Welcome to Mark Out With Your Smark Out’s coverage of last night’s All Elite Wrestling’s “Dynamite” live from the Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom in Chicago! I am your host, Scott Brown. Let’s get down to it!
Our announcers are Tony Schiavone, Taz, and Excalibur.
The night started with the Tag Team Eliminator Tournament. Tonight’s match saw The Outrunners facing off with Matt & Nick Jackson. Turbo Floyd and Truth Magnum were favorites with the Chicago crowd. Nick and Matt won this one with the TK Driver. After the match, Kazuchika Okada came out and teamed up with the Jacksons for a 3 on 2 beatdown, but The Outrunners were saved by Swerve Strickland. The Outrunners continue to have great matches with some of the best tag teams in the world. Matt and Nick continue to be one of the best in the world with high intensity double team wrestling. They will face the winner of tonight’s match where Bandido and Brody King face off against Gates of Agony on Collision. Matt and Nick’s new gimmick was highlighted during their introduction when they were listed as “Talent Name” on their intro graphic which got the Chicago crowd chanting “jobber”. This was a very good opening match.
Schiavone welcomed Christian Cage to the ring for the next segment. Cage admitted being an asshole. He told Adam Copeland that he hadn’t done anything worse than what Copeland had done to get to the top and he disowned Nick Wayne and Kip Sabian. Mother Wayne distracted Cage up on the stage leading to an attack by Nick Wayne and Sabian. This segment was not as good as Cage usually is on the mic despite some off colored comments about Mother Wayne and a few bleeps from inappropriate language. It seems pretty obvious that we are eventually going to end up with an Edge and Christian reunion. The Waynes and Sabian ended up looking good here.
Stokely Hathaway along with FTR announced Cope was banned from attending this week. Matt and Nick approached and the two teams shook hands but Stokely disrespected the former EVPs.
MJF knocked on the Hurt Syndicate’s door to clear things up with them. Shelton Benjamin told him MVP wasn’t available and that he knew the Rolex he was given was a fake. In the end he told Max he was out of the Hurt Syndicate.
“Hangman” Adam Page and Jon Moxley faced off in a match where everyone was banned from ringside and the AEW World Championship was on the line. This was an excellent match with couple pile drivers by Mox on the ringsteps and apron and a Dead Eye on the announce table by the champion. The Deathriders were stopped by security from coming through the crowd which gave Marina Shafir an opportunity to slide the championship belt into the ring for Mox to use to take out Page. As security lead them all away from ringside Darby Allin took everyone out with a dive from the balcony. Page hit a Buckshot Lariat, another Dead Eye and another Buckshot to retain the strap. This match had a big fight feel to it but was a more traditional fight than the one at All In Texas. Both men relied on heavy strikes throughout the match. Hangman looked like a champion and Mox wasn’t hurt by another lose, but it makes you wonder what’s next for him. In the end the Cowboy was the Shit. The Deathriders will most likely end up feuding with Allin and eventually Will Ospreay or maybe The Opps. It was a surprise that the match happened so early in the show but it guaranteed that it got the time necessary to send this feud off into the sunset.
The third match of the night featured the AEW Women’s Champion in tag team action against the Ring of Honor Women’s Champion who holds a guaranteed shot at the AEW title. Toni Storm and Alex Windsor versus Athena and Billie Starkz was a solid tag team battle. It made me think women’s tag straps need to be introduced preferrably an undisputed version featuring AEW, ROH, RevPro, NJPW, Stardom and CMLL. That would be a real forbidden door. Storm is the best women’s wrestler in the world, in my humble opinion, so it was a shock to see her laying on her back the loser at the end after Athena delivered the O Face. Athena looked great in this match, Windsor impressed me again and Starkz showed that she deserves the TV time she has been getting. That’s three good matches on the show.
The night’s main event was Mark Briscoe versus Ricochet. Earlier, Hangman told MJF he needed to earn a title shot by beating Briscoe, a former ROH world champion. This match could be a top contender match as Ricochet is another former world champion. Briscoe was a house afire in this one. Gates of Agony ended up getting involved but were countered by Brody King and Bandido leading to Briscoe winning with a Jay Driller. Briscoe challenged MJF to a match right there and then but Maxwell Jacob Friedman didn’t come to the ring when his music played. Instead he showed up on the Jumbotron challenging Briscoe for next week before attacking him from behind. Hangman came to the ring sending MJF running. Briscoe is now established as a top contender after a couple weeks of main eventing in good matches. Briscoe showed a lot of emotion from prematch being mocked by Ricochet and GOA to the match to fighting MJF and is now in a position where he could be in line for a shot at Page’s title.
Four good matches and storylines being advanced on this show made it worthwhile viewing. I am shocked that there isn’t more New Japan and CMLL talent being featured to promote the upcoming Forbidden Door event at the end of August.
That’s it for this edition of “Mark Out With Your Smark Out”. Before you go, please visit http://goo.gl/slrkvQ and donate $5 to the Ashley Trautwein Memorial Fund. All proceeds go to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and their suicide prevention programs and research. Keep coming back to http://MarkOutWithYourSmarkOut.com for all the latest news from AEW! Thanks for reading and we will see you next time!
AEW Dynamite Highlights in 8 Minutes: Chicago, IL | AEW Highlights 7/30/25