Two title matches, MJF in action headline Dynamite
Published
The Acclaimed put their AEW World Tag Team Championships on the line when they take on the Gunns and The Elite defend the AEW World Trios Championships against Top Flight and A.R. Foxx. Plus, AEW World Champion MJF does battle with Konosuke Takeshita. You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2, streaming on the TSN App and on TSN.ca.
AEW World Tag Team Championship match: The Acclaimed ("Platinum" Max Caster and "The Five-Tool Player" Anthony Bowens) (c) (w/ "Daddy Ass" Billy Gunn) vs. The Gunns (Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn) (w/ Stokely Hathaway) - Two teams intimately familiar with one another will face off one more time on Wednesday night, this time with the tag titles on the line, when The Acclaimed defend against the Gunns. Once allies, the two teams had a bitter split in the summer. For the Gunns, the insult added to injury was their father, tag-team legend Billy Gunn, aligning with Max Caster and Anthony Bowens and helping to lead them to the AEW World Tag Team Championships, defeating Swerve in Our Glory (Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee) in the fall. Since then, Caster and Bowens have made five successful title defences, but none will have been as emotional as Wednesday night's match has the potential to be. While The Acclaimed appeared to initially laugh off the Gunn brothers' challenge, it was Billy Gunn who agreed to the title match out of anger and disappointment when his sons ran him down as a father. Hurt and angry, Austin and Colten accused their father of being an absentee parent who was more concerned about downing pills than being their dad and that drove the elder Gunn to his breaking point. Though Caster and Bowens are prepared to put their titles on the line, they were clearly taken aback by Daddy Ass's accepting of the challenge. The way things went down, it's hard not to wonder at least a little bit if there's something more at play here between Billy Gunn and his sons. Will The Acclaimed hang onto their belts or will Austin and Colten become the second generation of Gunns to claim tag team titles?
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AEW World Trios Championship match: The Elite (IWGP United States Champion "The Cleaner" Kenny Omega, Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) (c) (w/ Don Callis, Brandon Cutler and Michael Nakazawa) vs. Top Flight (Dante Martin and Darius Martin) and A.R. Foxx - Two weeks ago on Dynamite, Top Flight earned the biggest win of their young careers when they defeated the Young Bucks (Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) in tag-team action. That victory followed the Martin brothers and A.R. Foxx's win in December's $300,000 Three Kings Christmas Casino Trios Battle Royal. Both of these victories have put them in line for the first shot at The Elite's newly reclaimed AEW World Trios Championships that Kenny Omega and the Jacksons won back after their hellacious best-of-seven series concluded last month in Los Angeles with a win over Death Triangle (PAC, Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fenix) in a ladder match. The Elite have no desire to immediately drop the titles they went through hell to get back, but they're still banged up from that series and they're taking on an absolutely fearless trio who won't at all be deterred by facing off with three of the greatest wrestlers of a generation. The Martins and Foxx will be overlooked at The Elite's peril. Can the champs keep their gold or will the Martin brothers and Foxx spring the upset?
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AEW World Title Eliminator match: Maxwell Jacob Friedman (c) vs. Konosuke Takeshita - MJF isn't exactly thrilled with Konosuke Takeshita these days. Takeshita was the first opponent that MJF placed in front of Bryan Danielson as a means to keep "The American Dragon" from earning a title shot at Revolution. While the former KO-D Openweight Champion put up a valiant effort, he couldn't beat Danielson, who embarked on a streak that also saw him take down Bandido, Brian Cage and Timothy Thatcher. It was the Cage match in which MJF's anger towards Takeshita grew. After Danielson picked up the win, Cage and eventually MJF continued the beating and tried to further injure Danielson's shoulder. Takeshita intervened to even the odds and help out a man he considers an idol. Then when MJF attempted to attack Danielson again on last week's Dynamite during the match with Thatcher, it was Takeshita who made the save for a second time, taking out the world champion and brawling to the back with him. AEW booker Tony Khan immediately made the match for Wednesday night. For Takeshita, it's the latest match in a series of high-calibre opponents he's taken on since arriving in AEW. On last week's Dynamite, Takeshita defeated Cage in a hard-fought match to pick up his first signature win in the promotion. But MJF represents a different kind of opponent altogether. The AEW World Champion is sadistic and conniving and not remotely afraid to fight dirty. He will desperately want to make an example of Takeshita, but he'll need to remember that a failure to beat him here will result in a future title shot for the Japanese competitor. Will MJF enact some vengeance on Takeshita for letting him down or will Takeshita set himself up for a shot at gold?
