Welcome to The Pipe Bomb, where we discuss the latest news and events from the wrestling world, both inside and outside the ring. This week, let’s talk Kenny Omega vs. MJF, fantasy book some Hikaru Shida and praise the Death Riders. Plus, my top 5 world title runs of my lifetime.
Match of the Week: Kenny Omega vs. MJF
Diverticulitis sent Kenny Omega 100mph toward the ligh, 2026 in his palm—vs. Andrade El Idolo, vs. Zack Sabre Jr., 2 Swerve Strickland bangers, a second MJF banger for Beach Break, becoming AEW World Heavyweight Champion again, name etched in the All In marque. The biggest show in professional wrestling headlined by Kenny Omega. As it was written.
So many Omega Japan salad days spent watching Alberto Del Rio and Paige drive drunk across the country, stars of shows run blindfolded.
Blessed to witness the ROI, Kenny turning a random Wednesday night TV match into an overpriced PPV, dizzying, maddening, 1AM, tired, head, swollen, holy shit Kenny Omega kicked out at 1.
KENNY OMEGA KICKS OUT AT ONE!!!!!! #AEW #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/Midc4ZCeH7
— Self Made AO 💫 (@KXNGAO) July 9, 2026
Beach Break starts with MJF spitting at Will Ospreay in the parking lot and the two brawling before Maxwell even steps foot inside the arena.
While Max starts his night slapboxing his biggest opp, Kenny Omega begins the show laying out the resume, ya tu sabe, ride or die Michael Nakazawa, nodding behind him, namedropped as a day one along with the Bucks—’02 Austin talking the last of his shit.
Kennymaintained aura—later, hovers above the mat, eyes rolled back, palms spread, God mode. Kenny wrestles so physically, I am exhausted by the pinfall—he and MJF throwing blows like neither planned wrestling ever again.
’26 MJF rose above clouds amongst the company of that Darby Allin run and Kenny Omega’s return to his throne. Get ready to learn all the words to Will Ospreay’s music, your eyes closed, him celebrating victories over your corpse for a spell.
Kenny Omega should get his own Darby Allin title defense blitz. I already know he’s on some painkillers only tested on caribou and Canadian professional wrestlers. Weapon X was real. Release the files.
Runner-Up: Mercedes Mone vs. Maya World
MERCEDES MONÉ & MAYA WORLD STOLE THE WHOLE WEEKEND!!! i haven’t felt emotionally invested in a match for a while & this was something special. maya’s going to be a big star & mercedes once again shows why she’s the greatest to ever do it, always bringing the best out of people pic.twitter.com/WbZx9U0CLc
— tiff ☀️ (@womenstitless) June 29, 2026
I love that Mercedes Mone didn’t come back as some humble loser giving Hangman Page “I Love The Fans So Much” Generic Good Guy #3 monologues—god bless Adam. Missed you, bb. You’re about to lose so many times.
You know what Mercedes Mone’s character is? The best wrestler in the world. That’s it. She doesn’t need to do anything else.
Never needs to learn how to grab the mic in the middle of the ring and steal the show like Toni Storn or Thekla. Never needs to “go through anything”, she can lose every belt off camera and we kinda don’t talk about it. It doesn’t mean anything. And it doesn’t have to. She’s the star, yea, sweep her L’s under, pull a gun out on anyone who mentions it. She’s the CEO, still, the best wrestler in the world, still. Gave Maya World the biggest match of her career, won that shit, and now she’s probably winning the title at All In. As it was written.
We are witnessing gods walk amongst us, wrestling on Dynamite and Collision every Wednesday and Saturday, and you want me to watch Logan Paul, between Benjamin Netninyahu interviews, white wash Eddie’s frogsplash, no seasoning. Fuck off.
The “It’s Still Real To Me, Damn It” Award: Jungle Boy Return Announcement
AEW have announced that Jungle Jack Perry has officially RE-SIGNED with the company!!!
LET’S GOOOOOOOOO.
pic.twitter.com/8rwYc9VOu7— Drainmaker (@TheDrainmaker) July 9, 2026
Word.
Tony Khan films his professional sports broadcast like a professional sports broadcast. Bold of him.
Renee Paquette providing ringside updates. Vignettes announcing big names re-signing with the company.
The loudest company in the industry, dealing Slim Jims in apartment staircases to backpackers skipping home from the schoolyard.
Jack Perry is one injury or vacation away from an interesting few months. He’s next in the depth chart. Darby Allin decides he’s submerging to the bottom of the ocean, Jack Perry slides in to fight Kyle Fletcher or Jon Moxley.
I’d love for his character to be more complicated than just generic good guy or asshole bad guy. The best characters on the show are dickheads who best explain their dickhead actions.
What if he comes back and singlehandedly takes out the Young Bucks? Singles matches against each, What The Dog Doin?—finally—Jack done superkicking in their shadows. He’s better than these old-timers; the groupie love’s dead. Crocodile tears—like they’re doing him some sort of favor by letting him tag along.
Then it’s heavyweight time. And I don’t mean Mark Davis. Like, World Heavyweight Champions. Swerve Strickland can survive an L, wrestling guys like Bandido is stagnating, worse than failing. Swerve still shakes rooms. Throw that energy at Jack Perry.
Plus, the inevitable fire match keeps both performers over with viewers.
Jack Perry vs. Will Ospreay at Full Gear 2026. (Will Ospreay’s autumn determines the winner of this match. See Hangman ’25)
(You could also do the Bucks one by one and then challange Kenny Omega, the final member of the elite, before All In. Matches against Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega, amongst their final championship runs, exists on footage. Jack Perry would live forever.)
They couldn’t tell Jack Perry shit.
Champion of the Week: Thekla, AEW Women’s World Champion
Thekla retires tomorrow, she’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Thekla carried Japan’s weight at Forbidden Door, Stardom’s Starlight Kid gave Thekla her greatest title defense, knocking her lights out, harder than Kris Statlander and Jamie Hayter.
Thekla retained.
#AEWRedemption
7e/4p, @HBOMax PPV
Sunday, 7/26
AEW Women’s World Title@Toxic_Thekla vs @WillowWrestles
Willow returned from injury to win the Casino Gauntlet. Now she seeks ultimate redemption in facing the Toxic Spider for the AEW Women’s World Championship, Sunday 7/26! pic.twitter.com/3G3KrUhzVq— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) July 13, 2026
“There’s only three people that I trust. Skye. Julia. And Myself. Everyone else is an enemy now”
This is Emmy winning shit. Way better than whatever Laura Linney was doing on Ozark.
The last two great women’s champions are weird. Thekla is unorthodox. Being unique makes her specific.
Runner-up: Andrade El Idolo, champion of divorce
Maybe I don’t want Andrade to grow on me! Did you ever think of that AEW? Nooo! Of course you didn’t! Stop making me like him!
Womanizing arrogant characters that flaunt their wealth have always been my least favorite. Call it Ric Flair Trauma.pic.twitter.com/U0nJWrkvo0
— AEWDefender (@AewDefender) July 12, 2026
Andrade’s public divorce from both his life partner and his employer, an AEW return as a ladies’ man, god bless. Some people deserve to fail up.
The Worker Smarter, Not Harder Award: The Brawling Birds
THE BRAWLING BIRDS ARE BACK🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️ #AEW #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/3xBWXbIYyc
— Self Made AO 💫 (@KXNGAO) July 9, 2026
I love the Brawling Birds.
My girls do everything but wrestle.
They should be the lady APA—mugs of beer backstage, only wrestling if bothered or offered something more entertaining than the fun they have fucking around together in the back.
Jamie Hayter is one of the GOATs, still risking her body whenever her name’s called. I have to imagine she has enough pull to turn the Brawling Birds into weekly fighting champions, putting over some women in the process.
Can’t wait for the Women’s World Tag Team Championship to debut at All In next month.
Wrestler I’m Most Excited About Going Forward: Hikaru Shida
“The first time we had All In in London, I felt that was my climax of my career. But after the match, I felt like I can do more.”
TBS Champ @ShidaHikaru has wrestled at Wembley but dreams of retaining her title at #AEWAllIn London, she shares on #AEWCloseUp w/ @ReneePaquette! pic.twitter.com/61o2P9xzXn
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) July 15, 2026
TBS: The Best is Shida.
The 38-year old, 20 years into her wrestling career, joining Kenny Omega in the GOAT-defining final championship run.
Hikaru Shida should be depicted as the final boss, the female Jon Moxley, all of her title matches are 20 minutes, near falls, you never know which match will be the one she finally trips up and loses. Queen Aminata can be her Kyle O’Reilly. And like Moxley, Shida should win each time.
Top 5 Favorite World Title runs
I wrote this during the Darby Allin world championship speedrun—a new title defense each week, brutalizing himself, crawling to Sting’s feet in agony, me grinning as Kevin Knight demolishes him with a clothesline through the announce table—daydreaming of my favorite all-time world championship runs.
Here’s the quick 5:
Triple H WWE Heavyweight Championship 2003
Some are calling it the title reign that killed the business. On a random episode of Monday Night Raw, Eric Bischoff just hands Triple H a new championship he beat no one to earn and for the next 250+ days, I sat through a lot of not earning shit.
To me, this reign is the wrestling business.
He starts with a bodybuilder pose-off against Scott Steiner, literally a judged flexing competition between them on a Raw one night. Then he tells Booker T, “people like him aren’t the right people to be world champion”, then proceeds to beat him at Wrestlemania, reaffirming that racism to their audience, love that for a young black child. Then he plays with his best friends, Ric Flair and Kevin Nash. Beating them, of course. (You’ll notice, this entire run is Triple H, not long after the purchase of WCW, just beating all of their top guys every month. So random)
Oh, then he dressed like Kane and pretends to rape a corpse.
Finally losing to fucking GOLDBERG of all people.
It was important for young me to learn how to handle myself in these hostage situations.
But most importantly, if it weren’t for this Triple H dogshit, I wouldn’t have the other names on this list. I wouldn’t still be watching today.
Katie Vick made me tougher.
Raven NWA Championship 2005
The reign starts with Raven beating AJ Styles, Monty Brown, Abyss and X-Pac in a King of the Mountain match—at one point, AJ Styles hits a top rope corkscrew moonsault on Abyss through a table. AJ wrestled Gunther a few months ago. Insane.
This reign is brief as hell, only defends the belt in TNA twice—but a dog collar match against Abyss and a Raven’s Rules match against Rhino turned me into the sicko I am today.
Blame the Raven, forevermore.
Bryan Danielson ROH Championship 2005-2006
The single greatest world championship reign of our lifetimes, the greatest professional wrestler on the greatest run of all time, I watched him and Roderick Strong wrestle for an hour, inside a dimly lit auditorium, on QuickTime RealPlayer, crackhead shit.
WWE saw this and said he could never be their champion. Janel Grant deserves it all.
Mark Henry WWE Heavyweight Championship 2011
The Hall of Pain was so fucking sick. Mark Henry was a cartoon character before finally given the opportunity at the top of the card and delivered. A Hell in a Cell against Randy Orton. A steel cage match against Bryan Danielson. Back when theme songs were fire, Mark Henry was the baddest on the planet. College me was excited as hell to see that devil company reward a black man after years of degrading him.
Bryan Danielson AEW Championship 2024
My prince.
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