AEW Dynamite: Championship Change and Big return; Announcements for next week

Amid huge pop from the crowd at the KIA Forum in Los Angeles, the former contender for the AEW World Championship returned in a surprise capacity after a brief introduction by Tony Schiavone promising both good news and bad news for the audience.

Cole thanked the fans for the outpour of love and support from them over the past few months. This apparently rekindled his passion for wrestling after it seemed at one point that he could be permanently retired from in-ring competition.

The promo segment ended with the news that he’s medically cleared to compete for the first time since sustaining an injury-cum-concussion at the AEW-NJPW collaborative event Forbidden Door that took place on June 26.

Heading into that pay-per-view, Cole was already working through a torn labrum. During a four-way match against “Hangman” Adam Page, Kazuchika Okada, and Jay White for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title, he suffered the legitimate injury.

Previous reports claimed that the injury was the reason why the match had to finish earlier than expected as Jay pinned Cole to retain. Moving, the former Undisputed Era leader had been undergoing physical therapy for the arm injury instead of putting himself under the knife.

In more news from this week’s AEW Dynamite, The Elite won the best-of-seven series contest against the Death Triangle to become the new AEW World Trios Champions.

The January 11 episode of Dynamite saw the trio Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) defeating Death Triangle (PAC, Penta el Cero Miedo, and Rey Fenix) to keep the score 4-3 in their favor to emerge victorious in the long-going series.

With this win over Death Triangle, The Elite is now a two-time AEW World Trios Champions. They previously won the titles at All Out in September but a backstage altercation with CM Punk at that night caused them to vacate the titles while Punk also vacated the AEW World Championship.

Bryan Danielson competed against international sensation Konosuke Takeshita, last night on Dynamite. After a grueling encounter, the former WWE Champion picked up the win and thereby kept his hopes alive to compete against MJF in a one-hour Iron Man Match at Revolution.

The AEW World Championship did agree to the match but in order to reach there, Bryan will have to maintain a winning streak every week till February. Next week, the American Dragon takes on a former Ring of Honor World Champion, Bandido.

The January 18, 2023, episode of AEW Dynamite will take place at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California. Currently, the match card stands as follows:

– Bryan Danielson vs. Bandido

– Ricky Starks vs. Jake Hager

As for the taped edition of Rampage, this Friday night, the card is given below:

– Darby Allin (c) vs. Juice Robinson – TNT Championship Match

– Ruby Soho & Willow Nightingale vs. Tay Melo & Anna Jay – Street Fight

– Eddie Kingston & Ortiz vs. Malakai Black & Brody King

– The Acclaimed to appear

– Golden Globe winner Paul Walter Hauser to appear