“Speedball” Mike Bailey challenges Darby Allin for the AEW World Championship. Plus, FTR defends their AEW World Tag Team Championship against The Conglomeration. You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT on TSN2, the TSN App, and TSN.ca. Then at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, the action moves to USA Network for a special one-hour edition of Collision.
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AEW World Championship match: Darby Allin (c) vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey
Darby Allin is going until the wheels fall off. Despite having a title-versus-hair match lined up against former AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman at Sunday’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view, Allin is continuing his quest to defend his belt on every single AEW television show. Wednesday night’s Dynamite will be no different.
After fending off the challenge of Sammy Guevara this past Saturday night on Collision, Allin will now take on Laval, Que.’s own Mike Bailey in a first-time matchup. Bailey called next last week on Dynamite before Allin defeated Konosuke Takeshita in the main event. The victories over Takeshita and Guevara were Allin’s fifth and sixth successful defences, respectively, since he beat MJF for the title on Apr. 14. He’s also defeated Tommaso Ciampa, Brody King, Kevin Knight and PAC.
Bailey will represent a different kind of challenge for Allin. He doesn’t have the power of a King or Takeshita or the aerial prowess of his tag partner Knight or Guevara, but Bailey’s game has no holes. The former AEW World Trios Champion and TNA X-Division Champion is as well-rounded as they come and has earned a black belt in Taekwondo, peppering his move set with skills gleaned from his martial arts training.
And as much as Allin has been on a role since capturing the title, Bailey enters the match on a run of his own. Speedball is a winner of three straight matches, including one over current ROH World Television Champion AR Fox, that saw him need just over a combined 10 minutes to win all three. He appears to be peaking at the right time.
But can Bailey get the job done? Wednesday night’s match will mark the fourth time that Bailey has challenged for a singles title in AEW and he’s 0-3 in his previous bouts. Bailey has fallen to Kazuchika Okada for the AEW Continental Championship, to Kenny Omega for the AEW International Championship and to Kyle Fletcher for the TNT Championship. He also lost to then-AEW World Champion MJF in a World Title Eliminator on the Apr. 1 edition of Dynamite. Faced with the biggest opportunity of his AEW career, Bailey will need to turn the page from what happened before.
Will the Allin train keep rolling into the PPV or will Bailey derail it to become the third Canadian AEW World Champion?
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AEW World Tag Team Championship: FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) (c) (w/ Big Stoke) vs. AEW World Trios Champions The Conglomeration (“Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy and Roderick Strong)
Back on the May 6 edition of Dynamite, Dax Harwood and Orange Cassidy faced off in a Double Jeopardy match. One half of the AEW World Tag Team Champions, Harwood could have earned himself, along with partner Cash Wheeler and Tommaso Ciampa, an AEW World Trios Championship match by defeating Cassidy. But it was Cassidy who won the match, meaning that he got a shot at FTR’s titles along with a fellow member of The Conglomeration.
On Wednesday night, Cassidy comes to collect as he and Roderick Strong vie to become the AEW World Tag Team Champions. The match couldn’t come at a worse time for FTR. At Sunday night’s Double or Nothing, the duo is set to put their titles on the line against bitter rivals Cage & Cope (Christian Cage and Adam Copeland) in an I Quit Match. Making the stakes even higher, if Cage & Cope lose, the seven-time WWE World Tag Team Champions and tag-team wrestling icons can never team up again. Harwood and Wheeler would love nothing more than to end this team’s illustrious career, but the match against Cassidy and Strong throws a potential monkey wrench into their plans.
Despite being the current trios champions, Cassidy and Strong are best known for their singles careers. Cassidy is arguably the greatest AEW International Champion of all-time, holding the title for 471 days over two reigns. Strong’s exploits are well-known. “The Messiah of the Backbreaker” is a former ROH World Champion, ROH World TV Champion, PWG World Champion, NXT Cruiserweight Champion and NXT North American Champion. Still, the two are far from strangers to tag-team wrestling. As a member of The Colony, Cassidy held the CHIKARA Campeonatos de Pareja. Strong, meanwhile, was an ROH World Tag Team Champion as a member of Generation Next and held the NXT Tag Team Championships as part of Undisputed Era with Adam Cole, Bobby Fish and fellow Conglomeration member Kyle O’Reilly.
Can FTR manage to keep their high-stakes match with Cage & Cope on the cards or will Cassidy and Strong become double champions?
