Results
- Claudio Castagnoli def. Orange Cassidy (Blood & Guts Men’s Advantage Series)(12:30)
- Harley Cameron & Willow Nightingale def. Mercedes Moné & Athena (AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championships Tournament Quarter-Final) (12:43)
- Darby Allin def. Daniel Garcia (Blood & Guts Men’s Advantage Series) (13:29)
- Megan Bayne def. Mina Shirakawa (Blood & Guts Women’s Advantage Series) (9:32)
- Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata & Powerhouse Hobbs def. Hangman Page, Eddie Kingston & Hook (AEW World Trios Tag Team Championships) (12:03)
Tonight’s main event gets special stipulation added
This week’s episode of AEW Dynamite, from the Bayou Music Center in Houston, Texas, kicked off with Tony Schiavone in the ring to discuss a new “National Championship” that AEW is planning to launch soon. Before Schiavone could really explain anything about this new belt, he was interrupted by Samoa Joe and the rest of The Opps.
Joe didn’t take too kindly to Schiavone helping play a part in Hangman Adam Page attacking him last week on Dynamite. For those who forgot, Page dressed as Schiavone in the final segment of last week’s show and lip-synched a voice-over from the AEW announcer, allowing him to sneak into the ring and attack Joe.
Joe warned Schiavone that there are consequences for actions in life. “Consequences have come for you,” he said.
The Opps hopped onto the ring apron and surrounded Schiavone. Security came to the ring and tried to get in between Schiavone and The Opps, but Joe warned that just meant that they had to hurt more people.
It was only once Eddie Kingston and Hook hit the ring that The Opps decided to start heading towards the ramp.
Hook got on the microphone with an idea: How about The Opps put their trios tag titles on the line against them later tonight? Anger got the best of Joe, who, in the moment, accepted that the trios titles will be on the line in tonight’s main event. A quick little preview of our main event to get things started. Maybe they could’ve let Schiavone elaborate a little more about the seemingly important new title before the interruption took place, though.
While running down the cards, it was noted that Queen Aminata is injured and out of next week’s Blood & Guts match. In her spot will be Mina Shirakawa.
Claudio scores win for team Death Riders in Blood & Guts advantage series
Speaking of Blood & Guts, a major theme this week was singles matchups to determine which team will get the advantage in the upcoming cage matches. Blood and Guts starts one-on-one, then one-by-one, the rest of the competitors in the match enter. Which team gets to have their representative enter first, giving them a brief advantage throughout the bout? That’s what this series was made to figure out. On both the men’s and women’s sides of the match, a best-of-three series was held this week between Dynamite and Collision to determine which team would receive that advantage.
The first of potentially three matches on the men’s side of the advantage battle kicked off the in-ring action this week, with The Conglomeration’s Orange Cassidy facing Death Rider Claudio Castagnoli.
Cassidy got the jump on Castagnoli with a tope suicida before the match officially started. He tried for another a minute later but got caught in mid-air by Castagnoli, who eventually dropped him stomach-first on the top of a guardrail. Ouch.
Castagnoli had the advantage through a commercial break, but Cassidy was clearly starting to mount a comeback, powering back up while taking nasty slams from the Swiss wrestler. Cassidy eventually came off the ropes with a hurricanrana, officially kicking off a series of moves that would get him back into the fight.
Cassidy knocked Castagnoli out of the ring with a huge Penalty Kick. Castagnoli caught an attempted baseball slide at ringside, but Cassidy was able to turn it into a crafty DDT onto the floor. Back in the ring, Cassidy came off the top with another DDT for a near fall.
Castagnoli blocked an Orange Punch and then scored a Liger Bomb for a two-count of his own. He was quick to follow up in the pin attempt with a crossface submission, which Cassidy eventually escaped with a roll-up attempt.
Castagnoli couldn’t put Cassidy away with an uppercut and was starting to look frustrated. He picked up Cassidy while standing on the turnbuckles, but Cassidy was able to reverse it into a Stundog Millionaire. Castagnoli tossed Cassidy into the air for an uppercut, but Cassidy instead scored an Orange Punch on the way down.
Cassidy came charging at Castagnoli but was thrown back into the air and this time struck with a gnarly uppercut to the head, causing a pinfall finish to this match in 12 minutes. Up 1-0 in the series, the Death Riders need just one more win to get the Blood & Guts Advantage. Nice match between these two here, no complaints on my end.
In a backstage face-to-face meeting, Mark Briscoe challenged Kyle Fletcher to a no-disqualification TNT title match at Full Gear. Don Callis said that Briscoe will have to wager something in the title match, too: If you lose, you have to join the Don Callis Family. Briscoe is quite confident that he won’t lose, so he has accepted the challenge!
