The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 11.19.25

The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 11.19.25

Live from Boston, MA

Your hosts are Excalibur, Bryan Danielson & Tony Schiavone

Ricochet v. Bobby Lashley

Winner of this gets the #1 spot in the Casino Gauntlet at Full Gear. Ricochet appears to be wearing the gear of the opposing sportsball team, and he goes on a lengthy rant against Boston and Tony Khan and Bobby Lashley and a variety of other topics before the match. Finally after 3:00 of promo, Lashley tosses him over the top rope to shut him up. He follows with shoulderblocks to all the heels on the floor to take them out, but Ricochet rolls him up for two in the ring and puts him down with kicks. Moonsault gets two. Lashley tries to come back and Ric hides behind the ref, so Bobby chokeslams him and hits a spear for the pin at 5:21. Complete squash for Lashley, although I’m pretty sure Ricochet is winding up with that title.

Meanwhile, Shibata has some words for Hangman Page, which I assume are evil and menacing.

Meanwhile, the Young Bucks will apparently give their answer to the rubes right after the next match.

The Young Bucks & Josh Alexander v. Scorpio Sky & Top Flight

As promised, Don Callis gives them his patented entrance, and even bribes the production guys into putting “The Best Tag Team, Full Stop” into their graphic. Nick takes Dante to the floor with an armdrag and they trade acrobatics and battle to a stalemate. Over to Alexander and he hits Darius with an elbow in the corner to set up a triple team from Skyflight. The Bucks fight back with their own double-teams to clear the ring, and Josh takes out Scorpio on the floor as we take a break. Back with Sky rolling Josh up for two and Darius gets a hot tag and hits a dive on the Bucks. Top Flight teams up for a pretty amazing double-team blockbuster on Alexander, with Dante basically doing a double jump into a sliced bread off Darius’ shoulders. Dante escapes the BTE Trigger and dives onto the Bucks outside. Back in with a springboard clothesline on Alexander for two, but Josh rolls into an anklelock. Dante escapes that, but the Bucks hit him with the TK Driver and Josh finishes the job with the anklelock at 10:14. Lots of highspots but no on in their right mind would expect Top Flight to win this match and really hurt my interest in it. ***

Afterwards, Don Callis awaits the Bucks’ official announcement of joining his family, but Kenny Omega interrupts and attacks the Family members until the Bucks pull him off, allowing Alxander to take Kenny out with an anklelock. But then Callis demands the Bucks deliver a BTE Trigger to show their loyalty, and then the Jurassic Express save before we can get resolution on this one. Well obviously nothing was getting settled until the PPV.

Meanwhile, Willow and Harley may be wacky, but need to be taken seriously.

Meanwhile, the announce team pays tribute to Bob Caudle, especially Tony Schiavone. Truly an underappreciated voice of wrestling in my youth. He was just kind of someone you took for granted as being there and being professional, with a welcoming and respectful tone.

Shelton Benjamin v. Mike Bailey

Winner of this one gets to be #2 in the Casino Gauntlet. Bailey throws kicks in the corner as the crowd kind of wakes up after the first couple of matches. They fight to the floor and Bailey beats on him with kicks, but Shelton runs him into the railing. Back in the ring, Bailey with a pair of cradles for two and he goes to an armbar. Shelton breaks free and bails to the floor to escape, and then catches Bailey on a dive attempt and slams him on the floor as we take a break. Back with Shelton going to a chinlock, but Bailey kicks him down and hits a standing shooting star for one. Bailey tries another armbar, but Shelton sends him to the floor and Bailey gets a DDT out there. Shelton beats the count, but runs into a superkick and Bailey hits a shooting star press for two. Bailey with the backflip kneedrop and into the armbar off that, but Shelton alley-oops him out of it and blasts him with a superkick for the pin at 12:00, but then the ref calls it two, which is complete bullshit. He clearly pinned Bailey. So Shelton hits another superkick and pins him for two at 12:42. I don’t know why the finish was all jacked up like that. The match started hot and kind of ran out of steam and then the finish was a mess. Also, once again no one would ever think Bailey had any chance here. **1/2

Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli v. Orange Cassidy & Roderick Strong

