The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 06.03.26
By Scott Keith on 4 June 2026
The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 06.03.26
Live from Richmond, VA
Your hosts are Excalibur, Tony Schiavone & Taz
RUSH joins Renee right away and his whole career has been building to tonight’s title match, and tonight MJF has messed with the bull and will be getting the horns. But MJF interrupts and they brawl. And then in a later live interview, Andrade offers Rush some extra motivation.
AEW World title, No Countout: MJF v. Rush
Rush doesn’t do jobs and MJF shouldn’t be doing jobs right now, so that probably spells a fuck finish of some kind. MJF is of course a matador tonight, although sadly he doesn’t pay tribute to Tito Santana and go with classic El Matador colors. They slug it out to start and Max spits a pretty impressive loogie at Rush’s head, which I believe qualifies as messing with the bull. So Rush suplexes him and sneds him to the floor for a dive, before running Max into the railings a few times and then choking him out with the TV cable. Max sends him into the timekeeper pit, but he charges and gets backdropped onto the table. Back in the ring, Rush pulls off a turnbuckle even though it’s definitely not a no-DQ match, and I guess a lucky fan gets that for a souvenir. Rush tries the Bull’s Horns but it misses, so he goes for the exposed turnbuckle and the ref objects on moral grounds. So MJF uses it instead to take over, and Rush is of course busted open. MJF works on that, but then Rush returns the favor into the exposed turnbuckle because this ref is spectacularly bad at his job. Rush comes back with a german suplex into a double knee strike for two. Rush goes up with a missile dropkick for two. Max cradles for two and goes for the arm, and the powerbomb gets two. Into the armbar, but Rush cradles for two. Rush blocks the Heatseeker with a headbutt and takes him to the apron for a piledriver out there, and we take a break. Back with Rush headbutting the doctor who tried to stop the match, and back in the ring for The Bull’s Horns, which only gets two thanks to the ropes. Back to the floor as Max retreats to regroup, but this time Rush dropkicks the railing and wipes himself out. MJF follows with a tombstone onto a piece of barricade, although thankfully there’s a bunch of foam puzzle tiles underneath. Back in the ring, he’s having knee troubles after that, and Rush is able to fight off the Heatseeker as a result. But he tries a missile dropkick and misses, and MJF puts him in a crossface hammerlock, and Rush appears to be digging the pain before passing out at 18:40. Kudos for the clean finish here. Rush is a shockingly great babyface when put in that position and they had some great chemistry. **** Afterwards, Max goes for the attack, but Mark Briscoe saves and the Conglomeration chases MJF off. Although Briscoe isn’t really a viable World title contender on his own, perhaps if he found some kind of hardcore legend to mentor him and be I his corner, he could be.
Mark Briscoe v. Lio Rush
Too many people named Rush on this show. Lio is so creepy that even the Conglomeration wants nothing to do with him and backs away in fear. So Lio whispers something to Mark and whatever it is freaks him out as well. But he holds it together and unleashes some kung fu to put Lio on the floor. They slug it out on the floor after some shout-outs to former WCW midcarder Cactus Jack, and Mark kicks Lio to the floor and hits him with a blockbuster to the floor as we take a break. Back with Lio making a comeback with a dive and back in the ring with the stunner for two. Mark backdrops out of a piledriver attempt and they scream at each other to fire up, but Mark is more fired up and makes the comeback with an exploder. Mark puts him on top and hits him with an Iconoclasm for two. Briscoe with a short clothesline to set up the Jay Driller, but Lio cradles for two. But then Briscoe hits him with the Cutthroat Driver to finish at 9:22. OK this idiot is growing on me, I’ll admit it. ***1/4. Afterwards, Mark does a promo about losing his brother in 2023 and how signing with AEW acted as a therapist for him. And then the Conglomeration brought him joy again, but MJF made him feel HATRED, until Mark was able to pin him and banish it. So now he needs to beat Max again to expel the devil from his life. SO GIVE HIM A TITLE SHOT! Man what a promo this was. Just give Briscoe a mic and let him talk himself into a better position on the card every time.
Thekla joins us from the audience to rage against KAWAII girls, and she has to destroy them all now. So at Forbidden Door, it’s DEATH TO STARDOM. And she climbs up and spits on the Stardom logo on the LED board to reinforce this. God I love Thekla.
Meanwhile, the Death Riders encourage Will Ospreay to forget about Mark Davis and their history.
Andrade el Idolo v. Local Talent
Didn’t catch the name, DK something. Doesn’t matter. Andrade hits him with the elbow and finishes with the DM at 0:34. His selfie with the planted MILF lasted longer than the match. And he also wants the World title, to avenge Rush this time.
