AEW Dynasty 2025 results, awards and analysis: Jon Moxley beats Swerve Strickland; Omega, Okada drop big tease

Referee Paul Turner got murdered with an accidental chair shot from Moxley. Strickland took the moment to capitalize, and hit a Vertebreaker on Moxley. Hangman Adam Page arrived and teased a Buckshot Lariat on either of them with the referee out. Then, of course, the Death Riders came out and tried to screw up everything. The overbooking continued, when Samoa Joe and Shibata made the save. This felt like AEW's Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes match from WrestleMania 40.

Everyone was cleared out, and Strickland landed the chair shot and Swerve Stomp before the lights went out. THE YOUNG BUCKS ARE BACK. But they hit the BTE Trigger on Strickland. The referee got back in the ring... and Moxley retained.

The never-ending title reign never ends.

Marina Shafir entered the ring — because Death Rider shenanigans. Prince Nana tried to intervene, and Shafir hit him with the briefcase before she accidentally took a Moxley cutter. The opening was there for Strickland, as he hit Moxley with a Paradigm Shift, only getting the two count.

Things got extra crazy when Moxley decided to whip out a ladder from underneath the ring. I love how the referee just ignores counting at this point. Moxley set the ladder up by the announce table, and pulled Strickland up it with him — only to get Swerve Stomped through the table. That was a wild spot to pull off.

Some of the more technical moves were maintained as a fixture in this match. Moxley looked for a triangle choke, and Strickland countered it into a big sit-out powerbomb, heating the challenger up. Strickland followed it with a big pair of suplexes, nearly getting caught in a rear-naked choke.

Somebody had to bleed in this one, and so far it's Strickland. Moxley actually tried to cut him hard way with elbows, but couldn't quite land the perfect slicer. Strickland later popped up behind an announce table spot with the red stuff flowing. Despite the lack of a stipulation, Moxley used the steel steps to hit a Paradigm Shift. Moxley started to get real brutal with the offense, hitting a piledriver and biting Strickland's cut.

Surprisingly, the big main event started as a heavy, heavy technical wrestling match, with each wrestler trading holds. If you want to talk about slowing things down after incredible matches, Moxley has become far too good at that. It might even remind some of the old finale to Triple H and Randy Orton's venomous feud back in the day.

The AEW Dynasty main event has arrived. The grand daddy. The AEW World Championship match between the champion Jon Moxley and former champion Swerve Strickland. These two pride themselves on being violent. There's no stipulation in this one, but I'm sure they'll come up with something to disgust us.

Let these men wrestle 1000 times, and it won't matter. They'll all be as epic as you could possibly imagine.

Bailey hit the gnarliest crane kick ever on Ricochet before an Ultimate Weapon that should have had the win. But the champion lurked in the corner, breaking out a V-Trigger to stop the count. It was One-Winged Angel time until Ricochet ruined it. He hit a Poisonrana on Omega, and turned to Bailey in the corner. Omega got back in the cluster, and snuck underneath Ricochet to hit an absurd avalanche One-Winged Angel for the win!

That. Was. Awesome.

Omega hit the V-Trigger on both, knocking Bailey out of the ring. Ricochet was in survival mode until Bailey re-entered the ring and nearly took a One-Winged Angel.

When Bailey's opportunity arose with his shooting star knee drop, he missed, further injuring himself, which led to a surprise Omega leg lock. Ricochet hit the 450 splash on Omega during the submission, he kicked out, Ricochet Vertigo'd Bailey, and another kick out. Nonstop action is an understatement. Bailey was selling his knees like absolute death, screaming bloody murder.

Ricochet busted out all the moves to try to get the win, including shooting star presses on both men, but to no avail.

Rick Knox took what looked like a pretty painfully angled shot from Ricochet outside the ring after a gnarly Bailey flip on the apron. Referees aren't fragile, after all.

Back in the ring, Bailey hit a hurricanrana off the top rope on Ricochet, but took too long to capitalize. Omega took control by dealing out a healthy serving of snap-dragons. To finish the sequence, the man hit a double snap-dragon to both his opponents. This is so good.

Have you ever seen a wrestling dive contest? Well, you have now. These guys all tried to one-up each other with the best dive sequence imaginable.

"Speedball" has gained momentum after a great shot of him stopping some mid-match Ricochet smack-talk on the commentary mic. Bodies are flying everywhere. The double-pin attempts from all three were ridiculous. This match is so damn fun, man. There was no way it wouldn't be.

Bald chants have begun.

The weasel Ricochet kept to himself outside the ring as soon as the match started, giving the Philadelphia crowd a quick one-on-one taste of Omega vs. Bailey. Ricochet snuck his way into the action, but only briefly, as the other two shined early.

This man is just made to wear a title.

Are you guys ready? The match of the night. I don't even care. Triple-threat chaos. The AEW International Champion, the all-time great, "The Cleaner," "The Best Bout Machine," Kenny Omega will try to fend off Ricochet and Speedball Mike Bailey. Buckle Up.

