The John Report: AEW Dynamite 12/17/25 Review
This week’s AEW Dynamite features The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega teaming up, plus the Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal in the main event.
I’m going with a different style of review this week. It’s the holiday season and I’m a bit burned out from wrestling, to be honest. I watched the Survivor 49 finale with some loved ones last night and when I came home after 11 p.m. I watched Dynamite on the couch for the next two hours. I didn’t feel like writing. I don’t feel like rewatching the whole thing again to write about it in detail.
What I’ll do is take parts of the Dynamite results post that Faiz did on the site last night and just add my thoughts on it. Every backstage segment won’t be included.
Also, I don’t anticipate writing a Dynamite review next week. It’s Christmas Eve. I’m busy that night and Christmas is even busier. Spend time with your loved ones. We can miss a few dropkicks and suicide dives. It’s okay.
This was AEW Dynamite episode #324 from Manchester, England. Follow me on Twitter/X @johnreport. Let’s get to it.
It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means. Excalibur was on commentary with Bryan Danielson and Tony Schiavone.
Match #1: Continental Classic Blue League: Jon Moxley defeated Roderick Strong
Strong was leaving no stone unturned and dealt a lot of damage to the leader of the Death Riders, including slamming him onto the steel steps, before hitting him with a Superplex. Moxley came back into the match with a cutter and a piledriver, but could only get a two count as the match hit the 15-minute mark. He would eventually get the win after hitting Roddy, who had just kicked out of the Paradigm Shift, with a Death Rider to end Strong’s run in the tournament.
Analysis: ***1/4 I looked it up and this match got 18 minutes in a match with a 20-minute time limit. I don’t think it needed to be that long, but it’s AEW. Moxley has been losing quite a bit of late and Strong is a guy who rarely wins, so Moxley winning here made a lot of sense.
Match #2: $1 Million Winner-Takes-All Trios Match: The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) defeated Don Callis Family (AEW Unified Champion “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada, IWGP World Heavyweight Champion “The Alpha” Konosuke Takeshita and Hechicero)
The fans were then treated to a little one-on-one action between Omega and Okada for the first time since the match for the AEW Unified Championship at All In: Texas, before all six members took out each other.
Tensions crept in between Okada and Takeshita once again which led to the finish of the match. Omega cleared the field as he hit snap dragon suplexes on all members of the opposition before hitting Hechicero with a V-trigger and followed it up with an assisted One-winged Angel to win the match.
Analysis: ***3/4 This one went 23 minutes, which again is probably too long, but the Bucks and Omega are going to have their long matches so they can all stand in the ring and do combo spots while the referee looks like a dumbass. Anyway, it was a predictable outcome with Hechicero doing the job for his team. Okada and Takeshita are great while Hechicero is the obvious loser in that trio. The $1 Million prize thing is so f’n lame and needs to stop. I get that it was part of The Young Bucks heel gimmick that Nick Jackson blew their money in the past, but there wasn’t much of a story there. Just move on from it. I know certain wrestling observers will rate this match higher than me because of the wrestlers in the match, and that’s fine. I expect The Elite trio of Omega and The Young Bucks to win the AEW Trios Titles again in the new year.
Following his team’s loss, Don Callis tried to run away with the bag of money that The Elite had just won, which distracted them and allowed Takeshita and Okada to jump the trio. They took Kenny out of the ring before hitting their finishers on the Bucks in an attempt to one up each other. This altercation led to Don Callis trying to defuse the tension, allowing Kenny to make the save as he entered the ring with a broom in his hand, causing the Don Callis Family to retreat.
Analysis: Is the cash reward prize dead now? Hopefully it is.
AEW World Title Contract Signing With Samoa Joe, “Hangman” Adam Page, Swerve Strickland & MJF
Tony Schiavone was in the ring to mediate the contract signing between Samoa Joe, Hangman Adam Page and Swerve Strickland. All three men made their individual claims on who would emerge victorious at Worlds End later this month.
Swerve stated that there is mutual respect between him and Page after everything they’ve been through, but doesn’t hold the same feeling towards Joe, and came back to challenge the AEW World Champion, regardless of who was holding the belt.
Hangman Page called out the current champion, stating that he’s become just like the Death Riders, the very group The Opps went to war against a few months back, before signing the contract and making the match official.
Just when Schiavone was about to confirm the match, the lights went out and out came former World Champion, MJF, much to the surprise of everyone, as he made his return to the promotion for the first time since All Out 2025.
He cashed in his World Championship contract in the ring, making the Worlds End match a four-way now. The match will now see four former World Champions compete against one another.
MJF claimed that he would go on to end Samoa Joe’s title reign at Worlds End just like Joe ended his, before turning his attention to Swerve Strickland. He even name dropped WWE and former WWE wrestler Top Dolla during his promo while referencing Swerve’s past in the company.
