Viewership data is in for this week’s battle in the WWE NXT vs. AEW Dynamite Wednesday Night War.
AEW won the night in total viewers and in the key 18-49 demo, but both shows were down. Here is the breakdown of the live and same-night DVR viewership, courtesy of ShowbuzzDaily:
WWE NXT Viewership
NXT on the USA Network averaged 673,000 viewers, down from last week’s 715,000 In the 18-49 demo, they drew a 0.16 rating, down from 0.20 last week.
The episode featured Finn Balor vs. Cameron Grimes, WWE NXT Champion Adam Cole vs. Dexter Loomis in a non-title match, and Keith Lee & Mia Yim vs. Candice LeRae & and Johnny Gargano.
AEW Dynamite on TNT was watched by 677,000 viewers, down from the 730,000 viewers last week. In the 18-49 demo, Dynamite pulled in a 0.23 rating, down from the 0.29 rating that the show did last week.
AEW Dynamite featured bouts such as Colt Cabana vs. Sammy Guevara, The Butcher and The Blade vs. FTR, Inner Circle (Santana, Ortiz, and Jake Hager) vs. Best Friends and Orange Cassidy, Hikaru Shida and Kris Statlander vs. Nyla Rose and Penelope Ford, and TNT Champion Cody Rhodes vs. Marq Quen.
Kris Statlander is currently ranked #2 in the AEW Women’s division rankings. She was this week’s guest on the AEW Unrestricted Podcast with Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards. Amongst other topics, Statlander talked about how she became the “Galaxy’s Greatest Alien.”
“When I first started wrestling, I went by the name Liza Viero,” she said on the show.
“I was getting work and I was able to do stuff, it just wasn’t really like a character that was good.”
She continued to talk about how the alien gimmick is a bit of a play on how others have perceived her throughout her life.
“I’m a little bit weirder than people realize,” she continued. “I know I’m a little bit weirder and I never really fit in with any specific group of people. When I was in school, high school and everything, it was kind of like no one really wants to get to know you until they do start to get to know you and then they realize you’re so interesting and you have so much more to offer than what you just lead people to believe.”
“In a way, it’s almost like you feel alienated from everybody and I know that’s a weird play on words.”
“No one wants to believe aliens are real until somebody can prove something about it. No one cares to look into it more until there are facts to be known or things to research.”
“I kind of feel like in a weird way it’s a weird play on how I’ve always been perceived in life. No one really cared to get to know me until I had something interesting to say or I had something to offer that interests them and that’s kind of like what aliens are in a way. So, I was just kind of like ‘why not just play up how odd I am?”
AEW Dynamite aired live from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville. Cody put the TNT Championship on the line against Marq Quen. FTR made their AEW in-ring debut against the The Butcher and The Blade tonight. Chris Jericho joined commentary for the show as well.
Dynamite Results (6/10)
FTR def. Butcher & Blade
Penelope Ford & Nyla Rose def. Hikaru Shida & Kris Statlander
Match Recap: Dax Harwood and Blade started the match off by locking up in the middle of the ring. Dax applied a Headlock but Blade drove him to the ropes to break it up. Dax and Blade traded punches and Harwood got the better of the exchange and connected with a shoulder tackle.
Harwood rolled up Blade for a near fall and went back to the Headlock. Cash Wheeler tagged in and sent Blade to the corner. Harwood tagged back in and stomped away on Blade’s arm. Dax hit a Northern Lights Suplex for a two count.
Cash and Butcher tagged in and traded shots in the middle of the ring. Wheeler hit a Dropkick but Butcher didn’t fall down. Cash sold a shoulder injury for a distraction and went for a roll-up but Butcher kicked out at two. Butcher choked Wheeler up against the ropes for a few seconds before Blade tagged back in.
Blade brought Wheeler down to the canvas and applied a Headlock. Wheeler broke free with a Jawbreaker and planted Blade with a Powerslam. Dax Harwood tagged in and unloaded on Blade with some jabs to the face. Harwood hit Blade with a Neckbreaker and then delivered a Dragonscrew to Butcher.
Harwood connected with a Brainbuster and then perched Blade up on the top turnbuckle. Butcher hopped on the apron and shoved Dax to the canvas. FTR planted Butcher with a DDT and Dax hopped back up on the turnbuckle. Dax hit a Superplex and Wheeler followed it up with a Splash off the top rope for a near fall.
Dax tagged in and Blade greeted him with a knee to the face. Butcher tagged in and slammed Harwood to the mat for a near fall. FTR hit Goodnight Express (formerly Shatter Machine in WWE) on Butcher. FTR then hit the Mindbreaker (assisted spike Piledriver) on Blade for the pinfall victory.
After the match, Tony Shiavone interviewed FTR in the ring. Harwood stated that this is the pinnacle of tag team wrestling. Young Bucks interrupted and joined FTR in the ring. Young Bucks said that FTR helped them out of a jam a couple weeks ago but they failed to properly introduce themselves. Matt said that the Young Bucks have been carrying tag team wrestling on their backs for 15 years. Butcher and Blade attacked Young Bucks from behind and a massive brawl broke out. Kip Sabian, Jimmy Havoc, Kenny Omega, and Hangman Paige joined the party and knocked the heels out of the ring.
Opinion: FTR versus Butcher & Blade was a solid old school tag team wrestling match and I loved it. The brawl at the end just showed off some of the great teams on the roster and some potential matchups going forward.
Nyla Rose & Penelope Ford squared off against AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida & Kris Statlander tonight on Dynamite.
Match Recap: Rose and Penelope attacked Shida and Statlander before the bell rang and beat them down. Statlander battled back and launched Nyla onto Penelope. Kris connected with a Dropkick for a two count.
Statlander and Shida isolated Nyla in the corner and beat her down. Statlander went for a Splash off the top rope but Rose got out of the way. Nyla followed it up with a massive Clothesline for a near fall.
When Dynamite returned from a break, Statlander hit Rose with a Pele Kick that knocked the former champ to the canvas. Hikaru and Penelope tagged in and Shida hit a knee to the midsection. Shida hit another knee to the face and climbed to the top rope. Shida hit a Dropkick and followed it up with a Suplex.
Statlander tagged in and hit a Backbreaker on Ford. Kris connected with a Standing Moonsault for a near fall. Penelope planted Kris with a DDT and went for the cover but Statlander kicked out of two. Rose tagged back in and walked into a boot to the face from Statlander.
Penelope hit Statlander with a Stunner but got dropped with a knee to the face from Shida. Hikaru hit Nyla with a Superplex as Statlander connected with an Axe Kick on Ford for a two count. Shida tagged in and Nyla hung her up on the ropes. Nyla hung up Statlander on the ropes as well and hit a ridiculous Knee Drop on both women.
Shida hit a running knee to Nyla’s face that sent Rose out of the ring. Hikaru planted Ford with a Falcon Arrow but Penelope kicked out. Statlander took out Kip Sabian with a Suicide Dive as Nyla threw the women’s title in the ring. Penelope hit Shida in the face with the belt and followed it up with a Fisherman’s Suplex for the pinfall victory.
Match Recap: Inner Circle dominated early and beat Best Friends down. Hager launched Orange Cassidy onto the entrance ramp. Santana hit Trent with a series of chops in the corner of the ring. Chuck tagged in and planted Ortiz with a German Suplex. Trent hit Hager with a Suicide Dive outside the ring as Chuck flipped onto Santana & Ortiz.
Trent hit Ortiz with a Spear outside the ring. Back in the ring, Hager hit Chuck with a Vader Bomb for a near fall. When Dynamite returned from a break, Trent planted Ortiz with a DDT and tagged Orange Cassidy in. Hager tagged in and had a stare down in the middle of the ring.
Cassidy hit Santana and Ortiz with a double Hurricanrana and then hit Hager with a Suicide Dive. Orange planted Santana with a DDT and then made his way to the top rope. Cassidy leaped onto Hager but Jake caught him with a slam for a near fall. Hager Clotheslined Trent out of the ring. Chuck Taylor shoved Santana off the top rope and onto Hager. Orange Cassidy rolled up Ortiz for the pinfall victory.
After the match, Chris Jericho rushed the ring with Floyd the baseball bat and beat the hell out of Best Friends & Orange Cassidy. Jericho brought a giant bag of oranges into the ring as Orange Cassidy was bleeding from the head. Jericho then smashed Orange Cassidy with the bag of oranges. Chris grabbed the microphone and said “blood Orange Cassidy has just been juiced”.
Opinion: I’m not sure anyone else in professional wrestling could pull off beating someone down with a bag of oranges besides Chris Jericho. This segment was wildly entertaining and I cannot wait for the match between Jericho and Orange Cassidy.
Sammy Guevara defeated Colt Cabana tonight. After the match, Dark Order came to the entrance ramp. Brodie helped Colt up and Cabana followed them to the back. Cabana was later shown entering the Dark Order’s locker room.
Sammy grabbed the microphone and claimed that he was the best wrestler AEW. Matt Hardy interrupted and told Guevara has to get away from Chris Jericho to realize his maximum potential.
Hardy turned broken and entered the ring with Sammy. Matt shouted “delete!” over and over as Sammy retreated.
Taz told Cage that they sent the message and enough was enough. Brian Cage dropped Moxley for a moment but picked him up again. Brian launched Moxley onto the car again and walked away. Moxley will defend his AEW Championship against Brian Cage at Fyter Fest.
Match Recap: Quen controlled the action early and leveled Cody with a Dropkick. Cody battled back and locked in a Dragon Sleeper as Dynamite went to a break. When Dynamite returned, Cody was still in control and was focusing his attack on Quen’s injured knee.
Quen battled back and booted Cody in the face. Cody went back to work on Quen’s knee and then perched him on the top turnbuckle. Cody connected with a Suplex and Marq landed on his knee. Marq battled back and hit a Shooting Star Press for a near fall.
Marq connected with a DDT for a two count. Quen knocked Cody out of the ring and flipped onto him. Quen fought through the pain and flipped onto Cody once again outside the ring.
Back in the ring, Marq went for the cover but Cody kicked out at two. Quen made his way to the top rope as Cody rolled onto the entrance ramp. Marq connected with a beautiful 450 Splash on the entrance ramp.
Quen rolled Cody into the ring and went to the top rope again. Marq went for a Shooting Star Press but Cody got out of the way and applied and Ankle Lock for the submission victory.
After the match, Jake Hager came down to the ring and shoved Arn Anderson to the corner. Hager launched Cody across the ring and then slammed him to the canvas. Private Party and Matt Hardy came down to the ring with a steel chair. They hit Hager with the chair and Hardy Clotheslined him to the outside. Inner Circle then brawled with Private Party, Cody, and Matt Hardy before referees broke it up. Cody then told Hager that if he wants a TNT Championship match at Fyter Fest he’s got it.
Opinion: Cody and Marq Quen put on a very good match to close another very solid episode of Dynamite. The ending brawl felt a bit rushed but it still set up an interesting match between Cody and Hager at Fyter Fest.
Chris Jericho has opened up on his belief about the possibility of having legendary boxer Mike Tyson wrestle for the first time.
While Tyson has made appearances in WWE and AEW, most notably being the special guest enforcer for the Shawn Michaels-Steve Austin WWE Title Match at WrestleMania 14, he has never wrestled.
Jericho recently did an interview with WrestleZone.com where he talked about Tyson possibly having a match in AEW.
Jericho started out by talking about how Tyson has been an enforcer, thrown a punch, knocked somebody out, and a brawl.
“The one thing he has never done is have a match, and I think this is the perfect time for him. The aura and the mystique of Mike Tyson is back. He looks great, you’ve seen his sparring videos, he moves fast, he’s ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson again.”
