MJF defends against Garcia on Dynamite on TSN2
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MJF puts the AEW World Championship on the line against Daniel Garcia. Plus, Samoa Joe defends the ROH World TV Championship against Keith Lee and Jay White battles Mark Briscoe. You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2, streaming on the TSN App and on TSN.ca.
AEW World Championship match: Maxwell Jacob Friedman (c) vs. "Red Death" Daniel Garcia - After defeating Trent Beretta last week on Rampage, Daniel Garcia grabbed a mic and issued a challenge to AEW World Champion MJF for a shot at his title. The champion was quick to respond and set up the match for Wednesday night in Portland. Even with the Jericho Appreciation Society crumbling around him, Garcia has never taken his eyes of the prize, firmly believing that one day he would be world champion. On social media on Tuesday, Garcia dedicated his match to the likes of Ricky Starks, Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen), Ethan Page, Lee Moriarty, Action Andretti and others who Garcia says are the future of AEW. Garcia says it's time to take that future back from Friedman, a man he believes to disrespect the company even as he holds its top belt. Garcia and MJF have only met once before and it wasn't in singles competition. The team of Friedman and Adam Cole defeated Garcia and Sammy Guevara in the finals of the Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament in July. While MJF absolutely cannot afford to take Garcia lightly, there is undoubtedly quite a bit on the champ's plate right now. Not only will Friedman defend his title against "Switchblade" Jay White in the main event of the Full Gear pay-per-view next weekend, he will also be in action on the pre-show, defending the ROH World Tag Team Championships on his own without injured partner Cole against White's Bullet Club Gold stablemates The Gunns (Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn). You can forgive Friedman if he has a lot on his mind, but a single slip-up against Garcia might be all it takes for a new champion to be crowned on Wednesday night. Can MJF stay champion or will Garcia fulfill his destiny?
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Match for the AEW World Championship shot at Full Gear: "Switchblade" Jay White (w/ "Rock Hard" Juice Robinson, Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn and "Cardblade" Jay White) vs. Mark Briscoe - Mark Briscoe made his return to action after over four months on the sidelines this past Saturday night at Collision as he teamed with Keith Lee and Dustin Rhodes to defeat Kip Sabian and the WorkHorsemen (JD Drake and Anthony Henry). After the match, Briscoe told Lexy Nair that even though he was gone from AEW, he was still watching and he wasn't impressed with the imposter champion, "Switchblade" Jay White. White, of course, is currently in possession of MJF's AEW World Championship, having stolen it from him several weeks ago. Briscoe challenged White for his shot at MJF in the main event of next weekend's Full Gear and that match will go down on Wednesday night. The match will mark the first-ever one-on-one meeting between the two men, but the two have shared the ring on multiple occasions in the past in both tag-team and multi-man matches. Most recently in the spring of 2022, Briscoe and his brother, the late, great Jay Briscoe, defeated the Bullet Club team of White and Chris Bey in Impact Wrestling. A former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, White has never lacked in confidence, but did he bite off more than he can chew in putting his title shot on the line against Briscoe? Sure, Briscoe is coming off of a serious injury and has very little ring time since then, but doesn't that make him even more dangerous considering he has less to lose? One thing is for certain — we will learn very quickly on Dynamite if White's cockiness has caught up to him.
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ROH World TV Championship match: Samoa Joe (c) vs. "Limitless" Keith Lee - Keith Lee's time in Ring of Honor wasn't a long one and most of it was spent as one half of the Pretty Boy Killers alongside Shane Taylor. Lee's sudden departure from the promotion in 2017 created the acrimony between himself and Taylor that still exists to this day. One thing he never had the chance to do while in ROH was hold the World TV Championship (something that Taylor would later do, coincidentally), but that can change on Wednesday night when Lee — on his birthday — goes one on one with Samoa Joe. Outside of the 2020 Royal Rumble, Joe and Lee have never been in a match together and Wednesday night will mark a true coming together of two of AEW's behemoths. For Joe, the match will be the 18th defence of the title that he defeated Minoru Suzuki for back on the April 13, 2022 edition of Dynamite. His 574-day reign is the longest in the title's history and will do everything he can to extend it, but the title he currently holds isn't the only one on Joe's mind. "The Samoan Submission Machine" has made it very clear that he still has designs on MJF's AEW World Championship and has gone as far as offering his services to MJF as his "friend" to help him fend off his many enemies in exchange for another title match. Joe fell to MJF in their first meeting at AEW Grand Slam in September. Joe's preoccupation with the world title might be the only crack in the door that Lee needs to put his foot through and take away the ROH World TV Championship. Which of these two of pro wrestling's best big men will leave with a championship on Wednesday night?
