AEW Dynamite Winners, Grades and Reaction From June 10

This week's AEW Dynamite took place in Cincinnati, Ohio, and it continued the buildup for Forbidden Door on June 28.

The Owen Hart Tournament continued this week with two more matches, one from the men's bracket and one from the women's.

Skye Blue battled Maya World after Sareee wasn't cleared to compete, and Brody King faced Swerve Strickland in the main event.

We also saw Jon Moxley put his Continental Championship on the line against Shane Taylor, Andrade El Idolo faced Orange Cassidy, and Mark Briscoe took on Pac.

Let's take a look at everything that went down on Wednesday's show.

Jon Moxley vs. Shane Taylor

Last time in action: Death Riders defeated Shane Taylor Promotions (Collision, June 6)

The first match on the show saw Moxley defend his Continental Championship against Taylor. STP has been showing up on AEW programming more often recently, and this was the biggest opportunity any of them have had outside of Ring of Honor in quite some time.

Both of these guys are versatile, but their brawling skills are what made them such ideal opponents. Taylor had more power behind his strikes, but Moxley is no slouch in that department.

The champion retained in a hard-fought battle, but STP had the last laugh. After Mox got the win, Taylor attacked him and the rest of his stable kept the Death Riders from saving him.

Putting these two stables together creates some interesting possibilities, including a rematch between Daniel Garcia and Lee Moriarty for the Pure Championship at some point.

Later in the show, Daniel Garcia challenged STP to a five-on-five Street Fight for this week's Collision, so that should be a ton of fun.

Result: Moxley defeated Taylor

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

Tommaso Ciampa's intensity during the opening segment was great.

Taylor tried to duck a punch but didn't move in time, but he and Mox kept going like nothing happened.

Taylor's trash talking is second to none. It's always fun to hear him yelling at his opponents during matches.

The kendo stick shot Shafir took looked rough.

Mark Briscoe vs. Pac

Last time in action: Death Riders defeated STP (Collision, June 6), Briscoe defeated Lio Rush (Dynamite, Jun 3)

The Death Riders may have issues with Shane Taylor Promotions, but they also have The Conglomerations to deal with, and that led to Pac taking on Briscoe in a singles match this week.

This was an interesting mix of styles. Both guys are quick on their feet and can hit some stiff strikes, but the way they go about it couldn't be more different.

Pac is one of those guys who looks good just about every time he gets in the ring, and he made a great dance partner for The Chicken this week. Briscoe got the win, but that wasn't the end of his time on the show.

He called out MJF and informed him that Tony Khan booked a six-on-six Cage match, and if Briscoe's team wins, he gets a shot at the world title.

Result: Briscoe defeated Pac

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

Pac's entrance music is fine, but it could use an update. It's very simple.

The brainbuster on the chair was nuts.

MJF making everyone wait through the commercial while his music played on a loop was hilarious.

Orange Cassidy vs. Andrade El Idolo

Last time in action: The Conglomeration defeated LFI (Collision, June 6), El Idolo won a squash (Dynamite, June 3)

After OC helped save Briscoe from an attack by The Lethal Swirl, he stayed in the ring so he could take on El Idolo in the next match.

Both of these men work at a quick pace, and they are also very versatile, so they had no problem putting on a banger of a match without much hype behind it.

Cassidy thrives against guys who are more powerful than him because it allows him to do a bunch of risky moves, and El Idolo used his strength to great success against him.

This match combined mat wrestling, high-flying action and some comedic moments perfectly to create a bout that would have felt at home on any PPV. El Idolo picked up a surprisingly clean win.

Result: El Idolo defeated Cassidy

Grade: A-

Notable Moments and Observations

Callis yelled at Andrade to "Stomp his nuts."

Andrade catching Cassidy and hitting a suplex with no leverage was such an impressive show of strength.

Just randomly saying "How you know?" makes no sense as a catchphrase. It was much funnier when he was saying it to people as a way to frustrate them.

Skye Blue vs. Maya World

Last time in action: Blue won an eight-woman tag match (Dynamite, May 20), Maya lost to Hazuki (Collision, May 30)

The Owen Hart Tournament continued with two matches this week. The first saw Blue take on Maya, who was a last-minute replacement for Sareee due to her not being cleared to compete.

The first half of this match felt a little clunky, and the crowd was not giving them much energy to work with, but by the time we returned from a break, the fans were getting into it.

You could tell they were trying hard to make sure their match was memorable, and the second half ended up being much more entertaining.

Maya was able to get the win to advance in the tournament, which definitely qualified as an upset victory. The crowd was behind her throughout the match, so they were stoked to see her get the W.

Result: World defeated Blue

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

The neckbreaker on the ramp looked brutal.

Blue was relying on mostly strikes in this match, which is not her usual M.O.

The counter Maya used to hit a double stomp almost didn't work. They saved it by rolling to the side.

Renee Paquette revealed before the match that World had recently lost her brother, so this bout was dedicated to him.

Brody King vs. Swerve Strickland

Last time in action: King defeated Claudio Castagnoli (Dynamite, May 27), Strickland defeated Bandido (Double or Nothing)

This week's main event saw Strickland and King compete to see who would be facing Will Ospreay in the finals of the men's Owen Hart tournament at Forbidden Door.

As you would expect with these two, this was a very physical match. King was busted wide open near the end, and both men took some big bumps.

They blended their respective styles of mayhem well to create a stellar match that had the crowd chanting and cheering from start to finish. This was absolutely the right choice to put in the main event spot.

King may have lost, but he is still incredibly over with the AEW fanbase. If Tony Khan is smart, he will put one of the singles titles on him before the end of the year to capitalize on his popularity and give him a big push.

Result: Strickland defeated King

Grade: A-

Notable Moments and Observations

The way King was busted open against the exposed turnbuckle did not look fun.

Swerve's double stomp spot while King was sitting in a chair was awesome.

Nana cheated right in front of Aubrey Edwards and nothing happened, but what he did didn't really work anyway.

The Final Word

Wednesday's Dynamite was a great example of how to properly use the time on the show to get as much out of it as possible.

With only five matches on the card, it wasn't as packed as other episodes have been in the past, but that worked to its benefit because each bout felt important and was given substantial time.

OC vs. El Idolo and King vs. Strickland were the two best matches on the show, and choosing between them would be impossible because they were great for completely different reasons.

Forbidden Door is shaping up to have a strong card, especially with the addition of Strickland vs. Ospreay in the finals of the men's Owen.

AEW has also gotten better about tying Dynamite to the events of Collision, and the Death Riders vs. STP Street Fight that was booked on Wednesday for Saturday's show should be tons of fun.

Grade: B+