By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
MJF vs. Darby Allin for the AEW World Championship: Let’s get the negative out of the way. The timing of the title change is questionable. MJF was in the midst of a strong run as champion, and the television numbers have been up during his reign. Ideally, there would have been a better build than Darby saying he was going after the title, beating Andrade El Idolo, and deciding he wanted the title match in his home area on short notice. I also wasn’t a fan of Darby plowing through MJF in two minutes. As much as I have been critical of many AEW matches running longer than necessary over the years, this is one time I wish they had gone with a longer and more competitive match. Now for the positives. Darby is extremely loyal to AEW. He’s one of the few wrestlers who has outright stated that he has no interest in leaving the company. His promos have dramatically improved since AEW launched. To say that he put his body through hell would be an understatement. He’s been a featured player in some of AEW’s most memorable moments, such as being CM Punk’s handpicked opponent for his first match back from a seven-year hiatus from pro wrestling. Allin was a great tag team partner for Sting and helped send him into retirement with a memorable final run. Darby literally planted an AEW flag at the peak of Mount Everest. Hangman Page is the only person who rivals Allin for the title of heart and soul of AEW. So despite whatever quibbles I have, it was a satisfying moment to see him win the AEW World Championship. It was perfect that Sting was there to give him the pre-match pep talk and to join in on the celebration. I loved seeing Darby take a moment to gaze at the title belt shortly after he won it. I’d love to know what was going through his mind, but the look on his face showed that this meant the world to him. The five-foot-nothing punk rock-loving scrawny skateboard kid who was probably told a million times that he was too small to be a wrestler, let alone a world champion, actually did it. Just as he did by scaling Mount Everest, Allin reached the peak of AEW. It may be a short title reign, but nobody can take that away from him.
Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay: The backstage footage of Omega and Ospreay talking in the trainer’s room after losing their matches at AEW Dynasty was excellent. They created a reason for the camera to be there, and the agony of defeat was on full display, complete with an emotional Omega questioning whether he still has it at this point in his career. Just when it seemed like this was going to be all about Omega passing the torch to Ospreay, it took an interesting twist when Ospreay called Omega his hero and encouraged him not to give up on the dream of winning the AEW World Championship. Omega’s character took those words to heart and went from being down on his luck to being re-engaged and motivated to keep going.
Kevin Knight vs. Claudio Castagnoli for the TNT Title: A good first title defense. While I saw Knight as the heavy favorite due to this being his first title defense, Castagnoli has been higher on the card than Knight, so it felt like a quality win for the new champion.
Chris Jericho and The Demand: Being an objective journalist, I must put aside this company’s repeated bullying of my bald brothers. With that in mind, Jericho (asshole) insulting Ricochet (bald hero), Toa Liona, and Bishop Kaun was comical (cruel) and got a rise out of the live crowd (pricks). Hey, if Jericho (entertaining) can borrow the Mr. Subliminal gag from Kevin Nealon (hilarious), then so can I (hack).
Tommaso Ciampa vs. Dezmond Xavier: A quality match that showcased Ciampa before he delivered a post-match promo and said that he wanted to challenge the winner of the AEW World Championship match. I suspect this means he’ll be the first challenger for Darby Allin. One of the fun things about Darby as champion is that he should feel vulnerable enough to create the feeling that his reign could end at any time. I doubt most fans will view Ciampa as a threat to win going in, but I could see them buying in during the match if it’s laid out well. Meanwhile, Xavier has been positioned as a tag team wrestler in AEW despite being a strong NXT North American Champion As such, it was fine that he took this singles loss, but here’s hoping that The Rascalz get a meaningful push in the tag division.
FTR and Stokely Hathaway promo: A soft Hit for Hathaway, Dax Harwood, and Cash Wheeler gloating over beating Adam Copeland and Christian Cage to retain the AEW Tag Team Titles at the Dynasty pay-per-view. While I thought the next challengers might step up to confront them, it’s okay to dedicate a segment to focusing on something that happened at a pay-per-view rather than turning the page in a rush to move on to the next thing. That said, this is one segment that could have been chopped to give the main event more time.
AEW Dynamite Misses
Opening segment with MJF and Darby Allin: It wasn’t all bad. Darby’s emotional comments were compelling, even if they did tip off the title change, and I like that they opened the show with a segment that set up the main event. But the far-fetched idea that MJF’s character was unaware that he was scheduled to defend the AEW World Championship on Dynamite was ridiculous.
Will Ospreay vs. Hechicero: A minor Miss. The match quality was Hit-worthy and it was a nice bounce-back win for Ospreay following his loss at Dynasty. But the story of the Dynasty match was that Moxley targeted Ospreay’s surgically repaired neck. Moxley performed a sleeper suplex, a Gotch-style piledriver, another piledriver on the ring steps, two Paradigm Shifts, and a Death Rider. If all of those moves weren’t enough to take out Ospreay, then what would it take? Rather than sell this attack by taking time away, he returned to work three nights later and won another match. Fans are going to become numb to Ospreay selling his neck in such an over-the-top manner. Perhaps the story should be that Ospreay’s neck held up despite everything that Moxley and Hechicero threw at him, so that he can move on without having to work his neck issues into all of his matches.
Willow Nightingale vs. Kamille for the TBS Championship: A minor Miss. The match was nothing special, but I expected worse since Kamille has wrestled only three times since November 2024. Ideally, the company would have given Kamille more time and matches to shake off the rust. Clearly, someone wanted Willow to get this win before Kamille debuts on Friday’s reboot of American Gladiators on Amazon Prime. Will Kamille stick around in AEW or go back to collecting mailbox money? Let the record show that AEW has fed Hikaru Shida, Queen Aminata, and Kamille to Willow this month while the AEW Women’s World Champion is facing tag team wrestlers.
(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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