Two four-way matches will determine title contenders at next month’s Full Gear pay-per-view. Plus, Jon Moxley takes on Kyle O’Reilly in a rematch from last week. 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.
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Four-way match for an AEW World Championship match at Full Gear: AEW World Trios Champion Samoa Joe (w/ Powerhouse Hobbs and Katsuyori Shibata) vs. “The Almighty” Bobby Lashley (w/ MVP and Shelton Benjamin) vs. Ricochet (w/ Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun) vs. HOOK (w/ Eddie Kingston)
On Wednesday night, AEW World Champion “Hangman” Adam Page will discover his opponent at Nov. 22’s Full Gear pay-per-view from Newark’s Prudential Center when Samoa Joe takes on Bobby Lashley, Ricochet and Hook in a four-way match. The bout will feature a lot of moving parts and no shortage of intriguing storylines with a number of interpersonal issues among the four men involved. If Page has a preference as to whom he’d like to face, it’s Joe. Page put Joe away after three Buckshot Lariats to retain his title at this month’s WrestleDream PPV in St. Louis. After the match, Joe feigned congratulating Page only to lay out the champ with a vicious attack alongside the rest of The Opps (Will Hobbs and Katsuyori Shibata) that culminated in a Muscle Buster on top of the world title. In the aftermath, the Cowboy has vowed to ruin Joe’s life and Adam Page always keeps a promise. Before Joe can even think about Page, there is the matter of the other three men in the match and all of them have history with “The Samoan Submission Machine.” On last week’s Dynamite, The Opps retained the AEW World Trios Championships over The Hurt Syndicate (Lashley, Shelton Benjamin and MVP) when Joe choked out MVP thanks to interference from Ricochet. Joe’s crew previously retained their titles against The Demand (Ricochet, Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun) on the Aug. 28 edition of Dynamite. Joe’s rivalry with both men goes back years with Joe facing off with Ricochet in WWE and with Lashley in both WWE and TNA/Impact. And then there’s HOOK. HOOK was an original member of The Opps and a longtime associate of Joe’s, but when he was sidelined with an injury, Joe and Shibata welcomed Hobbs into the faction. HOOK felt disrespected and ignored and when he returned from his injury, he didn’t rejoin the group. In recent weeks, HOOK has aligned with fellow New Yorker, “The Mad King” Eddie Kingston, and will be looking to make a point to Joe when they face off on Wednesday night. Of the four men to compete, only Joe has previously held the AEW World Championship. But Lashley is a seven-time world champion and Ricochet and HOOK are no strangers to gold, either. With a shot at AEW’s richest prize on the line, which of these four men can set up a date with Hangman Page at Full Gear?
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Four-way match for an AEW World Tag Team Championship match at Full Gear: FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) (w/ Stokely Hathaway) vs. The Young Bucks (Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) vs. JetSpeed (“The Jet” Kevin Knight and “Speedball” Mike Bailey) vs. Jurassic Express (“Jungle” Jack Perry and Luchasaurus)
Just as Adam Page is set to discover his opponent for next month’s PPV on Wednesday night, so will the AEW World Tag Team Champions Brodido (Brody King and ROH World Champion Bandido) when four teams vie to earn a title shot. And like the other four-way match, there is considerable history among these eight men as FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) battles The Young Bucks (Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson), JetSpeed (Kevin Knight and Mike Bailey) and Jurassic Express (Jack Perry and Luchasaurus). For Harwood and Wheeler, the tag titles have been their sole motivation since the spring when they turned on longtime friend Adam Copeland and aligned with Stokely Hathaway. Seeking to become the champs for a third time, FTR has failed in their pursuit, thus far, but that can all change on Dynamite. As for Jurassic Express, Perry and Luchasaurus are looking to recapture the titles, as well. Reforming their team after a two-year estrangement in September, Perry and Luchasaurus have found themselves in the Jackson brothers’ orbit in recent weeks. A former member of The Elite, Perry says the Bucks abandoned him when he needed them the most after he was sidelined for an extended period. But while Perry clearly harbours resentment, he doesn’t hate the Jacksons. And in recent weeks, the Jurassic Express’s unlikely ally, Kenny Omega, has been trying to get the Jacksons, his former best friends, to see the light. Whether they’re able to be saved remains to be seen, but a win on Wednesday night would go a long way to getting the Bucks back into the green, something they’ve been more concerned about than titles lately. And then there’s JetSpeed. Knight and Bailey are still looking for a signature win as a team. Frequently stealing the show any time they’re on TV, the duo is looking to take that next step and earn some gold. Which of these four teams will face off with Brodido in New Jersey?