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JERICHO and The Young Bucks (Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) vs. Ricochet and The Don Callis Family (AEW National Champion “Dunkzilla” Mark Davis and IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion Andrade El Idolo) (w/ Don Callis, “The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer, Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun)
Six of the 14 men sent to compete in Sunday night’s Stadium Stampede match will offer a taste of what’s to come as Chris Jericho teams with the Jackson brothers to take on Don Callis Family duo Mark Davis and Andrade El Idolo and Ricochet. At Double or Nothing, it will be Jericho, The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin) and The Elite (Kenny Omega, Jack Perry, Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) facing off with The Demand (Ricochet, Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun), the Family (Davis and Andrade) and The Dogs (Dave Finlay and Clark Connors). The match will be the fourth edition of Stadium Stampede and the first in nearly three years.
Wednesday night’s match won’t be pretty as it is simply to serve as a table-setter for the PPV. But that doesn’t mean watching six men beat the hell out each other won’t be fun. The match will provide each side with the opportunity to send a message to the other ahead of Sunday’s spectacle. Winning or losing won’t be important on Dynamite as long as the other side learns what’s in store for them on the weekend.
The key to this trios match for the team of Jericho and the Bucks will be how they manage to deal with Davis. The giant Aussie is on a roll right now and his raw power is something that none of these three men can contend with on his own. They’re going to need to work together to take down this giant. And that’s to say nothing of meeting the challenge of Ricochet and Andrade.
For Jericho, the match will be another one against Ricochet, the man who’s been a thorn in his side since his return from a yearlong absence last month. In the two matches they had in April, Ricochet pinned Jericho in both. To add insult to injury, he defeated Jericho by using one of his own signature moves in the Lionsault. Needless to say, Ricochet is relishing having Jericho’s number.
Which of these two trios can strike a blow ahead of Sunday night’s war?
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AEW Continental Championship Eliminator Match: AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley vs. AEW World Trios Champion Kyle O’Reilly
Arguably last fall’s hottest feud in AEW will reignite on Wednesday night when Jon Moxley steps inside the squared circle with Kyle O’Reilly once again. And there will be a prize on the line this time around - should O’Reilly pick up a victory, he earns himself a shot at Moxley’s AEW Continental Championship. If history is any indicator, the Death Riders leader should be prepared to put that title of his on the line.
Simply put, O’Reilly has become Moxley’s kryptonite. Beginning with a singles match on the Oct. 22 Dynamite, O’Reilly has frustrated Moxley at every turn. During that match, Moxley threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Vancouver native and couldn’t put him away. O’Reilly then managed to catch Mox in an ankle lock, but before he could tap, Moxley elbowed referee Paul Turner to get intentionally disqualified. The following week, the two men met in a rematch and that solved nothing as it broke down into a brawl and both men were counted out. Facing off on opposite sides in Blood & Guts in mid-November, it was O’Reilly who picked up the victory for his team by making Moxley tap out via the ankle lock into a knee bar.
The rancor between the two men led to a no-holds barred match at Full Gear. In the nearly 20-minute encounter, the two men beat the holy hell out of one another and both were bloodied. With Moxley focusing on O”Reilly’s arm, he appeared to have the match won. Putting him down with a Death Rider, Mox attempted to lock the arm into a submission, but O’Reilly managed to block it by holding onto his own tights. Getting loose, O’Reilly transitioned into the ankle lock-knee bar again, this time also using a chain for additional leverage, and forced Moxley to tap out for a second time.
After the match, it appeared that this would end things between the two competitors with Moxley offering a head nod of congratulations as he left the right. But he changed his mind. With O’Reilly trying to gather himself, Moxley came back into the ring and laid waste to his prone opponent. The beating was so bad that O’Reilly missed out on the Continental Classic, a tournament won by Moxley, and was kept on the shelf for nearly five months.
This past Saturday night on Collision, Moxley acknowledged that O’Reilly has his number and it would be probably best for him to avoid him entirely. But he contends that this is a different Moxley, one who O’Reilly has never wrestled before. This Moxley, he said, is one who can beat O’Reilly.
Not only is Wednesday night’s match a chance to earn a future title shot and an opportunity at revenge, it marks O’Reilly’s first singles match since his return last month. We will know in short order how his body will hold up to the rigours of one-on-one competition. Can O’Reilly continue his mastery of Moxley?
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“The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay vs. “The Wrestler” Katsuyori Shibata (w/ Samoa Joe and Anthony Bowens)
Now under the tutelage of Jon Moxley and the Death Riders, Will Ospreay takes the next step towards becoming AEW World Champion on Wednesday night when he takes on a man he knows very well in Katsuyori Shibata. But this won’t be a match about simply testing his abilities against one of the best technical wrestlers of a generation. Ospreay will be up against a Shibata who’s out to prove a point for the man the former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion steps into the ring with at Double or Nothing.
