AEW Dynamite airs tonight (Oct. 28) with a live Fright Night episode emanating from Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, Missouri. This is the second episode of Dynamite during the four week build to Full Gear, which takes place on November 14.
Tony Khan books one of the scariest things in AEW ahead of Blood & Guts
Halloween is coming up later this week, which means tonight is the annual “Fright Night” edition of Dynamite. In order to set the appropriate mood for the theme this evening, President Tony Khan has booked one of the scariest things that we get to see pretty regularly
on AEW programming – a Darby Allin title match against a heel who wants to badly injure and/or murder him. When Darby is in these kinds of high stakes matches, you just never know what kind of crazy stunts or dangerous bumps he’ll put his body through to entertain and simultaneously terrify AEW fans.
Darby is defending the TNT championship tonight against “The Walking Weapon” Josh Alexander, who is a member of the Don Callis Family. Don’s plan is to take all the championships from the babyface team who opposes him next week at Blood & Guts, starting with Darby’s belt. The goal is to then get Will Ospreay’s AEW world title and the Young Bucks’ AEW world tag team titles the following week at the Full Gear PPV. If Callis fails to take Darby’s title tonight, then the master plan already goes up in smoke, to some extent.
On paper, it’s tempting to dismiss Alexander as a pretender since he never wins singles matches on Dynamite and isn’t one of the six guys representing Team Callis at Blood & Guts. However, there is a rumor going around about some Callis Family members being upset about and/or turning down losing matches on AEW television. For the clever detectives in the room trying to deduce who the culprits might be, that insightful description limits the possibilities to around 673 different wrestlers. The case will surely be cracked in no time at all.
To add a little more fright to the night, Darby brought Steven Borden back to Dynamite last week, and he will presumably be at ringside tonight to help neutralize interference from the Callis Family. If things break down and this turns into a wild brawl between Team Ospreay and Team Callis, keep an eye on Sting’s son to see if he climbs back up to the top rope for another high risk spot to prove he is indeed ready for Blood & Guts.
Will Darby Allin walk out of Fright Night in one piece and with the TNT title still in his possession, or will the first step of Don’s grand plan to take all of Team Ospreay’s belts be successful? Tune in to Fright Night Dynamite to find out.
The rest of the card
FTR and Motor City Machine Guns have split the first two matches of their best-of-five series, and tonight is match number three. Pro wrestling psychology indicates the heels are more likely to take a series lead, forcing the babyfaces to come from behind to win the series. However, this is Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley’s first match on Dynamite since signing with AEW in July. Are they really going to take the L in their Dynamite debut?
TBS Champion Persephone puts her belt on the line tonight against Queen Aminata. Aminata failed to win the AEW women’s world title earlier this month in France, and then came up short trying to win this TBS title in a 4-way match at WrestleDream. Will she come up empty again on Fright Night? Does Queen have a plan for dealing with Britt Baker at ringside? By the time this segment is over with, will a different babyface emerge as Persephone’s likely challenger at Full Gear?
Other stuff to keep an eye on
– AEW World Trios Champions Hangman Page and Brodido are giving New Level and Swerve Strickland a rematch for the gold at Full Gear. Hangman refuses to make it a Texas Death match, but Swerve apparently has a plan to get him to change his mind. Does it involve arson?
– Jay White and the Bang Bang Gang turned heel on the Death Riders and The Conglomeration last week, and joined up with The Dogs to form a new faction called The Last Outfit. I guess that name really sucked, because hours later it was changed to The Cut. It’s not the best start for a new group trying to gain traction in AEW. At any rate, White vows to take the AEW Continental Championship from Jon Moxley, but it’s hard to see a title change happening before the return of the Continental Classic tournament circa Thanksgiving. Will White go ahead and get the title match he is seeking at Full Gear? Will masked Claudio Castagnoli get to beat up five or six heels from The Cut at some point tonight? Will The Cut get another new faction name before Dynamite goes off the air?
– Speaking of the Death Riders, Marina Shafir quickly answered the call when AEW Women’s World Champion Mercedes Mone asked “who’s next?” last week. Does that mean Shafir is getting a world title match at Full Gear? If so, is there any chance this angle will draw Ronda Rousey back into All Elite Wrestling?
– Ilja Dragunov won his debut match in AEW last week over “Speedball” Mike Bailey. Will the Mad Dragon get some promo time tonight to give us an idea of where he’s going next, or who his first major feud will be with in AEW?
– Tommaso Ciampa admits he took Andrade too lightly at WrestleDream, but he won’t make the same mistake when he gets a rematch for the AEW National championship. Is that rematch happening at Full Gear, perhaps with an added gimmick to spice things up?
– Old man Chris Jericho said Nick Wayne will eventually look back on last week as the turning point of his career. If that’s true, what bigger and better things lie ahead for The Prodigy in the immediate short-term after the little brat got his apology from Jericho?
– “Jungle” Jack Perry isn’t satisfied with Samoa Joe refusing to shake his hand after kicking his ass in France, and it sounds like a rematch is coming. Does Perry first have to beat the shit out of Action Andretti? This angle isn’t leading to Jungle eventually joining The Ops, right?
– The women’s Blood & Guts match features Willow Nightingale, AEW Women’s World Tag Team Champions Brawling Birds, and Wrathlander vs. Triangle of Madness and Divine Dominion. Thekla, Julia Hart, and Skye Blue are tuning up for the match by defending the Artist of Stardom championship on this weekend’s Fright Night Collision, which is being taped tonight after Dynamite.
– The men’s Blood & Guts match features TNT Champion Darby Allin, AEW World Champion Will Ospreay, Steven Borden, AEW World Tag Team Champions Young Bucks, and Adam Copeland vs. Wardlow, Kevin Knight, Jake Doyle, Kyle Fletcher, Mark Davis, and AEW International Champion Kazuchika Okada. Davis and Doyle squashed the Bucks last week and will now challenge for their tag titles at Full Gear. AEW also heavily teased that Fletcher is the man who will challenge for Ospreay’s world title at the PPV. Will the title match become official tonight, or does that announcement wait until after Blood & Guts?
– Where the f*** is the Hurt Syndicate? They aren’t around to do jobs on AEW programming.
What will you be looking for on Dynamite?
