AEW Dynamite results and highlights (Dec. 11): Toni Storm's shocking return, Continental Classic continues to delight

"Winter Is Coming" has come and gone.

I have a love-hate relationship with these AEW show themes. Perhaps not an emotion as strong as either, but it can be a mixed bag. The year-end action typically delivers greatly though.

Wednesday's episode of "AEW Dynamite" was no exception.

Truly timeless

The wrestling week has been a great one for the women thus far. They headlined "WWE Raw" on Monday with an excellent "Anything Goes Match" between Rhea Ripley and Raquel Rodriguez, then tonight's "Dynamite" delivered us a World Championship match: Mariah May vs. Mina Shirakawa.

Mina is a wonderfully unique and somewhat silly character. She stands out and is great in the ring, especially with a talented dance partner like May. Plus, their history is well-documented.

The match was awesome with plenty of near falls and great moments. May's figure four leglock rollout out of the ring, in particular, was super innovative and something I don't remember seeing before. I would've loved a Mina title reign to commence, but I understand why AEW didn't pull the trigger on that — it's because Toni Storm is back to her old ways.

No more black and white. It's time to get serious.

Storm came out and to an incredible pop as the confused May looked back at her from the ring. There was no physicality here, but it wasn't needed — just a former champion soaking in the moment.

Thunder Rosa sitting ringside heckling May — "You're not my champion!" — was the icing on the cake. These are all four supremely talented wrestlers and any combination of them makes for great television.

AEW loves its long-term storytelling and I'm actually intrigued to see where this one goes.

(Selfishly, I hope there's justice for Mina down the line, damnit!)

The Continental Classic is one of the best things in wrestling

AEW hit it out of the park with their point-system tournament concept, and the current iteration is off to another hot start. On Wednesday night, Ricochet, Brody King, Will Ospreay and Claudio Castagnoli hit absolute home runs.

It was genuinely insane to hear this was the first time Ospreay and Castagnoli wrestled together. Unsurprisingly, the duo of technical masterminds put on a bonafide banger.

All these matches feel big and have the tournament advancement stakes on the line. This one, for example, could easily be its own big title feud. Instead, we get it in early December.

Thank you, Tony Khan.

In the end, Ospreay advanced after eating a healthy serving of vintage Castagnoli uppercuts. (The pop-up was a slapper.) Castagnoli — as the dastardly Death Rider heel — attacked Ospreay afterward, leading to a save from Ospreay's next opponent, Darby Allin. Talk about another must-see pairing.

The other matchup between Ricochet and King was arguably even better. I can't really say which I liked more; they both ruled. But I'll probably lean toward the first just because King lost. I want to see this dude get a well-deserved push to a singles title. More on him — and Ricochet — later.

🙂‍↔️ Headshake of the night

There are a lot of elements I really enjoy about the Death Riders. By now, my biggest qualm is well-documented here at Uncrowned: These guys are too scary and too good to need inferences.

Yet, like clockwork, it was the same old thing.

Jon Moxley and Pac took on Jay White and Orange Cassidy in a stellar tag-team match. This entire quartet is excellent and the match was expectedly a joy — even if, character-wise, Moxley turning against AEW (or being presented that way) is still weird considering his past and how he got to the company in the first place.

White needs to be a world champion as soon as possible. He's too talented in every dimension and oozes charisma. Unfortunately, he and Cassidy lost by DQ when "Hangman" Adam Page attacked Moxley after those interference attempts I mentioned. Thanks for that, Wheeler Yuta.

It was an overbooked mess to end the match, but that's just this story, isn't it? I'm not even sure it's "bad" at this point, because it's been built toward the Death Riders' numbers game. Ultimately, everyone came to blows and Moxley gave everyone what they wanted: A fatal four-way title match at World's End.

Moxley vs. Cassidy vs. White vs. Page.

This is a pretty great opportunity to get the title off Moxley without pinning him. Not that it necessarily matters. He hasn't been booked as the strong champion he once was. The champion is a goon leader.

Let's just get the belt on White and go from there.

👍 EXPLOSIVE 👍

1. Rosa whipped out a "WTF!" sign when Storm returned and it was hilarious. A new meme is born. Well done.

2. One thing AEW should get more credit for is its Hollywood-esque production quality with its video packages. Bandido was presented in a Western-style short film that saw him take out some cowboy bozos. It was pretty dope and felt like something out of a movie.

3. Christian Cage was upset with the fatal four-way match for obvious reasons. He just can't help but be an over-the-top savage, dropping real-life digs about how he'll "send Moxley back to rehab."

Sheesh, man. There are levels to heeling, folks.

4. Matt Cardona is back in AEW and it's just a great time. His interview with Renee Paquette was short, sweet and to the point. He's come such a long way these past 20 years. A master of reinvention.

5. We joke a lot around here about "attempted murder" (and have even given out an "attempted murder of the night" award in the past). And guess what? FTR dropped a cheeky "attempted murder" mention. AEW is always self-aware of the internet lingo and nonsense. Excellent.

6. The "New York Minute" with Chris Jericho and Bryan Keith was a simple and effective comedy segment. I know we don't like Jericho in 2024, but this is perfect for him and where he should stay.

That's a win in my book.

👎 DUDSVILLE 👎

1. Ricochet has to — and very surely will — join The Hurt Syndicate.

He's unbelievable in the ring but his promo work is still corny as hell. Get this guy together with MVP as his mouthpiece immediately. That crew will rule this company.

2. The direction we've gone with Adam Cole and how he's getting to MJF has worked and makes sense. It's just not working with the way it should be done.

Cole is his own evil self — or at least should be, as I've stated in the past.

It was weird seeing him go against Kyle O'Reilly considering their history. It ended up being a great match overshadowed by the questionable story. I don't know. The heat for MJF vs. Cole just doesn't feel there.

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

The (Brody) King gets his crown, of course! It only made sense.

House of Black's big man has arguably the greatest, most intimidating look in all of wrestling. Accompany that with his moveset and you have all the makings of a force of nature heel champ. This dude is so damn good and physical.

I don't want to say we've wasted King's potential, because everything with House of Black has been great. But a parallel universe where he's in the leader role over Malakai Black is a fascinating one.

👑 I give this show a Crown score of 8.5 out of 10. 👑