The card for AEW Full Gear is starting to take shape. During Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite, three new matches were confirmed for the upcoming pay-per-view.
First, the main event is now set. AEW Champion Jon Moxley will defend against Eddie Kingston. This won’t just be a traditional singles match. The rule book will be out the window for this one, as the two men will square off in an “I Quit Match.”
Jon Moxley cut this promo on Dynamite talking about his longstanding relationship with Eddie Kingston:
Next up, we now have #1 contenders to the AEW tag team titles. AEW held a fatal 4-way tag team match on Dynamite featuring Private Party vs. John Silver and Alex Reynolds vs. The Butcher and The Blade. In the end, Nick and Matt Jackson were victorious. The Bucks will now go on to face FTR for the AEW Tag Team Titles at Full Gear in what’s been billed as a “tag team dream match.”
Finally, the feud between Matt Hardy and Sammy Guevara continues. They’ll battle once again at Full Gear – this time, in an “Elite Deletion Match.”
The following matches are now confirmed for AEW Full Gear:
AEW World Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley vs.Eddie Kingston (I Quit Match)
AEW Tag Team Champions FTR vs. The Young Bucks
AEW World Heavyweight Title Tournament Finals
Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara – Elite Deletion Match
Darby Allin challenges for the TNT Championship
Full Gear pay-per-view will take place on Saturday, November 7, 2020, at the Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place. The event will stream live on the BR Live platform in the United States and on FITE internationally.
The semi-finals of the World Title Eliminator tournament are set.
The first batch of matches in this tournament took place on Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place on TNT.
Those matches saw Penta El Zero M vs. Rey Fenix, Kenny Omega vs. Sonny Kiss, Colt Cabana vs. Hangman Page, and Wardlow vs. Jungle Boy.
The winners of those bouts were Fenix, Omega, Wardlow, and Page.
AEW World Title Eliminator Semi-Finals
Now, Fenix will battle Omega while Wardlow is slated to take on Page in the semi-finals of the tournament. The purpose of this tournament is to crown a new number 1 contender for the AEW World Championship.
AEW has already announced when the semi-finals will take place. It will take place next week on Dynamite, which is on October 28th.
The AEW All Out pay-per-view event will take place on Saturday, November 7th, 2020 in Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place.
The finals of this tournament will go down at this show although there’s been no word yet on when AEW will actually book the tournament winner against the champion, who is currently Jon Moxley.
Joey Janela was scheduled to work this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite, but was pulled at the last minute.
About an hour before the show went live on TNT, All Elite Wrestling announced in a post on social media that Janela had been removed from his scheduled bout against Kenny Omega due to COVID-19 concerns.
“AEW and Joey Janela learned today that he had exposure to a known COVID-19 positive person at an independent show. For that reason we are pulling him until such time as he is cleared to return consistent with our protocols.”
This bout was part of several planned matches as part of the World Title Eliminator tournament. AEW later announced that Janela would be replaced by Sony Kiss in this contest.
Penta El Zero M vs. Rey Fenix, Colt Cabana vs. Hangman Page, and Wardlow vs. Jungle Boy were also part of the first round matches on this show.
The news comes after Janela faced AJ Gray at Game Changer Wrestling’s The Last Resort show in Silverado, California this past Saturday.
Also on Wednesday, Gray announced that he tested positive for COVID-19. Gray wrote that his positive COVID-19 test was taken on Monday.
The following are previews for tonight’s AEW and NXT broadcasts:
AEW Dynamite
Chris Jericho and MJF will meet for a steak dinner in a segment dubbed, Le Dinner Debonair.
Fatal 4-Way Tag Title Match: The Young Bucks vs. Private Party vs. Dark Order (Alex Reynolds & John Silver) vs. The Butcher & The Blade. The winners face FTR for the AEW World Tag Titles at Full Gear.
AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament (1st Round):
Penta El Zero M vs. Rey Fenix
Kenny Omega vs. Joey Janela
Hangman Page vs. Colt Cabana
Wardlow vs. Jungle Boy
NXT
AEW Tag Team Champions Breezango vs. Undisputed Era (Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish)
Triple Threat: Kushida vs. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Velveteen Dream
Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza vs. Isaiah Scott, Jake Atlas, and Ashante Adonis.
Kris Statlander tore her ACL during a tag match on AEW Dynamite back in June. At the time, the alien from the Andromeda galaxy had become one of the top-ranked competitors in her division. She spoke to the Wrestling Inc Daily podcast recently and gave an update on her condition. Unfortunately, Statlander believes she’ll be out of action for another 8 months or so.
