MJF meets Juice; Okada returns on Dynamite on TSN2
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AEW World Champion MJF meets Juice Robinson for the Dynamite Diamond Ring. Plus, NJPW icon Kazuchika Okada makes his return to AEW, teaming with AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy to take on the Blackpool Combat Club. You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2, streaming on the TSN App and on TSN.ca.
Match for the Dynamite Diamond Ring: AEW World Champion and ROH World Tag Team Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman vs. "Rock Hard" Juice Robinson (w/ "Switchblade" Jay White, Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn) - For four straight years, Maxwell Jacob Friedman has held onto the Dynamite Diamond Ring and will look to make it five in a row on Wednesday night when he takes on Bullet Club Gold's "Rock Hard" Juice Robinson. A former IWGP United States Champion, Robinson outlasted Daniel Garcia, Dustin Rhodes, Jake Hager, Jeff Hardy, Johnny TV, "Daddy Magic" Matt Menard, Matt Hardy, Komander, Trent Beretta, Matt Sydal and "Platinum" Max Caster to win the battle royale on last week's Dynamite to set up the match with MJF, a man who not only is he gunning for, but the rest of Bullet Club Gold. Friedman is defending his AEW World Championship next month in the main event of the Full Gear pay-per-view against Bullet Club Gold leader "Switchblade" Jay White. Make no mistake - while Robinson will undoubtedly use Wednesday night's match to soften up Friedman for White, that's not what this is about. Robinson wants that ring and to inflict punishment on MJF for himself and he's willing to do whatever he can to make that happen. For Friedman, Robinson is just the first of many obstacles standing in the way of his title reign continuing. Not only are Robinson and White on the docket, MJF's former associate Wardlow has made it known he's coming for Friedman and ROH World TV Champion Samoa Joe has declared his interest in another match with the champion. Then there's "The Cleaner" Kenny Omega, who MJF taunted last week as he's set to pass Omega in the coming days as longest reigning AEW World Champion. You can forgive MJF if he has his mind on other things, but anything less than full concentration on the task at hand could spell disaster for the champion. Can Friedman keep his Dynamite Diamond Ring or will Robinson take it back to Bullet Club Gold?
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Blackpool Combat Club ("The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli) (w/ Jon Moxley and Wheeler YUTA) vs. CHAOS (AEW International Champion "Freshly Squeezed" Orange Cassidy and NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion "The Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada) - Jon Moxley and Orange Cassidy once again appear to be on a collision course over the AEW International Championship. At this past Saturday night's Battle of the Belts, Cassidy made his way down to the ring for his title defence against John Silver before the Blackpool Combat Club had left the ring at the conclusion of Collision. As he passed Moxley on the ramp, Cassidy delivered a deliberate shoulder check prompting a response from Moxley, who shoved the champion to the ground. Before things could get out of hand, the rest of the BCC pulled Moxley to the back as Cassidy went on to successfully defend his title. After the match, Cassidy issued a surprise challenge to the BCC: two of them versus him and his CHAOS stablemate, the seven-time IWGP (World) Heavyweight Champion "The Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada. Answering the challenge for the Blackpool Combat Club are Claudio Castagnoli and "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson. Okada and Danielson are, of course, no strangers to one another. The two did battle at Forbidden Door in Toronto this past June in their first ever meeting in a match that Danielson pick up the submission victory with a modified LeBell Lock at just before the half-hour mark. But the win came at a cost for Danielson in the form of a broken arm incurred when Okada hit him with a top-rope elbow drop that kept him out of action for over two months. Needless to say, both men will relish the opportunity to step back into the ring with one another and each still has a point to prove. A one-on-one rematch seems like an inevitability at some point, but until then, this tag match will have to do. Cassidy will also be looking to prove a point to Moxley, who will undoubtedly be watching on - you might have beaten me for this title once, but it won't happen again. Which of these two great teams will pick up a victory?
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ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship match: The Elite ("Hangman" Adam Page, Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) (c) vs. The Hardys (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) and "Brother Zay" Isiah Kassidy - For the first time since capturing the titles from The Mogul Embassy ("The Machine" Brian Cage, Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun) at Grand Slam last month, The Elite's "Hangman" Adam Page and the Young Bucks (Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) will put their ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championships on the line against Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy and Isiah Kassidy. In many ways, the first title defence is the most difficult because there is a high level of embarrassment should a champion be unable to retain their title upon their first challenge. That's absolutely something that the Hardys and Kassidy will attempt to use to their advantage. While the Hardy brothers have held a combined 25 major tag-team championships, they have never held any kind of trios titles. This is the second reign for Hangman and the Jacksons, having previously held the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championships in the summer of 2017. The Young Bucks have also held these same belts with Cody Rhodes and are two-time AEW World Trios Champions alongside Kenny Omega. The other issue at play on Wednesday night is the looming presence of Swerve Strickland, who's made it clear his issues with Page have not been resolved. On last week's Dynamite, Strickland issued a thinly veiled threat towards the rest of The Elite and there's no reason to doubt that he intends to make good on it. We know Strickland will be in Philadelphia. Will he get involved in this match?
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AEW Women's World Championship match: Hikaru Shida (c) vs. Ruby Soho (w/ Saraya) - On last week's Dynamite, Ruby Soho expressed how sick and tired she is of not holding gold. She will have another opportunity to correct things on Wednesday night when she takes on AEW Women's World Champion Hikaru Shida. Soho has never been able to win the big one during her time in AEW, losing all three of the title matches she's been in to date. She lost to Jade Cargill in the final of the tournament to crown an inaugural TBS Champion in January of 2021. At Revolution 2023, she couldn't unseat Jamie Hayter in a three-way match for the AEW Women's World Championship in a bout that also included Outcasts stablemate Saraya. Most recently, at All Out last month, Soho fell to Kris Statlander in a match for the TBS Championship. On top of this, Soho lost in the finals of both editions of the Owen Hart Foundation Cup Tournament, in 2022 to Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, and then to Willow Nightingale this past summer. As these frustrating losses have piled up, Soho seems to have hit a breaking point and change her fortunes on Dynamite against Shida, who will be making the first defence of her third reign as champion since regaining her title with a win over Saraya on the Oct. 10 Dynamite. Shida and Soho have met only once before in singles action, but it was recent. In fact, Shida defeated Soho in a No. 1 contender's match just ahead of her title match against Saraya. Speaking of whom, Saraya will assuredly be motivated to bring the AEW Women's World Championship back into the Outcasts fold and will have no problem with running interference for Soho during the match. Will Soho end her wait for gold or will Shida keep her futility streak in title matches running?
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FTW Champion Hook and "The Whole F'N Show" Rob Van Dam vs. The Dark Order (John Silver and Alex Reynolds) - An ECW icon teams with the son of one as Rob Van Dam makes his return to AEW in tag-team action as he and FTW Champion, and the son of RVD's old peer and rival Taz, Hook join forces to answer the challenge of the Dark Order's Alex Reynolds and John Silver. The match will mark the second time that Hook and RVD have worked as a team, having previously defeated "Daddy Magic" Matt Menard and "Cool Hand" Angelo Parker on the Sept. 23 edition of Collision. In his AEW debut, Van Dam failed in his challenge to take the FTW Championship from then-champion Jack Perry. On the other side of the ring is a Dark Order team that will still be smarting from Silver's loss to Orange Cassidy in an AEW International Championship match at this past Saturday's Battle of the Belts. Despite an attitude change in recent weeks, the changes the Dark Order have made have yet to produce results from an in-ring perspective for the most part. A win over Hook and RVD could put one of the two in line for a shot at Hook's title and another opportunity for the Dark Order to hold gold for the first time since the late Mr. Brodie Lee was the TNT Champion. Can Hook and RVD stay undefeated as a tag team or will Silver and Reynolds pick up a vital win?
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PLUS:
- Swerve Strickland plans to address "Hangman" Adam Page
- Renee Paquette sits down with Chris Jericho following his brutal beating at the hands of the Don Callis Family's Powerhouse Hobbs
- AEW president Tony Khan presents a gift to "The Icon" Sting