The Elite meets Team AEW in Blood & Guts on TSN2
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The Elite meets Team AEW in a Blood & Guts Match. Plus, Chris Jericho defends the FTW Championship against Minoru Suzuki and Dr. Britt Baker makes her in-ring return after a 10-month absence. You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2, streaming on the TSN App and on TSN.ca.
Blood & Guts Match: The Elite ("Hangman" Adam Page, AEW Continental Champion "The Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada, TNT Champion "The Scapegoat" Jack Perry and AEW World Tag Team Champions Nicholas Jackson and Matthew Jackson) vs. Team AEW (AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland, ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe, Darby Allin, "Platinum" Max Caster and "The Five-Tool Player" Anthony Bowens) (w/ Prince Nana and "Daddy Ass" Billy Gunn) - For a fourth consecutive summer, AEW's most violent match takes centre stage on Dynamite with Blood & Guts. Two rings, side-by-side, are enclosed by a steel cage with a roof. One man from each team will start the match with another entering at timed intervals. Because of the nature of the match, one side will repeatedly have a one-man advantage until all 10 competitors fill the ring. The match is contested under Blood & Guts rules, which means that there are no pin falls. A match can only end when a participant submits or verbally quits. All three prior matches have been bloody spectacles and Wednesday night's will be no different. On one side will be the Elite, who have run roughshod over AEW thanks to Nicholas Jackson and Matthew Jackson leveraging their statuses as executive vice-presidents to their advantage. But all is not well within the five-man crew. "Hangman" Adam Page has returned to the fold following his months-long suspension, though it's clear that he doesn't care for or trust the rest of this new-look faction. Gone is Page's former tag-team partner Kenny Omega with Kazuchika Okada and Jack Perry in his stead. The former AEW World Champion appears to be motivated only by one thing and one thing only - getting his hands on the current AEW World Champion, Swerve Strickland. Page and Strickland had a brutal, bloody rivalry for much of last year and earlier in 2024 with Strickland doing what Page considers the unforgivable in breaking into his home and into his child's room. Despite the three men having wrestled three matches already, Page believes the issues between the two are far from over. What has further incensed Page was his inability to win the 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Cup and guarantee himself a shot at Strickland in the AEW World Championship match at All In next month at Wembley Stadium, falling in the final to "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson. Unstable already, this new version of Page is a frightening prospect and one that not only will Strickland, Mark Briscoe, Darby Allin and the Acclaimed (Max Caster and Anthony Bowens) must deal with, but so must the rest of the Elite. With both bad blood and literal blood expected to flow, Wednesday night's match will be one of attrition. While all three of the Jacksons and Page competed in last year's Blood & Guts, the most battle-tested of all 10 competitors is Briscoe. The ROH World Champion has been involved in some of the most violent matches imaginable over the course of his 20-year-plus career. He's a man incapable of being fazed and his presence will be a massive asset to Team AEW. Which of these two teams will exit the cage with their arms raised?
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FTW Championship match: "The Learning Tree" Chris Jericho (c) vs. Minoru Suzuki - Ahead of last month's Forbidden Door pay-per-view, an injury to "The Bounty Hunter" Bryan Keith meant that Chris Jericho and "The Redwood" Big Bill needed a partner for their trios match against Samoa Joe, Hook and Katsuyori Shibata. Jericho made a phone call to somebody he thought was an old friend in the form of the legendary Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki had teamed with Jericho at the two prior Forbidden Doors and he figured he would be a lock for a third. But Suzuki had other ideas. The former IWGP Intercontinental Champion, Pro Wrestling NOAH GHC Heavyweight Champion and All Japan Triple Crown Champion decided that Jericho's FTW Championship was a title he wanted to add to his vast collection. Jericho was aghast, but that doesn't matter because Suzuki got his wish and will take on Jericho for the title on Wednesday night. Since defeating Hook for the title at April's Dynasty PPV, Jericho has successfully defended the championship twice - in a rematch against Hook and a three-way match against Hook and Shibata. Suzuki will present a different kind of challenge altogether, though. You can try to outwrestle Suzuki, but you cannot outbrawl him. Suzuki has gone toe-to-toe with the legends of both wrestling and MMA and has beaten so many of them. The Yokohama native has victories over the likes of Ken Shamrock, Maurice Smith and Guy Mezger in Pancrase, as well as wins over Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi. Also concerning for Jericho will be the fact that he agreed to have Keith and Big Bill away from ringside for the match. It will be mano a mano. Can Jericho hold off the toughest challenge to his title to date or will the "Murder Grandpa" add to his list of accolades?
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Dr. Britt Baker, DMD vs. Hikaru Shida - On Sept. 16, 2023, Kris Statlander successfully defended the TBS Championship over Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, on Collision. That was the last time we saw Baker compete in an AEW ring, but that all changes on Wednesday night as she returns to action against a fellow former AEW Women's World Champion in Hikaru Shida. For Baker, the match will be the culmination of months of a recovery effort that saw the Pittsburgh native deal with a terrifying mini-stroke, as well as a torn hip labrum and herniated discs in her back. The match comes only two weeks after Baker challenged the current TBS Champion, "The CEO" Mercedes Mone, to a title match at All In. Making her return against Shida is jumping right into the deep end ahead of a potential title match and the chance to do what no woman in AEW has done before - hold both the AEW Women's World Championship and the TBS Championship. Shida is a foe who Baker knows all too well. In fact, it was Shida who Baker defeated for the AEW Women's World Championship at Double or Nothing 2021. In singles matches, Shida is 2-1 all-time against Baker, but Wednesday night's match will be their first singles encounter since the title match over three years ago. Tied with current AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm with three reigns, Shida is looking to bounce back from a loss to Mariah May in the semifinals of the Owen Hart Foundation Cup. Her match on Saturday night against Skye Blue was stopped after only three minutes due to an injury to Blue, so the loss to May is still fresh in her mind. With Baker gearing up for a title match, a victory over the dentist could certainly put Shida in the frame for a championship bout of her own. Will Baker mark her return to the ring with a win or will Shida spoil the party?
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PLUS:
- Fresh off of winning the 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Cup, Mariah May returns as "The Glamour"
- We will hear from the new AEW International Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman