Kenny Omega meets Swerve Strickland. Plus, Willow Nightingale puts her TBS Championship on the line in a four-way match. You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT on TSN2, the TSN App, and TSN.ca.
“The Cleaner” Kenny Omega vs. Swerve Strickland (w/ Prince Nana)
Things between Kenny Omega and Swerve Strickland escalated quickly and came to a boiling point last Wednesday night. Both men are former AEW World Champions and are in hot pursuit of the current titleholder, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, but both men hit speed bumps in their efforts to climb back atop the mountain in the form of Andrade El Idolo. In the mini-tournament to determine MJF’s challenger at next month’s Revolution pay-per-view, Andrade beat both men in singles matches. Each of Andrade’s victories required some extracurricular intervention. As Swerve was preparing to hit Big Pressure on the Jan. 28 Dynamite, Andrade managed to grab the ref’s arm as a distraction to nail Strickland with a low blow before hitting him with the DM to pick up the pin. The following week, Andrade emerged victorious over Omega. Omega’s trusted confidant-turned bitter foe, Don Callis, tossed a screwdriver in the ring for Andrade to utilize as he distracted the referee. Swerve came down to the ring to take the screwdriver out of the equation, which allowed Omega to set up for a One-Winged Angel. Referee Aubrey Edwards turned her attention to Strickland and that allowed for Andrade to slip out of Omega’s finisher, hit another low blow and land the DM for a victory. In the aftermath, Strickland insisted that he was only attempting to help Omega, but the Winnipeg native wasn’t so sure. The two men had out with a war of words last Wednesday that turned to blows and a wild melee ensued. Both men gave no quarter and it’s safe to say that attitude will continue on Wednesday night. The match on Dynamite will mark the first-ever singles bout between the two men and just the second overall. Their only other match came in trios action for RevPro Wrestling in London back in 2017 when the team of The Elite (Omega, Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) defeated Strickland, Lio Rush and the late Ryan Smile. The match is a massive one for both men who still harbour title designs. Both Strickland and Omega can ill-afford another loss at this juncture without it completely derailing their championship pursuit. With the bad blood flowing and the stakes high, which of these two men can pick up a major victory?
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TBS Championship match: AEW Women’s World Tag Team Champion Willow Nightingale (c) (w/ Harley Cameron) vs. “Megasus” Megan Bayne (w/ Penelope Ford and Lena Kross) vs. “The Problem” Marina Shafir (w/ Jon Moxley) vs. Mina Shirakawa
Four women with a lot of history will meet on Wednesday night as Willow Nightingale puts her TBS Championship on the line in a four-way match that also includes Megan Bayne, Marina Shafir and Mina Shirakawa. Nightingale and her partner, Harley Cameron, successfully defended their AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championships at Saturday’s Grand Slam Australia, turning away the challenge of Megabad (Bayne and Penelope Ford). But their night wasn’t over with the victory. After the match, the monstrous Lena Kross hit the ring and laid out the champions before aligning with Megabad. If the team of Bayne and Ford weren’t impressive enough, adding an Aussie who’s even taller than Bayne herself is a dangerous proposition for the tag champs and for Nightingale on Wednesday night. While Shirakawa would undoubtedly love to win her first AEW gold on Dynamite, she might want to get her hands on Shafir even more so. On last week’s Dynamite, the Death Riders’ Shafir choked Shirakawa out with Mother’s Milk backstage before dragging her out onto the ramp for Wheeler YUTA to cut her hair as a message to “Timeless” Toni Storm ahead of their mixed-tag, hair vs. hair match at Grand Slam. The team of Storm and Orange Cassidy got the last laugh, beating Shafir and YUTA with the later getting his head shaved. The issue for Nightingale in approaching this defence is that she doesn’t need to get pinned to lose her title, but such is the nature of a four-way match. Can Nightingale remain a double champion or will somebody else claim a title for the first time in their AEW careers?
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AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman and AEW World Trios Champion “Hangman” Adam Page meet face-to-face
At Saturday’s Grand Slam Australia, MJF survived the challenge of Brody King to remain AEW World Champion. On that same show, “Hangman” Adam Page put Andrade Idolo away with the Buckshot Lariat to earn himself a shot at becoming a three-time AEW World Champion at Revolution in Los Angeles next month. On Wednesday night, these two bitter rivals will meet face-to-face to discuss their upcoming title match. While Friedman and Page have done battle numerous times in the past, the PPV match will mark the first time they’ve butted heads while MJF is world champ. Page successfully defended the AEW World Championship against Friedman at Forbidden Door 2025, but now the shoe is on the other foot. That will be something that Page is reminded of by MJF on Wednesday night. Going into next month’s championship bout, Page holds the edge over Friedman in singles matches at 2-1. Will things remain civil on Wednesday night or will they manage to get physical only weeks before the PPV?
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The Brawling Birds (Jamie Hayter and Alex Windsor) make their in-ring debut
For weeks, we’ve seen Jamie Hayter and Alex Windsor discussing the formation of a partnership to take on the right of the AEW women’s tag team division. On Dynamite, we will get the first look at the two Brits as a team when they make their in-ring debut. Can Hayter and Windsor put the rest of the division on notice?
