FTR and Brodido meet in the World Tag Team Eliminator Tournament final. Plus, we'll hear from AEW World Champion "Hangman" Adam Page and Adam Copeland and Christian Cage speak with Tony Schiavone. You can catch AEW Dynamite on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT on TSN2, the TSN App, and TSN.ca.
World Tag Team Eliminator Tournament final: FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) (w/ Stokely Hathaway) vs. Brodido ("Big, Bad" Brody King and ROH World Champion Bandido)
The World Tag Team Eliminator Tournament all comes down to this. For a shot at the AEW World Tag Team Champions the Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin) at Sunday's Forbidden Door pay-per-view in London, two-time former champions FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) face off with Brodido (Brody King and ROH World Champion Bandido). To reach the final, FTR first got by JetSpeed (Kevin "The Jet" Knight and "Speedball" Mike Bailey) in the quarter-finals before a victory over the Bang Bang Gang (Juice Robinson and Austin Gunn) in the semis. Neither was what you might call a "clean" victory with "Big Stoke" aiding in both wins. On the other side of the bracket, the new team of Brodido first dispatched the Gates of Agony (Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona) before compounding the misery of the Young Bucks (Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) by handing them a defeat in the semis. For Harwood and Wheeler, the tournament has been an opportunity to get back atop the mountain. The team that considers itself not only the best AEW has to offer, but the single best tag-team of all-time, last held the tag straps for 185 days in 2023, dropping them to the team of Big Bill and Ricky Starks that fall. As far as they're concerned, it's been far too long since they were champs and they want to change this ASAP. Two-time AEW champs, three-time WWE World Tag Team Champions, as well as former IWGP World Tag Team Champions, ROH World Tag Team Champions and AAA World Tag Team Champions, FTR's list of accolades is long and they certainly have a major edge in experience as a team, but there's something to be said about King and Bandido catching lightning in a bottle. Since starting to team regularly early last month, King and Bandido have lost just once and are clearly developing chemistry with each successive match. The duo has established a particularly devastating finisher with King laying on his back to monkey flip Bandido into a 450 on a downed opponent. With King's brawn and deceptive agility combined with Bandido's speed and technical prowess, an argument can be made that Brodido is the tougher matchup for Lashley and Benjamin. But that won't matter to FTR at all. Can FTR set up another shot at gold or will Brodido earn their first-ever title shot?
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Death Riders (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler YUTA) (w/ "The Problem" Marina Shafir) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and JetSpeed (Kevin "The Jet" Knight and "Speedball" Mike Bailey)
On Sunday, there will be a war inside of a cage at the O2 Arena. At Forbidden Door, 10 men will meet in a lights out cage match when the Death Riders (Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli) team with the Young Bucks (Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) and IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion Gabe Kidd to take on Will Ospreay, Darby Allin, the Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi) and Hiroshi Tanahashi. We will get a taste of what we're in for on Wednesday night when Moxley, Castagnoli and Death Riders stablemate Wheeler YUTA are in trios action against Kevin Knight, Mike Bailey and New Japan Pro-Wrestling icon (and company president) Tanahashi. The match marks the first time Tanahashi has wrestled in an AEW ring in over a year and his first match on Dynamite since 2022. Still reeling from losing his AEW World Championship to "Hangman" Adam Page at All In and a subsequent rematch, Jon Moxley has had a thorn in his side in recent weeks in the form of JetSpeed. Moxley has beaten both Bailey and Knight in singles matches in consecutive weeks, but if you know anything about the tenacity of both men, they made the matches absolute hell for the four-time AEW World Champion. They'll have the opportunity to do that again in Glasgow as they team with the eight-time IWGP World Champion. For "President Ace," the match is an opportunity to get another look at Moxley and Castagnoli before Sunday. It was at the inaugural Forbidden Door in 2022 in Chicago that Moxley won the vacant interim AEW World Championship in a match against Tanahashi. While all six men have difficulty turning it off in the ring, it would behoove Moxley and Castagnoli and Tanahashi to save something in the tank for Sunday and a match that will most certainly be a grueling encounter. Though there's nothing more than pride on the line on Wednesday night, neither team will be phoning it in. Which of these two trios will have their hands raised on Wednesday night?
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AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm (w/ Luther) and Alex Windsor vs. TBS Champion "The CEO" Mercedes Mone and ROH Women's World Champion "The Fallen Goddess" Athena (w/ Billie Starkz)
Just as the trios match will whet fans' appetites for Forbidden Door, so will this star-studded women's tag match. Before Toni Storm defends her AEW Women's World Championship against ROH Women's World Champion Athena and Mercedes Mone puts her TBS Championship on the line against Alex Windsor, CMLL's Persephone and a representative of Stardom in a four-way match, Storm and Windsor team up to take on Athena and Mone. There will be a great deal of bad blood flowing throughout Wednesday night's match. In winning the Casino Gauntlet Match at last month's All In, Athena earned the right to an AEW Women's World Championship match and let Storm know very quickly that she was coming for her. In the weeks since, Athena and Storm have gotten physical on a number of occasions, but more importantly, Athena pinned Storm in a tag match on the July 30 Dynamite after downing her with an O-Face. Never lacking in confidence, Athena wants to continue her momentum into Sunday's match with a good showing on Wednesday night. There's no love lost between Mone and Storm either with the latter having defeated the former at All In to hand Mone her first loss in AEW. But Mone still holds the TBS Championship (as well as seven other international titles) and must defend it against three other competitors on Sunday. Wednesday night's match marks the second straight week in which Mone will share a ring with Windsor. On last week's Dynamite, Windsor teamed with Queen Aminata and Willow Nightingale to defeat Mone and the Triangle of Madness's Thekla and Skye Blue in a trios match. With so much on the line on Sunday, none of the four women in this match can afford to enter it with an injury, but at the same time, Wednesday's bout offers a great opportunity to send out one final message to the opposition. With so many combustible elements in play, what will happen when this quartet takes the ring on Wednesday?
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We will hear from AEW World Champion "Hangman" Adam Page
Last week's Dynamite began with Adam Page goading Maxwell Jacob Friedman into enacting his AEW World Championship contract at Forbidden Door, but it ended with MJF getting the better of the champ. As Renee Paquette attempted to get a word from Page in the parking lot, he was blindsided by Friedman and given a vicious beating. Before the two men meet again in London on Sunday, Page will address his opponent one more time on Wednesday night. What does he have to say to MJF?
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Tony Schiavone speaks to "The Rated-R Superstar" Adam Copeland and Christian Cage
One of the greatest tag teams in the history of professional wrestling are surprisingly back on the same page. For the first time in nearly 15 years, Adam Copeland and Christian Cage will team up at Forbidden Door to take on Cage's former allies, The Matriarchy (ROH World TV Champion Nick Wayne and Kip Sabian). After years of estrangement, Copeland and Cage will speak to Tony Schiavone about their rekindled friendship and Sunday's match. What's on the mind of the seven-time world tag champs?
