AEW Dynamite & Collision Fyter Fest 6/4/2025: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Fyter Fest," the four-hour block of AEW programming that consisted of this week's episodes of "Dynamite" and "Collision" back-to-back! As always on Wednesday nights, the WINC staff are here to give you our opinions on the show — though we will not be expanding our list beyond three positive reactions and three negative ones. That's mainly because we don't expand the list for anything these days, but it's also because (as one of our writers will elaborate) not a ton of stuff really happened during the lengthy runtime, despite a lot of pretty decent wrestling going on in the ring. We did have an International title match followed by a big announcement for All In, and Tay Melo returned after more than two years away — all stuff we'll discuss in this column.

That said, we will not be covering anything close to the entire show here, so if you haven't seen it and need to catch up, you'll be better served by our "Fyter Fest" results page. If you want to know what we thought of the show, from Jon Moxley vs. Mark Briscoe to continued friendship drama between Will Ospreay and "Hangman" Adam Page, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 6/4/25 "Fyter Fest" episodes of "AEW Dynamite" and "AEW Collision."

There was some discussion in the Wrestling Inc. Slack chat earlier today about what would be a good way to open the four-hour marathon of wrestling that was "Fyter Fest," and I suggested that the match between Jon Moxley and Mark Briscoe would be a good, easy, brutal way to get the night started. I am happy to report that I was right.

Briscoe and Moxley are made for each other. As similar physically as they are philosophically, Briscoe is the chaotic good to Moxley's chaotic evil. Their fight, I will not call it a "match," on Wednesday, was everything it needed to be. It was hard-hitting. It was bloody. It did not overstay its welcome. The match was a rambling brawl with a crisp pace, and it was a tremendous boost of energy at the start of what was, overall, a f***ing slog.

The match is also proof of Briscoe's flexibility. This is a wrestler you simply cannot break. He loses nothing in defeat, which is a difficult thing to accomplish. The simple, effortless ending, which saw Moxley escape a pinfall by trapping Briscoe in a submission, never once made me think that Briscoe would never tangle with the AEW World Champion ever again. Quite the opposite, I need the rematch between Moxley and Briscoe about as much as I need Hangman and Moxley's All In match. Some guys are just made to wrestle each other, and for roughly 10-15 minutes, Moxley and Briscoe proved that they are that for each other.

Written by Ross Berman

Traditionally in professional wrestling, Beat The Clock challenges have been used to help establish a certain talent with the crowd by having them keep up with whoever their opponent is and outlast whatever time is being put on the clock. In theory this could've been productive in establishing Max Caster as a heel character who truly views himself as the "Best Wrestler Alive" and has the skills in the ring to back it up. However, this particular instance of a Beat The Clock challenge had no actual point to it seeing as Powerhouse Hobbs went on to beat Caster in a matter of 50 seconds or so in a squash match after Caster had issued a Beat The Clock challenge.

I've said it once and I've said it before: if a company is going to employ a certain match stipulation (or in this case a challenge), then there needs to be a point to it. There was no point to any of this segment, and while it's more clear than ever that Caster's character is meant to be some bit of irony, it felt like nothing more than a way to waste time on a show that had 4 hours worth of content that needed to be filled. Not everything needs to be serious, but it should have a clear point to it other than wanting to make fans including myself groan.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

While it did feel a bit weird essentially having the match seen by many as the main event slapped right in the middle of the show, the four way match for the AEW International Championship was everything it needed to be and more. If anything, having the match take place at the end of the second hour was a great place for it in the grand scheme of things as Kenny Omega, Brody King, Claudio Castagnoli, and Mascara Dorada were able to have a little more freedom with their time than if they were made to go on at the very end of the night.

To start, Omega has been having a fantastic year so far as the AEW International Champion, with almost every match that he's been involved in being must-see viewing for any AEW fan. King has also been having a great year branching out on his own, a bittersweet thing to write considering the ceiling his partnership with Buddy Matthews had when they started. Castagnoli might not have been hitting the heights of his Continental Classic runs, but he is still capable of pulling something out of his bag of tricks, and Mascara Dorada has legitimately established himself as one of the most exciting wrestlers in the world, and this match was a fantastic way to showcase his skills to a larger audience.