Jericho noted that one of the worst things you could do is put him in an actual boxing match. He stated that Tyson could do an exhibition, but they want to keep Tyson’s aura at a maximum which is why AEW is perfect for him.
Jericho stated that they can do whatever storyline they want in order to plug him into any situation that they want to make. He stated that he thinks there’s no better person for Tyson to wrestle than him because he never lost his aura or mystique.
“You can see that I’m doing some of the best work in my career after doing this for 30 years. So it’s a perfect match-up.”
AEW has released new top-5 rankings ahead of tonight’s episode of Dynamite. Perhaps the biggest news coming out of the rankings this week is that Chris Jericho is once again featured.
AEW Men’s Single’s Rankings
AEW World Champion: Jon Moxley (13-0) TNT Champion: Cody (11-1)
MJF (6-0)
Lance Archer (5-1)
Brodie Lee (5-1)
Kenny Omega (4-0)
Chris Jericho (2-1) (previously unranked)
Darby Allin drops out of the top-5 rankings this week after having been ranked #5 last week. He is currently not medically cleared to compete. Allin’s last match was at Double or Nothing in the Casino Ladder Match won by Brian Cage.
Brian Cage is still unranked but is owed a title shot at Fyter Fest due to his victory in the Casino Ladder Match.
#5 Chris Jericho is back in the rankings this week. He defeated Colt Cabana on Dynamite last week.
#4 Kenny Omega competed in the tag division this week. Along with his partner Hangman Page, they defended the tag belts successfully against Jimmy Havoc and Kip Sabian on Dynamite.
#3 Brodie Lee didn’t compete this week. He did welcome Alan Angels into the Dark Order on AEW Dark last night, however. Angels is now known as #5.
Neither #2 Lance Archer or #1 MJF competed last week.
TNT Champion Cody defended his title against Jungle Boy on Dynamite while AEW World Champion Jon Moxley defeated Robert Anthony on Dark.
AEW Women’s Division
Champion: Hikaru Shida (11-1)
Nyla Rose (6-2)
Kris Statlander (4-4)
Britt Baker (4-4)
Yuka Sakazaki (1-1)
Penelope Ford (3-3)
There was no movement the women’s division this week.
#1 Nyla Rose picked up a win over Big Swole on Dynamite.
Upcoming in the division is a big tag match booked for tonight’s Dynamite. #1 Nyla Rose teams with #5 Penelope Ford to go up against champion Hikaru Shida and #2 Kris Statlander. #3 Britt Baker might be watching the match from her “Role’s Royce.”
AEW Tag Team Division
Champions: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (7-0)
Best Friends (9-3)
The Natural Nightmares (5-0)
Private Party (4-2)
SCU (3-4) (previously unranked)
Young Bucks (2-2)
After dropping a tag team title match against Omega and Page, Jimmy Havoc and Kip Sabian drop out of the rankings this week. #4 SCU are back in the rankings after picking up a victory over Fuego Del Sol & Low Rider on Dark.
A few matches take place in the tag division this week. FTR will make their debut against the Butcher and the Blade. #1 The Best Friends team with Orange Cassidy to go up against Santana, Ortiz and Jake Hager from the Inner Circle.
Chris Jericho has said that when he was growing up, he used to dream of forming a tag-team with Owen Hart. Jericho even attended the Hart brothers school in Calgary along with Lance Storm when he started his training. Jericho took part in an interview with Sportskeeda recently to promote the UK airing of the Dark Side of the Ring episode focused on Owen. During the discussion, Jericho said he’s never felt it would be right for Owen to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
“I never thought Owen should go in the Hall of Fame it’s just not right. I think anybody who had any problems with that should watch it and will understand where the family’s coming from.”
Jericho continued to say that Owen’s contributions to the wrestling business can be celebrated outside of WWE.
“His influence doesn’t go away and it shouldn’t be minimized but if (Martha) doesn’t want to do that through the WWE system, I totally get that,” Jericho continued. He then said he’d like to see Martha Hart do something to honor Owen in AEW.
“I’d love to see (Martha) do something with AEW. I think the spirit of Owen Hart lives on in AEW for sure.”
Jericho would continue to talk about having been influenced by Owen and that it’s important for his contributions to wrestling to be remembered.
“I’m very much influenced by Owen Hart. So I think that, whether it’s New Japan or AEW, I think it’s important for Owen to be remembered by his fans and by the people that he influenced, myself included.”
All Elite Wrestling’s debut in Newark, New Jersey has been rescheduled once again.
AEW Dynamite from the Prudential Center in Newark was originally booked for Wednesday, March 25th. This was set to feature the first Blood and Guts double steel cage match between the Inner Circle and The Elite.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Newark show was bumped to July 22nd.
Ticketmaster sent out an email Thursday afternoon announcing the show has been postponed once again. Dynamite from Newark will now take place Wednesday, February 24, 2021.
Ticket holders have the option of keeping the same seats for February 2021 or getting a refund if they are unable to attend.
It’s worth noting that Ticketmaster.com has a full listing of AEW’s upcoming touring schedule. As of this writing, the first AEW Dynamite outside of Jacksonville, FL is scheduled for Wednesday, August 5th from Boston, MA.
Other cities still scheduled to host Dynamite this year include St. Louis, Milwakee, Houston, New Orlean and Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Of course, this is all subject to change, based upon the status of the pandemic in the months ahead.
Here’s the current AEW road schedule from Ticketmaster:
Viewership data is in for this week’s battle in the WWE NXT vs. AEW Dynamite Wednesday Night War.
AEW won the night in total viewers and in the key 18-49 demo, but both shows were down. Here is the breakdown of the live and same-night DVR viewership, courtesy of ShowbuzzDaily:
WWE NXT Viewership
NXT on the USA Network averaged 715,000 viewers, down from last week’s 731,000 In the 18-49 demo, they drew a 0.20 rating, up from 0.19 last week.
