AEW Dynamite & Collision 5/20/2026: 3 Things We Hated & 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite," which in this case is also a review of "AEW Collision," as the two aired back-to-back to form a three-hour-plus block of Tony Khan programming! As has become standard during his reign, Darby Allin defended the AEW World Championship on this episode, and the WINC staff has thoughts about it! We also have some thoughts about Willow Nightingale vacating her TBS Championship via a backstage segment, the "Collision" main event with men's tag titles on the line, and much more!

If you missed the show, be sure to check out the 5/20/26 "AEW Dynamite & Collision" results page for all your factually objective needs. If you want to know what the WINC crew thought about all things AEW (or at least the things we cared about most) on the go-home show for Double or Nothing, this is the place to be! Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 5/20/26 episodes of "AEW Dynamite & Collision!"

If there's one thing I dislike more than an eliminator match, it's a meaningless five-minute one. At least the AEW Continental Championship eliminator earlier in the night ended in a time-limit draw, a 20-minute one, that resulted in Kyle O'Reilly getting a shot at Jon Moxley. I can't say anything at all happened in the Divine Dominion's five-minute eliminator during the "Collision" portion of the night, where AEW Women's World Tag Team Champions Lena Kross and Megan Bayne took on Kayla Lopez and Elle Valentine.

I'm all for local, indie talent getting shots and being featured on television, but AEW also needs to book the women it has signed better before they extend out too many more opportunities. Lopez and Valentine didn't get in much offense, if any at all, and Kross and Bayne were just toying with them. I'd think they'd want to get the match over with fast, or at least faster, to prove a point, but that wasn't the case. Bayne and Kross hit double delayed vertical suplexes, then Kross dumped one challenger on top of the other Bayne had laid out on the mat, and they hit a double chokeslam to get the victory with 2:10 left on the clock.

After the match, I wanted a team, though for the life of me now, I can't think of who it would be, which is a rant for another day, to come out and tell them to stop picking on local talent and put their titles on the line at Double or Nothing, at least on Zero Hour. Looking at the clock, however, I figured that wasn't going to happen. There's also no "Collision" on Saturday, so if anyone does step up to challenge Kross and Bayne, they don't have a chance for even a small shred of storyline. I guess AEW could post a social media clip or something, but if a match is booked, it's just likely to be a Tony Khan announcement, I'd imagine.

I guess it was fine to get Divine Dominion to a 10-0 record with the titles, and that's certainly nothing to scoff at. I just didn't need this challenge on a long show, one that, of course, got an overrun. As someone who doesn't get to see the women's tag champions often, since they're on "Collision" more often than "Dynamite," it would have been nice to see them for longer than three minutes.

Written by Daisy Ruth

I'm pretty excited for all of the 2026 Men's and Women's Owen Hart Foundation Cup Tournament quarterfinals matches at Double or Nothing this coming Sunday, but perhaps the one I'm most excited for is the one pitting Swerve Strickland against Bandido — partly because of their brawl on this "Dynamite" and "Collision" television special.

This may have been nothing more than a simple and relatively short segment on the show, but it was still incredibly effective as a go-home brawl to hype up the 2026 Owen Hart Foundation Cup Tournament Quarterfinals match between the two men at Double or Nothing. The time for talk is over, and both men let their actions do the speaking here by making it clear that they would do anything it takes to brutalize one another with weapons and their fists.

I also really appreciated that Bandido didn't waste any time letting Strickland or Prince Nana talk. He blindsided Strickland from behind right out of the gate in something of a receipt for Strickland attacking him on his turf in a video not too long ago, and again at ROH Supercard of Honor. It was a refreshing example of a wrestler actually being smart for once rather than preceding the brawl with a lengthy verbal confrontation which tends to often be the case in modern day professional wrestling.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Willow Nightingale is one of the most beloved wrestlers in the world and tonight fans got the sad news that her shoulder was injured last Saturday during "Collision" while defending her title against Red Velvet. Although Nightingale didn't provide details about her injury, she had to bow out of the Owen Hart Cup tournament and also vacate the TBS Championship.

It's unfortunate that this news came in a backstage segment. The TV still said "live" in the upper left corner and there was no graphic that said "earlier today" or anything to indicate that this was pre-taped. Nightingale should have delivered the news in the ring in front of her fans. Granted, this could have been her choice if she was too upset to be in front of the audience. She did get a little emotional a few times when announcing that she was vacating the title. However the same thing happened when Thunder Rosa had to vacate the Women's World Championship. In the case of the male champions, most have done it in the ring. The most recent example I can think of with a male champion not vacating in the ring is when Don Callis announced Kyle Fletcher was vacating the TNT Championship due to injury.

If it was not Nightingale's decision, then it was a poor choice. The women's titles aren't always treated as being equal to the men's. When a title is vacated backstage, it makes it feel as if that title isn't important enough to have dedicated time directly in front of fans. Nightingale's announcement came after an in-ring segment between Swerve and Bandido ahead of their Owen Cup match at Double or Nothing. Those segments could've been reversed; Bandido could've gotten his lick back against Swerve backstage and jumped him before Swerve could come to the ring. They could've followed with Nightingale's promo in the ring. Simple.

