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ALL ELITE WRESTLING DYNAMITE PREVIEW 11/17: Full Gear Fallout, Hangman Appears as Champion, Cassidy & Ishii vs. Butcher & Blade, Shida vs. Rose in TBS Tournament Match, Acclaimed vs. Rush & Martin, Danielson vs. Evil Uno, Lethal vs. Guevara for TNT Championship

BY FRANK PETEANI, PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

November 17, 2021

AEW Dynamite hits and misses analysis
SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

ALL ELITE WRESTLING DYNAMITE PRIMER
NOVEMBER 17, 2021
NORFOLK, VA. AT THE CHARTWAY ARENA
AIRS ON TNT NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST, 7:00 p.m. CST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross

Match Results and Key Segments from Last Week

  • Bryan Danielson defeated Rocky Romero.
  • Tay Conti & Anna Jay & Thunder Rosa defeated AEW Women’s World Champion Dr. Britt Baker & Jamie Hayter & Rebel.
  • Jungle Boy defeated Anthony Bowens (w/Acclaimed partner Max Caster). After the match Bobby Fish attacked Jungle Boy, setting up a match on Rampage.
  • Wardlow defeated Wheeler Yuta (w/Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor). After the match, Blade and Isaiah Kassidy of the HFO attacked Cassidy and Taylor. Matt Hardy gave Cassidy a Twist of Fate.
  • CM Punk and Eddie Kingston got into a brawl in the parking lot and had to be separated.
  • Lio Rush & Dante Martin defeated Matt Sydal & Lee Moriarty.
  • Pac defeated Dax Harwood (w/Tully Blanchard).
  • (Now former) AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and “Hangman” Adam Page signed the contract for their championship match at Full Gear. Don Callis re-emerged and attacked Page with a camera. Omega signed Page’s portion of the contract with this blood.

Full Gear Results

  • Thunder Rosa & Hikaru Shida defeated Jamie Hayter & Nyla Rose on the Buy-In show.
  • MJF defeated Darby Allin.
  • The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero & Rey Fenix) defeated AAA Tag Team Champions FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) to retain the AEW World Tag Team Championship.
  • Bryan Danielson defeated Miro to win the AEW World Championship #1 Contender Eliminator tournament.
  • Christian Cage & Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus) defeated the SuperKliq (Adam Cole & The Young Bucks) in a Falls Count Anywhere match.
  • Cody Rhodes & Pac defeated Malakai Black & Andrade El Idolo.
  • CM Punk defeated Eddie Kingston.
  • Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. defeated Tay Conti to retain the AEW Women’s World Championship.
  • The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, TNT Champion Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, and Santana & Ortiz) defeated America’s Top Team (Dan Lambert, Andrei Arlovski, and Junior Dos Santos) and Men of the Year (“All Ego” Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky) in a Minneapolis Street Fight.
  • “Hangman” Adam Page defeated Kenny Omega to win the AEW World Championship.

Arena

AEW rolls into the Chartway Arena at the Ted Constant Convocation Center in Norfolk, VA., marking their debut in this venue. The arena opened for business in 2002 and is home to the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s Old Dominion basketball teams.

A big show is shaping up for tonight, as they follow up on the Full Gear PPV that took place this past Saturday. Dynamite will be live, and they will record Rampage after the show. There’s a lot to unpack from Full Gear. If you’re not a PWTorch VIP member now as good a time as any to sign up. You’ll hear Zack Heydorn, Rich Fann, and Tyler Sage do the Post-PPV Roundtable. Greg Parks has you covered on the ad-free version of Wrestling Night in America, which he recorded on Saturday. Wade Keller recorded Focus on AEW shows documenting his time attending Rampage and Full Gear, the concert at the Pourhouse, and the post-PPV media scrum. Brandon LeClair covered Full Gear in written form.

Here’s what we saw during Full Gear, telling us what was taking place tonight:

https://twitter.com/AEW/status/1459758641574256642?s=20

New AEW World Champion “Hangman” Adam Page Appears and Declares “Cowboy Shit” Day

“Hangman” Adam Page completed his two-year plus journey by winning the AEW World Championship from Kenny Omega, who had held the title since last December. After the match he celebrated with the Dark Order, with whom he has been loosely associated over the past year.

Tonight, Page will be on hand as he celebrates in his home state of Virginia, and officially declare “Cowboy Shit” day. According to Wikipedia he was born in Halifax, about a three-hour drive from Norfolk. Page took part in the post-show media scrum and posted a letter on Twitter talking about Cowboy Shit, as well as a thank you:

Frank’s Analysis: Now, I’m so used to WWE programming where they have a champion appear for the first time as champion, but immediately set up the next challenger without letting the win breathe. I don’t recall this happening with Jon Moxley, the only other babyface to win in their history. I would imagine they just let him celebrate with his hometown fans. They have time to set up the program with Danielson. You have to love the declaration of Cowboy Shit but I’m looking forward to seeing his reign unfold, and how the company gets behind him as a champion. He needs to declare his mission and not just rely on “Cowboy Shit.” It’s not solely about a chant.

Orange Cassidy and Tomohiro Ishii vs. Butcher & The Blade of HFO

Prior to Dynamite last week, Rocky Romero invited the Best Friends (Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor, Trent?, Wheeler Yuta, and Kris Statlander) to join Chaos at the behest of “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada. Rocky then went on to come up short to Bryan Danielson, who is now the #1 contender to the AEW World Heavyweight Champion.