The episode featured Mia Yim vs. Candice LeRae, Drake Maverick vs. El Hijo del Fantasma in the Interim NXT Cruiserweight Championship Tournament Finals, two NXT TakeOver: In Your House Prime Target videos to hype the NXT Title and NXT Women’s Championship matches.
AEW Dynamite on TNT was watched by 730,000 viewers, down from the 827,000 viewers last week. In the 18-49 demo, Dynamite pulled in a 0.29 rating, down from the 0.32 rating that the show did last week.
AEW Dynamite featured bouts such as AEW TNT Champion Cody Rhodes vs. Jungle Boy, AEW Tag Team Champions Hangman Page and Kenny Omega vs. Kip Sabian and Jimmy Havoc, Chris Jericho in action against Colt Cabana, FTR doing an interview, and Big Swole vs. Nyla Rose.
Unlike last year, AEW Fyter Fest will not be a stand-alone event but rather a special that will take place over the course of two Dynamite episodes spanning two weeks.
The promotion has already confirmed the first week will be on July 1st and the second week on July 8th on TNT.
Dave Meltzer reported on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that Fyter Fest will be held on July 1st and 2nd, which means the first show will be live while the other will be taped.
Per the report, everything from now until Fyter Fest has written out by AEW President Tony Khan with the idea that this event is being booked like a pay-per-view show. Fans can expect matches to run longer in length and having PPV quality bouts on their weekly television show.
Every title is expected to be defended. Meltzer also speculated that this special could be one of a few that will fill in the gaps a bit between actual pay-per-view events since AEW only holds four specials per year.
The company’s next ‘traditional’ pay-per-view event is AEW All Out, which takes place on Saturday, September 5th.
AEW Commentator and WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross recently discussed the segment between Mike Tyson and Chris Jericho on a recent episode of AEW Dynamite on TNT. Good Ol’ JR would talk about the importance of having such a mainstream figure like Tyson on the programme, and address some of the ‘controversial’ elements of the moment on Grilling JR.
“Mike Tyson is a very polarising figure, he garners publicity” Jim Ross would begin on the podcast. “I think that’s why anybody…when we used him in WWE back in the day? When Tyson was there and he did the thing with Austin and Shawn and all that stuff? Mike got the company a great deal of publicity. Like I said, he’s polarising. He’s a lightning rod and people are so interested in what he does.”
Jim Ross would then discuss one of the controversies of the segment. Both Tyson and Jericho were flanked by their entourages during the in-ring promo, and Tyson in particular had some big names from the MMA world with him. Unfortunately, the AEW commentary team were not made aware that the mixed martial artists were there, and subsequently they did not mention them on the broadcast.
Jim Ross on ‘Controversy’
“So, that I will say this, there was a controversy in the show a few weeks ago” Jim Ross could continue. “Tyson came out to confront Chris Jericho and with him there were some MMA legends. And we didn’t mention them.”
Jim Ross would elaborate further, saying “Rashad Evans? He was not mentioned because we didn’t know he was part of the entourage, you know? Vitor Belfort? Same deal. They were in a mass group. And they were kind of camouflaged. I heard [Dave] Meltzer talking about it, all these guys talking about it; about the fact that we didn’t mention them and we basically ‘no sold’ them. Well it wasn’t our intent to ‘no sell’ anybody, right? The intent was to get everybody over. But no one told me, Excalibur or Tony who all was in the entourage.”
Are you looking forward to a potential Tyson vs Jericho match? Let us know in the comments
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Arn Anderson will be part of the AEW family for several years to come.
The Four Horsemen alum made the announcement during a special edition of his Coach’s Corner web series. Anderson said that last year, he told himself that he does not want to be anywhere that he’s not wanted. This was a reference to his time as a backstage producer in WWE. Today, he does feel wanted in AEW.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be here with all this young talent and watch this company blossom into being the platinum of all of our industry,” he said.
Anderson feels the next few years will see some big changes in the world of professional wrestling. They plan to ‘mix some old in with the new’ and the AEW product will shine as a result of having capable people working towards their goals.
Anderson currently serves as the personal advisor and ‘head coach’ to AEW TNT Champion Cody Rhodes.
In addition to working for AEW behind the scenes, Arn Anderson hosts is the host of the popular Arn Show podcast along with Conrad Thompson.
AEW Dynamite aired from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. Cody put his TNT Championship on the line against Jungle Boy in the main event. FTR sat down with Tony Schiavone for an interview following their AEW debut last week. It was also announced that this year’s Fyter Fest will be a two week event (July 1, July 8) on TNT.
Kenny Omega & Hangman Page def. Jimmy Havoc & Kip Sabian to retain the AEW Tag Team Championships
Brian Cage def. Shawn Dean
Chris Jericho def. Colt Cabana
Nyla Rose def. Big Swole
Cody def. Jungle Boy to retain the TNT Championship
Here are 5 takeaways from this week’s show:
Omega & Hangman Page Retained
Kenny Omega & Hangman Page defended their AEW Tag Team Championships against Jimmy Havoc & Kip Sabian. Penelope Ford was ringside for the match.
Match Recap: Omega and Havoc started it off and Kenny drove Jimmy to the corner. Penelope tripped up Kenny and Havoc capitalized with an elbow to the face. Sabian tagged in and continued to beat Omega down.
FTR was shown in the crowd watching along as Hangman tagged in. Page leveled Havoc with a Clothesline and tagged Omega in. Sabian went for a Crossbody but the champs caught him and tossed him across the ring.
Penelope went for a Hurricanrana but Hangman caught her. Page dropped her and the referee kicked her out. Jimmy Havoc brought a wrench into the ring and hit Hangman and Kenny in the back of the head while the referee was arguing with Sabian and Penelope.
Kip Dropkicked Page out of the ring and Havoc rolled him back inside. Sabian Dropkicked Omega off the apron and then booted Hangman in the face. Omega tagged in and hit Havoc and Sabian with a Hurricanrana.
