The Motor City Machine Guns beat FTR in the opening match of their best of five series at AEW WrestleDream. 

The match kicked off towards the end of the Tailgate Brawl pre-show, flowing through to the beginnings of the main card as its opener. FTR held much of the opening stages of the bout and cut the ring in half to isolate Chris Sabin and then Alex Shelley, but the contest started to open up as it went on. 

It was as the match hit the main show that it started to pick up in tempo, and FTR looked at one point like they might have had the match won with a spike piledriver until Sabin kicked out at two and a half. But Sabin and Shelley managed to get the better of their opponents by working together, isolating Cash Wheeler from Dax Harwood, and dropping him for the winning three-count. 

MCMG now lead the series 1-0, with their next bout yet to be announced. They would need just two more consecutive wins to sweep the series and negate the need for matches four and five. This was a first-time clash between the tag teams with a shared 24 Tag Team titles across the world, having only ever shared the ring in trios action at All Out 2023.