AEW Dynamite results and highlights (Jan. 8): Kenny Omega officially returns

"AEW Dynamite" had a stacked lineup of action with plenty of high expectations for its Jan. 8 show. And you know what? Almost everything delivered, whether with great performances or some surprises.

Most importantly, having "The Cleaner" back on our screens is a just a great time for all.

👆 OMEGAMAN!

Kenny Omega makes everything better.

An all-time great through and through, Omega appears to possibly be winding down his career despite being a relatively young wrestling age of 41. The former AEW World champion's body has simply gone through the wringer, as evidenced with his most recent hiatus — a battle against diverticulitis.

Omega cut an emotional and passionate promo on Wednesday's show, highlighting how death could have been his fate had he not sought help when he did. After talking through several different versions of himself over recent years, he set up what to expect from his character at this current juncture.

One of those past iterations, in particular, featured Don Callis by his side — and wouldn't you know it, he was the one to make the interruption tonight. As soon as Callis uttered his first few words, Omega went on the attack. Seeing Callis run in fear was comical, as always, and Omega gave him a short beatdown before Brian Cage and Lance Archer made the rescue.

I like the direction of this rather than jumping right into the previously teased revisit of a Kazuchika Okada rivalry. No one will complain when things inevitably lead that way, but dealing with Callis and company feels like a fine warm-up for Omega. At least while Okada holds his Continental title.

What made this even better?

Well, when Omega was in the grips of the behemoths as Kyle Fletcher hovered over him, Uncrowned's 2024 Wrestler of the Year Will Ospreay made the surprise save. Ospreay's history with everyone involved is no secret, and another Omega match — whether with Ospreay or against him — is a win for the wrestling world. They stared each other down as the show went off the air.

Omega's first match back comes next week against Cage. Oh boy, that will be a doozy — Cage is a perpetually underrated talent.

As great as it is to pair Omega with any of these options, it's kind of weird. You almost have too many choices if you're AEW. But that's a rare good problem to have. When you can have all these potential banger matches and feuds without the world title involved, you're doing something right.

Speaking of banger matches, "AEW Dynamite" opened with absolute...

🔥 FIRE!

Dude, Ospreay vs. Buddy Matthews. Come on.

This match was insane. Matthews, again, needs so much more love than he gets, but there was no way he was getting the win here.

Thankfully, we may be headed for some type of push with him — and Brody King deserves one as well. Every member of House of Black is phenomenal, and I'm so glad Ospreay said what we were all thinking after this epic opener.

"The Aerial Assassin" put Matthews over big after his win. Ospreay straight up told Matthews and King to split from House of Black because they're good enough to stand alone. I hope we get a good continuation of where this could go, rather than just something lame happening off-screen.

At this point, do we need to say much about Ospreay? The guy is magic every time he steps between the ropes. It doesn't make sense and it never will. Let him open every single show for the rest of forever.

🎲 GAMBLE!

The Men's Casino Gauntlet match was a pretty fun time.

Hangman Adam Page and Jay White started the match. Does it get any more perfect than that? Yes, actually. Because as soon as Wheeler Yuta followed them, he was hit with an instant Blade Runner — and your boy here couldn't have been happier. You still suck, Yuta.

It got only better from there as the next entrant was not Swerve Strickland — despite his theme song hitting the speakers. Hangman stared with his usual intensity as his mortal enemy was expected to come out — but instead it was that psycho Ricochet. Talk about a perfect Swerve-Swerve.

The lightness of Ricochet in the ring still baffles me every time I see him work. He can flow with anyone, and every exchange in this match was a fun one.

Also involved was Daniel Garcia, who had a brief tangle with Adam Cole that made me want a match between them two in the future.

"Meat" chants rang throughout the arena when Archer and Powerhouse Hobbs tossed Ricochet around the ring like a ragdoll. Yuta completely removed Jeff Jarrett from even getting the chance to enter the match. That was hilarious, in one of those extremely sad ways — and we'll talk more about it later.

Ultimately, Hobbs' win was not what I expected. A beautiful Spinebuster on Kyle O'Reilly punched the big man's ticket to an AEW World title match against Jon Moxley next week. Hobbs looked ridiculously strong in the match, however I have no faith in him dethroning the champ, nor should he.

(Although, I will say — the messiness of this title picture gives Hobbs an opportunity to win and distance storylines, which I can see working as somewhat random as it may feel.)

We heard from Cope later in the night as well and he brought the intensity, as usual. The callout worked, drawing Moxley and the Death Riders to the ring. It was a clever little ambush from "The Rated-R Superstar," allowing FTR to attack from behind. Once the Death Riders got the upper hand and attempted to replicate their infamous Bryan Danielson beatdown, Hobbs made the save.

🥱 YAWN

Jarrett had too much time. AEW is giving "JJ" respect, as it should. But there is justifiable respect, and then there's overdoing it.

After losing the match to Hobbs, Jarrett took the mic into the ring and wound up getting roasted by MJF, who made the veteran an offer to help him in this final year of his career.

Listen, it was good for what it was, but it was too long. Jarrett declined, and I can only assume we'll see a match with him and MJF. Get it out of the way and don't drag it out if we must, AEW. I beg of you.

🤩 TEASE!

The Hurt Syndicate teased a run for Private Party's AEW Tag Team titles. This is precisely what I hoped for last week after Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin took care of The Acclaimed.

Their fake toast interruption was fun as well. Private Party justifiably looked afraid and weaker than their potential challengers, and that match can have a great story. Underdog champs. You have to love it.

Oh, then Lashley essentially had an elongated squash match with Mark Briscoe. That went on longer than it should have, but whatever.

👍 EXPLOSIVE 👍

1. Harley Cameron is the new best thing in wrestling — and no, I'm not joking. And to pair her with Mariah May? Win, win and win some more. The duo had an excellent segment to set up a non-title match between them at "AEW Collision." It just shows that AEW sees what we all know — that Cameron is the next star. She's just so fun and a great contrast to May. There has to be more between them, even if their match puts things on ice for a while.

2. MVP called a chair an "international object" during the Lashley vs. Briscoe match. Incredible.

3. Renee Paquette talking to anyone about Moxley is always hilarious. Because if you don't know by now, they're married.

👎 DUDSVILLE 👎

1. Some of the camera cuts in this episode were terrible. The adjustments from last week's Max debut were almost completely unnoticeable too. I'm not sure if that's just me getting used to them, but things were off.

2. Footage of Darby Allin getting stomped and kicked down the stairs by the Death Riders was shown. Poor guy. He has to have only about one or two lives left by now.

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

I know this is becoming my gimmick, you guys. But I'm not going to hide my genuine love for a triple-threat match. Kris Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale vs. Toni Storm ruled.

This one had a little bit of everything, and when talents like these three get together, what do you expect? We should also throw out our spot of the night, which was the wildly creative and never before seen ... I'm just going to call it the Willow slingshot. See for yourself.

Outside the ring, we also got a never-ending head-snap marathon from Storm on both women, which lasted a comical length of time. Then, she celebrated afterward. It was a perfect match and in the end, the right woman won and the right one took the fall — Statlander pinning Storm.

Storm's still in her amnesia rookie phase, so there's plenty of time to drag this out, and the other two need to stay strong. Statlander, in particular, needed this after another loss to Mercedes Mone. This was everything it needed to be and a little more.

👑 Lots of questions with multiple good answers after this "Dynamite." I give tonight's show a Crown score of: 8/10. 👑