Kenny planted Sabian with a Backstabber for a two count. Page tagged in and hit a Shooting Star Press on Kip for a near fall. Havoc hopped on the apron with saw but Hangman hit him with a Clothesline.
Page followed it up with a Crossbody out of the ring. Hangman leveled Sabian with a Clothesline and went for a cover but Havoc broke it up. Omega tagged in and Sabian hit a DDT before tagging in Havoc.
Jimmy slammed Omega on top of Hangman with a Death Valley Driver. Havoc connected with a DDT on Omega but Hangman broke up the cover. Sabian hit Omega with a reverse Hurricanrana and tagged Havoc back in.
Omega planted Havoc with a Snap Dragon Suplex and then the V-Trigger to Sabian. Hangman connected with a Powerbomb and Kip rolled out of the ring. Page and Omega hit Jimmy Havoc with the Last Call (V-Trigger/Buckshot Lariat combo) for the pinfall victory. Omega and Hangman Page will defend the AEW Tag Team Championships against Best Friends at Fyter Fest.
Opinion: Dynamite kicked off with a very solid tag team championship match this week. AEW’s tag team division has become one of the biggest strengths of their product and the titles feel important as a result of that.
Brian Cage picked up an easy win against Shawn Dean tonight on Dynamite. After the match, Taz cut a promo on Jon Moxley and claimed that Cage was going to kick the living shit out of Moxley. Taz was pissed about Moxley smiling and laugh last week and said that this is not a game. He added that if Jon doesn’t get his head on straight it will get taken off at Fyter Fest.
“You need to get your head on right, or your head is gonna get taken off at FyterFest” – @OfficialTaz
AEW Champion Jon Moxley interrupted and made his way to the ring. Taz warned Moxley to think and be careful before he entered the ring. Moxley laughed and got in the ring with Cage.
Jon stated that the reason he is smiling is that going to war with Brian Cage makes him happy. Moxley added that Brian Cage is impressive but it will take Cage all night long to defeat him.
Moxley said that Brian Cage will be in over his head at Fyter Fest and will realize he is swimming with a different breed of shark. Jon told Taz that if he brings his name up again he should remember who he is talking about.
Match Recap: Colt Cabana dominated early and hit Jericho and Hager with a Moonsault off the ring apron. Cabana was already bleeding from the mouth and showed off the blood to the camera before bouncing Le Champion’s face off the barricade. Jake Hager got in a cheap shot while the referee was distracted as Dynamite went to a break.
When Dynamite returned, Jericho was in control and hit Cabana with an elbow to the face for a near fall. Cabana and Jericho traded shots and Colt got the better of the exchange with a Clothesline. Cabana hit the Flying Apple in the corner and followed it up with a Splash off the second turnbuckle for a near fall. Jericho locked in the Liontamer but Cabana was able to reach the ropes to break the hold. Colt battled back for a moment but Jericho caught him with the Judas Effect for the pinfall victory.
After the match, Jericho grabbed a microphone and told everyone in the crowd to “shut their ass”. Chris called Mike Tyson a piece of shit and claimed that last week’s confrontation was the most talked about event in sports history. Jericho stated that he wanted to taste blood of Tyson when he shoves Mike’s head up his stupid ass. Chris called out Mike Tyson and demanded that he come to the ring right now.
Orange Cassidy interrupted and took his time getting to the ring. Cassidy put Jericho’s hands in his pockets and avoided the attack from Hager and Jericho. Cassidy hopped over the barricade and left with Best Friends as Inner Circle shouted at them from the ring.
Opinion: A match between Jericho and Orange Cassidy sounds fun as hell and I cannot wait to see it. Sammy’s horrific singing was one of the highlights of this week’s show.
FTR sat down with Tony Schiavone and said that AEW now has the world’s greatest tag teams now that they are here.
Cash and Dax went down the list of the teams in the division and joked that Omega and Hangman Page aren’t even a real tag team. Tony wondered why FTR didn’t mention the Young Bucks and said that it would be a dream match if they competed in the ring.
FTR said that it wouldn’t be in a dream match because they would rather just punched them in the mouth and beat them in three seconds. Dax and Cash added that when they finally get in the ring with the Young Bucks they will prove that they are the best by beating them. Butcher & The Blade interrupted and wanted a fight but the two teams were separated. FTR challenged them to a match and it will go down next week. Tony also joked that he always thought FTR meant “f*ck The Revival”.
#FTR@DaxHarwood & @CashWheelerFTR run down the names of tag-teams they want to face here in #AEW. However, one team specifically didn't make their list.
Cody defended the TNT Championship for the first time against Jungle Boy in the main event of this week’s Dynamite.
Match Recap: Jungle Boy hit Cody with a Hurricanrana and rolled him up for a two count. Jungle Boy hit Cody with a couple chops in the corner and Cody battled back with a forearm to the face. Cody connected with a Powerslam and went for the cover but Jungle Boy kicked out at two. The action spilled outside the ring and Cody sent Jungle Boy into the crowd as Dynamite went to a break.
When Dynamite returned, Jungle Boy started arguing with MJF ringside as Cody was busted open after missing a headbutt. Back in the ring, Jungle Boy went right for the wound on Cody’s head and hit a few punches. Jungle Boy turned Cody inside out with a Clothesline for a two count.
Cody connected with a Superplex and went for the cover but Jungle Boy was able to kick out at two. Jungle Boy and Cody traded punches on the top turnbuckle and wound up falling through the table below. Cody brought Jungle Boy back in the ring and hit Cross Rhodes for the victory. Cody will defend his TNT Championship against Marq Quen next week.
Opinion: Cody and Jungle Boy put on a very good match tonight and it capped off another solid edition of Dynamite. It wouldn’t be a Cody match if he didn’t wind up bleeding profusely from his head. I’m looking forward to Cody vs. Marq Quen for the TNT Title and FTR vs. Butcher & Blade next week.
