AEW’S TOP MATCHES OF THE WEEK: Omega match gives another booist to Andrade’s sudden rise, Ciampa-Strong-Claudio was good but the spitting needed more reaction

Excuse me while I wipe the tears off my keyboard after my Patriots just got their asses handed to them by the Seahawks. Good lord, that was a beating. Our offensive line looked like a bunch of AEW security guards trying to hold back “Hangman” Adma Page and Swerve Strickland.

Anyway, let’s get to this week in AEW wrestling. I had the opportunity to co-host the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show with Wade Keller after AEW Dynamite last week and it was really a treat to talk wrestling with Wade and the live chat participants. In my personal life, I do not have anyone to really talk about wrestling with. All my buddies no longer watch wrestling, and my wife has about as much interest in wrestling as I do in watching “Gossip Girl” with her on her fifth rewatch.

The closest I’ve gotten to talking wrestling with my buddies was when my best friend, Vinnie, sent me a Tik Tok of Rhea Ripley a few months ago and said, “I thought we were best friends? How could you have never told me about her.” So, to be a part of the PWTorch community now and have an outlet to write about wrestling and talk about wrestling has really been fun.

I’ve had a few extra days now to think about the ending of the Brody King and MJF main event on Dynamite and my initial reaction has not changed. I really did not like it. I’ve read and listened to a lot of talk about the ending, and I’ve seen a lot of “It made Brody look strong” and “It made Brody.” Did it? He choked out a guy who was distracted and had his back turned to him. That makes a guy look strong.

I think we can all guess that MJF will be beating Brody in Australia. I guess I just don’t understand the thought that “Brody was made” when he took advantage of a situation and choked a guy out from behind and now in the real match he’s going to lose. I guess the part that I can’t get past is the choke out of MJF and how over-the-top it was. AEW has been on a great run lately, don’t get me wrong, so I guess I was just disappointed in how that all played out.

I was excited about that match and if I was in that crowd I seriously would have been pissed, especially considering all the distraction finishes on the show to that point. I also went back and listened to it three times because I wanted to make sure I was hearing it correctly. The audience groaned when Hangman’s music hit. They were not happy that he came out because they most likely knew what was coming.

Kenny Omega vs. Andrade El Idolo – Dynamite 2/4/26

Was this the classic that I thought it was going to be? No, but it was still very good in my opinion. Isn’t it crazy how a guy can instantly become interesting and feel like a big deal the way Andrade does now? When he came back for the second time I was not even remotely interested and now here, I am thinking they made the right call by putting him over Kenny in this match. I love that the storyline of Kenny chasing the AEW World Title is going to continue. The eventual MJF and Omega match needs to feel important and having Kenny chase a little longer is going to make that happen.

My favorite part of this match was Omega and Andrade countering and blocking each other’s moves. It made it seem like they had been scouting each other and it made the match seem more important to them. Andrade went for a moonsault and he missed and then went for the standing backflip on Omega and Omega got his knees up to block it.

The week before Andrade had hit that move on Swerve Strickland and then there was a spot where Andrade ducked a big knee from Omega that Omega had also hit in a match the week before. I also really loved Andrade hitting the Three Amigos, but hit the last one on the outside floor after dragging Kenny out of the ring. I thought that was a cool variation to that move. Andrade also hit Omega with a reverse powerbomb off the top rope which was awesome.

I didn’t mind the distraction finish here with Swerve coming out and costing Kenny the win. I like the fact that it’s setting up Kenny and Swerve who have both now been screwed by Andrade with his cheating antics. They can both still claim they deserve a chance at the title and now they can fight it out to see who is next for MJF.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Dynamite: CLICK HERE (or search “wade Keller” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)

Jack Perry vs. Ricochet – Dynamite 2/4/26

Someone needs to take Ricochet’s phone away from him. He has to stop tweeting about WWE. I like Ricochet, but it’s borderline pathetic the way he can’t stop talking about WWE. You’re in AEW and you are doing well in AEW. Just focus on what you are doing now and let what happened in WWE be a thing of the past. You still cashed those checks in WWE.

I watched Dynamite twice this week because I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything because I was writing down so many notes for my post-show appearance this week. On the second watch, I really enjoyed this match more the second time around.

Also on the second watch, I really started to notice what Wade Keller said about Jack Perry gently throwing his opponents into the ropes. Overall, I thought these two had great chemistry and I really liked Perry starting off the match by diving through the ropes and I really liked his dive off the stage in this one.

Ricochet hit Perry with a backdrop onto the commentary table that I also thought was a great spot. They had a lot of counters in this match as well, and overall, I just thoroughly enjoyed the match. This was one of many matches on this show with outside interference, but I understand why they did it to help set up the eventual six-man tag matchof GOA & Ricochet vs. Jack Perry & The Young Bucks.

It was also nice to see the AEW National Title defended on Dynamite. AEW really needs to start heating up one of these undercard titles. It looks like they may be trying to do that with the TNT Title again, but whether it’s the TNT Title or the National Title, they need to make one of these titles seem important.

Tommaso Ciampa (AEW TNT Champion) vs. Roderick Strong vs. Claudio Castagnoli – Collision 2/7/26

Don’t look now, but Collision is quickly becoming a must watch show. This was a great showcase for Ciampa and AEW really picked the perfect opponents for him in this one. I liked the teamwork at the beginning of the match with Ciampa throwing Roderick into Claudio’s arms on the outside and then Claudio launching Roderick face first into the ring apron.

I also really liked the = spots where two guys would work together and then immediately go right at each other as soon as the third man was out of the picture. The Overhead Press Slam by Claudio when he scooped up Ciampa and tossed him face first into the announce table was also great. Claudio’s back muscles looked insane during that spot.

I hated the spot where Roderick Strong spit on Claudio. The reason I hate it is because spitting on someone is the ultimate sign of disrespect. If someone spits on you, your reaction should be to want to absolutely kick their ass. Too many times, wrestlers get spit on and there is either no reaction or an under reaction. Claudio should have wanted to maul Roderick after that, but after he got spit on, he simply gave him an uppercut and moved back to Ciampa.

Overall though, this was a great Collision main event and I loved that Kyle Fletcher is back in the TNT Title picture. I love that in the post-match stare down he just walked in and immediately grabbed the title. I loved Ciampa hugging the belt once he got it back from him too. These two are going to tear the house down on Dynamite this week and I can’t wait.

Other Thoughts and Observations:

– I really liked the opening of Dynamite this week with quick vignettes of all the wrestlers talking about their matches coming up that night.

– I love that Jon Moxley is still selling his ankle after all these months.

– I’m not sure when he’s coming back, but that Will Ospreay promo got me fired the hell up. I can’t wait for Will to come back.

– Please find something better for Toni Storm. There has to be something better. I did like her denim ring gear though.

– So, is the TBS Title just nothing again? Cool.

– I hope if I’m ever kidnapped by a madman and thrown into the back of a car, that my friends and family show more concern than Tony Schiavoone did for Darby Allin this week.