AEW Dynamite: New Report Explains Awkward Ending to This Week’s Episode

April 14, 2022, 10:37am

AEW Dynamite had a rollercoaster of an ending this week, leaving many fans watching along at home scratching their heads. The show’s main event saw Samoa Joe defeat Minoru Suzuki for the ROH World Television Championship, giving “The Samoan Submission Machine” the only singles title in ROH that had previously eluded him. Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt then interrupted his celebration with their “surprise,” which turned out to be former NBA player Satnam Singh. The three proceeded to beat down Joe as Singh wrapped his hands around the new champ’s head in a vice grip.

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According to Dave Meltzer via the Wrestling Observer, Singh’s arrival was intended to help build up AEW’s brand in India. He explained, “The ending of Dynamite, which featured the debut of Satnam Singh, was designed to build the AEW brand in India, and has a lot to do with the WarnerMedia/Discovery merger.”

“AEW has been on television on the Discovery-owned channel Eurosport India, a deal Tony Khan made based on the impending merger. As part of the first week after the Discovery merger, Tony Khan wanted to shoot an angle that would be a breakthrough in that market using someone of some renown in that country as the only Indian-born player ever drafted by the NBA, when Singh was a second-round draft choice of the Dallas Mavericks in 2015…” he continued (h/t Cageside Seats).

AEW announced a bunch of matches for this week’s live edition of AEW Rampage, Saturday’s Battle of the Belts II event and next week’s AEW Dynamite. Check out the lineup for all three below:

AEW Rampage (April 15)

AEW World Championship: Hangman Page vs. Adam Cole (Texas Death Match)
Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson, Wheeler Yuta) vs. The Gunn Club
Owen Hart Cup Qualifier: Ruby Soho vs. Robyn Renegade

AEW Battle of the Belts II (April 16)