AEW Dynamite preview (June 14, 2023): MJF is finally going to lose

Dynamite airs tonight (June 14) with a live show from Washington, D.C.’s Capital One Arena. This is the third episode of Dynamite during the four week build towards Forbidden Door, which takes place on June 25.

MJF is finally going to lose

AEW World Champion MJF tried to rip Adam Cole apart on the mic last week. And while he did get in plenty of zingers about Cole’s body, Britt Baker as the dominant figure in their relationship, and Vince McMahon seeing Adam as nothing more than a manager for Keith Lee, the segment ultimately ended with Cole goading MJF into a match.

That match takes place tonight. It’s a Championship Contender’s World Title Eliminator match; the belt isn’t on the line, but Cole earns a future title shot if he wins this match.

MJF has not been pinned, submitted, or otherwise lost a singles match ever since he was squashed by Wardlow at Double or Nothing 2022, just over one year ago. But he could very well suffer defeat tonight, because it would be awfully strange for AEW to book Adam Cole to beat Chris Jericho multiple times only to have him fail in a non-title match and immediately drop out of the world title mix.

In my view, the more interesting thing to look out for is how AEW tries to protect MJF in defeat, if at all. Will it be a clean win for Adam? Will MJF be disqualified after he is caught cheating? Will any other wrestlers join their story and play a role in the outcome?

Or maybe I’m totally wrong and MJF will cheat his way to victory, forcing Cole to find some other path to a championship match.

Let me know in the comments below how you see this one playing out, Cagesiders.

The rest of tonight’s lineup

AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm defends the belt tonight against Skye Blue. Blue earned this title match after an unlikely win against Britt Baker, Nyla Rose, and Mercedes Martinez in a four-way match. Can the underdog babyface pull off another upset with championship gold on the line?

TNT Champion Wardlow isn’t finished with Christian and Luchasaurus just yet, but he will take a few minutes away from them to defend his belt against Jake Hager tonight. There’s no story between Wardlow and Hager, so this match has been promoted as an open challenge. Will Christian and Luchasaurus try to target Brock Anderson backstage again while the match is going on?

Sting returns to action tonight for his first match since late March. He teams up with Darby Allin, Keith Lee, and AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy to take on Mogul Embassy (Swerve Strickland, Toa Liona, Brian Cage, Kaun). I don’t believe that Sting has ever been on the losing side of a match in AEW, so his team looks like the favorite to me.

The Elite (Hangman Page & Young Bucks) do battle with Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta) in trios competition tonight. Will Konosuke Takeshita and Don Callis show up to help BCC go over The Elite again? Or has Kenny Omega found a friend who can help out The Elite?

AEW is also advertising the return of Sammy Guevara for tonight. Sammy has yet to show his face since he failed to win the AEW world championship in the Four Pillars match at Double or Nothing. It’s not clear if he will wrestle or just talk when he returns on Dynamite.

Other stuff to keep an eye on

- The Forbidden Door PPV is coming up in less than two weeks, AEW television has yet to be flooded with a wave of NJPW wrestlers or angles featuring those stars. It doesn’t sound like that will happen tonight, either, with most of the top NJPW stars busy in Japan right now. Perhaps the two companies assume that matches like Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay practically sell themselves.

- This is the final episode of Dynamite before CM Punk returns to the company for this Saturday’s premiere of Collision at Chicago’s United Center. Punk is teaming up with AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR in the main event of that card against Jay White, Juice Robinson, and Samoa Joe. Will there be any more angles tonight between FTR and Bullet Club Gold to get fans extra hyped up for the Collision main event?

- TBS champion Kris Statlander has successfully defended her title against Nyla Rose and Anna Jay. Former champion Jade Cargill has yet to resurface since losing the gold in surprise fashion at Double or Nothing. Kris can’t rest easy, however, because Taya Valkyrie is pissed off and still wants that belt.

- The summer of JungleHOOK is upon us! FTW Champion HOOK has never lost a match in AEW, so perhaps it’s just a matter of time until these two are holding up tag team championship gold together. But is their summer partnership an admission that Boy isn’t quite good enough to win singles championships in AEW?

- Is AEW saving Chris Jericho’s next feud for Collision? Are notable absences from tonight’s Dynamite a sign of which roster members are more likely to be featured on Collision going forward?

- Daddy Ass and The Acclaimed are still winning trios matches. Are they looking for a rematch against AEW World Trios Champions House of Black?

- AEW is not yet hyping up any kind of announcement from Tony Khan tonight, but there are still several hours before Dynamite airs for that to change. Isn’t there something more he can tell us about the upcoming Owen Hart tournaments, for example? What about revealing the date for Aubrey Edwards’ first AEW match? If not that, can he at least go over the bag policy at the United Center?

What will you be looking for on Dynamite?