take everything they've learned since that first 2015 meeting, since their last time together in 2019, and use it to beat each other senseless.
For Starks this is about starting to seize what he feels should have been his long ago, for Solo it's about showing that it's his name that belongs in the spotlight not that of “Absolute”. But now that Starks stands alone, will The Factory use their numbers advantage to have their way with him? Tune in Wednesday night to see which of these former partners rises to the occasion!
Wednesday night, All Elite Wrestling returns to the scene of Full Gear 2021 for Dynamite: Quake by the Lake! Headlined by Moxley/Jericho 2 for the AEW Interim Title, the Target Center is in-store for a wild night with a Coffin Match, a Tornado Tag Team bout, and a TBS Championship match all on tap, plus the return of the ROH, IWGP, and AAA World Tag Team Champions FTR to the scene following their second Match of the Year contender at ROH's Death Before Dishonor 2022 event!
The excitement begins at 8pm EDT/7pm CDT live on TBS, with doors opening at 5pm CDT for fans in Minneapolis! Be sure to hit up the official AEW YouTube channel for highlights from last week's Dynamite and Rampage, as well as the latest editions of AEW Dark: Elevation, AEW Dark, the Control Center and Road To, so you can be ready for all the elite action coming your way!