AEW Dynamite 11/26/2025: 3 Things We Hated & 3 Things We Loved

AEW's pre-Thanksgiving "Dynamite" has become a yearly tradition, with tonight's episode hailing from Nashville, Tennessee. The show placed a ton of emphasis on kicking off the 2025 Continental Classic, with four of the five matches involving the tournament.

If you're not the biggest fan of tournaments, you might as well take a break from wrestling, as they're pretty much dominating the landscape across the two largest companies right now. If you enjoy the format, there was a lot to enjoy on "Dynamite," including a heated inter-factional contest that kicked off the show.

As always, our crew found things we enjoyed during the episode, along with some developments that we weren't quite into. We weren't able to cover everything here, such as Toni Storm's monologue against Jon Moxley, but you can always check out our results page for a more detailed look at the show. Read on to instead find out what we loved and hated about the latest "Dynamite."

Despite successfully defending the AEW Women's World Championship against Mercedes Mone at Full Gear, Statlander was allotted just one minute backstage with Renee Paquette. Statlander reiterated her disappointment at being considered an underdog while holding the world title, while also inviting everyone watching to follow her into the future.

The promo didn't have much substance, which makes sense with such a short amount of time to work with. Coming out of tonight, we don't really have any idea what's next for Statlander. Many of her potential challengers are locked up in the women's tag tournament, or just came off a loss in it. Tonight should've been used to set up Statlander's next storyline instead of simply telling us that she, like all the rest of us, is moving ahead into the future.

With four Continental Classic matches and a semi-final bout in the women's tag tournament, there wasn't a great deal of extra time to spare on tonight's show. However, the AEW World Champion Samoa Joe got an in-ring celebration promo, complete with an interruption from two imminent challengers. While AEW has come a long way with regard to its booking of the women's division, it's clear that there is still a long way to go.

Written by Nick Miller

In the infamous words of Shania Twain, "Let's go girls!"

Having the contrast of the darker, gothic, hyperfocused team in Skye Blue and Julia Hart against the more happy, upbeat, fun loving duo of Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron in their AEW Women's World Tag Team Championship Tournament semifinals match was a dichotomy that I found to be really entertaining. In a match where it was evident that all four competitors gave it their all (minus that one moonsault at the end from Julia Hart which in all honesty may have been the funniest part of this "Dynamite" for me) added that extra interesting element that made everything just that much better.

The action throughout the contest itself was fast paced and full of cool offense whilst still maintaining an aura of mystery as to which team would ultimately be the ones who were going over. It was a feel good win for Babes of Wrath and another prime example of why the AEW women's division deserves to be given just as much time as the men's division on a weekly basis.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

The 2025 Continental Classic tournament is officially underway, with the Thanksgiving Eve episode of "AEW Dynamite" giving us four league matches. The opening match of the night saw the AEW Unified Champion Kazuchika Okada, who won the C2 last year, looking to defend his crown against fellow Don Callis Family member Kyle Fletcher, but before the match had even started, I was confused. Not in the way that some fans are when it comes to the C2 where they forget how to do maths all of a sudden, or how they have never heard of a round robin tournament despite nearly every sports league operating under that format. No, I was confused because the AEW Continental Championship was at ringside.

For context, the AEW Unified Championship was made when Okada's AEW Continental Championship was, as the belt suggests, unified with Kenny Omega's AEW International Championship at All In Texas. However, the Continental Championship was on display while Okada wore the International Championship to the ring, which prompted a very complicated explanation from Excalibur that basically led to him saying that the Continental Championship is on the line in the tournament. That would be fine considering that's how it's worked for the past two years, but the belt hasn't been seen for four months because it's been unified.

So here is the situation, as far as I'm aware because it's extremely and needlessly stupid and confusing. The AEW Continental Championship is on the line in the Continental Classic, and if Okada wins the tournament, then the AEW Unified Championship will continue to operate as normal because Okada has the two titles that unified it. If Okada loses the C2, he loses the Continental Title, keeps the International Title AND the Unified Title, BUT the Unified Title can't be defended because he doesn't have the Continental Title, making it useless and merely a trophy for beating Omega at All In Texas...WHAT?!

Just have the tournament be for the Unified Title! There is literally no need to un-unify the belts because it's not only convoluted and pointless, but it kind of diminishes the work they did to build to Okada/Omega 5. The Continental Title existing in the first place was always a problem as the C2 should have really been for a shot at the AEW Men's World Championship at Revolution, but Tony Khan didn't want to copy the G1 Climax too much so he did what he does best, make more belts. It takes a lot to rile someone like me up about something as fun as the C2, but they managed to find a way by turning something simple into something unnecessarily confusing. The matches were good though...

Written by Sam Palmer

I don't know if you could have kicked off the 2025 Continental Classic on this fine Thanksgiving Eve with a better match than "The Protostar" Kyle Fletcher versus "The Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada, or, "ProtOkada," as Okada has been joking, which I swear has made me laugh to myself every time I've heard or read it. Sure, the tournament started with two members of the Don Callis Family, but with how massive that stable is, it was going to be unavoidable, so might as well get one of the biggest matches possible of the tournament out of the way initially to kicked things off in a big way. 

