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HOUSEKEEPING
• Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega joined MJF and Will Ospreay as part of the AEW talent building towards major matches at WrestleKingdom. Mox is headed towards a rematch with Shingo Takagi while Omega is the likely challenger for Yota Tsuji’s IWGP World Title.
• The CMLL 2026 Women’s International Grand Prix takes place this Friday, Oct. 23. The AEW names participating are Megan Bayne, Harley Cameron, Queen Aminata, and Marina Shafir representing Team World and Persephone and Thunder Rosa representing Team Mexico.
• Rumors of Kairi Sane joining AEW continue to get louder after it was announced that she will be on the Jericho Cruise.
INTRO
WrestleDream is behind us. Now AEW has plenty of time to build to the next PPV, Full Gear. Things shouldn’t be so rushed and thrown together this time around. That build starts tonight when Dynamite emanates from Coral Gables, Fla. Let’s take a look at where things stand.
A Clockwork Lemon?
Latest
Will Ospreay retained his AEW World Heavyweight Title in the first ever Clockwork Carnage match.
Analysis
Where to even begin with this match. While the qualifying matches were infinitely predictable, I think the final slate of competitors was actually pretty strong with “Speedball” Mike Bailey clearly included for a specific purpose. I don’t think the match was convoluted, as some have labeled it. The rules were very easy to understand and not overcomplicated at all.
When it comes to the execution of the match, the action was as good as you’d expect. Ospreay starting off at number one so that he’d have to avoid elimination during the first phase and end up wrestling the entire match was predictable, but I didn’t have a problem with it. I also didn’t have a problem with Speedball getting eliminated as that was his purpose for being in the match. I was extremely surprised to see Takeshita being eliminated even with Okada being the guy to do it. If a second person needed to be cut before the scoring period, Ricochet would’ve made more sense.
I really liked the sequence with Ospreay in the Coquina Clutch. Commentary, specifically Nigel McGuinness, encouraging him to tap quickly to avoid being weakened or vulnerable while Ospreay was fighting to get out of it was great. The timing on the finish was impeccable. If Ospreay had been even one second late delivering the Hidden Blade to Copeland, it would’ve blown the whole thing.
The biggest problem with this match, though, is the rapidity of pinfalls necessitated by the 15 minute time limit. For a company whose bread and butter is epic matches, seven falls in three minutes strains credulity a bit too much, even for me. Even after a couple days I can’t come up with a tweak that would make this match more plausible for AEW.
Coming out of this match, it certainly feels like Ospreay’s next opponent is set up to be Adam Copeland.
Copeland announced that 2027 would be his final year as an active wrestler and that he wanted to win the AEW World Title before retiring. He then spent the majority of the scoring period clawing his way back from zero points to being on the precipice of taking the lead when Ospreay clocked him with that Hidden Blade for the winning point.
After the match, the two shook hands and Copeland pulled Ospreay in close while gesturing towards the belt. If that is the direction for Full Gear, that works for me. I think they laid the groundwork well enough to build from there. Bigger picture, as a legend now on his retirement tour, I think Copeland deserves one last shot at the title.
Grade: B
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Who’s Next
Latest Developments
Mercedes Moné defeated Thekla to retain her AEW Women’s World Championship.
Analysis
This match really could’ve used a strong final promo segment instead of Thekla pinning Lena Kross in a trios match, but once the bell rang Mercedes and Thekla did not disappoint. The match was really good, but not great. I loved how Mercedes spent half the match trying to get Thekla in the MonéMaker, and then once she did, that was it. It was a one-hitter quitter. Yeah, she hit Thekla with her protective face mask, but it really didn’t play into the finish in a way that would justify a rematch.
If this is truly a “one and done,” at least for, now both women will need new opponents moving forward.
A couple weeks ago I put forward the idea that Marina Shafir should be Mercedes’ next challenger. I stand by that. She’s become more vocal within the Death Riders unit. It’s time for to step out and challenge for the title. It would be a completely different type of challenge for Mercedes who is more finesse and skill while Marina is a skilled judoka who’s more about the gritty fighting.
I would also suggest bringing Athena up from ROH. She’s done everything she can down there. She would need to drop the title at Final Battle first, but it’s time. It’s unfair to her to keep her down there because nobody else has been built to carry ROH.
As for Thekla, she’s still stuck with the Sisters of Sin as long as they’re still the Artist of Stardom champions. She’s such a unique and dynamic personality though, so they have to find something meaningful for her to do.
