Surprise! There’s another wrestling pay per view coming up and it’s not WWE but it’s largest and newest competitor, AEW! All Elite Wrestling’s first major show as a promotion was last year’s Double or Nothing which saw the debut of Jon Moxley, formerly WWE’s Dean Ambrose after Chris Jericho defeated Kenny Omega in the main event (and that being a rematch from NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 2018). Now it’s been a year and we’re all in quixotine and everything is fine.
We’ve tabulated our staff’s previews picks from the last three shows and our current standings are:
Kyle: 21-8 (or 72%)
Tim: 4-4 (or 50%)
Who will survive!?
If you want to watch live on Saturday, you’ll want to buy it on B/R Live. Until then, here’s your Quixotronic preview of the show.
#1 Contendership Match for the AEW Tag Team Titles: Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta) vs Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen)
The Background: The Best Friends have been working the AEW Arena shows during the quixotine, even getting a win over AEW Tag Team champion Kenny Omega along with sub Michael Nakazawa in a battle over who were in fact the best friends on the on April 8th Dynamite (spoilers: it’s all of us.). Private Party on the other hand have been working segments in Being the Elite over on YouTube, potentially ready to feud with the other AEW Tag Team champion Adam Page over possible yard hi-jinks because he’s been living in the woods.
Fanboy Fantasy: I’d give the win to the Best Friends as they were one of the more known teams going into AEW and haven’t done much in the title scene yet and that should change. However, in their BTE bits Private Party has shown a little more of an edge and I wouldn’t mind seeing them lean into that more.
Fanboy Prediction: Private Party - based on BTE and Private Party all of the sudden suspecting Adam Page of shenanigans, I think we’ll see Private Party get the win here.
Jungle Boy vs MJF
The Background: Announced on the May 6th Dynamite, it seems to have been added simply so they both have a singles match on the card, and in an interview with Cody, Jungle Boy mentioned this will be his first singles match on pay per view. MJF defeated fellow Jungle Express member Marko Stunt on May 20th Dynamite in preparation.
Fanboy Fantasy: MJF should be cocky as hell the whole time thinking that Jungle Boy is not in his league. MJF has Wardlow with him but that should be cancelled out by Luchasaurus. Due to dinosaur/cave boy shenanigans Jungle Boy should then surprise MJF with a roll-up pin and the win. I’d then slide Jungle Boy up the ranks with a few more solid victories and then completely feed him to Lance Archer as if he was Mr. Bill.
Fanboy Prediction: Jungle Boy - I actually think Jake Perry will sneak in the victory, possibly in a similar way as above. I think Jungle Boy would gain more with the win than MJF would lose with the loss.
Dustin Rhodes vs Shawn Spears
The Background: Literally added on the go-home May 20th Dynamite, Spears held a news segment and challenged Dustin Rhodes.
Fanboy Fantasy: I would give the win to Dustin Rhodes to further anger Shawn Spears. I would then take this to combine Spears and MJF’s mutual hate of the Rhodes family to fully team them up with Tully Blanchard as their combined representation. It would fill Spears’ earlier storyline of trying to find a tag team partner and it would stay true to both characters’ backstories, plus give a few extra reasons to let Cody and Dustin team up a few more times. However, down the line it will all end in blood when Cody decides to listen to his old friends Spears and MJF and finally murders his brother for the heel turn of all heel turns.
Fanboy Prediction: Shawn Spears - Dustin obviously doesn’t need many wins at this point in his career, though I actually would love to see a small AEW World title run down the line as a general thank you to him. Spears needs more solid wins and I think Rhodes is the next person to provide him with one.
Dr. Britt Baker vs Kris Statlander
The Background: These two have been circling each other as half of the top working women in the women’s division (along with challenger Hikaru Shida and Penelope Ford) during the quixotine. Now they fight again!
Fanboy Fantasy: Angry Britt Baker is quite fun, so I would give the win to Statlander to both (a) give Statlander a solid non-squad singles victory and (2) give Baker another reason to snap and possibly rip out some teeth. It’ll turn out that since Statlander is an alien she actually has rows of teeth like a shark so let’s have Baker rip out like a whole bag of teeth. Pre-film it if you have to pause and reload to give the illusion of it - we have that magic right now!
