The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 10.07.25

The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 10.07.25

“Title Tuesday”

GODDAMMIT BLUE JAYS.

Live from Jacksonville, FL

Your hosts are Excalibur, Taz & Bryan Danielson

Hangman Page joins us to start for a face to face with Samoa Joe, and sure he was previously an arsonist and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, but he’s never been as confused as he was last week. I’m confused why this show is Title Tuesday despite no advertised title matches. So Page points out that Samoa Joe is angry and frustrated and that’s why he lashed out last week. But Page is still grateful for Joe’s help, which is why he’s giving him the title shot. Joe isn’t messing around with Hangman, and he doesn’t think Hangman is a real World champion, and he’s gonna choke Page out and give the world a rightful champion. But Hangman promises to endure the choke and lay out Joe flat on his back after giving back two shots for every shot Joe gives. And then Joe is gonna shake his hand because he’s the CHAMPION OF THE WORLD. OH YEAH. That’s a “two manly men fighting for the World title” promo if there ever was one.

Meanwhile, the Conglomeration is conglomerating, and Kyle O’Reilly is well known for DESPISING any other man named Kyle, and that’s bad news for Kyle Fletcher, given that his name is also Kyle.

Jon Moxley v. Tomohiro Ishii

This is kind of emblematic of Tony’s booking issues, as this is an intriguing match, but Moxley is going into a big PPV match and Ishii never ever wins, so no one seriously believes that Ishii has a snowball’s chance in hell against Mox. They slug it out with forearms and Ishii bulldozes him out of the corner and they brawl onto the floor. Marina goes after Ishii and Mox dropkicks him off the apron as we take a break. Back with Ishii hitting a brainbuster while bleeding from his nose, but he walks into a sleeper and quickly escapes with a backdrop suplex. Mox slugs away in the corner, but Ishii hits him with a lariat for two. Mox with a big boot, but Ishii puts him down with a lariat, so Mox hits him with a running knee and it’s a double down. Mox ducks a lariat and hits the cutter for two. Mox has had enough and hits him with a piledriver, but Ishii pops up, so Moxley gets a curb stomp for two. Ishii clotheslines him into a neck brank, but Mox escapes with a german suplex and hits the DDT for two. And then the rear naked choke finishes at 13:00. Well again, the result was never in doubt, but they had a hell of a brawl. ***1/2

Meanwhile, the Young Bucks are trying to see the boss for another money match to replace their lost funds.

Meanwhile, we get a video about Statlander v. Storm BY THE NUMBERS.

Street Fight: Ricochet & GOA v. The Hurt Syndicate

My wife when the Syndicate make their entrance: “They all look old.” She’s not wrong. They all slug it out on the ramp right away and Toa slams Lashley on a pile of chairs in the ring. Poor MVP gets stomped down by GOA while Ricochet hides under a table on the floor. So the Syndicate suplexes Ricochet on the stage and goes to work on the GOA, but Ric dives onto the pile as we take a break. Back with Toa and Bobby fighting on the floor, but Lashley tries a spear through the table and runs into a chairshot instead. Kaun puts him through another table with a flying elbow off the apron. Back in the ring, GOA double-teams Shelton with a spinebuster for two. Next, Ricochet with a shooting star press with Shelton on a table, but it doesn’t break, so MVP jumps in and breaks the table while making a save. Well that whole deal didn’t look great. Ricochet runs wild with superkicks on the Hurts, but Shelton hits him with a running knee in the corner. But then Lashley comes back in the ring and spears everyone before putting Toa through a table at ringside. The Hurts triple-team Ricochet in the ring and put him through a table before Bobby pins him at 16:00. Just a long and sloppy smoke and mirrors brawl. **

Meanwhile, Don Callis claims that Kyle O’Reilly named himself after Kyle Fletcher because he’s such a mark. Huge if true.

Jurassic Express v. Local Talent

I like that we’ve finally arrived at “Jungle” Jack Perry, which I’ve been saying for years was what he should just be billed as. Luchasaurus with a drop suplex on Geek #1 and he superkicks the guy out of the corner while the Young Bucks are forced to sit high in the bleachers, with kids that aren’t theirs. The Express finishes the first geek with the Countdown to Extinction powerbomb at 2:55. But then the Bucks hit the ring and give them a receipt for last week, hitting Perry with the TK Driver to presumably set up a match for the PPV.

Meanwhile, Pac is going make Orange Cassidy suffer on behalf of the Death Riders. There are WAY too many giant stables in this company. We’ve had three different interview segments so far in this show where there’s six or more people grouped together.

