All Elite Weekly – Fighting Spirit Returns – 30/12/24 – 05/01/25
Welcome once again one and all to yet another edition of the All Elite Weekly. This week brought us some great action on AEW programming as well as some absolutely insanely incredible matches over in Japan including the return to action of the God of Pro Wrestling, Kenny Omega.
Don’t worry. I will not be going super into detail on the NJPW shows otherwise I would be here until January of 2026 writing and you would spend until Wrestlemania 59 reading the results.
Let’s take a look into the action and noteworthy segments coming out of AEW.
DYNAMITE
RESULTS
AEW Dynamite kicks off its new era of simulcasting on MAX this week from Asheville North Carolina and the 2025 edition of Fight for The Fallen.
Orange Cassidy vs Hangman
Continuing on from the recent match at Worlds End in which both men were unsuccessful in obtaining the AEW World Championship, this match was set to provide a standout and set the path going forward. Unfortunately, the match itself was underwhelming and left a lot to be desired. One of the failings was the fact that Cassidy hit 3 of his finishers only for Hangman to shrug them off and hit his own.
Winner – Hangman
Acclaimed vs Hurt Syndicate
The descension in the ranks of The Acclaimed continues to grow stronger and stronger. Bowens and Caster are definitely not on the same page and this match really showed it. Shelton and Lashley set out to destroy The Acclaimed and Caster was the one who took the beating.
Winner – Hurt Syndicate
Jamie Hayter vs Julia Hart
Julia Hart has the best entrance of any woman in professional wrestling! While her entrance might be fantastic, the action in the ring for this one was not. Julia has had major improvement in her matches over time. The action of this match felt disjointed, and it really did nothing to further the feud. Hopefully both ladies will move on from here and not suffer because of it.
Winner – Julia Hart
Roderick Strong vs Jay White vs Swerve Strickland (Winner will obtain #1 position in the AEW World Championship Gauntlet)
A fun little match to determine who would move on to the number 1 spot in next week’s gauntlet match. We got some solid action with all three men before Swerve was taken out by his nemesis, Ricochet.
Winner – Jay White
Jon Cruz / Rob Killroy vs Powerhouse Hobbs
An absolute squash match. Nothing more, nothing less
Winner – Powerhouse Hobbs
DeathRiders vs Rated FTR
It’s time for Adam Cop… I mean COPE to make his in-ring return. We got a solid quality match here and when Ad.. I mean COPE and Mox faced off the crowd was lapping it up. The action was back and forth with ultimately the crowd going home happy.
Winners – Rated FTR
MY THOUGHTS
Dynamite this week was the tail of two cities. This didn’t really feel like it was a show that was coming out of a PPV. It felt like something that AEW has been putting on before the PPV lately. I love the return of Julia Hart and as I said her entrance is the best in women’s wrestling. The fact that Jay White is still getting pushed is great and I hope that we continue to see it. The smaller venue atmosphere was great and looked amazing on TV. I hope that we continue to see an upward momentum for AEW this year.
COLLISION
RESULTS
TNT CHAMPIONSHIP – Daniel Garcia (c) vs Mark Briscoe
This match could have easily filled a spot on a PPV. Briscoe and Garcia gave it their all in the ring and showed why they are being invested in. I could definitely see them running this match back in the near future.
Winner – Daniel Garcia
Jeff Jarrett vs Aaron Solo
Solo attacks Jarrett before the bell and here we go….. and it’s over. No real time to get invested in this one.
Winner – Jeff Jarrett
AEW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP – Private Party (c) vs Lio Rush / Action Andretti
The crowd was a let down on this one. The match itself had a lot of decent action and was a fine example of the tag division in AEW. We had some clear interaction between Rush / Andretti and Top Flight who were at ringside.
Winners – Private Party
Toni Storm vs Deonna Purrazzo
Toni tries to shake the hand of the veteran, Deonna and Deonna obliges. A good back and forth match between these two. Taya gets involved trying to cost Toni the match, but Toni overcomes in the end.
Winner – Toni Storm
Winner takes $100,000 – Brian Cage vs Komander vs Beast Mortos vs Dante Martin
Komander and Mortos are the highlights in this one. There are spots upon spots in this match that drew the crowd in and gave some great highlights.
Winner – Brian Cage
Rated FTR vs The Learning Tree
This certainly was a match. There were some points in the match which were off and unfortunately, they all involved Jericho in some shape or form. The one thing I do have to say, is that Jericho taking the pin was an interesting choice.
Winner – Rated FTR
MY THOUGHTS
To be honest with you, this episode of Collision was a weird time. There were spots that were good, but there were also spots where it felt like it could have been better. The TNT Championship match was an absolute banger, and I know that they have something that they could easily setup future matches with.
NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 19
RESULTS (AEW MATCHES ONLY)
Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs Shingo Takagai (c) – Winner takes all NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP / INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Takeshita being the only representation for AEW on Wrestle Kingdom was wild. It is great to see him getting opportunities to shine. I can see why Kenny chose to bring him across from DDT to work for AEW.
Winner – Konosuke Takeshita
NJPW / AEW / ROH / CMLL WRESTLE DYNASTY
RESULTS (AEW / ROH MATCHES ONLY)
Sons of Texas (c) vs House of Torture – ROH TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Dustin Rhodes was at the very first January 4th wrestling showcase in Japan, and in 2025 he is back here again. Sammy and Dustin make a great tag team, and it was good in ring action.
Winner – Sons of Texas
Women’s World Cup – Willow Nightingale (AEW) VS Persephone (CMLL) vs Athena (ROH) vs Momo Watanabe (Stardom)
All 4 of these women deserve this platform, however the match could have easily been given some more time or at least been on the main card. The wild factor of this one was that Athena has been pinned for the first time in over 2 years.
Winner – Momo Watanabe
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Katsuyori Shibata
This was just a showcase match which never really go into major holds. It mainly was a chopfest which ended in a time limit draw.
Winner – Time Limit Draw
Mercedes Mone (c) vs Mina Shirakawa (c) – NJPW STRONG WOMEN’S / UNDISPUTED BRITISH WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
The women got just shy of 15 minutes in this match and it was one of Mercedes better matches. Mina looked like a megastar in this one and it was unfortunate that she came out of this one on the losing end.
Winner – Mercedes Mone
David Finlay vs Brody King
On paper this looks like the battle of the Pitbull vs the chihuahua. Finlay is easily outsized in this one but that doesn’t affect the quality of this one. King can go in the ring, and he was made to work here.
Winner – David Finlay
Shota Umino vs Claudio Castagnoli
While the match itself was good, it suffered from a storyline problem especially with the way Shota was in a 43-minute match the night before. Also, I think the wrong person won this one.
Winner – Shota Umino
Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs Tomohiro Ishii – NEVER OPENWEIGHT / AEW INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Takeshita vs Ishii just screams domination and that was exactly what it delivered. Takeshita is a massive rising star and him dominating Ishii was always the right move.
Winner – Konosuke Takeshita
Young Bucks vs United Empire vs LIJ – IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Being a triple threat, the standard tag match rules are out the window. This means that it is essentially a free for all. The Bucks being back in Japan is another one of those things that just looks right.
Winners – Young Bucks
Yota Tsuji (c) vs Jack Perry – IWGP GLOBAL HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
The Scapegoat is in full cosplay as he makes his entrance for this match. Unfortunately for him though, Tsuji is destined to be the future of NJPW. This was a solid match that saw Perry out of his depth by the end of it.
Winner – Yota Tsuji
Kenny Omega vs Gabe Kidd
It’s been over 12 months since we last saw Kenny Omega in the ring and by far this was the most anticipated match on the show. A lot of people criticized the decision of having Kenny’s return match take place in Japan, but honestly once the match started, it was the absolute perfect move, and Gabe Kidd was by far the safest opponent to choose. This match delivered on all aspects, and you could feel the story building the longer the match went on. Quite simply I could write a novel on how good this match was, however, I would rather just let you watch it for yourself and make up your own mind.
Winner – Kenny Omega
Ricochet vs Zack Sabre Jr (c) – IWGP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Ricochet challenging for the IWGP Championship in 2025 was an interesting one. Both men have unique styles in the ring and know how to entertain the crowd. It is a given why NJPW has chosen ZSJ as the face of the company and the person who will take them into the next few years.
Winner – ZSJ
MY THOUGHTS (BOTH WK19 AND WD)
Oh boy were we spoilt for wrestling this weekend. I watched both Wrestle Kingdom 19 and Wrestle Dynasty live, and it was a marathon but worth every second of it. If I was to give a match of the night to any match on WK19, it would easily be Yota Tsuji vs David Finlay.
WK19 on paper looked to be a show that you could skip over, but once again NJPW proves why this time of year is always special with them and why you should make the choice to watch the show.
Hello, I’m Scott aka RAZ. I’ve been an avid wrestling fan for over 30 years and have dabbled in both the world or pro wrestling and music. Previously commentated for Iron Fist Pro in South Australia, I now focus on more of the mainstream wrestling and run a few shows on YouTube where I breakdown the most recent happenings. Glad to be part of the team here at PWdownunder.com.