“I’m doing pretty good. I think from what I’ve heard overall is that I might be a little bit ahead of others where I’m at right now, but I still have a real long way to go before I can re-debut basically and get back in the ring before I’m debuting again obviously, and I’m going to want to be training a little bit before,” Statlander said. “So I’ll be able to get in the ring before you’ll see me back on TV. It could be another eight months or so.”
Statlander also spoke about her injury which occurred during a suicide dive attempt. She was teaming with Hikaru Shida and taking on Nyla Rose and Penelope Ford.
“I just did a suicide dive, and the way I landed, I guess, was not perfectly right. You can actually see the dive on TV when I heard it, but all you see is me quickly grab my leg when I go down, and then the camera’s off of me. But it doesn’t even look like I did anything super insane, or it doesn’t look very noticeable. ‘Oh, she messed up her leg there.’ You cannot tell at all. So I had no idea what happened. I just kind of felt a little ‘pfft’ in my leg. It didn’t even hurt that bad either. I was just like, ‘oh boy.’”
Statlander had just defeated Penelope Ford in singles competition at the Double or Nothing PPV the previous month before her injury. She unsuccessfully challenged Nyla Rose for the title at the Revolution PPV in February as well.
AEW has released new top-5 rankings ahead of tonight’s episode of Dynamite.
AEW Men’s Singles Division
AEW World Champion: Jon Moxley (20-0) TNT Champion: Cody (19-2-1)
Brian Cage (9-1) (+1)
MJF (9-1) (+1)
Lance Archer (13-2) (-2)
Brodie Lee (8-2)
Shawn Spears (14-2) (previously unranked)
After Jon Moxley successfully defended the AEW World Championship last week on Dynamite, his opponent dropped 2 spots in the rankings. Lance Archer had been ranked #1 before his title shot, but he drops to #3 with the loss.
Archer dropping in the rankings moves both MJF and Brian Cage up one spot. Cage now sits in the #1 spot in the division.
Several unranked wrestlers will compete in a tournament beginning tonight on Dynamite. Fenix, Pentagon, Colt Cabana, Jungle Boy, Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, and Joey Janela are all unranked but with a chance to earn a shot if they can win the upcoming tournament.
TNT Champion Cody retained the title last week after going to a time limit draw with unranked Orange Cassidy. They will meet again on next week’s show.
#5 Shawn Spears has also replaced Scorpio Sky in the final ranked spot. Spears and Sky seem to have a bit of a rivalry going on Dark as well. Spears defeated Christopher Daniels on Dark last night but continued the attack after the match until Sky made the save. Spears would also come to the ring during Sky’s match on Dark last night as well.
AEW Women’s Division
AEW Women’s Champion: Hikaru Shida (18-1)
Nyla Rose (11-2)
Penelope Ford (9-5) (+1)
Abadon (5-1) (+1)
Big Swole (10-5) (-2)
Dr. Britt Baker (5-6)
After dropping a title match to Hikaru Shida last week, Big Swole drops from the #2 spot to the #4 spot. Her drop in the rankings moves Penelope Ford and Abadon up one spot each.
#5 Dr. Britt Baker DMD is in action tonight Dynamite. Her opponent has yet to be announced, however.
On Dark last week, #1 Nyla Rose and Vickie Guerrero let it be known that they want another crack at the title.
AEW Tag Team Division
AEW Tag Team Champions: FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) (12-0)
Young Bucks (7-3) (+1)
Best Friends (17-7) (-1)
The Natural Nightmares (8-2)
Butcher and the Blade (10-5)
Santana & Ortiz (8-5)
After FTR successfully defended the tag belts against the Best Friends on Dynamite last week, Trent and Chuckie T drop one spot in the rankings to #2.
#1 The Young Bucks will have a chance to earn a tag title shot tonight on Dynamite. They take on Private Party, Silver & Reynolds, and #4 The Butcher and the Blade tonight with the winner facing FTR at Full Gear.
AEW’s Jake Hager has taken a shot at Stephanie McMahon on Twitter. Hager was responding to a Tweet from McMahon that was celebrating WWE being named 2020 Corporation of the Year by PR News.
Lmao. I guess lying about over 37 million in quarterly profits , so you can fire over 300 people, during a worldwide pandemic is a category for an award? ? @AndrewYanghttps://t.co/Yg65yCYQ8J
“Lmao. I guess lying about over 37 million in quarterly profits , so you can fire over 300 people, during a worldwide pandemic is a category for an award?”
Hager tagged politician and former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang in his post. Yang has promised that if he is in a cabinet position after the US Presidential election, he will bring changes to WWE’s policy of classifying wrestlers as independent contractors. He responded to Hager’s post.
Yang was recently interviewed by Chris Van Vliet and spoke about this issue.