Each man got their chance to shine in this one. I did feel a bit sorry for Dorada throughout the first half as he was constantly thrown to the outside and unable to make a dent in his opponents, but when he got going, he really got going. Constantly flying all over the place with creative attacks that, while traditional in their roots, were creative enough to leave a few fans going "I have never seen that in my life." Castagnoli also put in a strong performance, his best for a while in a traditional setting, leading me to wonder what could be around the corner for him when the Death Riders story does eventually come to an end (at All In Texas hopefully).

As much as I enjoyed Brody and Buddy together, Brody had another great showing as the powerhouse of the match. The color he got added an extra layer of intimidation, battering anyone who got in his way, and really making me think that a singles run in the coming months should really be the way AEW goes with him. Then there's the champion. Omega was a lot more consistent in selling his abdomen than in recent months which was a nice touch, and looked in peril enough to make some believe that he was in real danger of losing the title until he hit the One-Winged Angel on Dorada for the victory.

A match that lived up to the hype, benefited everyone coming out of it, and has a lot of replay value for those who want to relive it in the future. An easy match of the night winner.

Written by Sam Palmer

It really felt like AEW had found itself an easy route to All In Texas after "Hangman" Adam Page won the Owen Hart Cup to earn a shot at Jon Moxley's World Championship. Page is one of the more compelling names on the roster, someone who can go between the ropes with the best of them, and can get the crowd behind him in an organic way. Yet for whatever reason the decision has been made to extend Will Ospreay's presence in the storyline as Page's personal cheerleader, telling everyone with a pair of ears that he is the chosen one and trying to unite him with Swerve Strickland against the Death Riders. As a result, Ospreay is facing Strickland next week in a singles match, because that is how you get someone to team with another person they don't like, obviously, and ... does it not just feel like I'm talking about Ospreay too much?

That right there is the issue with this, boiled down to its root form. Why go through the effort of having Page overcome Ospreay in a main event to cement that he is the guy to take on Moxley, only to then continue with Ospreay as the focal character in the story? There are just weeks left until the match between Page and Moxley actually happens, and it's not exactly boding well for Page that he has been reduced to making the odd comment while Ospreay takes center stage, only appearing for a brief moment to make the save for Ospreay against The CRU in the third hour – which was presented as the first hour of "Collision." Everything about the build has felt hollow and bloated at the same time, with no sense of direction for what is supposed to be the top program. 

If there is any direction at all, it would seem that Ospreay is trying to make a "Can they coexist?" teaming for Strickland and Page. It's blatantly setting the scene for Strickland to factor into the world title match somehow, along with Ospreay, and all I'm left thinking is how does that do Page any favors? While Ospreay is saying that Page is the chosen one, the way everything is being presented is that he cannot beat Moxley on his own. The very fact that I am still writing about how permeated into the program Ospreay is should demonstrate the issue at hand. You have a Cowboy-coded character challenging an Outlaw-coded villain in Texas. It should be easy to build. But if you wanted Ospreay to be the face of this program, maybe you should have just had him win the tournament. Because up until this point it hasn't felt like Page vs. Moxley so much as AEW vs. The Death Riders – and that was supposed to be the point of Anarchy in the Arena. How hard can it be to book a world title feud between two guys? Apparently, very hard when you want to cram as much in as possible.

Written by Max Everett

Funny story, we here at Wrestling Inc. were actually talking about Tay Melo a few days ago and how it's been so long since she's been around. None of us had any idea how long she would be away, or if maternity leave in AEW is an official thing or if it's just Tony Khan saying "don't worry, you take as long as you need," but we all came to the same conclusion; Tay Melo has been gone for too long and we want to see her come back. Well, like Candyman, Bloody Mary, and Joe Hendry, say Tay Melo's name and she will appear.

