Results
- Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata & Powerhouse Hobbs def. MVP, Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin (AEW World Trios Championships) (12:31)
- Jamie Hayter & Queen Aminata def. Skye Blue & Julia Hart, Harley Cameron & Willow Nightingale, Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford (Four-Way Tag Match) (9:34)
- Kyle O’Reilly def. Jon Moxley (11:58) (DQ)
- Mark Briscoe, Orange Cassidy & Roderick Strong def. Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia & Wheeler Yuta (12:51)
- Kazuchika Okada def. Bandido (AEW Unified Championship) (14:22)
The Demand cause Hurt Syndicate to lose trios title shot
This week’s episode of AEW Dynamite, live from the Boeing Center in San Antonio, Texas, opened championship action, as The Opps trio of Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata and Powerhouse Hobbs put their trios belts on the line against MVP, Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin of The Hurt Syndicate.
The Hurt Syndicate earned a shot at the titles after beating The Demand in a #1 contenders match last weekend. This was Joe’s first appearance since losing a world title shot to Hangman Page last weekend – worth noting, an irate Page said in a backstage segment that he plans to ruin Joe’s career after the post-match attack he suffered at WrestleDream on Saturday. We’ll see what he means by that soon, likely.
Lashley got a hot tag nearly the 10-minute mark of the match and earned a near fall on Shibata, but had his pin attempt broken by Hobbs. Lashley and Hobbs traded hard shots in the middle of the ring immediately after, causing expected “Meat!” chants from the crowd.
MVP tagged in against Joe and was able to connect with his “Ballin'” elbow drop, but Shibata stopped a follow-up pin attempt. After the non-legal members of the match were cleared out of the ring, MVP tried for the Playmaker onto Joe. However, he stopped this attempt after seeing The Demand’s Ricochet on the ring apron. This distraction allowed Joe to escape MVP’s finisher and instead lock in the Coquina Clutch, forcing a tap from the Hurt Syndicate member after 12 minutes.
Many, myself included, thought the long-lasting rivalry between The Demand and The Hurt Syndicate was put away following their pay-per-view match last weekend. However, it seems like they still have some unfinished business. Either way, The Opps are still the trios champs.
In the ring afterward, Tony Schiavone asked Joe why he attacked Hangman Page last weekend following their title match. Anyone who had doubts about Joe being a heel after that attack, he made it clear in this promo, immediately taking a dig at plus-size San Antonio women. As to why he attacked Page? “Because I exist,” he said. “As long as I’m on planet earth and you call yourself a champion, I go hunting for you.”
Backstage, AEW Women’s World Champion Kris Statlander addressed Mercedes Moné, who challenged her to a title match at Full Gear. “If you think I’m the same person that you beat last year at Full Gear, well, I promise you, I am so much more,” she said. She then accepted the challenge, making Moné vs. Statlander official for Full Gear.
Darby Allin isn’t keeping his eyes off the Death Riders
Darby Allin, who won in the main event of WrestleDream in an I Quit match against Jon Moxley, came to the ring for a promo.
Allin started his promo by refuting claims that his Mount Everest climb earlier this year was reckless due to how badly it could’ve ended for him. Intsead, he claimed it was a way to show he will do anything to represent AEW.
“The marks on my body from Saturday tell a story … I was never going to say I Quit on Saturday, but I’m wearing the scars today.”
Allin mentioned that he knows Death Riders simply won’t disappear after he beat Jon Moxley. So, he ended his quick promo with a warning: “As long as the Death Riders are breathing, Darby Allin isn’t far behind.”
In a backstage promo, The Jurassic Express made it clear that they’re eyeing the AEW World Tag Team Championships after beating the Young Bucks last weekend.
The new duo of Hayter & Aminata get advantage in tag tournament
A four-way tag bout took place next, with the winning team getting to choose their first-round opponents in the upcoming AEW Women’s Tag Team Championships tournament. The teams in action were: Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford, the Sisters of Sin (Julia Hart & Skye Blue), Jamie Hayter & Queen Aminata, and the duo of Harley Cameron and Willow Nightingale.
Bayne and Ford had a fun exchange with Nightingale at one point: Bayne tossed Ford at Nightingale, allowing her to connect with a mid-air cutter for a near fall. Moments later, Bayne scored a double German Suplex to both Blue and Hart.
Bayne lifted up Nightingale and started to look for a Doomsday Device, but Nightingale was able to escape and come running off the ropes for a pounce onto Bayne. A really fun sequence from Bayne and Ford near the end of the match.
