The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 08.12.26

The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 08.12.26

Live from Las Vegas, NV

Your hosts are Excalibur, Tony Schiavone & Paul Wight

Will Ospreay joins us to start to discuss how much fun he had in Mexico last week, although then his grandfather died so that was less fun. But you know what always cheers him up? WRESTLING. Me too. But Kenny was watching at home last week, having his tiny Canadian testicles trimmed by Michael Nakazawa, and since he’s here this week Will would like a word. But Don Callis interrupts instead, and he talks about seeing Kenny Omega in the early days of AEW and seeing the perfect tool to exploit and take over the company. And then Don talks about bringing Will to AEW as well, and then the Callis Goons hit the ring for an attack while Don yells “Get the neck!”, only for Kenny to make the save with a lead pipe. And then he teases a shot on a cowering Will as well, but then holds off and just says “I told you so” instead, before warning him that he can’t help out any more. And Will is like “I’m not gonna need you to help, thanks.” JUST KISS ALREADY, GEEZ!

MJF v. Nick Wayne v. Mike Bailey

Winner of this gets #2 in the Casino Gauntlet. Nick Wayne seems to be getting more charisma and looking less like a gawky teenager lately. MJF bails and lets us know that he’s going to “let these two twinks” battle it out and then pick up the pieces himself. So indeed Bailey and Wayne slug it out and battle to a stalemate before Nick bails to the floor. Bailey tries a dive and Nick evades that and hits his own, but Bailey moonsaults him in return. And then MJF finally gets involved and takes them both down in the ring with a cheapshot before directing Nick on how to beat up Speedball. Nick gets all excited and hits the sliced bread, but MJF steals the pin for two and now Nick is all offended. So that alliance is done and Bailey kicks Wayne down again to make a comeback. Wayne with a dragon suplex, but Bailey moonaults into the kneedrop and then sends Wayne to the floor and moonsaults both guys as we take a break. Back with Bailey going to the top after one of those SPECIAL 2:00 ad breaks, and he hits the shooting star on MJF for two. I mean, the shorter ad break is nice if you’re watching live, but for me it just means I only have to hit Skip Forward four times instead of six. Falcon arrow on Wayne and he goes up again with another shooting star press for two. Wayne catches the kick and turns it into a fisherman’s buster for two. He tries Wayne’s World on MJF, but Max slugs him out of the air and powerbombs him for two. Bailey tosses MJF and hits Wayne with the Ultimate Weapon, but of course MJF swoops in and armbars Wayne to steal the win at 12:12. So sick of that finish from both promotions. Match was fine. ***

Afterwards, MJF does another promo about being the Real World Champion, but Andrade seemingly interrupts, only to be revealed as a classic MJF Messaround. This MJF fake belt deal ain’t it, chief.

Meanwhile, the Divine Dominion pour on out for the Brawling Birds and waste perfectly good beer.

Meanwhile, the Bang Bang Gang welcome Mick Foley and Jay White is sick of David Finlay and his stupid stick.

Continental Cup first round: Jay White v. David Finlay

They fight to the floor and the crowd is actually split pretty heavily. Back in the ring, Finlay takes him down and slugs away on the mat, but White gets a backbreaker for two. Back in the ring, Finlay puts the boots to him in the corner, but Jay sends him to the floor and follows with a dive. Back in the ring, Jay with a suplex for two. Finlay with a neckbreaker and we take a break. Back with White hitting a DDT for two, but Finlay counters the Blade Runner into a cradle for two. Finlay with a backbreaker for two. They fight to the top and White slugs out of that and follows with a german suplex for two. But then White sells a neck injury and they play it up a bit like it’s “real”, so Finlay hits a DDT for two after a shot to the neck. White fights back with a kick combo and a double underhook into a faceplant for two. Blade Runner is reversed again to a brainbuster for two. Finlay stiffs him with a pair of lariats, but White spins him into the Blade Runner to finish at 13:21. The crowd ended up popping big for the Switchblade after all their 50/50 nonsense earlier. No one likes David Finlay, why even pretend? ***1/4

Hangman & Brodido join us to celebrate their Trios title win, but Swerve interrupts Hangman’s speech. Swerve talks about his rivalry with Hangman and how he can’t challenge for the World title anymore, but Page points out that Swerve has done some “heinous shit” in 2026 and he doesn’t have a World title to show for it, either. But then the Demand interrupts and Ricochet points out that Swerve has no friends currently and Nana abandoned GOA, so they want a rematch for the titles. So Hangman offers them a fight TONIGHT IN THIS VERY RING, but Ricochet declines. So I’m assuming that’s at the PPV. Not much to this segment other than remembering that Swerve exists.

Meanwhile, Willow is doing an interview with Renee, but Mercedes attacks her from behind and calls her mean names.

