AEW Dynamite 7/29/26 opens with the gripping ending from Redemption where Kenny Omega spots the plastic bag in the middle of the ring. He drilled Will Ospreay with the One-Winged Angel to close the show. Simultaneously, showing the reaction from the Death Riders and Jon Moxley disappointed with the outcome.
Earlier today, Renee Paquette tries to get a word with Ospreay, only for Moxley and the Death Riders to roll up. Ospreay gives Mox the patch back, and says he’s out. Mox is unconvinced, but Daniel Garcia gets jumpy and eats an elbow for it. Ospreay walks off but is greeted by “Hangman” Adam Page who tells the challenger he has his back against the Death Riders.
Tonight features some excellent and high energy wrestling. A staple of AEW which some may feel is too over-the-top, but this is professional wrestling; folks, it’s meant to be fun.
Andrade El Idolo defeated Nick Wayne and “Jungle” Jack Perry to retain the AEW National Championship
Absolute perfect opener. Hot match, hot crowd, hot venue. Ticks all the right boxes. Andrade is MASSIVELY over with the live crowd, “How You Know” chants echo throughout the match. The speed and organic flow of the match was a sight to behold. Perry blasts away with superkicks and chops, Wayne busts out some bonkers flying offense, while Andrade mixes serious suplexes with a dose of Tranquilo. Andrade knocks out Perry with the kick/back elbow combo and drops Wayne with the DM for the win. After the match, Andrade promises to continue to screw over the Don Callis Family, and MJF. He also plans on entering the Casino Battle Royale.
Andrade is having THE BEST run of his career. Change my mind.
AEW Redemption Review: AEW Swung for the Fences & Hit a Sacrifice Fly
Backstage: Don Callis says some important things about his group, praising both Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight, but has strong words of advice for Knight who lost his match. It seems Fletcher and Knight are about to go at it when Kazuchika Okada shows up, only to say the International Championship will stay with the Don Callis Family. This makes Fletcher uneasy as we roll into our next match.
Brodido & “Speedball” Mikey Bailey defeated AEW International Champion Kyle Fletcher, Jake Doyle, and Brian Cage
Another stellar trios match. The crowd, again, extremely lively as Brody King mauled all opponents, prompting “MEAT” during the big bruising hits. Bandido is simply not human. Deadlift Fletcher for a suplex, then bench pressing Brian Cage. Speedball is a human highlight reel to hype up his upcoming championship match against Fletcher at Arena Mexico next week. Cage, Doyle, and Fletcher have a perfectly executed sequence of moves involving a German suplex into a powerbomb lift into a driver. Bailey pins Doyle with one of his creative roll ups.
Bailey looks like a very credible threat to Fletcher, but will he dethrone the champ?
Pre-taped Promo: Renee interviews Cope & Cage with The Young Bucks to hype up “the dream match” at All In. What started as a respectful discussion gradually devolved into resentment and a competitive edge in which both teams agree they will do everything it takes to prove themselves the best tag team in AEW.
Interesting line from Copeland who mentioned working in an era where tag team wrestling was dismissed and forgotten.
Maya World retains the TBS Championship against CMLL Women’s Champion Persephone
For a moment, it was believable Persephone could have ended Maya’s reign very abruptly. Hikaru Shida ran in and gave Persephone the kendo stick, but Kris Statlander made the save. Maya World certainly was given a rocket pack full of Nitro Boost, and she has done amazingly well for herself. The question is whether the rocket fuel will burn out too quickly. She has to look convincing as a title holder, the victory tonight makes a solid case for just that.
Persephone can and should be a human suplex machine (sorry Taz). She is menacing. This means she needs wins, and as of late, not a whole lot of those on television. She should be feared, so give her some big wins please!
Willow Nightingale: The Heart of a Champion Heading into ‘AEW: Double or Nothing’
Willow Nightingale’s World Championship Celebration
Willow Nightingale is absolutely LOVED. I can’t recall the last time a crowd cheered that long for someone. Wow. Unbelievable. She did an interview not long ago discussing openly about her depression, seeing her so happy in the ring with fans cheering non-stop is absolutely beautiful. She gave some inspiring words about not giving up and pushing through. I know professional wrestlers are good actors, but this appeared legit. I think she tried to over-compensate to conceal the emotions, but as the crowd chanted “You Deserve It!” One could see the overwhelming emotion.
Then… “The CEO” interrupts. Of course, the crowd lets her know how unhappy they are about it. As loud as they were cheering Willow, they were just as loud booing Mercedes Mone. While talking, the crowd continues to chant for Willow, drowning out Mone yet again. Eventually, Mone spoke too long and the fans let her know in a very expletive manner. Eventually, they came to fight with the assistance of Megan Bayne and Lena Kross, the Women’s Tag Champions. They are driven off by their contenders, the Brawling Birds to save Willow.
This will be one of the greatest segments ever, because of the intense level of involvement from the live crowd.
Jon Moxley defeated Komander
Decent match, Komander did the usual Razzle Dazzle which is insane to see every time. But, this felt very reminiscent of his match with Kyle Fletcher. Both Mox and Fletcher were the overpowered heels, Komander’s strikes not fazing in the slightest. It’s an easy conclusion Komander wasn’t going to win, but the rampant no-selling by the champs felt a bit unnecessary. This isn’t David vs. Goliath here.
The show goes into overtime as the final match of the night goes past the 10pm hour.
The Demand defeated the Conglomeration to win the AEW World Trios Championships.
An extremely fast-paced match, yet, did not feel rushed. Easily cruising past 10pm with no signs of ending gave fans a breath of relief this wasn’t a sprint to the finish. That being said, the pace was still pretty quick, to the credit of the bigger dudes in Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun. Ricochet is one of the best and most entertaining sellers, bounding off his weird bald head, and dropping like a sack of rocks. Everyone got their shots in and made them look good. Roderick Strong was the MVP on the Conglomeration side where Toa Liona earned the MVP on the Demand. Liona is a monster while Roddy manages to cripple his opponents six different ways. It appeared the good guys would prevail until The Lethal Twist interfered, with Blake Christian clobbering Orange Cassidy with the championship belt. Ricochet pins and wins for his team.
After the match it was a six on three attack, until Brody King, Bandido, and to the surprise of everyone, “Hangman” Adam Page. Cowboy rolls up with a barbed-wire steel chair, and cleans house.
No Motor City Machine Guns, no New Day/Daybreak, no Kairi Sane, no Buddy Matthews, or any other possible surprises or returns. Don’t rule out a surprise on Collision tomorrow night.
Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay have words. Initially it was difficult to say what the direction was. Omega going heel? Both babyfaces? Confusion? Thankfully all was made clear as it stands both were friends, now it seems to turn enemies over the AEW Men’s World Championship. Things sounded to get a little too real and possibly true life as they discussed their own goals and while they came in as friends, they went different paths. Ospreay’s side of the promo was damn epic, using his time in Japan as reference. He even said he liked being part of the Death Riders and owed it to Jon Moxley for getting him into fighting shape for the world title.
Omega continued to push buttons, repeatedly slapping Ospreay until the Billy Goat snapped and clobbered the champ. Omega accused Ospreay of setting up a trap, while Ospreay claimed otherwise and rescued him from a horrible fate. It seems this feud will be built on drive, resentment, betrayal, and a hell of a lot of communication problems.
Those make for some compelling stories.
AEW Dynamite 7/29/26 ticked all the right boxes. Furthered feuds and storylines. Gave some PPV-level matches. Got fans excited.
