It was Wednesday Night, you know what that meant. All Elite Wrestling held a dual taping of weekly Dynamite and Collision on this night which featured myself and a few friends in the Philadelphia crowd at our first AEW live show. Since this was a cooldown show from Double or Nothing, I expected nothing major to happen. But at least we got some great wrestling matches out of this night.
The commentators for the night were Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, and Taz.
The first moment of the night saw Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega have an in-depth conversation backstage. Kenny admitted his faults of not being as great as he once was while warning Ospreay about his dealings with the Death Riders. Ospreay went to defend the Moxley Crue by saying they get the job done. All this glazing occurred right before Moxley walked in. “We all have our skeletons, don’t we?” said Moxley.
Surprisingly, quite the relaxed route they’re taking with Omega and Ospreay’s possible future match. Moxley being the devil on Ospreay’s shoulder continued to pay off with tension in this segment you can cut with a knife.
Kevin Knight Speaks, “Speedball” Mike Bailey Interrupts
Why Kevin, why? He explained that he beat up Darby Allin at the end of Double or Nothing because Darby let everyone down. Knight didn’t want to be a bench player and took Darby’s advice of not waiting for anything. Speedball came out and demanded forgiveness, saying that everyone makes mistakes. But Kevin Knight would attack Speedball in the ring, solidifying the end of JetSpeed.
All of this really put over the heel character of Knight and the pure babyface character of Speedball. That’s wrestling, baby.
Jericho v. Ricochet – Everyone Banned from Ringside
These two have wrestled each other a lot as of late, but it’s still entertaining when they do. The crowd really yelled at Ricochet for his baldness, and praised Jericho for his luscious locks. Some bits like the Walls of Jericho on the announce table and the Death Valley Driver on the apron gave Ricochet some payback for the hell he’s been giving Jericho. After much back and forth, Jericho won with the Judas Effect and Lionsault combo. Then, a wild Tommaso Ciampa appeared, attacking Jericho after the match super effectively.
What a great way to kick off the night. An sports-entertaining match with wrestling being the focus due to no run-ins to distract from the action. Ciampa v. Jericho sounds fun on paper, but it would be terrible if Jericho beat Ciampa in the feud. This should be the time where Jericho puts over people with no fuss, shouldn’t it?
Orange Cassidy v. Lio Rush v. Brian Cage v. RUSH – “SuperStation Showcase” 4-Way
Everyone got their gimmicks in! Brian Cage deadlifted and suplexed his way to top the “strong boi” charts. Orange Cassidy threw some more of those earth-shattering kicks to Lio Rush. “The Blackheart” galloped around the ring and oozed black goo out of his mouth — totally normal gimmick here. Lio says he’s fine so who are we to judge? RUSH forearmed and stomped people left and right, making himself look the toughest out of everyone in the match. RUSH won the match by pinning “Cracked Out” Lio Rush.
All of this insanity almost overshadowed the return of Jake Doyle! He appeared during the 4-Way, taking out Orange Cassidy while the rest of The Conglomeration brawled with the Don Callis Family to the back. It’s great to see him back although admittedly, I didn’t even notice that it was Jake Doyle. Sitting in the crowd, I swear that was Mark Davis who came out to brawl. Oops!
Jake Doyle is back!!! pic.twitter.com/CcvnDz7Ij8
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) May 28, 2026
The backstage promo from the Brawling Birds discussed the past and the future. Jamie promised to take Thekla’s head off again, while Windsor warns whoever the Wild Card is for the Owen Hart Cup to have some skin in the game, mate. That Windsor v. Wild match will happen on next week’s Dynamite. I am predicting it now: Mercedes Moné!
MJF’s Three-Time World Championship Celebration
We have some exclusive news from MJF himself: Philadelphia is a trashy place to exist in. He gloated and raved about his three World Titles won by the age of 30, but Mark Briscoe had heard enough. Briscoe tore down MJF’s huge banner and walked into the ring demanding a future World Championship match. After all, he beat MJF at All Out 2025 in the Tables N’ Tacks match all those months ago. But MJF denied Briscoe, saying it wouldn’t be good for business if Briscoe represented AEW.
Then RUSH came back out after his match to confront MJF on the stage. Since RUSH demanded a title match against Darby before Darby lost the title at Double or Nothing, he came out to yell at MJF about one. MJF granted it for next week’s Dynamite, leaving poor Mark Briscoe in the ring with no match. Very curious to see how MJF’s gonna backdoor his way out of his upcoming title match with RUSH. Perhaps a low blow, or the Diamond Ring?
Claudio Castagnoli v. Brody King, Men’s Owen Hart Cup Round One
There were maybe three bumps throughout this whole match, yet the crowd still went wild for it. Claudio and Brody going ham with the forearms and chops on each other rang throughout the arena, especially with Brody turning Claudio’s chest red. It sounded like rulers snapping with how hard those chops were. After multiple minutes of hard knocks and European uppercuts, Brody would win with a simple Lariat. Such a minimalistic match with an effective statement made to make Brody look strong ahead of his semifinal Owen match with Swerve Strickland.
