Joe meets Rhodes in World Title Eliminator on TSN2
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Samoa Joe takes on Dustin Rhodes in an AEW World Championship Eliminator Match. Plus, Adam Copeland defends the TNT Championship against Penta El Zero Miedo and the Young Bucks show backstage footage from the incident at last summer's All In pay-per-view. You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE beginning at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2, streaming on the TSN App and on TSN.ca.
AEW World Championship Eliminator Match: Samoa Joe (c) vs. "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes - Could the Rhodes family have itself a second world champion in short order? Only days after "The American Nightmare" Cody Rhodes became the WWE Undisputed Universal Champion, Dustin Rhodes is trying to add another belt to his legendary clan's collection. The elder Rhodes brother challenged Samoa Joe to an AEW World Championship match last week, which Joe refused, but he did acquiesce to a World Championship Eliminator Match on Dynamite. Should Rhodes pick up the victory on Wednesday night, he will earn himself a shot at Joe's title. The match will be the first meeting between the two over their respective lengthy careers and it comes with "The Samoan Submission Machine" gearing up for a title defence against Swerve Strickland at the Apr. 21 Dynasty pay-per-view. Since defeating Maxwell Jacob Friedman for the championship at the Dec. 30 World's End PPV, Joe has defended his title twice, beating FTW Champion Hook and defeating Strickland and former champion "Hangman" Adam Page in a three-way match at last month's Revolution PPV. Rhodes has yet to hold gold during his AEW career, but has a decorated resume over his decades in the business. Rhodes is a three-time WWE Intercontinental Champion and a three-time WWE World Tag Team Champion, holding the titles with brother Cody (twice) and Booker T (once). In WCW, Rhodes won two United States Heavyweight Championships, two WCW World Tag Team Championships with Barry Windham (once) and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and held the short-lived WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championships with Tom Zenk and Big Josh (aka Matt Borne). Rhodes is no stranger to gold and wants to make this final stretch of his in-ring career. But Joe is in impetuous form right now and it will take something special from Rhodes to knock off the champion. Can he earn himself a shot at gold or will Joe keep on rolling towards his date with Swerve?
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"Cope Open" TNT Championship match: "The Rated R Superstar" Adam Copeland (c) vs. Penta El Zero Miedo (w/ Alex Abrahantes) - Adam Copeland promised that he would keep making his "Cope Open" open challenges even if he became the TNT Champion. After defeating "The Patriarch" Christian Cage to regain the title on the Mar. 20 edition of Dynamite in Toronto, Copeland made good on his promise and turned aside the challenge of his former associate "The Death Match King" Matt Cardona in his return to AEW on the Mar. 30 edition of Collision. This Wednesday night, the Cope Open continues with a particularly tricky match for the champion in the former of former AEW World Tag Team Champion and World Trios Champion Penta El Zero Miedo. It will mark the first time the two men have crossed paths in their careers. While Penta's time in AEW has largely been spent in the tag and trios division, he's very much an experienced singles performer. Over the course of his career, Penta has held the TNA/Impact World Championship, the AAA Latin American Championship, The Crash Cruiserweight Championship and the Lucha Underground Championship. He knows what it takes to win singles gold and is out to ensure that Copeland's second reign with the TNT Championship is also a brief one. Penta is looking to join some elite company in AEW and become only the third person in the history of the promotion to hold a singles, tag team and trios championship, following in the footsteps of his brother, Rey Fenix, and Kenny Omega. Will Penta enter some rarefied air or will Copeland hang onto his title?
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FTW Champion Hook, "Lionheart" Chris Jericho and "The Wrestler" Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor, "Taigastyle" Lee Moriarty and "The Guv'nor" Anthony Ogogo) - It's clear Hook still has some reservations about being under the tutelage of Chris Jericho - and with good reason. Over the course of his career, Jericho has proven himself over and over again to be as underhanded and conniving as anybody in the business and willing to turn on his associates at the drop of a hat if it meant personal gain. So even though Jericho says he sees something in Hook and wants to bring out the best version of him, Hook is moving cautiously in their arrangement. This past Saturday night on Collision, Hook arranged for himself and Jericho to take on Shane Taylor Promotion's Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty in tag-team action. While Jericho was able to pick up the win by making Moriarty submit to the Walls of Jericho, what happened after match overshadowed the bout itself. Anthony Ogogo made his return to AEW as the newest member of STP and laid out Jericho with a right hand as Taylor and Moriarty took out Hook. After being laid waste to by STP, Hook drafted in Katsuyori Shibata to meet all three men in trios action on Wednesday night. The match will be Ogogo's first in an AEW ring in a year and his first televised AEW match in nearly three years. The Olympic bronze medalist boxer is intent on showing how he's developed his in-ring game in his absence, working mostly for RevPro in his native England where he faced off with the likes of Robbie X, Ricky Knight Jr. (the nephew of AEW's Saraya and Zak Knight) and Sha Samuels. With much to prove, can Ogogo and the rest of STP take advantage of the clear rift between Hook and Jericho to pick up a big victory?
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Mariah May (w/ Luther) vs. Anna Jay - Mariah May experienced something on last week's Dynamite for the first time in AEW and it's a feeling she doesn't want to get used to having - for the first time in her young AEW career, "The Glamour" tasted defeat, falling to Thunder Rosa in a No. 1 contendership match for the AEW Women's World Championship. May immediately got the taste out of her mouth by defeating STARDOM's Momo Kohgo at the ROH SuperCard of Honor PPV on Friday, On Wednesday night, May will have the opportunity to start a winning streak when she takes on Anna Jay. May previously defeated Jay on the Feb. 23 Rampage when she escaped the Queenslayer submission by biting Jay's arm and then putting her away with the May Day, her Death Valley Driver. Jay is looking forward to another shot at May in what has been an up-and-down 2024 thus far for her. Jay is 3-6 in singles competition this year and is looking to once again position herself in title contention. After losing to Julia Hart in a TBS Championship match at January's Battle of the Belts IX, Jay fell in a four-way match for TBS title's No. 1 contendership on the Mar. 27 Dynamite, where she, Kris Statlander and Skye Blue lost to Willow Nightingale. A win over May on Wednesday night could be just what Jay needs to get back on track. Will May make it two straight over Jay or will Jay manage to get her win back?
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PLUS:
- AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm (w/ Luther and Mariah May) presents a "Charleston Championship Champagne Toast" to new No. 1 contender Thunder Rosa
- The Young Bucks (Executive Vice-Presidents Nicholas Jackson and Matthew Jackson) will present and discuss backstage footage from last summer's All In show in London of the altercation between CM Punk and "The Scapegoat" Jack Perry