The road to Revolution is in its infancy, and brought AEW to Orlando, FL, tonight for another edition of "Dynamite." While there were title matches made for next week's show, the overarching storylines are still taking form, leaving fans with an isolated, albeit action-packed, edition of the flagship program. As always, there was plenty to love and plenty to hate.
We won't be going into the nitty-gritty of what happened, as that has already been dutifully covered by the results page. Instead, we'll get into the things we enjoyed, like the various matches that went above and beyond the normal call of weekly TV, or the fact that the world title scene is becoming a tad less predictable than it's been in the past. We'll also discuss the lack of general forward momentum from the show in general, as well as whatever the hell was going on with the end of that women's tag team match.
Enough of my bloviating, though. I will hand over the microphone to the staff of Wrestling Inc. to share what they loved from the January 21, 2026, edition of "AEW Dynamite," and what they did not.
The January 21 episode of "AEW Dynamite" was the ultimate "vibes" episode of AEW TV. If you've ever watched an episode of "AEW Collision" where the matches are all good to great, even though they don't have some overly dramatic story-beat to complement it, you will be very familiar with this sort of show structure. However, for as little out-of-the-ring storytelling as AEW did tonight, the one story that the company did tell in the ring was that MJF has got a lot to deal with in the AEW Men's World Championship scene.
Tonight's show was basically designed to showcase just how rich and competitive the main event scene is in AEW right now. You have MJF positioned at the top and a whole host of top-quality challengers underneath him, all wanting to earn their shots rather than just demanding them. We've already been told that Hangman Page, Swerve Strickland, and Kenny Omega are gunning for the top prize after the three men had a segment on last week's show, but the scene runs deeper than that as Samoa Joe is still in the mix, and having seen his partner Bandido try and fail to become champion, Brody King is now involved as well.
It's one thing to be told in a promo that someone is worthy of being a title challenger, but it's another thingto seeg those challengers in action. Joe, Omega, and Strickland all had excellent showings in their hard-fought victories over "Speedball" Mike Bailey, Josh Alexander, and Kevin Knight respectively, and all of those matches were so good that you can easily go back and enjoy them in a vacuum, but you can also sit back and think that MJF really does have his work cut out for him. Let's say he takes on Joe next. If he gets past the "Samoan Submission Machine," MJF will be faced with challengers on the level of an Omega or a Strickland.
It's setting MJF's title reign up to not only be very exciting, but gives you the sense that the AEW Men's World Championship could genuinely be around the waist of anyone at any given time. Joe, Omega, and Strickland all showcased why they belong in that conversation with their victories. Page gets the chance to do that this Saturday against Katsuyori Shibata, and King will most likely get his chance next week. I could sit here and write for hours about how much I enjoyed each match, but I thought I'd group the whole title picture and appreciate just how vibrant it is right now. Truly, the most exciting and unpredictable world title picture AEW has had in many years.
Written by Sam Palmer
For many fans, professional wrestling often acts as an outlet for us to turn off our brains for a couple of hours or so and just enjoy whatever soap opera-esque drama is playing out right in front of our very eyes on the screen. While I won't dispute that the matches on this edition of "Dynamite" on the whole were very fun to watch, there wasn't really any storytelling on this show that was actually accomplished.
Yes, Kenny Omega and Swerve Strickland scored their wins to get one step closer to the AEW World Championship. Yes, Marina Shafir may not be done with Toni Storm, as her alliance with Megan Bayne and Penelope Ford seemingly hasn't come to an end yet. Yes, The Opps clearly aren't done chasing after the AEW World Trios Championship yet. However, none of those things feel like they're warranted or big enough to properly advance any ongoing storylines in AEW. They felt like more minor developments and small bits of business that needed to be accomplished on their way to potentially bigger story beats, and left "Dynamite" feeling like something was missing in between all the great contests that were featured on the show. It just felt like there was a gap in anything proper being done to advance storylines, and it made for an entertaining show where not much of anything really happened.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
While 2025 marked an entrance into the year in which the Death Riders were my least favorite thing, asphyxiating the main event of AEW, 2026 has shown that the mind and its wants can be a fickle demon, as they rank among my favorite things happening in AEW at the moment, though just a little bit below the main event.
This week, it was Jon Moxley, the man who has gone from retiring noted environmentalist Bryan Danielson with a plastic bag over his face to one of the biggest babyfaces on the roster once again, alongside Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta the ostensible losers of the group against the Don Callis Family contingent of Hechicero, Lance Archer, and Rocky Romero. That of course meant we got some "Murderhawk Monster" stuff from Archer, which is always quite enthralling, some "Alchemist" technical brilliance from Hechicero, and some... whatever it is that Rocky Romero provides [a third man?].
Yet also on the flip side, Garcia and Yuta may not be the believable monsters that Archer is or the de facto face of the company like Moxley; they are really good at the actual art of wrestling. What that worked to do is build the match around a Quarterback performance from Moxley on his team, keeping their side in it while Yuta and Garcia got sent into oblivion on the outside. And since it was a Street Fight and Moxley is Moxley, he also took some of the gnarlier spots, including one that involved barbed wire, thumbtacks, and shards of glass all in one time.
When all was said and done, all of the Death Riders got in on the closing act, Claudio Castagnoli and PAC emerging to beat Archer with crutches, and Yuta and Garcia barreling Archer over with a Busaiku knee-Russian leg sweep combo. Garcia then cinched in the Dragon-tamer on Hechicero, aided by a curbstomp from Moxley to get the submission victory.
All of the Riders confronted Callis at his commentary position after the match, creating not only an amusing visual of a shaken Callis surrounded by foes, but also challenging him to tell his boy that he knows where to find him. If you ask me, Trent Beretta should watch his back.
Written by Max Everett
AEW has never been known for its superb women's division, but even then, this match was a mess.
