AEW Dynamite Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights Before Full Gear
Just days before AEW presents its annual November extravaganza, Full Gear, the company rolled into the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California for the go-home episode of Dynamite.
Wednesday's broadcast featured the latest from AEW World Champion MJF, a high-stakes match in the women's division, a preview of Saturday's AEW International Championship battle between Orange Cassidy and Jon Moxley, and a monumental street fight that served as the latest in the battle between Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega, and the Don Callis Family.
What went down, how did it affect Saturday's pay-per-view event (available on B/R) and how did each segment grade out?
Find out with this recap of the November 15 broadcast.
Match Card
1 of 10Announced in advance for Wednesday's show are:
- Street Fight: Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, and Paul Wight vs. The Don Callis Family (Brian Cage, Powerhouse Hobbs, Kyle Fletcher, and Konosuke Takeshita)
- Orange Cassidy and Hook vs. Jon Moxley and Wheeler Yuta
- The Young Bucks vs. Penta El Zero Miedo and Komander
- Red Velvet vs. Skye Blue (winner advances to Full Gear)
- MJF promo
Jon Moxley and Wheeler Yuta vs. Orange Cassidy and Hook
2 of 10
AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy may defend against Jon Moxley at Full Gear but Freshly Squeezed and his partner, Hook, wasted little time sending a message to the former AEW World champion and his partner, Wheeler Yuta, at the top of Wednesday's show.
A competitive matchup concluded with Cassidy and Moxley brawling at ringside while Yuta trapped Hook in the seatbelt pin and scored the win.
Afterward, Moxley suggested Cassidy is shaken and that he will win the International Championship Saturday night.
The finish was smart in that it preserved Cassidy and Moxley while highlighting the intensifying rivalry between the two. It also put Yuta over as a potential challenger to Hook's FTW Championship, presumably as soon as Saturday night, if Tony Khan saw fit.
A solid way to kick off the night's show.
Result
Moxley and Yuta def. Hook and Cassidy
Grade
B
Top Moments and Takeaways
- Cassidy and Hook took the fight to their Blackpool Combat Club opponents, showing the toughness needed to hang with Moxley and Yuta.
- On the same night that there is a street fight booked for the main event, maybe don't water it down right out of the gate by booking a brawl to start the show.
- Hook staring down Moxley, unafraid of the former world champion, was a nice touch and enhanced the aura of the FTW champ.
- Yuta pinning Hook was not nearly as big a deal as it should have been. The latter very, very rarely loses. It should have meant a lot more.
Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland Face-to-Face
3 of 10
Hangman Page's face-to-face promo with Swerve Strickland would have meant more as the final bit of build to their Texas Deathmatch had we not seen the fired-up, vengeful former world champ attack and drive Swerve through a table a week ago.
Here, it was a verbal barrage from Page with no retort by the heel, just a beatdown by Page on Prince Nana.
It was a segment in which Page looked and sounded like the impassioned Hangman that fans initially fell in love with, but failed to build any additional hype to a match that was effectively built in the first place.
Strickland having one last opportunity to hammer his point home and put Page on blast would have elevated this exponentially and gone a long way in ensuring their match is the most anticipated on the Full Gear card.
Grade
C
Top Moments and Takeaways
- "You are dumber than you were two years ago when your dumbass got fired," Page came out firing on the mic. He added a line about his fiancee leaving him, which fired up Strickland even more.
- "At Full Gear, I am your judge, I am your jury, and I am your executioner," Page warned his PPV opponent.
- Page reiterated the stipulations for the segment, reminding Strickland that they do not include Prince Nana, before laying the manager out with a barrage of right hands.
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Red Velvet vs. Skye Blue
4 of 10
Skye Blue cashed her ticket to Full Gear and a shot at the TBS Championship with a victory over Red Velvet in a hard-fought match.
The action between Blue and Velvet was solid, the match featured some quality near-falls, and the right competitor went over.
Blue spent weeks entangled in a rivalry with Hart while mounting distrust threatened her friendship with TBS Champion Kris Statlander. She has improved exponentially as a wrestler and has earned this opportunity to show off on the Full Gear stage.
The question is whether she has a realistic chance at leaving Ontario as champion or if she is there merely to take the pin for the woman who does.
Result
Blue defeated Velvet
Grade
B
Top Moments and Takeaways
- Blue's Scooby Doo gear is among the best in the business.
- Tony Khan and the creative team have to come up with a way to rebuild Velvet because just throwing her into the mix is not working.
- Two big kick-outs in this one, with each kicking out of the other's signature stuff or finishers.
Samoa Joe Squashed John Cruz
5 of 10
Samoa Joe hit the ring to battle John Cruz and things went about as well as you would imagine.
Joe squashed his opponent, tapping him out to the Coquina Clutch.
After the match, Joe again offered to be MJF's tag team partner at Full Gear against The Gunns, warning that one way or another, he is inevitable.
This was fine enough but not at all necessary. It could have been a backstage vignette, an email, or anything else. It ate up some time, though, and created intrigue as to whether MJF would take Joe up on his offer to partner with him, so there's that.
