Review: AEW Dynamite 300 (7-2-2025)

The 300th Dynamite! 12 more times than we ever got to see Nitro. Insane to me as this set of years has passed so much faster in my mind, because of me being much closer to my final breath and all.

• Live from Ontario, California!

Matches

• Mercedes Mone vs Mina Shirakawa: For Mone’s AEW women’s television title. Toni Storm is ringside to observe, a table reserved for her by Mone (steak and all!), and remember she’s been instructed by Mina to not interfere no matter what happens. Mone, of course, looking to make an example of Shirakawa in this one, but Mina puts up a great fight, as you’d expect. Mina gets the Bret Hart ringpost figure four and Mone’s tapping but, y’know, not a legal hold. There’s an enjoyable defiance to Mina in this match, as her attitude not only won’t cede ground to Mercedes physically, but mentally. Mone cannot shake her, which annoys the shit out of Mone.

  • Mina hits the Glamorous Driver but Mone kicks at two, and Storm does her Acting. She’s been sitting over there with a worried non-expression the entire match, the type of expression you see when someone’s trying not to be transparent but can’t quite help it. Mercedes kicks at HWAN! on a running knee strike, a good usage of the one-count kick. Mercedes doesn’t get some big, emphatic win, she wins with an inside cradle counter to a rolling Shirakawa, cutting off that momentum just when she needed. ***¾

    • Post-match, Toni enters the ring but gets laid out with a belt shot from Mone, who teases hitting someone with a wrestling cake but instead just throws some champagne in Luther’s face and leaves, Toni laid out with Mina in the ring.

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• Brody King vs Anthony Bowens vs AR Fox vs MJF: This is for the second entry into the men’s Casino Gauntlet, for men. Mark Briscoe has the first, and currently has a problem with MJF, who is also by miles the biggest star and most-pushed wrestler in this match, so take your guesses as to who’s going to win. Probably AR Fox!!!

  • Guess what? Brody King almost wins a match of some note, before instead, MJF wins the match. Guess who loses the fall? C’mon! Guess!!

  • I don’t know, man, it’s a four-way and I zoned out from typing because there have been 600 four-ways on TV recently and this was not one of particular quality relative to many of the others. But it was fine. Decent way to hide Bowens’ mediocrity, I guess. ***¼

    • Post-match, Mark Briscoe is here with his t-shirt describing MJF’s penis. Mark is happy to be called “blue collar,” but not so happy to be called a “bitch.” He calls out MJF for a, uh, promo next week. Sure, why not?

    • After Briscoe leaves, “JetSpeed” show up, playing their music and all, because they don’t want to hit-and-run on the Hurt Syndicate, they want them to know they’re coming for a fight. Good for the boys. Have really enjoyed this feud, by the way; it’s a nice stylistic matchup where Bailey and Knight are clear underdogs but absolutely have a chance if they make Benjamin and Lashley fight their way, which is a lot of what this constant attempt to rile them is about, one can suspect. But they get their asses kicked again here because they have DDP rib tape. AND YET! They do not go away. They do not stop fighting. Shelton and Bob just cannot kick their asses enough to get them to stop, though they clearly can kick their asses enough to get, like, a pinfall in a wrestling match. Their goal of annoying the big guys is working, though. Knight challenges Benjamin for a one-on-one at Collision.

• Bandido, Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly vs Konosuke Takeshita & Young Bucks: Is T-Bone Tony starting to understand that Adam Cole is absolutely dragging the other two down? HEY! It’s another super rad AEW trios match, this one feeling a little fresher than some others because the Bucks have wrestled so sparingly, and we get Takeshita on their side, plus the mild randomness of the babyface link-up, too. Strong and O’Reilly continue to show that, in fact, they are sort of being dragged down by Cole, bless him; I doubt they intend to display that so clearly but here we are. Or, actually, maybe they do. Look, it’s their careers here. Takeshita hasn’t had as much spotlight lately as he did months back, but he’s gonna deliver any half-chance you give him, and Bandido is white hot lately. Takeshita and Bandido give a great tease of what they’ll be bringing at Supercard of Honor. O’Reilly eats the triple EVP Trigger and Raging Fire for the finish. Absolutely rocked. Another one! ****

  • Post-match, Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay hit the ring and chase the baddies. Swerve says there’s been no answer from the Bucks after they were challenged for All In Texas last week, with their EVP spots on the line against these two. Swerve says they don’t want the EVP spots themselves, they want to give those roles to … You People. Ospreay says “Young Cucks.” Bucks turn it down and point out they get nothing from the match. I mean, frankly, they’re right. What do they gain as is? A tag team win? Big whoop. But Ospreay says if the Bucks beat them at All In, then neither of them can challenge for the world title for one year. Swerve clearly did not agree to this ahead of time. The Bucks do accept this, and Swerve comes around, so it’s official. Have really liked how they’ve set this match up, big stakes for both sides now, and although Swerve and Ospreay are big stars, the Bucks really are the more cohesive, experienced time, and by a lot. I could honestly see it going either way because Khan’s not shy about thinking that far ahead and riding it out for a year.