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AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship Tournament quarter-final: Jamie Hayter and Queen Aminata vs. Sisters of Sin (Julia Hart and Skye Blue) (w/ “The Toxic Spider” Thekla)
The tournament to crown AEW’s inaugural women’s tag champs gets underway on Wednesday night with four women who will be motivated by more than just a shot at gold. The bad blood between Jamie Hayter and Queen Aminata and Julia Hart and Skye Blue has been brewing for weeks and Blood & Guts is on the horizon. With that brutal match only two weeks away, Wednesday night’s match will provide an opportunity to not only advance in the tournament, but also to inflict a vicious beating on two of the women who will be standing across from them in the cage on Nov. 12. What will be interesting to see is which factor will be the greater motivator. While Hayter is a former AEW Women’s World Champion and Hart is a former TBS Champion, neither Aminata nor Blue has worn gold in AEW and that’s something of which both women are well aware. There is also the matter of Thekla. Hayter met “The Toxic Spider” at WrestleDream where the former emerged victorious in a hard-hitting match with Hayterade. But the enmity between the two women is far from resolved and Thekla will undoubtedly attempt to make her presence known to help back up her Triangle of Madness stablemates. Whether or not Hayter and Aminata have a plan to neutralize her remains to be seen. The winners of Wednesday night’s match will meet the victors of Babes of Wrath (Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron) versus “The CEO” Mercedes Mone and “The Fallen Goddess” Athena in the semi-finals. Which of these two teams will get one step closer to being the first-ever tag champs?
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Jon Moxley (w/ “The Problem” Marina Shafir) vs. Kyle O’Reilly (w/ Roderick Strong)
Last week on Dynamite, the match between Jon Moxley and Kyle O’Reilly went just about as well as you figured it was going to go. In the first singles match in three years between two men who first faced off in 2010 in Dragon Gate USA, O’Reilly tried to use his grappling and submission game to subdue the four-time AEW World Champion, while Moxley tried to out-brawl the Burnaby, BC native. If one man’s strategy was more effective than the other, it was O’Reilly’s. On a number of occasions, O’Reilly got the better of Moxley and looked to be on the verge of making him tap out. And Moxley was aware of that, too, which is why when O’Reilly had him in an ankle lock, he pulled himself up using the pantleg of referee Paul Turner before nailing the official with an elbow to get himself disqualified to escape O’Reilly. That didn’t sit well with AEW president Tony Khan, so he immediately booked a rematch between the two men. You can expect Mox and O’Reilly to pick right up where they left off, but they’re unlikely to remain alone in the ring for long. Last week’s match degenerated into another battle between the Conglomeration and the Death Riders and that potentiality is certainly something to consider on Wednesday night. Will Mox try to take the easy way out again or will O’Reilly be able to pick up a win on his terms this time?
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Trick or Treat Tornado Tag match: Darby Allin and “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy vs. Death Riders (Daniel Garcia and Wheeler YUTA) (w/ Claudio Castagnoli)
Even after defeating Jon Moxley in an I Quit match at WrestleDream, Darby Allin is not quite finished with the Death Riders. After the Conglomeration (Mark Briscoe, Orange Cassidy) and Roderick Strong picked up a win last week on Dynamite over the Death Riders (Daniel Garcia, Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler YUTA), the losing team wasn’t ready to walk away. “The Bastard” PAC hit the ring to jump Briscoe. Tomohiro Ishii attempted to make the save for his stablemate, but he was hit with a low blow from Marina Shafir. With Moxley coming back out, the Death Riders had an overwhelming numbers advantage before Allin made his way to ringside to help chase off Mox and co. On Wednesday night, Allin will team with Cassidy to take on YUTA and Garcia in a Trick or Treat Tornado Tag. Because it’s a tornado tag, no tags are required and all four men can be in the ring at the same time. On top of that, there are no legal men meaning that each member of the team is susceptible to a pin or submission attempt at all times and rope breaks can’t save you because they’re not recognized. With all four of these men, even Cassidy, capable of unique viciousness, it’s highly unlikely that any of the quartet will take umbrage with the match parameters. With potential brutality on offer, will Allin and Cassidy pick up another win over the Death Riders or will Garcia and YUTA battle back for their faction?
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The Don Callis Family holds a summit
Everything is fine inside the Don Callis Family. That’s the message Don Callis had for Lexy Nair this past Saturday night on Collision. Why he had to make that pronouncement was obvious after last Wednesday night’s Dynamite. In the main event, Kazuchika Okada successfully defended his AEW Unified Championship over ROH World Champion Bandido, putting him away with the Rainmaker. After the match, most of the Family flooded the ring to celebrate with him. I say most because IWGP World Champion Konosuke Takeshita was nowhere to be found until he came down the aisle to his own music and a big ovation from the crowd. The problems between “The Alpha” and “The Rainmaker” have continued to snowball in the weeks since Okada accidentally (?) cost the duo the AEW World Tag Team Championships at WrestleDream. Before Takeshita made it into the ring and said (or did) something he would regret, he was calmed down by TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher, who did his best to broker the peace. Now on Dynamite, Callis will attempt to convince the world that everything is fine. But is the one who needs convincing Callis himself?