“You should know Chris, this is not like ‘I’m going to talk about this and forget about it’. This bothers me and I’m not going to rest until something changes,” Yang said about WWE’s independent contractor policy,” he said.
Jake Hager Returning To Bellator Cage
It was also announced recently that Hager has an MMA fight next week. He’ll be fighting on the undercard of Bellator 250 on Thursday. Hager is currently 2-0-1 in his pro MMA career. His last fight ended in a no-contest after Hager hit his opponent with an illegal knee to the groin.
Eddie Kingston has revealed that The Bunny is now a member of his “family” in All Elite Wrestling. Kingston made the announcement during this week’s episode of AEW Dark.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the family is back together,” said Kingston. “You’ve got my best friend Pentagon, you’ve got Fenix—the best tag team in the universe. […] You’ve got the big Butcher, you got the jacked-up Blade, and look at this beautiful specimen right here. Look who’s back? The Bunny. And now that we’re all together, everybody’s going to pay.”
By aligning herself with Eddie Kingston and his stable, The Bunny is once again with The Butcher and the Blade. She originally debuted as the team’s valet. Bunny would later become a part of the Nightmare Family, where she formed a tag team with Brandi Rhodes and accompanied QT Mashall ringside.
However, with this new defection, it appears as though The Bunny may no longer be a part of the Nightmare Family, subsequently breaking up her team with Brandi, the Nightmare Sisters. The pair took part in AEW’s recent Women’s Tag Team Cup Tournament. They were almost victorious, making it all the way to the finals on the 8/22 episode of Dynamite. They ultimately lost to tournament winners Diamante and Ivelisse.
If you use any quotes from this article, please provide a H/T to SEScoops.
Darby Allin says that he and Steve-O have something planned for Dynamite tomorrow night. Allin will challenge for the TNT Championship coming up on November 7th at Full Gear.
Allin posted a short video featuring him and Steve-O talking about this upcoming episode of Dynamite.
“Hey everybody, I’m Steve-O,” the Jackass star begins the video. “And we all know that Darby Allin is going to be competing for the TNT Championship on November 7th and clearly, there is something really wrong with him because before that match he is going to do this…”
The camera then pans down to reveal a body bag with the words “Face of TNT” on it.
“All kidding aside, this has bad news written all over it,” Steve-O continued.
Darby Allin’s video with Steve-O can be viewed in the Tweet below:
This isn’t the first time Steve-O has been involved with wrestling. Along with Chris Pontius, he appeared on an episode of WWE RAW from 2006. They ended up getting physically involved with Umaga during the show and the Samoan Bulldozer didn’t take kindly to them not selling moves enough to his liking.
“The Samoan Drop, I’ll tell you, it hurt. Like, I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t breathe,” Pontius later said of the experience.
“So now the match is supposed to be over, but I don’t know that I have to play dead,” Steve-O added. “So, I keep moving around and I’m like, ‘Oh!’ and he’s not done beating me up. Now, he’s going to hit me with a f–king elbow that actually knocked me into a blackout. And I showed this to Jason Ellis and he said, ‘Dude, that is not a WWE elbow. That is an MMA [elbow]’, and I’m begging him, like, ‘Please stop doing this to me!’ But that means that he has to keep doing it because I’m moving around. I don’t remember leaving the ring and they just cut to commercial.”
Jake Hager has his next fight booked under the banner of the Bellator MMA promotion – and we won’t have to wait long to see the Inner Circle member back in the cage.
Hager will fight fellow heavyweight Brandon Caltonat next Thursday, October 29th at at Bellator 250. Th show takes place from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. The main card will air on CBS Sports Network.
Hager hasn’t competed inside the cage in a year as he had his sights set on making his opportunity in AEW count.
In his previous outing at Bellator 231, it ended in a no contest after he kneed opponent Anthony Garrett in the groin multiple times. Before that, he had been undefeated.
Visit our partner site MMANews.com for all the latest news from UFC and the world of mixed martial arts.
Bellator 250 Card
Bellator 250 is headlined by a rematch between Gegard Mousasi and Douglas Lima for the middleweight title. More fights will be announced in the coming week.
Gegard Mousasi vs. Douglas Lima – for the Bellator middleweight title
AEW star Colt Cabana recently discussed the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the affect it is having on live pro wrestling. On the Art of Wrestling podcast, Cabana talked about how his style of performance is not attuned to a setting without live fans in the arena.
“I think my wrestling has taken a tad of a hit, you know?” Colt Cabana began on the podcast. “I was just starting to move forward. My last match was this really fun match, you could watch it on YouTube, it was myself and Peter Avalon in Utah.”