Case in point. Big brawl to start and Orange gets taken out in the crowd, allowing the Death Riders to double-team Roddy in their corner. Orange returns and gets smashed again, and the Riders double-team Strong’s knee. The crowd trolls Moxley with a “You tapped out” chant to distract him, allowing the babyfaces to make a comeback, but Claudio catches Orange on a bodypress attempt. To the floor, as Claudio drops him onto the railing and everyone brawls into the crowd as we take a break. Back with Mox beating on Orange with forearms, but Orange reverses a Giant Swing from Claudio into a rollup for two. Second try at the Swing works, but only gets a couple of rotations and Orange fights back with a swinging DDT. Hot tag Strong and he runs wild and slams Moxley and into a Stronghold, but Mox escapes. Paradigm Shift gets two. Roddy escapes a Doomsday Device and superplexes Mox to set up the tag to Orange, but he gets baited by Wheeler Yuta and Moxley chokes him out at 11:40. Another match that was technicaly fine but the winner was obvious because the other team wasn’t doing anything at the PPV. **1/2. But then an unhinged Kyle O’Reilly runs in and anklelocks Moxley again, as Mox taps out again, before finally his stooges rescue him. So Kyle wants a No Holds Barred match at Full Gear to settle things, which seems fair.

Meanwhile, Bro-Dido has last words for FTR and they promise to keep the tag team titles. I don’t know about that one.

Meanwhile, Kenny Omega and his new friends are in the match for the revenge, not the money.

Riho & Alex Windsor v. Toni Storm & Mina Shirakawa

Apparently we’re STILL in the first round for this tag team title tournament. So clearly we’re not getting a champion crowned at Full Gear. Mina is right back to being her usual wacky self after last week’s bloodbath. Toni and Alex do a test of strength, and Alex puts her down with a back elbow. Riho and Windsor double-team Toni, but Toni gets a backbreaker on Riho. Over to Mina , but she gets clotheslined on the top rope and Riho hits them with a dive as we take a break. Back with Mina fighting both off by herself and making a hot tag to Toni, who boots Windsor down after three snapmares. DDT gets two. Toni slams Mina onto Windsor for two. Riho and Alex double-team Mina for two, but Mina hits Riho with a backfist and gets the figure-four. We get some silly comedy with Storm and Windsor both rolling the hold over and fighting over that. Windsor with a suplex on Storm for two. But then we get double hip attacks and Storm Zero finishes Windsor at 13:00 to advance. Crowd was engaged by Storm but not much else. Match was fine. **1/2

Meanwhile, Kyle Fletcher and Mark Briscoe have words before their match at Full Gear, but Okada attacks Briscoe and lays him out.

Meanwhile, Pac challenges Darby Allin to a match at Full Gear, with no nonsense or cattle prods.

Hangman Page v. Shibata

Hangman attacks Shibata on the floor before the bell, but Shibata goes after the injured ribs and runs him into the railing a few times to take over. Page puts him on a chair and boots him out of it, oddly enough being the only person on the show to sell Blood & Guts in any fashion, even though he wasn’t even in the match! Back in the ring, Page puts the boots to him in the corner and fights off a forearm attack with a backbreaker for two. Page gets distracted by Samoa Joe at the desk, however, and Shibata attacks from behind while Joe insults everyone on commentary and we take a break. Back with them exchanging chops, but Page gets the fallaway slam to make the comeback. Page dumps him and follows with a dive. Back in, Shibata tries a PK and Page catches the foot. They trade shots in the corners and Shibata gets some disrespectful kicks and goes low to set up a cross armbreaker. Shibata with an anklelock and Hangman makes the ropes as the boots comes off, so Page slips out with a buckshot lariat to finish at 10:46. Kind of a weird dynamic but it worked. ***

As always for these shows now, Collision is a separate show in Canada on a different channel that I don’t subscribe to, so that’s the end of the night for me.

Kind of a mid show after last week’s all time classic episode. We’re back to a bunch of average matches with completely obvious finishes again this week, but the Continental Classic returning next week should help with that. Really though this felt like a pretty inessential episode and you didn’t miss anything if you skipped it.