Result
Joe defeated Cruz
Grade
C
Top Moments and Takeaways
- Backstage, Mariah May met Toni Storm for the first time. The Timeless One essentially dismissed her before ordering her butler, Luther, to get her a warmup match booked for Friday.
Penta El Zero Miedo and Komander vs. The Young Bucks
6 of 10
The Young Bucks continued their journey down the road to heeldom Wednesday night, defeating Penta El Zero Miedo and Komander via nefarious means and earning jeers from their hometown fans.
The match featured a ton of nonstop action, drawing the tired "this is awesome" chant, despite there being little in the way of an in-match narrative and a total lack of selling.
Despite its shortcomings, the match accomplished what it intended to, with the Bucks firmly establishing themselves as villains by way of a pair of low blows, a mocking Judas Effect, and the BTE Trigger to Komander for the win.
Heel Bucks are the best Bucks and give how things were trending with audiences anyway, was probably a wise creative move. What it means for Full Gear and their match with Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega is the question that will hover over the match Saturday night.
Result
Young Bucks defeated Penta and Komander
Grade
B
Top Moments and Takeaways
- The entire opening sequence of this was ridiculous, in the worst way. All of the missed leg drops and sentons, the double kip-up, and the cheap superkicks from the Bucks...all of it made no sense and served only for Matt and Nick to establish themselves as the cool bad guys.
- How was there no mention of the long, rich history between Penta and the Bucks in this match? They literally kicked off AEW as one of the marquee matches back at Double or Nothing 2019.
- Two low blows by Nick, a Judas Effect, and the BTE Trigger allowed the Bucks to score the tainted victory.
The Gunns Send a Message to MJF
7 of 10
Ahead of Saturday's Full Gear Buy-In, where they will challenge MJF and a mystery partner for the Ring of Honor World Tag Team Championship, The Gunns hit the ring for a match with Peter Avalon and an unnamed partner.
They won in short order with 3:10 to Yuma, then cut a brief, forgettable promo on their upcoming opponent.
This served no purpose other than to remind us that The Gunns are on Saturday's show.
It accomplished nothing, advanced nothing, and did nothing to make anyone want to see that match any more than they do (or do not) want to.
Result
The Gunns defeated Avalon and his partner
Grade
D
Top Moments and Takeaways
- Backstage, a tense confrontation between the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and Chris Jericho ended with a pull-apart scuffle.
Like a Dragon Street Fight
8 of 10
The rivalry between Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega, and The Don Callis Family, continued Wednesday night in a special Sega-sponsored Like A Dragon Street Fight putting The Golden Jets, Kota Ibushi, and Paul Wight against Konosuke Takeshita, Kyle Fletcher, Powerhouse Hobbs, and "The Machine" Brian Cage.
A wild, chaotic match ensued, with bodies battered and bloodied, leading to a finish that saw Omega and Jericho duct tape Hobbs to the ropes before the former delivered One-Winged Angel to Cage for the win.
This was not this writer's thing, perse, but that should not discount the efforts of the competitors and the fans, who ate it all up.
The match was what it was, delivered what was promised, but did beg the question: what's next for the Don Callis Family?
This was another big loss in the same week that Jericho defeated Takeshita in the DDT Pro ring.
What credibility does the thrown-together faction have at this point?
Result
Omega, Jericho, Wight, and Ibushi defeated Takeshita, Fletcher, Hobbs, and Cage
Grade
B+
Top Moments and Takeaways
- Those Big Show chops to the chest will never not be devastating. Hobbs recovered nicely, slamming Wight on the top of a car in the parking lot.
- Omega hit Fletcher with a bottle and cut his hand up pretty badly, to the point that he nursed it throughout the rest of the match.
- The tombstone from Fletcher to Ibushi, through a sign and several chairs at ringside, was cringeworthy in that it is nearly impossible to imagine a scenario where it did not hurt like hell for everyone involved.
MJF Promo
9 of 10
A fired-up MJF made his way to the ring and immediately apologized to The Acclaimed and Adam Cole for them getting caught in the crosshairs of the MJF experience.
Impassioned, he talked about Full Gear and defeating Jay White to retain his AEW World Championship. Switchblade interrupted, insisted MJF was The Devil, and claimed the champ was no hero.
After vowing to beat him at Full Gear, White sicced The Gunns and Juice Robinson on him, then laid him out with the Blade Runner before standing tall with his Bullet Club teammates to close out the show.
An inoffensive close to the show that did nothing to advance anything. Rather, it re-established the issues between the two and built heat for the heels by way of their cowardly, four-on-one beatdown of the champion.
Grade
C+
Top Moments and Takeaways
- White outright insinuated that MJF is The Devil, which is this writer's prediction for the man under the mask.
- MJF got way too much offense in on The Gunns and Robinson, making them look like lackeys for the most part.
Overall Grade
10 of 10
As a go-home show for Full Gear, this was not a particularly great effort.
Less than half of that PPV was represented, nothing was really advanced, and the in-ring work bordered between "meh" and "mostly good," but little more.
Taking each match or segment individually, they were mostly good, but as a show that should have been designed to convince fans to purchase AEW Full Gear this Saturday night on B/R, this show did not hit quite as much as the company should have hoped for.
Grade: B-
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