AEW Dynamite Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights From June 5 (2024)

The AEW World Championship was up for grabs on Dynamite as Swerve Strickland defended against Undisputed Kingdom's Roderick Strong.

The match headlined the latest broadcast on the road to Forbidden Door on June 30, which also featured the return to Wednesday nights of MJF and the first appearance by the complete Blackpool Combat Club in months.

What went down, who emerged victoriously from the high-stakes main event, and what impact did it have on the upcoming pay-per-view event?

Find out with this recap of the June 5 show.

Announced in advance of Wednesday's show were:

MJF made his long-awaited return to AEW Dynamite, making his first appearance since Double or Nothing.

The former world champion targeted AEW continental champion Kazuchika Okada, AEW world champion Swerve Strickland, and international champion Will Ospreay with his cutting remarks and scathing insults.

Rush interrupted the proceedings and took exception to MJF stepping back into the company and thinking he was owed anything. The Salt of the Earth responded by paying him respect for establishing himself in arenas across Mexico before insulting him in Spanish.

A pull-apart ensued and we had our first taste of the immediate program awaiting MJF.

While there may be an urge to book that match as soon as possible, holding it off until June 30 at Forbidden Door feels like the right move, avoiding the seeming randomness of the card, which MJF brought up.

Develop the rivalry, build to the match, and execute it.

MJF was great on the mic here but Rush was not the guy to send out there to go verbal blow-for-blow with The Devil and, more importantly, booking his motivations to be that of a generic foreign heel in 2024 feels rather uninspired.

At least the brawl was solid and the match has the potential to be strong.

MJF specifically focusing his attention on Strickland, Ospreay, and Okada seems like a performer lying the groundwork for a busy next year against some of the top stars in the company and fans should be excited about that.

Grade

B

Top Moments and Takeaways

Tony Khan announced on X before the show that four competitors would meet for the right to challenge Will Ospreay for the AEW International Championship.

There was no revelation of the competitors or why they, in particular, were chosen. Instead, Orange Cassidy, Rey Fenix, Jay Lethal, and Kyle O'Reilly were rolled out to have a match.

Fenix nursed a knee injury through the match and ultimately overcame it, catching Lethal with an inside cradle to score the win and earn the right to challenge Ospreay in a match that should be full of some extraordinary offense if nothing else.

After the match, Don Callis marched Trent Beretta to the ring, only for Cassidy to grab a chair and fend him off. Kris Statlander hit the ring, coming face-to-face with her former friend before slapping him.

Willow Nightingale made the save as the heels retreated to close out the segment.

The match was all action, with some strong work from Lethal and O'Reilly, but it still felt incredibly random.

Bringing Beretta out for nothing, followed by Statlander and Nightingale, felt like cheap reminders that those three are still hanging around rather than effective booking.

Result

Fenix defeated O'Reilly, Lethal, and Cassidy

Grade

C+

Top Moments and Takeaways

Interim EVP Christopher Daniels revealed another qualifying match for the TNT Championship Ladder Match in the form of ROH world champion Mark Briscoe vs. "The Machine" Brian Cage, with the winner joining Konosuke Takesh*ta, who cashed his ticket to the match a week ago.

The match was hard-hitting; one that saw Briscoe's mouth bloodied and body battered. The ROH champion absorbed the punishment as he has his entire career and stayed in the fight, fighting back against his stronger opponent before downing The Machine and scoring the hard-fought victory.

Briscoe is still an excellent worker and one of the best babyfaces in the company. He is also the ROH champion, a title that feels rather diminished when he is now competing for the TNT title.

Some will argue that belt collectors have been a thing in AEW before and that no star should ever want less gold, but that brand as a whole has been so poorly presented that the last thing it needs is to be overshadowed by another singles title that is not the world championship.

Jack Perry popping up after the match and declaring himself the future TNT champion feels much more like a possibility given the tone and direction of the Elite-heavy show than not.

Result

Briscoe defeated Cage

Grade

B-

Top Moments and Takeaways

Ring of Honor Pure champion Wheeler Yuta returned to the squared circle for the first time in four months, teaming with Blackpool Combat Club teammates Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, and IWGP heavyweight champion on Moxley to battle Team CMLL's Magnus, Volador Jr., Rugido, and Esfinge.