AEW Fyter Fest will be a 2-night event taking place next month.
Fyter Fest Night 1 takes place on the Wednesday, July 1st edition of AEW Dynamite. Night 2 is scheduled for the following week, Wednesday, July 8th.
There are two confirmed title matches for AEW Fyter Fest:
AEW World Champion Jon Mxoley vs. Brian Cage. Cage earned the title shot by winning the Casino Ladder Match at Double or Nothing. He is not currently ranked in the Top 5 of AEW Rankings.
AEW Tag Team Champions Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs. Best Friends
AEW President Tony Khan commented:
AEW Fyter Fest, 2 nights on @tntdrama! I’m excited to bring Fyter to @AEWonTNT on July 1 + July 8. Thank you to all of the great fans who’ve supported our pay-per-view shows and #AEWDynamite every Wednesday night! This one’s on the house! Or these two rather.
WWE and AEW may have gotten one step closer to having fans attend their shows in the state of Florida.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in March, WWE has been holding TV tapings in Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center and Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University. The same goes for AEW from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida for Dynamite shows.
On Wednesday during a press conference, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that bars, movie theaters, and other entertainment venues are re-opening. They’ll do so in 64 counties beginning this Friday.
The reason for this is due to the state moving into Phase Two of DeSantis’ three-step plan to re-start the economy. Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach are not included in this plan as they’ve been some of the hardest-hit counties in Florida.
DeSantis will allow businesses such as movie theaters, bowling alleys, and concert halls to run at 50% capacity with his new Executive Order. Of course, they’ll have to do social distancing.
Bars are allowed to open at 50% capacity indoors, and at full capacity outside with proper social distancing of 6 feet between tables. This is the same as restaurants and retail spaces.
These new guidelines could let pro wrestling promotions be allowed to have fans attend their shows in the near future as the state is allowing the re-opening of venues such as concert halls.
AEW Rankings have been released for June 3, 2020. There was not much movement this week, aside from the Dark Order being bumped from the top 5 tag teams due to inactivity.
AEW Men’s Single’s Rankings
AEW World Champion: Jon Moxley (12-0) TNT Champion: Cody (10-1)
MJF (6-0)
Lance Archer (5-1)
Brodie Lee (5-1)
Kenny Omega (4-0)
Darby Allin (6-4)
Maxwell Jacob Friedman is still the top ranked men’s competitor in All Elite Wrestling. He is in a strong position to challenge for either the AEW World or TNT Championships.
AEW newcomer Brian Cage remains unranked, despite wins at Double or Nothing and a squash match last week on Dynamite. Cage will be in action on Dynamite this week. Expect to see him break into the Top 5 in the weeks ahead.
Cody defends the TNT Championship against Jungle Boy this week on Dynamite. After that, his weekly Open Challenge begins. Keep an eye on Cody’s record. By wrestling each week on Dynamite, this presents a unique opportunity to add significant wins in the weeks and months ahead.
AEW Women’s Division
Champion: Hikaru Shida (11-1)
Nyla Rose (5-2)
Kris Statlander (4-4)
Britt Baker (4-4)
Yuka Sakazaki (1-1)
Penelope Ford (3-3)
This week’s Women’s rankings remain unchanged. Top-ranked athlete Nyla Rose wrestles Big Swole this week on Dynamite. The result of that match could be a factor in how long she holds on to the ace position.
Britt Baker is out of action due to injury, which puts her #3 spot in jeopardy. #4 ranked Yuka Sakazaki has also been inactive, so she will probably slide as well.
AEW Tag Team Division
Champions: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (6-0)
Best Friends (9-3)
The Natural Nightmares (5-0)
Private Party (4-2)
Jimmy Havoc & Kip Sabian (3-1)
Young Bucks (2-2)
Jimmy Havoc and Kip Sabian broke into the Top 5 rankings this week with and landed in the #4 spot. They will face tag champions Kenny Omega and Hangman Page this week on Dynamite.
Havoc and Sabian bumped the Dark Order out of the weekly rankings. Evil Uno and Stu Grayson have been inactive due to travel complications related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Best Friends are sitting pretty as the top ranked tag team in All Elite Wrestling. Expect to see them challenge for the gold soon.
Keep an eye on QT Marshall and Dustin Rhodes, better known as the Natural Nightmares. They’ve been racking up wins and are also in contention for a title match.
Former WWE SmackDown Executive Vice President and WCW President Eric Bischoff recently discussed AEW Dynamite and a potential move to Mondays for the show on After 83 Weeks w/Christy Olson.
Bischoff was posed the question on the show, being asked if he felt AEW Dynamite could eventually make a move to Monday Nights and go head-to-head with WWE RAW. The reasoning behind the question was because Monday is regarded by ‘casual’ fans as ‘wrestling night’ and AEW could potentially capitalise on that audience.
TNA made the move to Monday nights back in 2010, eventually moving back to their usual time slot later in the week. Bischoff has previously said that the reason for that move was to get fans to ‘sample’ the product, but he doesn’t think that AEW should be moving anytime soon.
Eric Bischoff on Dynamite Moving Nights
“If I were there, and I had a voice in the room? I would probably be suggesting that they stay away from Mondays until their numbers start coming up every week,” Bischoff began.
“What we’ve seen, when they debuted they came in about 1.4 to 1.5 million viewers. And pre COVID? They were hovering in that eight or 900,000 viewers category,” he continued. “That means they went from here, to here, to here (motioning downwards). And now they’re kind of flatlining at almost 35 or 40% of their premiere audience.”
Bischoff then compared AEW Dynamite’s viewership trends to that of WCW Nitro.
“If you go back and you look at Nitro’s performance when we launched? That was September I guess in ’95? We started out in the low twos or mid twos, and we crept up to the high twos. Then we crept up to a three and then we crept up to a three three over a pretty long period of time. It didn’t happen overnight, It took a while.”