The Brazilian star finally returned to AEW at "Fyter Fest," coming to the rescue of her best friend, and apparently the godmother to her daughter (that is how close these two are) Anna Jay, from being attacked by Megan Bayne and Penelope Ford. Bayne and Ford had already put Jay's most recent partner, Harley Cameron, out of action following last week's chaotic no disqualification match, and looked to be thrown off the stage to the floor below. However, Melo came charging out from the back to save her friend, with security having to separate the parties involved.

For a show that was well into its fourth hour at this point, the fans were clearly getting tired and needed something to wake them up, and a surprising return was the exact shot in the arm they needed. The Denver crowd went nuts for Melo as there were probably a few fans who had wondered if she would ever return, and probably a few others who have only started watching AEW while Melo has been away and only heard about her through word of mouth. A big time TV special got a big time return with a big time response, a truly heart-warming moment.

What's more, this is also a great example of the strength of the AEW women's division right now. Harley Cameron gets taken off TV for some time away after rising through the ranks over the past year, and to keep the story between Bayne, Ford, and Anna Jay going, Tony Khan can just slip a woman who has challenged for the AEW Women's World Championship on pay-per-view, holds a black belt in Judo, and a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu directly into the story without missing a beat. If anything, Melo now being involved with Jay adds an extra emotional level to the story that wasn't there with Cameron given their real life bond, setting all the women involved up for an exciting summer.

Newer fans might not have seen what Tay Melo is made of, but trust me, she is a treat. She can realistically kick anyone's ass on the AEW roster, has been involved in some of the most violent matches the women's division, and in turn the company itself, has ever seen, and is extremely easy to route for when she gets herself going. Welcome back Tay, we've missed you.

Written by Sam Palmer

While this could easily be a long rant about a four hour block of television, I really do have quite a few actual reasons why I disliked this and how Fyter Fest was booked overall. First, for any new fans tuning in this week because they're upset with another promotion and are curious about AEW, this might not have been the show for them, as many are already upset about three-hour long Friday shows. With that comparison out of the way, the biggest issue I had with was how confused I was. There was never really a clear divide initially about what was on "Dynamite" and what was on "Collision" throughout the night. It got better as the show went on, I will admit, but initially tuning in, it was really frustrating.

There wasn't much announced in advance this week, with the main match really being the International Championship four-way pitting Kenny Omega against Brody King, Claudio Castagnoli, and Mascara Dorada. I kind of assumed that would be what was main eventing the "Dynamite" portion of the show, and thankfully, I was correct, but we didn't really know that until about 9:30pm EST. I was also slightly annoyed that I apparently missed Omega brawling with Kazuchika Okada because Max decided I needed to physically switch streams to get "Collision" up instead of the shows transitioning seamlessly one right into the other.

At the beginning of the show, Cru's Lio Rush challenged Will Ospreay, which was already strange to me. If I were Tony Khan booking a four-hour long show, I would absolutely want fans tuning in to know that Ospreay would be wrestling. I would want those potentially new fans tuning in to know one of the best wrestlers on the product would be in action so they would be more keen to tune in, as Ospreay's name is constantly floating around social media, so even casual fans know who he is. Ospreay kicked off the "Collision" half of the night, which was good, as it also brought out "Hangman" Adam Page to say his peace before a lot of the audience likely tuned out as it got later.

Viewers also weren't initially aware of what was going to be the main event of "Collision," though Nick Wayne's ROH World Television Championship was the only gold left to defend over the four hours. The ROH mid-card championship main eventing a four-hour show is certainly a choice, as it does Wayne and the title no favors when Khan already doesn't do enough for Ring of Honor.

AEW has next week to change things up for that four-hour block of television, and hopefully they will be much smarter about the booking decisions and order of matches. What I would most like to see in the next week is Khan dropping match announcements on X to get me excited for the show. We have Ospreay vs. Swerve Strickland II, which will be amazing, but it's just not enough for another four hours.

Written by Daisy Ruth