Dynamite. AEW

AEW Dynamite Results: Winners, Live Grades and Highlights Before Forbidden Door 2024

Doc-Chris Mueller

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of the final AEW Dynamite before Sunday's Forbidden Door pay-per-view.

Here is a look at what All Elite Wrestling advertised for the show:

Let's take a look at what happened on Wednesday's show.

Opening Segment

Dynamite. AEW

Dynamite opened with MJF's entrance music playing and the crowd at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo cheering for the former world champion as he made his way to the ring.

However, he barely spoke a full sentence before Daniel Garcia interrupted him.

He thanked MJF for saving him last week but also said MJF got in his business. Then, surprisingly, he said he was going to say some nice things about MJF, and The Devil seemed excited by the idea.

Red Death said losing to MJF was embarrassing but led to him going on the best run of his career. They continued to keep a semi-friendly vibe to their exchange, but they also did a good job making it clear they aren't friends just because they have common enemies.

MJF ended up asking Garcia if he wanted to have a match at All In, but before he could respond, Will Ospreay arrived. He offered Garcia a title shot next week that was quickly accepted, but before he left, the Englishman stared daggers at MJF for a few seconds.

MJF seemed to rescind his offer for a match at All In and walked away clearly salty about being upstaged.

This was a decent segment, but it felt like it took a bit longer to get to the point than necessary. It's not a big complaint, though, because they were entertaining the whole time and left us wondering what will happen at All In.

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

BCC vs. LIJ

Dynamite. AEW

Shingo Takagi, Titan and Hiromu Takahashi represented NJPW's Los Ingobernobles de Japon against Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta and Claudio Castagnoli.

Bryan Danielson was on commentary to support his BCC teammates.

Castagnoli and Takagi started the match with a simple lockup and exchange of shoulder tackles. Yuta and Takahashi had a fast-paced sequence that led to LIJ double-teaming him for a while.

Moxley finally got involved after a commercial break and engaged in a series of stiff strikes with Takagi. In a somewhat weird turn of events, he got his team intentionally disqualified by using a chair in the middle of the ring.

Tetsuya Naito came out to confront Moxley ahead of their match on Sunday. Mox met him on the ramp, and they immediately started brawling until they were off-screen. Takagi kept attacking Yuta until Danielson ran to the ring.

This match had a lot of great individual moments, but the way it ended took the wind out of its sails.

Some of the post-match stuff helped sell matches for Forbidden Door, but Danielson and Takagi's staredown was anticlimactic because it seemed out of character for The American Dragon to just stand there after someone was attacking his teammate.

Result: LIJ won by DQ

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

Jay White vs. Rey Fenix

Dynamite. AEW

White and Fenix did battle in a first-round match in the ongoing men's Owen Hart tournament, but as usual, the entire Bang Bang Gang was at ringside.

Fenix had Penta and Alex Abrahantes with him, but they were all ejected from ringside for being too rowdy before the bout got started. Fenix almost won with a roll-up right away, but Switchblade kicked out and the fight got underway.

White is a versatile performer and Fenix is among AEW's best high-flyers, so nobody should be surprised that they put on a fun show for the Buffalo crowd.

Switchblade scored a clean win with the Blade Runner to advance to the next round of the tournament. He will face the winner of Double J vs. a wild-card entrant.

Christian Cage and The Patriarchy came to the ring and had a brief staredown with The Bang Bang Gang, but it ended without violence.

Result: White defeated Fenix

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

Saraya, Cameron and Jay vs. Storm, May and Shirakawa

Dynamite. AEW

The Acclaimed made an unannounced appearance and complained about Nick and Matt Jackson being drunk with power.

The Elite came out and challenged them to a trios match at Forbidden Door.

Billy Gunn played a video from Hiroshi Tanahashi saying he was opening the Forbidden Door to compete with The Acclaimed at the PPV, which means Daddy Ass gave up his spot to the NJPW President.

Up next was the women's trio bout with Storm, May and Shirakawa taking on Saraya, Jay and Cameron.

Shirakawa and Jay started for their teams and traded a few moves before the No. 1 contender for the women's title took control.

Storm looked mad when Shirakawa tagged May instead of her. When it was May's turn to tag out, she had trouble deciding who to pick and hesitated long enough for the heels to get the upper hand.

It looked like Shirakawa tagged herself in, but May remained in the ring through the break. The women's champion got a big pop when she finally tagged in, but it was Shirakawa who got the pin for her team. This was a little disorganized but had some enjoyable moments.

Shirakawa tried to hit Storm with a champagne bottle, but she hit May by mistake. Storm remained by May's side as officials made Mina leave the ring.

Result: May, Storm and Shirakawa won

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

Kyle O'Reilly vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Dynamite. AEW

Chris Jericho and his proteges came out to address Joe, Hook and Katsuyori Shibata challenging them to a match. Bryan Keith had his arm in a sling, so he is unable to compete.

Jericho played a video from Minoru Suzuki that he seemed to think would show Suzuki joining his team but showed him challenging Jericho to an FTW title match. Joe, Hook and Shibata confronted them, and it led to a fight.

The next match featured Kyle O'Reilly taking on Zack Sabre Jr. The Undisputed Kingdom was shown watching from the crowd and cheering for KOR.

These are two men who are world-renowned for their technical ability, but they have unique styles that make them feel totally different. ZSJ is a fluid mat technician while KOR favors a BJJ influence with a lot of strikes, but the thing they share is a love of submissions.

This was a beautiful display of pure technical ability and hopefully not the last time we see these two work together. Sabre scored the win and Orange Cassidy came down to check on O'Reilly.

Sabre and TMDK got in OC's face until Tomohiro Ishii came out and stood next to Cassidy.

Result: Sabre defeated O'Reilly

Grade: A-

Notable Moments and Observations

Gates of Agony vs. Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland

Dynamite. AEW

The "Can they co-exist?" trope was on full display in this week's main event when Forbidden Door opponents, Ospreay and Strickland, teamed up to take on Kaun and Toa Liona.

Ospreay and Kaun had a great exchange to get the action going. Strickland and Ospreay displayed some good teamwork early in the match until a miscommunication led to Liona taking both men down.

This match had great energy and gave Ospreay and Strickland a chance to show off before they meet this weekend. Ospreay accidentally superkicked Swerve off the apron, but that didn't stop them from working together to win.

Ospreay took the world title out of Strickland's hands, and the champ kicked his knee out before knocking him out with a kick to the face.

The show ended with the champ standing tall.

Result: Ospreay and Strickland defeated Gates of Agony

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

The Final Word

This week's Dynamite spent a lot of time selling the Forbidden Door PPV, but it also included a few solid matches and non-wrestling segments.

The main event tag bout was a great way to push Ospreay and Strickland's feud, but nothing on the show could compete with Sabre vs. O'Reilly in terms of quality.

Storm and Shirakawa's storyline went from friendly rivalry to a full-blown feud, a couple more matches were added to the PPV card, and the Owen Hart tournament continued with White advancing to the next round over Fenix.

Forbidden Door has some potential bangers on the card, so hopefully AEW, CMLL, Stardom and NJPW stick the landing.

Grade: B

   

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