This week All Elite Wrestling comes our way live from a closed set in Jacksonville, Florida. Last week, Cody & Hager had the world’s most awkward press conference, Shida got a head start fighting Penelope in the crowd, Colt Cabana won with the help of Mr. Brodie, Britt Baker got trashed (again), Taz called out a missing Jon Moxley and Orange Cassidy stood tall (and bloody) over Le Champion.
Advertised for tonight:
- Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs. The Best Friends for the AEW Tag Team Championships
- Cody vs. Jake Hager for the TNT Championship
- Hikaru Shida vs. Penelope Ford for the AEW Women’s Championship
- Santana & Ortiz vs. Private Party
- Jurassic Express vs. MJF & Wardlow
- Chris Jericho on commentary
Here are five questions about AEW tonight:
1) Will Hangman & Omega’s unique friendship be able to combat the unbreakable bond of The Best Friends?
No one in their right mind would call Hangman and Omega friends. It’s frankly surprising to everyone (including them it seems) that their personalities mesh well enough to not only have secured themselves the AEW tag belts, but some of the best - if not the best - tag matches ever. What at first seemed like dumb luck has proven to be itself a reliable anomaly. I mean, you wouldn’t think whisky and milk go together, but with the right bartender a delicious cocktail can be made!
Of course, Hangman & Omega have never been forced to fight The True Power of Friendship TM. Trent and Chuck have wrestled together for years. They not only have become one of the best tag teams in the world, but they are buoyed by each other in ways that put a team like Hangman & Omega in jeopardy. When they hug it out in the ring it’s not a stunt or a silly move, it’s their Shift into Turbo move! That combined with the incredible winning streak they have been on...Omega and Hangman better watch out. To keep their championships away from The Best Friends they will have to be 100% on the same page...a thing they have yet to accomplish.
2) Can Hikaru Shida stop Penelope Ford’s winning streak?
I’ve been saying it for weeks but Penelope Ford was one of the shining spots of AEW’s pre-recorded quarantine shows. She proved that she’s much more than arm candy and that she is a formidable opponent on her own. I think the audience, as well as the women’s locker room, were unprepared for her to rack up enough wins to face the champion at Fyter Fest. She even pinned the champion a couple weeks ago! She’s on a hot streak headed straight to gold.
Shida hasn’t been champion long, and while this is one of her first title defenses, it’s clear that Ford has gotten under her skin. Last week she went AWOL and attacked Penelope in the audience. There is a lot animosity between the two competitors and if I were Shida I’d be worried by how visceral that animosity has become. Will she be able to focus long enough to secure her championship from her challenger or will she be distracted enough by her hatred of Ford to lose her championship in it’s infancy.
3) How long will the Cody versus Hager match go?
Sure, this is a cheeky question, but let’s be real this match has “stinker” written all over it. Cody is charismatic as hell and could sell ketchup popsicles to a woman in white gloves, but when it comes to his performance in the ring it’s 100% dependent who he is in the ring with. Considering this, and Hager’s less than entertaining in ring style, I have a feeling we’re in for a boring slog fest of a match. I mean, Mox & Hager beat the crap out of each other all over the stadium and it was boring as hell.
The TNT championship is still in it’s infancy and Cody is the right person to help build up that title. He has been doing a great job of showcasing under card talent and he should continue to do so with his weekly challenges after this match. If Hager wins, he’ll hold it forever and any momentum the championship had will die. It’s a no brainier.
Here’s hoping this match is less than 10 min long. For all our sakes.
4) Will somebody finally be able to shut MJF up?
Raise your hand if you were impressed by Wardlow last week? I’ll be the first to admit I saw him as nothing but a boring bouncer, but he pulled out a pretty entertaining match with Luchasauras last week. That being said, MJF’s head is a little too big and it would be satisfying to see MJF get pinned by either half of Jurassic Express. It would also put a little bit of a stop gap on MJF’s momentum. Unless they are ready to throw him in a championship bout they need to distract him for a little bit and a loss here would do that. We’re not ready for MJF vs Cody round ??? whatever it is and I don’t see MJF as a main title contender yet. It’s possible that MJF and Wardlow could pursue a tag team championship bout, but something tells me MJF’s ego is too big. No, for now futzing around in the mid card is where he belongs complete with a big fat L from Jurassic Express.
5) How will Chris Jericho explain away the beating he took from Orange Cassidy?
Jericho thinks (or wants us to think that he thinks) that Orange Cassidy is a joke. Unfortunately for him, last weeks episode of Dynamite ended with him crashed through a table and one jean clad menace standing over him with blood dripping from his ear. Hard to turn that into a joke! Tonight Jericho will be on commentary and I, for one, can’t wait to hear what kind of fanciful nonsense he drums up to try and convince us that he isn’t at least a *little* worried about Orange Cassidy.
Tune into AEW on TNT at 8 EST tonight to see if we get any answers to these questions!