AEW Dynamite Review - May 20, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Don Callis Family (Andrade El Idolo and AEW National Champion Mark Davis) and Ricochet def. The Young Bucks and Jericho

I loved the callback to Jericho and the Bucks not agreeing on what their team should be. That was from all the way back in 2018 I believe when they teamed up on Jericho's cruise. It was cool to see them join forces again for what was a fun opener. This (along with the post-match chaos) served as a nice preview of Stadium Stampede, which all six stars are set to compete in, at Double or Nothing.

Mark Briscoe def. Tommaso Ciampa in an Anything Goes Match

I'm slightly surprised this wasn't saved for the pay-per-view card, which is already stacked as it is. Props to Tony Khan for showing some restraint in that regard. This was your run-of-the-mill hardcore match by AEW standards and I enjoyed it. I still think Briscoe will be built up at some point as an AEW World Championship challenger (especially given his history with MJF), so him winning made sense.

ROH World Champion Bandido and Swerve Strickland Brawled

This feud has been fairly simple so far and that's what I've appreciated about it since I assume it will be over after their men's Owen Hart Cup quarterfinal match at Double or Nothing. That said, this was underwhelming. The brawl was brief and there wasn't much to it. Even the crowd being as quiet as they were indicated they were hoping for a bit more. It didn't help that this had to follow the Anything Goes matchup.

AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley vs. Kyle O'Reilly in an AEW Continental Championship Eliminator Match Ended in a Time-Limit Draw

You had to know Moxley would make the card for Double or Nothing in some form or fashion and a rematch with O'Reilly with the title on the line is totally logical. The story is that O'Reilly has had Moxley's number since late last year, so while O'Reilly didn't technically win here, Moxley didn't win and that means O'Reilly will get a title shot on Sunday. This was the well-worked match you'd expect from these two, though it was pretty obvious they were going the distance with the way they dragged it out.

Triangle of Madness (AEW Women’s Champion Thekla, Skye Blue and Julia Hart) and ROH Women’s Champion def. Thunder Rosa, Mina Shirakawa and The Brawling Birds

This followed the six-woman tag team match last week that ended in a disqualification. This gave the heels (Thekla specifically) a decisive victory, but I don't know how successful it was in building interest in the AEW Women's World Championship Fatal 4-Way this Sunday. Kris Statlander and Hikaru Shida weren't even involved. The wrestling was solid, but AEW needs to do a better job with the women's storylines and giving them more juice.

AEW World Champion Darby Allin def. "Speedball" Mike Bailey

Needless to say, there was no chance of Allin losing the title three days before his Hair vs. Title match with MJF at Double or Nothing, not to mention who his opponent was. I can't imagine anyone actually bought into any of the nearfalls as a result. Despite that, I thought he and Bailey had a quality contest that didn't overstay its welcome. The post-match angle with MJF, Allin and JetSpeed technically aired on the Collision portion, but it was fine.

Overall Show

This edition of Dynamite stated out hot, and although it gradually lost steam as it went along, it ended up being an effective and entertaining go-home show on the whole. The same can be said for a lot of the build for Double or Nothing, leaving me the most excited I've been for the event in a number of years. The card clearly has the potential to deliver and I have no doubt that it will.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews