The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 10.01.25

The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 10.01.25

“Dynamite 6 year Anniversary”

Live from Hollywood, FL, in a venue I’m not super loving. It looks like a TNA taping.

Your hosts are Excalibur, Taz & Bryan Danielson

Meanwhile, Nick Jackson continues his slide into degenerate gambler, and loses the rest of the money.

The Broke Bucks & Josh Alexander v. Brodido & Kenny Omega

Sadly the lack of cash means no entrance for the Bucks, as they are already in the ring tonight. And it looks like Kenny got all their pyro. Kenny snaps off a rana on Alexander and then Brody beats up on the Bucks and Bandido dodges some superkicks and then takes them down with a double rana. Omega is more than happy to a Macarena with him, but Brody is still a no. The babyfaces pile up the heels with slams, but the Bucks comes back with some fancy double-teaming on Bandido , only for Kenny to save with a double bulldog on them. Alexander cuts off the Terminator dive and then the Bucks ambush him with double superkicks on the apron. Back in the ring, Alexander hits Kenny with a rack bomb to take over and we take a break. Back with Kenny making the hot tag to Brody, who hits Josh with a sideslam for two. Brodido clears the ring, but Alexander catches Bandido with a powerslam on the apron, THE HARDEST PART OF THE RING. Kenny finally hits the Terminator Dive on everyone and manages to chase Don Callis back to the dressing room in the process. Nick escapes the 21Plex, but we get triple piledrivers from the babyfaces for two. Bucks come back with a double superkick into a german suplex from Alexander on Brody, and Kenny takes a superkick RIGHT IN THE DIVERTICULITIS for two. More superkicking, but Kenny hits Alexander with the poison rana and V-Trigger, and the One Winged Angel finishes at 15:44. Just kind of a fun messy opener. **3/4. Afterwards, Omega and the Bucks tease a reunion, but Josh Alexander wants none of that and attacks, and the Jurassic Express saves and brawls with the Bucks to the back. And then Kenny does a promo about the friends we’ve made along the way in the past six years. But then the lights go out and Andrade returns to AEW after getting fired by the other guys for allegedly failing a drug test, and lays out Kenny to join the Callis Family, which is pretty much 76% of the roster at this point. I really hope they got a hot deal for him because he wore out his welcome the first time around and I certainly wasn’t clamoring for his return.

Meanwhile, we take a look back at some of the big moments of AEW over the past 6 years. Man I wish they’d do that cruise ship gimmick again for a show or two.

Meanwhile, Mark Briscoe sums up his feud with MJF, and promises to celebrate with Orange Cassidy when he wins the TNT title tonight.

TNT title: Kyle Fletcher v. Orange Cassidy

I guess Hologram is injured, which sucks because I was looking forward to whatever wacky way they were gonna screw him out of his winning streak here. Assuming it would have been Dark Hologram or whatever his name is. Orange tries a sunset flip and then runs out of motivation, so they fight over a backslide instead and Orange rolls him up for two. That’s too much action for him, so he bails to the floor, but walks into a big boot from Fletcher. Orange goes up and Kyle kicks him to the floor as we take a break. Back with Fletcher throwing the kicks, which just fires up Orange, so Fletcher kicks him in the head again and stomps him down. Orange uses the POWER OF POCKETS and makes the comeback with the DDT. Orange goes up with the flying bodypress, but Fletcher catches him in a slam for two. Orange with the stunner, but Kyle catches him with a german suplex and superkicks him into a powerbomb, which Orange reverses to a DDT. A second one gets two. They fight over a piledriver and Orange rolls him up for two, but Kyle hits him with a spinning tombstone for two. Orange with a small package for two and they trade kicks, but Don Callis gets involved, only for Hologram to trip up Orange, and allow Fletcher to drop Orange with the brainbuster to finish at 14:00 and retain. This was really good but no one in the building thought it was actually Hologram turning on Orange. ***1/4 So then “Hologram” reveals that he’s not Hologram at all, but is in fact DARK HOLOGRAM as the announcers apparently don’t watch their own show and haven’t seen all the videos for him in the past few weeks. And SURPRISE SURPRISE he joins the Callis Family, for the second new member already tonight. Like, clearly Dark Hologram was gonna turn on SOMEONE and cost them the TNT title and they just stuck Orange in that spot instead of Hologram, which comes off pretty lazy to be honest.

