The AEW World Championship is on the line when MJF defends against Kevin Knight. Plus, Thunder Rosa challenges for Thekla’s AEW Women’s World Championship. 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.
AEW World Championship match: Maxwell Jacob Friedman (c) vs. AEW World Trios Champion “The Jet” Kevin Knight
Only 10 days before he’s set to put the AEW World Championship on the line against “Hangman” Adam Page in a Texas Death Match at Revolution in Los Angeles, Maxwell Jacob Friedman will be in a title match on Dynamite. His opponent on Wednesday night will be none other than one of Page’s partners in Jet Set Rodeo in AEW World Trios Champion Kevin Knight. The match between the two was set up last Saturday night on Collision.
While MJF has proven himself to be a master manipulator time and time again, it was Knight who got one over on the champion this time around. Friedman opened up the show on Saturday complaining about the Texas Death Match stipulation for his pay-per-view match that he attempted to get out of last Wednesday night be using a dummy quarter to flip, but his ruse was easily sniffed out by Page. Instead of AEW president Tony Khan coming down to ringside to meet with MJF, Knight arrived and goaded Friedman into a title match.
Friedman might want to dismiss Knight as a tag-team or multi-man specialist, but it would be a major miscalculation. Sure, Knight is a current trios champion and one half of Jetspeed alongside “Speedball” Mike Bailey and has held the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships on two occasions with KUSHIDA as part of the Intergalactic Jetsetters, yet his singles exploits should be enough to give MJF pause. Knight competed in last year’s Continental Classic and picked wins over Darby Allin and seven-time IWGP World Champion Kazuchika Okada. His lone blemish in singles action in 2026 was to former AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland and he heads into the match a winner of five straight bouts.
With MJF fixated on the Cowboy and stewing over the PPV match stipulation, Wednesday night’s title defence has all the makings of a trap for the champion. If he can’t focus on the task at hand, he won’t have to worry about Revolution because he won’t have a championship to defend anymore. Can MJF get the job done or will Knight leave the arena with two championships to call his own?
--
AEW Women’s World Championship match: “The Toxic Spider” Thekla (c) (w/ Julia Hart and Skye Blue) vs. Thunder Rosa
The main event of the Feb. 11 edition of Dynamite was a brutal affair. Kris Statlander defended her AEW Women’s World Championship against Thekla in a strap match and things got bloody. The champion, though, couldn’t hang onto her title. Thekla nailed Statlander with a spear and followed that up with a curb stomp to become the 11th women’s champion in company history.
On Wednesday night, Thekla makes her first title defence when she puts the belt on the line against former champion Thunder Rosa, a woman who never lost her title. On the Mar. 16, 2022 edition of Dynamite, Rosa defeated Britt Baker in a memorable cage match to win the title. She would go on to hold it for 172 days before being forced to relinquish it due to a chronic back injury.
Injuries, unfortunately, have been commonplace for Rosa in recent years. On the Feb. 21 edition of Collision, Rosa made her return after a seven-month absence and defeated Thekla’s Triangle of Madness stablemate, Julia Hart. This past Saturday night on the show, Rosa and Statlander teamed up to defeat the Sisters of Sin (Hart and Skye Blue) before Thekla arrived on the scene to mock both Statlander and Rosa ahead of Wednesday’s match.
Interestingly enough, Statlander seems increasingly worried about Rosa heading into the contest. She knows just how dangerous “The Toxic Spider” is and she feels like Rosa is underestimating the peril she poses. Statlander hopes she can clue in before it’s too late.
While Thekla and Rosa have faced off a number of times in the past, this will be the first-ever singles meeting between the two. Will the champ make her first title defence a successful one or will Rosa become just the third woman to hold the AEW Women’s World Championship on multiple occasions?
--
AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley (w/ “The Problem” Marina Shafir) vs. Hechicero (w/ Don Callis)
The ongoing war between the Death Riders and Don Callis Family continues on Wednesday night as AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley goes one-on-one with Hechicero. Since the match is not for the title, Continental Championship rules do not apply so both men can be accompanied by seconds and undoubtedly will. The match comes with a no-time-limit championship bout between Mox and new New Japan World Television Champion Konosuke Takeshita at the Mar. 15 Revolution PPV on the horizon.
