AEW Dynamite Review - August 13, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW World Champion "Hangman" Adam Page and MJF Went Face-to-Face

I love the chemistry these two have, both in the ring and especially on the mic. These were great promos from them laying into each other and Page goading MJF into agreeing to cash in his AEW World Championship opportunity at Forbidden Door. Amazingly, it worked. Although it made MJF look like an idiot, at least the babyface wasn't made to look dumb for once. It feels premature for MJF to cash in the contract so soon, and for it to be announced in advance like Athena's, but perhaps they have something in mind. Nonetheless, this was a strong segment to start the show.

Jon Moxley def. Kevin Knight

Moxley already knocked off Knight's tag team partner Mike Bailey on last week's show, so it was logical to follow that up with Moxley beating Knight, too. They had an enjoyable outing with Knight scoring plenty of offense before eating defeat. Meanwhile, it's incredible how much more bearable The Death Riders are when they're not taking up an egregious amount of television time as the top act. Granted, I still want them to disband, but it's been better since All In. Post-match, Darby Allin and Will Ospreay fended off The Death Riders and challenged them to a Lights Out Steel Cage match at Forbidden Door. For the record, Ospreay just said a few weeks ago that his neck was practically destroyed, and somehow he's miraculously healed in record time. What a madman.

Alex Windsor, Queen Aminata and Willow Nightingale def. Triangle of Madness (Skye Blue and Thekla) and AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Mone

Mone has so many damn belts these days I'm not going to even bother listing any of them except for the AEW TBS Championship (unless she defends a different one). At any rate, this was a well-worked six-woman tag team match, though we see so many of them in AEW that it hardly felt special. Windsor maintaining momentum after qualifying for the AEW TBS Championship four-way at Forbidden Door was what was most important. Toni Storm subsequently challenged Athena and Mone to face her and Windsor in a tag team match on next week's Dynamite.

Adam Copeland def. Stokley by Disqualification

I was worried this would drag on and not be remotely entertaining, but Copeland knew the assignment and kept it short and sweet. Sure, the polling of fans in the crowd was unnecessary, but it could've been worse. The focus was on Christian Cage making the save for Copeland afterward. That was fine, but Copeland hugging Christian felt rushed since Christian has yet to prove that he's a changed man. I know they're speeding up the storyline since All Out is coming up in a little over a month, but they need to ensure each development makes sense.

Hiromu Takahashi, Brody King, Hologram and Tomohiro Ishii def. The Don Callis Family (Josh Alexander and AEW TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher) and The Young Bucks

Ah, another "All-Star" tag team match. You can take what I said about the women's tag earlier and apply it to this. There was nothing wrong with the wrestling whatsoever, but they're a lazy way of getting as many people on the show as possible. Takahashi being the mystery man on the babyface side was cool and it was immediately announced that he'll challenge Fletcher for the AEW TNT Championship at Forbidden Door.

AEW Unified Champion Kazuchika Okada Interrupted Renee Paquette's Interview with Swerve Strickland

Wasn't Strickland interviewed on the stage last week as well? This felt like a rerun of that segment until Okada came out to confront him (oddly without Don Callis). They had a basic verbal exchange before being separated by security. Once again, this did very little to increase my excitement for their championship clash at Forbidden Door. The match will undoubtedly deliver, but something about the feud feels off. It should be a bigger deal than it is.

AEW World Trios Champions The Opps (Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata and Powerhouse Hobbs) def. La Faccion Ingobernable (Dralistico, The Beast Mortos and Rush) (Non-Title)

This has been building on Collision in recent weeks, but by no means was it main event worthy, especially without the AEW World Trios Championship on the line. I'm actually surprised nothing notable happened and that it was a straightforward six-man tag team match. What we got was solid, and I realize they ended the show with MJF attacking Page in the parking lot, but the main event should've been something more meaningful.

Overall Show

We've reached the point where it feels like Tony Khan is booking these Dynamite cards at the last minute and throwing together a bunch of multi-person tag team matches expecting fans to care. Most fans probably do because they'll eat up anything the company does and consume nothing but wrestling, but I would've appreciated a bit more storytelling and less rushed build for Forbidden Door. We only have next week and that's it. Personally, I'd ditch the Forbidden Door concept all together as it has little appeal at this point for me, but I'm sure the show will be worthwhile, regardless.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews