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ALL ELITE WRESTLING DYNAMITE PREVIEW 4/27: Archer vs. Wardlow, Sammy Defends Against Scorpio w/Ladder, Serena vs. Shida Take to the “Streets,” FTR in an Owen Qualifier, 10-Man Tag

BY FRANK PETEANI, PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

April 27, 2022

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

ALL ELITE WRESTLING DYNAMITE PREVIEW
APRIL 27, 2022
PHILADELPHIA, PA. AT THE LIACOURAS CENTER
AIRS ON TBS NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST, 7:00 p.m. CST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross

Last Week

  • CM Punk defeated “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes.
  • The Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, and Wheeler Yuta) defeated Dante Martin, Brock Anderson, and Lee Moriarty in a Trios match.
  • The AEW & NJPW joint PPV Forbidden Door was announced for the end of June 2022.
  • Wardlow defeated The Butcher.
  • Kyle O’Reilly defeated Jungle Boy of Jurassic Express to qualify for the Owen Hart Cup tournament.
  • Hook defeated Anthony Henry. Danhausen confronted Hook after the match.
  • Dr. Britt Baker defeated Danielle Kamela to qualify for the Owen Hart Cup tournament.
  • Darby Allin defeated Andrade in a Coffin Match.

Arena

This week’s AEW Dynamite and Rampage tapings remain in the state of Pennsylvania as they check in to the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia. The venue is located on the campus of Temple University and opened in November of 1997. It played host to a few TNA events in the late 2000s and has hosted two episodes of Dynamite including one of the first in October of 2019.

Five matches are announced for tonight. Here’s the control center video:

Lance Archer vs. Wardlow

MJF continues to send opposition Wardlow’s way. This week, he’ll have to contend with the “Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer. This was set up last week in a backstage promo where MJF paid Archer’s manager, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, for his “services.” As Jake spoke about chasing cash as opposed to women, Archer walked in. He said he didn’t need money, just Wardlow.

MJF and Wardlow have been at odds since Wardlow betrayed MJF at Revolution. Wardlow is technically under contract to MJF and while initially he was ordered to stay home, MJF has been sending him opposition with the first opponent being The Butcher on last week’s show. Wardlow was ordered by “Smart” Mark Sterling to wear handcuffs and be escorted by security while he was in the building.

Frank’s Call: I’m going with Wardlow. They’re not going to have him lose on his way to a match with MJF. Archer is that guy who presents as a monster but loses the big match, yet he stays credible. You don’t want Wardlow beating all “nobodies.”

TNT Championship Ladder Match: Sammy Guevara (champ) vs. Scorpio Sky

Scorpio Sky of the Men of the Year gets a chance to regain the TNT Championship as he challenges three-time champion Sammy Guevara. Sky will without question have his partner “All Ego” Ethan Page and manager Dan Lambert in tow, while Tay Conti will stand by her man Sammy. Last week on Dynamite, Men of the Year w/Lambert interrupted Sammy & Tay’s tonsil hockey game. Lambert told Sammy he wanted Sky to have his rematch for the TNT Championship, or else he would send him to the ring to give him the “pounding your girlfriend dreams about.” Sammy agreed to give Sky the match, so long as they get the mixed tag. The mixed tag has not been announced, but all signs point to Sammy and Tay vs. Scorpio and Paige VanZant.

Cody Rhodes took the title from Sammy on the Christmas airing of Rampage. Cody was unable to compete in a rematch at Battle of the Belts I in January, and thus Sammy defeated Dustin Rhodes to become the interim champion. “unified” the titles when he beat Cody on the Beach Break edition of Dynamite in a ladder match. That turned out to be Cody’s last match in AEW before heading to WWE. Sammy became a three-time champion when he defeated Scorpio at Battle of the Belts a little under two weeks ago, just one month after Scorpio took the title from Sammy on Dynamite.

Frank’s Call: Sammy retains. This is such a weird situation overall because AEW has made it a point not to “pass” titles around. We’ve had five TNT Champions in the last four months if you count Cody and Sammy both being champions when Sammy was the interim champion (which was weird in and of itself). I don’t understand why Scorpio had this title for a month. I smell an audible.

Philadelphia Street Fight: Serena Deeb vs. Hikaru Shida

The feud between Serena Deeb and former AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida gets renewed when they go at it in a Philadelphia Street Fight. A vignette aired on their story last week, where Shida laid down the challenge after she questioned the fact that the feud was still going on.

This goes back to the second anniversary show of Dynamite where Deeb beat Shida. Three weeks later, Shida returned the favor when she beat Deeb to eliminate her from the TBS Championship tournament. Shida beat her again at the Winter is Coming edition of Dynamite but then Deeb beat her one month later on Dynamite. Shida did not appear on Dynamite for about three months until she beat Julia Hart. Deeb won four five-minute rookie challenges between February and March of this year mostly taking place on Rampage.

Frank’s Call: This is a tough one but I’m going with Deeb. I could be wrong, but I sense she’s the next challenger for Rosa for the AEW Women’s Championship, so a win here would make sense. You could go with Shida and have her face Rosa and go with the face vs. face dynamic at Double or Nothing, but they’re likely doing that with Adam Page and CM Punk.

Owen Hart Qualifying Match: Dax Harwood vs. Cash Wheeler

The AAA & ROH Tag Team Champions FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) will have a different mission this week. They split up to take on each other in an Owen Hart Cup tournament qualifying match. A video package ran this past Friday on Rampage with both men discussing what the match and tournament means to them.

FTR have been subtlety hinting at WWE Hall of Famer Bret “Hit Man” Hart coming in to manage them since they fired Tully Blanchard, but Bret has since signed a deal with WWE. FTR idolizes and has much respect for both Bret and his late brother Owen. They have been approached by WWE for a potential return but are still under contract to AEW.

It was announced that CM Punk, also a big fan of Bret Hart, will be on guest commentary. Punk defeated Harwood a few weeks ago.

Frank’s Call: FTR has great taste. Anyway, this is a toss-up for me. I think we’ll be treated to a great match, and I don’t think it matters who wins. Punk being on commentary is interesting. You wonder if a little faction may be forming with the three of them. I don’t recall if FTR has officially split from the Pinnacle?

10-Man Tag Match: Undisputed Elite (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly of ReDRagon, and Matt & Nick Jackson of the Young Bucks) vs. Dante Martin, The Varsity Blondes (Griff Garrison & Brian Pillman, Jr.), “Shotty” Lee Johnson, and Brock Anderson

10-man tag team action is in order for tonight as the Undisputed Elite take on the mish-mosh combination listed above. Last week all members of the Undisputed Elite were in a backstage segment where Adam Cole pointed out they all had lost individually lately, but as a team they were unstoppable. He told the Bucks “All of their friends were gone” (meaning the currently injured Kenny Omega and departed Cody Rhodes), and together they should issue a 10-man tag match. The above listed was announced later in the show.

Cole came up short challenging “Hangman” Adam Page for the AEW Championship a little under two weeks ago on Rampage. Both ReDRagon and the Bucks lost their recent challenges to Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Luchsauraus) for the AEW Tag Team Championship. O’Reilly got back on the winning track later in the show last week when he defeated Jungle Boy to qualify for the Owen Hart Cup tournament. Dante Martin and Brock Anderson were on the losing end of a Trios match last week to the Blackpool Combat Club.

Frank’s Call: I’m going with The Undisputed Elite. I could see a clean win with no issues to show solidarity for now. Things are going to break down, but probably not until Omega comes back.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!

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