 Kenny Omega, "Hangman" Adam Page and Swerve Strickland Interrupted AEW World Champion MJF Before Page and Strickland Challenged The OppsMJF had the standard championship celebration you'd expect from him, but I thought it was entertaining enough. Moreover, this segment established multiple potential challengers for him including Omega, Page, Strickland and Samoa Joe. We also found out it will be Page and Strickland against Powerhouse Hobbs and Hook in a Lights Out match on next week's Dynamite. The Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia and Marina Shafir) def. Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong and "Timeless" Toni StormThis was essentially a rematch of the Mixed Nuts Mayhem match from Worlds End. I don't know if the crowd had as much fun with it, but it was a nice bout, nonetheless. I'm just not sure what these matches have really accomplished other than allowing both teams to exchange wins. I don't care about Strong and Cassidy continuing to feud with Death Riders, and Storm feuding with Shafir doesn't do much for me, either. ROH World Champion Bandido def. The Beast Mortos (Non-Title)Bandido will be challenging MJF for the AEW World Championship at the Maximum Carnage edition of Dynamite, so this was designed to be a warm-up of sorts for him before then. As a result, no one actually thought Mortos had a chance of winning here, but they had an enjoyable outing, nonetheless. I don't know that it needed to last as long it did with the predictable finish, but it wasn't a major issue. Brody King def. Lee JohnsonIt was said that this was a "standby" match because there was time to kill. I thought that was a cool approach because we don't tend to see that sort of thing often. This ended up being a straightforward squash with King dominating Johnson in under a minute. Maybe King will be simultaneously built up on his own and be an eventual challenger for MJF or for his buddy Bandido for the ROH World Championship? AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley def. Josh Alexander in an AEW Continental Championship Eliminator MatchHonest question: Has Alexander ever won anything meaningful in AEW? This wasn't quite as obvious as Bandido vs. Mortos, but I also didn't think Alexander felt like a legitimate threat to Moxley, especially four days removed from Moxley becoming Continental champ. This was a solid, hard-hitting affair, and I'm looking forward to Moxley facing Shelton Benjamin in another Eliminator next week. AEW National Champion Ricochet def. "Jungle" Jack PerryThis stemmed from Perry pinning Ricochet in that eight-man tag team match on the Worlds End Zero Hour pre-show. This was a well-wrestled matchup, albeit nothing too out of the ordinary. The bigger takeaway is that Luchasaurus is out injured again (hence why he was attacked by The Demand afterward), so Perry will be sticking to singles competition for the foreseeable future. Willow Nightingale def. Mercedes Mone to Win the AEW TBS ChampionshipFor the record, Mone still holds plenty of other championships, but I didn't bother to list them above because none of them are all that relevant. The TBS title was always the most important one, which is why I figured she'd lose that last. Hey, I'm happy to be wrong. This was a great match and a memorable moment with Nightingale getting the belt back from the woman who beat her for it all the way back at Double or Nothing 2024. This was an awesome way to close out the year for AEW and hope it's a sign that the women will continue to shine and take center stage in 2026. Overall ShowFor the final edition of Dynamite in 2025, this was an above-average show. They kicked it off on a high note, the stuff in the middle was well done and the main event was the best bout of the night. The TBS title change was certainly surprising, but Dynamite could use more of that to keep viewers invested. This episode effectively followed up on Worlds End while also building toward what's to come.
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