AEW DYNAMITE PRIMER
APRIL 8, 2020
AIRS ON TNT, 8:00 PM EST
BY JOSHUA CHAMBERS (@josh_chambers), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
ROAD TO TNT CHAMPIONSHIP

This week’s “Road to” featured Jake Roberts cutting a promo about Lance Archer and Cody looking ahead to his match with Shawn Spears. Jake said after beating addiction to drugs and alcohol, no one should underestimate his ability to lead Lance Archer to the TNT Title.

AEW DARK RESULTS

QT Marshall defeated Lee Johnson

Wardlow defeated Ryan Piles

Kip Sabian defeated Tony Donati

AEW DYNAMITE MATCHES AND SEGMENTS

Lance Archer will be in action
Brodie Lee will be in action
Britt Baker vs. Hikaru Shida
Kenny Omega & Michael Nakazawa vs. The Best Friends
Cody Rhodes vs. Shawn Spears (First-Round TNT Championship Tournament Match)
Chris Jericho will be on color commentary with Tony Schiavone the entire show

Chucky T is predicting he will lose his tag match tonight.

Tonight I’m wrestling on TNT we probably lose this match Kenny is really good pic.twitter.com/VPHnyNUvsP

— Chuck Taylor (@SexyChuckieT) April 8, 2020

Meanwhile, Brodie Lee has issued his ominous Twitter statement about Dynamite tonight.

It's Wednesday. You know what that means.

— Brodie Lee (@ThisBrodieLee) April 8, 2020

Jericho is predicting “awesome” tonight with him and Tony Schiavone on commentary.

This is gonna be awesome! https://t.co/RbWLpmJDim

— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) April 7, 2020

FINAL THOUGHTS

As reported by Wade Keller on PWTorch.com last week, AEW has completed tapings for Dynamite that will carry them through the next several weeks, if not months, and relieve them of the need to continue putting the health and lives of their workers at risk. The upcoming episodes will include matches taped both at Daily’s Place, as well Norcross, Georgia.

This week we’ll see the first round TNT Championship bout between Cody and Shawn Spears. You’ll remember that Shawn Spears turned in June of last year at Fyter Fest, delivering an unprotected chairshot to Cody’s head, leaving a nasty gash that required 12 staples to close. Spears has spent the last nine months strutting around AEW Dark with Tully Blanchard, pummeling jobbers and participating in random tag-teams. I would be astonished if he won here.

Both Brodie Lee and Lance Archer are in a good spot for these episodes, as most of their character and storyline work can be done via pre-taped promos and vignettes. I’ve enjoyed Lee’s Vince McMahon based “Exalted One” character so far, and hope that AEW is able to maintain the character without running it into the ground. If they end up tanking the Exalted one, where does Lee go from there? As much as I’d like to see the American Badass version of Brodie Lee, I don’t think he could pull off abandoning an over-the-top gimmick like that and just show up on TV as a regular guy vying for the World Championship.
Hikaru Shida vs Britt Baker should be an okay match. Shida is, in my estimation, the best worker on the women’s roster and I’ve been enjoying her rise to the top of the rankings. I like Britt Baker well enough, but I’d like to see her expand her current mean girl gimmick, especially since she won’t have a booing crowd to play off of.

CATCH UP… 4/1 AEW DYNAMITE TV REPORT (Updated & Expanded): Cody & Darby vs. Spears & Guevara, TNT Championship full brackets revealed, Lance Archer in-ring debut