Last week All Elite Wrestling experienced the fallout from FULL GEAR 2022 as Jon Moxley confronted William Regal about the betrayal that cost Mox the AEW World Championship, Chris Jericho went into a violent war with Tomohiro Ishii over the ROH World Championship, and Death Triangle won a second straight match in their Best of 7 with The Elite thanks to Penta's liberal use of that hammer.
In addition, Ricky Starks secured his WINTER IS COMING 2022 World Championship match on December 14th by defeating Ethan Page, FTR retained their ROH World Tag Titles against Top Flight, Darby Allin and Anthony Henry renewed their rivalry on a whole new scale, and Jamie Hayter was officially declared Undisputed AEW Women's World Champion! Plus Preston Vance severed all ties with The Dark Order, leaving his Ten mask at the feet of Negative One, and aligning with La Faccion Ingobernables.
So heading into this new week of action, The Elite are down two-nil heading into the third match of their Best of 7 series with Death Triangle, finding themselves in a must-win situation, lest they leave Indiana having to win four straight bouts. Plus at Dax Harwood's request, the AAA/IWGP/ROH World Tag Champion will collide with “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson, Willow Nightingale will lock up with Anna Jay A.S., Jade Cargill will hold her own TBS Championship Celebration, and the new AEW World Champion MJF will speak to the AEW faithful!
It all takes place this Wednesday night when AEW comes back to Indianapolis for an all-new DYNAMITE, starting at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TBS, and at AEWPlus.com for international audiences! Also, make sure to visit the official AEW YouTube page for the latest editions of AEW DARK, AEW DARK: ELEVATION, ROAD TO, and THE CONTROL CENTER with Tony Schiavone, as well as highlights from previous episodes of DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE!
THE WORLD CHAMPION SPEAKS...
Last week in Chicago, just four days after having won the AEW World Championship from Jon Moxley, one would think Maxwell Jacob Friedman would want to appear on the first DYNAMITE after FULL GEAR 2022 if for no other reason than to gloat about his (and William Regal's) accomplishment.
Instead, Regal was left to face the music of Moxley all by himself, and only escaped unscathed because of “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson. If not for Bryan, one can imagine what the 3-Time former AEW World Champion would've done to “The Gentleman Villain”, especially with the absence of MJF leaving Regal alone to answer for their crimes. Perhaps Moxley's mistake was in thinking Regal wouldn't screw him over, that their shared history had created enough respect and a strong enough bond, that Regal wouldn't stoop so low as to actually help Maxwell. Mox expected Max to act like garbage, he didn't anticipate Regal would be down in the muck with him, but the question still remains just how deep in the muck the new champion and Regal were?
With that in mind, MJF will finally make his first appearance on AEW programming as the World Champion, and hopefully there will be some answers forthcoming about this collusion that robbed the backbone of All Elite Wrestling's of his championship. But will Max actually show some guts and step foot in the building? Will he even be in the city of Indianapolis, or the state of Indiana for that matter?
He may have tweeted this:
But that doesn't mean he's actually coming to the building, nor does the first tweet specify that MJF will be in the house, or be there live, it simply states “We will hear from...” which leaves a lot of wiggle room for the AEW World Champion to avoid facing the consequences of his actions at FULL GEAR 2022. And should Max elect to not physically show up at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum, it may save him for another week, but eventually he will have to show up to the job site. If nothing else, he will have to show face at DYNAMITE: WINTER IS COMING 2022 in Garland where he is slated to face “Absolute” Ricky Starks in MJF's first World Championship defense.
MOX...
And one of those men he has to answer to is the former AEW World Champion Jon Moxley! Mox will be in the house this Wednesday night in Indianapolis and we anticipate he has a great deal to say about everything that has gone down over the last two weeks. The question might be if Moxley wants to use his words or his fists to express what's going on inside his head?
ONE-ON-ONE...
“The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs.
AAA/IWGP/ROH World Tag Team Champion Dax Harwood
It does not get much more straight forward that what Dax Harwood had to say in the above embedded interview. In a year where the AAA/IWGP/ROH World Tag Team Champion has been involved in two of the greatest tag team bouts seen in the history of either Ring of Honor or All Elite Wrestling, has held three different tag team championship titles, participated in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, and even competed in quite a few memorable singles bouts with Will Ospreay, Adam Cole, as well as with his own FTR partner, Dax Harwood just wants one last thing before the year ends.
