AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming 2025

Winter is coming, and, I suppose, is here. The primary night of AEW Winter Is Coming 2025 was a special edition of “Dynamite” that saw the inaugural AEW Women’s Tag Champions crowned, in addition to World Champion Samoa Joe defending his title against Eddie Kingston. Plus, the Gold League took center stage for the evening’s Continental Classic motion.

Like all the time, there was plenty to like and lots to hate, so let’s get into it. We can’t be breaking down what happened, as that has already been taken care of by the outcomes page. As a substitute, we’ll get into our feelings and inform you whether Winter Is Coming left us cold, or melted our icy hearts with fiery motion. There was plenty to love, equivalent to the blistering in-ring motion, whether in the ladies’s tag title match or within the Continental Classic. There was also plenty to hate, like the shortage of Worlds End construct, or the incontrovertible fact that Eddie Kingston just hasn’t been himself these days.

Without further ado, here’s what the Wrestling Inc. Staff loved and hated from the December 10 edition of AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming.

We’re not even halfway through the 2025 Continental Classic tournament, and already we’ve seen some exceptional matches. Jon Moxley’s matches with Claudio Castagnoli and Konosuke Takeshita were each great in their very 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 up-to-date match against Orange Cassidy was a tremendous showcase of how one can do two good friends who’ve their very own personal gains to earn within the tournament. With all of that said, I believe we can have our match of the tournament up to now in Kyle Fletcher vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey.

Going into it, a variety of people, including myself, thought that this might be one other three points within the bag for “The Protostar.” Excalibur, on commentary, hammered home the incontrovertible fact that he finished last yr’s competition with 12 points, implying that Fletcher would go one step further this time around and have an ideal record and earn all 15 points on offer. Mix this with “Speedball” only having one match within the tournament up to now, causing Bailey to not have as much momentum going into the match as Fletcher, and this whole match was set as much as make you suspect that Fletcher would all but secure his spot at Worlds End with a victory. But in fact, that won’t what happened.

“Speedball” is moving up the ranks in my very own personal “Please stop taking bumps like that you’ll find yourself crippling yourself” list that currently has Darby Allin at the highest 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 remainder of the match, he will probably be making a case for that top spot soon. Not to say each time Bailey goes for the Double Knee Drop and misses. Nonetheless, all that added to a match that, throughout the second half, people in the sector were jumping up and down with excitement.

An electrical showcase of two incredible performers. Everyone knows that Fletcher is a future AEW Men’s World Champion, but “Speedball” deserves just as many flowers for this match, if no more. Finisher kickouts are in every single place in wrestling, but here they felt earned. Fletcher’s been protected and “Speedball” has been battered to the purpose where every two-count had the place bouncing, and a cheeky roll-up finish may not be for everybody, but for this match, it was the suitable call. This match stole the show and has potentially stolen all the tournament. Hopefully, these two can meet one-on-one again soon because this rocked.

Written by Sam Palmer

I understand that it might take time to return back from an injury. Ligaments have to heal, tendons have to stretch, and a wrestler must shake the baby-horse legs that come from spending too long away from the ring. With all due respect, Eddie Kingston still hasn’t come back from his injury hiatus, probably not.

He’s been there in body, but his spirit seems -for lack of a greater term- broken. The normally trash-talking pugilist hemmed and hawed his way through a backstage promo that left me scratching my head. Normally, I’d assume that Kingston knew he was winning and got so emotional that he got tongue-tied, but by the top of the night, it was clear that the dagger-tongued Mad King’s blade had been dulled over his injury hiatus. I assumed that a primary event world title match would light a hearth under the perennial underdog, but alas, his match was much of the identical that I’ve seen since he returned from his over-a-year on the shelf, the results of a knee injury at an NJPW Strong event. He’s been sluggish, at times erratic, twitchy, and just overall “off” within the ring, and his promos have been similarly lackadaisical. 

