AEW Dynamite returns live tonight on TBS from F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, TN.
Scheduled for the show this evening is the return of Kenny Omega, an appearance by MJF, Jeff Jarrett will appear live, plus Bobby Lashley vs. Mark Briscoe, Will Ospreay vs. Buddy Matthews, Toni Storm vs. Kris Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale, as well as the Casino Gauntlet for a shot at AEW World Champion Jon Moxley at AEW Maximum Carnage.
The following are detailed AEW Dynamite results from Wednesday, January 8, 2025. The report was written by PWMania.com reporter Matt Boone (@MattBoone0709) as the show aired live from 8-10pm EST. on TBS.
AEW DYNAMITE RESULTS – JANUARY 8, 2025
Excalibur welcomes us to the show as the camera pans the F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, TN. He is joined on commentary by Ian Riccaboni and “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard, as we are reminded that Kenny Omega makes his long-awaited return tonight.
Will Ospreay vs. Buddy Matthews
We then hear the familiar sounds of the entrance music for Will Ospreay. The Clarksville crowd erupts as “The Aerial Assassin” makes his way to the ring for our opening contest. After he settles inside the squared circle, his music dies down and then the lights go out.
Buddy Matthews’ theme hits and out comes The House of Black member for what should be a great first match of the evening. Matthews takes a seat in the middle turnbuckle in the opposing corner across from Ospreay as his music fades off. We hear “Ospreay! Ospreay!” chants at the onset.
The bell then sounds and the crowd pops again as the two simply stare at each other, and then play to the crowd with some facial reactions, before locking up. Matthews isolates the arm of Ospreay, who flips his way out and counters, snatching up the arm of Matthews.
They each whip the other into the ropes for shoulder-blocks that knocks the other down. They both do the slow return to their feet to sell the power of the other. The pace and speed picks up a bit and the two begin trading more offensive sequences, all of which again ultimately result in a stalemate.
Fans break out in a dueling “Let’s go Buddy!” and “Let’s go Ospreay!” chants. The two trade chops and punches. Ospreay throws Matthews into the corner and chops the hell out of him. Matthews charges at Ospreay, and ends up on the ring apron. Ospreay comes off the ropes with a hurricanrana that sends Matthews out to the floor.
Ospreay hits a springboard frogsplash plancha onto Matthews at ringside for a big pop. He rolls him back into the ring and springboards off the top-rope for a high spot, which Matthews avoids. Ospreay lands on his feet, but Matthews puts him down, kicks him in the spine and blasts him with a running kick for a two-count.
After several more minutes of back-and-forth action, Ospreay began to fight back into competitive form. “The Aerial Assassin” would ultimately settle back into the offensive driver’s seat, connecting with a big Styles Clash for a close two-count, before eventually finishing off Matthews for the win.
Once the match wraps up, Ospreay gets on the mic for a post-match promo as Matthews is recovering on the mat in front of him. Ospreay tells everyone to give a big hand to “Buddy Murp…Matthews!” He almost said the old WWE name for The House of Black member. He talks about how he’s faced Matthews and Brody King and he respects them both. He says hopefully this is the last time they have to meet in the ring, and tells him if he ever needs a partner, “Buddy, I’m your guy.”
Winner: Will Ospreay
Private Party Approached By The Hurt Syndicate
After we see a video package looking back at the eventful weekend at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan that included the NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19 show and NJPW x AEW Wrestle Dynasty 2025 show, which saw Mercedes Mone and Konosuke Takeshita win some new titles, and Kenny Omega make his in-ring return.
Once the package wraps up, we return inside the F&M Bank Arena where we hear the familiar sounds of Private Party’s theme music. Out comes Zay and Quen with the velvet rope, party girls, etc. They cut a brief promo about being the first tag-team to compete in the first match to air via simulcast on MAX.
As they continue to talk, they are cut off by the theme music for The Hurt Syndicate. “We hurt people! We hurt people!” MVP comes out with Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin. MVP tells Private Party if they wanted to hurt them, they could have already. He claims they’re out here to celebrate with them, but then spoil the party when Lashley makes it clear he’s got sights set on their tag titles.
Bobby Lashley vs. Mark Briscoe
The Hurt Syndicate theme plays again as “The All Mighty” heads to the ring for his scheduled match. He settles inside the squared circle and his music dies down. The catchy-tune for Mark Briscoe hits next. “Reach for the sky, boy!” He makes his way out settles in the ring.
