Powell’s AEW Dynamite Hit List: Grand Slam featuring Jon Moxley vs. Darby Allin for a shot at the AEW World Championship, and Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness in a non-title match

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

AEW Dynamite Grand Slam Hits

Jon Moxley vs. Darby Allin for a shot at the AEW World Championship: A strong match with a great finish. My guard was up for an over the top violent match, but they kept it fairly tame in that regard given the track records of the two wrestlers involved. The post match scene with Bryan Danielson declaring war on Moxley and his crew was well done. But sending out Private Party and Komander just to set up a throwaway AEW Trios Title match was questionable for the end of the company’s biggest annual episode of Dynamite. It’s nothing against those wrestlers, but they’re just not positioned as stars by AEW and therefore looked out of place.

AEW World Champion Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness in a non-title match: The decision to play up the mystery of whether this match would even take place was baffling given the slow ticket sales. Nevertheless, this was so much fun once the bell rang. McGuinness didn’t look like a guy working his first singles match in over a decade in terms of his appearance or his ring work. He did a terrific job. The company failed to make this match feel like a big deal for fans who were unfamiliar with the history between the two wrestlers, but it was a blast for those who do go back that far or took the time to catch up. Will we see more of McGuinness in the ring or will he simply slide back into his color commentary position? Either way, it’s great that he and Danielson were able to have one more match.

Prince Nana and MVP: It was a nice surprise to see MVP walk onto the stage to confront Nana. MVP made valid criticisms of the Nana character for being too concerned with selling coffee and dancing. It will be interesting to see if Bobby Lashley and perhaps Shelton Benjamin join MVP and they get to create a new version of The Hurt Business, presumably with a new name.

Hook vs. Roderick Strong for the FTW Title: A nice match with Hook fighting off interference from Matt Taven and Mike Bennett before beating Strong clean. The post match scene with Strong shaking hands with Hook and then hugging him was surprising. That part was quickly overshadowed by Hook announced that he is retiring the FTW Championship. Hallelujah! AEW has too many title belts and I’d actually like to see them merge two of their three men’s secondary singles titles.

AEW Dynamite Grand Slam Misses

“The Young Bucks” Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson vs. Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher for the AEW Tag Team Titles: A big Hit as far as the ring work is concerned. They lost me as soon as Don Callis pulled out the awful screwdriver again. It only got worse when the finish involved the ridiculously overdone routine of making Rick Knox look like the most oblivious person to ever put on the zebra stripes. Why do so many Bucks matches have such creative ring work only to conclude in the lamest possible finishes?

Mariah May vs. Yuka Sakazaki for the AEW Women’s Championship: A minor Miss. It was well worked, but it seemed like this was the match the crowd was least interested in. AEW didn’t do enough to make Sakazaki come off like a threat to win the title. As good as May is, she’s stuck in the Toni-verse. That will serve the company well when she works with Toni Storm or Mina Shirakawa, but the character isn’t clicking as much when she works matches outside that storyline bubble. Perhaps the teased program with the lovable Willow Nightingale will change that.