Sugar Land, Texas got a full dose of AEW chaos on Wednesday night, as Dynamite delivered a jam-packed card from the Smart Financial Centre that set the table for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door in a major way.
AEW World Champion MJF opened the show with Don Callis and the full Don Callis Family, unveiling his squad for the upcoming 6-on-6 Steel Cage Match against Team Briscoe at Forbidden Door. MJF burned through the list of men gunning for him — mocking Andrade El Ídolo to his face, taking shots at Swerve Strickland and Hangman Adam Page, and declaring he prays Will Ospreay makes it to Wembley so he can break his neck. When it came to Kenny Omega, MJF leaned on Callis to note he’s beaten Omega twice already. Team MJF was officially revealed as TNT Champion Kevin Knight, Kyle Fletcher, Jake Doyle, Kazuchika Okada, and Andrade El Ídolo — though Andrade’s allegiance didn’t appear entirely locked in, as he questioned MJF before Callis stepped in to smooth things over. The 12-man preview tag match that closed the night saw MJF and the Don Callis Family defeat a combination of The Conglomeration (Mark Briscoe, Orange Cassidy, Kyle O’Reilly, and Roderick Strong), Darby Allin, and AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita.
In the Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Semifinal, former TBS Champion Mercedes Moné defeated Hazuki in what was described as an epic contest to advance to the Finals. Moné’s path to the Owen Cup continues.
Kenny Omega handled a pre-show challenge from Tony Nese of the Premier Athletes with ease, finishing things with the One Winged Angel. Post-match, TMDK — led by Zack Sabre Jr. — hit the ring, only for Omega to be backed up by The Elite: the Young Bucks and Jack Perry. Omega grabbed the mic and laid out the stakes: he and ZSJ will meet at Forbidden Door, framing it as a marquee encounter that benefits both AEW and NJPW.
Elsewhere on the card, Brodido — the reunited team of ROH World Champion Bandido and Brody King, together for the first time since Full Gear — topped Death Riders’ Jon Moxley and Daniel Garcia in a hard-hitting tag match. The Dogs ran into unexpected trouble when they again targeted AEW production staff, only to find themselves face-to-face with AEW World Tag Team Champions Cope and Cage. Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay also went face-to-face, with Moxley later helping Ospreay process the emotional weight of the moment.
With Forbidden Door on the horizon, Wednesday’s Dynamite made clear the stakes on both sides of the MJF–Briscoe war — and plenty of other scores — are about as high as they get.
Source: All Elite Wrestling
