Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite," which for the second week in a row, is actually "AEW Dynamite" and also "AEW Collision!" Yes, after last week's four-hour "Fyter Fest," AEW came right back with another four-hour block, this one dubbed "Summer Blockbuster." That means that while Will Ospreay vs. Swerve Strickland opened the show, the contract signing between Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada for the match to crown a new AEW Unified Champion didn't technically close it, as there was still another two whole hours filled with luchadors, paragons, conglomerators, and of course,Mercedes Mone challenging for another championship.
Unfortunately for you "Collision" fans or rather, you second half "Summer Blockbuster" fans we're not covering a whole lot from that part of the show.We don't normally review "Collision" anyway, and beyond a bonus women's match between Thekla and Queen Aminata, there wasn't a whole lot to write home about. Plus, we have limited space, and by the time the first half of the show was over, we already had tons of strong feelings! If you follow AEW and missed this one (presumably because it was four hours long) you will find our results page for the show invaluable. If you want to know what the WINC staff thought about everything that went down, however, what's really invaluable are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 6/11/25 episods of "AEW Dynamite & Collision: Summer Blockbuster."
As soon as Will Ospreay's music hit at the start of "AEW Summer Blockbuster," it was abundantly clear that his match with Swerve Strickland was going to go long. Given that the show was another four hour extravaganza, which for full transparency is an absurd length for a weekly TV show that shouldn't become a regular thing, there was some discussion over how long this match would go. Would it be a natural sequel to their Forbidden Door 2024 main event? Or would it be the spiritual sequel to the near 60 minute match Ospreay had with MJF almost one year ago?
Thankfully, it was the first option. The main problem with Ospreay/MJF from "AEW Dynamite 250" in July 2024 was that it was a good, to very good, TV wrestling match that would have been praised a lot more if it was 20/30 minutes long. However, it was stretched far too thin to reach the hour mark and it fell short of the mark because of it, hence why the All In match a month later is a much better match (for me personally anyway).
Knowing that this only had a 30 minute time limit, which is still a long time all things considered, it was allowed to have a much more natural build up throughout the match. A slow start between two guys who want to have a respectful match, but as soon as the strikes start coming, and the blood starts flowing from Ospreay's nose, things gradually start to ramp up. Both guys start busting out moves to try and outshine the other, but they are so similar in their styles that they are neck-and-neck throughout the first quarter of the match. Then you get to the meat of the match, which actually had some honest to god selling! Selling, in a wrestling match, with Will Ospreay, say it ain't so!
Ospreay has the tendency to have a body part isolated by his opponent, leading to him selling that part fairly well, only for him to bust out a series of moves with a level of perfection that just takes you out of things quickly. With that said, the bloody nose forces him to slow things down due to not being able to breath properly, causing him to have a much more vicious approach at times, which actually causes Swerve to end up selling his leg that directly links to how the conclusion of the match comes about.
It's a match that is put together in a way that by the time you get to the end of it, you're left wanting more, which ultimately is the goal for a match that leads to a time limit draw. I would even go as far as saying that it's probably a better match than their first, and a trilogy match is most certainly needed. However, there are more than a few issues that need addressing, particularly about the ending and immediate aftermath that I can't fit in here.
Written bySam Palmer
For as much as I thoroughly enjoyed this match, the ending, and subsequent aftermath really left a sour taste in my mouth to be honest.
First off, and this is something that AEW have done so many times and they've never learned from it, time calls. You want people in the building to literally be falling over themselves with excitement as they know Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland only have five minutes, one minute, or ten seconds left, and the way you build that is through time calls. Let the crowd know how long is left rather than just ringing the bell, it takes the air out of the room and makes everyone boo the ending regardless of how good the match has been, which is never a good look.
