Nick Wayne is All Elite after impressive debut defeat

AEW continued to educate its audience about Nick Wayne on Dynamite ahead of the 18 year old’s debut tonight (July 12). Before his match with Swerve Strickland, we got another excellent video package about Wayne, his late father Buddy, and his relationship with Darby Allin.

The third generation wrestler was familiar with his opponent, having faced Strickland twice in Seattle’s Defy Wrestling. Swerve is also plenty familiar with Darby, too — including when he cost Allin & Orange Cassidy their Blind Eliminator Tournament semifinal earlier in the show. Allin walked Nick to the stage, but let him head to the ring alone.

Wayne got a little cocky at times, but overall showed the kind of skills that made people label him a prodigy.

Wayne’s mother was watching from the seats, and Darby showed up to cheer the finish — which they (and we) thought was coming after this Avalanche Frankensteiner/Wayne’s World combo...

... but it’s still Swerve’s house. After getting his foot on the ropes, Strickland countered another super-rana into a powerbomb. When the follow-up to that didn’t get three, he snapped the young man’s arm and nailed a JML Driver to get the win.

Nick Wayne did more than just impress in a losing effort, though. He got his contract upgraded by the main man himself:

Get complete results and coverage of everything on tonight’s episode of Dynamite here.