Allin defends against debuting KUSHIDA on Dynamite

For the third time in two weeks, Darby Allin puts his TNT Championship on the line, this time against debuting New Japan star KUSHIDA. Plus, Bryan Danielson takes on Bandido and the Young Bucks meet Top Flight. You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2, streaming on the TSN App and on TSN.ca.

TNT Championship match: Darby Allin (c) (w/ Sting) vs. KUSHIDA – Since beating Samoa Joe on the Jan. 4 edition of Dynamite to win the TNT Championship for a second time, Darby Allin has already defended his title twice and fended off the challenges of Mike Bennett and Juice Robinson. On Wednesday night, he’ll take on an opponent he’s never shared a ring with before in KUSHIDA. In KUSHIDA, Allin faces a man who’s no stranger to championships. The 39-year-old Tokyo native is a six-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion (alongside Alex Shelley as the Time Splitters), WWE Cruiserweight Champion and ROH TV Champion. To say that KUSHIDA represents a stiff challenge to Allin might be putting things lightly. During his first reign as champion beginning in the fall of 2020, Allin defended his title nine times successfully before dropping it to Miro in the spring of 2021. A fighting champion, it was the wear and tear of frequent competition that hindered Allin as his reign continued and eventually allowed Miro to capitalize. Things don’t look like they’re going to be any different this time around, so can KUSHIDA take advantage of the champion’s fighting spirit? Will Allin make it three straight successful defences or will KUSHIDA add another title to an already impressive collection?

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“The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs. Bandido – On last week’s Dynamite, Bryan Danielson began the series of matches that he would have to win in order to get a shot at AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman at Revolution on March 5 in a 60-minute ironman match. MJF would only agree to the match should Danielson defeat a series of handpicked opponents up until Feb. 8. His trial began on last Wednesday’s Dynamite when he emerged victorious in a hard-fought match against Konosuke Takeshita. Up next on Wednesday night is another stiff test in the form of Bandido. The last time we saw the former ROH and PWG World Champion was back in November when he fell to “All Ego” Ethan Page in the semi-final of the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament. Bandido is still looking for his first signature win in AEW and there would be few bigger feathers in his cap available than defeating the man widely considered to be the best professional wrestler on earth in Danielson. While Danielson and Bandido have never faced each other before, the two men are undoubtedly familiar with the other’s work and will relish the opportunity to test themselves. Can Danielson keep on course to getting his hands on MJF or will Bandido manage to derail his momentum?

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AEW World Trios Champions The Young Bucks (Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) (w/ Brandon Cutler) vs. Top Flight (Dante Martin and Darius Martin) – Two sets of brothers collide on Wednesday night when the Jacksons take on the Martins. This will be the third time that the two teams have done battle, but it’s their first match in almost a year. Things have changed greatly since then for both teams, but one difference in particular is the level of confidence in Top Flight. At 21 (Dante) and 23 (Darius), the Martins remain to of the youngest competitors in AEW, yet they’re already light years ahead of where they were when they made their AEW debuts in 2020 and have shown the ability to battle through injury and adversity. In recent weeks, the Martins, along with AR Fox, picked up one of the biggest wins in their career when they outlasted seven other teams to win the  Three Kings Christmas Casino Trios Battle Royal and the $300,000 that came with it. Interestingly enough, the Jacksons, along with Kenny Omega, are the current AEW Trios Champions. Could a win for Top Flight on Wednesday night put them and Fox in line for a title shot down the line? This could be the perfect time for Top Flight to take on the Bucks again. The Jacksons are undoubtedly still feeling the effects of their brutal seven-match series against Death Triangle (PAC, Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fenix) for the trios titles and will come into the match banged up. Can Top Flight take advantage and pick up the win over the former AEW World Tag Team Champions?

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AEW All-Atlantic Championship match: “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy (w/ “The Kentucky Gentleman” Chuck Taylor, Trent Beretta and Danhausen) vs. Jay Lethal (w/ “The Last Outlaw” Jeff Jarrett, Sonjay Dutt and Satnam Singh) – The title match between Orange Cassidy and Jay Lethal on Wednesday has one of the stranger geneses in AEW history. On last week’s Rampage, actor Paul Walter Hauser, fresh off of winning the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Performance in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television for his work in Apple TV+’s Blackbird, made an appearance with award in hand. He was interrupted by Danhausen, who said that because he was AEW’s biggest merchandise seller in 2022, he deserves the Golden Globe. Before they could hash anything out, the quartet of Jay Lethal, Jeff Jarrett, Sonjay Dutt and Satnam Singh made their way down to ringside to run down everybody involved, which led to Hauser eating an “El Kabong” shot from Jarrett. After Cassidy and Best Friends made the save, Cassidy agreed to the title defence against Lethal. Lethal already holds a victory over Cassidy in AEW. On the Aug. 3 edition of Dynamite, Lethal put Cassidy away with the Lethal Injection. Lethal and Jarrett’s recent pursuit of the AEW World Tag Team Championships ended fruitlessly, so this match represents another chance for the former ROH World Champion to claim his first piece of hardware in AEW. Will Lethal win gold or will Cassidy make it seven successful title defences?

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Willow Nightingale vs. Toni Storm – For the first time ever, Toni Storm will take on Willow Nightingale, but what kind of shape will either woman be in? Both competitors are coming off of brutal tag-team matches in the last week with Nightingale likely the worse for wear of the two. Storm and Saraya fell in defeat to The Killer and The Pillar (AEW Women’s World Champion Jamie Hayter and Dr. Britt Baker, DMD) on Dynamite, while the team of Nightingale and Ruby Soho emerged victorious in a hellacious no-disqualification match against the Jericho Appreciation Society’s TayJay (Tay Mel and Anna Jay) in an encounter that left all four women a bloody mess. While Nightingale might be the more beaten-up of the two women, there’s another potential issue for Storm – ring rust. This will be her first singles match since dropping the AEW Women’s World Championship to Hayter at November’s Full Gear. During the period between that match and Wednesday night, Nightingale has worked 11 matches, including six singles bouts. A win over a former champion in Storm would go a long way in priming Nightingale for a shot at Hayter. Can she pick up the biggest win of her AEW career or will Storm find a way to get back on track?

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“Absolute” Ricky Starks vs. Jake Hager (w/ “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard and “Cool Hand” Angelo Parker) – Speaking of biggest wins in an AEW career, Ricky Starks should have had something to celebrate on the Jan. 4 edition of Dynamite. After fighting off constant interference from the Jericho Appreciation Society on the outside, Starks put Chris Jericho away with a spear for a huge victory as he looks to once again build momentum towards and AEW World Championship shot. Jericho, naturally, did not take the loss well and he and the rest of the JAS laid waste to Starks following the match. The beating culminated with Jake Hager delivering an absolutely brutal-looking power bomb from the ring through a table on the outside with Starks taking a sickening bump. Looking for revenge, Starks meets Hager on Wednesday night. While Hager has a significant size advantage, Starks’s righteous indignation might more than make up for what he lacks. Can Hager power his way to a win or will Starks run through him?

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PLUS:

– “Hangman” Adam Page speaks to Renee Paquette about his victory over her husband, Jon Moxley, on last week’s Dynamite