Written by Samantha Schipman

The main event of the "AEW Dynamite" portion of this week's show saw Darby Allin making the seventh defense of his World Championship in just 36 days, adding "Speedball" Mike Bailey to the list of balls-to-the-wall matches before he fights Hair vs. Title against MJF at Double or Nothing. 

Part of what has made this run with Allin so great, even if I personally never desired to see him win the title, has been the spotlight put on the varied opponents he has fought against. Bailey brought a different fight to the champion that had yet to be explored, and much like the ones that came before this week he staged something of an advertisement for his role in the main event. 

With time ticking down to the clash between Allin and MJF, the latter was sat at ringside watching on. He wanted Bailey to win, considering that would have got him out of the wager this weekend, and as the match went on he contemplated getting involved to that effect. 

Kevin Knight came down to the ring to ensure he didn't, which was a great way of keeping the match clean as Allin eventually got the win. It was a great showing from Bailey and the typical crackhead graps that Allin excels at – throwing himself at and from anything in between fluid exchanges of mat wrestling. Ultimately he got the win with the Scorpion Deathlock, Bailey tapping out mere inches away from the ropes as Knight cheered him on.

It is just a TV match that didn't exactly top the broadcast even if it was billed as a main event, so it will hardly go down as the match to make Bailey. But it's matches like this that have already established him as one of the blue-chip prospects in wrestling, and will surely cement him as one of the top names on the roster – which, to be honest, he may already be. 

At the end of the day, it was also just a really fun match that didn't really overstay its welcome. Allin's story throughout this run has been one of burning the candle at both ends and this was the latest gust that threatened to snuff the flame. And it is one that will find a conclusion one way or the other this weekend, so this was a great way to set the stage for that.

Written by Max Everett

The main event of the "AEW Collision" portion of this week's show was an indulgently great tag team title match between FTR and the Conglomeration's Orange Cassidy and Roderick Strong. It went long, back-and-forth, with near-fall after near-fall and high spot after high spot. But when all was said and done there was only going to be one ending. 

FTR will be defending the titles against Christian Cage and Adam Copeland this weekend in an I Quit Match, inevitably meaning they were going to win the title match at the end of this show regardless of how long and front-facingly competitive it got. And it just made everything feel so inconsequential. 

Now, I am the same writer that just went into detail as to why Darby Allin's title match with Mike Bailey was great, even while retaining the same inevitability due to a match this weekend. But that is something that aligns with the promise that Allin made even before he won the title — he is a babyface, and it works to add a layer of fatigue going into a match with an underhanded storyteller. His story hinges on the idea that he has been burning the candle at both ends. This was just another FTR special that ran a very similar vein to the various other matches they had staged before.

It was objectively good, but the feeling that comes with what makes wrestling great wasn't ever really there. It blurred with the various other bouts they have fought this year and did very little to actually lend to their story against Copeland and Cage. And the result came after Stokely Hathaway got up onto the apron for a clumsy failed interference spot, only for Harwood to throw Cassidy back into Hathway's fist for the win. That pushed it into overbooked territory, familiar for the champions, and just a little too much after a show that had already put on a world title match an hour earlier.

Written by Max Everett

Tommaso Ciampa and Mark Briscoe have some excellent chemistry. They put on one of the best matches of the night, and it wasn't even for a championship, as much as it felt like it should have been. The pair fought in an "anything goes" match, and it was pretty brutal, and bloody, for an episode of "Dynamite." The word's been going around on social media that AEW can't do intentional blood in New York for Double or Nothing thanks to the state's sports commission, and if that's true, they certainly made up for it tonight, and Briscoe and Ciampa were the perfect men to do it.

Ciampa has been on a freaking roll, even in losses, including his AEW World Championship loss against Darby Allin a few weeks ago. He took a loss here again tonight, but I can't say I minded it. The match was excellent, and Briscoe honestly probably needed the win more after being dethroned by Ciampa for the TNT title. It was Ciampa who put Briscoe on the shelf for three months with the Psycho Driller, which he almost hit tonight on some chairs to put the former TNT Champion back out.

The pair battled with everything, including a kendo stick, tables, a fire extinguisher, and a freaking cheese grater that Ciampa took to Briscoe's forehead to draw first blood. Briscoe even tried to break out his arts & crafts side and stapled barbed wire to a table, but of course, he got the staple gun to his own forehead.

Ciampa looked to have the match won when he nailed Briscoe with a knee while wearing a knee pad covered with tacks, but instead of going for the pin, he wanted to deliver more pain. Instead of the Psycho Driller, however, it was Briscoe who hit a move to the chairs set up below, followed that up with a Jay Driller through the barbed wired table, then finally, a Froggy Bow to win the match. The end was a nice flurry of brutal offense from Briscoe, and I really enjoyed it as a nice exclamation point to all the action.

Even in defeat, Ciampa looked great. Briscoe got the win over the "Psycho Killer" that he needed, and the fans got to see a more hardcore match involving blood that we may not get to see on Sunday. It was a fun bout and a highlight of the longer night early on, and there was plenty of breathing room between it and the AEW World Championship main event, which only helped both matches.

Written by Daisy Ruth