This Wednesday, it's time for AEW's potentially biggest show yet, Double or Nothing! Wait, what? Wait, they're giving away Blood & Guts on Dynamite? For free?? Really? Wow.....uh, ok....
Yeah so the monumental Blood & Guts battle between The Inner Circle and The Pinnacle is happening this Wednesday, May 5th on AEW Dynamite. Why the company didn't save such a huge money-drawing match for the PPV three weeks later is beyond me, especially since there aren't many clear matchups for Double or Nothing yet. But hopefully they'll pull something good together for that and follow up on the success of Revolution.
Regardless, this Wednesday should likely be AEW's highest-rated Dynamite episode to date. With NXT out of the way the show has drawn 1.2 million, 1.1 million, and last week's anomaly of 889k which went up against a Presidential address. So it'll be interesting to see how many people tune in for Blood & Guts. I'd love to see them hit the 1.5 million mark for the first time in the show's history, putting them within striking distance of the lower-rated RAWs. I'm curious if they'll put the main event on first to draw people in right away.
In addition to the big five-on-five double cage match though we have an undercard to talk about, so let's get to the predictions.....
#1 Contenders Tag Team 4-Way: SoCal Uncensored vs. Jurassic Express vs. Varsity Blonds vs. The Acclaimed
I'm not sure why the #1 ranked SCU needs to defend their title shot in this match, but whatever, it should be fun. Lots of talent in this one, and AEW multi-team matches tend to be nonstop action. I'd love to see Jurassic Express pull off the win here and face the Bucks at DoN, but I feel like with the stip where if SCU loses they have to disband, such an outcome would probably happen at the PPV. So I'm thinking SCU wins here and then runs into a brick wall called Matt & Nick Jackson.
Pick: SCU
Britt Baker vs. TBA
Britt is now the top-ranked women's wrestler in the company and basically has to win here to cement her title shot at Double or Nothing. She's not only proved herself a helluva worker in recent months, but she's totally got the it factor as a heel you love to hate. She should be the one to dethrone Hikaru Shida after a full year (By the way, how cool is it that Shida actually got to hold the title for a year, just like I said she should?). Not sure who the TBA in this match will be, I'm assuming just some underneath talent, unless it's a Tessa Blanchard debut or something. Wait, TBA? Tessa Blanch Ard?? Nah, I think this'll just be a glorified squash.
Pick: DMD
Kenny Omega & MT Nakazawa vs. Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston
Kenny is a triple champion now, having defeated Rich Swann for the Impact Championship. But in terms of his AEW Title reign he's only defended the thing twice and has no real challengers other than Moxley and I guess Eddie (Hangman Page was getting there but shockingly lost last week). It seems like Omega vs. Kingston is the title match for DoN, but aside from some great promo segments that's a bit underwhelming. There's no way Kingston wins the title there. Seems like there's a real dearth of AEW Title challengers right now, they should work on that. Anywho, Nakazawa is clearly here to eat the pin; Kenny even referred to him as his lackey or something to that effect. Kingston will get the win and challenge Omega for the PPV. Where that leaves Moxley I'm not sure.
Pick: Moxton
Cody Rhodes vs. QT Marshall
I like Marshall's new stable but I feel like QT himself should be the manager, not the in-ring leader of the group. There's just something not quite ready for prime time about him. Anthony Ogogo seems destined to be the breakout star, while Nick Comoroto has a great look as the muscle. But QT just seems like what Don Callis was in the WWF, the leader of a heel stable who just threw his enforcers in front of him while he talked shit. What would make sense to me is for Cody to go over here and then get into a feud with Ogogo, paying off at the PPV. To that end I'll pick Cody in this one.
Pick: Cody
Blood & Guts: Inner Circle vs. Pinnacle
This is the big war we've all been waiting for. A proper old-school WarGames match with a roof over the cage and no doubt lots of blading. I love faction warfare in wrestling, and these two groups are the most exciting thing about AEW at the moment. As I said, I'd have saved this particular match for a PPV event, maybe even as the blowoff at All Out. But if we're beginning the feud this way, so be it I guess; they can still split off into plenty of individual bouts. Jericho vs. MJF, Wardlow vs. Hager, Spears vs. Sammy, FTR vs. PnP, and numerous other combinations. Maybe at the end of the feud they'll do another Stadium Stampede or something. In any case, this should be fantastic, potentially a Match of the Year contender. There's only one outcome that makes any sense to me, and that's The Pinnacle going over. The heels have to win the first battle in this rivalry, particularly since they're the new gang in town. The endgame to this feud should be making MJF (and Wardlow) a true main event star. He's a future AEW Champion, no question about it. And in a year or two I wanna see MJF vs. Wardlow as the championship feud, a la Shawn vs. Diesel (except with better ratings). So Team MJF has to win the first round.
Pick: The Pinnacle
I assume the main event of this show will take up nearly half of it; the rest will be fairly short matches. But it should be another fun Dynamite special. Maybe I'll even do a review of it on Thursday.....
No comments:
Post a Comment