As a special surprise on tonight's episode of AEW Dynamite, which took place in Detroit, Michigan, former WWE Superstar "Rhyno" had his debut match for All Elite Wrestling in front of his hometown audience.
The ECW legend was in action against Nick Wayne for the ROH World Television Championship in what ended up being not too long of a match before Wayne was able to retain the title via a Killswitch.
After the bout, Christian Cage grabbed the title belt and appeared to be putting it around Wayne's waist, only to yank it away again, hold it up to Wayne, drop it to the floor, and walk off.
At the moment, nothing has been verified about whether or not Rhino has signed any kind of deal with All Elite Wrestling—be it a temporary one or officially joining the roster. Given how Tony Khan tends to approach these things and the history of special guest appearances over the years, it's more than likely just a one-off appearance to pop the crowd with a hometown name and a surprise star coming in for the night, rather than Rhino being part of the roster going forward.
Rhino has been wrestling for various independent promotions this year, most recently teaming with Heath in a losing effort to The Country Gentlemen (AJ Cazana and Anthony Andrews) at IWR Insane WrestleFest. His last televised match was at the FSW Mecca X: Beynefit for Bey pay-per-view as he teamed with Bodhi Young Prodigy and Jai Vidal to defeat Alex Zayne, Ariya Daivari, and Nino Black. Rhino was previously signed with TNA Wrestling, wherein his last match was in a loss to Ryan Nemeth on the December 14, 2024 episode of Impact.
Check out Rhino's AEW entrance theme here:
Speaking of music, AEW Dynamite has a new intro theme. The opening song is now "You Wanted War" by Sum 41, off the album Heaven x Hell.
This replaces "I'm So Excited" by The Pointer Sisters, which had been met with a poor response from the audience.
Along with the new theme song and the AEW debut of Rhino, another first glance of sorts for someone was teased tonight as a red spider graphic appeared on the screen during the four-way eliminator match between "Timeless" Toni Storm, Anna Jay, Thunder Rosa, and Penelope Ford.
This is to hype up the debut of Thekla, who had recently left STARDOM and has been rumored to be heading to AEW any time now. Likely, this graphic means she's already signed her contract, though that has not yet been confirmed, nor did anyone specify when she would be showing up.