Colt Cabana on ‘No-crowd’ Wrestling
Cabana elaborated further, saying “I’d never been to Utah! The crowd for Utah in this match on [AEW] Dark was going crazy for me! I felt this real connection to the fans and something that I have lived off of for years is a true connection to the wrestling fan.”
Colt would then relay how it felt with the pandemic hitting and the lack of fans being available live in the arena. “I felt the momentum going, ahen we shut down and then when we wrestle? It’s in front of nobody, there are no fans.”
Cabana would finish by making some intriguing comments regarding AEW Champion Jon Moxley. Whilst in context it may be a complement to the Champion, there’s potentially scope to put Cabana in the title picture down the line?
“And I’m not really the wrestler who thrives in front of no fans. Maybe Jon Moxley and his style is. So it’s a perfect time for Jon Moxley to be the AEW champion. But for me? It put me on ice. It put me on ice big time. So if that’s the worst of my worries? It’s fine.”
AEW recently announced a single-elimination tournament to determine a new #1 contender for the promotion’s world championship. AEW has confirmed that the entire 1st round of the tournament will take place on this week’s Dynamite.
Here are the 1st round matches that will take place on Dynamite this Wednesday night:
Penta El Zero M vs Rey Fenix
Colt Cabana vs Adam “Hangman” Page
Kenny Omega vs Joey Janela
Wardlow vs Jungle Boy
Additionally, the following has also been confirmed for this week’s Dynamite:
The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) vs. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) vs. The Butcher And The Blade (The Blade & The Butcher) vs. Dark Order (Alex Reynolds & John Silver) – winner receives a tag-team title shot.
Dr. Britt Baker DMD vs TBA
Chris Jericho and Maxwell Jacob Friedman have a steak dinner.
The finals of the AEW tournament will take place at Full Gear on November 7th, 2020. Former tag-team champions Kenny Omega and Adam “Hangman” Page are on opposite sides of the bracket. If they were to face each other in the tournament, it would not take place until the finals.
AEW’s is advertising a season’s pass for upcoming shows at Daily’s Place:
Tickets for this Wed, Oct 21st & 3 additional live Dynamites available NOW with outdoor physically-distanced seating in compliance w/state/local regulations + CDC guidelines.
Season pass ONLY available via Email: ticketing@boldevents.com or Call 904-633-2000 pic.twitter.com/bBDDDPrHu8
Former WWE Producer Lance Storm hasn’t been too impressed with how All Elite Wrestling has been utilizing one of its latest signings, Miro.
Storm shared his thoughts on AEW’s use of the former WWE Superstar during a recent appearance on the Figure Four Daily podcast. He revealed how he’s personally “not a fan” of Miro’s current character direction. Storm did, however, acknowledge how he’s not necessarily representative of AEW’s target audience.
He argued how, if AEW were able to put on shows with full arenas, fans “would get a far better feel on how the Miro presentation is working.” Storm explained how the lack of live fans means pro wrestling is missing a vital “barometer to which you gauge what was working.”
Real Life Interests Weakening On-Screen Characters
Lance Storm explained how he’s always been a fan of powerhouse wrestlers like Miro, juxtaposing his current gimmick with how Rusev was portrayed in WWE. To him, showcasing real life interests with onscreen characters can potentially weaken a wrestler’s gimmick.
“Tying him up in a wedding angle and playing video games, which may be who he really is, I’m not a big fan of. I think it’s very much like when they did the personality type profile thing with Finn Balor in NXT when they showed him playing with his Legos. I’m like, ok, he may really play with Legos, but the demon Finn Balor shouldn’t be playing with Legos. I thought he was a cool badass and now I think he is a guy that plays with Legos.”
Although he knows Miro has interests outside of pro wrestling, Storm would rather see them kept separate from his AEW character.
He explained how he’d much rather see a “big badass Miro” instead of the version “hanging out with Kip Sabian playing video games.”
Storm then stressed how he is aware he may not be the kind of viewer AEW is targetting. He acknowledged how he’s barely in the over 50+ demographic versus the younger demo that is so crucial to AEW’s ratings.
AEW EVP and Star Cody Rhodes recently tweeted an infographic with some of the company’s major stats in the United Kingdom.
All Elite Wrestling is currently broadcast on ITV4, a channel that is much more widely accessible on Freeview than WWE is on BT Sport (a paid channel). Cody wrote “this is some really positive/staggering data & research about our friends across the pond! @ITV / @AEW. Thanks to our incredible fans for such a successful first year of #AEWDynamite. We can’t wait to take the team over and wrestle there.”
Cody Rhodes on AEW’s UK Success
Here’s some of the bullet points from the infographic:
AEW Dynamite is beating the first-run broadcast of all its competitors in the UK for audience volume
Dynamite’s audience is 5 times that of NXT, double that of SmackDown and almost double of RAW
It is also almost double the audience of Impact Wrestling; which had been airing in the same slot as Dynamite and also free-to-air channel.