Ospreay’s arrangement with the Death Riders, the group responsible for keeping him out of action for six months with neck surgery has raised a lot of eyebrows around AEW including those of former AEW World Champion Samoa Joe. The Opps kingpin made Ospreay a different offer: ditch the Death Riders and come join The Opps because they look out for their friends. The offer, of course, came with a warning from Joe, as well - turn it down and you’ll be making some new enemies. Ospreay never gave Joe an answer.
As it should turn out, Ospreay is set to meet Joe in the quarters of the Owen Hart Cup at Double or Nothing. The winner of this year’s tournament earns a world title shot at All In at Wembley Stadium in August. On Collision this past Saturday night, Ospreay was apologetic for not responding to Joe’s entreaties, but he praised him as one of the men responsible for him wanting to become a pro wrestler in the first place. Still, he would be sticking with Moxley because he has what it takes to make Ospreay into the killer he needs to be to become AEW World Champion.
Before that can happen, Ospreay meets Shibata yet again. It will be their first singles match in two years, but their 15th match together over the past decade with the vast majority coming in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. What was perhaps their most famous match occurred back in 2017 at NJPW’s New Beginning in Osaka when Shibata successfully defended the RevPro British Heavyweight Championship against the Brit.
With Joe watching on intently, can Ospreay beat his associate or will Shibata prove that spurning Joe’s offer was a big mistake?
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No holds barred match: Mark Briscoe vs. “The Psycho Killer” Tommaso Ciampa
Mark Briscoe is back and he hasn’t forgotten why he was gone. The former TNT Champion made his return to AEW after a two-month absence on last Wednesday’s Dynamite and then made his in-ring return on Collision, teaming with his Conglomeration stablemates Orange Cassidy and Kyle O’Reilly to defeat Shane Taylor Promotions (Lee Moriarty, Capt. Shawn Dean and Carlie Bravo) in trios action. After the match, Briscoe let Tommaso Ciampa know he hadn’t forgotten about what happened.
In Ciampa’s first match in AEW back on Jan. 31, he defeated Briscoe to win the TNT Championship. The match was a hard-hitting affair, but it was one that was fought with respect between two longtime friends who went back years from their time in Ring of Honor. That respect went out the window in short order.
Days after his championship win, Ciampa dropped the title to Kyle Fletcher on the Feb. 11 Dynamite. Losing his title so quickly seemingly made the already volatile Ciampa snap. On the Mar. 7 Collision, Briscoe was on commentary for Ciampa’s match against the Death Riders’ Daniel Garcia. Shoved by Garcia at the desk, Briscoe jumped up on the apron to jaw at Garcia which indirectly led to Ciampa getting pinned. A furious Ciampa didn’t want to hear any apologies from Briscoe.
As Briscoe headed back up the ramp, FTR made their way down to confront Ciampa. Briscoe turned back the other way to back up Ciampa. As the temperature cooled and Briscoe and Ciampa headed to the back together, Ciampa blindsided Briscoe and threw him into the video board before laying him out with the bicycle knee.
The following week on Dynamite, Briscoe teamed with the Young Bucks to take on Ciampa and FTR. The latter team would come out on top when Ciampa pinned a bloodied Briscoe after another bicycle knee. But what came next was even worse. After the match, Ciampa continued to waylay Briscoe with chair shots. To put an exclamation mark on his beating, he set up a pair of chairs in the ring and then planted Briscoe through them with a vicious avalanche Psycho Driller. It was that move that put Briscoe on the shelf.
This past Saturday on Collision, Ciampa attempted to pick up where he left off by jumping Briscoe from behind in the back. But Briscoe fought back and the two brawled down to the ring. Briscoe was ready to nail Ciampa with a Jay Driller until a low blow put that plan on ice. Ciampa readied for another avalanche Psycho Driller before he was run off by O’Reilly and Cassidy.
On Dynamite when hostilities are renewed, all bets are off because everything is legal. If Ciampa or Briscoe wants to use weapons, then so be it. If they want to once again destroy each other with chairs, it’s fair game. Blood is going to be spilled.
Which one of these two warriors will come out on top?
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Swerve Strickland (w/ Prince Nana) returns
This past Friday night at ROH’s Supercard of Honor, Bandido retained his ROH World Championship in a hard-fought match with Blake Christian. But he had no time to celebrate his victory. Out from the crowd, Swerve Strickland jumped Bandido from behind and laid him out with a House Call before putting him down with a second. If that weren’t enough, Swerve planted Bandido with a Gringo Killer on a chair.
The two men will meet at Double or Nothing in an Owen quarter-finals match, but before then Swerve returns to Dynamite with a few things on his mind. In recent weeks, the former AEW World Champion has intimated the company has been keeping him away from TV because they’re too afraid of what the self-proclaimed “Most Dangerous Man in AEW” is capable of doing.
Just what will Strickland have to say for himself on Wednesday night?
