Mercedes Moné has a lot more talking to do before she actually wrestles in AEW

Dynamite airs tonight (May 15) with a live show from Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, Washington. This is the fourth episode of Dynamite during the five week build towards Double or Nothing, which takes place on May 26.

Mercedes Mone has a lot more talking to do before she actually wrestles in AEW

We’ve now crossed the two month mark since Mercedes Moné arrived in AEW at Big Business, and she’s finally on the cusp of wrestling her first match for the promotion. That will happen at Double or Nothing when she challenges Willow Nightingale for the TBS Championship.

The contract signing to make that match official takes place tonight on Dynamite, so Mercedes will likely have a live mic in her hands as she tries to sell you on buying her return match on pay-per-view.

Mone’s promo work has not been impressive thus far in AEW, and a decent amount of the blame for that falls on the promotion for asking her to do almost nothing but talk for over two months. The idea should be to accentuate a performer’s strengths and hide their weaknesses, but AEW took the opposite approach with they way they’ve rolled out Mercedes to its fan base. This strategy doesn’t really make any sense, and she now has a lot less momentum than other recent major signings like Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada.

As a result, it feels like Mercedes really needs to deliver on the mic here to remind people why she is such a big star in pro wrestling. There is some obvious personal history between her and Willow, given that Mercedes has missed one year of ring time due to an injury she suffered in a match against Nightingale last year.

Will this segment end in violence after all the talking is done? Even if Willow and Mercedes intend to keep the peace, there’s potential for Kris Statlander and/or last month’s mystery attacker to incite a melee. It’s a pro wrestling contract signing, after all, so I’d expect some chaos by the time this segment wraps up. Who knows, Mercedes might even do a wrestling move if things really get out of hand.

The rest of tonight’s lineup

AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland is the local hero tonight when he goes one-on-one with former ally Brian Cage in a non-title title eliminator match. The Machine will earn a future title match if he wins, but there’s no way that’s happening without some help from Christian Cage. Swerve snapped over the weekend and used every weapon he could get his hands on to destroy the Gates of Agony, and a similar fate may await Brian Cage tonight as Strickland looks to get revenge on this traitor.

Jon Moxley & Bryan Danielson team up tonight to take on the duo of Kyle Fletcher and Jeff Cobb. Cobb is a hired gun for the Don Callis Family whose job is to take out Mox, to avenge the injured Powerhouse Hobbs. I’m pretty sure Chris Jericho hired Cobb for this same exact purpose in early 2020 and it didn’t work, so I expect Moxley will once again find a way to prevail. Look for Konosuke Takeshita to show up afterwards to challenge Mox to an IWGP world heavyweight title match at Double or Nothing.

Kazuchika Okada defends the AEW Continental Championship tonight against Dax Harwood. Dax prepared for this match by beating The Dynamite Kid in singles competition, but I don’t like his chances here against The Rainmaker. Nobody will be allowed ringside during this bout due to the rules of the championship, but a wild brawl can certainly break out afterwards between The Elite and their babyface opponents at Anarchy in the Arena.

Speaking of The Elite, Matthew and Nicholas Jackson have a tag team match against Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal. Daniels chose Sydal to be his partner for this match even though the guy practically loses every match he has on AEW television. It will take a miracle for the outcome of this match to be any different.

AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm has a singles match against Harley Cameron. Storm is pissed off about Saraya and Harley recently putting their hands on Mariah May, and will try to make an example out of Cameron as she gets ready to fight Serena Deeb at Double or Nothing. But is Toni also growing jealous of Mariah’s recent interactions with Mina Shirakawa?

TNT Champion Adam Copeland has challenged Malakai Black to a Barbed Wire Steel Cage match for the belt at Double or Nothing. Black is expected to give a response tonight, where he’ll probably be thrilled to see Adam’s dark side coming out.

Will Ospreay has a face-to-face confrontation with AEW International Champion Roderick Strong, ahead of their title match at Double or Nothing. Will Wardlow somehow find a way to screw this one up for The Undisputed Kingdom?

Finally, HOOK returns to TV tonight after dropping the FTW Championship to Chris Jericho last month. Does HOOK have a friend hanging around somewhere to help him fight off a probable ambush from Big Bill?

Other stuff to keep an eye

- Eddie Kingston was injured over the weekend in NJPW, and it’s not clear yet how this affects his status for Anarchy in the Arena. AEW will need to announce a replacement for him ASAP if he can’t work the match.

- If Eddie does need to be replaced, don’t expect Claudio Castagnoli to fill in that spot. He is worried about Bryan Danielson suffering another injury at Anarchy in the Arena and wants nothing to do with it.

- Orange Cassidy scored a win over Trent Beretta last week, but that didn’t really matter when Trent was piledriving him on steel steps after the match was over. It seems like they’ll need some kind of barbaric gimmick match the next time they square off, but Cassidy is setting himself up for failure if he keeps letting Don Callis get involved in his business. I’m not even sure that Orange should continue to trust Rocky Romero at this point, after Rocky foolishly suggested he patch things up with Trent to go after trios gold.

- Is anyone on the AEW roster brave enough to step in the ring with former world champion Samoa Joe?

- Jay White made the mistake of pissing off PAC. That probably won’t end well for Bullet Club Gold.

- Where the f*** is Sammy Guevara?

What will you be looking for on Dynamite?