Cage & Cope’s Five Second Pose
The former Edge and Christian turned back the clock with their five second posing, but Christian Cage didn’t want to do it initially. Copeland thought he would make the moment special by giving the crowd some disposable cameras. However, The Dogs (David Finlay & Clark Connors) would jump the new Tag Team Champions out of nowhere. Both Dogs would assassinate Christian’s arm, and Connors would Spear the hell out of Copeland, how ironic. Finlay and Connors would perform their own Five Second Pose, declaring their intentions to win the Tag Titles.
TayJay (Tay Melo & Anna Jay) v. Allie Katch & Ava Everett – Tag Team Match
AEW’s treatment of the Women’s Tag division has not been feeding us fans well. Giving these four women only one minute of in-ring time to work and tell a story was unfair tonight, although they all tried their best. This was built to hype up TayJay as being the new challengers for the Women’s Tag Champions, the Divine Dominion (Megan Bayne & Lena Kross). Hopefully that match is given some actual time.
By the way, Speedball officially challenged Kevin Knight for the TNT Title for next week’s Dynamite. It’s such a shame these two never became Tag Champions, but the TNT Title match they are going to have next week has Match of the Year potential.
Mark Davis v. Jack Perry, Men’s Owen Hart Cup Round One
These two have wrestled on Dynamite, Fairway to Hell and the Dynasty pre-show, and this rematch was much of the same dynamic “big guy v. little guy” style. Mark Davis would toss Perry around like a sack of potatoes and slam him onto the apron a whole bunch. Perry had some chance moves like a DDT off the top rope and a hurricanrana off the apron, giving the audience that underdog fire to get behind. Ultimately, Davis would win with a Piledriver off the middle rope to advance into the semis of the Owen against Will Ospreay.
Positioning Mark Davis in this huge dominating role before eventually letting Ospreay get his win back from him is the perfect way to go about the Owen Cup this year. Sad for Mark though.
And Now…..The Transition Into AEW Collision!
Kyle Fletcher & Don Callis Speak
The LEDs change from purple to red as Kyle Fletcher explained why he turned on Konosuke Takeshita at Double or Nothing. Takeshita was the dead weight, Kyle said, and that he was selfish for driving a wedge between the Family. Takeshita himself would walk out, with The Conglomeration alongside him. Cassidy, Strong, O’Reilly, and Briscoe all would scare off the Don Callis Family. Takeshita then said he WANTS Fletcher!
OH MY FUCKING GOD… KONOSUKE TAKESHITA IN THE CONGLOMERATION???
THIS MIGHT BE THE MOST WHOLESOME THING TO EVER HAPPEN. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/XzpoqWYhzG
— Drainmaker (@TheDrainmaker) May 28, 2026
Death Riders (Jon Moxley, PAC, & Will Ospreay) v. The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz, Myron Reed, & Dezmond Xavier) – 6-Man Tag Team Match
The Riders gave The Rascalz a ton of offense in this match, which was great to see. Along with that, the story of Ospreay and PAC getting along appeared to be smoothly running. Ospreay’s getting comfortable with being in the Death Riders, that must scare the hell out of the AEW locker room. This exciting 6-Man Tag ended with Ospreay’s new armbar submission to give The Riders the win.
Jon Moxley continued to be the GOAT of AEW with his selfless desires to put anyone he works with over like rover. From the crowd’s perspective live, seeing Moxley freak out on the apron while Reed worked over Ospreay was funny. Must have been very rewarding for Rascalz fans to see The Riders give them so much in this one.
The Opps gathered backstage to cut a promo where Samoa Joe explained that he was stepping away from television for a few months to focus on Hollywood endeavors. As he dapped up Bowens, Hook, and Shibata, it was Hook who stood in between the other two, acting as the new leader.
By the way, we chanted “Moxley” during that segment because Moxley was flexing in the crowd as he walked through the crowd after his match. Sorry if that killed any tension for the television audiences.
Ace Austin v. Andrade El Ídolo
Hey look at that, Ace was on TV but still no Jay White. I cry every week when the Switchblade isn’t on screen. This match was flamboyant and filled with crisp strikes, making every connection hit hard. A woman in the crowd got attached to Andrade so much so that she got dragged over the barricade. “The Real Latino Man” is quite popular with women! This one ended with The DM/The Message finisher from El Ídolo. Another good match to make Andrade a viable contender for the World Title. How You Know?!
Kris Statlander v. Hikaru Shida, Lights Out Philly Street Fight
The main event of the three hour broadcast saw a massive overrun with these two women going crazy on each other. Superplexes onto chairs, a light tube across Statlander’s back, and Shida with a bicycle that ran over Stat’s hand. Ouchie. The intensity within these two’s brawling rose with each dangerous spot, and it made for a great hardcore scrap to cap off a great show. The climax of this match saw Harley Cameron run down to the ring and give Statlander a kendo stick to strike Shida with it. Payback from Double or Nothing.
The Night Fever finisher through a table at ringside then one more in the ring finished the match, giving Stat the big redemption win.
It appeared to be a big head-scratcher initially to run a special three-hour broadcast right after a pay-per-view. But, filling in those hours with meaningful segments and matches to set up a lot for the future satisfied me. I do have bias because I attended this Dynamite/Collision live, but this was such a great first AEW show to experience live.
