We’ve had three Men’s Casino Gauntlet matches, we’ve had one Tag Team Casino Gauntlet, and next week at DYNAMITE: MAXIMUM CARNAGE we will have our first Women’s Casino Gauntlet bout with an AEW Women’s World Title opportunity at DYNAMITE: GRAND SLAM AUSTRALIA on the line! Just as fans witnessed with Adam Page, Jay White, and Orange Cassidy last week when they fought for the #1 spot in that Casino Gauntlet, we will see the same unfold tonight on DYNAMITE when three former champions clash over that pole position!
Kris Statlander, Willow Nightingale, and Toni Storm are all former champions in All Elite Wrestling, even if the latter of the three seemingly has no recollection of her three reigns as AEW Women’s World Champion. As for Statlander and Nightingale, they are both former TBS Champions and each would love to take another step forward in their career by challenging for the AEW Women’s World Title in Brisbane. The history between Statlander and Willow is quite complicated, they were opponents prior to their mutual time in AEW but found a friendship sharing an All Elite Wrestling locker room. However that TBS Title, particularly the loss of it, slowly poisoned the well for Kris Statlander and eventually turned her against Willow after she lost the title to Mercedes Moné. The two went to war several times over, during the 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament, at ALL IN: LONDON 2024 in a tag match, and at ALL OUT 2024 in a Chicago Street Fight, just to name a few.
All told they are 3-3 against one another, 3-2 in Willow’s favor with strictly one-on-one scenarios, but it’s that sixth match here that may paint some of tonight’s picture. That third victory for Statlander came in a Four-Way #1 Contender’s bout in March 2024, though the pin came at Anna Jay’s expense rather than at Willow’s, and that brings in the third element to this battle, 3-Time Women’s World Champion Toni Storm!
Though she may have no recall of holding that title, Toni Storm is a 3-Time World Champion since debuting in All Elite Wrestling almost three years ago, and she actually faced Willow Nightingale with the title on the line at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023. In fact, she’s 3-0 all-time in singles matches with Willow but has only ever fought Kris Statlander one time in a Trios battle 16 months ago. Yet if the woman has no memory of any of those happenings, does it even matter for the picture of the match? This is all-new territory for her, she’s never fought Stat or Willow in any fashion, much less been in a position to challenge for a title. All Toni Storm knows is that she’s 6-0 since debuting in All Elite Wrestling at DYNAMITE: WINTER IS COMING 2024 with victories over Deonna Purrazzo, Taya Valkyrie, and Harley Cameron among those wins and a win here gets Toni one step closer to an Australian homecoming on February 15th at GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA!
This bout will be the first Three-Way in the Women’s Division since DYNAMITE: THANKSGIVING EVE 2023, the second in AEW for Toni Storm and Kris Statlander, and the first singles one for Willow Nightingale though she did compete in a Tag Team Three-Way at DYNAMITE: THANKSGIVING EVE 2022. All three competitors came up short in their previous AEW three-way battles, but one will score the victory tonight and enter the Casino Gauntlet at DYNAMITE: MAXIMUM CARNAGE as the #1 entrant!