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Swerve Strickland (w/ Prince Nana) vs. Penta El Zero Miedo (w/ Alex Abrahantes) - This past Saturday night on Collision, Lexy Nair spoke to Penta El Zero Miedo's associate Alex Abrahantes about what's next for Penta after he defeated El Hijo del Vikingo and Komander in a tremendous three-way match on Friday night's Rampage. Before he could answer, Swerve Strickland and Prince Nana strolled into the shot and asked why anybody is talking about Friday when they should be talking about Swerve's victory over former friend AR Fox in Collision's opener. Abrahantes told Strickland that Penta didn't take too kindly to seeing Swerve break into "Hangman" Adam Page's home last month to menace his sleeping child because the only thing Penta cares more about than wrestling is family. Abrahantes then challenged Swerve on behalf of Penta with Strickland gladly accepting. The match will be only the second between the two in AEW with the first coming in September of 2022 when then AEW World Tag Team Champions Swerve in Our Glory (Strickland and Keith Lee) defeated the Lucha Bros. (Penta and Rey Fenix). Interestingly enough, when speaking to Abrahantes, Swerve said that he used to wear a mask, too, referencing his time in Lucha Underground as Killshot. Killshot and Penta did battle on a few occasions in LU, but again, not in singles competition. While Penta might be defending Hangman Page on Wednesday night, Swerve's current feud with the former AEW World Champion proves just how far he'll go right now as he continues to position himself for a world title shot. The current version of Swerve is an imperious one and Penta will need to remember that on Dynamite. Which of these two men will pick up a victory?
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Darby Allin and "The Icon" Sting vs. The Outrunners (Turbo Floyd and Truth Magnum) - Before they team with "The Rated R Superstar" Adam Copeland in trios action against TNT Champion Christian Cage, Luchasaurus and Nick Wayne at Full Gear, Darby Allin and Sting step into the ring as a tag team on Wednesday night against the colourful Outrunners (Turbo Floyd and Truth Magnum). As a duo, Allin and Sting are undefeated, going 11-0 since 2021. Last time out, the two defeated the team of Cage and Luchasaurus at AEW Grand Slam from Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens in September. While Sting and Allin have never take on Wednesday night's opponents, Floyd and Magnum, before, you will forgive Sting if he doesn't think he recognizes them from WCW in the early '90s. The Outrunners are throwbacks to the heyday of tag-team wrestling in the late '80s and early '90s and will hope to pick up the biggest win of their careers on Wednesday night. History isn't on the side of Floyd and Magnum, but anything can happen in AEW. Will Sting and Allin stay undefeated or will the Outrunners spring a major upset?
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Red Velvet vs. Julia Hart (w/ "Big, Bad" Brody King) - For the first time in nine months, Red Velvet will be competing on Dynamite. Velvet last appeared on the Feb. 1 edition of the show in a losing effort against Jade Cargill and has been sidelined with injury since. Her return match won't be any easy one with Julia Hart as her competition. Since aligning with the House of Black, Hart has lost just once — a TBS Championship match against Kris Statlander at WrestleDream on Oct. 1 — and is 28-1 since April of 2022. Hart's mind might be elsewhere right now, though. Her attempts to win Skye Blue over after misting her several weeks ago appear to have failed miserably with Blue giving Hart a taste of her own medicine and misting her right back two weeks ago on Collision. Enraged, Hart has vowed revenge, but she simply can't afford to be thinking about that right now against an opponent who will be fresh and raring to get right back to action. Can Hart stay red-hot or will Velvet mark her return to AEW with a big victory?
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PLUS:
- Tony Schiavone sits down with the two women who will compete in the AEW Women's World Championship match at Full Gear: the champion, Hikaru Shida, and the challenger, "Timeless" Toni Storm (w/ Luther)