AEW World champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman didn’t waste any time introducing his team for Forbidden Door’s 12-man steel cage match, and the six-on-six tag match that main events Dynamite tonight (June 17). In both contents, the champ’s squad will face Mark Briscoe and five friends he’ll introduce us to later.
MJF made his announcement with the man he paid to provide his team, Don Callis. He also used the segment to address the various men who’ve been angling for a shot at his beloved Triple B. Two
of them are on his team. TNT champ Kevin Knight seems temporarily placated by Max’s flattery. Andrade El Ídolo, on the other hand, said the champ doesn’t know if he’ll really team with him. MJF left it for Callis to deal with his disgruntled Family member, but we don’t think Don’s attempt worked…
Midway through the show, we learned that Tomohiro Ishii is unlikely to join Team Briscoe. That’s because Team MJF’s ProtOkada! duo of Kyle Fletcher and Kazuchika Okada took him out backstage before the Sussex County Chicken’s announcement.
Jake Doyle rounds out The DC MJF All-Stars.
For his side, Briscoe first sent a message to the Stone Pitbull, then he turned to his healthy fellow Conglomerators: Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong, and Kyle O’Reilly. For his final spots, Mark picked two stars with personal issues with members of Max’s team: the ProtOkada!-hating International champion Konosuke Takeshita, and the Knight-loathing Darby Allin.
During that segment, we also learned that if anyone gets disqualified from tonight’s tag match, they’ll be disqualified from next Sunday’s cage one — and they can’t be replaced, so one team could be at a numbers disadvantage in San Jose!
That stipulation ended up sounding better in principle than it was in execution, because AEW referees like Bryce Remsburg are never going to DQ anyone. It was a fun match regardless, with all the inter and intra-team tensions you’d expect.
The finish saw Briscoe land a Jay Driller, a move MJF’s never kicked out of. He didn’t in greater Houston tonight either, but Callis distracted Remsburg long enough for Max to survive. After Roddy Strong tagged himself in, things didn’t go well for the good guys, and he was tapping to an armbar from the World champ.
The heel beatdown continued post-match, which could set us up for some dramatic entrances or replacement teammates at Forbidden Door on June 28. Briscoe joins Allin on the “likely kayfabe banged up” list after taking a Dynamite Diamond Ring shot. It happened after Callis once again told Andrade to get in line.
What do you think this portends for next Sunday’s PPV in San Jose, California?
Let us know in the comments below. And get a full rundown of tonight’s Dynamite while you talk about the show with your fellow wrestling fans in our live blog and discussion thread here.
