(Updated) AEW DYNAMITE PREVIEW 6/1: Double or Nothing fallout, eight-man tag, Moxley vs. Garcia, Baker & Hayter vs. Soho & Storm, Punk & FTR vs. Caster & Gunn Club, MJF

ALL ELITE WRESTLING DYNAMITE PREVIEW
JUNE 1, 2022
LOS ANGELES, CA. AT THE KIA FORUM
AIRS ON TBS NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EDT, 7:00 p.m. CDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

AEW Dynamite Announcers: Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross

Last Week

• Wardlow defeated Shawn Spears in a Steel Cage match with MJF as the special referee to satisfy the final condition of getting a match with MJF at Double or Nothing.
• CM Punk and then-AEW World Champion “Hangman” Adam Page had a face-off in the run-up to their championship match at Double or Nothing.
• Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston defeated Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen).
• ROH Tag Team Champions FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) defeated Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent Beretta) via DQ when Jeff Cobb & The Great O-Khan of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s United Empire attacked FTR. They attacked Roppongi Vice as well but attacked FTR first.
• Swerve Strickland defeated AEW Tag Team Championship co-holder Jungle Boy and FTW Champion “Absolute” Ricky Starks in a Three-Way match.
• Tony Schiavone interviewed AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa in advance of her title defense against Serena Deeb at Double or Nothing.
• Dr. Britt Baker defeated Toni Storm to advance to the finals of the Owen Hart Foundation tournament.

Double or Nothing Results

• HookHausen (Hook & Danhausen) defeated “Smart” Mark Sterling & Tony Nese on the Buy-In show.
• Wardlow defeated MJF to be released from his contract with MJF and officially earn one from AEW.
• The Hardys (Matt & Jeff) defeated The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson).
• Jade Cargill defeated Anna Jay to retain the TBS Championship via distraction by the debuting Stokely Hathaway. After the match there was a standoff between Cargill and the Baddies (Red Velvet & Kiera Hogan) and Anna & Kris Statlander. The debuting “Fallen Goddess” Athena (former Ember Moon of WWE) come out to stand beside Anna & Statlander to even up the odds.
• The House of Black (Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews, and Brody King) defeated Death Triangle (Pac, Penta Oscuro, and Rey Fenix) when Julia Hart black misted Pac, enabling Malakai to hit him with a back heel kick and then score the pin.
• Adam Cole defeated Samoa Joe to win the men’s Owen Hart Cup.
• Dr. Britt Baker defeated Ruby Soho to win the women’s Owen Hart Cup.
• TNT Champion Scorpio Sky & “All Ego” Ethan Page & Paige VanZant defeated Frankie Kazarian & Sammy Guevara & Tay Conti in a mixed Trios match.
• Kyle O’Reilly defeated Darby Allin.
• “La Mera Mera” Thunder Rosa defeated “The Professor” Serena Deeb to retain the AEW Women’s World Championship.
• The Jericho Appreciation Society (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Daniel Garcia, 2point0) defeated “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson & Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston and Santana & Ortiz in an Anarchy in the Arena match.
• Andrade “El Idolo” introduced Rush as his new partner in AFO.
• Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus) defeated Swerve in Our Glory (“Limitless” Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland) and Team Taz’s “Absolute” Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs to retain the AEW Tag Team Championship in a Three-Way match.
• CM Punk defeated “Hangman” Adam Page to win the AEW World Championship.

Arena

We come off a long Double or Nothing PPV and get back to TV business as AEW heads west towards Los Angeles and arrives in the Kia Forum. Long known as “The Forum” and described as “fabulous” to locals, it was home to the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings from 1967-1999. Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar led the Lakers to many NBA Championships throughout the 80s but bowed down to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in 1991 NBA Finals. “The Great One” Wayne Gretzky played most of the back half of his storied NHL career with the Kings and led them to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1993 where they would fall to the Montreal Canadiens. The arena has a rich history of concerts performed by Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, KISS, and many others. A portion of the 1984 Summer Olympics also took place in this venue. Here is the Road to Los Angeles from AEW’s YouTube page

Only two matches have been announced as of this posting, with more matches to be announced according to AEW’s Twitter:

#AEWDynamite makes its Los Angeles debut TOMORROW at the @thekiaforum! Witness the fallout from #AEWDoN LIVE at 8/7c on @TBSNetwork! pic.twitter.com/HexLlgVwcl

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) May 31, 2022

Originally Advertised: 10-Man Tag Match: AEW Tag Team Champions Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus), Christian Cage, and The Hardys (Matt & Jeff) vs. The Undisputed Elite (ReDRagon’s Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly, Adam Cole, and Matt & Nick Jackson of The Young Bucks)
Now: Eight-Man Tag Match: Jurassic Express, Christian Cage, and Matt Hardy vs. ReDRagon and the Young Bucks

Before the main the event of Double or Nothing the aforementioned 10-man tag match was announced for Dynamite. Jurassic Express and The Hardys are coming off victories as are Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly. Bobby Fish got involved in Cole’s win over Samoa Joe. The Young Bucks were victims to their long-time idols The Hardys.

