The spookiest night of AEW's year, "Fright Night Dynamite," has come and gone. The show was full of Halloween-tinged shenanigans, as well as plenty of table setting for Full Gear on November 22 in Newark, NJ. As always, there was plenty to love and plenty to hate.
As always, this will not be a breakdown of "what happened" on "Dynamite," as that has already been handily covered on the results page. Instead, we'll discuss the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of Wednesday's All Hallows' Eve-flavored events. There was plenty to love, such as the newly-formed team of Megan Bayne and Marina Shafir, or the wildly chaotic four-way tag match that crowned Number One Contenders to the AEW World Tag Team Titles. There was also plenty to hate, as well, like the frustrating lack of build to the women's Blood & Guts Match, or the lack of direction for the broke-but-popular Young Bucks.
Enough bloviating, it's time to get into the best and the worst of the October 29, 2025, edition of "AEW Dynamite."
If you think back to the end of last year, or even the start of this year, for that matter, the tag team division in AEW was in a really bad way. Gone were the days where the company could boast about having the best tag team division in the world, and how it was the company where tag team wrestling could not only thrive, but even be considered as a main event attraction. Private Party had the most "Here Damn" reign in the history of the company, they were beaten by The Hurt Syndicate at a time where the argument of them not wanting to job was running wild, and the most promising challengers were The Outrunners.
Compare that period of time to the match we got tonight, A four-way match to determine who will face Bandido and Brody King, one of the most beloved teams in all of wrestling at this point, at Full Gear on November 22. We have the best version of The Young Bucks we have seen in some time, FTR in a heel role that fits them perfectly, a reunited Jurassic Express (never turn Jack Perry heel agai,n please AND thank you), and the incredibly likeable duo of Jetspeed. Eight fantastic wrestlers doing fantastic things in what ended up being a fantastic match.
Fought at a blistering pace at times, every team got its chance to shine. Jack Perry and Luchasaurus might have only been a team again for over a month, but they haven't lost a step and arguably look more legitimate now than they did when they were champions in 2022. "Speedball" Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight are so easy to watch and gel perfectly with everyone they've faced in AEW so far that they come off looking great when paired with three teams that can match their energy in this one. The Young Bucks are clearly wrestling with a renewed passion, and this was another performance that boosts their "Tag Team of the Year" case for the end of the year, with FTR using their experience and strength to take advantage of their opponents, almost being too quick for their own good to get the win.
It must be said that I'm not the biggest fan of FTR being the winners here, as it looked like the right moment for Perry and Luchasaurus to continue riding their wave of momentum, but it makes sense. Brodido need a heel team to face at Full Gea,r and you want them to face perhaps the most credible team in AEW history. When done right, tag team wrestling is so much fun, and this match was just that: fun.
Written by Sam Palmer
AEW fans are currently on the road to The Death Riders being sick of Jon Moxley. The story could not be more clear: Jon Moxley, fresh off of submitting at All In, and saying "I Quit" at WrestleDream, cannot submit or quit again, or else he will lose all claim to being the top dog of AEW's favorite MMA book club.
On Wednesday, Moxley found yet another way to get out of submitting to Kyle O'Reilly, and the challenge for Blood & Guts has been made. It could not be more obvious that Moxley will likely be the one to surrender at Blood & Guts. It will be his third surrender, and it will be the one that forces The Death Riders' hand, likely jettisoning Moxley the way they jettisoned Bryan Danielson. This is not a bad story, but it's being told at a pace where I can see each next step coming.
Much like everything else The Death Riders have done in the past year, this story is simply taking too long. The slow burn only works if the fuse stays lit, and the glowing ember of my interest grows fainter with each passing day.
Written by Ross Berman
I have to start this out by saying that I feel absolutely terrible for poor Penelope Ford, who's on the shelf indefinitely with a torn UCL right as the tournament to crown the inaugural AEW Women's Tag Team Champions gets underway. She and Megan Bayne formed a really great team, and it looked like they would go pretty far as an established pair, but that's sadly not happening now. However, I do love that AEW pivoted in a really interesting manner and kept Bayne in the thick of things with a new tag partner in The Death Rider's Marina Shafir.
Right after Ford's sad backstage announcement that she wouldn't be cleared to go after her and Bayne's "destiny," Bayne made it clear that she wasn't backing out. When she said she'd deem who was worthy to stand beside a God, it was Shafir to step up to her. The women stared each other down, which was a cool visual to begin with, but Jon Moxley made it all the better. His facial expressions were exactly what the rest of us were thinking.
"These two? Phew, look out!" Moxley proclaimed, and I don't think there was any better or simpler way to put it. Shafir doesn't often wrestle on AEW programming, so this will be fun to see.
The fact that she'll be wrestling alongside Bayne as a powerhouse tag team makes it even better. While I don't predict they win the titles and I highly doubt Bayne is going to be joining The Death Riders anytime soon, this could easily roll into another interesting storyline, with Ford jealous of Bayne teaming with Shafir. While I feel bad for both Ford and Bayne, AEW really made the best of this bad injury situation, and it's definitely not something I saw coming.
