Powell’s AEW Dynamite Hit List: Jon Moxley is seemingly immune to fire, Kris Statlander’s response to being courted by The Death Riders

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

AEW Dynamite Hits

“FTR” Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler promo: Fun heel mic work. Harwood’s claim that Beth Copeland hit his broken nose, which made his eyes water and caused him to think she was her husband, was a hilarious excuse that led to good heat for FTR giving her a spike piledriver at All Out. Willow Nightingale seemed like an odd choice to be the babyface who confronted FTR and Stokely Hathaway, but she did a nice of a job. She gets a little precious at times, but telling FTR that “Women like Beth (Copeland) are the reason women like me don’t take shit from guys like you,” was the line of the night.

“Brodido” Brody King and Bandido vs. “Gates of Agony” Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun for the AEW Tag Team Titles: A good show-opening tag team match. I’m not crazy about Liona and Kaun losing a match coming off The Demand’s big win over The Hurt Syndicate at All Out, but that win actually made the outcome of the match feel less predictable. I wonder if the plan is for The Demand to bounce back by winning the AEW Trios Titles.

Kris Statlander vs. Mina Shirakawa for the AEW Women’s Championship: A solid first title defense for Statlander. The post-match angle with her finally rejecting the Death Riders and giving the double birds to Jon Moxley was nicely done. That said, Statlander’s last run as champion peaked with her title win. Has enough changed with her character to think that this run will be better?

MJF promo: A strong post-pay-per-view match promo that explained why his character is taking time away while also setting the table for him to come back stronger than ever.

Hangman Page vs. ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty for the AEW World Championship: This was more of an in-the-middle segment despite Page and Moriarty having a good match. The 40-second video package with Moriarty speaking vaguely about Tiger Style wasn’t much of a reintroduction to his character for Dynamite viewers. Moriarty is a talented guy, and I’m cool with him getting a title shot via open challenge, but why not build him up with a few television wins first? By giving the hometown guy a title match out of nowhere, this felt like one of those times when AEW seemed more focused on pleasing the live crowd than playing to the far bigger television audience.

AEW Dynamite Misses

Jon Moxley and Darby Allin: It’s ridiculous that Darby can set people on fire yet face no punishment whatsoever in the AEW storylines, but it’s even more absurd that no one actually sells being set on fire. Moxley was torched the All Out pay-per-view, yet there he was just four nights later looking fine, and he’s even advertised for a match on next week’s show. If Moxley won’t sell being set on fire, why did they expect anyone care when Allin came out with a flamethrower at the end of Dynamite? This isn’t even the first time that Darby has set someone on fire or that an AEW heel has no-sold it. Darby set Jack Perry’s pants on fire with a flamethrower during an Anarchy in the Arena match at the 2024 Double or Nothing event. Perry actually came back and won that match using, of all things, a knee strike.

Mark Briscoe, Hologram, and Orange Cassidy vs. Kazuchika Okada, Konosuke Takeshita, and Hechicero: How could the production team botch the lighting when Cassidy was unveiled inside the frame of what was supposed to be a Don Callis painting? Anyway, this should have been a comeback party for Cassidy in his first match back from injury since March. Not only did Cassidy not get the pin for his team, he had to stand there with his dick in his hand while Kyle Fletcher cut a long promo and challenged Hologram to a title vs. streak match for next week’s Dynamite. On a positive note, Fletcher delivered a nice promo that properly sold the agony of defeat before turning the page and confidently challenging an undefeated wrestler to face him for the TNT Title.

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Powerhouse Hobbs: As good as Castagnoli is in the ring, he continues to be ice-cold as a singles wrestler. Castagnoli needs a boost, or it’s time to limit him to tag team or trios matches on Dynamite. The Pac interference that set up Castagnoli’s win gave Hobbs an out for losing, but this match didn’t really do anything for either wrestler, nor did Pac get much heat for costing Hobbs the match.

Tony Khan’s important announcement: Khan has spoken in media calls and/or post-show press conferences about eventually introducing AEW Women’s Tag Team Titles, so it didn’t really feel like the “important announcement” hype was warranted. Sure, this approach might pop a rating, but was it worth having fans get their hopes up for something big only to announce something that many AEW fans knew would be coming at some point? I really hoped that Khan had learned his lesson after his “major announcements” became fodder for jokes because most were so underwhelming. I’m cool with the idea of women’s tag team titles and Khan tried to pass off worse as a big announcement, but this was still another disappointment.

(ProWrestling.net Editor Jason Powell has worked in journalism for 27 years, including as the Assistant Editor of PWTorch.com and as a Senior Editor at Fanball.com before launching ProWrestling.net on Feb. 11, 2008.)