Later in the show Orange Cassidy was attacked by Isaiah Kassidy and the Blade of Matt Hardy’s HFO following a match where Wardlow defeated Wheeler Yuta. That set up a Lumberjack match between Cassidy and Hardy for Rampage. Hardy would win that match when Blade hit Cassidy with brass knuckles. That led to a match where Cassidy could choose a partner to face Butcher and the Blade on tonight’s episode of Dynamite. Here’s Cassidy and the Best Friends talking to Tony Schiavone on the Buy-In show:

The “dog” that Cassidy has chosen is Chaos member “Stone Pitbull” Tomohiro Ishii of New Japan Pro Wrestling. The “forbidden door” opens for Ishii who has been a member of New Japan since 2004 and is the reigning NEVER Openweight Champion, having defeated Jay White this past Saturday. He took part in the 2021 G1 Climax Tournament and went 5-4 in the A Block. He recently held the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship with Chaos members Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi, but fell to the House of Torture (Evil, Sho, and Yujiro Takahashi).

Frank’s Analysis: What else can you say or feel other than be excited to have another member of New Japan Pro Wrestling take part in AEW programming. I would imagine Cassidy and Ishii go over as I don’t see a reason to protect Butcher and the Blade. Who else wants to see things continue and have Ishii get his hands on Matt Hardy? That could be fun. It goes to show you how things can be when wrestling promotions work together. You get matches and programs that feel fresh because you don’t see it all the time.

TBS Championship Tournament 2nd Round: Hikaru Shida vs. Nyla Rose

The TBS Championship Tournament rolls in when former AEW Women’s World Champions Hikaru Shida and Nyla Rose go at it in a second-round match. Rose earned a bye in the first round because of her ranking, while Shida defeated Serena Deeb. Shida ended Rose’s 101-day Women’s Championship reign at the 2020 edition of Double or Nothing. A few weeks ago, Rose interrupted Shida being presented a trophy for her 50th win in AEW. Here’s that segment if you missed it:

Shida teamed with Thunder Rosa, also in the tournament, to defeat Jamie Hayer and Rose on the Full Gear Buy-In show. Hayter herself is in the tournament and set to take on Thunder Rosa. The winner of Shida vs. Rose takes on the winner of Kris Statlander vs. Ruby Soho. Shida did a little bragging on Twitter about her title reign:

https://twitter.com/shidahikaru/status/1460311212420435971?s=20

Frank’s Analysis: I feel like Ruby Soho is going deep in this tournament, even to the finals and possibly winning it, although I feel like it could be Thunder Rosa. Be that as it may, I’m going to go with Rose tonight. I feel like they’ll want a heel to face the winner of Ruby vs. Statlander, which I believe is going to be Ruby. I’m not ruling out a Shida win by any means either.

The Acclaimed (Max Caster & Anthony Bowens) vs. Dante Martin & Lio Rush

Dante Martin has certainly been a hot commodity as of late. After he defeated fellow Minnesota local Ariya Daivari on Rampage, Team Taz by way of Ricky Starks said they had an “opportunity for him that would change his life,” and handed him what appeared to be a contract. At Full Gear, Martin was being interviewed by Tony Schiavone about that proposal, when the Acclaimed interrupted and propose he join them. He responded by knocking down both men off the apron and diving onto them on the floor.

Tonight, Lio Rush returns from dealing with the loss of his grandmother to rejoin his protegee Martin to take on the Acclaimed. Here’s the sequence from the other night:

Frank’s Analysis: It’s interesting Dante is getting all these offers. I can’t remember a young wrestler in this type of spot. That doesn’t mean it never happened, I just can’t remember. I remember managers vying to represent “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Bam Bam Bigelow back in the 1980s, God rest their souls. At some point, Darius Martin will be back, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. My gut tells me they just become a trio. Eventually I could see Rush turning on them but let that be after a while. I think he elevates Dante and will do the same for Darius when he returns, assuming they keep all three together.

Bryan Danielson vs. Evil Uno

Fresh off becoming the #1 contender to the AEW World Championship by defeating Miro, Bryan Danielson goes one-on-one with Evil Uno of the Dark Order.

This bears watching since the Dark Order came out to celebrate with “Hangman” Adam Page after he defeated Kenny Omega to win the AEW World Championship at Full Gear. Page has been loosely associated with the Dark Order after his split from Omega and the Elite last year. Here’s Evil Uno chattering on Twitter about his opponent for tonight:

Frank’s Analysis: I couldn’t think about why this match was taking place, then it dawned on me about the relationship Page has with the Dark Order. One can only assume this is to set up the eventual match between Page and Danielson. It will be interesting to see how soon they go to this match, and there are options (TBS debut of Dynamite, the Battle of the Belts special, or a built-up episode of Dynamite).

TNT Championship: Sammy Guevara (champ) vs. Jay Lethal

After being on the winning side of the Minneapolis Street Fight, TNT Champion Sammy Guevara goes from the frying pan into the fire as he puts his title on the line against newcomer Jay Lethal.

Lethal has primarily been in Ring of Honor for the past 10 years. He made a surprise appearance after all talents were released from their contracts while ROH goes on “hiatus,” and was interviewed by Tony Schiavone. He challenged Sammy to a TNT title match on Dynamite, which he accepted shortly thereafter.

Frank’s Analysis: I was excited to see this, but I completely forgot about the allegations towards him in the MeToo movement. I’ll say this. I’m sure AEW and Tony Khan did their due diligence before they decided to hire Lethal. If they didn’t, that’s on them and they’ll have to deal with the consequences, and that’s all I’m going to say.

Go VIP to hear Frank’s show “WWE Then and Now.”  A rotation of cohosts join Frank to discuss past PPVs through today’s lense, and talk about where the wrestlers were at the time and where they went in subsequent years.  Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!

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