WCW Nitro
Eric Bischoff elaborated further, saying “But most importantly? If you looked at our ratings as a graph over the first year? It would be a slow but steady build up. What we’ve seen with AEW has been a slow but steady deterioration of the audience they seemed to have, pre-COVID. That’s now leveling out at about that 800,000 Mark 850,000 whatever it is.”
Bischoff finished by giving his own take on when AEW could even begin to consider moving their night to compete with a bigger WWE platform than they currently are with NXT on Wednesdays.
“That’s the risk, if the audience isn’t so into your product and you make a move to another night? They may or may not come with you. But if you can demonstrate by growing that audience and watching other indicators like licensing and merchandising and pay per view numbers? If you can say to yourself ‘okay for the last six months we’ve increased viewers by X percent. We’ve increased merchandise sales by X percent.’ When you can start filling in those blanks in, and it indicates an upward trend? Then I would start having a conversation about Monday nights.”
Do you agree with Bischoff? Let us know in the comments
Tully Blanchard is not satisfied with protégé Shawn Spears’ lack of ambition. A video was released on Monday featuring the Four Horsemen legend mercilessly berating him.
Blanchard took Spears under his wing last summer. Spears has had mixed success. His AEW record is 5-8 this year. In recent months, Spears has been conducting a search to find the perfect tag team partner. The search was fruitless.
Blanchard says the search is over and they are moving on. “What I’ve seen in the last couple of months, Shawn, has changed my thought process,” said Blanchard. He thought they had synergy and thought the same way.
Things took a weird turn for this duo last weekend at AEW Double or Nothing. Spears wrestled to Dustin Rhodes. He lost the match, but that wasn’t the worst part. During the bout, Spears’ pants were ripped off to reveal a photo of Tully Blanchard’s face on the crotch. Blanchard was watching the PPV at home with friends. Awkward!
Blanchard screamed, “In what freakin’ world did you think that was funny? That’s not what my legacy is going to be Shawn, I promise you that!” He challenged Spears to reach deep inside himself, dig something out of his heart and think about the legacy he wants to leave.
Watch Tully Blanchard prove he is still one of the best talkers in all of professional wrestling in the video below:
FTR Takes Notice
AEW newcomers FTR liked what they saw. Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood tweeted a response. Wheeler said Spears is ‘so good’ but “just needs a little help.” Harwood wants to see more of this on AEW Dynamite.
Chris Jericho reignited his 10 years old feud with Mike Tyson during last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite and it looks inevitable that the two will have a match in coming future.
The former AEW World Champion recently had an interview with Sports Illustrated where he talked about things like his upcoming cruise, his stadium stampede match and more.
The interviewer compared Jericho’s interaction with Tyson to the rivalry between Roddy Piper and Mr. T, and responding to it, Y2J revealed the kind of match he would like to have with the former boxing champion:
“I loved the concept of Piper-Mr. T, but the actual execution was not good. We’ll never do a boxer vs. wrestler. Either we’ll do a straight up boxing match—I’m not kidding. So what if I’m knocked out by Mike Tyson? I’ve been knocked out by worse — or we’ll do a street fight.
Right now, the match is secondary to the pomp and circumstance that we will have in getting to the spectacle of the pay per view. That’s what wrestling is all about, it’s the story.” said Chris Jericho “People are so focused on the in-ring, which is great, but if there’s no story, there’s no match.”
The Stadium Stampede match involving Chris Jericho and others during the AEW Double Or Nothing PPV mostly received praise from the fans but there were a couple of instances that were criticised.
Matt Hardy’s drowning spot was one such angle fans believe should have been altered in the light of the recent tragic demise of the former WWE star Shad Gaspard.
Jericho responded to the fan reaction over the spot during his Saturday Night Special live stream and the former AEW Champion said that it was unnecessary:
“The backlash was not unnecessary, there was the big chuck of Santana and Ortiz kind of ‘drowning’ Matt Hardy under the water as he changed his personas. None of us ever even thought about it. I never even thought about it once.
Looking back on it, there’s a couple of things that were said they we shouldn’t have said,” admitted Jericho “but, the spot itself, Matt’s being doing that for a long time. It’s not like we maliciously set out to do anything disrespectful.
Y2J then said that they should be more cognizant about such things in future but he also claimed that Shad himself would have appreciated the match:
“But, I actually think that Shad would really appreciate that match ’cause he enjoy kind of those goofy sides of that sort of thing.” – Chris Jericho
The Stadium Stampede match saw Matt Hardy teaming up with The Elite to face the Inner Circle and the faces ended up winning this bout.
Jon Moxley took to social media to show off an interesting injury that he recently suffered.
The AEW World Heavyweight Champion posted a photo of a bruised tailbone injury on Twitter. As of this writing, there’s no word yet on when he sustained the injury nor did he mention it. You can see the photo here:
Moxley made his latest title defense as the AEW World Heavyweight Champion against Brodie Lee at the AEW Double or Nothing pay-per-view event last weekend. This was a hard-hitting affair with a brawling style.
He also worked the AEW Dynamite TV tapings earlier this week in Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place. Thus, he could have suffered the injury at the TV tapings or PPV event.
All Elite Wrestling has already confirmed that Moxley will make his next title defense against Brian Cage at the upcoming Fyter Fest special. However, the promotion has yet to confirm when this event will take place.
Cage won the Casino Ladder Match at Double or Nothing, which served as the opening contest, to earn this title match against Moxley.
AEW star Darby Allin recently appeared on the AEW Unrestricted podcast. The former pro skateboarder discussed a number of topics during the interview with Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards; these included his love of documentary film-making and his straight edge lifestyle.
Arguably the most famous Straight Edge (no drink, no drugs, no casual sex) wrestler in history is CM Punk, who used the movement and its beliefs as part of his on-screen gimmick. Although in reality Punk is actually sXe, with his father’s alcoholism being one of his main driving factors towards the clean living lifestyle.