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AEW Women's World Title Eliminator match: Jamie Hayter (c) (w/ Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, and Rebel) vs. The Bunny (w/ The Butcher and The Blade) - The Bunny has been in AEW for over three years and has yet to receive an AEW Women's World Championship match, but the Toronto native can change all of that on Wednesday night when she takes on Jamie Hayter. With a win over the champion, The Bunny earns a title shot down the line, but that could be easier said than done. Hayter has not lost a singles match since August and has looked like a killer since becoming the AEW Women's World Champion at Full Gear in November, but will her mind be elsewhere? As The Bunny approached Hayter for a match on last week's Dynamite, her rivals Saraya and Toni Storm used the opportunity to lay out Britt Baker. Saraya and former champion Storm will undoubtedly be lurking around when Hayter hits the ring on Wednesday night, so she might as well be ready to at least focus some of her attention on that possibility. And that opening might be all The Bunny needs to make Hayter pay and earn that title shot. Can Hayter stay rolling or will The Bunny put herself in line for a championship match?
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"The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson vs. "El Toro Blanco" Rush (w/ Jose the Assistant) - It all comes down to Wednesday night for Bryan Danielson. Should he defeat Rush, he gets his title match with AEW World Champion MJF at next month's Revolution pay-per-view. And it won't be just any match - should Danielson win on Dynamite, he earns a 60-minute ironman match in which he vows to embarrass the champion. For Maxwell Jacob Friedman, his plan to avoid the six-time world champion's challenge is all up to former two-time ROH World Champion Rush. Friedman only agreed to give Danielson his match should he defeat all of his handpicked opponent's up until Feb. 8. All of Konosuke Takeshita, Bandido, Brian Cage and Timothy Thatcher couldn't get the job done, so "El Toro Blanco" is all who is left. MJF thinks he might have learned his lesson, though. Instead of offering a payoff pre-match to Rush like he did with his four other selections, he only gave a partial payment to Rush, promising more if he could further injure Danielson's arm. But there's more than simply money on the line for Rush. A match with Danielson represents a chance to prove himself against the man many consider to be the very best wrestler in the world and put himself in contention for his first AEW championship. Can Danielson finally get his title match set in stone or will Rush end his dream on Wednesday night?
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The Garcia-Guevara Gauntlet: "Absolute" Ricky Starks vs. "Daddy Magic" Matt Menard, "Cool Hand" Angelo Parker, Daniel Garcia and "The Spanish God" Sammy Guevara - There is only one way for Ricky Starks to get his final revenge on Chris Jericho. The enmity between Starks and the Jericho Appreciation Society started early in January when he refused Jericho's offer of membership in the JAS. Starks followed up his rejection by beating Jericho in a single match when he pinned him after a spear. The JAS would leave him in a crumpled heap after the match with a brutal beatdown of Starks that culminated in a Jake Hager power bomb through a table. Though Starks was able to take out his frustrations on Hager, the JAS got one up on the team of Starks and Action Andretti on the Jan. 25 Dynamite when Jericho and Sammy Guevara were victorious thanks to the intervention of Daniel Garcia and his baseball bat. In order for Starks to finally put this feud to bed with one more shot at Jericho, he's got to go through everybody else. To earn another match with "The Ocho," Starks must defeat Matt Menard, Angelo Parker, Garcia and Guevara in succession. The task seems like a herculean one, but never underestimate the drive of a man seeking revenge. Will Starks find a way to get his hands on Jericho or will the JAS leave him laying one more time?