Winter is coming, and, I guess, is here.The first night of AEW Winter Is Coming 2025 was a special edition of “Dynamite” that saw the inaugural AEW Women’s Tag Champions crowned, as well as World Champion Samoa Joe defending his title against Eddie Kingston. Plus, the Gold league took center stage for the evening’s Continental Classic action.Like always, there was plenty to love and plenty to hate, so let’s get into it. We won’t be breaking down what happened, as that has already been taken care of by the results page.
We’re not even halfway through the 2025 Continental Classic tournament, and already we have seen some remarkable matches. Jon Moxley’s matches with Claudio Castagnoli and Konosuke Takeshita were both great in their own unique ways. Darby Allin and Kevin Knight’s match on Thanksgiving Eve was so good that it literally broke the unbreakable Darby allin,and even roderick Strong’s most recent match against Orange Cassidy was a fine showcase of how to do two good friends who have their own personal gains to earn in the tournament.With all of having mentioned that, I think we may have our match of the tournament so far in Kyle Fletcher vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey.
going into it, a lot of people, including myself, thought that this would be another three points in the bag for “The protostar.” Excalibur, on commentary, hammered home the fact that he finished last year’s competition with 12 points, implying that Fletcher would go one step further this time around and have a perfect record and earn all 15 points on offer. Combine this with “Speedball” only having one match in the tournament so far, causing Bailey to not have as much momentum going into the match as Fletcher, and this whole match was set up to make you believe that Fletcher would all but secure his spot at Worlds End with a victory. But of course, that isn’t what happened.
“Speedball” is moving up the ranks in my own personal “Please stop taking bumps like that you’re going to end up crippling yourself” list that currently has Darby Allin at the top of it, but when Bailey is taking Powerslams onto the barricade at ringside and landing so awkwardly that the abrasion on his back is visible throughout the rest of the match, he will be making a case for that top spot soon. Not to mention every time Bailey goes for the Double Knee Drop and misses.However,all that added to a match that,throughout the second half,people in the arena were jumping up and down with excitement.
An electric showcase of two astounding performers. We all know that Fletcher is a future AEW Men’s World Champion, but “Speedball” deserves just as many flowers for this match, if not more. finisher kickouts are everywhere in wrestling, but here they felt earned. Fletcher’s been protected and “Speedball” has been battered to the point where every two-count had the place bouncing, and a cheeky roll-up finish might not be for everyone, but for this match, it was the right call. This match stole the show and has potentially stolen the entire tournament. Hopefully,thes two can meet one-on-one again soon as this rocked.
Written by Sam Palmer
Loved: Eddie Kingston Got The Old Samoa Joe
While the build-up to the main event of the 2025 Winter Is Coming edition of “AEW Dynamite” has been brief, one thing that Eddie Kingston wanted from his AEW Men’s World championship match with Samoa Joe was one thing: “The Old Samoa Joe.”
Not the Joe of today who walks around in suits, is constantly being guarded by The opps (and The Opps Dojo jobbers who get killed every week), and is essentially doing everything that he himself used to look down on veterans of the past doing.He wanted the Joe who broke countless records in Ring of Honor, left a trail of bodies behind him jumping from indie show to indie show, and made a name for himself as the “Samoan Submission machine.” It’s safe to say that Eddie Kingston got exactly what he wanted.
The match that closed out “Dynamite” was one of the most physical title matches we have seen from AEW in a
## AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming 2025 – 3 Things We Loved & Hated: Hated: Not much for the Women’s World Champion
AEW/Lee South
“Winter is Coming” came and went with a World Championship defense from Samoa Joe, new Women’s world Champions crowned in the Babes of Wrath, but not much for the Women’s World Champion, Kris Statlander, to do.
Where does one really go after defeating the two biggest names on the roster? Beating Toni Storm for the title and then pinning her again ensured that only Mercedes Mone stood as a credible threat to her reign, and then she beat her; so in stepped Thekla and the Sisters of Sin, Julia Hart and Skye Blue, and Statlander joined forces with Jamie Hayter to battle them.
Hayter has been teasing that she will help Statlander repel the Triangle of Madness before turning her attention to the title she wants back.But none of that engaging stuff, stuff that would yield some form of direction for the Women’s Champion going into Worlds End, was aired during this annual special episode of AEW’s flagship show. Rather, what did happen was the camera cut to backstage, showing the Triangle of Madness attacking enhancement workers backstage without ceremony. Statlander ran in, made quick work of Hart and Blue before Thekla narrowly escaped. That would be all. No Hayter,no promo,nothing to suggest anything either way. Sure, Hayter and Statlander are billed to be facing Hart and Blue during “AEW Collision,” but there is no reason why the World title should be held up for that or for any reason with time ticking down before the next show.
It just felt like the show had been stacked without a thought for building up to the pay-per-view at the end of this month, and if the Women’s World Championship is truly viewed on par or even a rung below the World Championship, then a brief backstage segment on a purportedly important TV special is hardly reflective of that. Even beyond the champion herself,there is no one really being actively built to challenge for the title in the future.
There’s just a general lull over the picture as a whole. Everyone who would be considered a challenger was either not present or occupied with something else – whether it be Storm with the Women’s Tag title match or Marina Shafir with the Death Riders. It’s just a gaping hole in an otherwise really great TV show.
Hated: Do You Guys Know There Is A Pay-Per-View Soon Or what?
It felt like AEW Dynamite fully glossed over the fact that a pay-per-view is just around the corner. Between building towards a new tag team championship match, and the ongoing storyline between Swerve Strickland and Christian Cage, nothing felt like it was building towards Revolution.
I understand that sometimes things organically happen and storylines shift,but it felt like a lot of time was spent on things that weren’t necessarily critically important heading into a major show. the promo between Swerve and christian was good, but it didn’t feel like it advanced anything towards a match at Revolution. It just felt like they were yelling at each other.
Even the main event, while good, didn’t really have any implications for the PPV. It was a good match, and a feel-good moment for Cameron and Nightingale, but it didn’t feel like it was setting the stage for anything bigger. It just felt like a random match that happened to be for the titles. It’s not a crime to have a good, standalone match, but when you’re a few weeks out from a PPV, everything should be pointing towards that show.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Keep reading