The AEW WrestleDream "Saturday Tailgate Brawl" featured four matches and plenty of in-ring action to get fans excited before the main pay-per-view card kicked off at 8 pm EST. The first match saw the Death Riders take on the Conglomeration, plus Roderick Strong, in eight-man tag action. Strong, Kyle O'Reilly, Orange Cassidy, and Tomohiro Ishii took on Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia, Wheeler Yuta, and PAC.
Strong and Garcia started off the match, but Ishii and Castagnoli were quickly tagged in and faced off with hard strikes in the middle of the ring. Castagnoli got Ishii off his feet, but not for long. Ishii tried to fight back, but Yuta distracted him and the Death Riders were able to take control and isolate Ishii in their corner. Ishii was eventually able to tag in Cassidy.
The babyfaces got the heels in submission holds in the middle of the ring, but PAC was able to break them up, outside of Cassidy's hold on Castagnoli. Castagnoli hit an airplane spin on Cassidy and the match broke down, with everyone brawling around the ring. In the end, it was PAC and Ishii left in the ring as the two legal men, and PAC hit Ishii with a running knee to get the victory for the Death Riders, and his first "W" since returning from injury.
Eddie Kingston and HOOK then had their first tag team match together since pairing up. They revealed on "AEW Dynamite" on Wednesday they would be taking on challengers during the "Tailgate Brawl," which turned out to be The Frat House'sGriff Garrison and Cole Karter. Kingston and Garrison battled it out first before Garrison tagged in his partner. Kingston and HOOK hit double suplexes to Frat House and Jacked Jameson tried to interfere. HOOK threw him over the ropes and into the ring and Kingston made him pay with chops in the corner.
Garrison accidentally hit Karter with an elbow, and HOOK locked in the Red Rum to make Karter tap. LFI was shown looking on as HOOK and Kingston celebrated their first victory together in the ring.
Next, Harley Cameron and Willow Nightingale took on Megan Bayne andPenelope Ford.Cameron and Ford started off the match, but the bout picked up when Bayne and Nightingale faced off. Ford attempted to hit Nightingale across the back from the ring apron, but Nightingale wasn't phased. She took out both Ford and Bayne, and she and Cameron were able to hit double superkicks on the heels.
Nightingale hit a spinebuster on Ford, who kicked out, then raked Nightingale's eyes to counter the Babe with the Power Bomb. Nightingale hit a Death Valley Driver to take out Bayne, and attempted to lay out Ford once again, but all competitors ended up downed in the ring. In the end, Cameron countered a Doomsday Device by Ford and Bayne, and battled with Ford before tagging in Nightingale. Nightingale was finally able to hit the Babe with the Powerbomb for the victory.
The final match on the "Tailgate Brawl" bled in to the main show when FTR took on JetSpeed. It didn't take long for the brawl between Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler and "Speedball" Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight to spill out of the ring, as FTR jumped JetSpeed almost immediately.Knight and Bailey hit big cross bodies to take out Harwood and Wheeler on the outside.
Knight jumped off the apron and hit dropkicks to both of his opponents. Back in the ring, FTR attempted a double suplex on Knight, but he was saved by "Speedball." The babyfaces then attempted double suplexes of their own, but both sets of opponents took each other out over the top rope. That's when the main card of WrestleDream began as the countdown clock to the show on the "Tailgate Brawl" ticked down to zero.
Back in the ring, Knight got a near fall on Harwood, but Harwood then got him into a sharpshooter in the middle of the ring. FTR was able to hit a Shatter Machine to Knight, but Bailey broke up the pin with a shooting star knee drop. Hardwood and "Speedball" traded strikes in the middle of the ring. FTR hit a double team move to Bailey, but Knight took them out. Harwood accidentally sent his tag partner over the ropes, and Bailey almost pinned him with a backslide. In the end, it was Stokely Hathaway at ringside to hold down Bailey's feet while Harwood got the pin for the victory.
