AEW Dynamite - 8/6/2025: 3 Things We Loved & 3 Things We Hated

Another edition of "AEW Dynamite" is in the books, and that means it's time to reflect on the things that the Wrestling Inc. Staff enjoyed, and the things that we...well...just didn't. As always, the Loved and Hated column will not be a blow-for-blow recounting of what "happened" on the show, after all, Olivia Quinlan has already recapped the entire show from bell-to-bell on our results page.

Instead, we'll be talking about the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of the August 6 edition of "Dynamite." There were highs. The Young Bucks continued to climb a mountain of swords on their bare feet as they struggled for a modicum of respect from the company they helped found. There were lows. Mark Briscoe's behavior could be described as "barely felonious." It's time to break down what we loved and what we hated from the first "AEW Dynamite" of August.

Stokely Hathaway's upcoming match with Adam Copeland is a mixed bag. On one hand, I'm kinda tired of Copeland. His convoluted feuds with FTR and Christian have left me cold, but Hathaway lit a fire under the match on Wednesday that has me completely reconsidering.

"I'm short. I'm bald. I can't get any hoes," Stokely complained. "I've been fighting my entire life!" Hathaway's promo was the kind of thing Rocky would say, if "Rocky" were written by the team behind "The Boondocks." God help me, I'm actually excited for this match, and, dare I say, rooting for Stokely Hathaway. As far as I'm concerned, Cope's stupid "Go Find Yourself Guru" schtick and everything else between him and FTR has simply been the build-up to this specific match, and no matter how convoluted the finish ends up being, part of me will think of this as the blow-off. 

Rey Mysterio is basically retired, and there have been enough light-heavyweight and cruiserweight world champions in recent years that there are very few David and Goliath stories left in professional wrestling. A WWE Hall of Famer vs. a manager who has been grinding on the independent scene for years is one of the last real David and Goliath stories, and no matter how much of a good guy Copeland is, Goliath shouldn't win. Adam Copeland could come out kissing a baby and promising to donate his winner's bonus to charity that would directly benefit me, and I'd still be rooting for Hathaway.

This week's episode of "AEW Dynamite" kicked off with former AEW World Champion Jon Moxley wrestling in not only the building where he beat CM Punk in three minutes, but in his home state of Ohio against the man MVP apparently hates (I'm thinking it's the lack of shoes), "Speedball" Mike Bailey. It was a good, to very good TV wrestling match that also set up Moxley's match with Kevin Knight for next week in Moxley's hometown of Cincinnati, but also saw the kidnapping of Wheeler Yuta by Darby Allin, with Allin leaving Yuta in a body bag out in the parking lot with a piece of paper that had "Forbidden Door" written on it stuck to his head.

As you can probably imagine, this is all setting up to Moxley vs. Darby on August 24, a match that will almost bring the whole Death Riders arc of Moxley full circle, as Darby was the first man he wrestled after turning on Bryan Danielson at All Out 2024. I don't have a problem with that, and quite frankly, Moxley and Darby are a great pairing that, when given the freedom to do whatever they want, will produce a pay-per-view classic. The problem I have is actually more beyond that match, which is very simply: what is next for Jon Moxley? The answer is currently "I don't know," but that worries me somewhat.

The problem that Moxley will have heading into the back-end of the year is that the whole purpose of the Death Riders' story was for Moxley to sit atop AEW as the champion, force everyone to get to his level, and bring AEW up as a company in the process. That has basically been achieved as Hangman Page has now defeated Moxley twice, with Darby essentially being a loose end due to his absence throughout the first half of the year to climb Mount Everest. The problem is that without the AEW World Championship, Moxley is effectively directionless in his current state.

He is far too big of a star to be milling around in the AEW TNT Championship picture, the AEW Unified Championship is currently held by a heel in Kazuchika Okada (that is unless Swerve Strickland has his way at Forbidden Door), and it wouldn't really make any sense to have him lumped in with the tag team division despite its current lack of depth. However, you can't keep having Moxley go after Hangman, no matter how good they are as opponents, because it will just get stale. Moxley is in a weird place where his role as AEW's top guy is no longer his, but he's almost too much of a big guy to fall dramatically down the card.

Granted, his direction could be a lot more clear by the time an event like All Out rolls around, and maybe I'm just impatient, but after his match with Darby at Forbidden Door, something will need to change in Moxley in order to keep him fresh.

Written by Sam Palmer

Week after week, it becomes increasingly apparent just how committed The Young Bucks are to their current characters. In a modern wrestling world filled with characters who are all about vanity and getting their way no matter the cost, it's a refreshing change of pace to see Matt and Nick Jackson struggle to get the respect they feel due to their behaviour during the time they served as EVPs. Not only is it extremely entertaining to see what will go wrong for Matt and Nick every time they're on screen, but the creativity and attention to detail that's put into the various aspects of their presentation makes it all the more better.

If you need an example of such, then look no further than tonight's episode of "Dynamite". Whether it was the screen not even coming up halfway while Matt and Nick stood on their platform, Justin Roberts reading verbatim what they had put into their introduction for him to say to the Max and Jeremy graphic as a throwback to their days in TNA Wrestling, it was super fun to pick out all the little details and kept me glued to my screen on a show that was otherwise okay at best. You can see Matt and Nick's commitment to the characters, and tell just how much they're enjoying doing the whole thing as they play their parts to a T.

Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't at least briefly mention that their Forbidden Door World Tag Team Championship Eliminator Tournament semifinal match against Bandido and Brody King was incredible and a very fun watch!

