AEW Dynamite - 6/24/2026: 3 Things We Hated And 3 We Loved

AEW is just inches away from the Forbidden Door, and with "Dynamite" in the rearview mirror, all that's left is Saturday's "Collision" before Sunday's big show. This week's "Dynamite" was light on story but heavy on in-ring action, all of which you can read about on the AEW Dynamite 6/24/2026 Results Page.

Now, it's time to get into some messy opinion content. As always, there was plenty to love, and plenty to hate, and we're writing about just that. The opening contest drew some cheers from the Wrestling Inc. Staff, while the underwhelming nature of the build to the Owen Hart Cup Finals scored some jeers. As always, the comment section is open if you want to keep the conversation going.

Without further ado, let's get into the best and the worst of the last "Dynamite" before Forbidden Door.

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2026 has three, count them, THREE MAIN EVENTS. A triple main event, three of the biggest matches of the year on one card, three bouts that are sure to tear the house down, surely one of those three matches has the richest prize in the AEW women's division on the line, right? After all, Thekla is currently a World Champion, let's not forget. What's that? It's not? WHAT A SHOCKER.

It's no secret that we here at Wrestling Inc. love ourselves some women's wrestling and attempt to give it as much praise as we can because AEW and WWE sure as hell try their very best to make their women's divisions feel like the least important parts of their shows. Don't get me wrong, we will dump on a women's match if it's bad, but this little piece isn't about a match that happened on this week's episode of "AEW Dynamite," it's the fact that the AEW Women's World Championship (emphasis on the "World" part there) feels as important as any of the other 800,000 belts that exist in the wrestling business heading into Forbidden Door.

What I can give AEW the benefit of the doubt on is the fact that the build to Thekla's upcoming match with Starlight Kid has bled over into STARDOM. Thekla showed up in Japan last weekend to once again make her presence felt, something we haven't seen from New Japan Pro Wrestling or CMLL in the build-up to this pay-per-view. However, the lack of attention this match has received on AEW programming has been disappointing to say the least.

Since Thekla spat on the STARDOM logo three weeks ago, all we've seen are pre-tapes and promos that are posted on AEW's social media platforms before the weekly shows go live. For a world title match, that's pretty bad if you ask me. Like you're telling me that Forbidden Door has three main events and AEW couldn't find room to have its only world title match on the card, one of those three marquee bouts?

I understand that the build to AEW All In London 2026 begins right after Forbidden Door, and Thekla (if she still has the belt by Wembley) will know her opponent for that card by the end of the night, and that build will naturally get more love and attention. However, it once again feels like the female side of the roster is getting the short end of the stick because would the AEW Men's World Championship end up as a midcard filler match on this sort of a show? Of course not, so why should it be different for the girls?

Written by Sam Palmer

As is always the argument, I would love more women's matches on "Dynamite," but I thought the two we had tonight, the Survival of the Fittest qualifiers, were really solid. Harley Cameron scored an upset victory over the Death Riders' Marina Shafir, and Queen Aminata advanced to the match with a win over ROH Women's World TV Champion Red Velvet.

While Cameron's match against Shafir wasn't the best match of the night, I was pleasantly surprised that she got the upset win. She had a nice spot in the bout where she got a second wind, for lack of a better term, and Shafir tried to knock it out of her with knees to the gut, but Cameron just wouldn't stay down or stop fighting, and that's why I like her a lot. The string of reversals from Cameron's single leg crab, to Shafir's sleeper down on the mat, to Cameron flipping herself over to get Shafir's shoulders down was pretty solid.

If that's how Cameron is going to beat "The Problem," I think that was a pretty good way to do it. It wasn't sneaky, but it was clever, and I thought it worked. I also think Cameron has a good shot at winning the TBS Championship next week, as there's a good story there, since it's her good friend Willow Nightingale who had to relinquish the gold.

