By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
Adam Copeland and Christian Cage: The angle that followed the main event closed the show on a high note. While the company announced FR vs. Copeland and Christian for next month’s AEW Dynasty pay-per-view, it’s clear they are building to an FTR vs. Copeland and Cage vs. The Young Bucks three-way, presumably for the Double or Nothing event in May.
Marina Shafir vs. Mina Shirakawa in a No Holds Barred match: God bless Bryan Danielson for pointing out that the barbed wire baseball bat that Shirakawa brought to the ring isn’t a hold. I’ve never understood how or why the no-holds-barred stipulation became just another one of the countless names used for a No DQ match, but I digress. It was a big letdown when Shirakawa replaced Toni Storm following an injury angle. Of course, it’s totally understandable if Storm wasn’t medically cleared coming out of the pay-per-view. Shirakawa going over felt like a legitimate upset. I’m not sure if Tony Khan took the booking approach of having a replacement babyface wrestler win to soften the blow of the advertised wrestler not appearing, or if Shirakawa is being built up for a potential tag team match with Storm vs. Shafir and Ronda Rousey. I suppose there’s also a long-shot possibility that Mina will eventually be revealed as the person who attacked Storm if Ronda Rousey hasn’t agreed to do more with the company. Speaking of which, Rousey was all but forgotten after the Revolution recap video that opened Dynamite. Did plans change because Storm couldn’t wrestle, or did they actually not film a promo or an angle with Rousey at the pay-per-view?
Will Ospreay vs. Blake Christian: A Hit thanks more to the post-match angle than the actual match. It’s exciting, yet also frightening, that Ospreay is back from double neck fusion surgery after only six months. While I can’t recall anyone returning from double neck fusion surgery so quickly, the medical expert who cleared him might know a little more than I do, even though I spent 90 seconds on WebMD (there’s nothing doctors love more than when you question their professional opinions while citing information you found on the internet). The in-ring action was solid, but it was a fairly forgettable first match back for Ospreay. On the bright side, the intensity that Ospreay showed while fighting the Death Riders afterward was excellent.
Mike Bailey vs. Mark Davis: While I enjoyed the match, I can’t be the only person who groaned when Bailey kicked out after taking a piledriver and then popped right up and dominated the rest of the match. I wish the company would do more to protect Davis so that beating him meant something. On the bright side, it’s good to see Bailey getting a consistent push rather than getting lost in the shuffle as so many others have.
Darby Allin vs. Gabe Kidd in a coffin match: More of an in the middle than a Hit or a Miss. Give it up for Mad Dog Vachon. Apparently, the coffin he built back in 1983 for a match against Jerry Blackwell held up over the years. Now that’s old school craftsmanship. Anyway, the car stunt didn’t do much for me, though I’m sure many viewers enjoyed it. The brawl was the latest of Allin’s violent spectacles, which I’m becoming more numb to with each big stunt (no, Darby, that’s not a challenge to raise the bar even higher). I’m not a fan of Kidd taking another loss. The Dogs faction is just getting started in AEW, and yet somehow, they’ve already been defined down. Sure, Allin’s win made a little more sense when he called out AEW World Champion MJF afterward, but it’s not like he couldn’t have done that without beating Kidd.
AEW Dynamite Misses
Overall show: A disappointing follow-up to a strong pay-per-view. Most of the momentum that AEW built up at Revolution felt lost by the end of this episode. It’s a shame the company didn’t save one of the big surprise appearances for Dynamite. For that matter, this show is the latest example of why AEW should cut back on its bloated pay-per-view match count. Revolution was a great show that could have been elevated to all-time classic status had they pulled the right two or three matches from the card. Tony Khan has spoken about the difficulty of booking Dynamite shows that follow pay-per-views because he never knows who will be sidelined due to injury. That would be less of an issue if he saved a few borderline pay-per-view matches for television. It’s frustrating that he stubbornly clings to his “more is better” approach to pay-per-views, even though it’s hurting the pay-per-view and the fallout editions of Dynamite.
Swerve Strickland wants Kenny Omega’s executive vice president title: I thought AEW had moved on from the EVP nonsense. It’s cool that Swerve and Omega are having another television match, but the stipulation is a joke. What power will Swerve actually gain if he becomes EVP? It sends a bad message when a wrestler is willing to risk a shot at the AEW World Championship for a silly executive title.
Jack Perry and “The Young Bucks” Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson vs. Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero, and Trent Beretta: A minor Miss for what would be a main event anywhere in the, um, well, certain parts of California? As good as Romero and Beretta are in the ring, their characters haven’t been pushed enough in AEW to feel like they belong in a Dynamite main event. The live crowd seemed happy to see Perry and the Young Bucks, yet also underwhelmed that this was the television main event they paid to see. This was the tamest crowd for a Dynamite show in recent memory, but I blame the show quality more than the fans. And you can tell by watching the fans when a hot crowd is simply mic’d poorly. This was not one of those crowds.
Jon Moxley and Wheeler Yuta vs. Ace Austin and Juice Robinson: A minor Miss for a match that fell into the AEW Special category for going longer than necessary when the outcome was so predictable.
(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.)
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