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AEW Dynamite results: Highlights from first event since Sting's retirement

John Moxley (black pants) and Evil Uno during AEW Dynamite at Footprint Center.
John Moxley (black pants) and Evil Uno during AEW Dynamite at Footprint Center.

Dynamite 2024 was All Elite Wrestling's first event since "The Icon" Sting's retirement. With Sting departing from professional wrestling, he retired as half of the AEW World Tag Team Champions. Clearly, AEW was going to have to address their newly vacated title.

Outside of that issue, we were set to see a series of great matches, most notably the FTW Championship match between the title-holder HOOK and Brian Cage. The Young Bucks had also made it known prior to the show that they were going to make a big announcement. All of that made for a strong show on the first night of back-to-back events for AEW.

Here are some of the biggest highlights from Dynamite 2024.

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Almost an immediate rematch between Samoa Joe and Swerve Strickland

Strickland kicked off Dynamite by addressing his devastating loss at Revolution. It didn't take long for World Champion Samoa Joe to acknowledge the disrespect that Strickland was throwing his way. Strickland, wanting to avenge his loss as soon as possible, wasted no time asking Joe for a rematch tonight. For a second, it looked like that might be exactly what we get, but instead, the pair ended up teaming up to face Mike Bennett and Matt Taven of Unidsputed Kingdom after Adam Cole belittled both Joe and Strickland.

Joe and Strickland won the Tag Team match without much of an issue, as was expected for two of AEW's greatest wrestlers. However, that fight did nothing to mend the feud between the pair. After the match, as Undisputed Kingdom's Wardlow approached the ring, Joe choked Strickland out, sending an obvious message to Wardlow.

Chris Jericho allying with HOOK

Early in the show, during an interview between HOOK and Renee Paquette, "The Ocho" Chris Jericho interrupted almost immediately to offer some wisdom to HOOK ahead of his title defense match. The two obviously had a connection and even shared a fist bump before the interview ended. However, that was not the end of Jericho's storyline with HOOK that night.

HOOK was able to defend the FTW title with a win over Brian Cage. Unfortunately, that win did not sit well with Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona who attacked HOOK as soon as the match was over. HOOK was not alone though.

The Young Bucks stir the pot with Sting out of AEW

After their loss at Revolution, it was no surprise that Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson tried to claim foul play. Nicholas claimed that Sting and his tag team partner, Darby Allin cheated to keep Sting's perfect record intact. He added that although they lost, The Young Bucks essentially ended Sting's career. Nicholas finished off his segment by stating that he and Matthew were entering the tag team tournament.

Matthew then took the spotlight and let everyone know that Adam Page had been suspended indefinitely from The Elite, while Kenny Omega had been fired. Eddie Kingston didn't take too kindly to this news and tried to confront The Young Bucks. Unfortunately, Kingston received a beating from both Jacksons as well as new AEW signee Kazuchika Okada, who was named the newest member of The Elite in his AEW debut.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: AEW Dynamite: Results, highlights for first event post Sting retirement