AEW Dynamite Results 4/8/2020

All Elite Wrestling returns to the airwaves tonight for this week’s installment of the “Wednesday Night Wars,” as AEW Dynamite kicks off at 8/7c.

This week’s edition of the show is scheduled to feature the quarterfinals of the tournament to crown the first-ever TNT World Champion.

Featured below are AEW Dynamite Results from Wednesday, April 8, 2020.

AEW DYNAMITE RESULTS (4/8/2020)

Jake Roberts Kicks Off The Show

This week’s show kicks off with Jake Roberts walking into a dark empty room with a chair. He says “tick-tock” as he takes a seat and begin cutting his promo as sadistic / ominous music plays while he talks.

He goes on to list dangerous activities, such as jumping out of an airplane without a parachute, before comparing those activities to the experience of getting in the ring with Lance Archer.

Jake goes on to point to last week’s in-ring debut for Archer, where he manhandled Marko Stunt, as he transitions into a speculative rant about how Cody might lose to Shawn Spears in the quarterfinal TNT Championship Tournament that kicks off tonight.

Tony Schiavone & Chris Jericho Welcome Us

From there, we hear Tony Schiavone welcome us to the show. He introduces his special guest announcer for tonight, the former “Le Champion” of AEW and the leader of the Inner Circle — Chris Jericho.

Lance Archer vs. Allen Angels

After that, “The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer immediately begins making his way to the ring. His opponent, who Tony and Chris refer to as Allen Angels, is already in the ring.

The bell sounds and here we go. Instantly, Archer starts taking it to his smaller foe, dominating him from the opening bell. The match is nothing more than a showcase performance / squash match for Archer to shine, and that’s just what he did.

When all was said and done, Archer finished Angels with ease after taking him out with his impressive finisher — The Blackout.

Winner: Lance Archer

Britt Baker vs. Hikaru Shida

Now Dr. Britt Baker starts making her way out, as the fast pace of this week’s show continues. Jericho has some fun with Schiavone and his history on AEW Dynamite over the past several weeks with Baker, noting Baker gave him more TV time than he has had in ages.

Baker’s opponent is now out, Hikaru Shida. We have the number four and number one contender in the current official rankings for AEW’s women’s division.

The bell sounds and these two start to go at it. Jericho continues having fun on commentary, although only in quick spots to add humor. He and Schiavone just had some fun proving they are die-hard fans of the rock band KISS.

Meanwhile, Baker has established complete control of the offense in this one. She poses laying on the mat at Austin Gunn, who is among those in the peanut gallery-type audience sitting in the stands near ringside for the show.

While still firmly in control of the offense, Baker continues to gloat and showboat, which leads her to a full-on conversation with Schiavone, with Jericho shouting at her to watch out but her somehow not hearing him. This led to Shida blasting Baker with a high spot and taking over control of the bout.

The action spills out to the ring, where Shida remains in control. On that note we head to a mid-match commercial. We return from the break and we see Baker stuck in a tight submission from Shida. Baker struggles and eventually makes her way to the ropes to break the hold and keep her chances in the match alive.

Baker fights her way back into the bout, blasting Shida with a double-arm butterfly suplex before going for the Mandible Claw on Shida. Unfortunately for Dr. Britt D.D.S., Shida managed to escape. Chris Jericho puts over this match for the second time, praising the efforts of Baker and Shida.

Jericho now calls a kick to the kidney spot in the match, bringing up that “we have seen top wrestlers get knocked out with kidney shots before” — Anyone remember Alistair Overeem vs. Brock Lesnar?

Now Baker’s nose is pouring blood like a faucet. Baker throws a wicked kick to the face of Shida as she continues to fight despite her face slowly becoming a crimson mask. Shida tries suplexing Baker in the ring from opposite sides of the ring apron, but Baker blocks it and heads to the top rope.

Shida goes up as well and now Shida has Baker laying across her back like a Samoan Drop position, but instead she jumped off the ropes backwards and through Baker’s body up, which crashed down and smashed into the top turnbuckle in awkward fashion. Shida follows up with a running flying knee to the busted face of Baker. 1-2-3. Great match from these two.

Winner: Hikaru Shida

Backstage With Kenny Omega & Michael Nakazawa

We head backstage after the women’s bout and we see Kenny Omega hanging out with Michael Nakazawa. Omega talks about the two being good friends from their DDT days.

Omega talks about seeing the lineup for tonight and how they are teaming up against The Best Friends but told Nakazawa that they need a name. Nakazawa suggests they be called The Best Friends.

He tries explaining that the name of the team they are facing is The Best Friends. Nakazawa says but we really are best friends and brings up Omega being an Executive Vice President (EVP) at AEW and can change their name if he wants.