Analysis: I thought this segment was \well done, and the crowd reaction for MJF’s surprising return was terrific. It was treated like a big deal and it should be. I think MJF is the best overall performer in AEW, he makes everybody around him better and he’s a guy that needs to be featured a lot. While I like Joe, Swerve and Hangman, I would love to see MJF leave Worlds End as the AEW World Champion for the second time. I don’t think Joe needs a long title reign. I would put the title on MJF and have him carry it as a top heel for most of 2026. By the way, MJF saying WWE is a “perfectly good company” was done perfectly and it pissed off the AEW fans, which MJF knew, so that’s how he did it. He’s the best in AEW, like I said.
Match #3: Mercedes Moné, Athena & Mega Problems (Megan Bayne and Marina Shafir) defeated AEW Women’s World Tag Team Champions The Babes of Wrath (Harley Cameron and Willow Nightingale) & Timeless Love Bombs (“Timeless” Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa)
All eight women were putting on an exciting match for the fans in attendance with the faces dealing most of the damage in the match. While the match erupted in chaos with everyone taking the other out, it seemed like Willow Nightingale would earn the win for her side.
She cleared the field after taking out everyone outside with a cannonball attack before dragging Mercedes back in the ring to finish the match. However, before she could get any more offense in, Athena hit her with the O-face, which allowed Mone to score the pin for her team.
Analysis: **3/4 This one didn’t really click for me. It went about 10 minutes and they put over the heel team of Mone & Athena to try to push them as championship threats. Mone hasn’t really had a meaningful feud for her TBS Title in months, so they just throw in the tag team division that already has more than enough women. Athena pinning Women’s Tag Team Champion Willow in a match like this sets up the obvious title match. Basic booking.
Match #4: Continental Classic Gold League: Pac defeated Kyle Fletcher
Neither man left any stone unturned during the match as they looked to gain vital three points tonight. Pac had the upper hand for most of the match, but Fletcher showed incredible resilience to kick out of everything that Pac threw at him. Pac trapped him in two consecutive brutalizer submission maneuvers but he just managed to get to the ropes on both attempts. Fletcher found a second wind following Pac’s offense and almost got the win after he hit a brainbuster on Pac, but he kicked out just before the referee hit three.
Fletcher ultimately fell short after he tried to hit a brainbuster from the top turnbuckle. Pac reversed it into a reverse Hurricanrana from the top and followed that up with a Black Arrow to seal a win for himself in front of his home crowd.
Analysis: ***1/2 This one was very good and went around 15 minutes. The result is a bit of a surprise since Fletcher has been pushed well this year, while Pac has been off for a lot of the year, so it’s a big win for Pac over a rising star like Fletcher. That top rope counter by Pac was amazing and then the Black Arrow to win was a cool way to end it.
Match #5: Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal won by Ricochet and Bandido
The annual Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale was up next with multiple tag teams filling the field with the likes of The Demand, Brodido, and members of the Don Callis Family all part of the match. Max Caster was the first person to be eliminated from the match, followed by Ace Austin as only 10 wrestlers remained in the match. Anthony Bowens was the next wrestler eliminated as the match cut for a commercial.
Next to be eliminated were all the big men present in the match as Luchasaurus, Shelton Benjamin, and Mark Davis were all eliminated one after the other. Brodido then combined together to toss Josh Alexander above the top rope as only five wrestlers remained in the match. The Battle Royale had now become a 3v2 as The Demand and Brodido were the only ones remaining.
Brody King then sacrificed himself to take out Toa Liona before Bandido eliminated Bishop Kaun, leaving him with Ricochet as the co-winners of the Battle Royale, and setting up a match for themselves for next week.
Analysis: *** They got about ten minutes and had a typical AEW battle royal. There really wasn’t much that stood out, but as Faiz wrote, it came down to The Demand and Brodido at the end. Ricochet and Bandido as the final two puts them in a match for next week as the Dynamite Diamond Ring winner, which also means a future AEW World Title shot. I think Ricochet winning over Bandido makes sense to keep the Dynamite Diamond Ring on a heel since we have seen it on a heel MJF in the past. It doesn’t HAVE to be that, but it’s better to have the heel cheat to win.
That was the end of two-hour Dynamite. There was one hour of Collision after, but I don’t review that, so that’s all.
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Three Stars of the Show
- Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks
- MJF
- Pac
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The Scoreboard
This Week: 7.25 out of 10
Last Week: 8
2025 Average: 7.42
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Final Thoughts on AEW Dynamite
There were good matches throughout the show, but I still don’t care about the Continental Classic that much because the prize for the winner is a shot at a title that has been defunct for five months. Yes, the wrestlers are trying hard, and we got good matches like Moxley/Strong and Pac/Fletcher, but there needs to be a better reward. I know I’ve said it in the past too. Sometimes repetitiveness is a good thing.
MJF returning to the contract singing and being in the AEW World Title picture again is a good thing. I missed him, and I hope he’s the AEW World Champion again.
The battle royal main event was fine. It just didn’t feel like a Dynamite main event match too. The Young Bucks’ match with Omega probably should have gone on last.
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Thanks for reading. Go Los Angeles Rams, Toronto Raptors, and Toronto Maple Leafs. You can contact me using any of the methods below.
John Canton
Email: [email protected]
Twitter/X: @johnreport