To be fair, it feels wrong to pin this all on the Timeless Love Bombs, but Wednesday's single women's match did not do the struggling division any favors. On Wednesday's episode of "AEW Dynamite," "Timeless" Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa took the fight to the team of Megan Bayne and Penelope Ford, and what ensued was something that could only be called a wrestling match on paper as in, the bell technically rang twice, but whatever happened in between those rings (and whatever happened after) is anyone's guess.
I love Storm as much as the next girl, and she can obviously hold herself well in the ring. I can't say the same about the other three women she shared the ropes with. I really want to like Shirakawa, but her appeal is definitely her aesthetic and her connection to some of AEW's top female stars. Her in-ring work isn't enviable especially not when she awkwardly clunks around Ford and Bayne, whose inexperience results in slow and unpolished work. When you think about it, Storm herself isn't the fastest worker sure, she has so much in-ring experience that she can make up for it, but the talent of one woman isn't enough to put over three women who are considerably less skilled than she is. Combine all of these factors, and you get a match that was kind of boring to sit through at best, and a chore to watch at worst.
Let's say you're more gracious than I am, and you found the match inoffensive, but logically sound. The match finish is just as, if not more, confusing. To close out Wednesday's tag bout, Ford and Bayne called in reinforcements, in the form of...Marina Shafir? Marina Shafir, the woman who already made an appearance on the show alongside the Death Riders? Marina Shafir, who presumably turned babyface with the rest of the Riders, and leader Jon Moxley? Shafir, who has little to no reason to interfere in this match in the first place, considering Ford effectively took her place alongside Bayne? That Shafir appeared at the end of the match to put Storm to sleep with a submission, while Bayne and Ford laid Shirakawa out with a Doomsday Device? What's she doing here? No, I'm asking you: what is Shafir doing here? Shafir literally has no reason to be associated with Bayne anymore: not when Bayne is a heel, and Shafir is thoroughly preoccupied with the babyface Riders. If Moxley doesn't address this next week, I'll be upset.
AEW has a good women's division. You wouldn't believe it from this match alone.
Written by Angeline Phu
A few years back, I personally asked Josh Alexander to list his all-time dream matches, and while AJ Styles and Kurt Angle ranked among the more intangible on his list, there sat the hope of facing Kenny Omega one day.
That day came on Wednesday night, and it did not disappoint at all, with there being an immediate feel that Omega was up for it from his entrance. The match itself got started very quickly with Alexander attacking Omega in said entrance, throwing him into the barricade, and removing the cover pad from the concrete floor. Soon enough, they were in the ring after Omega avoided being dropped onto the concrete, and the match got started with the "Walking Weapon" at an advantage.
There wasn't a wasted motion. Every maneuver was specifically designed to damage the opponent and get the win. Alexander leapt from the top rope with Omega on his shoulders in a rolling senton slam. Omega hit a Snapdragon suplex to plant Alexander onto the aforementioned concrete. When all was said and done, Omega got the win with the One Winged Angel to continue his pursuit of the AEW World Championship.
Much of the focus with Omega has been on his recovery from diverticulitis and the litany of injuries he had sustained over the years beforehand. And while there never really seems to be a bad Kenny Omega match, it would have been understandable if he had cut back and wrestled a far more restrictive style. This match didn't feel like that at all. It felt as though Omega was as he had always been, one of the best in-ring performers on the plane,t if not the best in-ring performer.
Alexander was the right opponent for him to feel like "The Best Bout Machine" once again, actually giving him someone he can have a best bout with. Everything fell into place as far as blowing Omega's seemingly never-ending feud with Don Callis and his Family off, getting the ball rolling for him to challenge for the title, and delivering a genuinely compelling segment of TV on the night. Easy to love. Impossible to hate.
Written by Max Everett
Tonight certainly wasn't my favorite episode of "Dynamite" in recent memory, though it wasn't anything terrible. One thing really stood out to me, and maybe it's because I'm still more used to "Hangman" Adam Page's loner character. Now, suddenly, he's an AEW World Trios Champion alongside "Speedball" Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight. Both Bailey and Knight had big matches tonight, albeit very different ones, and Page didn't exactly support them fully, which I thought was kind of strange, especially in "Speedball's" case.
Bailey had it worse out of either member of JetSpeed, as he had to take on Samoa Joe and had to deal with the other members of The Opps while doing so. Katsuyori Shibata came out and laid waste to Bailey, and while he was getting his a** handed to him, Page was nowhere to be found. I didn't need Page interfering to help Bailey win the match, but I thought it would have made a lot of sense for him to come out and run off Shibata and HOOK. Sure, Knight could have done it, since he's Bailey's tag team partner, but "Speedball" seems like the guy who would tell him to stay in the back, since he had a big match later on in the night. There was just no real reason for Page not come out and chase off The Opps on behalf of his trio's partner, especially as Page is still kind of feuding with Joe over the AEW World Championship.
While Knight didn't necessarily have it easier, as he was in the main event against Swerve Strickland, Page's once-sworn enemy, Page didn't offer him good, solid advice for beating his rival when Knight asked for it during a backstage segment. At this point in their careers, Page knows Strickland better than anyone on the roster, and he only had a few words of encouragement to Knight rather than any sage advice.
Despite their losses, Bailey and Knight had incredible showings in their matches, and maybe that's why AEW didn't want Page interfering or being too much of a factor in either match by even showing up for Bailey. For someone like Page, who is still after MJF and the AEW World Championship, the Trios Championship win still feels a bit weird to me, though AEW hasn't exactly handled the trios titles well at any point in the past. Right now, JetSpeed and Page's win really just seems like a way to get the titles off The Opps prior to Powerhouse Hobbs leaving the company.
Written by Daisy Ruth