Those that know their WWE history know of the storied feud between Edge & Christian and The Hardys going back to the early 2000s. This time, Christian stands alongside his long-time rivals. Jurassic Express have been the tag team champions since the beginning of 2022. Fish & O’Reilly recently came up short in their quest. The Young Bucks were the champions from the end of 2020 until All Out of 2021 when they lost to the Lucha Brothers.

One day after announcing the match on Double or Nothing, AEW announced via Twitter that it would instead be an eight-man tag match with Jeff Hardy and Adam Cole removed from the match.

See the fallout from #AEWDoN as a huge 8-man tag match is set for #AEWDynamite THIS WEDNESDAY at 8/7c LIVE on TBS, as #AEW World Tag Team Champs @boy_myth_legend/@luchasaurus team w/ @Christian4Peeps/@MATTHARDYBRAND to face the @youngbucks & #reDRagon (@theBobbyFish/@KORcombat)! pic.twitter.com/Wz5ogq2GQt

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) May 31, 2022

Frank’s Analysis: I won’t speculate but clearly, Jeff did not look right in the match on Sunday. I’m trying to be respectful here but unfortunately, we just never know what’s going on with him. I’m not sure why they couldn’t just replace Jeff with another babyface and why Cole is removed but, no big deal either way. It’s a 10-man tag that’s now an eight-man tag. Given the loss to the Hardys, you wonder if frustration is setting in for the Bucks and we’ll see tension between them and ReDRagon.

Jon Moxley (Blackpool Combat Club) vs. Daniel Garcia (Jericho Appreciation Society)

The feud between the Blackpool Combat Club and the Jericho Appreciation rolls on this week as Jon Moxley takes on Daniel Garcia one-on-one. Both teams fought to a bloody mess this past Sunday at Double or Nothing in the Anarchy in the Arena match. It got to the point where Eddie Kingston brought a can of gasoline to the ring in an attempt to light Chris Jericho on fire. Moxley went so far as to rake a fork across Matt Mendard’s (2point0) face and brawled mostly with Jericho. At one point Jericho blew a fire extinguisher in Moxley’s face. Garcia was tied up mostly with Eddie and at one point, before Eddie brought the gas can to the ring, they brawled in an elevator.

Sunday was not the first time Garcia and Moxley have been on opposite sides of the ring. They faced each other at the “First Dance” edition of Rampage back in August of last year. That of course was the night CM Punk debuted on AEW television.

Frank’s Analysis: Obviously business is not done between these two sides and matches will be forthcoming as the months go on. I just worry we’ll get shenanigan after shenanigans but, we’ll see how it goes. Moxley vs. Garcia is a solid match coming out of Double or Nothing.

Additional Matches and Non-Wrestling Segments

Stay tuned for more matches.  As AEW posts them on their social media page, I will do as best as I can to update this preview.

Added: Dr. Britt Baker & Jamie Hayter vs. Ruby Soho & Toni Storm

At around 2:00 a.m. EDT, because when else would one announce matches, AEW announced a woman’s tag match for tonight’s show. 2022 Women’s Owen Hart Cup winner Dr. Britt Baker and her cohort Jamie Hayter team up to face Ruby Soho and Toni Storm. Dr. Baker beat Ruby in the finals this past Wednesday at Double or Nothing. Ruby had beaten Toni Storm last Friday on Rampage to advance to the finals. Toni had beaten Jamie in the quarterfinals back on May 11 at the UBS Arena tapings, and thus avoiding a potential match between Jamie and Dr. Baker who subsequently beat Toni.

This is the third major loss for Ruby. She won the Casino Battle Royal in her AEW debut at All Out back in August but lost her championship challenge to Dr. Baker at Grand Slam. She went to the finals of the TBS Championship tournament but lost to Jade Cargill.

Tensions have brewed from time to time between Dr. Baker and Jamie, so keep an eye on that relationship moving forward.

Following the Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Finals, 4 of the tournament’s top wrestlers will go to war in a huge tag team match on #AEWDynamite’s LA debut:@owen_foundation winner @RealBrittBaker/@jmehytr vs @realrubysoho & #ToniStorm
tomorrow night @ 8pm ET/7pm CT on @TBSNetwork! pic.twitter.com/7iLqlZv2wg

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) June 1, 2022

Added Wednesday Afternoon

Around the afternoon AEW announced a Trios match and a non-wrestling segment via Twitter:

• AEW World Champion CM Punk and AAA & ROH Tag Team Champions FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) vs. Max Caster & Gunn Club
• “We hear from” MJF

https://twitter.com/daxftr/status/1532052689978159104?s=21&t=ijUelu_SOZCeB9EkK04-qQ

pic.twitter.com/sRHhA3wEmo

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) June 1, 2022

CM Punk is coming off defeating “Hangman” Adam Page for the AEW World Championship and celebrated with FTR following the match. Max Caster, along with his Acclaimed partner Anthony Bowens, did a re-enactment of a portion of the movie The Hangover during Double or Nothing since we needed more content on a near-five-hour PPV. It’s funny so it’s ok right? Please.

MJF lost to Wardlow, which enabled Wardlow to get out of his “contract” with MJF and officially become a member of the AEW roster. He was carted off on a stretcher after receiving 10 powerbombs in the match. MJF has been mired in controversy after no showing a meet & greet in Las Vegas, and has been upset with his current contract status in AEW.

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