Cargill puts TBS title on the line against Valkyrie on TSN2
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TBS Champion Jade Cargill faces her stiffest test yet as she defends against Taya Valkyrie. Plus, Orange Cassidy puts the AEW International Championship on the line against the returning Bandido and Darby Allin battles Sammy Guevara for a spot in the AEW World Championship match at Double or Nothing. You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2, streaming on the TSN App and on TSN.ca.
TBS Championship match: Jade Cargill (c) (w/ "Smart" Mark Sterling and Leila Grey) vs. Taya Valkyrie - On Jan. 5, 2022, Jade Cargill defeated Ruby Soho to become the inaugural TBS Champion and has held the title to this day. Still undefeated, riding a 56-0 streak to start her career and with 21 successful title defences under her belt, Cargill faces her toughest task to date both as champion and of her young career on Wednesday night when she takes on Vancouver's Taya Valkyrie. The two women have been on a collision course since Valkyrie's arrival in AEW last month with Valkyrie looking to add the already impressive list of championships on her resume. A four-time and the current AAA Reina de Reinas Champion, Valkyrie has won titles virtually everywhere she's gone and hopes to make AEW no different, but Cargill has one distinctive edge on Wednesday night. Thanks to the finagling of "Smart" Mark Sterling, Valkyrie isn't permitted to use her finisher during Wednesday's match because her Road to Valhalla is a chicken-wing facebuster and identical to Cargill's Jaded finisher. Not having her most potent manoeuvre in the chamber could prove to be a major hindrance for Valkyrie and will force her to think outside the box in order to claim her first AEW championship. Can Cargill keep rolling or will a second person finally stake claim to the TBS Championship?
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AEW International Championship match: "Freshly Squeezed" Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Bandido - It is not controversial to say that the AEW International Championship is wearing Orange Cassidy down and it's only a matter of time before somebody takes advantage of this and defeats him for that title. That could happen as soon as Wednesday when Bandido becomes his latest challenger. Simply put, Cassidy doesn't know how to be anything but a fighting champion. Since winning the title from "The Bastard" PAC in Toronto last October, Cassidy has defended it a remarkable 19 times. Most recently, Cassidy turned away the challenge of Gabriel Kidd at New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Collision in Philadelphia show last weekend. Just as longtime champion Jade Cargill is perhaps facing her toughest opponent yet, the same can be argued about Cassidy taking on Bandido. Bandido is making his return to AEW for the first time since January, having been sidelined in recent weeks with an American visa issue that has now been resolved. Bandido officially signed with AEW last November, but he's still looking for his first signature win with the promotion. A victory over Cassidy would go a long way to truly announce his arrival in the company. And Bandido has championship pedigree to spare. The 28-year-old luchador is a former ROH and PWG World Champion and in his short time in AEW, he's taken the likes of Chris Jericho, Rush and Ethan Page to the limit. The combination of a relatively fresh Bandido and a battle-worn champion does not bode well for Cassidy's attempt to keep hold of the title. Will Cassidy make it 20 successful defences or will Bandido walk out of Dynamite with a championship title around his waist?
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Darby Allin (w/ "The Icon" Sting) vs. "The Spanish God" Sammy Guevara (w/ AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman) - On Wednesday night, we will find out who will challenge Maxwell Jacob Friedman for the AEW World Championship at Double or Nothing on May 26, but it's not that cut and dry. In recent weeks, MJF's fellow Four Pillars of AEW - "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry, Sammy Guevara and Darby Allin - have all asserted their title credentials. On last week's Dynamite, Friedman announced a tournament amongst Perry, Guevara and Allin to determine his challenger. By random draw, Allin received a bye to the final with Perry and Guevara set to face off later that night. But before their match, MJF cut a deal with Guevara - in exchange for a blank cheque, Guevara will win the tournament with MJF's help and then lie down at the PPV, allowing Friedman to retain with little trouble. Well, it's been so far, so good with the plan. Later that night, MJF aided Guevara in defeating Perry by countout, allowing him to move on to Wednesday night's match with Allin. So on Wednesday night, it's in essence Guevara and MJF versus Allin. But if there's one person who pays no mind to the odds against him and putting himself in peril, it's Darby Allin. Allin and Guevara are no strangers to one another and have faced off on numerous occasions in AEW and even before the company's existence. In AEW, Guevara has had Allin's number with the former three-time TNT Champion holding a 6-2 edge in their meetings. Most recently, Guevara defeated Allin in the first round of the Grand Slam Tournament of Champions last fall. The other factor in all of this is the personal animus between Allin and MJF himself. At Full Gear 2021, the two wrestled with MJF vowing to defeat Allin with nothing more than a headlock takeover, something he managed to accomplish after using the Dynamite Diamond Ring to knock Allin out cold. Allin most certainly hasn't forgotten that and would love nothing more than to be the man to take the AEW World Championship away from him. His anger alone might be enough to fuel him past Guevara, even with MJF's assistance. Which of these two men will earn himself a shot at the world champion?
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The Butcher and The Blade (w/ "Superbad" Kip Sabian) vs. IWGP United States Champion "The Cleaner" Kenny Omega and Konosuke Takeshita (w/ Don Callis and Michael Nakazawa) - When the Blackpool Combat Club ("The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler YUTA) began to once again lay waste to The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) on last week's Dynamite, it was no surprise to see Don Callis run for the hills as it happened. What was a surprise, though, was to see Callis return with Konosuke Takeshita as reinforcement to help run the BCC off. While Omega and the Young Bucks looked just as surprised as the fans to see Takeshita, his presence was the culmination of a long recruitment campaign for Callis who had been offering his services to the Japanese star for the past several months. On Wednesday night, the world will get a look at how Callis's newest client can work as a team with his most prominent client in Omega. This is not the first time the two men have shared a ring on the same side, but it will be the first time the longtime rivals have worked as a tag team. Their opponents will be the experienced duo of The Butcher and The Blade, who will quickly test Omega and Takeshita and discover whether or not the two can generate any chemistry. Will this new team manage to pick up a win in its maiden voyage or will the more experienced duo find a way to victory?
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AEW World Tag Team Champion Dax Harwood (w/ Cash Wheeler) vs. "The Last Outlaw" Jeff Jarrett (w/ Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt and Satnam Singh) - The peace between FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) and Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal was always going to be an uneasy one. On Saturday's Rampage, the four men teamed up to defeat the Varsity Athletes (Tony Nese and Josh Woods), Ari Daivari and Slim J, but not before miscommunication between the two sides almost resulted in Harwood getting pinned by Daivari. After the match, an argument erupted amongst the four men until mutual friend Mark Briscoe arrived to diffuse the situation. On Wednesday, Jarrett and Harwood will face off with the crafty veteran well aware that a victory over one half of the AEW World Tag Team Champions will likely result in a title match for him and Lethal. Since arriving in AEW, the tag titles have eluded Jarrett on a number of occasions. While Jarrett is a 12-time world champion, his prowess in tag-team wrestling has also been evident over the years with him holding major titles with the likes of Owen Hart, Jerry "The King" Lawler and Kerry Von Erich. Getting this close to once again challenging for the tag titles is an opportunity that Jarrett won't want to pass up. Can Jarrett potentially earn another shot for himself and Lethal or will Harwood end that dream?
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PLUS:
- AEW president Tony Khan makes a special announcement
- We will hear from new TNT Champion Wardlow (w/ Arn Anderson)
- Adam Cole addresses last week's brutal beating at the hands of Chris Jericho