AEW Dynamite Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction, Highlights After WrestleDream

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of AEW Dynamite on October 16.

Here's a look at what All Elite Wrestling advertised for the post-WrestleDream episode:

• Shelton Benjamin vs. Lio Rush
• Jay White vs. Christian Cage
• FTR vs. Big Bill and Bryan Keith
• Mercedes Moné vs. Queen Aminata
• The Conglomeration vs. The Elite

Let's take a look at everything that happened on Wednesday's show.

Dynamite opened with Jon Moxley cutting a promo after WrestleDream stating he hates what AEW has become and everyone works for him now.

When we went live to the SAP Center in San Jose, California, Adam Cole made his way out.

He gave a promo trying to justify being a babyface after turning on MJF after months of friendship. He said his rival is evil and he had to be evil to fight him.

The Salt of the Earth responded with a promo from his home about how his former friend made him unable to trust anyone ever again.

This was a decent return promo for Cole and response from MJF, but it felt like it left us wanting a bit more.

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Wheeler Yuta looked so depressed. 
• Cole calling out MJF for having hair-transplant surgery was kind of funny. 
• You could hear someone from production tell Cole to pose on the stage. 

Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood took on Big Bill and Bryan Keith in the opening bout.

The Bounty Hunter and Harwood began with a furious exchange before Wheeler came in to take over.

Once Big Bill got the tag, the momentum shifted. He used his size and strength to dominate his opponents while Keith focused on wearing them down.

This ended up being a solid tag match that didn't lean too heavily on double-team offense. Both duos looked good, but FTR won shortly after the break with The Shatter Machine.

The Outrunners came out and had a funny handshake segment.

Result: FTR defeated Bill and Keith

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Keith not being able to use his own music is a crime. His song was awesome. 
• Keith easily bodyslammed Wheeler, who is much bigger than him. It was a nice display of power. 
• Bill's chest chops were pretty loud. 

Queen Aminata had one of her biggest matches to date this week when she challenged Mercedes Moné for the TBS Championship.

The Queen took control almost immediately thanks to her superior size and power, but Kamille did her job and provided the distraction Mercedes needed to make her mark.

This bout had a steady pace and didn't feel rushed. Both women took time to sell and taunt, but at times, it felt like a quicker pace would have served them well.

Aminata ended up tapping out to the Statement Maker, which was formerly known as The Bank Statement in WWE.

While it was nice to see a mostly clean defense, it felt like this match was missing the sense of urgency you need in a title bout.

Result: Moné defeated Aminata

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

• Kamille looked like a badass. The suit is a good look for her. 
• The way Aminata transitioned from having Moné on her shoulders into a waistlock was smooth. 
• The meteora Moné hit during the break didn't quite land as planned, but they made it work. 

Orange Cassidy, Rocky Romero and Kyle O'Reilly took on Kazuchika Okada, Matthew and Nicholas Jackson in trios action this week.

KOR and Okada started for their teams with a nice exchange of strikes, but Nick tagged in quickly. OC and O'Reilly took out both Bucks with double-team offense before Romero sent Okada out of the ring.

All six men ended up fighting at ringside as we went to a break. We returned to see The Elite firmly in control. Cassidy kick-started a comeback for The Conglomeration that saw all six men dish out and take some big moves.

As OC prepared for The Orange Punch, Wheeler Yuta came out of nowhere and hit a flying knee to cause a DQ. Moxley and the rest of his crew showed up to destroy The Conglomeration as The Elite looked on in shock.

Top Flight tried to help but were quickly dispatched. The same thing happened to The Dark Order. Moxley gave a speech before they left through the crowd.

The match was fun, but the ending is what everyone is going to be talking about. Whatever Moxley has planned is going to be AEW's biggest story moving forward by the look of it.

Result: No-contest

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

• The Elite wished Kenny Omega a happy birthday and presented a cake covered in animal intestines. 
• Romero is so smooth. Everything he does looks great. 
• O'Reilly is one of the best strikers AEW has on the roster. He needs a title at some point. 
• Marina Shafir is such a convincing bruiser. 

Shelton Benjamin made his in-ring debut for AEW this week in a match against Lio Rush. MVP and Leila Grey were at ringside.

Rush was at a big size disadvantage, as he always is, so he used his quickness to keep Benjamin on his toes.

However, The Gold Standard dominated his opponent during the break and put him through the wringer with some high-impact slams and suplexes.

These two developed chemistry right away and put on a fun debut performance for Benjamin. Other than one stunner from Rush that didn't go as planned, this was an outstanding fight.

After several suplexes, Benjamin scored a clean win.

This was exactly what it needed to be to make Benjamin look good. MVP left a business card for Rush.

Result: Benjamin defeated Rush

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

• Benjamin's new music is pretty good. He is 49 years old and moves like someone half his age. 
• Rush was bumping like a madman and it was great. 
• MVP was very enthusiastic as he called for Benjamin to hit his finisher. 

The Don Callis Family held a press conference without any press to introduce Brian Cage and Lance Archer as the newest members.

This week's main event saw Cage and White do battle in a singles contest. Switchblade was looking for some retribution to settle some unfinished business from last year.

Juice Robinson and Colten Gunn were ejected from ringside after Nick Wayne set them up to get caught with a chair.

Captain Charisma and Switchblade had a good, competitive match that did a lot to establish the latter as a babyface. The crowd especially loved him using Christian's turtleneck against him.

"Hangman" Adam Page showed up toward the end to get revenge on White. He hit a Buckshot Lariat while the ref was distracted to give Cage the win.

Result: Cage defeated White

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

• BCC was shown attacking Dark Order backstage before leaving in a truck. 
• Colten and Juice didn't really do anything to justify ejecting them. 
• Using's Cage's turtleneck to cover his face so his chest was exposed for chops was a fun moment. 

Wednesday's episode of Dynamite did a lot of things right when it comes to storytelling, but only one match stood out in a significant way.

Moxley and his group wanting to take over AEW was front and center, but he already has a lot of people looking to stop his momentum before it gets going.

The women's division felt a little neglected with only one match and no segments, but Aminata looked great in her title bout against Moné.

The main event between White and Cage was entertaining, but nothing came close to what Rush and Benjamin did. They stole the show by a wide margin in a bout that reminded everyone that The Gold Standard is not to be overlooked.

AEW has some interesting feuds set up and with more than a month until Full Gear, and there is plenty of time to tell those stories.

Grade: B-