TNT title: Kevin Knight v. Jericho

Jericho takes some kicks and then catches him with a brainbuster right away before beating on him with chops in the corner. Wight actually declares that Jericho is his favorite tag team partner ever, which covers a lot of ground. They fight to the top and Jericho gets some weak-ass punches and brings him down with a rana, and Knight ends up on the floor. So Jericho dives onto him, but Knight springboards off the desk with a clothesline to take over as we take a break. Back with Jericho fighting back with chops, but Knight clotheslines him before missing a Lionsault. Jericho comes back with chops, but Knight backdrops him to the floor and follows with a dive on the ramp. Jericho hits him with a death valley driver and goes to have words with Don Callis, and back in the ring he tries the Walls, but Knight cradles for two. Knight with a backslide for two. Jericho with a rollup for two, but Knight dives into a DDT for a double down. Knight with a powerbomb for two, but Jericho gets the Walls and Callis suckers him into coming near the ropes and then hitting him with the screwdriver to break. Knight with a coast to coast off that that, but it only gets two. UFO splash is countered into a codebreaker for two. Judas Effect misses and Knight finishes with the uranage at 12:39 to retain. I know that sometimes you gotta sacrifice a show to get a new guy over, but I really don’t think Redemption succeeded in making Knight into much more of a big star than he was going in. He felt decidedly midcard here. Match was kind of sloppy, especially stuff like the codebreaker that missed by a mile, and Jericho’s “punches” in the corner. **1/2

Meanwhile, the Death Riders do some working out and Moxley warns Jack Perry about what’s to come tonight.

Kris Statlander v. Viva Van

Stat gets some slams on Van, but Van fights back with a heel kick and goes to the top for a missile dropkick that gets two. But then Statlander comes back and finishes with Saturday Night Fever at 3:14. Just a squash but Van got some shine. Mick then shows up, plugs the AEW Shop website (sort of) and announces that next week Kris will be in a four-way for the TBS title, but that brings out Persephone for her scheduled tag match to cut the promo short. Oh well.

Hikaru Shida & Persephone v. Thunder Rosa & Maya World

We’ve added yet another title to AEW TV with whatever CMLL belt that Rosa has now, which I guess gives Tony someone else to do jobs now. Rosa takes Shida down and hits her with running knees on the ropes and a clothesline gets two. Rosa take the heels down with a double headscissors and slugs away on Persephone, but Persephone catapults her under the ropes as we take a break. Back with the heels in control, but Maya gets a hot tag and hits the heels with a double bodypress for two. To the floor for a dive on Persephone and Rosa hits Shida with a running knee strike, but Shida gets the falcon arrow for two. Maya runs wild on both heels and finishes Shida with the bridging slam at 10:47. I’m not feeling this Maya push at all and they should probably switch the title to someone else next week. This was not great, kind of messy. **

Meanwhile, Darby Allin challenges Kevin Knight to a falls count anywhere match at All In to settle their beef.

Meanwhile, Kyle Fletcher’s promo is interrupted by Okada, and we get a three-way International title challenge for All In with Fletcher v. Okada v. Takeshita, and I don’t know how anyone is gonna follow that match.

Continental Cup first round: Jon Moxley v. Jack Perry

Perry takes him down with a headlock and they trade chops on the ropes, but Perry takes him to the floor with a dropkick and follows with a dive. And Moxley clobbers him with an elbow to that cut off and runs him into the post to take over. And Perry is busted open, so Moxley blocks a sliced bread attempt and slams him through the timekeeper’s table for good measure as we take a break. Back with Moxley beating on the cut with forearms because it was kind of drying up already. Moxley wraps him up with a leglock and headscissors, and Perry can’t even put him down with a clothesline. Moxley beats on him in the corner, but Perry comes back with three dives and a moonsault to the floor for good measure. Back in, Perry drops a flying elbow for two, but Moxley puts him down with a lariat and Gotch piledriver for two. So Mox picks him up and gives him another lariat for two. Moxley beats him on with forearms and the ref tries to stop the match, but Perry wants to continue. So he keeps telling off Moxley and Jon unloads on him again, but Perry comes back with his own lariat and rolls up Mox for two. Snare Trap follows and Moxley teases the tapout panic again before biting the arm to escape. Mox reverses him to the bulldog choke and sinks it in, and Perry seems like he’s out, but then fires up again, so Mox scissors the body and finishes him off at 15:24. Look, we all know this is leading to Moxley v. Nigel in the finals, but it would have been a hell of a lot more interesting if Moxley had lost here so we’d be guaranteed a new champion. Perry did a hell of a job here and they had me thinking they might pull the trigger on the upset, though. ****

Kind of an average Dynamite this week, setting the table for the PPV with a great main event but not a lot of other great stuff tonight. It was pretty much impossible to follow up last week’s show, anyway.