TNT title: Kyle Fletcher v. Kyle O’Reilly

Kyle blocks a stomp and goes for a kneebar immediately on Kyle, but Kyle makes the ropes. Kyle goes for the arm, but Kyle slams out of it, so Kyle takes him down for a cross armbreaker and Kyle is forcedto make the ropes. Kyle bails and Kyle hits him with a knee off the apron and back in with a Michinoku Driver as we take a break. Don Callis is worried about brand confusion with all the Kyles, but I don’t see how it’s confusing. Back with Kyle making the comeback with an elbow strike and running forearm in the corner to set up a guillotine on Kyle, but Kyle headbutts out of it. Kyle with the powerbomb on Kyle, but Kyle goes right back to the kneebar and heel hook, forcing Kyle to make the ropes again. They trade shots on the apron and Kyle takes him down with a dragon screw on the apron and then another dragon screw that drops Kyle facefirst on an open chair, and that didn’t look like it was planned. Kyle with a flying knee off the apron, ramming Kyle into the chair again, but he misses a flying knee into the ring. They trade shots and Kyle goes for the brainbuster, but Kyle escapes and goes for the arm again. But Kyle lawn darts Kyle into the corner to break it up while the crowd chants “This is Kyle”. They trade knees and Kyle hits a DDT and a capture suplex for two. Kyle picks the ankle again and Kyle escapes, but Kyle hits him with a knee strike for two and goes back to the anklelock again. But then Kyle drops Kyle with a brainbuster, and then follows with another one for the pin at 12:45 to retain over Kyle. See, another one where there was no chance anyone but Kyle would win. They had some crazy good chemistry together but Kyle had no credibility left as a single. ***1/2

Afterwards, the Callis Family comes out for the beatdown, but Mark Briscoe saves and stares them down, setting up another match for the PPV.

TBS title: Mercedes Mone v. Lacey Lane

Lane, who I guess is yet another WWE castoff who barely draws a reaction, uses acrobatics to control Mone and rolls into a short kick to put Mercedes down. Lane with a heatseeker for two as we take a break. Mone misses a frog splash and Lane superkicks her into the corner for two, but Mone powerbombs her into the corner, but then misses a running knee. Lane with a Sister Abigail for two. Wacky samoan drop into a slam gets two. They trade rollups for two, and Mercedes hits her stupid moneymaker finish for the pin at 9:27. Underwhelming surprise challenger, no heat for the match and it was just Mone selling for nearly 10 minutes and then hitting her finish out of nowhere. *1/2

Meanwhile, LFI talks trash about Eddie Kingston, setting up Eddie v. Beast Mortos on Collision.

Double Jeopardy Eliminator: Brodido v. Kazuchika Okada & Konosuke Takeshita

The overly complicated stip here is that if the heels get the win, they get a tag team title shot, but if the babyfaces win, the person who gets the pin gets a shot at Okada’s title regardless of who gets pinned. And if Bandido gets pinned then no one cares because it’s the ROH World title and no one wants it anyway. Brodido double-teams Okada in the corner despite Bandido’s injured shoulder, and Bandido takes him down with a headscissors and dropkick. Brody with a running splash in the corner, but Takeshita hits him with a DDT on the apron, and Okada adds a DDT on the floor as the Callis family stares each other down and we take a break. Back with Brody hitting them with a double clothesline out of the corner and it’s hot tag Bandido. He springboards in with a senton on Okada for two and a backslide for two. Crucifix gets two. One armed suplex gets two. Brody with a Ganso Bomb for two, but Takeshita breaks it up to make the save. They try for the 450 finish, but Okada takes out Bandido’s injured arm and Takeshita hits Brody with the Blue Thunder Bomb. But Bandido is legal, so Takeshita hits him with a knee strike, only for Bandido to reverse the Raging Fire into a cradle for two. Takeshita and Okada collide and Bandido gets two off that. But he can’t do the 21 Plex and Takeshita hits him with a poison rana, only for Okada to tag himself in and hit the Rainmaker to finish at 10:18. I think it’s kind of hilarious that Okada just pinned the ROH World champion and it means nothing as far as that title goes. Match didn’t have a lot of heat for whatever reason, but it was alright. **

Meanwhile, we get some promos to set up a giant mixed tag match scenario that I do not care about whatsoever.

Orange Cassidy v. Pac

They have agreed to leave the Conglomeration and Death Riders in the back, which is good because they wouldn’t all fit around ringside anyway. Pac takes him down with a headlock and they trade cravats before Orange goes to the arm. Pac sends him to the apron and slams him to the floor and we take a break. Back with them slugging it out as Orange makes the comeback as Pac is straps down. He’s so yoked they should call him Six-Pac. Actually I guess that was another guy. Orange hits him with a suplex and PK and Pac bails to the floor and Orange hits him with a DDT out there and follows with an Orange Punch to put him on the timekeeper’s table, and he follows with a pockets splash to put Pac through. Back in the ring, Orange with a DDT and Orange Punch, which gets two. Orange goes up, and Pac messes with him by doing his own slow roll away to the ramp, and they head into the stands, where Pac gets a piledriver at the top, only for that scamp Darby to handcuff Pac to the railing, forcing Pac to escape and dive into the ring at 9, and Orange rolls him up for the pin at 15:57. ***. Pac is understandably upset, so he charges Darby and gets Maced, before Darby pulls out a stungun and then runs away to fight another day and end the show. He also threatens a Molotov cocktail before security tackles him. And rightly so. Well that was wacky. You knew they weren’t gonna beat either guy 100% clean but I’d call it an acceptable level of shenanigans.

For a show hyped up to be PPV quality, this one didn’t have a lot of heat, outside of the HOT FIRE opening segment with Page and Joe that really sold the main event. The rest is starting to feel like Tony Khan’s increasing crutch of heel stables and good matches where you can predict the winner 99.5% of the time because he doesn’t want to beat anyone. The last PPV felt like a lot of momentum coming out of it, and that’s just…gone.