All Elite Wrestling comes our way live from Jacksonville, Florida. Last week, Top Flight made their AEW debut, The Inner Circle went full Hangover in Vegas, Moxley revealed that Renee is pregnant in a promo, Kenny Omega went full heel, PAC got custody of The Lucha Bros, Jade Cargill broke Brandi’s arm, Britt Baker ruined Thunder Rosa’s championship opportunity, and Will Hobbs joined Team Taz.
This Week’s Headliner:
Tonight AEW Women’s Champion, Hikaru Shida, defends against The Dark Order’s Anna Jay. Since joining The Dark Order, Anna Jay has been on a winning streak and is now ranked in the top five in the entire division. Her winning streak and her new attitude have lead her to believe that she deserves championship gold. Unfortunately for her, Hikaru Shida is no slouch, and while Anna Jay may be tougher to beat than the first time these two battled, she is no match for the current champion. Let’s just hope that The Dark Order is nice to her after she gets her butt kicked.
Or maybe, and this is really the ideal play here, Hikaru Shida and the women’s championship become the focus of Anna Jay and The Dark Order despite her inevitable loss tonight. It would be exciting to see how the champion deals with constant adversity from a large stable. And sure, AEW Women’s Champion Anna Jay sounds weird, but it could be the random mix-up that the division needs. And it would be especially cool if it happened after a lot of interference and shenanigans from her cult buddies.
I’m just spitballing here but please, for the love of everything, just give the champion something to do long term!
The Title Scene:
The AEW Tag Team Champions, The Young Bucks, invited indie darlings, Top Flight, to wrestle them last week on Dynamite. The match was a rousing success (and led to Top Flight being officially signed to AEW), but the celebration was cut short by Hybrid 2’s attack on the younger bucks. They may be bad guys, but they also have some pretty valid reasons to attack the new team. Hybrid 2 has been toiling away in the land of AEW Dark, and these children get to wrestle the champions?! I think not! Hopefully, the match tonight between Hybrid 2 and Top Flight (complete with Young Buck interference/observance) signifies more fresh blood in the tag team division.
It took a couple of weeks, but Will Hobbs has officially given his answer to Taz’s invitation to join the gang and that answer is an unequivocal yes. He betrayed former and current TNT Champions to do it. Tonight Will Hobbs will be in action for the first time as a heel. Expect Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Allin to have some feelings on the matter.
Last week The AEW Champion, Jon Moxley, was unable to sign the contract for his upcoming championship match with Kenny Omega because laid out in the back hallway with a bloody nose and some presumed neck damage. Now we don’t know that Omega took him out, but it’s wrestling, so yeah, we totally do. Tonight expect a health update, a promo, and potentially a confrontation from the champ to the challenger.
Other Things to Keep an Eye On:
-Chris Jericho & Jake Hager of The Inner Circle take on SCU because...I don’t know...it’s been a while since we’ve seen them, and contracts are important. Oh, also, Jericho & Hager are trying to be a functioning “tag-team” or whatever.
-PAC & Rey Fenix will wrestle The Butcher & The Blade in what I am referring to as a “nananahbooboo” match where PAC & Fenix flaunt their epic friendship in front of Eddie Kingston while he steams.
-Hangman Page is back and still, presumably, not really looking to join a cult as he takes on Dark Order lackey and beloved crowd favorite, John Silver. This one was booked solely for the enjoyment of the Twitter audience.
Tune into AEW on TNT at 8 p.m. EST to see how this all plays out!