I do not know what is occurring with Eddie Kingston, but he’s becoming a shell of the wrestler who got here into AEW with fire and fury. I do not know what it is going to take to reignite the flame in Kingston’s heart. He’s been talking about saving up enough money to maneuver to Alaska, and it was as for those who could see the mountains in his head. He’s already there, checked out, and someone must bring him back.

Written by Ross Berman

While the build-up to the primary event of the 2025 Winter Is Coming edition of “AEW Dynamite” has been transient, 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 continually being guarded by The Opps (and The Opps Dojo jobbers who get killed every week), and is basically doing every part 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 reputation for himself because the “Samoan Submission Machine.” It’s secure to say that Eddie Kingston got exactly what he wanted.

The match that closed out “Dynamite” was probably the most physical title matches we’ve seen from AEW in an extended time, and that was all the time going to occur given the 2 men involved. Kingston’s arsenal at one time limit was simply limited to chops and doing whatever he remembered seeing while watching an AJPW match from the Nineties, but tonight, he tapped back into a component of his character that made him so popular in the primary place. That never-give-up attitude, continually attempting to stay within the fight no matter how much punishment he’s sustained. He’s an enormous guy, but when he’s a fair larger underdog, Kingston finally ends up being the largest babyface on any card he’s booked on.

As for Joe, he was ruthless. Still sticking to mostly the identical bag of tricks he has come to know, but with an additional little bit of sauce on a number of the strikes. Joe has all the time been among the finest strikers in the sport, but there have been glimpses of the Joe that faced one in all Kingston’s heroes in Kenta Kobashi 20 years ago. I’m not saying this match is on par with that ROH slugfest from 2005, but given who we just saw wrestle, you may’t help but think that match was a direct inspiration to how this one played out.

It even got to a degree where I genuinely thought for a split second that they were going to provide it to Kingston. He’s the kind of guy who would do great with a brief reign, and Joe would probably be blissful to do the honors. Nonetheless, Joe drained the life from Kingston within the closing stages to retain his title in among the finest “Dynamite” primary events of the yr. A match I personally cannot wait to rewatch.

Written by Sam Palmer

“Winter is Coming” got here and went with a World Championship defense from Samoa Joe, latest Women’s World Champions crowned within 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 2 biggest names on the roster? Beating Toni Storm for the title after which pinning her again ensured that only Mercedes Mone stood as a reputable threat to her reign, after which 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’s going to help Statlander repel the Triangle of Madness before turning her attention to the title she wants back. But none of that interesting stuff, stuff that might yield some type of direction for the Women’s Champion going into Worlds End, was aired during this annual special episode of AEW’s flagship show. Slightly, what did occur was the camera cut to backstage, showing the Triangle of Madness attacking enhancement staff backstage without ceremony. Statlander ran in, made quick work of Hart and Blue before Thekla narrowly escaped. That might 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 isn’t any reason why the World title must be held up for that or for any reason with time ticking down before the subsequent show.

It just felt just like the show had been stacked with no thought for build up to the pay-per-view at the top of this month, and if the Women’s World Championship is actually viewed on par or perhaps a rung below the World Championship, then a transient backstage segment on a purportedly necessary TV special is hardly reflective of that. Even beyond the champion herself, there isn’t any one really being actively built to challenge for the title in the long run.

There’s only a general lull over the image as an entire. Everyone who can be considered a challenger was either not present or occupied with something else – whether it’s Storm with the Women’s Tag title match or Marina Shafir with the Death Riders. It’s only a gaping hole in an otherwise really great TV show. Another “Dynamite,” then things could be justified to an extent, but a special episode omitting the highest champion communicates a scarcity of importance; it was just one other belt in a sea of belts this week, and that is unlucky.

