AEW is staging its “Beach Break” edition of “Dynamite” in Chicago, which, first glance, is curious.
I mean, sure, there’s a big lake in Chicago, and beaches along the lake.
I don’t know that people outside of Chicago think of Chicago as being a beach town, but anyway, here we are.
The show (8 p.m. ET, TBS) features a huge main event, with world champ Jon Moxley defending against former champ Samoa Joe, and a four-way match on the women’s side featuring the return of hometown star Skye Blue.
We’re two weeks out from the “Double or Nothing” pay-per-view (Sunday, May 25), so, you can expect more movement toward getting the card for the signature show set into stone.
The main event: Jon Moxley-Samoa Joe
I’m very much looking forward to Moxley losing the belt, because I’ve hated his fourth reign as the AEW champ.
I don’t see Samoa Joe, who had a brief run as the world champ in 2024, being the guy to end Moxley’s reign.
I like that Tony Khan has been giving this match some oxygen, putting it on the schedule several weeks ago, but Joe had been largely relegated to tags and six-man tags ahead of that, so even with the lead time, Mox-Joe has felt like a placeholder for something else.
What that something else is for Moxley and the world title, I don’t know.
Women in the spotlight: Toni Storm in a four-way
So, we knew the women’s world champ, Toni Storm, and Skye Blue were going to be in the four-way match on “Beach Break.”
Khan announced on social media on Monday that the surprise entrants would be Mina Shirakawa and the newly crowned NJPW Strong women’s champion, AZM.
I know nothing about AZM, so I’ll take the wrestling interwebs at their word that she’s worthy of the spot for her AEW debut.
One way I can see this one going would be Blue, returning from an ankle injury last summer, doing something that causes Shirakawa to lose, setting them up for a feud, and leaving Storm and AZW clean for a possible one-on-one at “Double or Nothing.”
Also on the show
Will Ospreay & Hangman Adam Page vs. Konosuke Takeshita & Josh Alexander: This is a Tony Khan Special – a tag match with two guys who are going to face each other at an upcoming big show (in this case, Ospreay and Page) against two heels.
The idea here is for the faces to do something to get on each other’s nerves, and the heels to feed their negative energy.
Ricochet vs. Zach Gowen: The only purpose here is to put Ricochet over even more as a despicable heel.
Khan will no doubt book this one to appear to be more competitive than it needs to be.
There’s gotta be more from the MJF-Hurt Syndicate storyline: I suspect it ends up with MJF and Bobby Lashley agreeing to a match at “Double or Nothing” with the stipulation that an MJF win earns him induction into the Syndicate.
As long as whatever happens from there doesn’t lead to a split between Lashley and Shelton (Benjamin Shelton) Benjamin, I’m good with it.
Share
Chris Graham