The bell sounds and off we go. Lashley immediately begins dominating Briscoe, settling into a comfortable early offensive lead. As he continues to beat down the master of Redneck Fu, we shift gears and head into a mid-match commercial break with the bout still in progress.
When the show returns, we see much of the same, with Lashley continuing to control the action with relative ease. Outside of the ring, he lays Briscoe out, and then arrogantly and slowly walks around the ringside area. He reaches under the ring on the opposite side, only for a steel chair to smash into his face out of nowhere.
Briscoe crawls out, revealing he went under the ring on the other side and crawled all the way to the other side underneath, to sneak-attack Lashley with the chair. MVP freaks out on special guest commentary that Briscoe should be disqualified.
Ultimately, Lashley takes back over and applies The Hurt Lock for the win. Afterwards, he continues the attack until Private Party run out with chairs to make the save. We head to another commercial break.
Winner: Bobby Lashley
Casino Gauntlet For AEW Championship Opportunity
The theme for Jay White hits inside the F&M Bank Arena. “Switchblade” emerges to a good crowd reaction and heads to the ring as the first participant in the high stakes Casino Gauntlet, where the winner earns a shot at the AEW World Championship held by Jon Moxley at next week’s AEW Dynamite: Maximum Carnage show.
Hangman Page’s entrance tune hits next and the crowd reacts big. The AEW original heads to the ring looking ready for battle with a serious glare in his eyes, per his new, darker persona. The bell sounds and White and Page begin to get after it, as Excalibur talks on commentary about the significance of this match.
White gets Hangman on the top-rope and connects with a huge super-plex. As the two crash to the canvas, the countdown clock appears on the big screen. The crowd counts down and then the theme for the third participant hits. Out comes The Death Riders’ own Wheeler Yuta through the crowd to a ton of boos.
As soon as Yuta hits the ring, White greets him with a Bladerunner. White immediately follows up with the cover, but doesn’t get the three, as Hangman re-enters the picture. Hangman and White exchange chops before Hangman catches White coming off the ropes and hoists him up for a fall-away slam.
The countdown clock appears again and when it expires this time, we hear the familiar sounds of Swerve Strickland’s theme song. Instead of Swerve, however, out comes the man who violently attacked him last week, Ricochet. He settles in the ring and joins in the mix as the show heads into a mid-match commercial break.
When we return, the countdown clock hits again and when it wraps up, we hear “You know it’s all about the BOOM!” And no, it’s not “Big BOOM!” A.J., it’s Adam Cole — BAY-BAY! The Undisputed Kingdom member settles in the ring and immediately begins taking out any-and-everyone in sight as the crowd roars.
Ricochet hits a near coast-to-coast-sized jump from the ropes on one side of the ring to the other, only to descend into a stiff super kick by Cole upon landing. Cole follows up with a Panama Sunrise on Ricochet for a close two-count. Afterwards, the countdown clock re-appears.
The theme for Daniel Garcia hits and out comes the reigning TNT Champion to join the growing field of active participants in the ongoing high stakes Casino Gauntlet. Garcia and Cole trade shots upon Garcia’s arrival inside the ring. Garcia hits a big neck-breaker on Cole to jump into the offensive lead.
We see some more back-and-forth action for another minute or so before the countdown clock returns. It strikes 0 and out comes Pa-Pa-Pa-Powerhouse Hobbs. The big man enters the ring and immediately starts rag-dolling bodies left-and-right with ease. Hangman is the first to get in some return offense on Hobbs.
Hobbs takes over literally seconds later, however and hits a fall-away slam on him, before popping up to pose for the crowd as Excalibur talks us into another mid-match commercial break. When we return, Roderick Strong joins the mix. He gets in a couple moments of shine time in the spotlight, before “The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer comes out next.
As the action continues, the countdown clock appears again, this time bringing out Kyle O’Reilly. O’Reilly’s inclusion in the contest leads to he, Adam Cole and Roderick Strong taking over in a big way. The trio dominate the action for some time until the clock appears again, this time bringing out “The Last Outlaw” Jeff Jarrett.
Jarrett gets a big pop coming out, but as he heads to the ring, he is blindsided and attacked from behind by Yuta. Yuta beats Jarrett down away from the ring, heading to the back with Jarrett. They pass through the curtain and the camera shot returns to the ring, where Archer and Hobbs are duking it out as fans chant “Meat! Meat!”