I really enjoyed Velvet and Aminata's match, and I thought the ROH Women's TV Champion looked fantastic. It's always great to see strong ROH talent, especially the women like Velvet and Athena, get time on "Dynamite." I thought Velvet's work was really strong throughout this match, and while Aminata is no slouch, I thought Velvet looked a little better.

There was no wrong winner here between these two women, and as good as Velvet looked in the ring, I do love Aminata, and she deserves her shot at gold after coming back from her neck injury. I think she's a fantastic addition to Survival of the Fittest, and it's a match I'm really looking forward to next week. Sometimes AEW isn't the hottest coming off a pay-per-view, and this women's bout gives us all something to look forward to.

Written by Daisy Ruth

I will be the first to admit that Will Ospreay's match against El Phantasmo was quite a banger, and Swerve Strickland had a solid match against Daniel Garcia immediately after, with a nice finish of him landing the Hidden Blade on Garcia. I also like a solid video package when it's done right, such as the one to hype up the Women's Owen Hart Cup Tournament finals match between Mercedes Mone and Maya World. With all of that said, I still couldn't help but feel like AEW was lazy in their booking choices to generate excitement for both the Men's and Women's Owen Hart Cup Tournament finals matches at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door this coming Sunday.

The Men's and Women's Owen Hart Cup Tournament finals matches are two of the more marquee matches that are set to take place on the Forbidden Door. For that reason, I thought that they should've been given way more attention than they were on this edition of "Dynamite". Outside of a brief staredown between matches and the post-match brawl that transpired between Strickland, Garcia, and Ospreay after the former two men's match, there was very limited interaction between Ospreay and Strickland, which made it something that wasn't as interesting as it had the potential to be. The constant flashing of the graphic for the Men's Owen Hart Cup Tournament finals match also became a bit distracting for me with how often it kept showing up, grabbing my attention away from what was happening in and around the ring.

The same can't even be said for Mone or World, as they didn't even have any in-ring interaction with one another at all. They were simply given nothing more than a video, which felt like a total afterthought and a terrible way to hype up their Women's Owen Hart Cup Tournament match. I'm hoping that the tag team matches pitting Mone and Athena against World and Hyan set for this coming Saturday's edition of "AEW Collision" can do a little bit more to garner some engagement from the fans because this edition of "Dynamite" certainly didn't give the attention that these two women deserve in my eyes.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

The June 24 episode of "AEW Dynamite" acted as the go-home show to AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2026, which, of course, features stars from both CMLL and STARDOM this year. I've personally ragged on the build to this show a number of times to the point where I genuinely believe that the Forbidden Door concept needs a break next year, but when we get matches like this to get us excited, maybe I should take back my idea of putting Forbidden Door on ice.

Granted, this was a trios match where five of the six competitors are AEW contracted wrestlers, if you want to throw Mistico's dual contract in there, then this is just an AEW match. However, this was a very fun opener. With so many matches on the show, there was no wasted motion in a lot of the night's bouts, and this set the tone in great fashion. I'm not calling the match perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but this was a perfect example of what an opening match should be. Quick, energetic, never letting the audience catch their breath, and leaving them not only wanting more of the wrestlers they've just seen, but excited to see what the rest of the show could bring.

Starting with the babyfaces, to whoever sorted out Bandido's visa issues, you deserve a can of Coke or something. Having him back in the regular TV rotation in AEW is exactly the type of thing that can just rejuvenate any sort of scene. Whether that be singles action, tag team action, or even the world title picture itself, Bandido is just so easy to root for, and it's not really surprising he's getting an AEW Continental Championship match against Jon Moxley on Sunday without any real build. Bandido being back means Brody King might not be in the world title scene for now, but when he's literally doing good lucha things, who am I to complain? Then there's Mistico, who represented CMLL excellently, and the fact that he's on the Forbidden Door card is worth the price of admission alone.

The Death Riders did their thing as they always do, with Claudio Castagnoli once again proving to be an excellent base for Mistico and Bandido. Moxley didn't do as much as I would have liked, but he sold the threat of Bandido brilliantly when he needed to, and Wheeler Yuta is still great at what he does despite the fact that his hair grew back, which is a talent in itself.

