AEW Dynamite (and Collision!) airs tonight (Oct. 14) with a live show emanating from Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio. This is the final episode of Dynamite during the three week build to WrestleDream, which takes place on Saturday (Oct. 17).
AEW has a glaring problem with all these Clockwork Carnage qualifying matches
AEW has another 3 hour block of programming tonight that will probably go closer to 3.5 hours because President Tony Khan loves overruns that are way too long.
The show features the final five qualifying matches for Clockwork Carnage at WrestleDream. This is AEW’s
newest gimmick match that includes Will Ospreay, Samoa Joe, Speedball Bailey, and five other stars competing for the AEW world championship.
Tonight’s qualifiers come with an added bonus that two of them are also title matches. Here is the full list:
- AEW International Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Myron Reed
- TNT Champion Darby Allin vs. Hechicero
- Adam Copeland vs. Josh Alexander
- Ricochet vs. Ace Austin
- Konosuke Takeshita vs. Brian Cage
When I first saw this list of qualifiers, the first thing that immediately stood out to me is the winners are way too obvious. I understand that weekly wrestling TV shows are going to feature plenty of matches with predictable outcomes, but this is far too lopsided in that direction.
I also get that Clockwork Carnage should absolutely include main event and upper card stars like Okada, Darby, Copeland, Ricochet, and Takeshita. WrestleDream is a better show with them in the match, but tonight’s show is less intriguing when so many of these wrestlers in the qualifying matches rarely ever win on Dynamite.
I can’t find a single instance of Myron Reed or Ace Austin winning a match on Dynamite even though Reed has been in AEW for most of 2026 and Austin has been here since late 2025.
Josh Alexander and Hechicero have won some tag team matches on Dynamite as part of the Don Callis Family, but I can’t find any singles wins for them on AEW’s flagship show. Alexander was even booked to lose his return match on Dynamite in September after missing a large chunk of the year due to injury.
Then there is “The Machine” Brian Cage, another Callis guy who as far as I can tell hasn’t won a match of any kind on Dynamite since late 2024. That was an 8-man tag team match. The last time Cage won a singles match on Dynamite was in April 2021, per the data at CageMatch. Cage has lost almost every Dynamite match he has been featured in over the last five years.
Sometimes these five guys win on Collision or ROH, but they almost never win on Dynamite. It doesn’t mean the quality of the ring work in these five matches will suffer. However, I don’t blame any fans for looking at these qualifying matches, realizing that Dynamite is 3+ hours tonight, and deciding to pass because there are better ways to spend one’s time than watching five upper card guys going against five guys who are clearly here to lose.
Is there any chance that Tony Khan books a major upset with these 10 wrestlers trying to qualify for Clockwork Carnage, or will the winners continue to win and the losers continue to lose? If that hook interests you, then tune into Dynamite and Collision for 3+ hours tonight to find out the answer.
The rest of the card
AEW Women’s World Champion Mercedes Mone joins forces with Divine Dominion in a trios match against Triangle of Madness (Thekla, Skye Blue, Julia Hart). This is Thekla’s chance to send a violent message to The CEO ahead of their title match at WrestleDream.
Gabe Kidd, AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley, and Daniel Garcia represent the Death Riders tonight in a trios match against the Callis Family’s Mark Davis, Wardlow, and Jake Doyle. The main purpose of this match is theoretically to hype up Moxley’s title defense against Davis at WrestleDream, but I’m more interested to see if Wardlow stands out as being anything more than another random thug in Don’s very large family.
Britt Baker and TBS Champion Persephone team up tonight against Dani Luna and Hyan. The TBS title has yet to be added to WrestleDream, so perhaps there will be an outcome or post-match angle here that helps get it onto the pre-show.
The ninth match and probable main event for tonight is AEW World Champion Will Ospreay & AEW National Champion Andrade El Idolo vs. Tommaso Ciampa and Samoa Joe. If this match comes after all five qualifiers for Clockwork Carnage, will there be pure chaos with all those winners running in for a wild brawl after the match is over?
Other stuff to keep an eye on
– New Level and Swerve Strickland are defending the AEW world trios championship at WrestleDream against Hangman Page and Brodido in a 2-out-of-3 falls match. Will the long-term rivalry between Swerve and Hangman end up driving a wedge between them and their respective teammates?
– Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight are challenging the Young Bucks for the AEW world tag team championship at WrestleDream. Will Matt and Nick Jackson get revenge tonight after the Callis guys laid them out on Collision?
– How obnoxious will Nick Wayne’s next promo be after he defeated old man Chris Jericho in their rematch at Grand Slam France? Will the rubber match be booked as soon as WrestleDream?
– Kris Statlander and Harley Cameron are suddenly the number one contenders for the AEW women’s world tag team championship. Will they have a confrontation with the Brawling Birds tonight ahead of their title match at WrestleDream?
– Where the f*** are the Motor City Machine Guns?
What will you be looking for on Dynamite?