Although Darby Allin does not explicitly bring up his Straight Edge lifestyle on television, it is a huge part of his belief system and mentality.
Darby Allin on sXe lifestyle
“There’s lots of reasons” Allin began, describing why he decided to live a sXe lifestyle. “But, you know, just growing up and having friends, close friends and family members kind of waste their life on drugs or alcohol? It kind of sucked to see that they couldn’t reach their full potential in life.”
Darby Allin elaborated further, saying “they’re sitting around wasting life, blaming it. ‘Oh, I didn’t make it to where I wanted because of alcohol and drugs.’ I was sick of hearing these excuses. So I told myself, a long time ago. If I fail in life? I can’t blame it on alcohol or the drugs, it’s gonna be 100% my fault. I have no one to blame it on except my own self.”
Unfortunately drug use and professional wrestling have gone hand-in-hand over the past few decades; with iconic performers losing their lives due to misuse of alcohol, illegal drug use and prescription pills.
“Since I’ve started with wrestling I haven’t taken a pain pill or anything” Darby Allin revealed. “I don’t even take aspirin. And that’s a shock to some because of the stuff that I do. All I’d have to credit for it? It’s just stretching and like, you know, icing and just eating, taking care of yourself.”
Do you think that Darby Allin could end up being one of the biggest stars in AEW? Let us know in the comments
Just one week after making their promotional debut, FTR is slated to do their first AEW interview.
All Elite Wrestling announced on Friday that The Revolt, formerly known as The Revival, will be doing an interview with Tony Schiavone on next Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite on TNT.
It should be noted that this episode has already been taped. The former WWE stars made their debut this past Wednesday after The Young Bucks & Matt Hardy defeated Private Party & Joey Janela in a six-man tag match.
They did so when they made the save for The Young Bucks from an attack by The Butcher & The Blade.
AEW President Tony Khan took to Twitter to hype next week’s show by writing the following:
“Thank you for making it one of the most successful weeks we’ve had at #AEW, with great viewership for Double or Nothing + Dynamite! #AEWDynamite is back Wednesday with a huge card!”
Update AEW Dynamite Card
AEW TNT Champion Cody Rhodes vs. Jungle Boy
AEW Tag Team Champions Hangman Page and Kenny Omega vs. Kip Sabian and Jimmy Havoc
Chris Jericho will be in action against Colt Cabana
Jim Ross says that AEW had plans to begin non-televised live events before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
JR was a guest on Wrestling Observer Live when he was asked about the possibility of AEW running ‘house show’ tours. Host Bryan Alvarez noted that there are positives and negatives to holding live events.
“What are your thoughts on should they be doing more house shows for everybody’s learning abilities?” Alvarez asked JR.
“Absolutely and I think that’s the plan,” Jim Ross responded. “There were some live events pencilled into the schedule before the virus. You can’t get better working one night a week, nobody, I don’t care who you are. There are some minor exceptions, like I don’t know that Chris Jericho needs to work 4 or 5 days a week to be great.”
“A lot of guys need to continue to work and they need to work under the supervision of the coaches in AEW so they can continue to re-learn some of the fundamentals, primarily slowing down, using more psychology and selling,” JR continued.
“Getting house shows are important for us to develop talent especially and for revenue going forward but who the hell knows when that’s going to be? It ain’t no time soon apparently.”
You can watch JR’s appearance on Wrestling Observer Live here:
Tony Khan on AEW Running House Shows
Last June, AEW President Tony Khan said if AEW does do house shows, they won’t be having their roster doing 5-6 of them a week.
“If you do see us do house shows, they are going to be top shows with the top people, which means we’re not going to be doing five or six a week of them,” Khan said.
“So when we get into weekly TV, I’d like to get into a good rhythm of where we’re doing, let’s say, between 100-120 shows a year, it’s pretty busy but it doesn’t mean every performer is going to be on every show. It means you’re going to get a combination of our top performers every night.”
The trash talk between Chris Jericho and Mike Tyson continued after this week’s AEW Dynamite went off the air.
Jericho called out Mike Tyson on Dynamite, saying that he’s got unfinished business with the boxing legend stemming from an incident on Monday night Raw a decade ago. Tyson and his entourage then confronted Jericho and a massive pull-apart took place to close out the show.
After Dynamite went off the air, AEW cameras caught up with Tyson backstage. “Iron” Mike had a very clear message for Chris Jericho.
“Hey, I’m telling you this is not over, I’m coming back and Jericho is going to get his a** kicked,” Tyson said.
Cameras also caught up with Chris Jericho. Le Champion was so upset at what occurred that he was hitting things backstage with his baseball bat, Floyd.
“You want to see what happens?!” Jericho said. “I’ll make you pay, Tyson, I’ll make you pay!”
Jericho and Tyson actually teamed up together on RAW 10-years ago. This was the incident that Jericho was referring to on Dynamite. Jericho and Tyson were taking on D-X when Tyson turned on Jericho and knocked him out.
Official buys for AEW Double or Nothing are not currently available but several signs are pointing to the possibility that it could have done better than any other PPV in company history. This is coming off of the UFC’s last PPV trending to have done big numbers as well.
According to a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, estimates of PPV purchases for the show sit at 115,000 to 120,000 buys, which would rank it just over last year’s Double or Nothing. The report notes that streaming numbers for B/R Live in the United States and FITE internationally are up 10-15% from previous shows. If a similar trend is seen from cable purchases, that would put this year’s Double or Nothing ahead of last year’s, which was the most purchased show in company history. Last year’s event was the first-ever AEW PPV and was headlined by Chris Jericho vs Kenny Omega.
During his segment on Dynamite, Cody referenced the PPV having exceeded expectations as well.
Cable purchases of AEW’s last PPV, Revolution on February 29th, are not yet available for comparison, however. The event was headlined by Jon Moxley challenging Chris Jericho for the AEW World Championship.