Dynamite benefits from reaching considerably more people than any of its competitors.
Full episodes of Dynamite on ITV4 have reached 2.8m people, based on five plus consecutive minutes of viewing.
This is some really positive/staggering data & research about our friends across the pond!@ITV / @AEW ????
Thanks to our incredible fans for such a successful first year of #AEWDynamite
Former WWE Agent and AEW on-screen Coach Arn Anderson recently discussed the FTR tag team on the ARN podcast.
This week’s episode of the podcast was an ‘Ask Arn Anything’ edition of the show. Co-host Conrad Thompson opted to give the podcast this format every other week as Anderson has been involved in the industry at many levels; from the NWA and WCW all the way to the last decade where he worked as an agent for WWE.
One the questions posed to Anderson involved the FTR tag team. Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood are hugely influenced by the team of Arn and Tully Blanchard, and Conrad asked Arn Anderson if he believed the group would ever ‘split’ and have singles runs. The reasoning being that the Brainbusters ‘split’ themselves and had singles runs.
Arn Anderson on FTR
“Backing up a little bit, Tully and never split up” Arn Anderson began on the podcast. “We went separate ways because of business decisions, but it was [cordial]. We never got into a feud or anything of that nature. These guys [FTR] are committed to being a team. I think being the best team, when it’s all said and done? That ever lived.”
Arn Anderson would then make a huge claim about the AEW Tag Team Champions. “I think that’s a very achievable goal for them. And I think it’s a admirable one, because if they do become that team and they do survive the test of time? That’ll mean they’ve been in some incredible tag matches with some of the best teams alongside them of their era.”
Anderson would finish by stating that he doesn’t see the team ever splitting up. “I don’t see them splitting up, I think their goals are too consistent. I think their friendship is too consistent and they really are tight close friends. And to be honest with you? I don’t want to see them split up. I think the sum of the parts is more valuable than them individually.”
Do you agree with Arn Anderson? Do you think that FTR could end up the greatest tag team of all time? Let us know in the comments
Before the pandemic hit, AEW had planned a “Blood & Guts” match for a special episode of Dynamite. The match was supposed to take place inside 2-rings covered by a steel cage on March 25th, 2020 in Newark, New Jersey.
With fans not being allowed at shows, however, the decision was made to put off holding the match. The Young Bucks were recently interviewed by 411Mania and noted that they spent a lot of money purchasing the structure and still plan to use it, however.
“Obviously, the blood and guts steel cage match never happened. And we spent a lot of money building that structure. (LAUGHTER) But the good thing about it is that at least we now have it. So, we can pull the trigger on that at any time. I feel like we are saving that for fans. I think that is the biggest reason we haven’t done it,” said Nick Jackson.
AEW did hold a big team vs team match in May at Double or Nothing. Members of the Elite squared off with the Inner Circle in the Stadium Stampede match. Matt Jackson spoke about how the pandemic has helped the promotion to think outside the box.
“You got to remember without this pandemic, there may have never been a Stadium Stampede match, there may have never been that crazy tag team brawl match that we had with Butcher and The Blade. We really have had to think outside the box and one big thing that was said, if we are going to do this in front of nobody, let’s do things we have always wanted to do but wouldn’t have worked as well if there were people out there,” Matt Jackson said.
Ben Carter has had a very eventful last couple of months. He made his AEW debut in September, competing on an episode of Dark and in a match against Scorpio Sky on the late night Dynamite special. In late September he then tested positive for COVID-19.
Carter had reportedly draw interest from both AEW and WWE but it appears the young up-and-comer is headed to WWE.
Miro noted on a recent video game stream that AEW “had lost” Ben Carter to “the Dark Side”.
“We lost Ben Carter. Ben Carter is lost. He’s gone to the dark side,” said Miro. “I mean, good luck to Carter. All the best to him. I was really impressed with his stuff.”
Shortly after debuting for AEW, Carter spoke with Fightful about having played against Fulham F.C, the football club Tony Khan is the President of.
“I met him when for the first time when I wrestled Ricky Starks on AEW. It’s crazy that Tony [Khan] is basically the equivalent of Vince McMahon. Because he’s so easy to talk to and the fact that I’ve played soccer, at a high level all my life, I’ve actually played against [the Fulham Academy] when I was playing for my [island of Jersey], we went over and played [Fulham], the sports director of [Fulham]. So, I’m having these back and forth conversations just spitting football with him.”
AEW’S use of Kenny Omega has been a frequent point of contention for some fans of the young promotion. According to recent comments from the Young Bucks, however, the next year of Dynamite will feature Omega in a bigger way.
