PREVIEW — AEW Beach Break (Jan 26, 2022)
As we near the end of the first month of 2022, All Elite Wrestling has been on absolute fire. From holding the first ever Battle of the Belts, to debuting superstars like Brody King, AEW has been an exciting watch to say the least. They will look to continue the trend of providing high quality entertainment this Wednesday when they bring a special episode of Dynamite to Cleveland, Ohio; it’s time for Beach Break.
I am sure there are going to be some surprises, and we will get into that in a little while, but let’s start off with covering the segments and matches that have already been announced.
On the segment side of things, we will have two superstars addressing the crowd on Wednesday. The AEW Women’s World Champion Dr. Britt Baker DMD will be taking to the ring with some things to say, and then in another segment, the best in the world CM Punk will be grabbing a mic. As we build towards Revolution, these segments will hold a lot of importance, but for different reasons. Dr. Britt Baker will be looking for an opponent for the PPV, so could this be where the inevitable feud with Thunder Rosa picks back up? I firmly believe that Thunder Rosa will be the one to take the title off of Baker, and maybe that is better suited for Double or Nothing, but regardless I think we will be getting a better idea of the Women’s World Title picture after Beach Break.
CM Punk’s segment will obviously serve to further the story line with him and MJF. Punk has now worked his way through The Pinnacle, and a date with MJF appears to be on the horizon. Interestingly enough, Dynamite is set to live from the Wintrust Area in Punk’s hometown of Chicago, so Beach Break could be the perfect set up to this match finally happening. I don’t even believe the Chicago match will be end of this feud, as I think the logical place for a conclusion would be at the Revolution PPV at the end beginning of March. This would probably also be the best place to pull the trigger on the Wardlow/MJF stuff, which is one of the most interesting stories happening in AEW right now.
As for the matches themselves, let’s start with Legit Leyla Hirsch vs Red Velvet. This match has the potential to be a good one, but the story just isn’t doing it for me. I am not really a fan of Leyla Hirsch. She is obviously talented, but there just seems to be something missing, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Red Velvet has been developing nicely and it’s great to see her getting some TV time, but this match is purely about whats going on with Hirsch and Kris Statlander and honestly, I think Statlander is above all of this. I am a huge fan of Kris Statlander and the Best Friends stable as a whole and I wish AEW could find something more interesting for to do. This is where I say that maybe AEW needs some Women’s Tag Titles, because even though they just added the TBS Title to the fold, there are so many amazing women on this roster and more of them need something to battle for. Anyway, I see Hirsch getting the win here and moving on to pick a fight against Statlander in the coming weeks.
In what could be a very interesting Trios match, The Inner Circle (Jericho, Santana, and Ortiz) will be taking on 2.0 and Daniel Garcia. Jericho has been something of an enigma as of late. I can honestly say I am kind of getting tired of his current gimmick, and it’s only gotten worse with him trying to get over the whole GFY thing. It really comes across as corny and as much as I was happy when the Inner Circle turned face during their confrontation with The Pinnacle, it is time to turn Jericho heel again. The best place to do that will be the culmination of this angle, which I believe will be Jericho battling it out with Eddie Kingston at some point for the “rights” to Santana and Ortiz, and will eventually lead to the end of the Inner Circle. Sammy Guevara is doing his own thing in the TNT Title battle with Cody Rhodes, Jake Hager has been nowhere to be seen and is mostly an afterthought, and it’s time for Santana and Ortiz to get their run at the tag titles. As for this specific match, I see it going one of two ways: either Santana and Ortiz get the win without even tagging in Jericho to prove that they don’t need him, or 2.0 get the win with Jericho somehow costing his team the win. Either way, this match could be great if they find the right finish.
Speaking of the Inner Circle, Sammy Guevara is getting ready for an absolute war against Cody Rhodes in a unification ladder match for the TNT Championship. With Cody having COVID a couple weeks back and unable to perform at Battle of the Belts, Sammy was able to win the Interim TNT Title in a big match against Cody’s brother Dustin Rhodes. Now, as Cody looks to cement his third reign as TNT Champ, a ladder match is the only way for this to go down between these two warriors. If you follow Sammy’s vlog then you’ll know he has been on vacation with his girlfriend Tay Conti in her home country of Brazil, so the Spanish God will be coming into this match well rested and ready for a fight. Cody on the hand, will be looking to show Tony Khan and the rest of the AEW universe why he deserves that new contract, and is a true face of this company. It is hard to predict a winner in this one, but I feel as though Cody most likely retains and moves on to his next opponent.
Last but not least, Wednesday night will feature a Unsanctioned Light Out Match with Orange Cassidy taking on Adam Cole. I couldn’t be a bigger fan of both of these men, and although this feud is clearly just filler until Adam Cole starts tangling with Hangman Page in a bid for the AEW World Championship, that doesn’t mean this I haven’t loved this story line, because I have. That mixed tag from last week was pure flames, so any continuation if this is a welcome sight for me. This match will most likely blow off this feud, and that’s fine, but this match is going to be crazy, and when Adam Cole pulls out the W, it will only be a matter of time before he starts things up with Hangman.
In terms of surprises, there is only one that I am expecting to happen. Now I am not Nostradamus, or some sort of fortune teller, but if I were a betting man, I would be going all in on Johnny Gargano debuting at Beach Break in his home town of Cleveland, Ohio. He is well free and clear of his WWE non-compete, and has been talking the last couple weeks about being ready to wrestle again, so what better place to debut than your hometown on a special episode of Dynamite. Like I said, I don’t actually know this is going to happen, it is just an educated guess, but I like to see the bright side of life and this would be an amazing moment if it were to happen.
Beach Break should be an amazing show, and it all goes down this Wednesday Jan 26th at 8:00pm on TBS in the US and on TSN in Canada.