Hayter and Aminata got control of the match, leading to a double-team sequence with a headbutt and then Hayterade for the pinfall onto Ford at the nine-minute mark. While the women’s division has many new duos, the newest of them all in Hayter and Aminata picked up the win in this solid, fast-paced match.
Hayter got on the mic after the match, not wasting any time to announce who her team will face in the opening round of the tag tournament bracket: They want Blue and Hart.
Found knocking on the door of Tony Khan’s office, the Young Bucks said they will wrestle with or team with anyone, as long as they can get a “money match.” Khan emerged from his locker room with an idea: A $400,000 all-star tag match on Collision later this week, with the Young Bucks and FTR teaming up to face Jurassic Express and JetSpeed. Given the past between the Bucks and FTR, it’ll be a classic “Can they co-exist?” storyline this weekend on Collision.
Kris Statlander, Harley Cameron crash Mercedes Moné’s title celebration
Renee Paquette was the host in the ring for the next segment, where balloons and a cake were set up to celebrate Mercedes Moné’s belt count moving up to 12 championships. Paquette did a quick rundown of Moné’s busy weekend: Earning an interim ROH title, defending her CMLL belt, and heading up to Winnipeg to pick up the WPW Women’s Championship.
While we initially expected Moné’s arrival, emerging from under a table in the ring was Harley Cameron’s Moné puppet – Cameron must’ve stuck around after her tag loss earlier in the night.
After Cameron’s Moné doll spoke for a moment, the real Moné came to the ring, and she was not happy. Moné wasn’t having any of Cameron’s puppet show and was ranting at the “marks” in the crowd for not giving her enough respect during her historic title run.
Moné planted Cameron’s puppet into a cake in the ring, then tossed Cameron into the cake, attempting to get revenge for being disrespected during her own celebration. But things took a turn just moments later. Emerging from the table was Cameron ally and AEW Women’s World Champion Kris Statlander, who put Moné face-first into the cake, then slammed her through the table. Statlander stood over her Full Gear opponent as the segment came to a close – not the celebration Moné had hoped for tonight.
Jon Moxley intentionally DQ’s himself to avoid quitting again
Attempting to bounce back from his WrestleDream loss, Jon Moxley went one-on-one with Kyle O’Reilly in the next segment.
O’Reilly started to pick up momentum after the show returned from a commercial break, scoring a huge dropkick at ringside, then a series of hard kicks and punches in the ring.
Moxley escaped a triangle choke from O’Reilly, launching him throat-first into the bottom rope to get out of the move. The match went to the ring apron, where O’Reilly caused Moxley to fall chest-first onto the hardest part of the ring.
O’Reilly came off the top rope with a knee drop, then a running knee strike to the back of Moxley’s head, causing another near fall. Moxley and O’Reilly went back-and-forth with submissions, a sequence that ended after Moxley turned him inside out with a huge lariat.
Moxley followed up the lariat with a huge piledriver, but it wasn’t enough to stop O’Reilly. The former world champ was quick to transition into a Bulldog Choke, but O’Reilly reached the ropes to stop the submission.
After a quick sequence of counters, O’Reilly tried for an ankle lock on Moxley. While struggling with the submission Moxley knocked out referee Paul Turner with a forearm, causing a disqualification result, earning O’Reilly the win. Bryan Danielson added some important commentary here: Moxley was so against tapping out that he’d rather lose via DQ than quit again. This match heated up in its final minutes and was quite the fun one, honestly.
Members of The Conglomeration and Death Riders stormed the ring during a hectic post-match. After the break, a six-man tag bout between the factions started.
Darby Allin saves Conglomeration in post-match brawl
Six-man tag bout took place in the co-main event of the night, with Orange Cassidy, Mark Briscoe and Roderick Strong facing Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta.
Briscoe got a hot tag late in the match, taking on all three Death Riders at the same time. After dumping the heels to ringside, he came off the top and to the outside with a massive dive.
He brought Yuta back into the ring, where Briscoe had to settle for a near fall after scoring a Fisherman Buster. Worth noting: The crowd was quite hot for this Briscoe run. Garcia got into the ring to prevent a Jay Driller from Briscoe.
After illegal wrestlers cleared out of the ring, it came back to Yuta and Briscoe. Yuta brought in the Death Riders to help him with a running knee strike, but Strong broke up the pin attempt. Yuta scored a series of elbows and tried for a Cattle Mutilation, but Briscoe escaped and answered back with a hard lariat. Briscoe then picked up Yuta and connected with the Jay Driller on second attempt, earning The Conglomeration (and Strong) the tag win.