Meanwhile, Mercedes Mone once again meets up with Puppet Mone and gives it a Hard NAR.

Daniel Garcia, Claudio Castagnoli & Jon Moxley v. Hangman Page & Powerhouse Hobbs & Samoa Joe

Claudio gets trapped in the babyface corner and beaten up to start, but the Death Riders manage to double-team Joe until Hangman gets the tag and cleans house. He tosses Garcia and hits him with a dive. Over to Hobbs and he hits Moxley with corner clotheslines and then takes care of Garcia before continuing his beating on Moxley outside as we take a break. Back with the Riders trapping Hobbs in the corner and Claudio tormenting Page, but Hangman gets the hot tag and cleans house. Death valley driver on Garcia gets two. Hangman and Moxley slug it out as I notice they’re using THREADS now for their stupid social media overlays! Everyone hits the big moves and Hangman gets the buckshot on Mox, but Claudio breaks it up, and he also eats a buckshot and then gets pinned at 14:09. This was another good but unremarkable trios match in a series. ***. This would seem to be cause for celebration, but Samoa Joe feels slighted by Page handing him his tag belt wrongly, and they nearly get into a brawl before security and cooler heads prevail. Well that’s a hell of a main event for WrestleDream right there.

Timeless Toni Storm v. Tay Melo

They trade takedowns and fight to the floor as we take a break, and return with Toni trying to procure the chickenwing and getting rammed into the corner by Tay to break. Back with them charging at each other for a double down. They slug it out and Toni comes back with a DDT,b ut misses the hip attack. Tay fires back with a corner kick, but Toni counters the TayKO with a german suplex, hits the hip attack, and finishes with Storm Zero at 7:55. **. Afterwards, Toni talks about losing at All Out and falling into deep silence. I wish this crowd would fall into a deep silence instead of doing that What shit.

Meanwhile, Samoa Joe warns Hanger that he’s back to worrying about himself again, and Page is in now in for some deep shit.

GOA v. The Swirl

Toa throws Lee Johnson around to start and they beat him down in the corner. Blake tags himself in and quickly gets hit with the lungblower as we take a break. Back with the Swirl making a comeback with dives, but Toa lays them out on the floor and back in for the double chokeslam on Lee for the pin at 7:24. Just an extended squash. *1/2. Afterwards, the Hurt Syndicate comes out and we get a challenge for a Florida Street Fight next week in Jacksonville.

Meanwhile, Kris Statlander accepts the challenge from Toni Storm for WrestleDream, but Harley Cameron does a run-in on her promo, too.

Meanwhile, Don Callis challenges Brodido on behalf of Okada & Takeshita, who aren’t thrilled about it.

Darby Allin & Kris Statlander v. Wheeler Yuta & Marina Shafir

Yuta hits Skip Intro at the beginning of Peacemaker. He’s the worst. They all immediately brawl into the crowd and Yuta gets put on a chair and splatted by Darby, but Marina beats on Stat with some awesome kicks at ringside as we take a break. Back with Marina hitting Statlander with a headscissor driver on the apron, and Yuta hits Darby with a german suplex on a pile of chairs in the ring. Kris suplexes Marina through the timekeeper table, while Darby superplexes Yuta onto the pile of chairs for two. But then Yuta hits him with a draping neckbreaker on the apron. Yuta builds Lego sets and refuses to follow the instructions. He’s the worst. Back in the ring, he finds a bag of tacks and hits Statlander with an Angle slam, although not on the tacks. Kris comes back and suplexes him on a pile of chairs, and then drops Marina on her bare feet, onto the tacks, and that’s NO BUYS, and she accidentally chokes out Yuta, allowing Darby to finish with the coffin drop at 12:19. This was sufficiently fun and crazy. ***1/4. And then we get a staredown and brawl between Statlander and Toni Storm. And one more Death Rider beatdown on Darby Allin courtesy Pac to end the show.

No more surprise Callis Family turns left? OK just checking.

This crowd fucking sucked tonight but the work in the ring was good all the way through at least. Hangman v. Joe is the banger main event that I didn’t know I needed but I definitely do need it. Maybe the Opps will defend the Trios title again sometime after that, who knows. Anything can happen.