Garcia took a Panama Sunrise to the outside after Cole's first failed attempt. The Boom Knee was on the way, but Garcia fell forward before it landed. Cole went for another and crumbled. Garcia went for the steal! Panama Sunrise and Boom Knee of his own, but Cole kicks out. What will it take? Some more ankle exploitation? Nah, they took it to the top-rope, lining Garcia up to get hit by another Panama Sunrise — and then another. The Boom Knee followed, and we have a new TNT Champion! Cole has done it.

The story of this match quickly became about Cole's surgically repaired ankle. Some of the injury match psychology can be a bit silly, if you ask me. It depends on the injury, but I feel like this well has been revisited too much with Cole.

On the other side, Garcia is showing a mean side to him, going for the ankle, hitting a nice sequence of suplexes, and a gnarly Gotch piledriver.

TNT Championship action is ready to commence as the champion Daniel Garcia collides with the perpetual fan favorite Adam Cole. Theoretically, these two could wrestle for 72 hours thanks to the rules.

Don't get any idea, Tony Khan. Thank you.

Bryan Keith made an appearance, which was stopped by Gravity. What do you know? Jericho clangs Bandido with the baseball bat, and rolls over to Bandido slower than a slug to get the pin in one of the most wonderful swerves you'll ever see. Why? Because Jericho won? No. He did not win.

Bandido's family members ringside waved to the referees to alert them of Jericho's cheating, restarting the match. Bandido hit the 21-plex for the win. You love to see it.

Bandido did the Lashley suplex for like a full minute. This match is just comedy, and not exactly in a good way. That's not Bandido's fault. It's the state of Jericho. That said, they've already delivered some nasty bumps. Jericho dropped Bandido with a powerbomb to the outside of the ring, which came after a Bandido dive to the ramp. That one looked like it really smashed Jericho's head, so they're not going easy on each other.

OK, this has to be the end of Chris Jericho's ROH World Championship reign, right? Bandido can't possibly be unmasked. Well, never say never when it comes to Jericho.

This match went a bit longer than I expected it to. They have great chemistry, though. Some of the spots were pretty wild, as Briscoe never shies away from. I mean, neither does Fletcher at this stage. From a nasty near-botch brainbuster on the apron to one inside the ring, Bricsoe took some serious licks. He survived and found his moments, crushing Fletcher with some epic offense. That dude can seriously sell anything like death. In this match, that was kind of the problem, though. He shouldn't have been able to kick out of all the things Briscoe hit him with. At the end, it was the top-rope brainbuster on the turnbuckle to get the win.

Fletcher will next take on the winner of Hangman Adam Page vs. his "wild card" opponent.

The immediate chair spot shenanigans from Briscoe were fun. He ultimately got suplexed into one, as Fletcher started to take over and have his way with Briscoe.

We have more tournament action! Only one man can advance as Mark Briscoe and Kyle Fletcher get down to business.

Storm hit four hip attacks, followed by the Storm Zero. Bayne kicks out at one! She rallies with clotheslines and a powerbowb. The champion looked about done there. Then Storm did it again! The Small Package pin counters Fate's Descent to retain! Her masterful basic maneuver stops the almighty challenger. Fantastic.

This was another case of Bayne being heavily protected, looking as strong as ever in defeat — the brain simply overcame the brawn.

Penelope Ford was getting way more involved in this match than expected, and it got pretty annoying. But that was by design, as Luther grabbed and walked her out of the arena, which got a fun pop from the crowd.

From there, Bayne nearly broke her neck in a scary spot off the top rope when Storm hit a suplex. That had shades of Brock Lesnar's broken neck against Kurt Angle. Luckily, she seems fine and continued on as Storm started unloading strikes. Storm connected with another suplex, and Bayne gave one back, followed by a Falcon Arrow. Things are heating up.

This match has been all gas and no brakes, as is the usual case with Bayne. The "Megasus" nailed a crazy Tope Suicida spot that hit Luther outside, which Storm turned into a tornado DDT — off of Luther. What a sport that guy is. Despite Storm's retaliation, it hasn't lasted as Bayne retakes control of the match.

Storm's entrances for every big moment are so hilariously great. For this match, it was a boxing, Rocky-esque theme for the Philadelphia crowd. She just gets it.

Toni Storm rules. Megan Bayne rules. Put them together, and it rules. Will Storm's latest title reign end this early to finalize the Bayne mega push? We find out now.

The bad guys are back! Wow. Instead of breaking up, FTR attacked Cope. It started with Harwood hitting a piledriver on the "Rated R Superstar" before Wheeler teased taking his side. But nope. Then it was the Shatter Machine and a double-team piledriver onto a chair and a pair of conchairtos.

After all the conchairtos Cope has taken throughout his career, you would think he'd be kayfabe fully paralyzed by now? The man is indestructible!