Jay Lethal fails to take TNT title from Sammy Guevara in AEW debut

Jay Lethal didn’t wait for Ring of Honor to go on hiatus before stepping through The Forbidden Door. And just days after making his AEW debut at Full Gear, Lethal found himself in the main event of Dynamite on Nov. 17, challenging Sammy Guevara for the TNT title.

If the fans had any reservations about the signing due to the accusations against him from his time in ROH (which Lethal has denied and the company investigated but took no action on), it wasn’t apparent from the reaction from the Norfolk, Virginia crowd for his entrance.

They were still behind the champ, especially when Guevara sold the rib injury he brought with him from Inner Circle’s win over Men of the Year & American Top Team at Saturday’s PPV. During a commercial break, AEW’s Dr. Michael Sampson checked on the Spanish God while Lethal paced in the ring. He continued, but his high risk offense put him in jeopardy when the challenger evaded a dive to the outside.

Sammy kept fighting though, getting a rope break to survive a leg hold. It wasn’t long after that he connected with GTH to put Lethal away.

With Chris Jericho and crew in the ring for a celebration, the champ extended his hand to the challenger, and the newest All Elite talent accepted. The Full Gear fallout show closed with Lethal and Inner Circle raising one another’s arms.

Oh, we also got a bunch of shots of Tony Nese watching from the crowd... if you’re into that sort of thing.

Get complete results and coverage of everything that happened on tonight’s edition of Dynamite here.