Written by Olivia Quinlan

The lack of AEW Unified Champion Kazuchika Okada tonight was noticeable to the point it almost seemed like AEW tried to make it awkward, especially since Okada isn't exactly doing anything else right now. I first noticed it during the Don Callis Family segment with new TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher, and the celebration in the ring for his big title victory.

That's where I thought AEW made things a bit weird, as they had Okada's belts, the Unified, the International, and the Continental titles all laid out nicely on a table carried by unnamed women with no Okada in sight. It seems weird that the champion, who only recently aligned himself with the Don Callis Family in the last month and a half or so, would leave all three of his titles unattended, to be paraded around without him like the Family owned them. Callis, of course, made no real mention of Okada outside of the fact that the Family had the titles and didn't mention where he was.

Later in the night, Okada's Forbidden Door opponent, Swerve Strickland, came out and cut a promo during an interview in front of the crowd with Renee Paquette. Strickland let his thoughts fly, uninterrupted, and nobody from the Callis Family came out to teach him a lesson, or brawl, or anything. While I suppose that could have furthered the story that Callis only cares about the championship gold more than anyone talking s*** on Okada, it still felt very strange. I'm never going to complain about seeing Strickland (and Prince Nana!) on my television screen, but it didn't really accomplish anything at all tonight.

We're about two and a half weeks away from Forbidden Door, and while I'm excited for their match, I think I would be looking forward to it a bit more if AEW convinced me in some way that Strickland was actually going to take the title(s?) from Okada. This match doesn't really feel like anything yet, outside of me possibly convincing myself now that it's leading to something between Okada and Callis.

Written by Daisy Ruth

I hadn't seen much of Alex Windsor ahead of her joining AEW, but she's slowly becoming one of my favorite competitors in the women's division both in and out of the ring. Her work alongside "Timeless" Toni Storm is excellent, and their promo ahead of the TBS Championship fatal four-way qualifier tonight was excellent, with Windsor even accidentally adopting Storm's innuendos in what she was saying, then realizing she was doing it. Their "non-sexual friendship," I believe Storm called it, is really cute, and I'm glad AEW is keeping Windsor away from Storm's AEW Women's World Championship and pitting her against Mercedes Mone in the Forbidden Door four-way match instead.

Windsor's match against Skye Blue, Queen Aminata, and Billie Starkz wasn't too much to write home about tonight in terms of amazing wrestling, but it was fun while it lasted, and Windsor stood out like she was meant to. She had some awesome spots with Aminata, including some wicked headbutts that took each other out. I'd like to see an Aminata versus Windsor match on "Dynamite" here in the weeks moving forward.

I also liked the fact that Blue got out of the Triangle of Madness for a second. She had an awkward botch during a chair spot with Aminata, and you can tell she's still trying to get her feet back from underneath her, but she did attempt to prove herself out there without Julia Hart or Thekla with her. I give AEW props for keeping those women away from the match, as it was kind of crowded around the ring already with Storm and her Forbidden Door opponent, ROH Women's Champion Athena. Of course, then at the end, you had Mone come out to confront Windsor, so Hart and Thekla didn't really need to be there tonight, and as much as I like them, their absence was a good call.

While we don't know who the CMLL and Stardom competitors are for the Forbidden Door fatal four-way for Mone's title, but with Mone and Windsor mixing it up in the ring, it's already going to be an exciting match.

Written by Daisy Ruth

This week's main event saw MJF and Mark Briscoe look to settle their feud in the ring, after weeks of them jousting in "Talky Talk" segments, almost always ending with at least one mention of Jay Briscoe's passing.

Naturally, there should be reservations over using real-life deaths – and an accident that impacted more than just Jay Briscoe – to accelerate or elevate a professional wrestling feud. And not only was it used in that manner, but there appeared to be very little attempt to reinforce any of the emotion that should have been brought to the fold. To put it bluntly, it's never felt like the mention of Jay Briscoe has been anything but a bottom-of-the-barrel dredge for whatever heat is available to MJF right now. And that feeling was vindicated with this week's main event.

If Jay's name had to be dragged into it to the extent it has been, then Mark should be considered the protagonist of this tale, whether it plays into heroism or a descent into villainy. But he was treated as the B-side from the outset, and that continued in the way he had been described during the match. He wasn't an aggrieved brother out for retribution; he was an underdog wrestler looking to overcome the 'seismic challenge' posed by MJF. He didn't fight the man that he said he was going to kill, he attempted to grapple with him. When he did bring a weapon into the mix, it was in the form of a table. This was a wrestling match, devoid of emotion or any real sense of stakes.

When all was said and done, MJF had kicked out of Mark Briscoe's finisher, put him through a table, delivered his finisher and secured the pinfall. Briscoe had his boot on the ropes before the count of three, but the referee counted with his back turned to the cover, obscuring that fact and adding some stupendous injustice to the loss. Sure, "Hangman" Adam Page came to the rescue and brawled with MJF to close the show, but doesn't that go to show that Mark Briscoe, and every mention of his later brother, has been used as a device to get someone else over?

It somewhat closes the loop on the overall scum of the angle, doing very little to create any sense of compelling emotion behind Briscoe's character, and leaving him with proverbial egg on his face at every opportunity during the program. It can be saved; the foot on the ropes element is evidently a trope used with that goal in mind, to leave that question hanging, which will undoubtedly be answered with a rematch. But to what end? And will it be one that truly justifies what has been put into it? Probably not. Hence the hate.

Written by Max Everett