By Will Pruett, ProWrestling.net Co-Senior Staffer (@itswilltime)
Let’s launch into this rare seven-match episode of Dynamite with ten thoughts!
– Darby Allin continued what is one of the most unique World Championship runs I have ever seen – and it’s just two weeks old. The idea of wrestling every week “until the wheels fall off” and giving so many wrestlers chances at the title combined with Darby’s already reckless in-ring style is seeing AEW’s championship picture rapidly evolve in a really fun way. The promotion itself has taken on the image of the World Champion while Darby has the title. There is chaos and action all around.
– Darby Allin vs. Brody King was the intense and exciting championship match I expected it to be. King is near the top of AEW’s B tier of wrestlers. He’s able to challenge for the World Championship, but is not a guy you expect to win. King can have a good match with anyone on the roster, but recent losses to Allin, Swerve Strickland, and MJF put him just a notch below the main event. It would just take one big win, but the right big win, to put King in AEW’s A tier. His main event performances in 2026 have been excellent.
– Kevin Knight’s major win defending the TNT Championship against MJF to open up this show set him up to not just be the next challenger for the AEW World Championship, but also to be in that almost main event tier. Knight’s push has been notable since the Continental Classic and very consistent. Next week is another opportunity to show out in the main event of Dynamite.
– Darby Allin repelling from the ceiling after MJF vs. Knight was really cool (as it always was when Sting did it), but I wish the cameras had shot it better. AEW kind of missed the shot of their World Champion descending.
– It was nice to see Adam Copeland and Christian Cage in a tag match on TV for the first time in a very long time. My one gripe about their current nostalgia run is that it has all been in the midst of a very intense feud with FTR, but the good stuff from them in 2000 was far sillier. I don’t want them to become a nostalgia act just doing the silly stuff, but I would like to see a hint of those wrestlers from 26 years ago still inside of them.
– Kazuchika Okada vs. Ace Austin for the AEW International Championship felt like a Collision match to me. This could be because Ace Austin seems to have singles matches on Collision quite a bit. It could also be because it went over 11 minutes, despite the match result being completely obvious. This show had an entirely unnecessary and decently long overrun. AEW just needed to cut about seven minutes from this match.
– Will Ospreay has survived his kidnapping and, after a very compelling segment on Collision, arrived at the Death Riders weird exercise basement. This is something closer to what last week should have been. My only complaint was the lack of time spent with Ospreay and Jon Moxley. After an extremely long segment on Saturday, this felt too short. These interactions between Ospreay, Moxley, and Kenny Omega must be leading somewhere. Obviously, we are on the road to All In and, I assume, Ospreay’s crowning moment.
– I am ready for whatever is next with Hikaru Shida now that she and Kris Statlander failed to win the AEW Women’s Tag Team Championships. Shida has been a really entertaining character in looks, glances, and moments caught on camera, but not caught by the babyface. It has now been a few weeks of establishing this new version of the act. I would like to see her get involved in a story.
– Andrade El Idolo vs. MJF is going to be a blast if and when it finally happens. These two already have interesting and enjoyable chemistry, and I am sure that will translate in the ring.
– Color me disappointed that we won’t see FTR and Stokely Hathaway go for the AEW Trios Championships. I would have loved watching Big Stoke wrestle Orange Cassidy. The idea of the double jeopardy match next week between Dax Harwood and Cassidy is a good one. I expect FTR to win that, so we can see FTR and Tommaso Ciampa challenge The Conglomeration.
There goes another episode of Dynamite!
Will Pruett writes about wrestling and popular culture at prowrestling.net. To see his video content, subscribe to his YouTube channel. To contact, check him out on Bluesky @itswilltime, leave a comment, or email him at itswilltime@gmail.com.
I think the problem would be that you need Christian Cage, who was always the more naturally funny of the two, to abandon his Asshole character overnight if you want them to revisit the silliness of old, and I can understand them not wanting to do that.