Ilja Dragunov is All Elite, and Queen Aminata is set for a TBS Title Match. There was plenty that happened on Wednesday's "AEW Dynamite," and all of it can be read about on the AEW Dynamite 10/21/2026 Live Blog.The Wrestling Inc. Staff spent the night keeping up with all the AEW shenanigans, and boy howdy do they have thoughts on what went down. There was much to enjoy on the program, like the way Mark Davis and Jake Doyle made mincemeat out of the AEW World Tag Team Champions, or the thrilling in-ring debut of Ilja Dragunov. There were also deeply embarrassing outings, like whatever is going on with the Women's Blood & Guts, or the fact that the New Level/Swerve/Hangman/Brodido feud is being stretched even further. As always, the comments section is open, should you feel the need to keep the conversation going.Here's the very good and the very bad from this week's "AEW Dynamite."
Nick Wayne has beaten Chris Jericho twice. Why is this feud still going? I'm sure they're building to some kind of point about maturity, and Jericho seeing himself in Wayne, but it's all moving too slowly. This week was a lot of yelling and a lot of stalling.I'm terrified the next step could be a Jericho win, or worse, a Jericho tag team. I feel like, by beating him twice, Wayne has sucked all the juice he can out of this rivalry, and should be moving on to bigger, better things, and yet here he is, stuck in the Jericho vortex, likely being taken out to sea on a cruise.It just feels like this feud either needs to end or escalate, and since it was neither, this segment was a little underwhelming, even if I do like where Wayne's character seems to be going.Written by Ross Berman
Normally, it wouldn't be a great thing for AEW to have their AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks be beaten in such a dominant and quick manner by another team because you want to keep your champions looking strong. In the case of Mark Davis and Jake Doyle dominating Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson in what was essentially a squash Eliminator Match, I actually think it was the perfect call.The Don Callis Family has been positioned as major players on the AEW roster, but their overall win-loss record as a stable doesn't always reflect that and can be inconsistent depending on what the situation of specific storylines they're involved in calls for. For that reason, I think it was genius for The Young Bucks to get in, no offense of any kind against Davis and Doyle, because it instantly makes them feel like a serious threat to the AEW World Tag Team Championship and is an effective way to establish them as a dominant tag team without having to do too much work to position them as such. Something about it just worked really well, and it was a shocking and great way to kick off this "Dynamite" in a manner that was attention-grabbing and engaging.Written by Olivia Quinlan
Last year was the first women's Blood & Guts match, and it was absolutely fantastic, so I guess I just assumed we'd be getting another one this year, to go alongside the men's bout set for two weeks in Jacksonville. If there's going to be a women's version of the hardcore bout, however, it wasn't officially or clearly set up tonight.There was a backstage segment where a scheduled Renee Paquette interview turned into a brawl between the Divine Dominion's Lena Kross and Megan Bayne, alongside the Triangle of Madness' Julia Hart, Skye Blue, and Thekla, against the AEW Women's Tag Team Champions Alex Windsor and Jamie Hayter, and their Full Gear challengers, Kris Statlander and Harley Cameron. It was enough to set up a Blood & Guts match, but it wasn't clear at all. Bayne looked down at Hayter at one point and asked her, "What makes you think you're making it to Full Gear?" which could mean they'll keep beating the team down in backstage segments, or they're setting up a Blood & Guts match.It kind of sucks either way, because if the women are getting a match, they'll barely have any build. Last year's match was six-on-six, and right now, the heels only have five women, with the babyfaces clocking in at just four. Next week's episode would be making the teams official, and then boom, Blood & Guts the next week. Which, I suppose I shouldn't complain about, because getting a thrown-together women's Blood & Guts match is better than none at all.AEW Women's World Champion Mercedes Mone was involved in last year's match, but she's still recovering from a broken nose. She's obviously good to go, having wrestled at WrestleDream, but it's unclear if she's good enough to go in a big stipulation bout. That would mean her presumed Full Gear opponent, or at least the woman who stepped up to her tonight, Marina Shafir, would fight on the babyface side. Which, I guess, works, since the Death Riders are seemingly babyfaces now. That would still, however, leave a spot open on Team Good Guy.Hopefully, we get a women's match no matter what, because it even looks like we could get two men's bouts, if AEW wanted to go that way, with the newly united Bang Bang Gang and The Dogs against the Death Riders. Even if it seems hastily put together from a storyline angle, I know the women of AEW could absolutely pull off the bout. After so many fans clamored for the match last year, hopefully the company follows through with another women's Blood & Guts banger.Written by Daisy Ruth
