AEW: New Segment Set & Airing Update for 8/21 Dynamite Show, Bryan Danielson on His Three Years in AEW Being “Most Fun in My Career”, More News

Aug 21, 2024

New Segment Announced & Airing Status Update for Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite Show

AEW CEO Tony Khan recently announced one new segment for the card of Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show at the Utilita Arena Cardiff in Cardiff, Wales.

This new segment announced was a “Final Showdown” segment featuring Swerve Strickland and Bryan Danielson that will be moderated by Nigel McGuinness.

TOMORROW
Wednesday Night #AEWDynamite
First AEW TV in UK
Last Dynamite before All In
TBS, 8pm ET/7pm CT

The Final Showdown
AEW World Champion @swerveconfident + @bryandanielson, before Final Countdown @wembleystadium
Title Vs Career Sunday,
moderated by @McGuinnessNigel TOMORROW pic.twitter.com/qmmqj9Mc13
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) August 20, 2024

In regards to the airing status of Wednesday’s show, Post Wrestling’s John Pollock reported that one TrillerTV spokesperson spoken to stated that Dynamite will not be airing live in the United States and Canada and instead will be airing on a tape delay. The reason due to the five hour time zone difference between British Standard Time for when the show will air live in Cardiff and Eastern Standard Time in the U.S. and Canada.

Current card for August 21st AEW Dynamite show:

AEW Women’s World Championship – Saraya vs. “Timeless” Toni Storm (c)
AEW Continental Championship – Claudio Castagnoli vs. Kazuchika Okada (c)
Big Bill vs. HOOK
Chris Jericho vs. “Dynamite Kid” Tommy Billington
MJF and Will Ospreay face-to-face segment
Swerve Strickland and Bryan Danielson “The Final Showdown” face-to-face segment moderated by Nigel McGuinness

Bryan Danielson Comments on His Three Years in AEW Being “Most Fun in My Career”

Uproxx held a recent interview with Bryan Danielson. One of the topics discussed included Danielson’s thoughts about his time in AEW being the “most fun” of his wrestling career.

“When I think of this time, this has been the most fun I’ve ever had in my career. For the first time in my life and in my wrestling career, it didn’t feel like I was sacrificing family to do this thing that I loved.
I love wrestling and I loved being in WWE. I make no bones about that. I loved being in WWE, but it wasn’t my favorite style of wrestling. In AEW, I’m able to wrestle the style that I want to wrestle. And then on top of that, you have a lot of creative freedom there. And I also get to come home and spend a lot of time with my family. It’s really what I think of these last three years. I think of them as just this huge, huge blessing as far as this cherry on top of of a career that I’m not quite sure I deserved anyways.”

In a separate interview with BBC Radio, Danielson also gave his thoughts about his family attending AEW’s All In 2024 event and his daughter wants him to lose a All In due to the stipulation of retiring from wrestling if he loses against Swerve Strickland.

“Yeah, it’ll be the first time my son’s ever seen me wrestle live. My daughter got to see me wrestle live at WrestleMania 35, but she was two years old, and she doesn’t remember. It’s really exciting. It’s exciting for our family. My wife will be there, my kids will be there. My son, he hopes I win, but he also wants to see me get beat up a little bit. My daughter doesn’t want to see me get beat up, but she hopes I lose so that I can come home and just be a dad [laughs]. The big shift in my daughter came last year when I broke my arm. I wasn’t able to do All In last year because I had broken my arm two months before. That whole process, the first time she’d really seen Daddy hurt, and she did not like that. Shortly after that I came back, I was back for like six weeks, and I had two fractures in my orbital bone and this stuff. She’s like, not only is Daddy away from home, he’s having these really weird, horrific injuries [laughs], so yeah. It’s been difficult for her as a child to see that kind of happen to her dad. But she’s really looking forward to it.”

Following the interview, Swerve Strickland responded on Twitter stating “I got you Birdie.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

AEW News & Notes

AEW reportedly drew an attendance of 1,293 for their Aug. 17th AEW Collision show at the Esports Stadium Arlington in Arlington, TX, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

AEW reportedly has sold and distributed around 49,358 tickets for their Aug. 25th All In 2024 event at Wembley Stadium in London, England as of Tuesday morning, according to WrestleTix.

AEW recently released a new AEW Timelines video featuring the rise and fall of Mariah May’s friendship with “Timeless” Toni Storm.

RJ City recently announced on Twitter that the Zero Hour Pre-show for AEW All In 2024 will be two hours in length starting at 11AM EST.

AEW recently released the official match poster for the TNT Championship Coffin match between Darby Allin and Jack Perry at this Sunday’s AEW All In 2024 event.

As noted before, this past Saturday’s AEW Collision show in Arlington, Texas featured Jack Perry revealing a newly designed TNT Championship. Perry recently released a video on Twitter revealing the process of him redesigning the TNT title.

Preston Vance recently announced on Twitter that he is currently accepting indie bookings and him wanting to represent AEW in the indies. Vance stated “Looking to do independent promotions around the world. Ever since getting signed 4 years ago I have taken a hiatus from indy bookings. I am now taking indy bookings. I want to represent AEW while facing the best the world has to offer.“

In a recent interview with WrestleTalk, MJF gave his thoughts about Mercedes Mone joining AEW being a “massive get” for the company. MJF stated “I think she’s a massive get. I feel she started, was a big part in starting, the women’s revolution in WWE. I feel that she has brought a level of star power to our show. She’s a very interesting character.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

As noted before, British indies talents Michael Oku and Amira are believed to be close to signing contracts with AEW. In a recent interview with GRAPPL, Oku gave his thoughts about the recent rumors of him being expected to sign with AEW. Oku stated “My honest thought is that it’s very cool that those rumors exist and that they can be believed. AEW is a company that I would like to work for and it’s cool that I’ve had a lot of experiences working with a lot of their talent or working close to them if you include the Jericho cruise as well. Wembley Stadium, being anybody, the chance to perform at Wembley Stadium would be a really cool thing and that’s something that I would love to tick off and do. But, at the moment, it’s something that I’m open to and nothing more, nothing that is confirmed. Of course that would be my answer if I was confirmed, because everyone lies in wrestling. [laughs] But, I’m putting it out there, that is what I’m saying, so I’ve said it.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with Eat, Sleep, Podcast, Repeat, Swerve Strickland gave his thoughts about what it would mean to him to defeat Bryan Danielson and end Danielson’s career at AEW All In 2024. Strickland stated “That means his legacy belongs to me. To me, that’s as big as the world championship, in a way. Someone that has done everything there is to do in this industry. Since 2001 this man has been one of the pioneers of the style of wrestling that we have on television everywhere. This guy is the foundation of independent wrestling, international styles, in-ring technicians from 2000 on. This next generation is carved from this man. A lot of us have studied his tapes. As for me personally, another wrestler that put the Pacific Northwest and the state of Washington on the map. Growing up, ‘We’re so honored, we have somebody from Washington putting on in wrestling.’ That was Bryan Danielson. Now, I want that to be Swerve Strickland. ‘Bryan Danielson, yeah, he was great. Swerve Strickland took it to another level.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)