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Omega, Moxley headline four hours of AEW action on TSN2

Kenny Omega Kenny Omega - All Elite Wrestling
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Kenny Omega defends the AEW International Championship in a four-way match. Plus, AEW World Champion Jon Moxley meets Mark Briscoe and Thekla makes her in-ring debut. You can catch a special four-hour edition of AEW Fyter Fest: Dynamite and Collision on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT on TSN2, the TSN App, and TSN.ca.


AEW International Championship match: "The Cleaner" Kenny Omega (c) vs. "Big, Bad" Brody King vs. Claudio Castagnoli (w/ Wheeler YUTA) vs. NWA World Historic Welterweight Champion and CMLL World Trios Champion Mascara Dorada

After a series of qualifying matches, Kenny Omega now has the full field for Wednesday night's AEW International Championship four-way. The Winnipeg native will make the second defence of the title he won from Konosuke Takeshita at March's Revolution when he takes on Brody King, Claudio Castagnoli and Mascara Dorada. Still looking for his first singles title in AEW, King earned passage to Wednesday's match with a victory over Josh Alexander on Dynamite last week, putting the Bolton, Ont. native away with a Gonzo Bomb. Castagnoli qualified for the match by defeating a man who's become his rival in Komander on Collision with a Ricola Bomb. Dorada emerged from a hard-fought encounter with the veteran Hechicero, also on Collision, by pinning him after a shooting-star press. The first AEW Grand Slam Champion, Omega's first title defence was also in a multi-man match, defeating both Ricochet and "Speedball" Mike Bailey at Dynasty in April. While he's never stepped into the ring with Dorada before, he's very familiar with King and Omega. King has actually taken a title off of Omega in the past. At the Revolution pay-per-view in 2023, The Elite (Omega, Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) lost the AEW World Trios Championships to the House of Black (King, Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews). King has done it once, so why couldn't he do it again? As for Castagnoli, Omega's history with "The Swiss Cyborg" goes back nearly two decades with early battles in Ring of Honor. In singles matches, the two men are 1-1. Most recently, though, Omega and Castagnoli have done battle on opposite sides of three brutal matches in a Blood & Guts encounter in 2023 and Anarchy in the Arena matches in 2023 and at last month's Double or Nothing PPV. Both men are well aware of the other's fortitude and ability to withstand brutality. Dorada, of course, is the wild card here. The 23-year-old Dorada already holds the CMLL World Trios Championships alongside Mistico and Neon as El Sky Team and has been the NWA World Historic Welterweight Champion for over a year since defeating the Don Callis Family's Rocky Romero for the strap. Could a third championship be in the cards for the exciting young talent? Will Omega make it two successful defences or will one of these three other men emerge as the new champion?

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AEW World Champion Jon Moxley (w/ "The Problem" Marina Shafir) vs. Mark Briscoe

In his 20 years in the business, Mark Briscoe has gone to war too many times to count. As one half of the Briscoe Brothers alongside his late brother, Jay Briscoe, Briscoe was involved in bloody battle after bloody battle against some of the other greatest tag teams of their generation like FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler), the Young Bucks (Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson), the Hardy Boyz (Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy), Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) and El Generico and Kevin Steen. Briscoe's stomach for punishment rivals the hardiest of competitors and his toughness is unquestioned, but something happened last week that didn't sit well with the Sandy Forks, DE native. Briscoe was part of a mixed trios match where he teamed with Willow Nightingale and "Speedball" Mike Bailey to take on AEW World Champion Jon Moxley, Marina Shafir and Gabe Kidd. The match ended when Briscoe passed out in Moxley's Bulldog Choke. Now as successful as Briscoe's career has been, losing matches isn't anything new for him. Briscoe always bounces back stronger, but what bothered him wasn't the loss - it was a conversation with his five-year-old son the next day. Briscoe's son asked his father if he quit. The fact that his son could even think his father might be a quitter crushed Briscoe, which is why he challenged Moxley to a one-on-one match on Dynamite. Despite appearing in many of the same promotions over their respective careers, Moxley and Briscoe's lone singles match came during the 2023 Continental Classic where Mox emerged victorious. Briscoe wants another shot to show his son what kind of man his father is and the AEW World Champion was happy to oblige. Briscoe might not win this match, either, but he sure as hell won't quit. And what if he does win? While this match isn't officially a World Title Eliminator, a victory by Briscoe could certainly result in a shot at the belt Moxley has carried around in a briefcase since last October. This match won't be pretty, but somebody has to win it. Will Moxley make it two wins in two weeks over Briscoe or will the former ROH World Champion prove his championship mettle?

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AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm (w/ Luther) and Mina Shirakawa vs. Julia Hart and Skye Blue (with TBS Champion "The CEO" Mercedes Mone sitting in on commentary)

AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm and her frenemy Mina Shirakawa always seem to (literally) kiss and make up any time they fight. We saw that again at Double or Nothing when Storm kept her world title with a victory over Shirakawa and the two embraced afterwards. The match marked the second time that Storm had successfully defended the AEW World Championship against Shirakawa. This past Saturday night on Collision, Shirakawa returned to action in a singles match against Skye Blue. Blue, who only recently returned to competition from a lengthy spell on the sidelines with an ankle injury, was one of the other two competitors in the Women's World Title Eliminator match on the May 14 Dynamite that Shirakawa won to earn her title shot at the PPV. Shirakawa picked up the win with the Mina Driver. Before she could celebrate the victory, she was jumped from behind by Blue's associate, Julia Hart. Shirakawa previously defeated Hart on the May 21 Dynamite. The former TBS Champion locked Shirakawa into Heartless until Storm intervened to chase the Hart and Blue off. On Wednesday night, Storm and Shirakawa will team up to take on Hart and Blue in tag-team action. It will be the first time Hart and Blue have teamed up since defeating Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander in a street fight on the Mar. 20, 2024 edition of Rampage from Toronto. Still, the chemistry edge should be on the side of Hart and Blue. There will be an interested party watching the match from the commentary desk in the form of the TBS Champion. "The CEO" Mercedes Mone defeated Jamie Hayter at Double or Nothing to win the Owen Hart Foundation Cup and, with it, a match with Storm for the world title at All In next month in Texas. Mone, who has also had run-ins with Shirakawa in the past, won't be sorry to see a physical match between the two teams. Which of these duos can pick up a victory on Wednesday night?

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La Faccion Ingobernable ("El Toro Blanco" Rush, Dralistico and the Beast Mortos) vs. JetSpeed (Kevin "The Jet" Knight and "Speedball" Mike Bailey) and Komander (w/ Alex Abrahantes)

On the May 3 edition of Collision, there was a four-way match for a $100,000 prize. ROH World Tag Team Champion Sammy Guevara emerged victorious from the match that also included AR Fox, Kevin Knight and Rush. Furious for losing out on a six-figure payday, the leader of La Faccion Ingobernable blamed Knight for keeping him away from the prize money. Before Rush could get his revenge, Knight left for Japan to take part in New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Best of the Super Juniors tournament. Knight's associate, Mike Bailey, wasn't so lucky, running afoul of the former ROH World Champion on a number of occasions in recent weeks. The team of Bailey and Komander did manage to defeat LFI's Los Hermanos Munoz (Rush and Dralistico) on the May 22 Collision, but their enmity isn't over. On Wednesday night, Rush, Dralistico and the Beast Mortos will take on Komander, Bailey and the returning Knight. Knight finished BOSJ with eight points in the B Block. He picked up victories over Ryusuke Taguchi, Titan, "The Murder Machine" SHO and AEW's own Nick Wayne. Participating in a tournament like the BOSJ will do wonders for Knight's confidence and turn an already formidable competitor into a more seasoned one. Back in AEW, Knight will have the opportunity to show what he picked up in Japan and provide backup to Bailey and Komander against a dangerous trio. Who will get their arms raised after what should be an entertaining trios encounter?

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FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) (w/ Stokely Hathaway) vs. CMLL World Middleweight Champion and New Japan Strong Openweight Tag Team Champion Templario and NWA Historic Lightweight Champion Atlantis Jr.

It's hard to believe, but the trio of Dax Harwood, Cash Wheeler and Stokely Hathaway talked themselves into some trouble this past Saturday night on Collision. Noting that they were former AAA World Tag Team Champions, FTR taunted the crowd in El Paso, TX, who was largely of Mexican heritage, and demanded a match with the best Mexico had to offer. Answering the challenge were United Empire member Templario and Atlantis Jr. Naturally with the competition now in front of them, FTR couldn't help themselves, insulting both Templario and Atlantis Jr., but worst of all, also disparaging the iconic Atlantis, Atlantis Jr.'s father. The four men came to blows and the challenge was made official. FTR will now have to take on a duo they've needlessly antagonized. While Templario and Atlantis Jr. are not regular partners, they were the winners of CMLL's Torneo Nacional de Parejas IncreĆ­bles tournament in 2021 and have shared a ring with one another, as both teammates and opponents, on countless occasions over the past six years. And both men have tag-team credentials. Templario is currently one half of the the New Japan Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions alongside United Empire stablemate TJP, while Atlantis Jr. held the Mexican National Tag Team Championships with Flyer. The match will be another good test of FTR's renewed ambitions that saw the duo viciously attack their former friend Adam Copeland as a bid to refocus on once again becoming the AEW World Tag Team Champions. Bringing the loathsome Hathaway into the fold was also done in the service of acquiring more gold. This new, more vicious FTR showed what they were capable of at Double or Nothing when they defeated the team of Danny Garcia and Nigel McGuinness. Can FTR stay hot or did they bite off more than they can chew in Templario and Atlantis Jr.?

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"The Toxic Spider" Thekla makes her in-ring debut

"The Idol Killer" has touched down in AEW. On last week's Dynamite as Jamie Hayter stood in the ring, the lights went out. When they came back on, former Stardom star Thekla Kaischauri laid the former AEW Women's World Champion out with the Toxic Spider Death Drop. A former Goddess of Stardom Champion with H.A.T.E. stablemate Momo Watanabe and a former Artist of Stardom Champion with Donna Del Mondo stablemates Mai Sakurai and Giulia, Thekla's exit from Stardom wasn't exactly amicable. In late April, the Vienna native laid out Stardom president Taro Okada as her final act in a Stardom ring. On Wednesday night, AEW will get their first taste of what Thekla has to offer.

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We'll hear from the Hurt Syndicate

Montel Vontavious Porter's newly expanded stable of Maxwell Jacob Friedman and the AEW World Tag Team Champions "The Almighty" Bobby Lashley and "The Standard of Excellence" Shelton Benjamin will be in Denver on Wednesday night. The ever-loquacious MVP is never short on words, so what does he have to say on Dynamite?