May makes first title defence against Rose on Dynamite on TSN2
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Mariah May puts the AEW Women's World Championship on the line for the first time against Nyla Rose. Plus, Kyle Fletcher vies for Kazuchika Okada's AEW Continental Championship. You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2, streaming on the TSN App and on TSN.ca.
AEW Women's World Championship match: "The Glamour" Mariah May (c) vs. "The Native Beast" Nyla Rose - After capturing the AEW Women's World Championship from former mentor "Timeless" Toni Storm at All In in her hometown of London, Mariah May puts her title on the line for the first time on Wednesday night when she takes on former champion Nyla Rose. "The Native Beast" defeated inaugural champion Riho on the Feb. 12, 2020 edition of Dynamite to win her first world title. She would go on to hold it for 101 days before dropping it to Hikaru Shida at Double or Nothing 2020. Since then, Rose has found herself unable to reclaim gold in AEW. The Washington, DC native is 0-5 in title matches since she lost her title and would gladly end May's reign in short order. As for the new champion, May wanted to celebrate her title win on last week's Dynamite, but decided that Champaign, IL wasn't the place for that, saying that the city should be called "Flat, Stale, Piss-Warm Beer" instead. Rose has the opportunity to make May regret not celebrating her title when she had the chance last week. This will be the first ever meeting between the two women, so there's no past history to draw upon when it comes to picking a winner. To date, the shortest reign in AEW Women's World Championship history was the 25 days of Shida's second go-around with the belt. If May isn't careful, she could take hold of that unwanted mark on Wednesday night. Will May make her first defence a successful one or will Rose join Shida and Storm as the only multi-time AEW Women's World Champions?
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AEW Continental Championship match: "The Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Kyle Fletcher (w/ Don Callis) - There probably aren't many professional wrestlers out there who have a winning record against Kazuchika Okada, but Kyle Fletcher is one of them. In fact, Fletcher has never lost a match to Okada. Granted, one was a trios match and one was a three-way tag-team match, yet the point stands: Kyle Fletcher is undefeated against Kazuchika Okada. Both victories came within a month of each other in 2023. First at a New Japan Cup show from Nagaoka, the United Empire team of Fletcher, Mark Davis and Jeff Cobb defeated the CHAOS trio of Okada, YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto on Mar. 21. Then at Capital Collision 2023 from Washington, DC on Apr. 15, Aussie Open (Fletcher and Davis) captured the New Japan Strong Openweight Tag Team Championships in a three-way match that included the team of Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi and the former champions, the Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin). Does this give Fletcher an edge on Wednesday night? He will hope so. With Davis sidelined for several months now with injury, Fletcher has focused on singles wrestling and has found some success, previously holding the ROH World Television Championship. But the story of Fletcher's singles run in AEW has been "Close, but no cigar." While Fletcher picked up a win over Tomohiro Ishii this past Saturday night on Collision and has defeated the likes of Brian Cage, Fletcher has come up short in most of his matches against top talent. Fletcher has failed to defeat Ricochet, Kenny Omega, Swerve Strickland, Will Ospreay and MJF among others. Stepping into the ring with Okada on Wednesday night for the AEW Continental Championship is another shot to prove that he can hang with the best. For Okada, the match is only his third defence of the title he won from Eddie Kingston back in March in Toronto. After successful defences against PAC and FTR's Dax Harwood, Okada most recently wrestled Claudio Castagnoli to a time-limit draw on the Aug. 21 Dynamite from Cardiff. Facing accusations from some that he's gotten soft since joining The Elite, a dominant win over Fletcher would be just what people need to be reminded of what Okada is capable of in that ring. Can Fletcher pick up the biggest singles win of his AEW career or will Okada continue to roll as the AEW Continental Champion?
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AEW World Trios Champions "The Bastard" PAC and Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler YUTA) vs. AEW International Champion "The Aerial Assassin" Will Ospreay and the Conglomeration ("Freshly Squeezed" Orange Cassidy and Kyle O'Reilly) - The motley crew of PAC, Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler YUTA became AEW World Trios Champions at All In, defeating former champions the Patriarchy (Christian Cage, Killswitch and Nick Wayne) and Bullet Club Gold (Juice Robinson, Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn) in a three-way ladder match. Despite now holding trios gold, none of PAC, Castagnoli or YUTA has abandoned his singles pursuits. At All Out in Chicago on Saturday, PAC will challenge Will Ospreay for the AEW International Championship. Ornery at the best of times, PAC feels like a forgotten man right now. On last Wednesday night's Dynamite, Ospreay came out on the stage right after old rival Ricochet defeated close friend Kyle Fletcher. With his title in hand, it appeared as if Ospreay was ready to challenge Ricochet for their first match in over seven years. But before he could get any words out of his mouth, PAC snuck up behind him and spiked him with a devastating poisonrana. He grabbed the mic and reminded Ospreay that he had next in Chicago. In what will perhaps be a table-setter for Saturday's match, PAC once again teams with Castagnoli and YUTA to take on Ospreay and the Conglomeration's Orange Cassidy and Kyle O'Reilly in trios action. The titles won't be on the line, but you would have to think that a win by Ospreay, Cassidy and O'Reilly could put them in line for a title shot down the line. Which of these teams of three will have their hands raised on Wednesday night?
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PLUS:
- On last week's Dynamite, Jon Moxley made his return to AEW after a two-month absence and spoke cryptically to Tony Schiavone before aligning himself with "The Problem" Marina Shafir - what's next for the former AEW World Champion?