AEW Dynamite preview (July 5, 2023): There should never be this many tournaments running at the same time

Dynamite airs tonight (July 5) with a live show from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta. This is the second episode of Dynamite during the nine week build towards All In, which takes place later this summer.

AEW should never book this many tournaments at the same time

AEW is in the midst of a Canada tour, so the timing makes sense to run the men and women’s Owen Hart tournaments right now. However, AEW President Tony Khan must have decided that running three tournaments at once is a great idea, because now there is also a Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament, the first two matches of which take place tonight.

This tournament consists of teams put together at random, with the winning duo going on to challenge FTR for the AEW world tag team titles.

The tournament is already off to a rocky start given that we don’t know the full bracket of teams as it is about to begin. In fact, we don’t even know who Adam Cole and AEW World Champion MJF are going to wrestle against tonight. AEW is simply advertising that they will be “in action” in a first round match.

That phrasing is typically used when an AEW wrestler is being matched up with a jobber for a quick squash. While it might be somewhat amusing if AEW actually gave a tournament spot to a jobber tag team, hopefully the secrecy here is by design due to something interesting planned, and not a sign of a rushed tournament that is being figured out on the fly.

AEW is doing the “can they co-exist?” thing by putting Cole and MJF on the same team in this tournament. MJF is at least making a surface level attempt to bond with his rival, while Adam Cole told his buddy Roderick Strong that he’s just playing along for now. There is potential for entertaining comedy here as the tourney progresses, assuming Cole and MJF can beat whichever team they are “in action” against tonight.

The other first round Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament match advertised for tonight is Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland vs. Darby Allin & AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy. Lee and Strickland broke up as a team over six months ago and have somehow yet to wrestle each other in a singles match, but here they are teaming up again tonight. It’s another “can they co-exist?” type of situation, which in kayfabe brings into question just how random these pairings really are.

Hopefully AEW will provide a full bracket tonight as the company tries to keep its fans invested in three concurrent tournaments. It would help if AEW announced a higher stakes reward for the winners of the two Owen Hart tournaments, so maybe that will be coming too.

The rest of tonight’s lineup

Kenny Omega is back in action tonight after losing against Will Ospreay in a match of the year candidate at Forbidden Door. Omega takes on Wheeler Yuta in a singles match that should whet the appetite for the upcoming Blood & Guts match on July 19 between The Elite and the Blackpool Combat Club. Don Callis and/or Konosuke Takeshita will likely show their faces during this fight to continue sticking it to Kenny.

The first round of the women’s Owen Hart tournament wraps up tonight with Britt Baker vs. Ruby Soho. The winner advances to take on Skye Blue in the next round. This match was supposed to take place last week, but it was postponed when Baker was pulled from the show due to illness. This bout also happens to be a rematch of last year’s final tournament match. Ruby will do anything she can to make sure she isn’t eliminated by Britt two years in a row.

Chris Jericho has something to say tonight. He’s coming off consecutive tag team losses against Sting and Darby Allin. Sting doesn’t wrestle singles matches, so this won’t be a setup for a one-on-one match between them. Perhaps Chris will instead blame the failures on his Le Sex Gods partner and longtime ally, Sammy Guevara.

We are also going to hear from Jon Moxley. Mox is busy getting his head skewered in Japan, so he won’t be live in the ring tonight. This will most likely be a pre-taped promo hyping up the Blood & Guts match. Jon might also have something to get off his chest about Eddie Kingston’s recent decision to fight alongside The Elite in order to get his hands on Claudio Castagnoli.

Other stuff to keep an eye on

- Jack Perry is now an arrogant douchebag heel who ditched his popular entrance music and brags about banging his hot girlfriend. He followed up all his tough talk last week by cowardly running away from FTW Champion HOOK. Does the champ have anything to say about his former partner’s attitude change, or will he continue to let his fists do all the talking?

- How much longer will Jade Cargill be away from AEW before she returns to challenge Kris Statlander for the TBS championship?

- AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm needs a new challenger. Could that new challenger be Hikaru Shida, who recently defeated Taya Valkyrie and isn’t involved in the Owen Hart tournament?

- Christian recently helped Luchasaurus win the TNT Championship, and now Shawn Spears is back in AEW and wants a shot at the gold.

- What’s next for Wardlow after losing that TNT title a couple weeks ago?

- AEW World Trios Champions House of Black are busy on Collision stealing Andrade’s mask and messing with his head. Does this mean Daddy Ass & The Acclaimed are done pursuing the trios titles? The scissoring babyfaces were recently laid out by Johnny TV and the rest of the QTV crew, and will likely come looking for revenge.

- How is Sting doing after he dove off a ladder and landed mouth-first into a table?

What will you be looking for on Dynamite?