Willow Nightingale, Harley Cameron score massive upset win in tag tourney
Backstage, the Young Bucks were asked if they are officially part of the Don Callis Family. The Bucks were being put on the spot here, having to answer the question in front of Callis himself. Callis tried buttering them up a little more, going over the top with complimenting them and trying to get them to admit that they’re part of the family. Callis accepted the Bucks’ request to get more time to decide, but Kazuchika Okada warned them: “Don’t take too much time!”
The AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship tournament continued in the next segment, as the decorated duo of Mercedes Moné and Athena took on Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron. The winner of this match is scheduled to face Skye Blue and Julia Hart in the semi-finals.
Moné and Athena attacked Cameron and Nightingale before they could fully get settled, allowing them to start the match in control. Nightingale got a hot tag quite early into this match, dropping the heel duo with a stereo dropkick off the middle rope. She launched Cameron onto Moné, causing a near fall.
In an unexpected sequence, Athena picked up Moné and hit the CEO with her own Statement Maker finisher, landing her on Cameron. Repurposing a finisher into a double-team move, sort of! This caused a two-count just before the commercial break.
Cameron escaped a Three Amigos from Moné right as the show returned, instead scoring a double Crucifix Bomb onto both of her opponents. Nightingale followed up by dropping both Athena and Moné with a double running lariat.
Nightingale scored a cannonball in the corner to Athena, then a spinebuster, but it wasn’t enough to put away ROH’s forever champ. Things started breaking down near the 10-minute mark of the match, with all four women trading moves in the ring.
Athena scored a double Codebreaker against both Nightingale and Cameron. Moné landed a backstabber into a crossface to Cameron, but the submission was broken up by Nightingale, who pounced Athena onto them.
In an impressive feat of strength, Athena picked up both Nightingale and Cameron for a double fallaway slam. However, it still wasn’t enough to end the match.
Billie Starkz appeared at ringside at this point, retrieving Athena’s ROH world title and attempting to toss it to her as a weapon. AEW Women’s World Champion Kris Statlander came to ringside to scare off Starkz, also chasing Moné away from ringside in the process.
This left Athena alone in the ring against both Cameron and Nightingale. Nightingale scored a powerbomb to Athena, then Cameron connected with her finishing move (literally titled “My Finishing Move”)… For the pinfall win! A massive upset puts Nightinale and Cameron through to the semis.
It’s incredibly refreshing to see a legitimately surprising upset result like this, even if it wasn’t particularly high stakes. There was a lot to like about the in-ring in this match, too. Lots of creative tag spots from both squads, and I’m personally looking forward to seeing the Cameron and Nightingale duo compete once again.
First AEW National Champion to be determined at Full Gear
Tony Schiavone was back in the ring, attempting once again to try and announce AEW’s new National Championship. He confirmed that the first National Champion will be crowned at Full Gear through a Casino Gauntlet bout.
While we never know all of the entrants in a Casino Gauntlet bout, Schiavone announced that Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin have opted into competing. Lashley and Benjamin, alongside fellow Hurt Syndicate member MVP, were brought to the ring for an interview.
MVP briefly referred to it as the “International” title (that title already exists and is held by Kazuchika Okada). A brief promo from MVP putting over his teammates was cut off by The Demand.
After some back and forth between these two teams, Ricochet made it clear that he’s also planning to participate in the upcoming title matchup. So, make it three confirmed wrestlers in that gauntlet bout.
Darby Allin evens things up in Blood & Guts series
In the second of (potentially) three Blood & Guts men’s advantage matchups, Darby Allin faced off against Daniel Garcia. Remember: If Garcia wins this, the Death Riders officially get the advantage at Blood & Guts. He loses? The advantaged team is determined in a Game 3 on Collision.
This match was hectic from the very start. Allin scored a huge dive to the outside just a couple of minutes in, then followed up with a dropkick into a guardrail. Garcia trapped Allin with the ring apron, using the awkward position to unload with strikes. Allin was sent full-force into the steel steps at ringside as the show went to a break.
Allin and Garcia went back and forth with submission attempts in the ring as the show returned. Garcia scored a superplex and tried for a follow-up second suplex, but Allin used the momentum to instead hit a Scorpion Death Drop.
Allin climbed to the top rope but was swept off his feet, sending him tumbling to the outside. Then, in a nasty move, Garcia wedged Allin’s head in between the steel stairs and the ringpost for a dropkick.
Allin was able to return to his feet after taking the deadly shot. However, as the referee was distracted, Allin was dropped once again, this time by a lariat from PAC. This was nearly enough to cause a count-out, with Allin beating the count by mere milliseconds.
