The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 10.15.25

The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 10.15.25

Live from Kansas City, MO

Your hosts are Excalibur, Tony Schiavone & Bryan Danielson

Meanwhile, on Collision, Kota Ibushi takes a freak fall from the top rope and shatters his leg. Man, 18 month recovery time is probably gonna be the end for him. That wasn’t even a crazy spot or anything, but it sure was ill-advised.

Meanwhile, Toni Storm and Kris Statlander have a sitdown before the PPV, and start dramatically pulling off their clothes until Renee puts a stop to it. So they agree to no physicality, but egg each other on until Toni quips “Is this interview over?” and then tells Kris to meet her in the ring for some physicality. So they tear off more clothes and slug it out when they get there. Toni offers a free shot and then counters into a suplex, so Kris offers a free shot and Toni kisses her forehead and leaves instead. Well that was all pretty hot.

Meanwhile, Jungle Jack Perry is whittling some wood, and he’s pretty disappointed in the Young Bucks for abandoning him in his time of need, and that’s why he went back to Luchasaurus.

GOA v. The Hurt Syndicate

It’s so weird that as a rule, Tony don’t book rematches, but these guys have now had multiple matches in different combinations over the past few months. Kaun and Shelton throw down to start and Shelton throws him around with suplexes, and then Bobby beats on Kaun in the corner with elbows and adds a neckbreaker. They fight on the floor as we take a break, and return with Bobby suplexing Toa this time. Ricochet gets involved and helps out Kaun, but Shelton hits him with a kneelift off the apron and goes back to suplexing Kaun again. Toa lays out Shelton with a headbutt and clotheslines Bobby on the floor to take him out, but Ricochet sneaks in with the Spirit Gun on Shelton and Kaun gets the pin at 9:12. That all felt like a very WWE booking finish. And then they’re doing ANOTHER Trios match at the PPV! **1/2

Meanwhile, Darby Allin and Jon Moxley meet with a glass partition between them, and Darby has actually thought about joining the Death Riders, but he doesn’t trust Moxley after what happened to Danielson. So he’s going to shove an AEW flag down Moxley’s throat and take over the Death Riders for himself when Mox quits and exposes himself as a liar. But then poor Darby gets clobbered again when Pac sneaks up behind him in the room and smashes his face into the glass, which sounds like an average day for Darby. I’m shocked Pac didn’t follow him up Everest and throw him off the summit, if we’re being honest.

Roderick Strong v. Claudio Castagnoli

They trade shots in the corner and Claudio takes him down with a headlock and beats on him with forearms in the corner. Roddy tries a comeback and Claudio puts him down with a backbreaker for two. Claudio with a slam and an elbow for two. They fight to the floor and Claudio sends him into the railing as we take a break. Back with Strong making a comeback with a dropkick, but he walks into a forearm for two and Claudio shifts into a crossface and forces Roddy to make the ropes. Claudio with a uranage for two and he tries the Giant Swing, but Roddy fights out of it and dodges a big boot before booting Claudio to the floor for a suplex onto the railing. Back in the ring, they fight on the top rope, where Roddy drops him on the top turnbuckle with the backbreaker, and then he finishes him off with the uppercut at 12:40. Just kind of a match. **1/2

Meanwhile, Don Callis celebrates his birthday with his Family, although Konosoke Takeshita was too busy winning the IWGP World title and couldn’t make it. So he sends a video greeting, but Okada accidentally presses the wrong button on the remote and turns off the TV.

Meanwhile, we actually get footage of Takeshita winning the title from Zach Sabre Jr, which was apparently a hell of a match.

