AEW Dynamite Preview (July 6, 2022): Fighting Champs

All Elite Wrestling comes our way from the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial in Rochester, New York.

Last week, Orange Cassidy didn’t let his Forbidden Door loss get him down. Instead, with the colorful support of his Besties (Chuck is still here, everybody!), he took out Ethan Page in a great opening match. Christian Cage made some more disparaging comments about Jungle Boy’s family, and to really rub salt in the wound, he took away his pet dinosaur. Wardlow talked himself into a street fight with Scorpio Sky.

There was dissension in the ranks of The Acclaimed Ass Boys when Danhausen pinned Austin Gunn due to a poorly timed distraction from Anthony Bowens, putting Daddy Ass in an unenviable position. Jay Lethal demanded Samoa Joe defend his title at Death Before Dishonor. Jade Cargill defeated Lelia Grey, bringing her record to an impressive 34-0.

The Young Bucks challenged Hirooki Goto & Yoshi Hashi to a match on Rampage (which they won), and finally, we were treated to some blood, some guts, and a whole lot of anarchy. Ultimately, Team Eddie Kingston defeated Team Jericho, but it was Claudio Castagnoli that forced their opponents to tap out. Awkward.

This Week’s Headliner

Tonight Jon Moxley puts the Interim World Championship on the line for the first time since he won it at Forbidden Door. House of Black member Brody King won the opportunity to face off with Mox when he defeated 19 other competitors in the Royal Rampage match.

Now, it’s very unlikely that Brody King will win. He’s a relatively unknown entity in AEW, and Jon Moxley is, well, Jon Moxley. BUT since this is the interim championship, they could surprise us all and give it to someone on the roster that needs the extra spotlight since they don’t have to worry about PPV ticket sales. Also, Mox has got to have a lot on his mind right now between Claudio joining The Blackpool Combat Club and his bestie Eddie Kingston being an absolute wild card. No one would blame the man if he lost because he was distracted. It could be an interesting choice to let Brody King win.

But it will probably still be Moxley.

The Title Scene:

The TNT Champion thinks he’s being slick by baiting Wardlow into a street fight for the TNT championship, but bruv, the man took on an entire team of security guards by himself and won. American Top Team are a bunch of chumps. Wardlow has got this.

Thunder Rosa retained the Women’s World Championship at Forbidden Door, but she can’t seem to shake Toni Storm. Thunder Rosa’s inflated moral compass keeps her coming to Toni Storm’s defense. Tonight the duo tries to co-exist as they go against Nyla Rose & Marina Shafir. Look, Toni Storm may technically be a babyface, but she’s looking out for Toni Storm and Toni Storm only.

The TBS Champion issued an open challenge last week, and shockingly neither Athena nor Kris Statlander answered the call. To quote Stokely Hathaway, that’s “just lazy.” They did come out for a beatdown after being slandered, but it didn’t go their way. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a promo tonight from one or both of the faces formally challenging Jade to a championship match.

The Tag Team Champions seem content to let all the AEW tag teams battle each other and work out their own personal dramas instead of going for the titles. It’s a solid strategy tbh.

The All-Atlantic Champion has yet to get his proper celebration since winning the title at Forbidden Door. Give this man some screen time!

Other things to keep an eye on:

-Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland seem to be on the same page again. After all, they both want to beat up Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs more than they want to beat up each other. Tonight Swerve in our Glory will go to battle with The Butcher & The Blade in an attempt to bolster up their win/loss records. I bet you $20 Team Taz shows up for some shenanigans.

-Christian Cage and his pet dinosaur will be stalking the halls of AEW, looking for a fight. Or at least for someone who will listen to Cage talk mad sh*t about the Perry family. How long before we get a David Arquette appearance?? Let’s get RJ City in on this one too.

-Claudio Castagnoli stole a victory from Eddie Kingston last week, and there is no way Eddie Kingston is going to be chill about it.

-The Jericho Appreciation society cut some epic promos that were floating around Twitter this week. The Dynamite producers would be fools if they didn’t air them.

-MJF?

Tune into AEW on TBS at 8pm E.T. — and join us in our live blog — to see how all this plays out.