Grade: B
An Surprising Title Change
Latest Developments
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly regained the AEW Trios Titles from Swerve Strickland & The New Level.
Analysis
To the surprise of nobody The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Swerve & New Level had a great match. These six guys have a ton of chemistry. Swerve & New Level won the first fall when Austin Creed pinned Bandido. Bandido got his get lick back by pinning Kofi after the Brodido assisted splash to tie things up.
The third went back and forth until Swerve reversed an attempted 21Plex into Big Pressure which Bandido reversed into a victory roll to win the fall, the match, and the AEW Trios Titles back. The finish was great as it was a callback to how Swerve & New Level won last month, this time with Bandido finding a way to reverse the reversal.
The real story happened after the match, though. The New Level respectfully handed their belts to Brody & Bandido. Swerve, on the other hand, feigned handing the title to Hangman before dropping it at his feet. Clearly these two are building to another match at some point in the near future and, judging by how crowds react whenever these two so much as look at each other, everyone is ready for it.
Grade: B+
The Only Way Out is Through
Latest Developments
Jon Moxley fought through emotional turmoil and blood loss to defeat Mark Davis and retain the AEW Continental Championship
Analysis
Easily the most physical match of the night, Mox and Davis spent the better part of 20 minutes beating each other senseless. Mox got split open fairly early. I thought he was hard-wayed by a Davis forearm. Others say he bladed. If he bladed, he went too deep too close to his eye because he bled a lot.
Davis hit a nasty looking piledriver on the apron that Mox sold fantastically. The dramatic peak of the match came when a tired, bloody, and emotionally spent Mox rolled out of the ring and sat against the barricade. Marina Shafir and Daniel Garcia approached the barricade and Marina doled out the same words of wisdom she gave him last Wednesday: “The only way out is through.” Mox growled, got back in the ring, and resumed the fight, eventually putting Davis out with a rear naked choke. My one nitpick about this match was the fact that there was not a single time update and Continental title matches are only supposed to go twenty minutes. They could’ve told the same story just as effectively within the time limit.
I thought there was a chance Mox would drop the title here. That obviously didn’t happen. That said, I do think the feud between the Death Riders and Don Callis Family continues and leads to a blow off (hopefully) at Blood & Guts. I just hope the Death Riders are positioned consistently as babyfaces moving forward. It’s just silly to attempt to get them booed at this point.
Grade: B
Random Questions
– Can we move on now? Nick Wayne picked up a second win over Chris Jericho. Jericho, despite the fact that he’s otherwise washed up, didn’t embarrass himself in-ring. The match was, dare I say, pretty good. There were a couple times near the end where I was concerned that Jericho might win, but thankfully that didn’t happen. I hope Wayne is done with Jericho and can move on to bigger and better things. He’s clearly a talented wrestler and he’s got the annoying cocky young punk thing down. Put him in a feud with Darby for the TNT Title. Put him in the C2. Anything that doesn’t involve Chris Jericho who just needs to go away.
– Is the tag division back? The Motor City Machine Guns and FTR had a very good old-school tag match to kick off their Best of Five series. The match was really good, although it could’ve been a few minutes shorter given we’re likely to get five of these. Later in the night, The Young Bucks successfully defended their tag titles against Kyle Fletcher & Kevin Knight in a match with insane athleticism. There was structure early which made the inevitable chaos more tolerable. Knight doing a Doomsday Device dropick from a flat-footed position on the canvas was unbelievably impressive, especially considering how tall Kyle Fletcher is. The Bucks perfectly timed the fake BTE Trigger on Fletcher so that Knight’s springboard clothesline would accidentally hit his partner. That led to Knight taking an actual BTE Trigger for the pin. Now the turmoil between Callis Family members will likely resume while the Bucks will hopefully be setting up a dream tag match against The New Level.
– How far can Dragunov go? Ilja Dragunov is officially All Elite. He made his debut to strong pop from the Orlando crowd at WrestleDream. Tonight he makes his in-ring debut against “Speedball” Mike Bailey. Dragunov should be a good fit in AEW. His style is a much better aligned with a wrestling-forward promotion. I do wonder if putting him in what will likely be a 12 minute competitive match with Speedball is the best idea, though. I think it would be more effective if he was fed an enhancement guy he can beat decisively in two minutes. We shall see. I think the important thing is that he stand out and not immediately start merging into traffic.