Garcia dropped Allin with a series of hard chops, then applied the Scorpion Deathlock. Allin was able to eventually reverse the submission into a Deathlock of his own, forcing a tap from Garcia at 13 minutes. The men’s Blood & Guts series is heading to a tiebreaker on Collision. This was a really solid match, Allin mounting quite the comeback.
A post-match brawl took place between the Death Riders and various babyface talents, with the heel squad being forced to retreat in the end.
FTR try to get under Brodido’s skin
FTR, the current #1 contenders for the AEW Tag Team Championships, came to the ring for a promo in the next segment.
FTR called out their Full Gear opponents, Brodido, for a face-to-face meeting. However, when we cut backstage, we saw that Brodido were seemingly trapped in their locker room thanks to Stokely Hathaway.
FTR put their focus on Brodido’s family, who were at ringside on Wednesday. Dax Harwood, trying to hit Brodido where it hurts, said he thinks his mother is 113 years old. “If we’re talking Day of the Dead, sister, you take the cake,” he said.
The disrespect eventually caused Bandido’s brother, Gravity, to jump the guardrail and start brawling with the duo. As this happened, we saw backstage that Brody King had punched a hole through their locker room door. Just moments later, Brodido came to the ring, causing FTR to retreat.
Megan Bayne scores first women’s Blood & Guts advantage battle win
After seeing some of the Men’s Blood & Guts Advantage battles earlier in the night, we got the first on the women’s side in the co-main event of the night when Mina Shirakawa and Megan Bayne faced off. Toni Storm joined commentary at ringside for this one.
Shirakawa went diving to the outside early in the match. Bayne answered back with a big move of her own moments later, delivering a Uranage out of the corner just as the show went to commercials.
Shirakawa came over the top rope with a torneo right after the show returned, earning her a two-count. Bayne dodged an elbow strike, instead connecting with a release German suplex. The fight went to the ring apron, where Shirakawa scored a hard suplex.
Bayne climbed to the top and hit a superplex. She tried to follow up with a powerbomb, but Shirakawa reversed into a hurricanrana. Shirakawa came off the top with a Slingblade, but Bayne remained alive with a kick-out right after.
Just as Shirakawa was about to attempt a Glamorous Driver, she got distracted by Marina Shafir attacking Storm at ringside. This moment of hesitation allowed Bayne to hit Shirakawa with a running Liger Bomb for the pinfall win in nine minutes. Just like that, the heel side of the women’s Blood & Guts match is near earning an advantage in the Blood & Guts match (We’ll find out if they actually get that advantage on Saturday’s Collision).
We got a real bench-clearing brawl after the match, with tons of the women’s locker room getting involved. Mercedes Moné came down the ramp and considered joining the fight, but decided against getting her hands dirty. As she was about to get up and leave, Kris Statlander came from behind and took her out with a lariat. Statlander helped the babyface team clear everybody else out of the ring as the segment came to an end.
The Opps take out Hangman Page en route to successful trios title appearance
The main event of the night saw The Opps (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs & Katsuyori Shibata) wager their AEW World Trios Championships against the makeshift team of Hangman Adam Page, Eddie Kingston, and Hook.
This match became a two-on-three bout a few minutes in, as Hook became a non-factor after suffering an (worked) back injury. Kingston dodged a senton from Joe, allowing Page to get the hot tag late in the match. Page came off the top with a moonsault to Hobbs, but it gave him just a two-count.
Page took out Shibata at ringside with a tope suicida after giving Kingston a blind tag. Kingston got a shot in against Hobbs, but suffered a blindsided attack from Joe seconds later. Hook, heavily selling his back, got back into the match but was wiped out by a leg-trip from Shibata.
Page and Kingston tried for a double-team sequence on Shibata, but Hobbs took Page off the ring apron to prevent this from happening. Hobbs and Page brawled over to the stage, where Hobbs picked him up for a World’s Strongest Slam off a platform and through a table! This took Page out of the equation for the rest of the match.
With Page down and Hook hurt, it was starting to look bad for the challengers. Kingston showed some heart by escaping a double-team sequence with Shibata and Joe, but was taken out by Hobbs, who ran him into a corner of the ring.
Hook got back into the match and attempted to apply the Redrum to Hobbs, but the Powerhouse brute forced his way out of the position. Hobbs picked up Hook for a backbreaker, forcing a verbal tap out to end the match in 12 minutes. In a match that left the world champ down for the count, The Opps retained their world titles.
Just before we went off air, we learned that a Falls Count Anywhere match between Hangman Adam Page and Powerhouse Hobbs has been added to an already high-stakes Blood & Guts episode of AEW Dynamite next week.