He wants to face a man many consider the greatest wrestler of all time, the perfect professional wrestler according to William Regal, none other than “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson. Bryan is coming off a heartbreaking loss in the ROH World Championship Match at FULL GEAR 2022, as well as dealing with the Blackpool Combat Club chaos caused by Regal's choice to align with MJF that night, but that doesn't mean he won't be utterly focused on this bout right here.
Dax and Bryan certainly have that in common, an ability to focus on the task at hand no matter what is swirling around them, as well as the inner drive to be the absolute best at what they have chosen to do with their lives. Each man wants to be the best professional wrestler they can possible be, they both work extremely hard at their craft, and each has found success throughout their career. Bryan is a multi-time World Champion, one of the longest reigning and most successful in ROH's history, and has won two of the same Tag Team championships that FTR has also held. Just like Dax is currently, Bryan's been a champion for New Japan Pro Wrestling in his past, and has repeatedly expressed his desire to compete there once again for the first time in exactly 18 years: November 30th of 2004 was in fact the last day Bryan ever stepped into a NJPW ring.
So this Wednesday night, with Bryan having the BCC drama swirling around him and Dax having whatever this Gunn situation is in his life, these two competitors will collide on DYNAMITE in their very first battle with one another. They stood on the same side of the ring on one occasions
three and a half years ago, but never before have they been foes! This is sure to be a top shelf battle between two of the best in the modern wrestling landscape, who will walk away with their hand held up in victory?
MATCH 3/BEST OF 7 SERIES...
Death Triangle (PAC, Penta El Zero Miedo, & Rey Fenix)(2)
vs.
The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, & Nick Jackson)(0)
The Elite are not in a good place at the moment; not only did they lose their opportunity to regain the AEW World Trios Championship at FULL GEAR 2022, but in the second match of this Best of 7 Series with Death Triangle that went down last Wednesday night, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega ended up on the losing end for the second straight match!
So The Elite are fighting out of a small hole at this point, but with the potential of digging out of a deeper one should they drop a third straight bout to the World Trios Champions. The city of Indianapolis has been a mixed bag for the six men involved here: the first time AEW came to town back in 2019, Rey Fenix beat Nick Jackson in a rare singles match for a Young Buck, Kenny Omega retained his AAA Mega Championship against Jack Evans, and Penta El Zero Meido lost to Trent Beretta. Then in 2021, “The Bastard” PAC topped Dax Harwood in singles competition. So what will 2022 bring for these two trios? Which unit will make Indianapolis their house and score the victory in this third collision? And if it is Death Triangle who walks away as the winners for the third straight bout, how will The Elite dig themselves out of that hole? In the NHL, only the '42 Toronto Maple Leafs have come back from 0-3 to win the Stanley Cup, in MLB only the Red Sox during the '04 ALCS have come back from that deficit to win a series, and in the NBA no team has ever come back from 0-3 at any stage of the playoffs.
The Elite are on the cusp of hitting rock bottom, will Death Triangle hammer them back down once again? Or will Matt, Nick, and Kenny begin to climb out of their hole before it gets six feet deep?
JADE CARGILL CHAMPIONSHIP CELEBRATION...
ade Cargill is undefeated across 42 matches, at 15 defenses of the TBS Championship she is the most successful champion in All Elite Wrestling history, and after defeating Nyla Rose at FULL GEAR 2022 she finally has her title belt back in her possession! All of that combined is plenty of reason for Jade Cargill and her remaining Baddies to come together for a special celebration this Wednesday night in Indianapolis!
But one question must be asked: with that record, with that many championship defenses, who is left to step up and challenge Jade for the TBS Championship? Those 15 defenses have seen Jade defeat 12 different women, so is there someone else willing to take a shot at being the one to end the streak and the championship reign?
If there was ever a time for some women to shoot their shot, it is in the middle of Cargill's TBS Championship Celebration! Will anyone step up to the plate, or has Jade Cargill in fact cleaned out the division?