Archer goes for a big spot, but Hobbs counters and sends Archer out to the floor. Hobbs hits a big spinebuster on O’Reilly seconds later and covers him. Hobbs gets the unexpected victory. Hobbs will move on to challenge Jon Moxley next Wednesday night for the AEW World Championship at AEW Dynamite: Maximum Carnage. Renee Paquette interviews Hobbs live in the ring afterwards.
Winner and ADVANCING to AEW Maximum Carnage title shot: Powerhouse Hobbs
MJF Confronts Jeff Jarrett In The Ring
Jeff Jarrett is in the ring for an interview with Ian Riccaboni after a video package airs promoting HOOK vs. Christian Cage for next week’s AEW Dynamite: Maximum Carnage. As he begins to talk, he is cut off by the familiar sounds of the entrance tune of Maxwell Jacob Friedman — MJF.
Friedman gets into the ring and tells Riccaboni, who he calls a bible-thumper, to get out. He then addresses Jeff Jarrett. He runs down the accolades of Jarrett like he knows them first-hand, but after finishing, pointed out he had to Google all of that because he’s not ancient.
He says his dad told him he was a big fan of Jeff’s when he was a young kid. He talks about the World Title scene before running Jeff down for not being able to be involved in tonight’s Casino Gauntlet. He talks about wanting to get after his Triple B and get it back.
He reminds Jarrett that the clock is ticking. MJF reveals a detail that Jarrett wanted to avoid sharing, noting that the contract he signed is only good for one more year. Not because he wanted it that way, but because professional wrestling only wants him around that long because they think that’s all he has left.
Jarrett finally responds, telling MJF back in his day they had a name for people like him. They called them flashes in the pan. He says there’s no guarantee that just because MJF made it to the top and won the world title before, doesn’t guarantee him that it’ll happen again. He goes on to turn down MJF’s offer to strike a deal together. We head to another commercial break.
Cope Addresses Jon Moxley & The Death Riders
We return from the break to footage of The Death Riders attacking Darby Allin and kicking him down a flight of stairs a couple of weeks ago. Excalibur says Allin hasn’t been seen since, and has essentially fallen off the map following the stairwell attack.
Back inside the F&M Bank Arena, we hear the familiar sounds of the iconic theme song of Adam Copeland. Excuse me, Cope. “The Rated-R Superstar” makes his way to the ring as highlights are shown of Rated-FTR defeating The Death Riders on the first AEW Collision of 2025 this past Saturday night.
Cope gets on the mic and wastes no time. “Jon Moxley …” The crowd boos. Cope brings up Mox and his goons taking out Bryan Danielson and ending his career. He says we just saw them take out Darby Allin and throw him down a flight of steps. He says they made a mistake when they next targeted his friends — FTR.
He goes on to talk about himself being a different breed. A different animal. He says no one has gone through what he has to be able to stand in this ring. He says he broke his neck in a match against Eddie Guerrero. Do you wanna know what he did? He got up and he wrestled 20 more minutes and won that match.
He says last year he suffered a broken leg in a match. Do you wanna know what he did? He got up and he wrestled 20 more minutes and won that match, too. A few seconds later, The Death Riders’ theme hits and out comes Jon Moxley, accompanied by Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta.
The Death Riders’ trio surround the ring and stalk Cope, only to be attacked from behind by FTR duo Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler. Cope joins them and the three-on-three brawl spreads throughout the F&M Bank Arena. As Harwood and Wheeler fight through the crowd with Castagnoli and Yuta, Cope lays out Mox in the ring.
Cope is distracted by Marina Shafir on the ring apron. He snatches her up by her collar, but before he can do anything, he is attacked from behind by PAC. Mox takes over, securing a bulldog choke and cranking back on it as Cope goes out. Mox leaves Cope laying and then Mox calls for something. Shafir hands him a plastic bag.
Before Mox can use it, the theme for Powerhouse Hobbs hits. Moxley’s title challenger for next week’s Maximum Carnage comes out taking his straps down. The Death Riders all exit the ring upon Hobbs entering it. They back off and retreat. On that note, we shift gears and head into another commercial break.
Toni Storm vs. Kris Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale
It’s main event (match) time!
But first, we see a backstage promo segment with AEW Women’s World Champion “The Glamour” Mariah May. As she talks about the Women’s Casino Gauntlet at AEW Dynamite: Maximum Carnage next Wednesday night, Harley Cameron interrupts her. She then challenges her for this week’s AEW Collision. May says she doesn’t deserve a title shot, but agrees to fight her in a non-title bout. Harley vows to make her feel the wrath.
Who is going to enter the Women’s Casino Gauntlet in the number one spot next week at AEW Dynamite: Maximum Carnage? It’s almost time to find out. The winner of this match will secure the number one spot in the Women’s Casino Gauntlet next Wednesday night, where the winner of that match will earn a shot at the AEW Women’s World Championship, currently held by the aforementioned Mariah May, at the upcoming AEW Grand Slam: Australia special event in Brisbane on February 15.
Toni Storm’s theme hits and out comes the Not-So-Timeless one. She settles inside the ring and then the theme for Kris Statlander hits to bring her out. Finally, Willow Nightingale’s upbeat tune plays and the third and final competitor in this high-stakes three-way women’s showdown enters the ring. As she does, Ian Riccaboni does a cringe-filled freestyle rap to the beat. Matt Menard, very appropriately, reacted afterwards by simply asking, “What just happened?!” Very legitimate question.
The bell sounds and we’re officially off-and-running with our final match of the evening, before the show-closing segment featuring the highly-anticipated return of “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega. After some basic back-and-forth early offensive action, we see Nightingale settle into the lead as the show heads into a mid-match commercial break.
When we return from the break, we see the match still in progress. Toni has the advantage as she goes up top for another cross body, but this time she gets sent down by Statlander and Nightingale. Kris goes after Willow before Toni intervenes, which leads to Statlander going after the former Women’s World Champion.
Willow gets back into it, until all three women end up down on the canvas. Kris and Toni are up, with Statlander sending Storm into the corner, only to be taken out with a pounce by Willow! Toni goes after Nightingale, before being sent into the corner for a running cannonball by Willow.
She picks up Toni for a Death Valley Driver, before Storm fights back to send her away, and counters out of the grasp of an approaching Statlander. Willow is back up, grabbing Statlander in a waistlock. Kris grabs Toni to try and stop it, but this ends up in a double German suplex sending Storm and Kris to the mat.
Storm tries to fight back out of this as Willow is knocked away, but she gets caught with Staturday Night Fever finisher by Statlander. Statlander immediately follows up with the cover for the pinfall victory. With the win, Statlander now moves on to enter next week’s Women’s Casino Gauntlet in the number one spot.
Winner and ADVANCING to No. 1 Spot in Women’s Casino Gauntlet: Kris Statlander
Kenny Omega Returns
It’s main event (segment) time!
But first, we shoot to a quick commercial break. When we return, Renee Paquette is standing by with Toni Storm. She’s bummed but isn’t shocked she lost. “It can be Toni-time every time,” she says, and mentions she’s still looking forward to the Women’s Casino Gauntlet at AEW Dynamite: Maximum Carnage next week.
Inside the arena, we hear some grandiose-sounding music, with the name “Omega!” being sung Church-style. The theme for “The Cleaner” himself hits and out comes Kenny Omega to a huge reaction from the packed house inside the F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, TN.
Omega settles inside the ring with a band-aid on his head from his match with Gabe Kidd at the Tokyo Dome over the weekend. The fans loudly chant his name. Omega remarks, “Thanks guys, that isn’t going to make this any easier,” with a distraught-sounding tone to his voice.
He goes on to talk about checking himself into the hospital and finding out he had something called diverticulitis. He reminds the fans what he went through to deal, including the surgery and the recovery time. He asked the doctor how long he had to recover, and when he could wrestle again, and the doctor said he’d be lucky to get back to a normal way of life.
Let alone getting back into the ring. Let alone get back into the ring and do things at the level people expect from him. As he continues talking, he mentions testing out that theory by wrestling a match for the first time in a long time. From there, we hear the rumbling sounds of Don Callis’ theme. Omega darts out of the ring and charges at him.
As Omega nears Callis, he is attacked from behind by Lance Archer and Brian Cage. The two beat him down and take him into the ring to add further punishment. Instead, the sounds of Will Ospreay’s theme hits and the crowd goes absolutely ballistic. “The Aerial Assassin” rushes to the ring to make the save. He and Omega stare each other down.
Excalibur informs us Kenny Omega vs. Brian Cage has been made official for next week’s AEW Dynamite: Maximum Carnage show. Ospreay leaves the ring and heads to the back as Omega stands tall in the ring by himself with a steel chair in-hand. That’s how this week’s show goes off the air. Thanks for joining us!