“I think year two’s going to be all about Kenny Omega,” said Nick Jackson. “He’s been very … what’s the word I’m looking for … I guess “unselfish,” and he’s ready to explode. So I would keep my eye on him.”
Nick Jackson also listed Darby Allin as someone who coud really breakout further over the next year.
“Another one off the top of my head would be Darby Allin. He’s got so much potential to be such a massive star for AEW that we have to use him in the right way, and he’s definitely going to be a top player.”
Matt Jackson would say that Hangman Page will continue to be a major player in the promotion’s near future.
“I still think it could be ‘Hangman’ Adam Page,” said Matt Jackson. “The guy’s a star. He’s a sensitive dude who thinks about every little nuanced thing. He’s so interesting, and he puts so much thought into his stuff, and he’s one of my favorite people to collaborate with. He’s going to be a huge mega star. Obviously he’ll be a world champion one day. I don’t know if it’s this year; maybe it is. I don’t know.”
The full interview with The Young Bucks can be read here.
Eddie Kingston has certainly made an impact in AEW in the short time he’s been with the promotion. He answered Cody’s open challenge for a TNT title shot in July and has since become a pivotal part of the show. Kingston attacked Jon Moxley following the main event of Wednesday’s Anniversary show. He then cut a promo that continued after Dynamite went off the air.
“Excalibur, you want to talk bad about me again? I’ll rip your tongue out of your face,” Kinston said to the commentary team.
“This is what you want huh? Big bad Jon Moxley. Ladies and gentlemen boo me all you want but this son of a b*tch sold out. He said to me the day he signed that contract to go to the land of the sports entertainers, you low life, you told me that the inmates were going to run the asylum,” Kingston said.
Kingston continued to bash Moxley for having worked in sports-entertainment while he was a pro-wrestler.
“You son of a b**ch, you’re going to pay for leaving me behind,” Kingston continued.
Footage of Kingston’s promo can be viewed in the tweet embedded below.
A fan urged AEW President Tony Khan to the promo on a future episode of Dynamite. Khan assured him that Kingston’s promo will receive a wider audience.
Of course. While I hugely value the socially distanced fans wearing protective masks who attend our shows, cheer from their seating pods & add so much to the show & inspire the wrestlers in their matches, bless you all, I also assure you that promo wasn’t only for the live house
All Elite Wrestling just celebrated the 1-year anniversary of Dynamite on TNT. Tony Khan spoke to Bleacher Report this week and revealed that several other networks were interested in carrying the show before they reached a deal with Turner Sports.
“It was a long process,” he said about finding a television partner. “It was probably about a year from when I started pitching the show to when it got picked up. There were other networks interested in it, but I think we ended up at the best possible place for us.”
Khan continued, “TNT is where I always wanted to go. From a marketing standpoint, there was such a great promotional push around the debut and they [TNT] were so happy with the results that we got a four-year contract extension all within the first four months. It was a very successful debut, but it was a long road to get there.”
Khan has been a lifelong wrestling fan. He was an avid ‘fantasy booker’ in his teen years and always dreamt about having a wrestling show on TNT. “I’ve been writing shows in notebooks, Microsoft Word files and even Word Perfect going back to 1995.”
TV Rights Fees
AEW has actually produced more episodes of Dynamite in the pandemic-era than before it. With live crowds restricted in most places, the TV rights AEW receives for Dynamite plays a more important role in the company’s bottom-line.
Khan also spoke about how just because they can have packed crowds in Florida now, doesn’t necessarily mean they will do so.
“Live events have changed in the past year, more so probably than in all the previous years combined. TV rights now more than ever are the most important revenue stream. Now all of a sudden, things are possible to do legally. That doesn’t mean you should try to pack the place.”
The full interview with Tony Khan can be read here.
AEW scored another win over NXT this week with its Dynamite Anniversary special. Both shows were up this week and benefitted from less competition.
AEW widened the gap over NXT, but expectations were higher since this was a heavily promoted episode. Dynamite viewership was up 9.7% from last week, while NXT increased 1.9%. Here’s the breakdown, courtesy of ShowbuzzDaily:
AEW: 826,000 viewers, 0.30 rating (15th on cable for the night)
NXT: 651,000 viewers, 0.17 rating (51st on cable for the night)
For comparison, Monday’s Raw featuring Night 2 of the 2020 Draft averaged 1.855 million viewers with a 0.57 in the key demo.
You can find full results and our takeaways from both shows below:
Cody recaptured the TNT title from Brodie Lee on a recent episode of AEW Dynamite. He was the inaugural holder of the title and defended it 8 times before dropping it to Brodie Lee in August.