It felt like only a matter of time before Jay White and his Bang Bang Gang of miscreants got back to doing what they do best, heeling it up. This week's show finally saw that trigger, and a few more, pulled after Jon Moxley made the mistake of crossing the Dogs.The Dogs and the Death Riders struck up a partnership through their joint custody of Gabe Kidd in recent months, made all the more complicated when PAC's death turned the Riders into a babyface faction while they were heels in creative.Fans couldn't help but get behind Moxley and co., while the Dogs continued to be the ostensible heels that they are. That was remedied after Moxley's Continental Title Eliminator against Roderick Strong, the Dogs looking to attack Strong on account of their beef with the Conglomeration.Moxley took issue with that, getting back in the ring to stop them, but wound up getting attacked himself. Thus spurring on a melee that saw the Dogs also turn on Kidd, prompting Jay White, the Bang Bang Gang, and the rest of the Conglomeration to run down and make the save. But White and his group had different ideas, turning on the babyfaces to strike up a Bullet Club reunion of sorts.The subsequent beatdown was only really remarkable for the rally by Claudio Castagnoli against all comers, falling victim only due to the sheer number of his aggressors. But multiple birds were killed with a single stone in this segment; the Death Riders are officially babyface and unabated by an alliance with the heel Dogs, White and the Bang Bang Gang are now back in their wheelhouse as heels.Written by Max Everett
I was fine with New Level and Swerve Strickland continuing their feud with "Hangman" Adam Page, Brody King, and Bandido through AEW WrestleDream, especially with the two-out-of-three falls stipulation. It felt like a definitive end to this, a story that I was enjoying through the match on Saturday. I figured that Page and Brodido were going to take the AEW World Trios Championships off Strickland, Kofi, and Austin Creed, and they did just that.I didn't think, however, we'd be continuing this feud through Full Gear, and now, it's feeling a bit long in the tooth. After Strickland squashed a local talent tonight, we saw him during a backstage segment with the new champions, where he demanded a rematch. First, "Hangman" was cool with it, and said that it made sense, since they wouldn't have the titles now if Strickland and New Level didn't give them a rematch in the first place.That's when Strickland pushed his luck and demanded a Texas Death match for the titles, as he defeated Page three years ago at Full Gear in one of the most brutal death matches AEW has seen. That's when Page said "no," because he's not bringing King and Bandido into their feud. By the end of Dynamite, it was unclear whether or not the teams are actually going to face off once again at Full Gear, but it wouldn't surprise me, as there are only three weeks of build to the event, with Blood & Guts thrown in there as well.I guess I just expected the teams to move on after seemingly wrapping things up pretty neatly, even though Strickland was obviously upset and walked away on Saturday when New Level were being respectful and handing over the gold following their loss. I figured maybe this would result in the breakup between the tag team and Strickland, allowing for New Level to move on to start stacking some tag wins to get their shot at the Young Bucks and the AEW World Tag Team Championships, maybe at Worlds End.It also appears that AEW could be moving back toward Page and Strickland singles feud. Though, that would make sense to cause dissension between the trios champions and get Page back on a singular track. His last singles bout against Strickland came in September 2024. With this trios feud, I feel like they haven't been kept apart long enough for me to want to see another match between them just yet. I know they're going to be bitter, career-long rivals, and that should feel a little bit better paced.Written by Daisy Ruth
The main event of this week's show was without a doubt the most exciting thing coming out of WrestleDream, with Ilja Dragunov finally declaring himself All Elite and making his in-ring debut against another one of the best wrestlers on the planet in "Speedball" Mike Bailey.As soon as this match was booked, it came with a promise of hard-hitting wrestling going both ways, pitting a human battering ram against the man of a thousand kicks. And it did not fail in delivering that promise by any stretch of the imagination.They went out there with the expressed intent of beating the p*** out of one another for the sake of entertainment, Bailey matching Dragunov's intensity as both delivered and survived a deluge of sickening chops, kicks, knees, elbows, suplexes and slams both inside and outside of the ring.It was a fight. One that had Dragunov throwing legitimate headbutts, the sound of skulls cracking against one another echoing out into the venue. One that saw Bailey injuring his own knee trying to put Dragunov away, eventually coming back to bite him as Dragunov delivered his finisher to the injured limb to immobilize Bailey for the eventual killshot.It was obviously a man so dedicated to his craft, celebrating the freedom to do it after months of inactivity. And when someone puts so much raw passion into wrestling, it's just hard not to feel compelled by it. It was a refresher for anyone who had forgotten who Ilja Dragunov really is and why there was so much hype behind his signing. But also those who knew all too well who he was and couldn't wait to see him back between the ropes.That's not to take anything away from Bailey at all. He went out there and put on a stellar performance against the debutant, fighting until the dying breath and, as clich as it is, putting his body on the line multiple times over.But Dragunov was something else. The selling was top-notch. The offense took it that step further. And he had everyone eating out of the palm of his hand as a result. Even still, as great as this match was, what's more exciting is that this was just a sample of what he can do. There's still a litany of first-time opponents on a roster bloated with top-tier workers. If this is what he did on day one, one can only imagine what matches with Kenny Omega, Jon Moxley, Kyle Fletcher, Will Ospreay, or Swerve Strickland will look like. And, vivid as one's imagination can be, he's effectively guaranteed to surpass even those expectations.Written by Max Everett