TNT title: Kevin Knight v. Speedball Mike Bailey
Sadly Knight has joined the Don Callis Family. They fight to the floor and Bailey gets a cradle for two in the ring, and then back to the floor for a moonsault to the floor. Back in, he misses a shooting star press and we take a break. Back with Knight in control as he gets two, but Bailey fights back with big kicks and knocks him out with a spinkick outta nowhere. They both bail to the apron and we get a tease of the double springboard spot, but Knight headfakes him and knocks him to the floor via a bump on the apron. Bailey appeals to the fans for some energy, and Knight just nails him with a springboard clothesline to the floor. Back in, Bailey with a cradle for two and the somersault kneedrop for two. Speedball with more kicks, but he goes up and Knight brings him down with a rana and follows with a backbreaker for two. Bailey with a straitjacket cradle for two and another kick to the head as they battle to the top. So Jake Doyle takes the ref and Callis takes out Bailey to earn his managerial cut, allowing Knight to bring Mike down with a spinebuster from the top. And the uranage finishes at 12:28 to retain. I’d call it a little bit disappointing while still being on the high end of TV matches, but really Knight needed to just kill Bailey and move onwards and upwards. ***1/2
Meanwhile, the Dogs are still celebrating their attack on Cope and Cage, with brews and kazoos. So the Young Bucks stop by and they’re disgusted at these offbeat shenanigans. Matt notes that they haven’t earned a title shot yet, especially since they’re “Bullet Club’s worst ever leader and Temu Hangman”. Ouch.
Meanwhile, MJF is soaking in an ice bath and he still won’t give Mark Briscoe a title shot. Well he sounds like his mind is made up.
Owen Hart tournament quarterfinals: Alex Windsor v. Mercedes Mone
Well that’s certainly a worthwhile surprise opponent. Mone fights off a pair of takedown attempts and rolls her up for two, but Alex gets some armdrags before Mone suddenly takes her down with the Bank Statement. Alex makes the ropes and counters a meteora into a Sharpshooter attempt, but Mercedes makes the ropes. So they head to the floor and Mone gets the knees off the apron and we take a break. Back with Windsor making a comeback and hitting a clothesline off the apron. Back in the ring, the crowd is pretty clearly on Team CEO as Mone gets the Three Amigos, but Windsor reverses into a slam for two. They fight to the top and Mercedes brings her down with the meteora for two. Mercedes with a powerbomb into the corner, but she misses a charge and they trade cradles for two. Mone with the backstabber into the Bank Statement and that finishes clean at 12:32. I mean, she’s gotta be winning this thing again now, right? They had a hard time here finding their chemistry, and the fans cheering for the wrong person didn’t help. **1/2
Meanwhile, Okada is offended at his International title being in a backpack and he’s gonna do something about it.
Meanwhile, Ciampa is waiting for stupid idiot Jericho.
Owen Hart tournament semi-finals: Will Ospreay v. Mark Davis
Will slugs away in the corner to start, but Davis goes after the neck with an abdominal stretch. Ospreay breaks free and hits him with the corkscrew kick, and an elbow gets two. They fight to the floor and Will teases a moonsault and Davis walks away from it, so Will gives him a rana out there instead. But Davis suplexes him on the announce table and smashes him into the railing. Back in the ring as Davis gets a superplex and we take a break. Back with Davis continuing to smash Ospreay in the ring, but Will fights back with elbows until Davis chops him down. So Will gets the enzuigiri and they’re both down. Ospreay comes back and double stomps the arm to set up the armbar, but Davis breaks out and hits the pop up piledriver for two. Out to the apron and they slug it out there, but Davis hits him with a lariat and teases another piledriver. Will reverses into a rana that takes them to the floor. Back in, Will with the springboard dropkick and a Styles Clash, but that only gets two. Will with the OzCutter, but the ref is bumped and the Callis Family runs in. This brings the Death Riders out to even things up and they get into a huge brawl, but Ospreay hits another OzCutter on Davis and this time Jake Doyle bumps the ref to stop the count. But then Marina goes after him and Doyle slams her, and that’s enough to bring Moxley in to kicks his ass as a result. And out of all that craziness, Ospreay tries to finish, but now Kyle Fletcher takes him out , only for Takeshita to take HIM out and they brawl. That all leaves Davis with the screwdriver, but Will hits the Hidden Blade to disarm him, with still no referee. And finally we get another ref for two. Another Blade misses and Davis pops up into another piledriver, but that only gets two. And finally Davis tries the lariat, but Will spins him into the armbar and taps him out at 23:11 to advance to the finals. Holy crap, this was Tony Khan just trying to book the craziest and most over the top ECW tribute match ever and he mostly succeeded. If you’re gonna have people run in, then have EVERYONE run in and make it go all the way around to being awesome. ****1/2
Well that was a legendary main event that gave Ospreay even more momentum headed into his presumed title match upcoming on my 32nd birthday. The rest of the show between the two great main event matches was a bit hit or miss, but the crowd was hot and Mark Briscoe delivered a great promo, so this is a strong thumbs up episode.