HEAD-TO-HEAD...
Anna Jay A.S. vs. Willow Nightingale
Last week these two women were involved in the Three Way Tag Team bout that also included, and was won by, AEW Women's World Champion Jamie Hayter and Dr. Britt Baker when Skye Blue was pinned by “The Killer and The Pillar”.
Now this Wednesday night, in the aftermath of that collision, Anna and Willow will go head-to-head for their very first singles match! Besides the bout last week, the two women met in tag team action just over a year ago on DARK: ELEVATION, but this will mark their first singles match.
Willow heads into Indianapolis having been victorious in her last three singles bouts while The J.A.S. member lost her most recent bout, a Women's World Title Eliminator bout with Toni Storm. That being said, Anna has one of the strongest win records in the division, coming into Wednesday with 49 victories across 65 bouts, while Nightingale is really just beginning her All Elite journey.
Will it be the AEW experience edge, and the J.A.S. factor, that rules the day for Anna Jay A.S., or will the momentum Willow has built up over her last three bouts, and her overall experience advantage, be the key to victory for the fan favorite?
TNT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Samoa Joe(c) vs. AR Fox
At FULL GEAR 2022, Samoa Joe took advantage of Wardlow conducting his Powerbomb Symphony at Powerhouse Hobbs' expense, and sunk a choke in on Hobbs to win the TNT Championship. All it took was a title belt shot across Wardlow's head to knock him out of the situation, and just seconds later, the reigning ROH World Television Champion had become a double champion across the two companies!
Thus this week on DYNAMITE, Samoa Joe is back in action with one of those two championships on the line! It will be the TNT Championship at stake when Joe meets one of AEW's newest acquisitions, independent wrestling legend AR Fox, in their first head-to-head collision!
Fox has spent nearly twenty years competing around the world, and got his first taste of AEW gold when he and Top Flight challenged Death Triangle for the World Trios Championships several weeks ago. That night earned AR Fox his AEW contract after demonstrating his skills on other AEW programming, and now in recognition of Fox officially becoming part of the All Elite family, he will receive his first chance to capture AEW singles gold!
He just has to get through the most dominant ROH World Champion in that company's 20-year history, a ROH Triple Crown winner, and the most terrifying TNT Champion to date. Can AR Fox shock the world and topple Samoa Joe in Indianapolis? Tune into TBS this Wednesday night to see if AR Fox's impossible dream can come true!
STAY READY
“Absolute” Ricky Starks vs. Ari Daivari
“Absolute” Ricky Starks earned his first AEW World Championship opportunity last week on DYNAMITE when he defeated “All Ego” Ethan Page in the finals of the Men's World Championship Eliminator Tournament, and now he is set to face Maxwell Jacob Friedman at WINTER IS COMING on December 13th.
Despite his bumps and bruises from that match, despite the hell his body was put through by “The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer and “The Machine” Brian Cage in their encounters, Ricky Starks is entering into competition this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE to make sure he stays ready for the biggest opportunity of his life.
While MJF may be sitting back and running his mouth, his next challenger will be in the ring fighting; whether that is the best decision by Starks given his physical condition is something only he and AEW's medical staff can know, but rest assured that Starks is not going to do anything to jeopardize his first AEW World Championship opportunity!
This Wednesday night, All Elite Wrestling and its faithful fans will finally hear from new AEW World Champion MJF after he elected to not come to Chicago just days after he and William Regal screwed Jon Moxley out of the championship. Plus The Elite aim to dig out of their two match hole with the third bout of their Best Of 7 against Death Triangle, Bryan Danielson and Dax Harwood are set to go one-on-one, and Anna Jay A.S. will collide with Willow Nightingale in singles competition! Plus, now that she has her title belt back, TBS Champion Jade Cargill aims to have herself a little celebration in Indianapolis!
All Elite Wrestling comes to you from the Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis this Wednesday night, with doors opening at 6:30pm, and DYNAMITE going live at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TBS, at AEWPlus.com for international audiences! And be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel as it's the best place to catch up on the latest action from DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as recent editions of AEW DARK: ELEVATION, AEW DARK, and ROAD TO!