AEW has a number of traditions when it comes to the holiday season, and one of those traditions is the Dynamite Diamond Ring Battle Royal. The 2025 battle royal took place on the Holiday Bash edition of “AEW Dynamite” in Manchester, England, and the two men advancing to the match to determine the winner of the Dynamite Diamond Ring are the AEW National Champion Ricochet, and the ROH World Champion Bandido.

Brody King and Bandido were taken out by The Demand as they were making their entrance, but Ricochet and the Gates of Agony were blindsided by Ace Austin. Max Caster and Anthony Bowens might not be getting along as well as they used to, but they were able to take Josh Alexander out with the Scissor Me Timbers. However, just as the former AEW World Tag Team Champions attempted to roll back the years with the scissoring, Ricochet snuck in and eliminated Caster. Ace Austin was the next to be eliminated, and he was followed by Anthony Bowens as both Ricochet and Mark Davis worked together as the match went to the commercial break. During the break, Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona cut Brodido’s Macarena party short as the two teams went toe-to-toe. Luchasaurus and Shelton Benjamin then showed each other how strong they were at the expense of the field before exchanging strikes themselves.

Back out of the break and a quick series of eliminations at the hands of Alexander saw Luchasaurus, Benjamin, and Davis, his fellow Don Callis Family member, all get dumped out of the match. The Demand would work over King in the corner but he would quickly escape, and after Alexander tried to catch King in an Ankle Lock, Brodido worked together to eliminate Alexander. 

Kaun came dangerously close to eliminating Bandido but the ROH World Champion survived on the apron. However, when Liona went to eliminate Bandido, King would charge in with a Lariat, eliminating Liona and himself as the momentum carried him out of the ring. Kaun went back for Bandido to try and make the finals an all Demand affair, but Bandido hit a Poisonrana over the ropes to eliminate Kaun, leaving himself and Ricochet as the final two men in the match. They will now face each other at the Hammerstein Ballroom on December 24, where the winner will earn a shot at the AEW Men’s World Championship on the Maximum Carnage edition of “Dynamite” on January 14.

MJF made his return during “AEW Dynamite” to execute his Casino Gauntlet contract, inserting himself in the World Championship match between Samoa Joe, Swerve Strickland, and “Hangman” Adam Page at Worlds End. 

Joe dethroned Page at Full Gear in November to begin his second reign with the title, thanks to an assist from Hook to re-join The Opps, with Strickland returning afterwards to align with Page against the new champion and The Opps. Strickland and Page had since worked together to fend off Joe’s Trios Championship partners, Katsuyori Shibata and Powerhouse Hobbs, during “AEW Dynamite: Winter is Coming” before establishing their joint pursuit of the title at the end of the month.

This week, the three competitors sought to sign the contract and confirm the match, which they did after exchanging some choice words; notably, Page and Strickland presented a united front against Joe, proclaiming that he had made a mistake before the lights had gone out. 

MJF’s music then played to mark his return to AEW after three months, having last loss to Mark Briscoe in a Tables n’ Tacks match at All Out in Toronto. He signed his contract, the one which he had earned winning the Casino Gauntlet at All In back in July, confirming that he had been inserted into the title match. He then had words for each of his opponents, likening Strickland to Sean “P Diddy” Combs and referencing his time with WWE, and reasoned that he wanted to be in the match to embarrass Page and his two biggest rivals.

Page defeated MJF in a title defense at Forbidden Door in August, while Joe dethroned MJF for his first title at Worlds End 2023, with Joe later dropping the title to Strickland for his first reign at Dynasty 2024. 

AEW wrestler Colt Cabana was once a staple of the Dark Order faction, but he’s since largely become enhancement talent in the promotion while wrestling as “Officer” Colt Cabana in the independent promotion JCW. Cabana might have a devoted fanbase, but even the wrestler himself has no notions about him being a main eventer, and looking back at his career, he’s thankful for the space he’s carved out in the industry for himself.

“I always wanted to be the wrestler that I would want to watch,” Cabana explained during an interview on “Close Up with Renee Paquette.” “And I always went by that, and maybe it didn’t get me the greatest success, but I love comedy. I love being a comedy wrestler, I love when I’m in the ring, that I can make people laugh.” Despite admitting that he hasn’t reached the general level of success in wrestling, he’s found happiness in where he values his personal level of success.

“I wanted to be a wrestler my whole life. I never thought I could be a giant television wrestler,” he expressed, before giving his reasons why. “Schlubby kid – schlubby Jewish kid – from the suburbs of Chicago. I just knew I wouldn’t look like the dudes on TV… I just knew I wouldn’t look like that.” Cabana then added that he was always in the middle of the mark, and that even in high school he’d see wrestlers in magazines and feel that he could do it either way.

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The Elite, recently reunited, are now $1 million richer, as The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega defeated The Don Callis Family’s Kazuchika Okada, Konosuke Takeshita, and Hechicero on “AEW Dynamite: Holiday Bash” on Wednesday. The Elite got back together, at least for one match, after Matt and Nick Jackson refused to join the Callis Family and wouldn’t beat down Omega at behest of Callis.

The teams battled for the $1 million, initially won by the Bucks and Josh Alexander at Full Gear. Last week, Omega agreed to partner up with the Bucks, and said he’d even do it without a cut of the money, just to get his hands on the Don Callis Family.

Omega and Takeshita started off Wednesday’s bout, with both men fighting to be the first to take the other off his feet. The tensions between Okada and Takeshita continued throughout the bout, with Takeshita shoving the Unified Champion when he was tagged into the match. The Elite took out the DCF with a trio of suicide dives, attempting to gain the upper hand, but Hechicero wasn’t letting that happen so easily. The teams battled back-and-forth until Nick took Hechicero out with a Canadian Destroyer after countering a hammerlock.

Okada and Omega battled it out as their teammates looked on from the outside. Okada countered the One-Winged Angel and Omega countered the Rainmaker, and Okada walked right into a superkick from the Bucks. In the end, it was Omega to hit a V-Trigger, and a One-Winged Angel with the assist from the Bucks on Hechicero for the victory.

After the match, Okada and Takeshita briefly got on the same page to beat The Elite down, but got into another shoving match. Omega ran them off with a broom and the reunited Elite were also reunited with the Bucks’ cash.

Priest said when WWE finally agreed to the singles match, he was flying to LA every week to train Bad Bunny. He said when the day of the match came, he knew it was more important than just about anything he was ever going to do.

“Winning championships, don’t get me wrong, winning the world title at WrestleMania is incredible, but having something that has an actual impact on the local community,” he said. “This was more than just a dream. This was a dream I didn’t know I was having, put it that way. The fact that we went out there and then killed it. Man, that one I was like, ‘I can retire right now and I’m okay with it.’ And for him, I’ll say this, the only reason why it was good was he busted his a** to make sure it was good. He brought it.”

Priest explained that since he’s known Bad Bunny, the rapper always has to be “full throttle” if he’s going to do something. Priest said it’s because he doesn’t want to embarrass himself or his people, and Bunny is “very prideful” in that sense.

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