• Dralistico & The Beast Mortos vs Swerve Strickland & Will Ospreay: And after a break it’s right into this match. Hot dog! You could argue this match is a bit of a disappointment, because these four should really be able to deliver something wild and hoot-worthy, but I think it’s “merely” Good. Feel like Ospreay has hit a sweet spot between his old, thinner build and the early bulking up to the NJPW heavyweight ranks. Honestly, it’s a match that sort of interestingly presents the idea that Swerve and Ospreay are still working on being a tag team, but it’s also valuable for them to do it at this level with live rounds, if you will. They are always going to beat Dralistico and Mortos, but there is some experimentation from the babyfaces late. ***½

• Kazuchika Okada vs Kota Ibushi: Okada’s belt isn’t on the line, as Ibushi is not a ranked contender, reasonably. This isn’t boxing. Okada has Don Callis and Lance Archer with him. Again, this isn’t the Ibushi of old — it’s the Okada of old, either. But Okada has found an update to his style, albeit it’s not everyone’s favorite. I enjoy it, but that’s me. I had far bigger concerns that Ibushi could really adjust, but he looks healthy, strong, far quicker and more coordinated than the last time most of us saw him before this AEW return, and he does look like he’s adjusting to his diminished physical capabilities, which he has the tool set to do because he is such a phenomenal striker. He will never have the speed or agility he used to have, but he looks good here, and this is a hell of match. I’m borderline shocked how good it is, actually, I was hoping it would be good but I wasn’t sure, and I honestly didn’t expect it to be great, which it is.

  • FUCK yes, Ibushi goes to That Place. Ibushi goes to That Place better than anyone, where he gets suddenly pissed off that his opponent is hitting him, and he just stone-faces and lights them up. Ibushi dips under a Rainmaker and destroys Okada with a lariat. He keeps being about a quarter-step ahead of Okada, and he’s got the crowd rolling with him as the match goes on.

  • Oh my God, Ibushi hits an avalanche tiger driver for two. Okada knows he’s about to hit survival mode off of that, just trying to find a way to finish suddenly or buy time. Great bit where Okada hangs onto the top rope to force a break, getting Ibushi to change his focus to the ref for just a moment, and Okada smacks him with a lariat, followed by the dropkick and Rainmaker for the clean win, which I really like. Hell of a match. Okada gets some real momentum going into Texas, and Ibushi gets to show everyone he can be a serious positive for this roster in 2025. ****¼

    • Post-match, it’s Archer who wants to put Ibushi entirely away, but that’s interrupted by a returning Kenny Omega, who runs in with a chair. Archer takes a forearm shot. Trent Beretta tries to put the sneak on with a baton, but winds up like this instead:

Other Stuff

• 10 days out from All In Texas, we start with Hangman Adam Page. Taz is betting a goodly sum on Page dethroning Jon Moxley in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. He’s out here screaming again, like always. AHH! I’M GONNA WIN A MATCH! AHH! I MUST BE MURDERED TO BE STOPPED!!! Page says he’s prepared for the Death Riders and Elite to interfere in Texas, so he requests a Texas Death Match stipulation, because fuck it. That rules.

  • That challenged is answered by the blues-y rock groove of “Theme to Death Riders,” and Jon Moxley emerges from backstage with Marina Shafir. Moxley declines the TDM stipulation, rationalizing that it’s not what Page really wants, when obviously it’s not what Moxley really wants, Moxley doesn’t want to risk opening the floodgates for God knows what chaos and losing the advantage of having clear allies he knows will have his back, whereas Page does have Ospreay and the Opps, at the very least — WINK WINK HINT NUDGE — but they can’t be truly counted on like Moxley’s crew. Moxley’s guys are soldiers at his command, basically, or at the very least with the Bucks, they are people who do not want his spot and are happy to keep him in said spot.

