The April 12 edition of AEW Dynamite gave us Darby Allin vs. Swerve Strickland, Buddy Matthews vs. Orange Cassidy for the International Championship, Sting, MFJ, Powerhouse Hobbs, Bullet Club, the returns of The Elite and Jeff Hardy, and in the main event Keith Lee vs. Chris Jericho.
Highlights:
- In the opening match of the night Darby Allin defeated Swerve Strickland, despite some shenanigans of the combined Mogul and Empire stables. The back and forth match played on both wrestlers’ athleticism, and Swerve hurting his ankle halfway through the match playing into the outcome. Following the match, MJF hit the ring for a promo leading to a battle of words between the two pillars and the eventual arrival of Sting who seems to be having grand old time despite stating the end of his in-ring time is coming to an end. Follow up segment with Swerve declaring he would get some satisfaction before the night ended.
- In the main event Chris Jericho defeated Keith Lee. The commentators played up Lee’s history with Adam Cole, explaining why he wanted this match with Jericho. I think AEW missed a golden opportunity of not having Cole come out as Lee’s manager (WWE’s original plans for the pair on the main roster) as the ultimate middle finger to the house that the McMahon family built. Fun main event with Lee having the match won before interference by Strickland suggesting the heating up of the pair’s storyline is back on the menu, with Adam Cole (who made an appearance to end the show) likely moving into a feud with Jericho.
- Ruby Soho and Toni Storm took on the team of Skye Blue and Riho. Good showing by Blue and Riho who got a lukewarm crowd into the match before taking the loss leading to another all women run-in scrum.
- Promo from Jay White and Juice Robinson quickly highlighting their history together in Bullet Club and their plans in AEW.
- Buddy Matthews made his way to the ring with a picture-in-picture video package highlighting last week’s interactions leading to the match tonight against Orange Cassidy for the AEW International Championship. Great early offense for Cassidy before playing on the injured hand which he reinjured with an Orange Punch that didn’t put Matthews down. Strong match with several near falls suggesting Cassidy’s reign was coming to an end before the champ used the Mouse Trap to keep his championship. Follow up backstage segment Best Friends largely ignoring Cassidy’s injury and challenging Aussie Open to a match on AEW Rampage.
- Following a video package recounting recent events, and a promo from Kenny Omega promising payback, the Blackpool Combat Club’s Jon Moxley and Claudio Castignoli basically murdered Brandon Cutler and Michael Nakazawa, although the pair showed more fight than you might expect. After the beatdown, The Elite returned for some payback.
- The was a good flow to the show, with multiple short video segments tying storylines together and the commercial segments well-placed and not breaking the action as much as in some other weeks.
Lows:
- A hard segment to rate with all its ups and downs. Follow up segment to Matt Hardy betraying Ethan Page last week started strong enough, got extremely confusing as Matt Hardy announced he and Private Party were free of the Firm but then wanted a match to free themselves out of the Firm (um, what?). Then the Firm’s beatdown of the pair was interrupted by Hook and Jeff Hardy hitting the ring. Jeff got a huge pop from the crowd, but there’s certainly reason for concern over AEW putting him back on television.
Less Notable:
- Squash win for Powerhouse Hobbs over Silas Young followed by Wardlow destroying Hobbs’ car in the arena parking lot and leading to a brawl on the ramp with Aaron Solo getting powerbombed through a table. Did what was expected, but the framing of Hobbs’ arrival tipped the entire segment off before the match.
- Another Christian Cage and Luchasaurus promo.