The match was a showcase for the BCC and the returning Yuta.

The CMLL stars had their opportunity to get their stuff in and shine, but the crowd did not come alive and invest themselves in anything until the AEW stars were on the offensive. Yes, it is easy for anyone to head to Google, do their due diligence, and read up on CMLL lucha libre.

There is a reasonable expectation that AEW itself will still at least explain what makes them special and why the match is happening in the first place. A simple vignette or two can accomplish that.

The reaction to Wheeler's return to the squared circle should be encouraging but it will be of the utmost importance to follow it up in a way that capitalizes on that warm welcome. Otherwise, it will be another wasted opportunity.

Result

Blackpool Combat Club defeated Team CMLL

Grade

B

Top Moments and Takeaways

The rivalry pitting AEW women's world champion "Timeless" Toni Storm and Mariah May against Saraya and Harley Cameron continued Wednesday night when May squared off with the former Outcast.

The match was longer than expected and more competitive, too.

Saraya stunned May with Good Knight, then tapped her out with the PTO to secure what felt like an upset victory. The win would seemingly keep her in contention for the AEW Women's World Championship.

That is if Storm retains her title against Mina Shirakawa, who made her presence felt after the match, chasing Saraya and Cameron off before checking on May and engaging Storm in a tense staredown.

There are a lot of pieces at play and it is a welcome change of pace to see multiple storylines ongoing within the division, rather than the singularly focused booking of years past.

It should help the quality of things, but Khan and Co. have to work on establishing heel and babyfaces because this felt like a segment featuring five heels, with fans left to cheer de facto babyfaces more than anything.

Result

Saraya submitted May

Grade

C+

Top Moments and Takeaways

Swerve Strickland confirmed his spot in the main event of Forbidden Door, against international champion Will Ospreay, by successfully defending his AEW world title against Roderick Strong.

A quality main event featuring two of the hottest in-ring workers in the company right now, it highlighted how good Strong has been in recent years while confirming that Strickland is a performer capable of meshing his style with that of any opponent.

Strong sold an injured knee, dodging one House Call by Strickland, only to fall victim to another as the champion retained and closed out the show alongside Prince Nana and the most adorable fan.

As is often the case, the effort was there and the action was strong, but there is still this overwhelming feeling that Strickland has not been presented enough like the face of the company that the world champion should be.

Is the champion going to be the center of every major ongoing story? Not always, but The Elite, MJF, and Will Ospreay all feel like bigger deals than Swerve, who put in the work, got over, and won the title, only to cool down significantly through no fault of his own.

Hopefully, the showdown with Ospreay turns things around because Strickland has a ton to offer AEW as its face and centerpiece.

Result

Strickland defeated Strong to retain the title

Grade

B+

Top Moments and Takeaways

The Forbidden Door pay-per-view has always been an interesting one in AEW.

Ongoing storylines oftentimes screech to a halt in the name of the inter-promotional crossover match-ups, leaving television to feel somewhat inconsequential.

Wednesday, AEW did a solid job of thwarting that to an extent.

MJF may be on a collision course with Rush but he introduced three potential new rivalries. Toni Storm may be defending her women's title against Mina Shirakawa at the PPV, but the feud with Saraya and Harley Cameron lives on, setting her up for a potential showdown with her former Outcasts partner.

There was the teased continuation of the EVPs' working relationship with The Patriarchy and the introduction of Bryan Danielson's "one last shot" story, too.

Tony Khan introduced new stories and continued others, setting a different tone than in years past. How and if he capitalizes on those stories, or if he unceremoniously drops them, will ultimately determine how effective this road to the June 30 event will be.

As a whole, the show itself was merely OK.

The Learning Tree stuff is not good, nor is the EVP Young Bucks shtick and doubling down on either to make a point will only hurt the show more than anything. That there were multiple segments and skits devoted to both did not help.

Call it a middling show, leaning upward thanks to the energy of MJF and a very good main event.

Grade: C+