A week before Blood & Guts, Darby Allin puts his TNT Championship on the line against Bolton, Ont.’s Josh Alexander. Plus, Queen Aminata vies for Persephone’s TBS Championship and FTR and Motor City Machine Guns meet in Match 3 of their best-of-five series.
You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE at 8pm ET/5pm PT on TSN2, TSN.ca and the TSN App.
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TNT Championship match: Darby Allin (w/ Steven Borden Jr.) (c) vs. Maple Leaf Pro Canadian Champion “The Walking Weapon” Josh Alexander (w/ Don Callis)
Only one week before Darby Allin is among the six men who will step into Blood & Guts to take on the Don Callis Family, the TNT Champion will put his title on the line against another member of the family in Bolton, Ont.’s Josh Alexander. “The Walking Weapon” is still seeking his first AEW title and will look to stop Allin’s third reign with the belt in its tracks. Wednesday night’s match will be the first-ever singles meeting between the two men.
Allin began his record-tying third reign back at All In when he defeated archrival Kevin Knight in a falls-count-anywhere match. Since then, the former AEW World Champion and AEW World Tag Team Champion has defended his title three times. Allin has turned away the challenges of Myron Reed and three other members of the Family in Hechicero, Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis.
Alexander is coming off of a victory over Blade Brown on this past Saturday night’s Collision. At Maple Leaf Pro’s Northern Rising in Toronto on Oct. 3, Alexander defeated Stu Grayson to unify the MLP Canadian Championship in, perhaps, the best match of the night. Already wearing gold, Alexander is hungry for more.
The match on Dynamite will be Alexander’s third shot at a championship in AEW and his second match for the TNT Championship. On the June 26, 2025 edition of Collision, Alexander took on then-champion Adam Cole. While Alexander was able to kick out after a Panama Sunrise, he couldn’t withstand The Boom and Cole successfully retained his title.
Tied with Cody Rhodes and Sammy Guevara with three TNT Championship reigns, Allin has held the title for longer than anybody else in the belt’s six-year-plus history. Combining his three reigns, Allin has worn the title for 271 days. That is 73 days longer than runner-up Wardlow’s time with the championship.
During his time in TNA, Alexander was a perennial contender for virtually every title on offer. A former TNA World Champion and X-Division Champion, Alexander was also an accomplished tag-team wrestler, holding the company’s tag titles on two occasions with Ethan Page as The North. It seems like it’s only a matter of time before he finds one around his waist in AEW.
Can Allin continue his record-setting reign or will Alexander bring more gold back to the Family?
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TBS Championship match: CMLL World Women’s Champion Persephone (c) (w/ Dr. Britt Baker, DMD) vs. Queen Aminata
Persephone’s days as a double champion could be numbered. The El Paso, TX native will defend one of her two championships on Wednesday night when she puts the TBS Championship on the line against Queen Aminata. After coming close in the past, Aminata is looking to finally get her championship aspirations over the line. But unseating Persephone won’t be an easy task.
Aminata earned her shot at the title on last week’s Dynamite when she took on former champion Maya World. After a back-and-forth matchup, Aminata took control when she sat World in a chair on the outside before delivering a devastating drop-kick from the apron that sent World to the ground with a thud. From there, Aminata connected with Off with Her Head in the ring and got the pin.
Wednesday night’s match will mark the fifth time that Aminata has vied for the TBS Championship in 2026. She previously came up short against Willow Nightingale, Hikaru Shida and in July’s Survival of the Fittest six-way match. Most recently, Aminata competed in the four-way for the championship at WrestleDream earlier this month with Dani Luna and Hyan also in the bout. Persephone was able to retain her title, pinning Hyan after a moonsault.
Since defeating World for the TBS Championship at All In, Persephone has defended on four occasions. Key to her reign has been the presence of ally, Britt Baker. Bonding over a mutual dislike of Thunder Rosa, AEW’s resident dentist has had Persephone’s back and aided her in ensuring the championship has stayed in her grasp. Baker’s presence will be something that Aminata must contend with on Dynamite.
Persephone and Aminata have never met in singles competition before. Should she win, Aminata would become the ninth woman to hold the title. Persephone is looking to take her reign into the two-month mark.
Can Aminata become AEW’s first African-born champion or will Persephone remain a double titleholder?
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Best-of-five series Match 3: Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley) vs. FTR (Dax “The Axe” Harwood and Cash Wheeler) (w/ Big Stoke) (Series is tied 1-1)
Expectations were high when word broke that two of the greatest tag teams of all-time would begin a best-of-five series, but through two matches the Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley) and FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) have delivered. And, just as expected, the first pair of matches have been evenly contested. That should continue on Wednesday with a pivotal third match on Dynamite.
While the purpose of the series is to prove the superiority between two teams who have combined for 22 world titles across AEW, WWE, NJPW, TNA, ROH and AAA, it’s hard not to think that the winning duo won’t position themselves as the top contenders to the AEW World Tag Team Championships currently held by The Young Bucks (Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson). Harwood and Wheeler are three-time champions, but Sabin and Shelley have yet to win AEW gold. That’s certainly something that isn’t lost on MCMG.
The Machine Guns drew first blood at WrestleDream in what ended up being a marathon contest. In a match that went just under 30 minutes, FTR looked to have the match won before Sabin escaped a Shatter Machine attempt. This allowed Shelley to reenter the ring and MCMG hit a double enzugiri on Wheeler before pinning him with a Dirty Bomb.
Harwood and Wheeler evened the series this past Saturday night on Collision and they got a hand in doing so from Stokely Hathaway. After missing their Shatter Machine attempt in the first match, Harwood and Wheeler connected on Shelley, but a desperate Sabin was able to break up the pin just before the three count. Sabin and Harwood then fell out of the ring tied up with one another, leaving Wheeler and Shelley inside the ring.
Shelley attempted a victory roll, but Wheeler was able to reverse. Wheeler then used Hathaway’s hands for leverage to hold on and get the pinfall. The referee was none the wiser, so the series moved to 1-1.
With a victory on Wednesday night leaving one team on the precipice of a series win, which of these two teams will take the crucial third match?