AEW Dynamite Preview (May 27, 2020): Double or Nothing Fallout

Tonight (May 27) All Elite Wrestling comes our way live from a closed set in Jacksonville, Florida. At Double or Nothing, Hikaru Shida became the new women’s champion, Brian Cage crushed the competition in his debut match, Cody’s passion finally paid off, The Elite ran over The Inner Circle, and Jon Moxley defeated Brodie Lee.

This week it’s the Double or Nothing fallout show!

Advertised for tonight:

• TNT Championship Number One Contender Battle Royal
• Inner Circle Pep Rally
• Mike Tyson appearance
• Dr. Britt Baker injury update
• Double or Nothing fallout

Here are five questions about AEW tonight:

1) Who will be Cody’s first TNT Championship Challenger?

Cody is FINALLY a champion in AEW and in true Cody form he’s already looking for his first challenger. This is exactly what is needed from a secondary title holder in AEW. While the AEW World Championship needs to build credible feuds with credible opponents, the TNT Champion can, frankly, face a new challenger each week without it seeming weird. In fact, multiple defenses and an open challenge style approach to the championship could go a long way in terms of building up new stars in AEW. Additionally, Cody himself could benefit from some short term feuds and challengers. He’s already had multiple big, lengthy and PERSONAL feuds in AEW’s short history and while everyone loves a Cody style impassioned promo a break from the drama could be just what Cody needs. But who will his first challenger be?

My instinct is to say Darby Allin because not only is he a crowd favorite, but he’s already proven himself to be championship material. On the other hand, if he continues to lose that championship material status begins to wane. When he faces Cody he has to feel like a real threat and, well, Cody is not losing on his first defense. Also, who even knows if he’s alive? He took quite the beating at DoN. No, I think the first challenger has to be someone that will put on a good match with Cody, but someone whose current character trajectory can handle a loss. Perhaps, Colt Cabana, Shawn Spears or another wrestler from the championship bracket?

2) What will Brian Cage’s first move as challenger be?

Brian Cage made quite the debut when he showed up at Double or Nothing as the surprise entrant in the Casino Ladder Match. He dominated the match, survived being buried alive, killed Darby Allin and eventually climbed the ladder to retrieve the coveted poker chip winning a future match with the AEW world champion. After his win it was announced that Cage would face Moxley at Fyter Fest.

Curiously, Cage showed up to DoN with Taz at his side causing many onlookers to assume that Taz is his manager. Considering this coupled with the fact that we haven’t seen Cage on a episode of Dynamite before tonight seems like the perfect opportunity for Taz to introduce Cage, complete with his number one contender status confirmed, to the Dynamite audience. While many wrestling fans will be familiar with The S’wolverine we have yet to learn what Brian Cage in AEW looks like. Furthermore, we still need to learn what a Cage vs Moxley feud will look like. The last two competitors Moxley faced were brutal in their personal attacks and Moxley, frankly, only barely survived both encounters. How will a Cage/Moxley feud differ?

Tonight Taz & Cage need to sell his win. We know he’s tough, buy why is he the right man to dethrone Moxley?

3) What does the women’s division look like in a post DoN world?

Hikaru Shida is the new champion. Britt Baker is out for an indeterminate amount of time. Kris Statlander is back and racking up the wins. Big Swole is itching for a fight. Penelope is consistently getting better and proving herself in-ring. Allie and Brandi are still feuding. Riho and Kong are MIA and you just know Nyla is out for blood. A lot is happening in the women’s division...or at least it could be.

Hikaru Shida is the first AEW women’s champion that feels like a champion they want to invest in. She was already a major factor in the weekly broadcast so they won’t have to do a lot of juggling to keep it that way. Tonight, between her newly crowned status and Britt’s announcement the whole trajectory of the women’s division is set to change and boy does it need it.

AEW has sown the seeds of multiple feuds and story lines over the past few months, but has done little to follow up on them. While they didn’t seem to have any long term story plans they have taken the time to spot light many of the women and have given them the space to develop their characters. Now, with the new champion in place, it seems like the perfect time for them to capitalize on this character building by following it up with actual story lines.

4) Can the Inner Circle cheer themselves up with cheerleaders?

After months of cohesion and victory, The Inner Circle lost to their ultimate rival, The Elite, during the stadium stampede. Truth be told no on really lost because it was greatest match of all time, but the record does show a big fat L next to the Inner Circle’s name and, no, the L doesn’t stand for Le Champion.

Jericho, once again proving himself to be an excellent leader, has arranged for a pep rally to cheer up his comrades. It takes a toll on a person getting chased by horses and golf carts - just ask Sammy - they need to boost their spirits if they are ever going to bounce back from this big loss. But what does an Inner Circle pep rally look like and, more importantly, will it work? I assume there will be bubbly, perhaps even cheerleaders, but what Jericho really needs to do is to somehow rewrite their historic loss to The Elite into the Inner Circles favor. Jericho has to use his powers as the master of spin to make his fellow stable mates feel better and to inspire them to fight on.

Will he be able to maintain group cohesion or will this mark the beginning of the end for The Inner Circle? Is the Inner Circle done with The Elite or will Jericho find a way for their feud to continue? And, perhaps most importantly, will The Elite allow Jericho to complete this pep rally without interrupting them to gloat?

5) Will we get more amazing Mike Tyson GIFS?

Was Mike Tyson an integral part of Double or Nothing? No, not really. The show would have been virtually the same without him especially considering there was no non-AEW talent in the crowd to be excited by his presence. He was basically Vanna White with a face tattoo. Honestly, I’m still not really sure why he was at DoN and I’m not totally sure what he’s going to do on Dynamite. Seems like a weird use of time and money, however, if he’s going to be there at least the internet is getting some pretty solid GIFS from Iron Mike.

Need a GIF “confusion into delight into confusion”? He’s got you covered. Need a GIF of being “bored and not caring who sees”? He’s got you covered. Need a GIF of you “taking your shirt off for no reason and chasing another old man out of an arena”? Iron Mike is on it!

Hopefully we get some more during tonight's broadcast!

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