Mark Davis, Hechicero & Josh Alexander v. Kenny Omega & The Jurassic Express

Hechicero takes Kenny down and works his leg with some vicious looking stuff, but Alexander gives him a cheapshot from the apron and Kenny gets suckered out of the ring and triple-teamed by the Callis goons. Back in the ring, Alexander works Kenny over, but the Jurassics double-team him and Jungle Jack gets a senton for two. Over to Mark Davis, back from injury, and he bullies Jack out of the ring as we take a break. Back with Luchasaurus getting the hot tag and Kenny adds the You Can’t Escape on Alexander for two. Josh comes back with rolling germans, but Kenny hits him with a knee strike and V-Trigger for two. Davis and Luchasarus punch each other until they both go down, but Hechicero gives Perry the swinging hammerlock to put him down. Luchasaurus recovers and lets Kenny back in again, but he gets distracted by Don Callis, as people usually do, and Alexander clips the knee. But Jack Perry takes a bullet from Davis and eats a lariat to save Kenny. Davis gets a piledriver on Kenny for two anyway. Hechicero comes in with a cross armbreaker, but Luchasaurus chokeslams Alexander onto them to break it up. Back to Jack after a Megapowers handshake with Kenny to mend fences, and the Jurassic Express finishes Hechicero with a Doomsday Device at 14:24. This match was a TON of fun, especially with the Jurassics back as babyfaces, and I declare this the week’s PARTY MATCH! ***1/2

More importantly, what’s a good name for their finisher there? The Extinction Event is already taken I think. Dino Device? Cretaceous Crusher? I’ll workshop it.

Skye Blue v. Jamie Hayter

Apparently Jamie Hayter is facing Thekla on the PPV? TWO WOMEN’S MATCHES? What sorcery is this? Hayter overpowers Skye and slams her for two. They fight to the floor and Jamie jaws with Julia Hart, which allows Skye to hit a draping DDT off the apron and onto the floor as we take a break. Back with Hayter missing a charge and Skye takes her to the top rope, but Jamie fights her off for a missile dropkick. Hayter with a backdrop suplex that gets two. Big boot gets two. They do some somewhat awkward takedown reversals and Jamie gets the backbreaker for a double down. Skye takes her to the floor and dives off the apron, but Hayter catches her with a fallaway slam on the floor. Back in the ring, Hayter with a neckbreaker for two. Skye blocks the Hayterade and hits a stunner for two. But then Jamie blocks Code Blue with the Hayterade to finish at 12:00. Got a bit messy near the end but they worked hard and this was good stuff. ***

Afterwards, Thekla does a promo on Hayter to set up their PPV match.

Meanwhile, Mercedes Mone now has 10 belts, and she becomes the longest reigning TBS champion as of Friday at Arena Mexico.

AEW World Trios title: The Opps v. Rush, The Beast Mortos & Dralistico

Apparently Rush and Sammy Guevara are the ROH tag team champions now? I literally had no idea. I don’t think many others did either. Hobbs and Mortos exchange violence and Joe comes in for some abuse in the corner while Hangman does commentary and calls Joe “a Christmas ham of a man”. Ha! Mortos comes back on Shibata and we take a break. Back with Dralistico chopping Shibata in the corner, but Shibata fights back with a suplex for two and it’s over to Hobbs. He stacks up LFI in the corner and hits Dralistico with a World’s Strongest Slam, and it’s over to Joe, who hits him with a senton for two. Powerslam gets two. Everyone brawls as it’s BREAKING LOOSE IN TULSA and Joe casually catches Dralistico in the choke and puts him out at 11:00 to retain. An OK match that was mostly just backdrop for Page on commentary. **1/2. Afterwards, LFI engages in the beatdown on the Opps, but Hangman makes the save and then gets into an awkward staredown with Joe after Joe grabs the World title and teases keeping it, before giving it back.

And uh, TSN isn’t showing Collision, so that’s where the show ends for Canada. I guess they did the Collision hour on USA Network but my DVR absolutely never catches it for whatever reason, so I got nothing. Hopefully nothing major happened. I really wish we had a more unified source for these shows without having to guess which TSN channel has Dynamite and whether USA is showing Collision on whatever weeks.

I thought this was an oddly subdued go-home show, although Darby-Moxley doing promos in what looked like a prison meeting room was awesome, and the Jurassics match was hella fun, and the women’s match was good as well. I’d call it worth watching and they had a good crowd, but it didn’t make me any more hyped to see WrestleDream or anything.