Briscoe’s time celebrating the performance was short-lived, as PAC hit the ring to attack him in the post-match. Tomohiro Ishii came in for the save, causing a lengthy striking exchange between the two in the ring. Moxley briefly distracted Ishii at ringside, allowing Marina Shafir to take out the NJPW talent with a low blow.
Castagnoli picked up Cassidy and attempted to launch him out of the ring and onto the commentary table, but coming in for the save was Darby Allin, who took out the Swiss talent’s legs with a baseball bat. Like Allin said earlier in the night, he’s not taking his focus off the Death Riders.
Backstage, ROH Women’s World Champion Athena pitched Mercedes Moné about entering the women’s tag team championship tournament, working together to try and further make history. “I like the sound of that,” Moné said. Athena dragged away Moné, saying they will head to Minion Training.
Kyle Fletcher has moved on from Mark Briscoe
TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher appeared in the ring before the main event to reflect on his WrestleDream win over Mark Briscoe.
Fletcher said that his rivalry with Briscoe is in the past following last weekend. He claimed that if they faced off many more times, he would win in each instance. Briscoe himself came back down to the ring to respond to Fletcher, asking for “one more shot.”
Don Callis spoke on behalf of Fletcher, telling Briscoe he sounds “desperate.” The verdict on another shot at Fletcher? “No.”
The bracket for the upcoming AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championships was revealed before the main event:
- Queen Aminata & Jamie Hayter vs. Skye Blue & Julia Hart
- Willow Nightingale & Harley Cameron vs. Mercedes Moné & Athena
- Alex Windsor & Riho vs. Toni Storm & Mina Shirakawa
- Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford vs. Tay Melo & Anna Jay
Thekla got in the face of Mina Shirakawa backstage, setting up a matchup for Saturday’s episode of Collision.
Speaking of, here was everything they announced for Saturday’s show, which they’re taping this evening:
- Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler vs. Mike Bailey, Kevin Knight, Jack Perry & Luchasaurus
- Thekla vs. Mina Shirakawa
- PAC vs. Tomohiro Ishii
- Hook in action
- Hangman Adam Page to appear
Okada survives first 21-Plex, avoids a second to retain Unified title against Bandido
The main event of the night saw Kazuchika Okada wager his AEW Unified Championship against Bandido. This opportunity was given to Bandido after pinning Okada at WrestleDream in tag action last weekend.
Okada had a strong start to the match, but Bandido started to gain momentum after the show’s final break, hitting a torneo off the top turnbuckle, then a pair of dives to the outside. Bandido got Okada back into the ring, dropping the champ with a dropkick then a frogsplash off the top for a near fall.
Okada caught Bandido as he attempted to climb through the ropes, pulling his arm and sending the Mexican talent shoulder-first into the ring’s cables. This ended Bandido’s strong run in the match and made it a back-and-forth battle in the ring.
Okada picked up Bandido and seemingly was about to hit a Tombstone Piledriver, but instead connected with a shoulderbreaker. Bandido rolled out of the ring for a breather, but was thrown back in by Okada moments later.
Okada scored a series of elbows to Bandido’s shoulder, continuing to target the body part. A series of reversals between the two ended with a clean backfist from Bandido, then an X-Knee.
Bandido connected with the 21-Plex finisher, but a delayed cover gave Okada just enough time to kick out. Bandido sent Okada head-first into the turnbuckles with a hurricanrana and tried for another 21-Plex, but instead ate a huge dropkick from Okada as he ran the ropes.
Okada attempted the Rainmaker, but Bandido quickly reversed the move into a roll-up pin attempt. Bandido looked for possibly a Stinger Splash in the corner, but instead was hit with a massive dropkick to the chest.
Bandido reversed a Rainmaker from Okada into a Rainmaker of his own, then scored another X-Knee. He attempted a second 21-Plex but Okada moved away from the ropes, stopping the move from being completed. Caught off guard, Bandido ate a clean Rainmaker from Okada, earning him a pinfall win to defend his Unified title in 14 minutes.
Okada started to celebrate his win with the rest of the Don Callis Family, who came down to the ring after the bell sounded. Entering after the rest of the group was Konosuke Takeshita, who walked down the ramp while holding his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
The tension between Takeshita and Okada was clear, facing eachother off as the show went off air. It seems clear that their issues will boil over sooner rather than later.