Cody sat down for an interview with AEW’s Canadian broadcast partner, TSN, and talked about the success of the title. He even teased that the promotion could introduce a “TSN title” somewhere down the line.
“It’s really so rare and makes me really happy to be partners with our partners here in the States and in Canada – there should be a TSN title now that we’re talking!” Cody said to TSN.
Cody On The Success Of The TNT Title
He also spent time talking about the success of the TNT title. He noted that they never envisioned it as a mid-card belt.
“It was never intended to be middle of the pack and a lot of people thought, ‘Oh, it’s a workhorse belt’ or ‘Oh, it’s a television belt.’ No, it’s this. And the reality is, it’s none of those things. It’s the first time a network partner wanted a title in their own likeness and looked at a bunch of people they thought would be great fits for it. I can’t wait to tell the full story of it one day.”
Cody also said that the title has exceeded the expectations that had for it.
“I don’t want to jinx it, but it’s superseded what we anticipated and I think it’s superseded the general expectation,” Cody said. “I don’t want to blame people if they want to put identities on things before they happen and that’s just because WWE has been unopposed for 20 years, so they might be used to how WWE does things, but the TNT title was never going to be a midcard title.”
TNT Title Statistics
Cody become the inaugural champion at Double or Nothing 2020 by defeating Lance Archer in the finals of a single-elimination tournament. He then defended it 8 times against Jungle Boy, Marq Quen, Ricky Starks, Jake Hager, Sonny Kiss, Eddie Kingston, Warhorse and Scorpio Sky.
Brodie Lee defeated Cody for the belt on the Saturday Night Dynamite special in August. Lee then successfully defended the belt against Dustin Rhodes and Orange Cassidy. He would then drop it back to Cody on October 7th.
Cody fought to a time limit draw with Orange Cassidy this week. They will face each other again in 2 weeks.
Jon Moxley has been the AEW World Champion throughout the pandemic and he has been the unofficial face of the company through the ordeal.
The former WWE star has found himself in a similar position to his former college and best friend Roman Reigns and during a recent interview, the AEW Champion revealed if he ever compares himself to the Big Dog.
Mox had an interview with Sports Illustrated ahead of the anniversary episode of Dynamite and when asked if he ever compares his work to Roman, the former Dean Ambrose claimed that he doesn’t pay much attention to it:
“I don’t pay much attention or compare myself to anybody else, for me, it’s all about visualizing what I want in my head and then actualizing it in the ring. I just want to create my own vision, so I’m not comparing that with anyone else.”
Jon Moxley also talked about being the guy who is carrying the torch during a pandemic and he revealed that he didn’t picture himself in a good-guy, protagonist role when he first joined the promotion.
Apart from this, the former WWE Champion talked about things like his match with Lance Archer, how coronavirus has forced them to change a lot of plans and more. You can check out his full interview at this link.
AEW Dynamite aired live from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville. It was the one year anniversary show and all titles were defended tonight. Private Party, Silver & Reynolds (Dark Order), Butcher & Blade, and the Young Bucks will compete next week. The winners will face FTR at Full Gear for the AEW Tag Team Championships.
FTR def. Best Friends to retain the AEW Tag Team Championships
Miro & Kip Sabian def. Lee Johnson & Sean Maluta
Cody retained the TNT Championship in a time limit draw
Hikaru Shida def. Big Swole to retain the AEW Women’s Championship
Jon Moxley def. Lance Archer to retain the AEW Championship
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
FTR Retained The AEW Tag Team Championships
FTR defended the AEW Tag Team Championships against Best Friends (Trent & Chuck Taylor) in the first match of the night. Tully Blanchard was ringside.
Match Recap: Wheeler leveled Chuck with a shoulder tackle to start the match off. Wheeler and Chuck locked up int he middle of the ring and Cash brought him to the corner. Dax Harwood tagged in and walked into a couple of shoulder tackles from Chuck Taylor.
Trent tagged in and traded chops with Harwood in the middle of the ring. Cash tagged in and slammed Trent into the ropes. Harwood followed it up with a Back Suplex and Wheeler went for the cover but Trent was able to kick out at two. Dax tagged back in and hit Trent with an elbow to the face for a two count.
FTR dominated the next couple of minutes and took turns beating down Trent. The crowd started up a “Best Friends!” chant as Trent attempted to battle back. Harwood prevented Trent from tagging out and brought him back to the corner of the ring. Wheeler tagged back in and applied a Headlock to Trent.
Trent escaped with an Arm Drag and followed it up with a few punches to Wheeler’s face. Trent connected with a massive Clothesline and both wrestlers fell to the canvas. Harwood tagged in and knocked Chuck off the apron so Trent couldn’t make the tag.
