AEW Dynamite Grand Slam Mexico – 8/5/2026: 3 Things We Hated And 3 We Loved

AEW returned to Arena Mexico on Wednesday for an extra-large episode of “AEW Dynamite Grand Slam.” The show saw new Trios Champions crowned, the return of MJF, and more that you can read about over on the AEW Dynamite Grand Slam Mexico 8/5/2026 Results Page.

With a big show, comes big emotions, and as always the Wrestling Inc. Staff are here to share those emotions with you, the loyal reader. There was plenty to love, like Brodido & Hangman Page’s big win over The Demand, or the incredible three-way match between Andrade El Idolo, Tommaso Ciampa, and Komander. There was also plenty to hate, like the rehashing of the “real world title” storyline from years ago, or the fact that the AEW World Champion felt like a non-entity. If you have thoughts of your own, the comments section will be open.

But for now, let’s get into what we loved, and what we very much did not.

AEW World Champion Kenny Omega was nowhere to be found, outside of video packages, on Wednesday’s “Dynamite.” With MJF running around with his own title, and the All In main event less than a month away, it felt like an odd choice to not feature the champion.

If Ospreay’s victory in Wembley ever felt in doubt, Omega’s absence felt like it made it assured that Ospreay and MJF would be the direction AEW will be going post-All In. It’s letting the air leak out of the proverbial balloon.

Maybe the issue is Omega’s previous relationship with AAA, where he was Mega Champion, but considering it was basically only a thing because of AEW’s former relationship with AAA, one would assume that as AEW’s relationship with CMLL, so goes Omega’s relationship with CMLL.

Whatever the reason, it was a glaring omission, so close to one of the biggest shows of the year.

Written by Ross Berman

Tomasso Ciampa indeed may have had his place in the Three-Way Match for the number one spot at the All In Casino Gauntlet by being the resident heel, but I particularly want to shout out the other two competitors in this one for the incredible work they did between the ropes tonight: Andrade El Idolo and Komander. I particularly was a fan of the spots that saw Komander walk the ropes in the semi-early stages of the match to do a crazy flip to take out Andrade on the outside and the reverse hurricanrana that Komander gave Andrade later on in the match. Not only were they impressive visuals that were awesome to watch, but they also showed the lengths that both men were willing to go in order to put on a good match in their home country.

I also really appreciated the energy that the crowd brought to this match, as it really added to the atmosphere and vibe of this entire thing to bring it up to a whole other level. In addition, the added stakes with the number one spot in the All In Casino Gauntlet match made everything feel that much more urgent and engaging to see what would happen. On a show that had a card of good matches from top to bottom in my opinion, this was still the one that stood out the most to me and ended up being my personal favorite of the night.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

While I figured MJF was headed right back into the AEW World Championship scene upon his return, and I think it was also smart to bring him back in Arena Mexico, where he’s more of a heel, if that’s even possible, I can’t say I expected him to bring back the “Real World Championship” story. All (terrible) jokes aside, I really dislike storylines surrounding two titles, especially when the former champion is such a sore loser they have to carry around a title of their own.

MJF lost the AEW World Championship relatively clean to Kenny Omega at Beach Break last month. I say “relatively,” as the end of the match did involve Will Ospreay taking the Dynamite Diamond ring from him before he had the chance to use it on Omega. But, clean enough, though, of course MJF was going to complain about it and use that fact to attempt to get another shot.

I just think he could have done all that complaining and made a perfect, heelish case for himself without bringing out his “Big Beautiful Belt.” He said that the Burberry-adorned belt is the only title that should be recognized, and he’s the only recognizable champion. He called Omega a “paper champion” who is “waltzing around with a toy belt.” He even said the All In: London match is a “fake main event” because of it.

I guess this is something different than him just coming in and throwing himself back into the title picture, demanding a rematch, but MJF hauling around the “Triple B” ahead of such a huge main event at AEW’s biggest pay-per-view of the year just feels kind of strange. I can’t say I would have had him heel it up by putting down that match, but instead, focus on Omega and Ospreay, especially Ospreay after he got involved. Maybe it will get fans to hate him even more, since they’re so invested in the All In main event and Ospreay becoming champion, but for those tuning in who may not know enough about AEW ahead of All In, seeing someone else carrying around a big, gaudy belt, if MJF continues to do so, might be a bit confusing.

Written by Daisy Ruth

The featured bout of the Grand Slam Mexico edition of “AEW Dynamite” was a match that had very high expectations given what has happened over the past year.

Kyle Fletcher defended his AEW International Championship against “Speedball” Mike Bailey, with both men having previously defeated each other. Bailey got the win in the first match back in the Continental Classic tournament in December 2025, while Fletcher got his win back in March 2026 when his AEW TNT Championship was on the line. Both of those matches, especially their first one, received rave reviews, so the idea of having the rubber match in a venue like Arena Mexico was one that had everyone excited, and it’s safe to say that these guys delivered again.

Due to this show taking place so close to AEW All In London 2026, the result wasn’t really in any doubt. Fletcher has people like Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita in his sights (assuming Takeshita is ready to go after the G1 Climax), so he was never dropping the belt. However, that meant that the magic needed to come from making you believe, even if it was just for a second, that “Speedball” could do it.

The finishing stretch had some fantastic near falls, with Bailey even trying to use the roll up that got him the win against the Don Callis Family last week as a neat little booking technique. However, it was the Poisonrana/Ultima Weapon one-two that legit had people in the front row jumping up and down because they thought “Speedball” had done it. That’s what pushed this match over the edge for me, that visual of people being so engrossed and attached to what they were seeing that a near fall had them going berserk.

I feel like this is around the 85th time I’ve said this in one of these pieces, but Fletcher really is fantastic at this whole wrestling thing. He is built for AEW. He can have these back-and-forth, highly athletic marathon matches. He can base for the smaller guys, have the strength to go toe-to-toe with the bigger guys, and what makes it most impressive is that he makes it look so easy. Even taunting the crowd during the commercial break, it’s simple, but he’s so good at it, and then he can slip right back into going at a thousand miles per hour against someone like Bailey.

Match of the night, “Speedball” and “The Protostar” walked into the cathedral of professional wrestling and owned the place. I know trilogies are cool and everything, but let’s hope this isn’t the last time we see these two face each other in AEW.

Written by Sam Palmer

When it was announced during last week’s episode of “AEW Collision” that Kris Statlander and Persephone would be going one-on-one in Arena Mexico, many other people and I were very excited. Two of the hardest-hitting women in the business going at it in one of the world’s most famous venues, and the fact that the women of AEW got a second match on “AEW Dynamite” for once, I was sure this was going to be a slam dunk, but sadly it was not.

Looking at the match as a whole, it was fine. Nothing to go crazy over and nothing too offensive was being displayed during the first three quarters of it. However, that was kind of a problem as well because it left me feeling underwhelmed knowing that these two had such a better match in them. But you take what you can get sometimes and roll with it, maybe they can do something cool in the finish to make you want to see what else they could do if they were to ever square off again.

This is where things start to get really overbooked and really messy. For starters, Thunder Rosa, who had every right to be at ringside as she just won the Mexican National Women’s Championship at CMLL’s Arena Mexico show last Friday, got involved, having a brief scuffle with Persephone. In isolation, this makes sense since Persephone is the CMLL World Women’s Champion; having the two champions of CMLL interact makes sense, but doing it in this match just felt so out of place. Then the referee gets taken out, and while he’s down, not only are they doing roll-ups knowing they aren’t getting a count, Hikaru Shida gets involved and hits Statlander with Rosa’s title belt.

Just to top it all off, Persephone not only gets the visual pin, but she gets the type of pin Triple H got over Booker T at WWE WrestleMania 19, where Statlander had to do the honors for what seemed like a good 20 seconds before the match was over.

Giving Persephone a big win over a former AEW Women’s World Champion on home turf was absolutely the right call, but the road AEW took to get to that call had so many unnecessary twists and turns. Some matches benefit from having all the bells and whistles attached, and some turn into an unwatchable catastrophe. This leans more in the latter direction, not fully, but certainly leaning. Hopefully these two have a rematch at some point where they can show everyone what they can do because out of every match on this show, this is the one that let me down the most, unfortunately.

Written by Sam Palmer

Hangman Page has only been back in AEW for a couple of weeks and he’s already champion. He and Brodido cut The Demand’s reign as AEW World Trios Champions to a swift end. It’s the second time Page has third-wheeled a popular tag team and won the Trios Titles, but there’s something about this team that just feels right.

Hangman, Bandido, and Brody King could not be more different in aesthetics, but there’s share a certain immortal spirit. They are three men who I think of, when I think of AEW. For Bandido, the win is a certain amount of retribution, as the ROH World Champion has been less-than successful on AEW programming. The win is a nice buoy for a guy who has had a tough year. As for Brody King, everyone loves Brody King. There are times where the Trios Titles are absent for months, and there are times where they feel like the most important thing in the world. For a little bit on Wednesday, it felt like the latter.

Written by Ross Berman