By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
MJF vs. Kevin Knight for the AEW World Championship: A strong match with the champion letting a young challenger shine before beating him. One of the only negatives was the lousy ref bump spot. It looked like it was poorly conceived, rather than the referee simply taking a bad bump, as it’s tough to make a light kick to the hip look devastating. Either way, it wasn’t enough to ruin the match. On a side note, Knight showed more on the mic during his Collision segment with MJF than he did on last week’s Dynamite.
“Jet Set Rodeo” Hangman Page, Kevin Knight, and Mike Bailey vs. Kyle Fletcher, Kazuchika Okada, and Mark Davis for the AEW Trios Titles: Wow, Tony Khan’s on-air character is a real dick for making a wounded Knight defend the trios titles in an unadvertised match after he challenged for the AEW World Championship earler in the show. Putting that aside, this was a strong main event, complete with a title change. Everyone involved looked good, but Bailey delivered the standout performance. It’s also worth noting that Knight was pinned twice in the same night and still managed to gain momentum. If future matches are this enjoyable and get featured as prominently, I might even start to care about the AEW Trios Titles for the first time.
Thekla vs. Thunder Rosa for the AEW Women’s Championship: The match is what it needed to be, with Thekla going over strong. Rosa’s character showed heart, but the new champion won clean. Bonus points for Thekla finally doing the spider walk to avoid a move, rather than doing it at odd times and having it backfire. Thekla’s most recent promos have also been better, and she is off to a solid start as champion.
AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley vs. Hechicero in an elimination match: Another week, another throwaway elimination match win for Moxley. Apparently, Moxley is the first “take on all comers” champion, who won’t actually put his title on the line against 90 percent of his opponents. Anyway, this was a good match with a fun split crowd dynamic. The announcers helped tell the story that Hechicero was trying to soften up Moxley before his title defense against Konosuke Takeshita at Revolution.
“The Brawling Birds” Jamie Hayter and Alex Windsor vs. “The IInspiration” Cassie Lee and Jessie McKay: All of the online grumbling about Lee and McKay popping up in AEW, and the duo ended up losing their Dynamite debut match to Hayter and Windsor in decisive fashion. The high-energy Birds are gaining popularity with the live crowds.
AEW Dynamite Misses
Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy vs. Gabe Kidd and Clark Connors: This was an entertaining match, but the finish was a head-scratcher. As strange as it was to air a Connors vignette on Collision after he’d already debuted on television, it was even more strange to follow that up with him being pinned on Dynamite. Allin and Cassidy are firmly entrenched as AEW fan favorites. Allin should be protected, but taking the loss wouldn’t have hurt Cassidy. David Finlay showing up afterward to round out the new Dogs faction with Kidd and Connors was cool (if you can get past AEW adding yet another faction), but having Kidd and Connors lose moments earlier sent the wrong message about the trio.
(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.)
Not a new complaint in the world of Professional Wrestling, but it was also infuriating stupid how “security” allowed Swerve to almost murder Brody King, but sprinted out in a panic to prevent a minor scuffle involving Kris Statlander.