With that said, Orange Cassidy walks in and opens a door, revealing the fact that Trent and Chuck were behind a wall listening to Omega and Nakazawa. They eventually agree that whoever wins their match tonight will earn the rights to “The Best Friends” tag-team name. We head to commercial break.

Jon Moxley / Jake Hager Video Package

We return from the break and we are treated to a “Countdown to UFC” or “HBO Boxing 24/7” (R.I.P. HBO Boxing) style video that looks at Moxley and Hager training and preparing for their No Holds Barred showdown for the AEW World Championship on next week’s AEW Dynamite.

A veteran from season one of UFC’s “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show, Josh Rafferty, is featured as one of the “talking heads” interviewed for the video package. Hager mentions not only wanting to beat Moxley to win the AEW title, but after he does that, he’s going to go win the Bellator title.

Tony Schiavone runs down some of the matches still to come and tells us to hang in there as they go back to another commercial break. Omega/Nakazawa vs. Best Friends appears to be up next.

Kenny Omega & Michael Nakazawa vs. Best Friends (w/ Orange Cassidy)

We return from the break and after a lengthy video package focusing on Cody never being able to challenge for the AEW World Championship, but now he can challenge for the TNT Championship. He talks about TNT wanting to get involved in wrestling and wanted their own title.

Now we see the ring entrances for our next bout, which as advertised, is in the AEW tag-team division, which currently features “Hangman” Adam Page and Kenny Omega as the champions. Omega will team with his former DDT tag-team partner Nakawa in this unique stipulation match. As noted, the “Best Friends” tag-team name is on the line.

The team of Omega and Nakazawa are out, as are Chuck and Trent. Shawn Spears yells from the peanut gallery type “crowd” / “audience” in the front row to Nakazawa to “impress him,” noting he is still looking for a tag-team partner.

Early on, Omega handles things for his team. After dominating the action for a couple minutes, he tags in Nakazawa. One of the Best Friends tries chopping him, but Nakazawa puts on some baby oil on his chest and the chops slide right off, having no affect on him.

Nakazawa tags back out and now he and Omega are doing their old double-team spot in the ring, ala “Rugged” Ronnie Garvin stomping over and over again. Now all four guys are in the ring. This one is turning into a chaotic scene, with two of them spilling out to the floor. On that note we head to a mid-match commercial.

We return from the break and the pace and intensity picks up. When all was said-and-done, it was Chuck and Trent hitting their double-team finisher on Nakazawa to score the pin and keep the rights to their name. After the match, Spears reacts, seemingly unimpressed after Nakazawa took the pin.

Regardless, inside the ring, Omega, Nakazawa, Trent and Chuck all back into a corner of the ring while “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy remains in the center of the ring. They all close in and have a big group hug to end the segment. Excellent match.

“The Exalted One” Brodie Lee Talks To The Dark Order Minions

We shoot to another heavily produced, pre-taped video segment. Once again, this is allmost like a heavily edited scene from a television series.

Lee talks about the guys needing to be ready to make sacrifices. Lee takes one of the guys into the building as we head back to commercial.

Dr. Britt Baker Upset About Busted Nose

We return from the break and after a video package focusing on some of AEW’s charitable efforts airs, we shoot to a backstage interview with an upset Britt Baker.

Baker calls Shida the dirtiest wrestler she’s ever been in the ring with. She tells us to look at her nose/face. She complains some more before talking about Shida being lucky she didn’t touch Baker’s teeth. She then quickly noted that even if she did, she’s a dentist and can fix them herself. That ends this interview.

Another UFC-Style Countdown Video Package For Moxley-Hager

We shoot to another video package hyping next week’s No Holds Barred match for the AEW World Championship between current title-holder Jon Moxley and the muscle of The Inner Circle — cross-over athlete from Bellator MMA, Jake Hager.

The video features Hager and his wife talking about how dangerous he is and how dedicated he is to his craft. Moxley talks about being on-edge and capable of anything. Hager promises he is going to hit Moxley harder than we have ever seen anyone get hit before. Moxley closes the video package by saying, “I’m gonna f*ck you up!”

Jon Moxley defends his AEW World Championship for the first time when he meets undefeated AEW star and Bellator MMA heavyweight contender Jake Hager in an Empty Arena No Holds Barred match on next week’s edition of AEW Dynamite. After this video package, we head back to another commercial break.

BROKEN Matt Hardy With Broken Brilliance, Issues ELITE DELETION Challenge

BROKEN Matt Hardy, with quite an attempt at a comedic / demented promo, appears in a pre-taped, heavily pre-produced video package where Hardy mocks Jericho for wearing leather pants in a tub that is hot. He takes some digs at other wrestlers before referencing that Jericho and The Inner Circle attacked his friends.

Now he calls for Vanguard and on command, the drone flies up to Hardy. He has a quick convo with the drone about garbage fires and then repeats the word “DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!” over and over.

