AEW world champ MJF doesn’t wrestle on free TV all that often; when he does, it’s to remind us that he actually is better than you, and you know it.
MJF defeated Bandido in the first defense of his second reign as the AEW champ in the main event of “Dynamite” on Wednesday.
The match, timed at 19:42, per Cagematch, was worked around an angle – and this is revolutionary – of MJF working Bandido’s left arm, to try to minimize the ROH champ’s ability to hit his finisher, the 21 Plex.
I’m being facetious calling the framework of the match revolutionary; this match was straight out of classic NWA territory-era wrestling, with the traveling world champ giving the fans hope that the local hero could overcome the odds, before dashing them in the end.
To that end, Bandido did eventually hit his 21 Plex, but the force of the maneuver did further damage to his left arm, and he was late to make the cover for the pinfall, allowing MJF to kick out at a long two.
MJF would go on to lock Bandido into his Salt of the Earth Fujiwara armbar, which he held onto for an excruciating period before the ref called for a stoppage.
Solid pro wrestling match with great psychology.
Yes, we can still do that in 2026.
Hobbs to WWE
The other big news to come out of the TV taping is that Will Hobbs is finishing up his time with the company, and appears to be headed to WWE.
According to several reports, AEW made attempts to sign Hobbs, 34, who has been with the company since 2020, to a long-term extension, but Hobbs wants to test the waters in WWE, which is understandable, that he’d want to see how he can do there.
His look and in-ring work are borderline superstar level; his drawbacks are mic work, which is nonexistent, and his lack of aura.
Based on look alone, he should be a top-of-the-midcard guy at the absolute least; that said, there’s a reason he finished up in AEW as one-third of the trios champ tag team.
Darby Allin does his best Mick Foley
Darby Allin scored a win in 11:03 over PAC, taking advantage, kayfabe, of PAC apparently reinjuring his left ankle on a top-rope move, allowing Allin to get the win with a Scorpion Deathlock.
Several minutes before the closing sequence, Allin was at his suicidal best – taking a gnarly bump outside the ring, in which PAC repositioned the ringside steps ahead of getting Allin into a release German suplex that had Allin landing hard directly into the steps.
There’s no way to protect yourself against that kind of bump, which is one thing going on here.
The other: it’s just gratuitous, which is par for the course for Darby Allin, who should probably ask Mick Foley, one-on-one, if Mick thinks it was worth it to take the thousands of gratuitous bumps that he did to get to the top of the wrestling world, now that he can barely walk, and has trouble getting to sleep at night.
Quick hits
- I wouldn’t normally want to see a former world champ need 9:25 to beat a curtain-jerker, but I ended up liking the showing from Bryan Keith in his pinfall loss to “Hangman” Adam Page. I didn’t think much of Keith as a worker prior, not for any reason other than, we never really get to see him work. Good showing for him here, before putting Page over, as expected.
- I like the usage of the trios match between Kris Statlander/Willow Nightingale/Harley Cameron and Thekla/Julia Hart/Skye Blue to get Thekla a pinfall over Statlander, setting up a future title challenge for Thekla for Statlander, the women’s world champ. We should also get a women’s tag title match out for Hart and Blue challenging Nightingale and Cameron coming up soon.
- I fast-forwarded through the four-team #1 contender match once I saw Rick Knox in the ring as the ref for a spotfest involving The Lollipop Guild. The conclusion: a title shot for Mark Davis and Jake Doyle. Yeah, I can’t wait.
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Chris Graham
