AEW Dynamite Preview (Jan. 8, 2020): Answers

Tonight (Jan.8) All Elite comes our way from the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi. On the last episode, Jericho offered Jon Moxley a car, Riho won the women’s 4-way retaining her championship, and The Elite remained as such.

Advertised for tonight:

• Jon Moxley responds to Chris Jericho’s offer to lead The Inner Circle together
• Riho vs. Kris Statlander (Championship Match)
• Rhodes Bros vs. Lucha Bros
• Sammy Guevara vs. Christopher Daniels
• Hangman Page & Kenny Omega vs. Private Party
• Jurassic Express vs. Best Friends & Orange Cassidy
• Cody responds to MJF’s stipulations
• A tribute to Memphis wrestling

Here are five questions about AEW tonight:

1) Will Jon Moxley join the Inner Circle?

We all expected Moxley to tell Jericho no in a number of flashy, painful ways, but, in an uncharacteristic moment of calm self-reflection Moxley, out of respect, said he’d prefer to answer Jericho’s offer in person. Naturally, we all think that’s because he want’s to say no and then punch Jericho in the throat, but what if it’s because he is going to say yes? Moxley is the ultimate iconoclast and while it may be a weird choice to take such a hot singles star and put him in a stable - especially a stable lead by his future opponent - Moxley is nothing if not unpredictable.

I mean, it’s probably the throat punch thing, but you never know.

2) Is “champion” in the stars for Kris Statlander?

Statlander was supposed to kick off the new year in a one-on-one championship match with Riho. Unfortunately, AEW made a mistake as she was booked on a different New Years Day show. Haphazardly, they threw together a women’s championship four way that ending up being really entertaining, but was clearly just a place holder until the return of the undefeated alien. Tonight, Riho and Statlander go one-on-one, but who will walk about champion?

If you asked me a week ago I would have 100% said Statlander, but after Britt’s backstage run-in with Riho calling her out for her absence I’m not so sure. Statlander seems like the obvious choice - she’s new, exciting, undefeated, has a few potential story-lines already in the works - but perhaps by calling attention to the fact that Riho has been absent they are setting themselves on a path to rectify that mistake. The crowd is still hot for Riho so maybe she gets a do-over as champion in 2020.

3) Can Christopher Daniels pull it together long enough to beat Guevara?

While SCU has been all but unstoppable in AEW, Christopher Daniels has been struggling to remain relevant in the All Elite landscape. He’s been along for the ride during SCU’s wins and has had a few memorable moments - like unmasking as Pentagon Jr. - but he remains SCU’s weak link. A few weeks a go he botched a moonsault and hasn’t been able to get out of his head since. Sure he talks a big game, but on AEW Dark he wasn’t operating at full CD capacity. Sammy is young (he’ll never let you forget it) and fearless. Heck, he does flips holding his phone! Will CD be able to get out of his own way and establish himself outside of SCU or will he remain the ever present, but slightly irrelevant background cheerleader?

4) If The Elite is still Elite does that mean Hangman and Omega are friends again?

The Elite won all their matches last week and ended the show in celebration, but the fact remains that Hangman and Omega are still frenemies at best. Hangman didn’t even have a match last week and he seemed rather perturbed by that fact (but at least he got to drink whiskey). Hangman may still not like Kenny, but they do win a bunch so maybe you don’t need to like your tag partner to win? It still feels like we’re on a train headed toward a Hangman meltdown/heel turn, but could we instead be headed toward a new tag team in The Elite?

5) Can the AEW crowd handle Orange Cassidy versus a dinosaur?

If there are two things I know about AEW fans it’s that they think Orange Cassidy is god and that dinosaurs are cool. It’s been a little while since we’ve been blessed with in-ring Orange Cassidy and what better way to rectify that mistake than with a DINOMITE match? Sure this episode has some high stakes segments and matches planned, but this one is going to steal the show or at the very least yield the most post show GIFS.

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