Finally, Hardy wraps up his pre-taped video package segment by essentially issuing a challenge for a showdown at the Hardy Compound for an “ELITE DELETION.”

“The Exalted One” Brodie Lee vs. Lee Johnson

After the Hardy video package we head back inside the empty arena where “The Exalted One” of The Dark Order — Brodie Lee — begins making his ring entrance.

Schiavone and Jericho put over Lee as a monster, and Jericho touts the fact that no one expected Lee as “The Exalted One,” instead thinking it was Matt Hardy, Raven or Christopher Daniels.

The bell sounds and here we go. Brodie Lee will be going one-on-one against Lee Johnson. Lee goes right after his smaller opposition, squashing him like a bug in a match that lasted all of a minute or two at best. Easy victory for “The Exalted One.” After the match, we head right back to yet another commercial break.

Winner: “The Exalted One” Brodie Lee

TNT CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT (Quarterfinals)
Shawn Spears vs. Cody

We return from the break to a look and breakdown from Tony Schiavone of the first-ever TNT Championship Tournament. Schiavone runs down each side of the brackets, describing each of the four quarterfinal matches currently featured.

From there, Schiavone introduces us to a pay-per-view style pre-match video package explaining the full history of the Shawn Spears / Cody rivalry.

After the video, we head inside the arena where “The Chairman of AEW” Shawn Spears makes his way to the ring. Jericho puts him over on commentary not only for his talent, but because he has the wisdom of the legendary Tully Blanchard on his side.

Out next is Spears’ opponent for tonight, his longtime rival “The American Nightmare” Cody, who makes his way out to the ring accompanied by Brandi Rhodes. He finally makes it to the ring, the bell sounds and our first TNT Championship Tournament Quarterfinal match is now officially underway. Aubrey Edwards will serve as the official for this contest.

The action is in favor of Cody here in the early goings, however it doesn’t take long before Spears takes things. The action ends up on the floor, where Billy Gunn, who is among those seated in the “peanut gallery” type “audience” in the “crowd” near ringside, gets physically involved by sneaking in an unexplained cheap shot that prompted Jericho to talk smack about him on commentary.

We’re back in the ring now with Cody fighting and getting in offense, while Spears no longer has the ability to remain on cruise control now that the contest is getting more even. On that note, we head to a mid-match commercial.

We’re back from the break and Jericho cheers on Spears, who he points out is a fellow Canadian wrestler like himself, as “The Chairman of AEW” is back to enjoying a comfortable offensive lead. Spears gets some more praise from the leader of The Inner Circle after finding a unique way to utilize the steel guard rail surrounding the “crowd” as a weapon.

A big suplex leads to Cody’s ankle/heel smashing awkwardly on the rail, which is followed up by a lengthy story told by Jericho on commentary about the legitimacy of ankle injuries in wrestling and how deceptively painful and serious they can be. Schiavone tries taking us to another commercial break, however Jericho kept talking and the action returned to the ring between Cody and Spears.

Cody is starting to fight back in this contest. He’s starting to establish his first offensive lead in several minutes. Cody is starting to take over now, which is evident by his change in energy, and confirmed when he takes his weight belt off and looks to turn up the intensity.

As Spears shows signs of life, slowing Cody’s comeback down but not fully taking back over control either. Now Schiavone tries again to lead us into a commercial break. This time we do head to a break.

We’re back and Spears is taking it to Cody as he looks to bring a table into the mix. Jericho complains on commentary, saying he knows Aubrey Edwards is allowing “Playoff” rules, as no one wants to see anyone get disqualified in this historic tournament, but the amount of weapons used in this match should not be allowed.

Cody and Spears fight away from the table and up the entrance ramp. They trade punches as they brawl back to ringside. In the ring, Spears appears to be taking the pad off of the top turnbuckle. Brandi hops up on the apron to provide a distraction, however Cody comes over and ends up turning around and being hoisted up and thrown out of the ring and crashing through a table from a released-Death Valley Driver move from inside the ring.

Aubrey Edwards goes to check on Cody and is treating it like he may be injured. We see several replays of the spot as finally, right before the count of ten, Cody makes it back into the ring.

Spears immediately tries getting Cody with his C4 finisher, however Cody escapes and ends up blasting Spears with his Cross Rhodes finisher. He ends up finishing him off, however, seconds later by slapping the Figure-Four Leg Lock on him and eventually pinning him while in the hold.

Unique way to win, but regardless, “The American Nightmare” will advance to the semifinals, where he will face off against the winner of the remaining quarterfinal tournament bout left on his side of the bracket between Darby Allin and Sammy Guevara.

That does it for this week’s show, as the broadcast ends with another look at the updated TNT Championship Tournament brackets.

Winner and ADVANCING to TNT Championship Tournament Finals: Cody