AEW Dynamite Preview (Jan 29. 2020): Eye on the Prize

Tonight (Jan.29) All Elite Wrestling comes our way from the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, making their Ohio debut!

On the last episode, Hangman & Omega won the AEW Tag Team Championships, Jon Moxley was named #1 contender for Jericho’s belt, and MJF got thrown into a pool.

Advertised for tonight:

• John Moxley on the mic
• Inner Circle versus Private Party & Darby Allin
• The Young Bucks versus The Butcher & The Blade
• Cody versus Kip Sabian

Here are five questions about AEW tonight:

1) How will Moxley terrorize Jericho tonight?

Moxley did it! He’s officially set to face Jericho at Revolution! They danced around each other doing the “will he/won’t he dance,” but now the real fun begins.

There is nothing in the world that Jericho wants less than to have Moxley as his opponent. Jericho may be the GOAT, but Moxley is a real threat. Plus, he’s super crazy and annoying! I mean, he stole his car and spilled his bubbly!

Moxley isn’t scheduled for a match- just an in-ring meeting with a mic. Tonight beings his month long expedition of getting on Jericho’s nerves so much that he is rabid and crazy by the 29th.

I already have my popcorn popped!

2) Kenny Omega & Hangman Page are the tag team champions. Will that be enough to quell Hangman’s “Elite” impostor syndrome?

Hangman Page should be over the moon! He and Omega won the tag team championships and he has finally redeemed himself, proving once and for all that he is Elite. Except, he still has all these pesky feelings that for some reason won’t go away no matter how much whiskey he drinks.

They aren’t scheduled for a match tonight, but I have to assume we’ll at least get a backstage segment between Omega and Hangman where Omega is trying to rally his partner or maybe we get a little in ring celebration that goes horribly wrong.

Or better yet, Hangman tries to get a match for them and Omega blows him off to fight PAC! We get to see a classic PAC/Omega battle and Hangman gets to wallow in his feelings! Win/win.

3) What is the proper revenge for getting thrown into a pool in your Burberry?

MJF cannot be happy that Cody had his friends throw him in the pool. Technically Cody didn’t break any of MJF’s rules so he has no way of pulling out of his match with Cody, but there is also no way that Cody is getting out of the show tonight unscathed. Sorry Kip, this ain’t about you!

I expect some retribution from Wardlow and a lot of MJF dancing around Cody saying, “You can’t touch me! You can’t touch me!”

Very mature.

4) Is the Nightmare Collective still a thing?

Despite their attempts at being the “big bad” in the women’s division, The Nightmare Collective has not only lost a bunch of times, but has always presented themselves as a disjointed, random stable. I mean, they don’t even have matching gear! Following their last crushing loss from Statlander & Shida, the AEW Twitter released a video of Brandi in a therapy session.

Brandi and her therapist discuss her reasons for creating the collective. The therapist thinks Brandi is using the persona to cope with her head injury and with the fans not liking her. Brandi takes this revelation surprisingly well and by the end of the video has found “clarity.” We, the audience, however, don’t get any clarity whatsoever because the video ends with a stuffed monkey in the therapists chair and Brandi in workout clothes.

If Brandi does see the error of her ways what happens to Kong, Mel & Luther? Do they go to therapy, too? Is the stuffed monkey actually the leader of the Nightmare Collective? What happens with all the hair?

Hopefully, we’ll get some sort of follow up tonight, but I have to say I am intrigued!

5) Will The Bucks become relevant again before Revolution?

Cody is fighting MJF in arguably the best feud (at the very least most consistent) in AEW. Omega & Hangman are the tag team champions. The Young Bucks are...there?

It’s not that The Young Bucks haven’t put on great matches in AEW or anything - they absolutely have - but, for being members of The Elite the are suspiciously in the background.

At first this was a good thing. I know a lot of people were afraid that The Elite were going to put themselves over and bury their new talent before establishing their roster, but they didn’t and on the whole that has worked out rather well. On the other hand, The Bucks are some of the biggest names on the card and, well, it’s just kind of weird that they aren’t doing that much.

There is some tension in The Elite due to Hangman’s...let’s just say piss poor attitude, so there is ground work for an Elite vs Elite tag feud, but that seems like something they may want to drag out a little longer. If that is the case they need to find something compelling to do with The Bucks in the meantime.

Can you imagine them not being on Revolution? Me neither!

Tune into AEW on TNT at 8 ET tonight to see if we get any answers to these questions.