    • Moxley really has found the groove for this character in the last couple months. Page has been the proper adversary he’s needed, and Page has also been booked well to get into this spot, more than simply being wanted by the fans in the spot.

  • Moxley continues to rationalize why Page doesn’t really want Texas Death, but Page slaps him in the face and Moxley tackles him, with Page turning that over and going into his pocket for a fork. Wheeler Yuta arrives and is dispatched quickly. Marina slaps the shit out of Page a handful of times. Page just stands his ground. Yuta grabs Page’s foot and Claudio Castagnoli races in to tackle Page from behind, so the flunkies can put the boots to Hangman. Moxley and Marina leave. Neutralizer leaves Hangman laying.

  • After the hangers-on leave, Page gets up and gets back on the mic, calling Claudio a “little neutered lapdog” and Moxley a “bitch.” Claudio takes offense and marches back to the ring, but he’s met at the railing by Samoa Joe, who simply loves a fight and believes in this cause. Castagnoli and Yuta back off when Powerhouse Hobbs and Katsuyori Shibata flank Joe¹.

  • In the ring, Marina tries to whack Hangman with the briefcase, but it’s stopped and Page has the case. He again demands Texas Death. In the position he’s in, Moxley has no choice but to accept, and you can see he’s been pushed from his original plan. Page goes to the apron with the mic still in hand: “Mox, you said that I didn’t have what it took for Texas Death, and you know that’s a lie. But in case you needed a reminder that I’d do anything that it takes—” and he drills Marina with the Buckshot! Fuck yeah. Listen, I understand why TV wrestling companies generally shy away from this sort of thing, even with the wide acceptance and understanding that this is all ~Storytelling~, but Marina isn’t someone who carries herself like she’s afraid this will happen when she’s running with the boys and smacking other dudes in their shit. This works for the characters and this ~story~. It says a lot about where Hangman is mentally, and that he’s where he needs to be to pull this off against the Numbers Game and all that.

    • I thought all this shit ruled. Page, Mox, the Death Riders, Marina, the Opps. All of it. AEW is finally cooking with the world title again.

• Matt Jackson used the company card to buy himself a Nick Jackson a limo and a bunch of shoes. They can’t stop themselves from being Ironic with their dialogue but it’s just who they are, at this point if they suddenly started being really earnest it would be completely phony. And maybe that’s always been the case, maybe they just weren’t going to possibly be worth a shit at being normal wrestlers so they chose this. You could say it has paid off for them!

  • They tour their hometown of Rancho Cucamonga, with Nick saying they may be the only famous people to come out of the city².

THREE STARS OF THE SHOW

I know I don’t always remember to do these.

1. Hangman Adam Page: He was killer in that opener. I thought everyone out there was great, actually, but Page is really taking it to a different level right now, and that match needed it, that belt needs it, and that belt also needs to go home with him when the dust settles in Texas. I do keep having the sneaking suspicion — and fear, I guess — that Moxley leaves with the belt somehow, because wrestling bookers in this modern age especially have a tendency to overshoot the big moment just a bit. They must think, every time they do it, that yes, that happens, but certainly it’s not happening this time. This time it’s good and the right call. It almost never is. It doesn’t hurt to just give people what they want when they want it in a lot of those cases. Anyway I’m having an entirely different conversation now, huh? Page was great out there.

2. Kota Ibushi: Showed he can sincerely contribute in 2025. Don’t know if he can work super regularly, but also think it’d be fine if he wasn’t an every-week guy. I think it’d be kinda funny if he showed up like Kenny Omega’s Roughhouse Fargo now and then. But in all seriousness (serious business), yeah, Ibushi looked damn good and that match rocked.

3. “JetSpeed”: Really like that angle. Honestly, hope they win the tag belts to get them off of Lashley and Shelton. I like Lashley and Shelton, mind you, but right now the AEW tag division is just in another, different sort of lull. But I like these two a lot as the little fuckers who just will not stop trying to fight the big lads even if they keep getting beaten up. If you just keep fighting, you’re still in it, and you just might pull it out.

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1. It rules that The Opps, when freed from working off of Hook’s dopey Gen Z bullshit, are just three cool guys always ready to bust some ass and even the odds against a bunch of bullies and dickheads.

2. Frank Zappa, CJ Stroud, two-time MLS Defender of the Year Carlos Bocanegra, Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, and someone called “Nichkhun” are also listed as Notable People on Wikipedia.