Brody King and Swerve Strickland face off for a spot in the Owen Hart Cup final. Plus, Jon Moxley defends the AEW Continental Championship against Shane Taylor. 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.
Owen Hart Cup semifinals match: Swerve Strickland (w/ Prince Nana) vs. “Big, Bad” Brody King
On Wednesday night, the Owen Hart Cup tournament will feature a match that is both high-stakes and deeply personal. Swerve Strickland and Brody King will meet for a spot in the tournament final at this month’s Forbidden Door pay-per-view. But that does not tell the whole story at all.
Strickland and King go way back. From the Pacific Northwest, Strickland spent a great deal of time in the Seattle-based DEFY Wrestling where he became one of the promotion’s signature stars. Among those he came across was Brody King of Los Angeles. With DEFY expanding to run shows outside of its immediate home base, King also frequently made appearances for the promotion. On Nov. 11, 2017, Strickland retained his DEFY Championship in a nearly 30-minute-long battle.
In the years since, the two men have faced off on a number of occasions, but the tenor of their relationship changed greatly this past spring. In February, Strickland, amid a renewed pursuit for the AEW World Championship, brutally attacked Kenny Omega after a match and left him in a heap. The former AEW World Championship believed that the rest of the company forgot how dangerous he was, even though Omega told him that King was, in fact, now the most dangerous force in AEW.
At the Revolution PPV in March, Strickland took on King once again and the bad blood flowed. Ultimately, Strickland came out on top again, but he needed just about everything to put King down, finally putting him away with three House Calls. The win wasn’t good enough for Strickland, though, as he wanted to add insult to injury. Prince Nana tossed a cinderblock into the ring and Swerve prepared to deliver another House Call with King’s head on it. Before he could manage to do that, Omega ran down to the ring to chase him off.
The memory of that match is still fresh in King’s mind, but that’s not the only reason why he’s gunning for Strickland on Wednesday night. Strickland advanced to the semis with a victory over King’s tag partner, Bandido, at last month’s Double or Nothing, putting the ROH World Champion down with a vicious-looking Gringo Killer followed by a House Call. King, who defeated Claudio Castagnoli in the quarter-finals, promised Swerve that if he took any liberties with Bandido, he’d have to answer for them and the time has come for that.
The winner of Wednesday’s night match will meet Will Ospreay in the final of the tournament. The tournament victor will move on to wrestle for the AEW World Championship at August’s All In at Wembley Stadium in London. Which of these two men will take one step closer to that on Dynamite?
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AEW Continental Championship match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Shane Taylor
The Death Riders have become very familiar with Shane Taylor Promotions in recent weeks. Two weeks ago on Collision, the team of Jon Moxley and PAC defeated The Infantry (Carlie Bravo and Capt. Shawn Dean) in tag action. The result didn’t sit well with STP kingpin Taylor, who make his presence known later in the evening.
In the show’s main event, Konosuke Takeshita defended the AEW International Championship against the Death Riders’ Daniel Garcia. Moxley sat in on commentary for the match. Takeshita retained the title, but after the match he was attacked by the Don Callis Family. As that was happening in the ring, STP jumped Mox from behind at the commentary desk. A massive brawl broke out with Takeshita, the Death Riders, “Speedball” Mike Bailey and The Conglomeration (Kyle O’Reilly, Orange Cassidy and Roderick Strong) standing tall at the end.
This past Saturday night on Collision, Taylor destroyed Alan Angels in singles action before letting Moxley know that STP wasn’t done with the Death Riders. Later in the evening, Taylor left Wheeler YUTA laying backstage and issued a challenge to Moxley for his AEW Continental Championship. Never one to back down from a match, Mox obliged.
A former ROH World Television Champion and ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion, Taylor has yet to hold gold in AEW. He would love to change that on Wednesday night in a match against a man who holds a victory over him. On the Jan. 20, 2024 edition of Collision, Taylor and Moxley beat the hell out of one another before Moxley was able to slip on a Bulldog Choke to make Taylor pass out. A proud competitor, Taylor wants to avenge that loss.
Because this match is being wrestled under Continental Championship rules, neither the Death Riders nor STP will be anywhere near the ring. This is going to be Moxley and Taylor, one-on-one. Can Moxley hang on to his title or will the big man bring the belt back to STP?
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AEW World Trios Champion “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy (w/ Roderick Strong and Kyle O’Reilly) vs. IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion Andrade El Idolo (w/ Don Callis and Jake Doyle)
An intriguing first-time singles match is set for Wednesday night when The Conglomeration’s Orange Cassidy takes on Andrade El Idolo of the Don Callis Family. The match came about with a challenge issued this past Saturday night on behalf of Andrade by Roppongi Vice (Trent Beretta and Rocky Romero). Cassidy had no issue accepting, much to the consternation of Romero.
The match will mark the second time that Cassidy and Andrade have met in recent weeks. On the Apr. 25 edition of Collision, Cassidy, Roderick Strong and Kyle O’Reilly retained their AEW World Trios Championships by defeating the Family’s team of Andrade, Hechicero and Lance Archer. Cassidy picked up the win for his team by pinning Archer following a Total Elimination by Strong and O’Reilly.
Wednesday night’s match comes at an interesting time for Andrade. While a win over Cassidy would likely lead to another shot at the trios titles, Andrade seems to only have eyes for the AEW World Championship right now. Strangely enough, though, Don Callis has repeatedly tried to talk Andrade out of the pursuit in order to further other goals of the Family. But with a sterling singes record in 2026, Andrade has clearly made his case for a shot at MJF’s championship.
As for Cassidy, you can fault him for a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to almost anything, but he’s a gamer. He’s not going to back down from any challenge and he’s not going to be intimidated by anybody. While Andrade’s current form is impressive, Cassidy will remain undaunted.
Will Andrade continue to build his case for an AEW World Championship shot or will Cassidy slow down his momentum?
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“The Bastard” PAC (w/ “The Problem” Marina Shafir and Claudio Castagnoli) vs. Mark Briscoe (w/ Tomohiro Ishii)
Mark Briscoe is a frustrated man at present. Try as he might, there doesn’t seem to be anything he can say or do to get Maxwell Jacob Friedman to grant him an AEW World Championship shot. On last Wednesday night’s Dynamite, Briscoe made an impassioned plea about what AEW and pro wrestling means to him, but it fell on deaf ears. Friedman completely blew him off.
While MJF has called Briscoe and a hillbilly and laughed off Briscoe’s challenge, there’s something else that underlies his reticence for a match: Friedman is terrified of Briscoe. The last time the two men met in the ring, Briscoe left MJF laying in a pool of blood when he decimated him in a Tacks ‘n’ Tables Match at last September’s All Out in Toronto. With challengers gunning for his title on all sides, Friedman knows how perilous another match with Briscoe might be to his title reign.
Before Briscoe can earn himself a shot at the world title, though, he steps into the ring with an old foe on Wednesday night in the form of PAC. Briscoe and PAC met for the first time almost 20 years ago when “The Bastard” and Roderick Strong defeated the Briscoe Brothers (Mark and his late brother Jay Briscoe) for the PWG World Tag Team Championships. Most recently, they faced off on opposite sides of last November’s Blood & Guts match.
Like Briscoe, PAC is always up for a fight even when there’s nothing on the line. The thrill of brutality is always enough for the gruff Brit. You don’t have to ask him twice to get his hands dirty.
With Briscoe still looking to send a message to MJF, can he do that on Dynamite against PAC?
