Ibushi makes AEW debut in Blood & Guts on TSN2
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Japanese superstar Kota Ibushi makes his AEW debut alongside the rest of the Golden Elite as they meet the Blackpool Combat Club, PAC and Konosuke Takeshita in Blood & Guts. Plus, MJF and Adam Cole take on Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara in the Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament final. You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2, streaming on the TSN App and on TSN.ca.
Blood & Guts match: The Golden Elite ("The Cleaner" Kenny Omega, "Hangman" Adam Page, Kota Ibushi, Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler YUTA), "The Bastard" PAC and Konosuke Takeshita (w/ Don Callis) - The weeks of violent enmity between The Elite and the Blackpool Combat Club will come to a bloody crescendo on Wednesday night. Weeks ago, Kenny Omega said he went on a recruiting trip to Japan and last week, the fruits of his voyage were revealed. Backing up Omega, "Hangman" Adam Page and the Young Bucks (Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) in Blood & Guts and their war with Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler YUTA and now Konosuke Takeshita and PAC will be none other than Omega's former tag-team partner, Kota Ibushi, making his AEW debut. If you are unfamiliar with Ibushi, get ready to watch one of Japanese wrestling's most dynamic talents. With Omega as the Golden Lovers, the duo captured the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championships in 2010 by defeating the team of Apollo 55 (Ryusuke Taguchi and Price Devitt), but Ibushi's resume as a singles performer is a sterling one. Ibushi is a two-time G1 winner, a NEVER Openweight Champion, a three-time IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, a two-time IWGP Intercontinental Champion and an IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. Few other competitors possess Ibushi's tenacity or tolerance for pain and he's going to need both on Dynamite. Of his five opponents, Ibushi has only taken on one before, but even that was 15 years ago. Castagnoli defeated Ibushi at Ring of Honor's Injustice event in 2008. This will be the third annual Blood & Guts match and the second straight in which Moxley, Castagnoli and YUTA have competed. In the inaugural match in 2021, the Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Santana and Ortiz) defeated the Pinnacle (Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Wardlow, Shawn Spears, Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler. Then last summer, Moxley, Castagnoli, YUTA, Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz defeated the Jericho Appreciation Society (Jericho, Hager, Guevara, Daniel Garcia, Matt Menard and Angelo Parker). Whatever happens on Wednesday night won't be pretty or the faint-hearted. Which of these quintets will emerge victorious?
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Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament final: AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Adam Cole vs. Jericho Appreciation Society ("The Spanish God" Sammy Guevara and "Red Death" Daniel Garcia) - A shot at FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) and their AEW World Tag Team Championship is on the line on Wednesday night when the Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament wraps up with one unlikely team and another more familiar one do battle in Boston. It was only weeks ago when Adam Cole took AEW World Heavyweight Champion MJF to the limit in a Title Eliminator match that ended in a draw. In the weeks since, their bad blood has abated and the duo have struck somewhat of a friendship confounding others and even themselves. Cole and MJF defeated the team of The Butcher and "Daddy Magic" Matt Menard in the first round before getting the better of "The Machine" Brian Cage and "Big Bill" Morrissey last week. On the other side of the ring are two members of the perhaps (?) crumbling Jericho Appreciation Society. As Chris Jericho mulls aligning with Don Callis, Sammy Guevara, whose problems with Jericho in recent weeks have been pronounced, and Daniel Garcia have managed to work well enough together to pick up two victories, even if there were a couple of bumps along the way. The duo first beat Matt Hardy and "The Last Outlaw" Jeff Jarrett before taking out AEW International Champion "Freshly Squeezed" Orange Cassidy and Darby Allin, thanks to a little bit of help from Swerve Strickland. The luck will run out for one of these teams on Wednesday, but right now it's difficult to envision who. The chemistry between the two duos has been undeniable and it's easy to see why they've been successful. But at the same time, there are red flags surrounding both. Surely, Cole is aware that MJF is ready to plunge a knife into his back as soon as he has the opportunity. And Guevara continues to pull away from Garcia and the rest of the JAS's orbit. The recipe for combustion is certainly present. Which of these duos will earn themselves a shot at gold?
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FTW Championship match: Hook (c) vs. "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry - The team of JungleHook imploded at Forbidden Door when Jack Perry took out his loss to IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA on Hook, blindsiding and laying him out atop the ramp. Since then, Perry has been a marked man by Hook and done whatever he can to avoid his comeuppance. His streak of coming out unscathed ends on Wednesday night when he's finally forced to meet Hook in the ring on Dynamite. But this is what Perry says he wanted. At the beginning of the year, Perry set a goal of winning a singles title for 2023. This will be the chance to make good on his aims, but this isn't just a regular match on Wednesday night - it's a full-on grudge match. Hook defeated Ricky Starks for the FTW Championship almost one year ago on July 27, 2022 and has defended the title his father, Taz, made famous on nine occasions since then. Not even Taz himself defended the title that frequently. The goal for Hook on Wednesday night will be to keep his emotions in check long enough to defend his title. He can't let them get the best of him or that's just the opening Perry will need to walk out with his belt. Can Hook make it 10 clean defences or will Perry claim his first singles title in AEW?