A great opener that served to get fans excited, and to let Mistico and Bandido watch the Mexico vs. Czechia game in the FIFA World Cup an hour later. Great stuff.

Written by Sam Palmer

It's been well established that this was not the best episode of "Dynamite" to hype up fans ahead of Forbidden Door on Sunday, and maybe Tony Khan doesn't think the sickos need much hype, but a little more thought could have gone into the promos ahead of the 12-man steel cage match, pitting Team MJF-DCF against Team Mark Briscoe.

The teams' backstage promos were extremely forgettable. All I remember from Team Babyface was Darby Allin yelling about AEW World Champion MJF, and the fact I thought it was strange that Briscoe himself wasn't involved. He did, however, come out in a rather annoying way later on. As for Team MJF and the Don Callis Family, Callis revealed a goofy shirt of his "painting" of himself and MJF he wants all the team members to wear on Sunday, and MJF interrupted Callis' introduction of Andrade. Not much excitement surrounding any of it, and I stupidly thought that's where it would end, especially after last week's 12-man tag team match, sans cage.

After the main event, where Team Babyface member Konosuke Takeshita successfully defended the International Championship against Ricochet, Briscoe finally made his way out to cut his own promo on MJF, because if his team wins Sunday, he gets a shot at the AEW World Championship. By this point, especially after a main event with a solid match, I was already beyond checked out, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, despite knowing that AEW has such consistent, long overruns.

I didn't need to hear Briscoe respond to MJF's promo from earlier in the night, as the show was coming to a close. It might have been better if it were more believable that he had a shot at MJF's title, as it feels like that scene is set going into All In: London. Of course, this led to yet another brawl, and ended with MJF accidentally knocking down Andrade, then Briscoe hitting the Jay Driller to the champion.

While this tried to give some flavor of hype to the match ahead of Sunday, I just don't think it worked, and maybe that's because AEW already did the match last week. Maybe tonight could have focused more on the infighting in MJF's team, with Andrade and Kevin Knight also coming after the gold, or maybe just between Briscoe and MJF. This may be a big match on Sunday in terms of how many men are going to be in the ring, but as they're all AEW guys, it doesn't feel very "Forbidden Door."

Written by Daisy Ruth

Zack Sabre Jr. is in town for his Forbidden Door clash and warmed up for Kenny Omega this weekend with a bout on "AEW Dynamite" against Jack Perry.

Now, Sabre Jr. is very well known, famous, esteemed, revered, all of the superlatives, for his technical wrestling. The ability to tie a man in a pretzel with the ease of putting on a sock. Perry isn't really. He's better known for being either the uber-nimble Jungle Boy or a complete madman in a plunder match – oftentimes both at the same time.

Nevertheless, he more than held his own in a match that spent much of its time on the mat, an exhibition of his own talents as much as it was for the man facing Omega this weekend. It should go without saying that, of the two, Sabre Jr. was the far more technically superior and that much was reflected in the match itself. But Perry really works his best as the underdog in any case and played his part to a tee.

Sabre Jr. was his classic cocky d***head self, taking time and solace in the intricacies of his grappling and submissions. Perry played into that, selling everything like his limbs were genuinely being ripped to oblivion – they may have been in actual fact – before gritting his teeth and getting stuck back in.

He counteracted his opponent's groundwork with high-flying and faster-paced offense, making the most of his lower center of gravity to dodge around his larger and slower foe. Ultimately, Sabre Jr. got the win via submission because that was the right call.

This match did what it had to do at this point in time, a little tune-up for Sabre Jr. ahead of a marquee bout, and one that played into that bout well for the go-home.

The win on TV not only benefits Sabre Jr. in terms of momentum, but it also directly led to the last verbal exchange between them. In that brief epilogue to the match between the Young Bucks and TMDK, Omega hardly said anything new, but there was a palpable tension between them that only feeds into what is sure to be a great match at the very least.

Written by Max Everett