The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 09.10.25

The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 09.10.25

Originally written 09.10.25

What a day, huh?

Live from Philadelphia, PA

Your hosts are Excalibur, Taz & Bryan Danielson

Hangman Adam Page v. Josh Alexander

Page beats him down in the corner to start while Callis joins the desk and gives stinkeye to Bryan Danielson. Hangman sends him to the floor and follows with a dive, but Alexander slugs him on the way down and gives him a sort of brainbuster on the apron, which as always is the HARDEST PART OF THE RING. That one needs someone taller to deliver the move properly. Hangman tries to moonsault him on the floor, but Alexander catches the ankle, and Page reverses him into the crowd. Back in, they trade chops and Page clotheslines him to the floor and hits him with a dive, but Alexander rolls away from a potential moonsault as we take a break. Back with Page hitting him with the fallaway slam and a death valley driver for two. Buckshot lariat misses and Alexander hits him with the rolling germans, including a roll right out to the apron and then to the floor. Page lands on his feet, however, and suplexes Josh into the railing. Back in the ring, Hangman with a big boot for two after a slugfest, and they fight to the top rope. Josh brings him down with a rolling Regal slam for two and he rolls into the anklelock, but Page makes the ropes. Back to the apron and Hangman hits him with the Deadeye on the apron and finally gets his moonsault to the floor. But now Callis takes the ref and all the goofs run in for Page to dispose of them. And the buckshot lariat finishes at 15:50. Solid opener, even though Alexander had zero chance here. ***1/4. Also, I have enough trouble dealing with the whole “socks and sandals” thing that all the kids are into without also adding “shoes with bare feet” to the list of things I don’t understand these days.

Afterwards, Page complains about having to deal with Don Callis and his stable of losers, but that brings out Kyle Fletcher to issue another challenge for the World title at All Out. Crowd: “Where’s your socks?” It’s a valid question. Taz: “it’s actually a style”. Hangman sees himself in Kyle, but doesn’t think he’s ready for the title yet, despite his potential. But he’ll give him the shot, after Kyle does one thing for him. Crowd: “SOCKS! SOCKS!” Poor Page nearly cracks up, but presses on, telling Kyle that he needs to leave the Don Callis family, and find some socks. So Fletcher seems to agree to this, although I’m not clear on whether that means he has to leave the family first or leave if he loses? Anyway I hope Fletcher does leave the Callis Family because they’re already even more tiresome than the months of Death Riders were.

Meanwhile, at Collision, MJF tells the story of skipping his honeymoon to make sure he can kill Mark Briscoe, so whatever stipulation Briscoe picks is fine with him.

Meanwhile, the Young Bucks are competing in a $500,000 match tonight and they need it to avoid having to eat in the catering with the Dark Order and former friend Brandon Cutler. And even Cutler is scoring off them! But Jon Moxley offers them the entire share of the purse if they can pull off the win.

Mercedes Mone & Emi Sakura v. Riho & Alex Windsor

Emi tosses Riho around by the hair and gets two, but Windsor comes in with a legsweep into a clothesline for two. Riho tries a single leg crab, but Mone pulls Emi out to save, and then we get a pair of dives from the babyfaces as we take a break. Back with Mone hitting a running knee on Riho in the corner for two, but Riho comes back with a running dropkick on the ropes for two. Sakura with a senton for two, but Windsor saves and the match completely falls apart with a bunch of sloppy reversals until Riho puts Sakura in the half crab for the submission at 8:54. I gotta say, I don’t get the sudden switch from Windsor to Riho at all, especially since they’re still keeping Windsor around as a thorn in Mone’s side. Also, this was a complete disaster. I don’t know if Emi Sakura got her bell rung or she’s just washed, but it completely fell apart around her and she lost the direction multiple times during the match. *

FTR joins us, ready to pick fights with fans in the front row, and then they decide to just beat up the cameraman instead and leave. That didn’t really go anywhere. They’re meeting Adam Priest and Tommy Billington on Collision again. “Priest and the Kid” need a catchy name but I can’t really think of any obvious connection at the moment that lends itself well to humor. I’ll think on it.

Ricochet v. Shelton Benjamin

Ricochet is of course so unlikeable that he can’t help but be a heel, but I’m still not really clear on how we’re supposed to feel about the Hurt Syndicate. Really the entire MJF storyline went nowhere in the end. Ricochet quickly dumps him and hits a dive, and then back in with a 450 for two that seems to just make Shelton really annoyed. So Shelton takes him to the floor and beats on him out there, and then back in with a suplex as Ricochet tries to flee in terror. Back to the floor, where Ric sends him into the desk and dropkicks him off the apron as we take a break. Back with Ricochet hitting a knee strike for two. Ricochet tries a springboard and Shelton catches him and hits him with a pair of german suplexes, and then drops him with a third one at the request of the crowd. Another suplex gets two. They trade superkicks for a double down, but head to the top and Ricochet brings him down with a Spanish fly for two. But Ricochet finds the scissors and Shelton blocks that and breaks them apart, which is a heel move in the ECW Arena. So the Gates run in and take the ref, allowing Toa to hit Shelton with a headbutt for a rollup from Ricochet to finish at 11:00. That was a weakass finish and if Shelton didn’t want to do a clean job they should have just done a DQ. They were having a hell of a match before the dumb ending, though. ***1/2

Meanwhile, Hook may or may not be leaving the Opps. He’s not sure.