Written by Daisy Ruth
The Young Bucks looked to be heading in a really interesting direction following AEW WrestleDream a few weeks ago, but now, they're not even the "Broke Bucks" after losing a few big-money matches. While they looked to be heading toward a babyface turn after staring down Kenny Omega when he ran out to help Jurassic Express, and they seemed to be fighting an internal battle of what to do themselves, AEW hasn't really followed up on that. That's of course possibly due to Omega's more part-time schedule, but it still feels like they lost something with the Bucks when they could've struck while things were hot. AEW is in desperate need of some fresh storylines, and this could have been one of them.
Tonight, the Bucks faced off against JetSpeed, FTR, and Jurassic Express to determine who would challenge Brodido at Full Gear. Before the Bucks went out, however, they were seen backstage with Don Callis, of all people, who apparently paid to have their entrance music restored and even did their ring introduction himself. While I may have missed something from "AEW Collision" on Saturday, I just don't think even teasing Matt and Nick Jackson aligning with the monstrous faction that is the Don Callis Family, despite Callis having money, is the best way to go.
This all wasn't for me tonight. I thought we were headed toward a new, fresh story with the Young Bucks turning babyface, or at least pretending to, to get some of the money their "friends" had won in some of these matches, but I think I might have sadly been wrong. Hopefully, there's something exciting in the pipeline for the former EVPs, even if it's them pretending to have a redemption arc just to screw everyone over once again when they're back at the top.
Written by Daisy Ruth
In modern-day professional wrestling, it's hard to pull off a segment that legitimately takes fans by surprise due to its completely unexpected nature. "Hangman" Adam Page, disguising himself as Tony Schiavone to gain the upper hand on Samoa Joe after he became the Number One Contender for his AEW World Championship, is a masterclass on what it looks like (especially when done extremely well), and it goes to show why we need more segments like it.
Not only was the reveal of Page dressed up as Schiavone, complete with a wig and a voiceover of Schiavone, super fun when it happened, but it also showed why subverting the expectations of fans is crucial to pulling off a good surprise. Because he's dressed up as it in the past, it was only natural for most fans and The Opps to assume that Page was the man in the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man costume. It looked like that was the end of matters when Joe ripped the head of the costume off to reveal a man who wasn't Page, making the revelation of Page's true costume that much more exciting and unexpected.
AEW doesn't have to do a ton of new build between Page and Joe due to their AEW World Championship match at WrestleDream, so to use this time to do something unique that still kept the high tensions between the two men with the involvement of the security, was a great choice. Unlike other "Dynamite" specials that rarely touch on whatever the given theme is, this segment used the Fright Night and Halloween theming of the episode to its advantage to add another layer to things. It was the perfect way to end this show, being memorable and creating hype for the upcoming second match between the two men.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
The annual Blood and Guts edition of "AEW Dynamite" is just two weeks away, and we got a little insight into who the two teams would be for the men's match. The Conglomeration's Orange Cassidy, Mark Briscoe, and Kyle O'Reilly, along with Roderick Strong, who is still trying his best to not conglomerate, and Darby Allin, threw out the challenge to the Death Riders, who will be made up of Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, PAC, Wheeler Yuta, and Daniel Garcia. It will likely be a great match that scratches the bloodthirsty itch I personally have, but you would be forgiven in thinking that this is the first Blood and Guts challenge that has been thrown out in recent weeks.
A few weeks ago on "AEW Collision," Jamie Hayter stated that she had had enough of the Triangle of Madness and demanded that their score be settled inside the demonic double-caged structure. Since then, there have been references to it, but it only results in a graphic popping up in the lower third, reminding people of when and where the show is and how you can buy tickets. There have been almost no segments and no movement towards what the first-ever women's Blood and Guts will look like, which is just frustrating, as it is disappointing, considering we basically got a full picture of what the men's match would look like in one segment.
The clich of arguing about Tony Khan's inability to book his women's division with any amount of consistency has been ran into the ground, but the first-ever women's Blood and Guts match is a historic moment for the company and the women's division itself. The fact that it's not been treated as such is just baffling. What's more, the tournament to crown the first-ever AEW Women's World Tag Team Champions seems to have completely overshadowed the build to what is meant to be a historic match. Yes, we all love the fact that the women are getting more things to fight over, but the way things have played out in recent weeks just proves that when it comes to the women, Khan can only focus on one thing at a time.
At the time of writing, it looks as if we are getting Hayter, Aminata, and then maybe Willow Nightingale, Harley Cameron, and even Kris Statlander involved for the faces, while the Triangle of Madness could be joined by Athena and Mercedes Mone. Again, that should be great, but the fact that we are two weeks away from such a big moment and there are still question marks over who is going to be in the match itself is a real headscratcher.
Written by Sam Palmer