Harwood hit a Back Drop off the top turnbuckle and Cash tagged back in. Wheeler went for the cover but Trent kicked out at two. Chuck finally tagged in and leveled Wheeler and Harwood with a series of Clotheslines. Chuck flipped onto FTR outside the ring and smiled to the camera.
Back in the ring, Chuck hit Harwood with a Falcon Arrow but Dax was able to kick out at two. Tully tripped up Trent and Harwood capitalized with a Splash for a two count. Trent tagged in and leveled Wheeler with a running knee to the face for another near fall.
Wheeler battled back with a Clothesline and tagged in Harwood. Dax planted Trent with a Powerbomb and went for the cover but Trent was able to kick out. Harwood followed it up with another Back Drop for a two count. Trent made his way to the top rope but Harwood tripped him up. Harwood went for another Back Drop off the top rope but Trent countered into a Crossbody for a two count.
Trent planted Wheeler with a DDT and then hit another one on Dax for a two count. Best Friends hit Strong Zero and went for the cover but Wheeler broke it up at the last moment. Cash planted Chuck with a Brainbuster outside the ring but got sent over the barricade by Trent.
Trent went for a Spear but Cash got out of the way and Trent crashed into the arcade cabinet that Kip Sabian was playing on. Kip told Penelope Ford to go get something and she sprinted backstage. Back in the ring, Trent hit Dax with a DDT and Chuck Taylor tagged in.
Chuck lit up Harwood’s chest with a few chops but Cash hit Chuck with the title. Harwood then pinned Chuck Taylor for the victory. FTR are still the AEW Tag Team Champions. Miro then rushed the ring and attacked Best Friends. Miro hit Chuck with a Suplex and Sabian hit Trent with a kick to the face.
Opinion: I loved this match up until the last couple minutes. I didn’t enjoy the arcade cabinet getting destroyed and don’t really want to see a feud revolving around video games.
Miro and Kip Sabian faced Sean Maluta and Lee Johnson tonight on Dynamite.
Match Recap: Miro beat the hell out of Maluta and then knocked Lee Johnson off the ring apron. Miro sent Johnson into the barricade and then leveled Maluta with a Clothesline. Kip Sabian tagged in and hit Maluta with a Splash. Miro tagged right back in applied the Game Over (Accolade). After the match, Kip Sabian said that Best Friends has gone too far by breaking his arcade game. Miro added “Good Friends, you break my shit it is game over”.
MJF came to the ring with Wardlow for a “major announcement”. MJF claimed that the reason the crowd was booing him was because they were jealous. He added that he has accomplished more in one year in Dynamite than everyone in the crowd will accomplish in their lives. MJF then asked Chris Jericho to come down to the ring.
Inner Circle came down to the ring in the jackets that MJF gifted them. Sammy Guevara was just wearing a Inner Circle shirt and refused to put on the jacket that MJF gave him. Jericho demanded that Sammy put it on and the jacket was several sizes too big.
MJF complimented Jericho on his body and his hair. MJF asked if he could touch Jericho’s hair and Le Champion let him. Jericho then told Max to cut the shit and asked him what his announcement was. MJF stated that he was sensing some hostility and he didn’t want that.
MJF said that he and Jericho are the two biggest draws in AEW and referred to himself as the “Ratings Ruler”. MJF stated that they have mutual respect for each other because they are both predators. He noted that they have been great on their own but what if they worked together. MJF said that he “kind of, sort of, might” want to join the Inner Circle.
Ortiz told MJF that they don’t want him in the Inner Circle and asked Jericho if they could leave. Jericho said that they need some time to think about it and asked MJF if he wanted to have a steak dinner next week. MJF shouted “you’re on!” and the two shook hands.
Jon Moxley successfully made his latest defense of the AEW World Heavyweight Championship.
The title match took place on Wednesday’s special episode of AEW Dynamite on TNT as it served as the anniversary show.
It was booked in the main event from Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place. Archer challenged Moxley for the strap but fell short in his attempt.
The match featured various brawling and weapons being used. They even went through doubles tables. The finish of the match saw Moxley roll up Archer for the win. After the match, Eddie Kingston, Pentagon, and Fenix came out to the ring. Kingston cut a promo about how he never actually lost to Moxley then attacked Moxley to close the show.
Archer earned this title opportunity last month at the AEW All Out pay-per-view event. Archer took part in the 21-man Casino Battle Royale, which he won by last eliminating Eddie Kingston.
The AEW All Out pay-per-view event will take place on Saturday, November 7th, 2020 in Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place. This will be the final PPV event of the year for AEW.
Moxley has yet to receive an opponent at this show, but with it quickly approaching, that should be changing soon.
