This week All Elite Wrestling comes our way from a closed set in Jacksonville, Florida. Last week, The Dark Order was out of control, MJF called Jon Moxley a dictator, Matt Cardona saved Cody from a beat down, WARHORSE, FTR officially signed and Chris Jericho realized he smelled like cat pee.
Advertised for tonight:
- Jon Moxley versus Darby Allin for the AEW Championship
- MJF All Out update
- Matt Cardona & Cody versus The Dark Order
- Brodie Lee & The Dark Order versus The Elite, Hangman Page & FTR
- Chris Jericho and Orange Cassidy debate with a surprise moderator
Here are five questions about AEW tonight:
1) Will Moxley retain his championship against his Lil Compadre?
Yes. Let’s be clear the answer is unequivocally yes. But is it yes because Darby Allin tries to do a crazy move that backfires and leaves Moxley with an opening to win or is it a yes because MJF interferes because he wants to be the one to dethrone Moxley at All Out?
When did Moxley become a side player in the story of the AEW Championship? He’s like a grumpy place holder for all other wrestlers to have stories around.
It was about Hager and his undefeated streak.
It was about Brian Cage’s debut.
It’s about Darby Allin’s comeback and heart.
It’s about MJF because MJF makes everything about him.
They really need to find something more interesting to do with Moxley outside of rabid raccoon of a man holds gold. At least against Jericho he was fighting for something, not just the gold, but his identity and his place within AEW. Now he’s just the guy on top who sometimes goes through car windows. He lacks purpose. Hopefully, MJF can pull some out of him.
2) How well will Matt Cardona fit into AEW?
Last week Matt Cardona made his AEW debut of sorts after a surprise run in to save his long time pal, Cody, from a Dark Order beat down. Being billed from Strong Island the commentary put him over very hard saying things like “He’s never looked better!” He even has merch! This week he’ll team up with Cody to face some goons from the Dark Order making tonight his official AEW debut. But the big question is - will he fit in on Dynamite?
From an outside perspective there doesn’t seem to be a particularly good place to put the Broski as the roster is pretty packed with aging white dudes with middling charisma, but perhaps he’ll surprise us.
Considering the fact that he has been with WWE for so long and has never really gotten an opportunity to thrive as anything other than a punch line the question is “how does Matt Cardona act when he’s taken seriously?” When the push isn’t a gift or a stepping stone for someone else’s career and the spot light is truly on him. It’s a bit of a make or break moment for him.
3) Is this the beginning of a Dark Order takeover?
They beat down Cody after his match last week and proved to be sore losers when they failed to win tag team gold from Omega & Page. This week they have two matches to enact retribution and perhaps finally become the power house organization that Mr. Brodie Lee wants them to be.
Honestly, I agree with Mr. Lee, they really do need a win here. Their threats lose their power with every loss and Mr. Lee’s leadership skills are somewhat lacking it seems.
Now, they absolutely will not be losing to Cody and Cardona. That’s a given. But considering that FTR, The Elite & Hangman Page are their opponents, they might have a change. The Dark Order faces the best of the best tonight, but the best of the best don’t have the best track record of keeping the emotions tied to their personal relationships out of the ring. This could create an opportunity for The Dark Order to get a big win on Dynamite.
It’s like the messiest love triangle. Kenny loves Adam, but Adam prefers to hang out with FTR, FTR doesn’t like Kenny because he doesn’t drink and they don’t like The Young Bucks because of all the flipping and the Young Bucks don’t want to like FTR, but they also kind of want FTR to be friends with them and Kenny, since Kenny is their best friend, even though Adam has tried to take him away from them and all they ever were was nice to Adam, but he’s mean to them.
Wow - wrestling is basically high school in spandex.
4) We’re really doing this Jericho/Cassidy debate huh?
I know that this will ultimately be worth it as Orange Cassidy is a gif machine and Chris Jericho’s super power is turning everything he says into a marketable catch phrase, but part of me - a big part - is super annoyed that we are doing this debate in the first place.
I get it. It’s an election year and everything has to be toPiCaL to keep wrestling is relevant! But also, let’s face it. We need wrestling to escape the madness that is politics in America. Especially since I doubt this will have any kind of interesting social commentary. We also have MJF running around with his whole terrible “MAGA” but wrestling thing happening. We don’t need this.
As for who is the “surprise” moderator...well, I think we have two options here. (1) It’s Mike Tyson returning to make good on his threats to Jericho or (2) it’s some random wrestling “legend” returning for a cheap pop. There are rumors it’s Eric Bischoff. Please, let them be rumors only.
5) Where are the women?
Oh right. They’re on YouTube.
Heavy Sigh.
Tune into AEW on TNT at 8 EST tonight to see if we get any answers to these questions!