By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
Jack Perry and “The Young Bucks” Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson vs. “The Demand” Ricochet, Toa Liona, and Bishop Kaun: A crowd-pleasing trios match with quality action from start to finish. Ricochet takes too many losses, but at least this one was probably done with the intention of setting up Perry with a shot at the AEW National Championship. The post-match angle started well with Jack Doyle and Mark Davis attacking the Young Bucks, but then it became a crowded mess with Andrade making his latest return while the ring was filled with fellow Callis Family members, followed by FTR oddly walking onto the stage.
AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley vs. Shelton Benjamin in an eliminator match: A soft Hit. While I get the idea of going with a finish just before the time limit was set to expire, it felt like this would have been a better match had they trimmed five minutes. And perhaps more than any other character in AEW, Moxley should scoff at the notion of eliminator matches and insist that he defend his championship against all comers.
ROH Champion Bandido vs. Sammy Guevara in a non-title match: Wait, they really thought that weak promo that Guevara cut on Bandido during Collision was worth replaying? Anyway, a soft Hit for a quality match despite there being no mystery regarding the outcome with Bandido challenging for the AEW World Championship next week. In fact, I’m surprised they didn’t give Bandido a quick and decisive win over someone else so they could save Guevara to be a credible challenger somewhere down the road. The post-match angle with MJF that followed was a decent segment to set up next week’s AEW World Championship match. It continues to be strange that they are not making a huge fuss over the match featuring the AEW Champion against the ROH Champion.
Jake Doyle: The Callis Family needed more members like Major League Baseball needs to add more regular-season games. That said, the former Jake Something is a talented guy. Perhaps his apparent tag team alliance with Mark Davis will help him avoid getting lost in the shuffle more than I fear he would have as a singles wrestler. If nothing else, thumbs up for the name change. It’s not that his real name stands out as a great pro wrestling name, but the Something name was quirky and limiting.
AEW Dynamite Misses
Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland vs. Powerhouse Hobbs and Hook in a Lights Out match: The host venue seemed to take the Lights Out theme to heart. Anyway, is this match over yet? I’m all for Dynamite going over on time in key situations, but this just wasn’t one of them. The feud between the babyfaces and The Opps isn’t heated enough to justify these teams having a 20-minute war with staples, chains, cinder blocks, etc. This type of match and violence should be saved for feuds that actually earn it, not just because they want to give some extra juice to a throwaway Dynamite main event involving two singles stars facing Samoa Joe’s sidekicks. And, yes, as high as I am on Hobbs, that’s how he and Hook come off these days.
Darby Allin and Pac: It’s bad enough that Jon Moxley acts like a babyface while the other Death Riders are still heels, but now beloved babyface Darby came off like a heel when he violently attacked Pac to force a rematch. And why should fans be excited about Darby’s quest to beat Pac so that he can say he’s beaten every member of the Death Riders when it won’t change anything?
Toni Storm vs. Marina Shafir: A minor Miss. Shafir is great in the corner of Jon Moxley, but she continues to have some rough moments during her matches. The bigger issue was the weak finish of Wheeler Yuta pulling the referee out of the ring to save Shafir. The Death Riders are a confusing mess.
(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time dating back to 1997. He hosts a weekly podcast, Pro Wrestling Boom, and also appears regularly on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. Reach him via email at dotnetjason@gmail.com and on social media via @prowrestlingnet.bsky.social or x.com/prowrestlingnet. For his full bio and information on this website, click here.)
Hey Jason,
Any chance Darby might be turning heel since Moxley’s a face and perhaps the riders will turn with him?
No idea, but I hope not, and I don’t think this was meant to foreshadow anything.
Eliminator matches shouldn’t exist un this environment anyways.
Doyle and Davis could be really promising as a team if they are not involved in too much Callis family bullshit. That group is a self-parody at this point.
Sickos/Tony Khan say it was a great edition of Dynamite.