On tonight's episode of AEW Dynamite: Spring Breakthru, The Opps (Samoa Joe, Hook, and Katsuyori Shibata) were scheduled to face The Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, and PAC), but some problems led to a few alterations to the match.
In general, this match came about from a confrontation that went down at AEW Dynasty. The Opps went out in the main event between Jon Moxley and Swerve Strickland to try to help Swerve offset the influence from an interfering Death Riders attack. Last week on Dynamite, Mox beat Shibata while Joe and Hook beat Castagnoli and Yuta, before Marina Shafir and company used steel chairs to try to get some payback against The Opps.
Unfortunately, last week, PAC suffered an injury in his match against Swerve Strickland. It was announced on last Saturday night's episode of AEW Collision that world champion Jon Moxley (as the leader of the group), would be filling that void and replacing PAC in the match.
Also last Wednesday, though, HOOK vomited twice in the ring. Whatever he's dealing with must have kept him out of this match, as he was pulled from Dynamite before the show started. To excuse this, within the storyline, it was said that The Death Riders had attacked him beforehand and he was being sent to a hospital.
At first, it seemed as though this meant Joe and Shibata would have to wrestle a handicap match, but instead of it being 3-on-1, they were backed up by Powerhouse Hobbs as their surprise third member.
This match saw heavy interference as Marina Shafir introduced a steel chair, before being neutralized by Willow Nightingale, as has been happening as of late. The Young Bucks then came out to once again try to help out The Death Riders, but since it is "buck hunting season", Swerve Strickland (and Prince Nana) evened the numbers and took out Matt and Nick Jackson.
The match came to an end with Moxley passing out to Joe's Coquina Clutch, and the new champions celebrated in the ring with other members of the babyface side of the roster, who came out with some champagne.
This is now the ninth title reign in this championship's history, and it ends the Death Riders' run at 235 days, which is just a mere 3 days short of tying the record held by The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Max Caster and Billy Gunn) who had their 238 day title run stretch from AEW All In August 27, 2023 until they lost to The Bang Bang Gang aka Bullet Club Gold (Jay White, Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn) at AEW Dynasty on April 21, 2024.
For the full results of tonight's episode of AEW Dynamite, click here.
What's your reaction to The Death Riders losing the titles? Got any predictions for who might beat The Opps in the future to become the next champions? Drop your predictions and any other thoughts in the comments below to keep the discussion going!