Written by Max Everett

I really like a superb underdog story, and I really like one when it includes the likes of two of my favorite women in AEW, Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron, the Babes of Wrath, who made AEW history tonight once they became the inaugural AEW Women’s World Tag Team Champions. They faced off against the Timeless Love Bombs, and I actually thought AEW was going to provide the win to Mina Shirakawa and “Timeless” Toni Storm in order that the titles’ lineage would start out with the more mainstream star that’s Storm, someone who AEW President Tony Khan obviously has a ton of religion in.

While I personally think Cameron and particularly Nightingale are mega stars who’ve each proven themselves, I actually thought that Shirakawa and Storm were going to get the victory. I used to be pleasantly surprised tonight, and I’m so blissful for the Babes of Wrath, especially Cameron, who works so hard and has come such a good distance.

The match itself had a couple of good spots, including Nightingale and Storm flipping Cameron and Shirakawa, respectively, over to assist them counter the figure 4 that Shirakawa initially had locked in. Cameron had a superb spot herself where she countered the Glamorous Driver into Her Ending Move, which helped Nightingale out before she hit the Babe with the Power Bomb for the victory. I liked that Cameron had an enormous spot to assist out, nevertheless it was Nightingale to get the pin.

I used to be glad that Renee Paquette was within the ring for a transient interview with the brand new champions, who were obviously very emotional, following the match. Nightingale was cute when she said how pleased with Cameron she was, then brought it back into more of a storyline angle when she mentioned how nobody had really been there for her this yr (meaning her issues with former friend Kris Statlander), but Cameron had. Cameron mentioned how Nightingale was her second-ever match, and now that they are champions, it seems like a variety of things got here full circle for her, because it’s her first title in AEW.

There was so much to love about this tonight, and the Timeless Love Bombs showed their respect to the brand new champs post-match, so there wasn’t a brawl or anything to smash their moment. I’m excited to see what’s next for Cameron and Nightingale, and I hope they’ve a pleasant little run with the gold.

Written by Daisy Ruth

I believe I actually wrote something just like this not too way back, and I definitely wrote about the same situation in the autumn of last yr, AEW packing its own schedule to the purpose where the pay-per-views, , the massive events that you simply construct to each month, just get forgotten about.

AEW Worlds End 2025 is ready to happen on December 27. On the time of writing, the show is just over two weeks away, and the massive selling point of that show is the finals of the 2025 Continental Classic, as was the case last yr as well. Now we can’t know the ultimate 4 until closer to the show given the tournament format of the Continental Classic, so we are able to let that slide. What I can not let slide is that, outside of the C2, there may be nothing announced for the show, and nobody has any idea what will probably be on it, which does not appear to be a superb strategy in my book.

Think back to last yr and the road to AEW WrestleDream 2024. There was a three-week span where Grand Slam, the Fifth Anniversary of “AEW Dynamite,” and Title Tuesday happened one week after one other. All of those shows ended up being built up greater than the pay-per-view they were designed to be hyping up, and that seems like what’s been happening and what is going on to occur in the approaching weeks. The C2 all the time dominates airtime around this time of yr for AEW, but tonight’s show was loaded, the shows in Cardiff and Manchester are filled with great matches, after which AEW goes back to the Hammerstein Ballroom for the conclusion of the Blue and Gold Leagues within the C2. That is all well and good, putting on big matches on TV, but your TV is supposed to construct to your pay-per-views, that is literally how wrestling has worked for a long time, not the opposite way around.

Mark Briscoe vs. Daniel Garcia for the AEW TNT Championship. FTR vs. The Bang Bang Gang for the AEW World Tag Team Championships. The primary in-ring reunion of The Elite since 2023. All of that is going on within the UK and never at Worlds End, and while the fans in Cardiff and Manchester will probably be eating good, the fans who’ve bought tickets for Worlds End are probably pondering “What have I purchased tickets for?” Not to say Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page teaming up for the primary time, the ultimate of the AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship tournament, and a literal AEW Men’s World Championship match on tonight’s show. Yes, it is likely to be nitpicky, but Worlds End seems like the least of AEW’s concerns straight away.

Written by Sam Palmer