By Will Pruett, ProWrestling.net Co-Senior Staffer (@itswilltime)
Here we are with officially zero episodes of AEW Dynamite standing between us and All In on Sunday! Let’s see how AEW brought their biggest show of the year home!
– Will Ospreay delivered the big mission statement promo with a promise to bring the AEW Men’s World Championship home on this show. It was his final statement and AEW’s opening pitch for All In during their go-home week. It was a good promo featuring Ospreay garnering some home-continent support. It would have been nice to hear from Kenny Omega on this show as well – even if Omega could only appear on video. While I enjoyed Ospreay’s promo, how much respect does he plan to give the guy that brutally beat him down last week? Did the end of last week’s Dynamite really happen? Where am I?
– The end of this show had a brilliant video package for the Ospreay vs. Omega match that may have sold more pay-per-views than anything on this show. It spanned their entire history, including some clips from Reseda, California’s own PWG and the site of the original Ospreay vs. Omega match (RIP American Legion Hall #308, the greatest wrestling venue of all time). This video could have been split into three parts and dispersed throughout the show, but I actually believe it was more effective all at once. I would have played this before Ospreay’s promo, basically as the show opener, if I were AEW. Sell fans immediately with your best-made and most compelling piece of content.
– Logically, why is Adam Copeland still palling around with The Young Bucks? It’s literally the week of the pay-per-view, and last week Cope told the Bucks that entering a trios match was a poor decision. Copeland cannot care that much about beating up Don Callis’ least favorite boys, can he? Christian Cage is right about most things, and he was right to stay out of this match. The Bucks vs. Cope and Cage build for All In seemed consistently locked in second gear and never made it out. I expected more heat and heart from these two teams, but they peaked with the Renee Paquette sit-down interview and have coasted ever since.
– Both matches in the Continental Cup tournament did not hook me this week. Aside from the excellent Moxley vs. White quarterfinal match, nothing in this tournament has stood out. Moxley was always going to the final of this one, and he was always going to defend the Continental Championship at All In. Nigel McGuinness now seems like the obvious choice for an opponent, but getting there has made me less excited to see this match than a mere announcement of it would have. Nigel’s injury and performances have not made for compelling TV. Expecting Nigel to go toe-to-toe with Moxley in Wembley feels like an even taller task than it would have pre-tournament.
– Why not have Moxley vs. McGuinness stem from something personal? Maybe Nigel stands up from the announce desk and stops Moxley and The Death Riders from doing something heinous, leading to Moxley injuring McGuinness a week later. Nigel could still go into Wembley selling an injury, and you have the match made without an obvious tournament and with more personal stakes for both men.
– Swerve Strickland vs. Jack Perry was a good match, perhaps one of the best Perry has been in. Perry continues to look strong, losing to former AEW Men’s World Champions. Strickland has spent this build to All In treading water. It’s very different than his role at the last three All In shows (facing Sting, main eventing with Bryan Danielson, and in a centerpiece tag match against The Young Bucks). I believe Swerve will be up to something big at All In, but sidelining the storyline potential of Swerve for months leading into the show feels weird.
– There was nothing gained in the Willow and Mercedes Moné segment. It was another backstage beatdown from Mercedes. I understand the need to add Willow’s hand injury to the AEW canon, but where was her major promo? Where was Mercedes major promo? Why take away the opportunity to sell this match from two of the division’s best talkers? Similarly, this one could have used the career retrospective video package approach Ospreay and Omega received.
– The hype for the Casino Gauntlet match was fine. MJF and Andrade continue to have good exchanges leading into this. Chris Jericho being in the match is the least annoying thing he’s done since returning. Mark Davis should have a great showing in this one. Altogether, the match should be fun, but will be in competition with whatever the Trios Championship match is when it comes to getting major stars on this card. I wonder if this will be one of the shorter Casino Gauntlets.
– Kazuchika Okada continues to be the funniest man on AEW television. Takeshita vs. Fletcher vs. Okada will be a hard-hitting spectacle for the AEW International Championship and likely my most anticipated match on Sunday. It will be serious and fun. At the same time, Okada will make me laugh consistently in it. Okada and Orange Cassidy should fight for some sort of comedy wrestler championship determined by how much the audience giggles and guffaws.
– This episode of Dynamite did not leave me counting the hours until All In on Sunday the way I might have hoped to. AEW has taken a step back in build quality with All In this year, not hitting the same fever pitch that All In did last year. There are a lot of reasons why, and I may write a full breakdown of this in the future. I will say that this year’s show does not have the depth of personal storytelling up and down the card that we saw in 2025, and that’s depressing after AEW TV has been so good and fun this year.
And that’s that! If you want more than 10 Thoughts from me, I’ll be slightly more present on the site this week! I’ll be talking today with Jason Powell on the Boom and talking Saturday night about Collision! Plus, I should be a part of the AEW All In audio review this Sunday for Dot Net Members!
Will Pruett writes about wrestling and popular culture at prowrestling.net. To see his video content, subscribe to his YouTube channel. To contact him, check him out on Bluesky @itswilltime, leave a comment, or email him at itswilltime@gmail.com.
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