Then there's Swerve's promo and request for a sudden death overtime. I understand that AEW have wanted to hammer home the fact that it's where the best wrestle, but Swerve, your goal was to win the match, that's your job. Get to the point and leave out the whole deal about how you just had a 30 minute classic because "IT'S WHERE THE BEST WRESTLEEVERYBODY!" Also, the time limit draw leading to someone asking for more time is one trope in wrestling that is severely overdone and yet nobody seems to talk about it.
Before Ospreay could gather his bearings, here come the Death Riders. I haven't had too much of a problem about Jon Moxley and his gang of ghouls as of late, but this wasn't timed well at all. You've already let the fans down by giving them a flat ending to a match they were really in to, and now they've got to hear the Temu "Shining"music and see another Death Riders beatdown? Come on now, I thought we were past this.
However, The Young Bucks come out to continue their beef with Swerve, resulting in another Reebok sneaker covered in thumbtacks to make an appearance, but just as people thought Swerve was going to become a pin cushion with a face, Ospreay launches himself into the ring to take the bullet for his opponent, something he mentioned seven days earlier. It's a noble act for sure, but it's yet another example of how it's painfully obvious that this role that Ospreay is in was intended for Hangman Page, but because the fans wanted Hangman to be the one to challenge Moxley for the title, they had to change course and swap Hangman for Ospreay.
Literally everything that Ospreay has done as of late would make so much more sense if it was Hangman doing it. Close your eyes and imagine all the things Ospreay has said and done and imagine Hangman in that role, doesn't that fit better? But we're here now, and I want Hangman to win as much as the next man. With that said, it's difficult to watch this story progress knowing that Ospreay's role was originally made for someone else.
Written by Sam Palmer
People love The Opps; they're just cool. People love Hangman Page, even when he's an absolute psychopath. This week, AEW realized that putting two things people love together can be a very good idea, like chocolate and peanut butter, or root beer and ice cream.
While Hangman has been a good lone wolf, he's desperately needed some backup in his war against AEW World Champion Jon Moxley and The Deathriders, and there's something very forced about the superteam that Will Ospreay is trying to form with Page and Swerve Strickland. Enter The Opps.
Samoa Joe, Will Hobbs, Katsuyori Shibata, and the absent Hook are mean motherf***ers who like to fight, and that is exactly the kind of aggro head space that Hangman Page is living in currently. There's a certain mercenary edge to all the men involved that acts as a kind of foil to the Deathriders' bravado. The showdown on Wednesday was so invigorating that it made me sad they'd already burned this year's Anarchy In The Arena Match.
I'm not sure it needs to be a long-term partnership, though I'm not against it, it just feels like the right combination, at the right time, and in the right place. Hopefully Tony Khan felt the electricity I felt when Hangman stood alongside Samoa Joe and company.
Written by Ross Berman
For all the things AEW gets right, opinions may vary, it cannot be understated that it continues to severely under-present the deep women's roster. Reduced to often singular save for the sporadic show someone wants to make a point and relatively short matches, with very little actual time to present the stories they're trying to tell, the characters they're trying to be, or the catchphrase they're trying to get over, there are a number of really talented wrestlers in the division who get over to the extent a title run, even a significant push, feels like the bare minimum, yet the trigger is never pulled at the right time or for the right thing.
Willow Nightingale, Kris Statlander, Julia Hart, and even Athena, all get amazing responses and work widely acclaimed matches only to then be sat on the back-burner for weeks at a time, collecting meaningless tune-up wins to eventually lose to their proverbial bigger fish. But those are all former titleholders and the real struggle seems to be the litany of incumbent stars sat on a figurative shelf collecting dust until they need to be used as fodder for someone else's push. Any other week it could be someone else in the role, Taya Valkyria, Deonna Purrazzo, or Serena Deeb. But this week it was alarmingly clear that Queen Aminata, at least within AEW, has found herself in this position.