For the newer fans of AEW tuning in to their first Continental Classic, I think this match was a great one to introduce them to the concept. Commentary explained the rules well, including the 20-minute time limit and the nobody allowed at ringside aspects, so everyone just got to see a fantastic wrestling match between "DCF" members that we wouldn't get to see at any other point on "Dynamite" right now, in storyline.

Both Okada and Fletcher messed with the referee at points, so some heelish antics were still at play in the match, which I thought was a nice touch, and was just enough to be believable that neither man would be disqualified. I would have disliked anything more over-the-top, but this fit well during a heel versus heel match.

Overall, I just really liked the fact that Fletcher got the victory over Okada. When he lost the TNT Championship to Mark Briscoe at Full Gear, I figured AEW had bigger plans for him, and a victory over Okada, his second-ever victory of "The Rainmaker" in the tournament, certainly fits the bill. Fletcher got the victory with a rollup, but at one point before that, he was so close to a very decisive victory with a huge powerbomb. I personally have absolutely no idea where the "C2" is going this year, but no matter what, I'm certain Fletcher will have an impressive showing, as he's already well on his way with this major victory. 

Written by Daisy Ruth

I really thought with Jon Moxley's submission loss to Kyle O'Reilly at Full Gear over the weekend, and with a subsequent video promo that was released on social media following the match, that the storyline dissension between Moxley and the rest of the Death Riders would be furthered, even the slightest bit, tonight. That wasn't the case, and Moxley, who was at one point close to tapping out to his first-round Continental Classic opponent, Mascara Dorada, got the "W" tonight.

In that video promo where an incensed Moxley is speaking, the one that also aired tonight on the show in addition to its social media release, it's easy to tell that the rest of the group are losing faith in their formerly fearless leader. It's written all over their faces, especially Marina Shafir's, but no one says anything. I guess we all just need to keep that promo in the back of our minds for awhile, because Moxley is already three points up in the "C2," and there was no dissension teased between himself and the rest of the faction tonight.

I personally thought Moxley would lose tonight, furthering his descent into madness. It was also a bummer, as this was Dorada's first-ever match in the tournament. He looked good in defeat, however, as Moxley made him pass out rather than tap out in the middle of the ring. I suppose a win over Dorada is better storytelling than Moxley straight up going 0-5 in the tournament, but I was convinced he'd tap out here.

I didn't initially think it would undermine O'Reilly's two submission victories over Moxley, as he isn't in the tournament due to injury, but after some thought, I could see how it might. If O'Reilly isn't actually injured and that was just an angle to get him out of the "C2," I really don't know where the story is going from here. I'm also unsure if AEW would run that angle, as O'Reilly has a history of neck issues, and it would feel kind of icky. But, if he's really on the shelf, I don't think continuing Moxley's streak of losses is a bad thing at all if they're going toward a Death Riders breakup. 

Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli are set to face-off in their match next week on "Dynamite" already, so something very well could happen there, but I'm just not entirely sure what, as either way, one of the Death Riders wins and gets three points, or more likely, they go to a 20-minute time limit draw and both receive a single point on the board. While I'm still interested in all of this, I really thought AEW was going to further things tonight.

Written by Daisy Ruth

One of the great things about a tournament like the Continental Classic is that no one is safe when it comes to being beaten. It is mathematically impossible for more than one person to have a perfect record in each block or league, meaning that at some point, some of the top stars in AEW who have been protected all year round will have to be left looking at the lights and put someone else over. Of the four matches that we saw tonight, there was arguably no bigger surprise than seeing "The Jet" Kevin Knight pick up his first win of the tournament over Darby Allin.

Since returning to AEW at All In Texas, Darby has only lost two matches. He lost the Coffin Match against Jon Moxley at All Out where he didn't need to be pinned, and Moxley needed the help of the Death Riders to get the win. Since then, he lost to PAC at Full Gear, which again saw the Englishman get a little help from the Death Riders to get him over the line. Every other match Darby has been involved in, he has won, and even dating back to the 2024 Continental Classic, the only men to get wins over him where Claudio Castagnoli and Brody King, who are both much bigger than him. To put it simply, Darby doesn't lose very often, and when he does, it takes a lot to do it.

So you can imagine my surprise when Kevin Knight, who has primarily been in the tag team division since joining AEW earlier this year, picked up not just a win, but a clean win over Darby on the first night of the tournament. Yes, you could put the win down to Darby going through so much over the past few months with the Death Riders that he was eventually going to eat a pin at some point, but the heavy lifting in this win came from Knight himself. He accidentally managed to injure Darby's leg early doors, and proceeded to fly around the ring and ringside area with his trademark unique offense that has made him a standout performer for AEW in 2025.

On top of that, a lot of his moves came with a little extra venom. It helps that he's in there with Darby who bumps like a Happy Wheels character, but that only made Knight look more formidable in the process. A Coast-To-Coast Dropkick and the UFO Splash finished Darby off in what is easily Knight's best performance of the year, and a thoroughly deserved win. Hopefully we get more surprise victories in both leagues over the next few weeks.

Written by Sam Palmer