AEW Dynamite Review - August 27, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Adam Copeland and Christian Cage Challenged FTR

The segment started out with FTR threatening the referee that "cost" them the AEW World Tag Team Championship at Forbidden Door before Copeland and Christian made the save and challenged them to a match at All Out. This was the direction everyone has long expected them to go in, but it played out nicely, didn't overstay its welcome and the crowd ate it up.

Jon Moxley def. Daniel Garcia

With the story being that Garcia has been down on his luck lately, I didn't think he'd win here, but they had a hell of an opener with an invested crowd. It went for a while before Garcia ate defeat, so I'm glad he was made to look credible in defeat. I was surprised only Matt Menard came to his aid at ringside and not Nigel McGuinness given Garcia was in his corner at Forbidden Door.

Hook Attacked Wheeler Yuta

When Yuta was shown having stuck around after the commercial break, you knew someone was coming out to attack him. There have been vignettes for the returning Hook for weeks, so I probably should have expected that. This was simple stuff to reintroduce Hook, who had been out injured since April (aside from a quick cameo he made during Anarchy in the Arena at Double or Nothing). We'll see where he stands with The Opps, but I assume a heel turn is coming.

Kris Statlander and Harley Cameron def. Penelope Ford and Megan Bayne

These random women's tag team matches aren't going to mean anything until the rumored AEW Women's Tag Team Championship is established. I also wouldn't make Statlander and Cameron a regular tandem, but they worked well together here in what was a good match. Willow Nightingale confronted Statlander afterward, but it's hard to care when we've gotten such little progression with that storyline in the last eight months.

AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Mone Held a Championship Celebration

Mone is officially up to nine championships as of last weekend. Yes, it's completely ridiculous, but with her being a heel, I suppose that's the point. I've never been a fan of her promos and I didn't think this one was all that great, either, but I guess it was supposed to establish that Mone has a lot of belts, for those that care. Alex Windsor looks like a loser for Mone trash-talking her and not coming out to do anything about it.

The Don Callis Family (Josh Alexander, Hechicero and AEW Unified Champion Kazuchika Okada) def. JetSpeed and AEW World Tag Team Champions Brodido

Yet another "All-Star" tag team match. When you hold them almost every single week and everyone is considered an all-star, doesn't that mean no one is an all-star? This falls into the same category of every other one of these matches AEW has done this year in that the action was enjoyable, but no one will remember this a week from now. Alexander picked up the victory for his team, so I'm glad he finally won something.

Kenny Omega Saved AEW World Champion "Hangman" Adam Page and JetSpeed from The Don Callis Family

Tony Khan revealed during the Forbidden Door post-show media scrum that going forward Casino Gauntlet winners have to announce that they're cashing in their contract for a championship opportunity at least one week in advance. I wasn't sure if that applied to MJF, but MJF revealed earlier in this episode that it does, so that's what Page was referring to during his promo here when he was addressing MJF. Meanwhile, Page and Omega reuniting to fend off The Don Callis Family was cool. I'm curious who of The Don Callis Family's million members will ultimately challenge Page for the AEW World Championship next.

AEW World Trios Champions The Opps (Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata and Powerhouse Hobbs) def. Ricochet and The Gates of Agony

With Ricochet and Gates of Agony just getting their group off the ground and the AEW World Trios Championship barely being defended anyway, I would've preferred to see a title change here. That said, MVP costing Ricochet and Gates of Agony the win because of what happened at Forbidden Door made sense. The actual match was solid. The Hurt Syndicate brawling with Gates of Agony afterward indicates that's their next feud, though they have to shift their focus toward MJF at some point since he's obviously the one behind Ricochet and Gates of Agony costing Hurt Syndicate the AEW World Tag Team Championship.

Darby Allin def. Claudio Castagnoli in a Falls Count Anywhere Match

They didn't even get to the ring before the match got underway. They made excellent use of the stipulation and Allin took quite the beating per usual. I appreciated that there wasn't any interference, but it was illogical for The Death Riders to not help Castagnoli considering there weren't any disqualifications. Allin winning was the right call as the demise of Death Riders continues.

Overall Show

The highlight of the episode was the atmosphere in the ECW Arena. Shockingly, this was the first-time time AEW held television at the building and the crowd was hot all night long. Nothing about what we got stood out as special with a lot of stuff feeling thrown together, so it wasn't a super hot follow-up to Forbidden Door, but it was an entertaining effort on the whole, largely thanks to the lively crowd.

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