Fanboy Prediction: Dr. Britt Baker - since my pick for the AEW Women’s title match is (spoilers) Hikaru Shida, I assume we want Baker set up as her main foil, even more so than she already is - this will just confirm everything.
Casino Ladder Match for a Future AEW World Title Shot: Colt Cabana vs Darby Allin vs Frankie Kazarian vs Kip Sabian vs Luchasaurus vs Orange Cassidy vs Rey Fenix vs Scorpio Sky vs Mystery Opponent
The Background: AEW likes it’s casino-based gimmick matches, and this year’s Double or Nothing will introduce the Casino Ladder Match which sounds like a Money in the Bank match except competitors will enter every 90 seconds. There are 9 competitors with one of them being a “mystery opponent.” I assume instead of a briefcase we’re working with a casino chip?
Fanboy Fantasy: There’s two questions we need to solve here - who is the mystery 9th man, and who will win? There’s plenty of options for who the mystery person can be though I believe most of the recently released WWE talent are still under a 90-day no compete clause. That leaves fewer options, but top contenders could be Brian Cage from Impact or Drew Gulak from WWE since I think his contract outright expired? Or maybe some smuggled PAC out of England and he’ll make his glorious return? Or, and this is definitely who it will be: the return of future-WWE owner Soul train Jones!* Either way, both my fantasy pick and real pick are both Darby Allin.
*there is no way Virgil is buying WWE.
Fanboy Prediction: Darby Allin - he completely got punked by being taken out of the AEW TNT title tournament - the final should have been him and Archer, not Cody and Archer. I can only hope (because that always works) that it’s because he’s getting the World title poker chip here. Darby was one of Moxley’s earliest opponents in AEW and the kid has that Jeff Hardy vibe that needs to be taken advantage of. Plus he’s shown himself to be a touch more of a tweener much like Moxley so the two can blur the face/heel lines and destroy each other in the gray.
AEW Women’s Title Match: Hikaru Shida vs Nyla Rose ©
The Background: Hikaru Shida has been ranked #1 in contention for the title ever since defeating Kris Statlander at AEW Revolution. She has since won multiple mult-women matches and was attacked by the returning champion Nyla Rose after another multi-woman match on the May 13th Dynamite.
Fanboy Fantasy: I would have Rose defeat Shida due to interference from Baker and her way-too-full bag of alien teeth only for Rose to demolish both Shida and Baker. And then she would eat the bag of teeth. To establish dominance. I think?
Fanboy Prediction: Hikaru Shida - I think we’ll see a title switch here. I like Rose as a beast of a champion but I Shida (and Baker) have become the MVPs of the division in the last month.
AEW TNT Title Tournament Final: Cody Rhodes vs Lance Archer
The Background: Announced on the April 8th Dynamite, the title will be AEW’s Intercontinental or United States title equivalent. The tournament saw Cody Rhodes defeat Shawn Spears, Lance Archer defeat Colt Cabana, Darby Allin defeat Sammy Guevara, and Dustin Rhodes defeat Kip Sabian in the first round, while Cody defeated Allin and Archer defeated Dustin to make it to the finals. To make it more personal, Lance Archer is represented by Jake Roberts who already has it out for Cody who he sees as today’s wrestling Caesar who needs to be brought down.
Fanboy Fantasy: There’s literally no reason to give Cody the title here and every reason to give it to Archer. I would have Archer take the title by destroying Cody similar to his defeat of Dustin. With that defeat he would team more with Dustin and reignite his feud with Spears and MJF as mentioned above. When they get the upper hand Cody will turn on Dustin and the Elite and Arn Anderson. It’ll be a dark but inevitable day.
Fanboy Prediction: Lance Archer - I think his build as an unstoppable monster will continue and Cody will fall up short again. Members of the Elite have been hesitant to book themselves as champions for the most part and I think Cody will remain titleless. Plus with two singles belts I think it’s best to have one be a general face and one a general heel to work different programs with each title.
AEW World Title Match: Mr. Brodie Lee vs Jon Moxley ©
The Background: Jon Moxley, the former Dean Ambrose in WWE, defeated Chris Jericho to win the AEW World title at February’s AEW Revolution. Since then he briefly feuded with Inner Circle’s Jake Hager and defeated him in an empty arena (which even then we didn’t need to specify) street fight on April 15th Dynamite. Elsewhere the Dark Order, a masked cult, revealed their Exalted One to be Brodie Lee, the former Luke Harper in WWE, who now runs the cult in a sort of Corporate Ministry sort of way as a possibly more demonic Vince McMahon-like character. He challenged Moxley for a match and stole the title belt on the May 6th Dynamite and that did not sit well with Moxley.
Fanboy Fantasy: Lee should continually distract the ref either himself or with creepers of the Dark Order to keep fighting dirty with Moxley kicking out at two each time. Eventually Moxley gets the upper hand after enough creepers have been disposed of so he can hit the Paradigm Shift for a definitive win. Afterwards all the creepers come back and dog pile Moxley at Lee’s command when a debuting Brian Cage shows up to save Moxley. Cage is able to retrieve Mosley’s stolen title and the two have a brief stare down as Cage hands the title over to Moxley. This can set up the summer with the two having each other’s backs while Cage is also completely open that when he tops the rankings he fully intends to defeat Moxley for the title, and Moxley awaits him.
Fanboy Prediction: Jon Moxley - I love Brodie Lee being able to finally work but it is too early to give him the top title.
Stadium Stampede Match: Elite (Adam Page, Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson) & Matt Hardy vs Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Ortiz, Santana, & Sammy Guevara)
The Background: AEW’s main storyline since Dynamite began has been the Elite, the originators of AEW, against Chris Jericho’s Inner Circle, entitled troublemakers fully aware that Jericho is AEW’s Hollywood Hogan and using it to their advantage. The Inner Circle has also shown a united front while the Elite have had struggles since their days in NJPW and ROH during the #bulletclubisfine days. Kenny Omega and Adam Page, the AEW Tag Team Champions, defended their titles against Young Bucks at AEW Revolution where post-match the Bucks and Omega shook hands but Page, now the main Elite holdout, did not. Originally set to be a War Games-like “Blood & Guts” match that got ruined by the quixotine, Matt Hardy debuted on the March 18th Dynamite to sub in for either Page or the injured-at-the-time Nick Jackson. Jericho & Guevara defeated Omega & Hardy in a street fight on the May 6th Dynamite while Omega/Hardy got revenge by defeating Ortiz & Santana on the May 13th Dynamite. Finally on the May 20th Dynamite the Young Bucks and Adam Page returned from Being the Elite purgatory (where Page has been hilariously drinking and living in the woods) to fight off the Inner Circle and save Omega and Hardy - though Page continued to be the loner of the group.
Fanboy Fantasy: And so furthers the breakup of the Elite. There will be enough miscommunication between Omega and Page that Hangman will just leave, making it 5 on 4. Hardy can get trapped in some character loop where he keeps morphing between Broken Matt Hardy, Version 1.0, Money Matt, and be effectively useless - Jericho used the remains of Vanguard 1 to… invent something? Let’s go with that. Also while setting it up Jericho briefly morphs into Lionheart Jericho for laughs. Now down to 5 on 3 the Inner Circle is able to dispose of the true Elite, Omega and the Bucks. Cody is too distraught over his title loss to show up and help and the Inner Circle reigns supreme for another day.
Fanboy Prediction: Elite - as much as I want the Elite to splinter further I think this will be a show of unity and they’ll dispose of the Inner Circle. Hell, we could have Jericho injured so he can do more commentary because he’s damn great at it.
That’s it for our first AEW preview. We’ll be back later in the week (probably) with a review. Thanks for joining us again and be sure to subscribe on Facebook and follow https://www.quixotronic.com/ for more questionable content.