AEW Dynamite: Beach Break Review - July 8, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Tommaso Ciampa def. Jericho

This is the exact sort of storyline Jericho should be involved in at this stage of his career, and he's shown during this run that he can still have a really good match with the right opponent. That was once again the case here as he and Ciampa had a delivered a well-wrestled, enjoyable opener. Ciampa going over was the right call and Jericho had an out with Ciampa using the sand to cheat to win. Ciampa attacking him with a chair afterward confirmed that the feud will continue.

Kyle Fletcher def. Konosuke Takeshita to Win the AEW International Championship; Andrade El Idolo Interrupted The Don Callis Family

Once I heard that Takeshita was headed to Japan soon to take part in New Japan Pro-Wrestling's G1 Climax, that pretty much gave away the outcome to this championship clash. Despite that, this was the great match I was expecting from them. Even with Fletcher winning clean, I still assume we'll get the rematch at All In. Mick Foley interviewed Fletcher afterward and that brought out Kevin Knight followed by Andrade. We found out that Andrade will receive a shot at Mark Davis' AEW National Championship if he can beat Jake Doyle next week. There was a ton of talking here and most of it was fine, but they could have trimmed the segment a bit.

The Death Riders (AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley and Will Ospreay) def. The Workhorsemen

I was wondering last week because it wasn't made entirely clean, but the commentators pretty much confirmed here that Ospreay is officially a member of Death Riders. I'm not sure that's necessary, but okay, I guess. Anyway, this was a lot like last week's tag team match where they were on offense throughout and the outcome was never in doubt. It should have been even shorter than it was, but I'm not too surprised since AEW is all about competitive matches.

Willow Nightingale Won an AEW Women's World Championship No. 1 Contender's Casino Gauntlet Match

This was far from the best Casino Gauntlet match I've seen, but it was still fun on the whole. It felt like it ended before it could really get going, but what we got was entertaining. Although I'm happy to see Nightingale already back from injury and in the top title picture, it's strange to me that they'd bother to take the AEW TBS Championship off of her if she was going to be back a week after they crowned a new champ. Also, I'm worried this means Thekla isn't making it to All In with the title, which would be a mistake.

Kenny Omega def. MJF in a Last Chance Match to Win the AEW World Championship

Omega would have never been able to challenge for the title again had he lost. It'd honestly be difficult to rank the three matches these two have had because they've all been excellent, though this one benefited from having slightly higher stakes than the others. They once again made magic with wonderful drama, an awesome atmosphere and some suspenseful kickouts down the stretch. Omega had to win the title here and it made for a memorable moment, but I still don't understand why they couldn't have saved it for Redemption in Omega's home country of Canada. Ospreay aiding Omega to victory makes me think there's still a chance MJF could be added to the All In main event, but I'm not holding my breath.

Overall Show

This was one of the strongest editions of Dynamite all year. I had high hopes on paper because of how they loaded up the card and it ended up being a fantastic episode. The two title changes made it even more eventful. On top of all of that, the venue looked super cool and lived up to the Beach Break name. They didn't hit a home run with everything, and I have no idea how they intend to top this with Redemption in a few more weeks, but those are minor concerns and I'm just glad AEW is trending in the right direction.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews