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ALL ELITE WRESTLING DYNAMITE PREVIEW 12/8: Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal, Riho vs. Hayter, Danielson vs. Silver, Bucks vs. Chaos, MJF in Hometown

BY FRANK PETEANI, PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

December 8, 2021

5 stars that could beat MJF
SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

ALL ELITE WRESTLING DYNAMITE PRIMER
DECEMBER 8, 2021
ELMONT, NY AT THE UBS 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 (on medical leave)

Match Results from Last Week

  • Bryan Danielson defeated Alan “5” Angels of the Dark Order with AEW World Champion “Hangman” Adam Page on guest commentary.
  • CM Punk defeated Lee Moriarty.
  • Wardlow defeated A.C. Adams.
  • Sting & Darby Allin defeated the Gunn Club (Billy & Colten Gunn).
  • Ruby Soho defeated Kris Statlander to advance in TBS Championship tournament. After the match, Nyla Rose attacked Ruby who was bailed out by Statlander. Ruby faces Nyla in the semi-finals of the tournament.
  • Cody Rhodes defeated Andrade “El Idolo” in an Atlanta Street Fight.

Arena

Tonight’s episode of Dynamite will emanate from the recently built UBS Arena in Elmont, NY. It is the new home of the NHL’s New York Islanders. It’s located about 20 minutes from my house, and you guessed it, I will be in attendance for tonight’s show. I’m excited to be attending an AEW event with friends I’ve watched wrestling (primarily WWE) with for over 16 years.

Four matches are advertised for the show, and Rampage will be recorded at the conclusion of Dynamite.

Bryan Danielson vs. John Silver of the Dark Order

Bryan Danielson continued his quest of going through the Dark Order last week defeated Georgia’s Alan “5” Angels. After the match he indicated there’s a member from Long Island, and he would face him tonight in John Silver. Silver is from Wantagh, NY, which is about 10-15 minutes from my house (depending on traffic lights, and we have a lot of them). If anybody lives or has been to Wantagh, you may or may not have been to Mulcahey’s, a big spot for happy hour and bands.

Silver got in the middle of Danielson and “Hangman” Page when Danielson was talking trash and brought up “Coward Shit” while being interviewed by Tony Schiavone after the match last week. Earlier in the day, Tony Khan declared that Danielson and Page could not touch each other.

Tonight, Danielson continues his quest of going through the Dark Order when he takes on Long Island’s own Silver.

Frank’s Analysis: It is cool, one would have to admit, that they’re having Danielson go through Dark Order members in their hometown. It worked out for AEW that they were able to line that up. While Danielson is nailing the heel persona, nothing led him to this point. It’s not he was losing matches or worse, being booed by the fans (“clears throat” Cody Rhodes). I wonder if they did this because of not having Kenny Omega for a while, and they wanted someone who didn’t need to be a babyface. Truth is, with “Hangman” Page as champion and CM Punk being babyface, what does Bryan do? It’s a weird situation all around and I don’t know the right answer.

Riho vs. Jamie Hayter

On the November 26 episode of Rampage, Riho won a Black Friday Deal match over AEW Women’s World Champion Dr. Britt Baker, DMD to earn a future title match.

As one would expect, Dr. Baker (flanked by her cronies Jamie Hayer and Reba) was visibly frustrated when interviewed by Tony Schiavone last week. Not only was she frustrated by the loss, but she was also annoyed with Jamie losing to Thunder Rosa two weeks ago in the TBS Championship tournament quarterfinals. That said, she said that Riho would face Jamie next week (tonight).

Riho was the inaugural women’s champion, defeating Nyla Rose on the launch episode of Dynamite back on October 2, 2019. She eventually lost it to Rose in February of 2020 and was out of AEW for nearly a year due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Riho defeated Angelica Risk on Dark Elevation this past Monday night.

Frank’s Analysis: Jamie and Britt are going to separate at some point. The logic says Jamie gets frustrated with Britt and goes babyface but, man I feel like Britt should go that way at some point. Now if this were WWE, we’d see interference from Reba and Jamie like two minutes in, and then Thunder Rosa would come out to help Riho. After commercial break we’d learn that “during the break, a tag team match was made official!” I don’t think we see that. I just simply see Riho going over and being built as a threat to Britt’s title, as it should be. (You can yell at me if the WWE-like scenario takes place.)

Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale

The third annual Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale takes place tonight, with the ultimate prize being the Dynamite Diamond Ring. It features 12 wrestlers wrestling under battle royale rules where eliminations take place where you’re thrown over the top rope and both feet hit the floor. The final two men standing are the “winners,” and face each other in a singles match to determine the winner of the

MJF won the first two offerings, beating “Hangman” Adam Page in 2019 and Orange Cassidy last year. The field is not set. According to f4wonline.com MJF and Team Taz members Powerhouse Hobbs, Ricky Starks, and Dante Martin will participate.

Frank’s Analysis: Without knowing the rest of the field, it’s hard to make a prediction. I could see MJF winning it for a third time. I would be curious to see if CM Punk gets added to the field and the final two are Punk and MJF, which would set up a match between them at Winter is Coming. Their feud doesn’t need the ring, but it could work.

Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) vs. Rocky Romero (Chaos) & Chuck Taylor (Best Friends, Subsidiary of Chaos)

The Young Bucks return to the ring for the first time since losing a six-man Falls Count Anywhere match at Full Gear to take on Rocky Romero and Chuck Taylor of the New Japan Pro Wrestling stable Chaos (Taylor of the Best Friends who are now members of Chaos). During Rampage this past Friday, the Bucks said that wanted to face the “best the Best Friends” got.

We haven’t seen Taylor much on TV of late. He has wrestled mostly on Dark and Dark Elevation, most recently defeating Ryan Nemeth. Romero lost to Bryan Danielson several weeks ago on the night the Best Friends joined Chaos. There is history with the Bucks and Romero in New Japan, swapping the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship back in 2015 when Romero teamed with Berretta (current Best Friends member Trent?) as Roppongi Vice, under the Chaos banner.

Frank’s Analysis: The Best Friends joined Chaos at the behest of 2021 G1 Tournament winner Kazuchika Okada. I’m not sure with the current travel restrictions going in & out of Japan if Okada would be able to show up tonight. Boy oh boy, would that be a moment. Talk about making a debut on Long Island. Anyway, with Adam Cole & Bobby Fish recently having a match with Orange Cassidy & Wheeler Yuta and this match taking place tonight, business will sure go on for a while between the Elite and Chaos. Sounds a little like taking a page out of New Japan’s playbook.

MJF

Nothing is specifically advertised, but during the promo between MJF and CM Punk last week, MJF talked about being in his hometown of Long Island tonight. He is from Plainview, which is about a half hour drive from UBS and about 10 minutes up the road from where I live in Farmingdale. He accused Punk of trying to get into Britt Baker’s pants and struggling to beat people like QT Marshall and Lee Moriarty. He wanted him to return to his 2011 form, the Punk to which MJF looked up. He said he’d be better than “Piper in Portland or Bret in Canada or Punk in Chicago” when MJF appears on Long Island tonight, which he called a “magical place.”

Here’s a link to an article in the New York Post about the feud as well as some Twitter talk from MJF:

Frank’s Analysis: New York is generally a heel crowd (at least with the heels they like), so I expect a loud and favorable reaction. If there’s anybody that can turn that around in a way that’s not contrived, it’s MJF. I’m looking forward to this the most while being in the building.

Jade Cargill

I expect something from Jade Cargill, who is set to take on Thunder Rosa in the semi-finals of the TBS tournament. Here’s a post from her manager, Smart Mark Sterling:

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

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