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Cope battles YUTA on Dynamite on TSN2

Adam Copeland Adam Copeland - All Elite Wrestling
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Ahead of taking on Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship at Revolution, Adam Copeland goes one-on-one with the Death Riders' Wheeler YUTA. Plus, Swerve Strickland teams with Brody King to take on Ricochet and Kazuchika Okada. You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT on TSN2, the TSN App, and TSN.ca.


"The Rated R Superstar" Adam Copeland vs. AEW World Trios Champion Wheeler YUTA

As Adam Copeland heads into his AEW World Championship match at this Sunday night's Revolution against Jon Moxley, he's making sure the odds are even. One by one, Cope is wiping out the Death Riders to ensure that it will be just the two of them on Sunday night. On the Feb. 22 edition of Collision, the Death Riders retained their AEW World Trios Championships over TNT Champion Daniel Garcia and 2point0 (Angelo Parker and Matt Menard), but weren't satisfied with just the victory. "The Bastard" PAC refused to let go of the Brutalizer he locked in on Parker as Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler YUTA continued to beat down Garcia and Menard. The Undisputed Kingdom (Adam Cole, Roderick Strong and Kyle O'Reilly) arrived on the scene to make the save before Mox and Marina Shafir made their entrances to even up the numbers. But before it could pop off again, Cope made his way to the ring and laid out PAC. With the Undisputed Kingdom holding the rest of the Death Riders at bay, Cope destroyed PAC with a pair of Con-Chair-Tos. His assault on the Death Riders continued last week on Dynamite. It was Mox's crew who tried to get the upper hand with Castagnoli jumping Copeland from behind and YUTA joining the beating. As the two attempted to Pillmanize Cope's surgically repaired neck with Shafir watching on, Castagnoli changed his mind and called for a Con-Chair-To. Before he could have his way, "Switchblade" Jay White made his way down to ringside. The distraction allowed for Cope to get the jump on the Death Riders and lay out Castagnoli with a chair shots and a spear. As Shafir tried to intervene, she was accidentally felled buy a Busaiku Knee from YUTA, who was then promptly hit with a Blade Runner by White. With his foes all downed and Mox held off by White, Copeland hit a Con-Chair-To on Castagnoli. Cope contemplated a Con-Chair-To to Shafir, Willow Nightingale made her way down to the ring to do it herself as Mox could only watch in horror. With YUTA his last soldier standing, Mox has made it clear it's up to him now to handle Cope before Sunday. For Copeland, Wednesday night will not only be a tune-up for the PPV, it's an opportunity to send one final message to Moxley, the man who put him to sleep with the Bulldog Choke at Grand Slam last month. Can YUTA do what the rest of the Death Riders couldn't or will Cope ensure that Mox has no shields left on Sunday night?

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Kris Statlander and Thunder Rosa vs. "Megasus" Megan Bayne and "The Superbad Girl" Penelope Ford

Megan Bayne has certainly made a splash in her return to AEW. The former Stardom star is undefeated in singles matches after arriving back in the promotion on February 1. On the Feb. 8 edition of Collision, she introduced herself for former AEW Women's World Champion Thunder Rosa. After Rosa was victorious in her match with Penelope Ford, Bayne made her way down to the ring and took her out with her version of the F5, the Bow Down. Weeks later on the Feb. 19 episode of Dynamite, Bayne faced her stiffest challenge to date in the form of former TBS Champion Kris Statlander. With the match looking like it could go either way, Bayne distracted the ref long enough for Ford to hit the ring and push Statlander off of the top turnbuckle. This allowed for Bayne to hit her with the Bow Down and pick up the win. Before Bayne and Ford could do any more damage to the fallen Statlander, Thunder Rosa ran out to chase them off. This Wednesday day night, Rosa and Statlander will have their opportunity for vengeance as they take on Bayne and Ford in tag-team action. While Statlander and Rosa have faced off with one another and wrestled together in multi-person matches, this will mark the first time that they have worked together as a tag team. It will also the mark the first match for Bayne and Ford as a duo. But Bayne has plenty of experience in the tag division. In the 2023 Goddesses of Stardom Tag League, Bayne entered alongside Maika as Divine Kingdom. They emerged from the A Block in top spot with wins over the likes of AZM and Miyu Amasaki and Mirai and Mai Sakurai. In the final, they defeated Neo Genesis's Crazy Star (Suzu Suzuki and Mei Seira). She'll need to use all of her tag-team prowess to defeat a team of former champions in Statlander and Rosa. Can Bayne remain undefeated and pick up a victory with Ford or will Statlander and Rosa gain a measure of revenge?

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Swerve Strickland (w/ Prince Nana) and "Big, Bad" Brody King (w/ Julia Hart) vs. AEW Continental Champion "The Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada and Ricochet

This is more exciting than a contract signing. After defeating his longtime rival on the Feb. 5 edition of Dynamite in Atlanta, Ricochet made it very clear that he felt the door was closed on his bitter feud with former AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland. In the lead-up to the match, we saw an unhinged version of Ricochet with a penchant for violence who attacked Strickland with a screwdriver and repeatedly threatened Prince Nana. Of course, Ricochet's victory was a tainted one. The referee missed a blatant low blow by Ricochet as Swerve attempted to land the House Call. That opening let Ricochet hit the Spirit Gun to get the win. But because Ricochet decided to add insult to injury after the match, Strickland couldn't let things go. Because of the importance of the match, Nana bestowed The Embassy robe on Strickland to wear to the ring. The robe has traditionally been worn by The Embassy's crown jewel, most notably, the late Jimmy Rave. With the robe obviously of great sentimental value to Nana, Ricochet stole it after the match and has continued to wear it around. On last week's Dynamite, Nana told Swerve that he wasn't sure how much longer he could stick around in AEW without the robe. Despite Strickland's desire for another match and chance to get back the robe, Ricochet wouldn't budge until Strickland sweetened the pot last week. Swerve got the go-ahead from AEW president Tony Khan to make their prospective match at Revolution for the No. 1 contendership match for the AEW World Championship. It was an offer Ricochet, still looking for his first championship in AEW, couldn't refuse. On Wednesday night, the two men were supposed to have a contract signing, but instead Khan made a late change on Wednesday afternoon. Swerve will now team the Hounds of Hell's Brody King to take on Ricochet and the AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada. In another announcement from Khan on Wednesday, Okada will now defend his title at Revolution against King. At Grand Slam last month, Okada successfully defended his title against King's stablemate Buddy Matthews in his home country of Australia. This past Saturday on Collision, King came to the ring to check on Julia Hart following her loss to Queen Aminata. With King preoccupied, Okada snuck into the ring and drilled the former AEW World Trios Champion with his title belt. Before they meet one-on-one for the gold on Sunday, King will get his chance to get his hands on the seven-time IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. What will happen with so many combustible elements together in one ring?