This is someone who has shown to be one of the most fluid workers, once again getting good reactions, and has a single win to her record this year. She lost in a four-way won by Yuka Sakazaki to begin with, since losing twice to Toni Storm in non-title matches, lost a mini-feud with the aforementioned Hart, and then this week lost another match to Thekla. Outside of the second Storm bout, which was an eliminator, she lost matches for the sake of bolstering other's records. Outside of that Storm bout, and of course being fair to Thekla at this point in time, neither of those competitors went on to achieve anything with what they were bolstering their record for in the first place.
Hart was also on the losing end of things against Storm this week, and the last singles match she won was against none other than Aminata. Sakazaki has not wrestled for AEW since she failed to win the title shot she got by winning the four-way, and in the grand scheme of things no one has got any further from where they started. But at least there is the consolation that they are on the card. That is how we truly know AEW does care about women's wrestling.
Written by Max Everett
Even if you're a newer fan of AEW, like myself who has only been watching "Dynamite" consistently for around a year, you're probably well aware of Tay Melo and Anna Jay's crazy good street fight against The Bunny and Penelope Ford on "AEW Rampage" from back in December 2021. The clips of the match on social media got me interested in the women's division of AEW and I continued to follow it strictly via social media for a few years, and that included following Melo on Instagram. That being said,I followed her pregnancy and journey back to the ring on her social media, and I know how hard she's worked to get back between the ropes and Igenuinely like her a lot.
Iwas excited to see her return last week, and even more excited that her return to the ring was earlier in tonight's four hour block of television. No shade to "Timeless" Toni Storm and Julia Hart, of course, but it was nice to see these ladies on the "Dynamite" half of the show tonight.Melo was really highlighted during this bout even from the beginning as she asked to be tagged in immediately to go after Megan Bayne and shouted that she wasn't afraid of her, right in the face of "The Megasus." Both she and Jay had a good showing throughout and I thought the match was really enjoyable.
While Melo certainly looks like she hasn't missed a beat in the ring, it was smart to bring her back alongside Jay with their history as TayJay, of course, and also due to the fact Harley Cameron is out. Melo can shake out whatever ring rust may be there, though there doesn't look to be much at all, in a tag team, but can easily branch out into singles matches with Jay in her corner, as well. And when Cameron returns, Melo can possibly turn heel in a storyline there, or the three of them can make a nice trio. Either way, there are stories there to be told, which is always a good thing when it comes to the AEW women's division.
I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up the possibility of AEW Women's Tag Team Championships with this match, and as I was thinking about the possibility of them tonight once again after seeing how closely matching Bayne and Ford's gear was again. It would make sense for AEW to attempt to combat the counter-programming of WWE's Evolution during All In Texas weekend by introducing the belts and possibly crown the first champions at All In. That might be some kind of fantasy booking dream, but Melo and Jay absolutely deserve a crack at them if Tony Khan were to ever make those titles a reality.
Written by DaisyRuth
The professional wrestling business has had absolutely no shortage of contract signings over the years, and they tend to be used as storytelling devices meant to give fans a memorable moment before a notable match. That memorable moment should be memorable for all of the right reasons, though, and I don't know if that can necessarily be said for the contract signing between Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada for their Winner Takes All Match for the AEW International and Continental Championships at All In.
The employment of a baton from Okada and Callis as they revealed their alliance and attacked Omega certainly did not feel like the right choice of a weapon considering the ongoing protests that are taking place in Los Angeles right now. The idea of blindsiding Omega and looking to take him out a month out from All In was a sound one, but there were a plethora of weapons that would've been better choices here and felt less insensitive to use as choices.
Omega also has a long and storied history with Don Callis, so it's not surprising to see Okada align himself with Callis or hard to understand the reasoning behind the pairing coming from a storyline perspective. That being said, there really didn't feel like there was any need to involve Callis in everything. The All In match between Omega and Okada is already massive as is with the Winner Takes All stipulation and doesn't necessarily need to have a ton of effort being put into the build due to the long history that Omega and Okada share with one another in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Because of that, there doesn't need to be another party involved in the entire ordeal, and in the case of Callis, one that is already getting plenty of television time managing his own faction.
Written byOlivia Quinlan
