AEW Dynamite Review - September 16, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Steven Borden, AEW TNT Champion Darby Allin and AEW World Tag Team Champions Cage & Cope def. FTR and The Don Callis Family (Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight)

This was a nice preview of not only the AEW World Tag Team Championship match at All Out but also the number one contender's matchup taking place on that same show. The babyfaces worked well together here and it was an enjoyable opener. It wasn't necessarily a show-stealer, but it served its purpose. More importantly, Borden is already fitting in extremely well with the rest of the roster.

Jericho def. Nick Wayne

Jericho has been perfectly fine as a midcard-level babyface since returning to AEW TV earlier this year, and having him work with fresh faces has been the best thing for him. We'll see if he's able to elevate Wayne, but this is obviously a step up from what Wayne had been doing for most of 2026 (which was nothing). This was a quality contest, but the outcome wasn't ideal, and the story they're telling with Wayne's necklace seems stupid to me.

"Hangman" Adam Page and Brodido def. The Conglomeration (Roderick Strong, Orange Cassidy and Kyle O'Reilly) to Earn an AEW World Trios Championship Opportunity at All Out

The Conglomeration dominated the trios division for many months, but there was virtually no chance there were winning here to earn another opportunity at Swerve Strickland and The New Level at All Out. Despite that, this was a very good match with a fun, frantic pace. It's been refreshing to see the Trios titles feel coveted for the first time in a while with so many teams vying for them at once, not to mention the matches have been delivering.

Tommaso Ciampa def. Myles Hawkins

Props to Hawkins for making the most of his limited television time. He was only in there for a few seconds, but I'll be damned if he didn't make an impression while taking off his ring jacket. All joking aside, this was a total squash for Ciampa as it should have been. We found out that he will challenge Kazuchika Okada for the AEW International Championship at All Out following their backstage altercation a little later on.

The Demand Attacked AEW World Trios Champions Swerve Strickland and The New Level

It's about time we heard from New Level in the ring. They've been signed to AEW for weeks, yet this was their first promo in the ring (if I'm remembering correctly). They and Strickland didn't say much of note, but the segment was solid in building toward their title defense against The Demand on next week's Dynamite. It was smart to attempt to make The Demand look like threats, even though we know who's winning that one.

Lena Kross def. AEW Women's World Tag Team Champion Jamie Hayter

It's been announced that The Divine Dominion will get their rematch with The Brawling Birds for the AEW Women's World Tag Team Championship at All Out, so this was basic booking before that bout. It was well wrestled and it could have easily gone either way, but I liked that Kross went over to put some heat on the heels. Plus, she cheated to win, so Hayter was protected in defeat. Alex Windsor fended off Divine Dominion afterward.

The Death Riders (AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley, Pac and Gabe Kidd) def. United Empire (Francesco Akira, AEW National Champion Andrade El Idolo and AEW World Champion Will Ospreay)

I hope Ospreay doesn't waste much time in announcing members of his United States version of United Empire because I personally couldn't care less about Akira. AEW viewers who don't watch New Japan Pro-Wrestling regularly (such as myself) don't have much of an incentive to care about him, so him getting beat up by the heels afterward didn't pack a punch. The main event itself was entertaining and all action as you'd expect, though Moxley and Ospreay not being completely at odds made the dynamic a bit weird.

Overall Show

AEW is putting together an exciting card for All Out, but this edition of Dynamite wasn't the strongest effort in regards to generating more interest in the event. The wrestling was on par with what we usually get, but the storyline advancement wasn't anything out of the ordinary. At the very least, I appreciated that mostly everything had All Out implications and felt important enough.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews