The Pacing Problem: High Volume, Low Returns

AEW Dynamite on June 24, 2026, presented a staggering 8 matches packed into a standard 120-minute television broadcast. When you subtract the standard 36 minutes of commercial time, the active wrestling window shrinks to a mere 84 minutes. This averages out to just 10.5 minutes per match, a window that must cover entrances, introductions, the bell-to-bell action, and post-match angles.

This hyper-dense card forced 87.5% of the matches—7 out of the 8 bouts—to run through picture-in-picture commercial breaks. Only the brief sprint between the Young Bucks and TMDK escaped this fate. The result was a relentless, breakneck pace that left virtually no room for the in-ring action to build a logical narrative arc.

Compared to AEW’s historical average of 5.2 matches per Dynamite episode, this card represents a massive 53.8% increase in match volume. This volume surge had immediate, negative consequences for the promotion's storytelling. Video packages, like the one hyping Starlight Kid and Thekla for the AEW Women's World Title, were severely compressed.

Backstage segments felt like checklist items rather than narrative builders. When wrestling is booked at this velocity, the matches cease to be spectacles. Instead, they become content to be processed.

To make matters worse, AEW used the show to plug their new $289 branded headphones in partnership with Heavys. Prince Nana wore the Swerve Strickland-themed pair to the ring, turning a key world champion segment into a product placement.

As the Ringside News details indicate, the promotion's focus on high-ticket merchandise felt out of place. It distracted from the primary task of selling a pay-per-view card.

High-Profile Openers and Sacrificial Paws

The opener featured the Death Riders defeating Brody King, Bandido, and Mistico. The match was a wild brawl that saw Brody King hit a springboard backflip off the top ropes into a double arm drag. However, the finish relied on classic heel interference.

Claudio Castagnoli used the title belt on Brody while Marina Shafir distracted the referee, allowing Jon Moxley to score the pin. Brody King taking the pinfall is a statistically interesting choice.

AEW clearly wanted to protect Bandido and Mistico ahead of their Forbidden Door matches. But pinning Brody, who is one of the company's most protected big men, weakens his standing. It shows that AEW is willing to sacrifice its own full-time roster strength to protect guest talent.

The Garcia Dilemma and the Champion's Vulnerability

The Dilution of the Title Aura

The most questionable booking choice of the night occurred during the clash between AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland and Daniel Garcia. Swerve is scheduled to defend his world title against Will Ospreay at Forbidden Door in just four days.

In any traditional booking model, the champion should be protected. He should enter the pay-per-view looking like an unstoppable force.

Instead, Swerve was booked into a highly competitive, 14-minute match where he sold a severe leg injury. Garcia clipped Swerve's leg and locked in an ankle lock, forcing the champion to fight from underneath.

Swerve eventually won, but he had to use Ospreay's own finisher, the Hidden Blade, to pin Garcia. This was a baffling choice that undercut the champion's dominant position.

A post-match beatdown followed. Swerve hit a Vertibreaker on Garcia, and Ospreay ran in with a chair to make the save. This segment did no favors for the champion.

It makes the world champion look vulnerable against a mid-carder just days before a major title defense. Selling the leg injury provides a built-in excuse for the upcoming match, but it diminishes the championship aura.

If Ospreay wins on Sunday, he will be beating a compromised champion, which lessens the impact of the victory. The match itself, while technically sound, was simply too competitive for a go-home show.

Garcia even hit a Styles Clash for a near-fall after Swerve's knee buckled on a charge. A dominant champion should not be kicking out of major finishers at the two-count on free television. This match exposed AEW's tendency to prioritize work-rate over basic narrative protection for its top stars.

Mid-Card Anomalies and Baffling Qualifiers

The Death Riders' Diminished Dominance

The division's secondary storylines fared no better under the show's compressed timeline. According to the PWInsider report, the TBS Championship Survival of the Fittest qualifying matches, which determine the field for the July 1 match, yielded bizarre booking results. Harley Cameron pulled off a massive upset by defeating Marina Shafir, a shoot-style powerhouse who should be dominant.

Shafir is aligned with Jon Moxley’s Death Riders, a faction built on physical dominance. Yet, Shafir was defeated when Cameron reversed her signature submission, Mother's Milk, into a simple backslide pin. This defeat severely damages Shafir's credibility and makes the Death Riders look weak.

If the group is supposed to terrorize the roster, their secondary members cannot be losing to comedy underdogs. Later in the evening, Queen Aminata secured her spot by defeating Red Velvet. Aminata won after hitting Velvet with a headbutt and a running knee strike.

With these two matches in the books, 5 of the 6 spots in the Survival of the Fittest match are now locked. Aminata and Cameron join Hikaru Shida, Persephone, and Kris Statlander, leaving only one vacancy.

While Aminata’s progression is logical, Cameron’s inclusion feels like a booking misfire. It trades Shafir’s genuine physical presence for a surprise pop that does not help the division long-term.

The match was further marred by the rapid transition between segments. There was simply no time to digest the results before the next match began.

Ospreay, Sabre, and the Rushed Matches

The other matches on the card suffered similarly from the time crunch. Will Ospreay defeated El Phantasmo in a match that started with Ospreay falling into an ice tub backstage. The comedy bit was hilarious, but it sat awkwardly alongside the serious tone of Ospreay's upcoming world title match.

Ospreay won with a Styles Clash and a Hidden Blade, but the match went through a picture-in-picture break. This limited their ability to tell a deeper story. It felt like a showcase match designed to keep Ospreay warm rather than build real drama.

Jack Perry vs. Zack Sabre Jr. followed a similar pattern. Sabre won by submission after Perry was forced to tap to a leg lock.

Perry had to bite the rope to break a butterfly stretch early on. He hit a sliced bread on the apron to the floor, followed by a moonsault.

It was a highly physical match, but Perry's submission loss just days before Forbidden Door is a notable statistical anomaly. A top star losing cleanly by submission on TV is rare. It undercuts Perry's momentum heading into the 12-man steel cage match.

Takeshita's Defense and the Formulaic Cage Build

The main event saw Konosuke Takeshita retain the AEW International Title against Ricochet. As Wrestling Inc reported, this was Takeshita’s third title defense since winning the belt from Kazuchika Okada at Double or Nothing. The match featured spectacular athleticism, including a springboard 450 splash from Ricochet that yielded a near-fall.

However, the match's climax was dragged down by a poorly executed referee bump. Ricochet pulled the referee in front of Takeshita’s charge to gain a temporary advantage. The spot looked clumsy, with the referee seemingly stepping into the path of the champion.

This drew immediate jeers from the Rio Rancho crowd, spoiling an otherwise excellent match before Takeshita won with Raging Fire. The post-match segment was designed to build the 12-man steel cage match for Forbidden Door. Mark Briscoe took the mic to cut a promo on MJF.

Briscoe did not mince words, delivering a sharp line to the crowd:

"nothing alike because MJF is a privileged entitled baby and Mark is a grown ass man"

He went on to claim that if MJF were on fire, the Family wouldn't piss on him to put him out. This led to a chaotic, formulaic brawl where wrestlers ran out one by one. Kyle Fletcher hit a brainbuster on Briscoe, Okada hit a Rainmaker on Takeshita, and Andrade clashed with MJF.

The show went off the air with Briscoe standing tall after hitting a Jay Driller on MJF. It was a paint-by-numbers go-home segment. It felt contrived and failed to build real tension.