Tonight All Elite Wrestling comes our way from Jacksonville, Florida. Last week, Jon Moxley beat up Hollywood and salivated at the thought of exploding barbed wire deathmatch pain, Sting and Darby interrupted Team Taz’s celebration with body bags and beatdowns, Miro admitted to missing Charles, Jake Hager beat up Brandon Cutler while The Inner Circle beat up The Young Bucks dad, Hangman Page took out one of Matt Hardy’s protegee’s with a little Dark Order assist, Nyla Rose advanced in the women’s championship eliminator tournament over Dr. Britt Baker, and Lance Archer defeated Rey Fenix for a spot in the Face of the Revolution ladder match.
This Week’s Headliner:
We’ve been dancing around this match for months, and now it’s finally here. Tonight, Shaquille O’Neal & Jade Cargill will take on Cody Rhodes & Red Velvet in a...we wanted to have an excuse to have Shaq on TV match.
Here’s the deal. Shaq is not a wrestler and is going to be awkward to watch in the ring. Cody Rhodes is very talented, but frankly, not gifted enough to make Shaq look good in the ring. Additionally, neither of them needs any spotlight or big wrestling pushes. The women in this match, however, have EVERYTHING to prove.
We’ve seen Red Velvet a few times, and while she is a bit green, she’s very entertaining in the ring. She has a lot of potential, and if the AEW writers pull their heads out of the asses, she would be a big boon to the women’s roster.
And then there is Jade Cargill.
From the moment she appeared on Dynamite, she stole every scene. She made Face of the company Cody Rhodes look like a chump and didn’t even have to lift a finger to do it. She corralled other women on the roster to beat down their boss (Sorry, Brandi) and never apologized for knowing her worth. Not to mention she looks like a god damn superhero! Tonight is the first time we’ll (theoretically) see her wrestle. She has everything someone would need to be the Face of a division, and boy, howdy does the AEW women’s division need someone with her magnetism. AEW just needs to let it happen.
The Title Scene:
Nyla Rose & Ryo Mizunami face off in the Women’s Title Eliminator Tournament final. The winner will face AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida at Revolution this Sunday. After all the controversy surrounding this tournament (like how 75% of it was untelevised), this seems like a bit of an anti-climactic final. Both competitors are fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but neither seem like the right choice to take the belt for Hikaru Shida. Which, now that I think about it, sounds EXACTLY like something the AEW writers would do.
Max Caster battles Dark Order’s 10 for a spot in Sunday’s Face of the Revolution ladder match. The winner gets to face off with Darby Allin for the TNT Championship (assuming he’s still alive after his street fight at Revolution). Now, according to Tony Kahn’s Twitter, he’s made a new booking decision after having a “long talk with a good friend.” Speculation is that that “good friend” is Dark Order’s -1, so hopefully, we get to see a little Dark Order ladder match action at Revolution.
This Sunday, The AEW Tag Team Champions, The Young Bucks, will have to defend their championships against The Inner Circle’s Chris Jericho & MJF. The Young Bucks may be the best tag team in the world, but the Inner Circle plays dirty! Just ask the Buck’s bloodied up dad! Tonight, MJF and Jericho hold a press conference presumably to high-five each other for how badly they beat up a defenseless old man. Unfortunately for them, I bet they get superkicked before they even make it to the punch-up jokes.
The AEW World Championship will be on the line this Sunday as Kenny Omega defends his title against Jon Moxley in an exploding barbed wire deathmatch. Drink every time they say exploding barbed wire deathmatch.
Other Things to Keep an Eye On:
-Paul Wight, aka The Big Show, speaks out for the first time since declaring himself #AllElite.
- Tully Blanchard, the 67-year-old wrestling icon, will fight side by side with his favorite client FTR. But Jurassic Express has a dinosaur...I’m worried about Tully’s lifespan.
-Dark Order try once again to prove their devotion to one grumpy cowboy when they take on Matt Hardy, Private Party & TH2. I Hope Adam Page has plans to buy them a nice thank you gift when he wins all of Matt Hardy’s money.
Tune into AEW on TNT at 8 p.m. EST to see how this all plays out!