Wednesday’s match will be the latest in a string of Moxley contests against the Family. Last month, he defeated both El Clon and Mark Davis in Continental Title Eliminator Matches. He also wrestled Takeshita to a 20-minute time-limit draw in a championship match at Grand Slam Australia, which was the impetus for the no-time-limit match at the upcoming pay-per-view.
Hechicero represents a different kind of challenge for Moxley. While he doesn’t possess the aerial ability of Clon or Davis’s raw power, he is a technical marvel. The former CMLL World Heavyweight Champion is a chameleon in that he’s perfectly capable of taking on any manner of opponent, whether it be a high-flyer like Mascara Dorada, a technician like Zack Sabre Jr. or a seasoned brawler like Mark Briscoe. There are very few situations in which Hechicero can’t make himself feel at home.
While the match on Dynamite won’t be an official Title Eliminator, rest assured a win by Hechicero will undoubtedly put him in line for championship match consideration down the line. And the fact that the match isn’t under Continental rules will likely have bearing on how things play out. Members of the Death Riders and Family have never been shy about getting involved in the matches of stablemates. If aid seems to be required, you can count on somebody from both factions being there to provide it.
Can Moxley pick up a big win ahead of the showdown with Takeshita or will Hechicero show the AEW Continental Champion that he has more than one Don Callis Family member coming for his gold?
--
Darby Allin and “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy vs. The Dogs (“War Ready” Gabe Kidd and “100 Proof” Clark Connors)
Gabe Kidd and Clark Connors might have left Darby Allin for dead in the Nevada desert, but they didn’t bury him and that was probably a mistake. Kidd and Connors returned to AEW earlier this year and made eliminating Allin their number-one priority. Kidd, a former hired gun of the Death Riders, also made it clear that he was doing this for himself and not in the service of Jon Moxley’s crew.
Since his abduction last month, Allin has been out for revenge and has had The Conglomeration’s Orange Cassidy as his ally. Cassidy and Tomohiro Ishii defeated The Dogs on the Feb. 18 Dynamite when Kidd was jumped and taken out of the match by an enraged Allin. On last week’s Dynamite, Kidd defeated Cassidy, but a post-match attack by The Dogs was thwarted by Allin.
Wednesday night’s match is unlikely to be a pretty one. Both teams won’t be too concerned with winning or losing on Dynamite. The aim of the match will be to exact a price from your opponent. All four men will be prepared for things to break down and they likely will.
Can Allin and Cassidy make The Dogs regret coming for them or will the sadistic Kidd and Connors wreak more havoc on Wednesday night?
--
The Brawling Birds (Jamie Hayter and Alex Windsor) vs. The IInspiration (Cassie Lee and Jessie McKay)
Cassie Lee and Jessie McKay are not happy women right now. Last month in Brisbane, the duo known as The IInspiration made their AEW debuts in their native Australia, but their joy in picking up their first win was short-lived. The two women were chased out of the ring by Jamie Hayter and Alex Windsor. The pair have forged a partnership in recent weeks and decided to welcome Lee and McKay to AEW.
For those unfamiliar with Lee and McKay, the two women have known each other since high school and have teamed together since 2015. Lee and McKay have been champions everywhere they’ve been in the past. The duo are former WWE Women’s World Tag Team Champions and multi-time TNA Knockouts Women’s World Tag Team Champions.
While the IInspiration might have their sights set on Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron’s AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championships, so do Hayter and Windsor and the Brawling Birds don’t intend to let a pair of newcomers skip the line. With competition heating up in the tag division, which one of these two teams can make a statement of intent with a victory on Wednesday night?
--
AEW World Trios Champion “Hangman” Adam Page is in action
With AEW World Champion MJF set for a title match on Wednesday night only 10 days ahead of taking on Adam Page in a Texas Death Match for the belt at Revolution, the challenger will also be in action on Dynamite.
