By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
Chris Jericho’s return: It’s been a full year since Jericho’s last match at the 2025 AEW Dynasty pay-per-view. Time flies. Although a return to WWE would have been bigger since he hasn’t worked there since 2018, enough time has passed that Jericho’s surprise return on Dynamite still felt significant. Jericho never recovered from an unverified online allegation that neither he nor the company has publicly addressed. Only time will tell how other live crowds respond to him, but it was a wise move for Jericho to return in his hometown of Winnipeg, where the fans gave him a great reaction. I like that Jericho kept it simple by telling Winnipeg and AEW, “I’m home.” He didn’t tip his hand regarding his first storyline direction or whether he is a babyface or a heel. The best part of Jericho’s return? Watching his proud 81-year-old father belting out the lyrics to “Judas” from the front row.
AEW World Champion MJF vs. Mike Bailey in an eliminator match: MJF taunting the Canadian fans by having Justin Roberts introduce him as being from “the only country that matters” was good heel fun. I’m surprised he didn’t hit the Canadian fans where it hurts at some point by bringing up Team USA’s clean sweep over Team Canada in Olympic hockey. Cheap heat, yes, but Team Canada is awesome, the Russians will eventually return, and if history is any indication, it could be another 20-40 years before the men’s team wins gold, so you need to get those jabs in while you can. Anyway, the match was entertaining. I’m rarely a fan of going with eliminator matches over title matches, but it may have helped some fans think that Bailey had a better chance of winning than he would have had the title been on the line.
Will Ospreay vs. Pac: Pac going after Ospreay’s surgically repaired neck was logical, but the stories of Jon Moxley exploiting Ospreay’s neck and MJF targeting Kenny Omega’s abdomen are a little too similar. Heck, they even had Mike Bailey sell a neck injury throughout the main event. Putting that aside, they told a solid story with Ospreay having to overcome Pac viciously attacking his neck before beating him clean. The post-match angle was decent with the Death Riders attacking Ospreay, only to have Moxley stop Claudio from Pillmanizing his neck. I’m not big on Moxley playing a tweener rather than going all out for heat, but perhaps there’s a storyline reason for it.
Kenny Omega, Brody King, and Jack Perry vs. “The Demand” Ricochet, Bishop Kaun, and Toa Liona: An action-packed opening match. The outcome was logical. No. 1 contender Omega won the bout for his team by pinning the leader of the opposing faction. The only problem is that beating Ricochet should mean more than it does, but he’s taken too many needless losses on AEW television.
Adam Copeland and Christian Cage: One of the best moments of the night was Copeland telling Renee Paquette that they would take out anyone in their way, only to have Christian wind up to hit her with a chair before Copeland stopped him. Copeland catching up with Christian and saying, “Renee, really?” was perfect.
Mina Shirakawa, Jamie Hayter, and Alex Windsor vs. “Triangle of Madness” Thekla, Julia Hart, and Skye Blue: A soft Hit for a match that seemed to bring the crowd down, only for the wrestlers to win over most of the fans by the end. Thekla is doing well as the AEW Women’s Champion, but the lack of strong challengers hurts. With Toni Storm sidelined, I wonder if the plan is to bring back Mercedes Mone as a babyface. If so, Thekla should be plowing through her challengers so that she feels as strong as possible before facing Mone.
AEW Dynamite Misses
MJF and Kenny Omega contract signing for the AEW Championship match at AEW Dynasty: A minor Miss. MJF turned Kenny Omega’s stomach ailments into an only slightly more believable version of Seth Rollins’ career-threatening back injury storyline from a few years back. Diverticulitis is no joke, and it sounds like Omega went through hell, but you have to turn your brain off to think that he’d actually be cleared to wrestle if his stomach issues were as serious as MJF made them out to be. They spent weeks telling us that Omega was back in full force, only to make it seem like he’s a late-night chalupa away from his intestines exploding. It would have been better to keep selling viewers on the idea that Omega is back at 100 percent and a huge threat to win the title, rather than playing up a weakness that could be used as an out for losing the title match.
(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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