This episode of Dynamite took the formula of a traditional New Japan ‘Road to’ show, playing numerous multi-person matches designed to highlight as many feuds as possible. Though the matches themselves were rather hard to invest in, each delivered what it needed, with the opening and closing matches particularly entertaining to watch. The meat of this show however came in it’s storytelling outside of the ring with some excellent segments. The Mariah May/Toni Storm sit down may be my favourite promo either woman has ever cut, while Swerve/Ricochet and Hangman/MJF had nicely compelling segments to supercharge their Revolution matchups. The card for this Sunday’s show is one of the most stacked in the company’s history, and all that was required was to highlight them well, which this did, even though frankly the wrestling was a little superfluous. A tough show to rate in that regard, but the quality of the segments, the incredible crowd, and the strong work in advancing stories throughout the show lends an overall greatly positive score.
Tonight on AEW Dynamite, Adam Copeland completes his dismantling of the Death Riders against Wheeler Yuta. Ricochet and Swerve Strickland also put pen to paper for their match this weekend. Elsewhere on the card, Swerve Strickland and Brody King team up to battle Kazuchika Okada and Ricochet. Lets get at it!
MJF hits the most Ric Flair infused promo imaginable, calling out Hangman in an inevitable set-up for later in the show.
GREAT Ricochet and Swerve Strickland Contract Signing
Some thoroughly enjoyable promo work to open the show here, with a good contrast of dynamic, some good barbs by both men and a fun bait and switch to close up. This segment, and this show broadly were elevated by a rabid crowd, with the crowd extremely behind Swerve. Swerve admittedly stumbled over his words a few times here and didn’t have his usual vocal poise, but his aura more than made up for it. A fun opening segment that built the Revolution match well.
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.75 Stars
AMAZING Will Ospreay, Orange Cassidy, Mark Briscoe and Powerhouse Hobbs vs Bryan Keith and The Don Callis Family
The party match of all party matches, this was incredible fun with terrific talents working beautifully together. Even Don Callis got involved with the beating which was fun to see. They did wrestle as though the rules didn’t apply to them because, frankly, they didn’t. However, this nonetheless did have enough in the mean’s of story dynamics to just about keep it from becoming a wasteful spotfest, with the post match also a vicious assault on Ospreay alongside good advancement for Mark Davis. A super opening, the type of which Dynamite should have every week in some capacity.
Result: Will Ospreay by Pinfall via Hidden Blade
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 4 Stars
Video package for Omega vs Takeshita, happy to see them playing from the DDT history as well as their AEW History.
GREAT Cope vs Wheeler Yuta
This climaxed the story of recent weeks with the most interesting dynamic, that of the cocky young gun. They had good chemistry, though beginning with lock-ups and traditional wrestling is a bit odd given how intense the last few weeks have been. It was a solid match with a great finish, Yuta’s Danielson influences failing and falling to a spear mid elbow. A tad confused in it’s construction, but a very serviceable match with two good workers.
Result: Cope by Pinfall via Spear
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.5 Stars
Post match, Cope shakes Wheeler Yuta’s hand, telling him that is what respect looks like. The story continues backstage where Moxley makes his case for beating Cope despite being alone, as Yuta abandons ship ahead of the match. My expectation is that letting Yuta away con-chair-to free will come back to haunt Cope and Yuta will help Moxley retain. Good promo by Mox.
The Outrunners train in a video entirely resembling 80s hype packages. Bit of fun before they accept their inevitable pasting at the hands of The Hurt Syndicate.
A great segment follows in which MJF lured Hangman Page into a trap, goading him with a double before assaulting him. Excellent follow up the beginning of the show and a good dose of viciousness ahead of the PPV.
The director of Queen Of The Ring is here for some promotion, I will seek out the film when it arrives on UK shores.
GOOD Megan Bayne and Penelope Ford vs Kris Statlander and Thunder Rosa
Megan Bayne has established herself on AEW TV well since returning during the casino gauntlet several weeks ago, and she was once again strong here. A solid shift here with the key purpose of putting over Bayne, who they clearly have much current stock in. Simple but fairley effective showing, though I was a little amused that the match, though sponsored by Queen Of The Ring, did not contain a single talent from the film.
Result: Megan Bayne by Pinfall via F5
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.25 Stars
Mercedes cuts a solid backstage promo on Momo Watanabe and hypes up a Collision match between Momo and Serena Deeb on Collision, which should absolutely rule.
GOOD Max Caster Promo
Hard to rate this, as he is being obnoxious and a bit naff on purpose. Max is doing a good job with the role, but it is so metatextual in that it is him playing a poor promo, which makes it’s quality hard to quantify. He got good heat here and was appropriately dorky. A solid furthering of his heel character.
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.25 Stars
SQUASH Max Caster vs Jay White
40 Seconds. Well that was easy.
Result- Jay White by Pinfall via Blade Runner
Too Short To Rate
GREAT Jay White Promo
A well delivered retort from White talking about wanting to see Cope defeat Moxley at Revolution. Not substantial enough to rate much higher but White always knows how to whip up a crowd.
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.5 Stars
The best segment of the show by a country mile came next, the sit down interview between Mariah May and Toni Storm. The acting in this segment was frankly beyond sublime, and it’s writing was just as good. I have had my criticisms with the logic of this feud at times but this absolutely ruled. For once I can say, you have dialogue here that was worthy of the cinema. Outstanding.
AMAZING Swerve Strickland and Brody King vs Ricochet and Kazuchika Okada
This is a classic match to book when you have nothing else to do, put two feuds together, mash them up and see what happens. What happened was an expectantly great match, with super fun dynamics that made me excited for Okada/King at Revolution, with the two having excellent striking exchanges. Ricochet once again getting the upper hand on Swerve is also perfect advancement for their feud leading to what I suspect is Swerve’s win back. A very entertaining main event , even if perhaps Cope and Yuta should’ve taken the spot to give the world title feud the closing spotlight.
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 4 Stars
Overall…
This episode of Dynamite took the formula of a traditional New Japan ‘Road to’ show, playing numerous multi-person matches designed to highlight as many feuds as possible. Though the matches themselves were rather hard to invest in, each delivered what it needed, with the opening and closing matches particularly entertaining to watch. The meat of this show however came in it’s storytelling outside of the ring with some excellent segments. The Mariah May/Toni Storm sit down may be my favourite promo either woman has ever cut, while Swerve/Ricochet and Hangman/MJF had nicely compelling segments to supercharge their Revolution matchups. The card for this Sunday’s show is one of the most stacked in the company’s history, and all that was required was to highlight them well, which this did, even though frankly the wrestling was a little superfluous. A tough show to rate in that regard, but the quality of the segments, the incredible crowd, and the strong work in advancing stories throughout the show lends an overall greatly positive score.
Matches: 0.5/1 Stars
Show Structure: 0.75/1 Stars
Atmosphere: 1/1 Stars
Storytelling: 0.75/1 Stars
Production/Theme: 0.75/1 Stars
Overall Rating: 3.75/5 Stars
Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling – March 5th 2025
For inquiries about the rating criteria check out the article announcing the new system here :