Meanwhile, we clarify that Kyle Fletcher will just be leaving the Don Callis Family in the dressing room for the title match and won’t actually be leaving. Which is fine, but the problem is that Tony Khan has booked these stips many times before, especially during the Death Rider era, where the heels are barred from ringside in various ways, and always, without fail, end up interfering in the finish anyway, to the point where it means nothing. Hell, a lot of times the referee makes a big show of ejecting the heels from ringside, and they STILL come back and interfere later, too.

Philly Street Fight: Toni Storm v. Skye Blue

Toni is paying tribute to the Sandman with her kendo stick tonight, and she beats on Skye with that, but tries the hip attack and gets stapled in the ass. And…uh…other places. Even Taz is at a loss for words. Well Toni is dedicated to her art form. We take a break and return with them fighting on the railing and slugging it out, but Skye finds a secret street sign hidden by a Tony Schiavone sign and uses that. So Toni finds a table covered in mousetraps, but Skye powerbombs her onto those. Speaking recent experience, those things HURT. The table doesn’t break either, and that gets two. Back in the ring after a “We want cheese” chant, and Toni beats on her with a chair and gets a DDT for two. Next up, Toni finds an electric fly swatter for some wacky spots, but Skye powerbombs her onto a trash can for two. Toni puts a sign on Skye in the corner, hits the hip attack, and pins her with Storm Zero. Afterwards, Julia Hart and Thekla hit the ring for the beatdown, but Jamie Hayter saves, then hits Kris Statlander by mistake and allows Thekla to stand tall. This is all leading to a four-way title match at the PPV and it feels like filler for whatever the next real feud is. Same as the Riho-Mone match. Anyway, this was goofy as all hell and not particularly good in any real sense, but I think we desperately need something light and fun tonight and this served that purpose. If I had to rate it, it was like **1/2. Entertaining crap.

Meanwhile, Willow wants to share her anger and hatred, but Harley Cameron pops in for a song and offers to paint a cat on Willow’s face if she joins the team. But even that doesn’t sway Willow, sadly.

$500,000 All Star tag match: Matthew and Nicholas Massie (“Government Names”) & The Death Riders v. The Opps & Bro-Dido

The Bucks team up to block a sunset flip from Bandido and Nick gets two, but Brody slams them onto each other and hits them with a senton. Bandido still wants the Macarena, but Brody won’t dance and that allows Yuta to come in. So Joe kicks his ass, literally, and rolls him into a toehold, but Yuta makes the ropes. Shibata beats on him with forearms, and then Claudio comes in and Shibata dropkicks him in the corner and it’s a giant donnybrook with everyone slugging it out. The Bucks decline to participate, so Brody dives onto them outside. Back in, Bandido with a 450 for two on Claudio as we take a break. Back with Bandido hitting Nick with a crossbody, and the Bucks double-team Bandido. Hobbs gets a hot tag and smashes the heels, then absorbs a chairshot from Yuta and tosses him to the floor with annoyance. Brody splats the Bucks in the corner and cannonballs Matt for two. But then Moxley saves and Claudio tries the swing on Brody but can’t power him up. Everyone hits the big moves, but the Bucks break up the 21Plex and use the ropes to pin him at 13:21 and win $500K. This one didn’t feel up to the level of other All Star matches lately. ***. Afterwards, the Bucks and Brodido brawl to the back, and Darby Allin attacks Mox, but Daniel Garcia saves for Moxley and has apparently joined the Death Riders. Oh man Daddy Magic is gonna be so disappointed. And they curb stomp Darby onto a chair a couple of times for the heavy heat angle to end the show on a down note.

I don’t want to sound like Bully Ray bitching on Twitter about this, but we’re quickly drifting back to the depressing period where there were a million heel groups in AEW and it was nothing but HEAT HEAT HEAT all the time and I really don’t want the show to go back to that again. The Death Riders were enough for months and months and now it’s back to the Callis Family never getting their comeuppance, and the Death Riders, and Ricochet’s group, and whatever Christian’s former group is now, and it’s becoming kind of a lot again. We’re not there at all but ratings are dropping and you can feel Tony Khan getting ready to go back to the sickos again to try and fix it. Anyway, All Out feels like a complete filler PPV show with only the C&C v. FTR match feeling like a big deal and I’m wondering if TK didn’t throw in the towel a little bit because it’s going be destroyed by the Punk & AJ mixed match anyway?

Regardless, a couple of good matches this week and a decent show overall, but I’m glad they’re exiting Philly after three shows because they really need the optics of a big arena show again.