AEW Dynamite Review - July 30, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Young Bucks def. The Outrunners in an AEW World Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Tournament Quarterfinal Match

The Bucks getting a jobber entrance was genuinely funny, similar to the entrance they got two weeks ago. If they're supposed to be down on their luck at the moment, it would've made more sense for them to lose here. Yes, I realize it's The Outrunners, but they're still over with the audience and it would've been a cool upset. Oh well. It was an enjoyable opener, nonetheless. The post-match angle also involving Kazuchika Okada and Swerve Strickland set them up for a match for the AEW Unified Championship at Forbidden Door.

ROH World Television Champion Nick Wayne and Kip Sabian Attacked Christian Cage

Christian is normally a terrific talker, but this was one of his weaker promos in recent memory. It felt like a lot of it was meandering and lacked purpose. He did address being betrayed by The Patriarchy and basically "disowned" them, but this lasted significantly longer than it needed to. Even the attack from Wayne and Sabian looked goofy because the con-chair-to they hit on Christian was way home. I'm not saying they should've murdered the man, but maybe don't do it if it won't look good?

AEW World Champion "Hangman" Adam Page def. Jon Moxley

I was stunned that this didn't start the show, though it ultimately made sense with the way the show ended. Nothing was going to top their Texas Death match, but as they've proven in the past, they actually have excellent chemistry when it's a straight-up singles match. This was great stuff, and although The Death Riders attempted to interfere despite being banned from ringside, Darby Allin prevented them from getting involved. I'm glad we can finally move on from Moxley in the title picture (hopefully).

ROH Women's World Champion Athena and Billie Starkz def. AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm and Alex Windsor

This was a logical match to do following last week's matches with these four. It was as well-wrestled as you'd expect and Athena going over was the correct outcome, though I was surprised to see Athena pin Storm and not Starkz. You'd think Athena would earn a title opportunity for that alone, but I assume she'll use the shot she earned at All In to challenge Storm at Forbidden Door for the AEW Women's World Championship.

Mark Briscoe def. Ricochet

Of course, this was much less of a main event than Page vs. Moxley, but it was still a solid match for what it was. It was also Briscoe's second straight main event on Dynamite, which was smart if he's going to be gunning after the AEW World Championship. I appreciated the straightforward finish, but Ricochet should be a bit more protected than he is. Briscoe vs. MJF was then announced for next week's Dynamite.

Overall Show

I loved the layout of this week's episode and it made for an entertaining two hours. Sure, closing with a heavily-promoted AEW World Championship rematch would've been ideal, but again, I get why they did what they did. Tony Khan took the "less is more" approach this week, and outside of the angle with Christian, everything delivered. AEW will be done in this Chicago venue after Thursday's Collision, but I hope it's not long before they're back because it's an awesome atmosphere.

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