By Wrestling Inc. Staff
AEW
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Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s weekly review of “AEW Dynamite,” the show where we’re adding not one, not two, but THREE matches to the Dynasty card four days ahead of time! Wednesday’s episode saw Swerve Strickland and Willow Nightingale take on Jon Moxley and Marina Shafir, Brody King battle Lance Archer, and Cope conquer Claudio Castagnoli in the main event; all this took place against the backdrop of the bracket reveals for the 2025 Owen Hart Cup Tournament, which will result, among other things, in Mercedes Mone teaming with Harley Cameron on “Collision” and Will Ospreay stepping in the ring with new AEW signee and Jay White replacement Kevin Knight on Sunday’s PPV.
All of the above are things the WINC staff had an opinion on this week, in one way or another. If you missed the show, or if you just want to read about a part we didn’t cover, go check out our “Dynamite” results page. On the other hand, if you’re ready for some subjective wrestling fan opinions, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 4/2/25 episode of “AEW Dynamite.”
Loved: The Owen takes center stage
AEW/Lee South
From the moment that Will Ospreay declared that he would be entering the 2025 Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, it has been very clear that AEW are taking this year’s competition more seriously than ever before. Following the success of last year’s tournament, which ultimately set up the two biggest matches at AEW’s biggest event of the year, the company have doubled down on that notion and essentially dedicated the go-home episode of their main weekly TV show to emphasizing how prestigious the competition truly is.
I’ve already talked about how the likes of Will Ospreay and Hangman Page declaring themselves for The Owen weeks in advance has added weight to it as Ospreay and Hangman are two of the biggest stars in the company, but AEW made sure that after Wednesday, the 2025 tournament means more to the participants involved than it ever has before. You could argue that going in to the April 2 episode of “AEW Dynamite,” the brackets being revealed was the most anticipated part of the show, and AEW understood that by having The Owen mentioned at multiple parts of the show.
Putting Ospreay’s first round match with Kevin Knight, and Mercedes Mone’s first round match with Julia Hart on the Dynasty show this Sunday is not only an easy way of getting two major stars on a big pay-per-view, but it makes the tournament feel important right from the beginning. What some people consider to be fairly predictable opening round ties have now been presented as major enough and prestigious enough to be featured on a pay-per-view, if you want to see this tournament, you will have to fork over some money if you want to see the whole thing, that’s how big it is.
Why are AEW doing this? Why did they essentially fill every possible gap on the show with references to The Owen? Simple, All In Texas. That is going to be their biggest show of the year and they want as many people being excited about it as humanly possible, so get them started months in advance. Have fans pondering who could realistically make it through the brackets and go to Globe Life Field and become champion. Have people speculate who could be the mystery wild card on the men’s side of things and what that could do to the proceedings. Have people talking about your biggest show of the year for as long as possible, and The Owen is a great way to do that.
This isn’t the traditional “this match was great” or “that promo was cool” type of praise that some might be used to reading in one of these, but instead, this is actually me applauding the fact that AEW are actually trying to make an occasion feel as big as advertised. Using The Owen as the vehicle to drive fans to Globe Life Field on July 12 is not only smart, but exciting as you know you’re going to get some great wrestling throughout the journey.
Written by Sam Palmer
Hated: The opener was a total mess
AEW/Lee South
Sometimes you might hear that a professional wrestling match is a “mess” in a positive way, but this is not one of those times. Instead what occurred in the opening match of “AEW Dynamite,” a mixed tag team match between Willow Nightingale and Swerve Strickland against Marina Shafir and Jon Moxley, was nothing short of an overbooked melee that even the production team struggled to keep an eye on. The premise of the match in itself was fine, given that Willow has been working alongside Swerve to negate Shafir in the Death Riders, and it cannot be said that the four competitors did not do their best to put on a good match. But unfortunately that really is where the fun stopped – at least for me – as the match continued to ignore the parameters it was set in, making it clear that all of the spots came before any form of structure to the bout. That would be fine in itself if this wasn’t a recurring theme with AEW, where-in the matches are filled with spectacular athletic feats with very little of the psychology or flow to say that this at least trying to convey sanctioned competition. This tag match continued to just roll with that severe omission of logic, sometimes literally, with Shafir applying a rolling leg lock to Willow which then for some reason launched Willow in the air – it come off like a glitch in Fight Forever more than anything that would serve to win a match.
Shafir was later clearly meant to scramble with Willow into the corner to set up a powerbomb breaking up a pinfall, and the way that was made clear was the fact that she tried to grab Willow by the boot, couldn’t seem to get a hold of it, and with literally nothing stopping her from getting involved with Swerve and Moxley, Willow still staggered over to the corner with Shafir following. It was moments like this where adaptive logic just went out of the window and it was abundantly clear that this was a collection of pre-ordained spots. But then that negates any excuse AEW would have when it came to the closing stretch, as production literally missed Willow putting Moxley through a table in lieu of Swerve watching it happen. It was the penultimate move of the match, taking Moxley out of the equation so Willow could pin Shafir after a powerbomb, and yet the TV audience was none the wiser to where Moxley had seemingly disappeared to. And again, it was clear that a lot of these spots were planned out and the camera had caught some of the more revealing aspects of the bout to that respect. So it just added to the general mood of the opener as an overbooked mess to miss one of the more exciting things to have happened. Moxley would then hit Willow with the Paradigm Shift – because why not – before scarpering away, and I’m not entirely sure how or why that was pitched let alone carried out. But it was another thing that happened in a long line of things happening that really won’t matter when Moxley has retained the title by next week.
Written by Max Everett
Loved: Harley Cameron bright spot in short backstage segment
AEW/Ricky Havlik
Just seeing Harley Cameron pop up on my screen on a Wednesday makes me smile, but when she had Muppet Mone in tow on I show I thought was just kind of alright, especially as a go-home, it’s extra fun. This woman is just too darn talented and she’s a wonderful little bright spot on any show she’s on. I’m glad TBS Champion Mercedes Mone and Cameron aren’t done with each other after their match at Grand Slam: Australia, and I love the fact they’re teaming up more than I would them going one-on-one again. It’s a good reason to watch “AEW Collision” on Saturday ahead of Dynasty on Sunday. I know I’m probably not the only fan of Cameron’s who wants to see her team up with Mone, even if it’s just for this one time. I think their different characters just work so well and they really showed that off ahead of Grand Slam.
And while I love the fact Cameron is in the 2025 Owen Cup, because she absolutely deserves to be with all the hard work she’s put in in recent months, the poor thing isn’t going to win it or even get past the first round. When the brackets were revealed, we found out that Cameron is set to take on ROH Women’s Champion Athena, and while that will likely be a fun first-time match, there’s just no way Cameron is walking out of that with a win. So, getting her on a show teaming up with Mone is a good way to keep a bit of her momentum going, as I don’t think Tony Khan is going to book his undefeated TBS Champion to lose in a tag team match.
I’m all for the Mone Wrath Train, or whatever Cameron ends up coming up with for their team name by Saturday. They’re taking on the team of Athena and Julia Hart so it’s guaranteed to be a good match. While AEW didn’t do too much to get me anymore excited for Dynasty on Sunday, they did a pretty good job of setting up the Women’s Owen Cup as a whole, as well as the go-home “Collision” for the pay-per-view.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Hated: Timing is everything
If there’s one thing that watching a plethora of professional wrestling shows has taught me over the years, it’s that timing and pacing are the key to putting on a great show whether it’s a weekly one or a pay-per-view event. The messy segments revolving around The Hurt Syndicate, MJF, Bryan Keith, and Big Bill are living proof of how putting things in the wrong order can mess up the flow of several back to back segments.
AEW chose to start out with having the meeting between MJF and The Hurt Syndicate wherein the former party plead his case as to why he would be beneficial to the latter party only to have the offer be rejected. Bryan Keith and Big Bill then confronted The Hurt Syndicate, quickly beat opponents who were literally not named once at all, and then challenge The Hurt Syndicate to an AEW World Tag Team Championship at Dynasty without being given a proper answer. In my mind, it would’ve made much more sense to put the squash match first, have The Hurt Syndicate come out afterwards, Bill and Keith throw out the challenge for it to be accepted on the spot, and finally had MJF come out to make his offer. Not only would it have flowed better, but it also would’ve made for a much more exciting way to announce the Dynasty AEW World Tag Team Championship. It was all around a lame several minutes of “Dynamite,” created confusion about whether things were official until a graphic in the corner of the screen made everything official, and did nothing of real value to add any sort of hype for an event that’s just days away from now.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
Loved: The simple pleasures of Brody King vs. Lance Archer
Etsuo Hara/Getty Images
Brody King might’ve been the most short-changed by the odd way the House of Black carried themselves in AEW. A former ROH World Champion and frontman for a popular band, it’s always felt like Brody King was meant to be more than just a guy to stand behind Malakai Black and look scary. Which is why his match with Lance Archer was such a delight on Wednesday.
With Black’s departure, King, Buddy Matthews, and Julia Hart have been seemingly re-establishing themselves without Malakai’s many neuroses. This has led to King especially being unchained and allowed to trade blows with big guys like Archer. Archer is another undersung kaiju of a wrestler but that was the case long before he joined AEW, and now he serves to make sure that guys like Brody King look as massive and powerful as he once did.
It was not a complicated match. It was barely more than an exhibition, but King and Archer brought a certain simple grace to an overbooked show. Sometimes a wrestling show really should be about two guys, much bigger than anyone should rightfully be, colliding with each other to the awe of thousands. No longer pigeonholed by the weird booking of House of Black, King has a real chance to soar and Wednesday’s showcase was a good start. Hopefully there will be many more battles like it to come for King.
Written by Ross Berman
Hated: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Cope
AEW/Lee South
As someone who has been a big Claudio Castagnoli fan for many years, this kind of hurts to write but it simply needs to be done. As recently as the 2024 Continental Classic, Castagnoli solidified himself as one of the best pure wrestlers in the entire world, and one of the most reliable hands that AEW has their disposal. Before that, he was producing such a consistent output that he was reaching the level that not many wrestlers reach where you can’t imagine them having a bad match with anyone, just look at his 2023 portfolio as an example as he was genuinely in the running for the best wrestler in the world in that year. Now look at him on this episode of “AEW Dynamite.” It really does sting.
Enough has been said about the Death Riders over the past six months to fill an entire book, but the one thing that doesn’t get talked about enough for my money is how much the group has completely devalued Claudio Castagnoli as a wrestler. He’s still consistent and can produce greatness when paired with the right person, but that’s kind of the problem, he used to be paired with anyone and be able to bring something good to great to the table every time, and now his bar is so low that seeing his name on a match graphic doesn’t move me the way it did a few years ago.
Then there is Cope, who defeated Castagnoli on this show, which is a problem in of itself. Why Cope feels the need at this stage of his career, when he’s already said that one of the things he wanted to do was put over young talent (I know Claudio isn’t exactly young but still) to be allergic to losing is beyond me. I’m sure he’s having a great time hearing people do their own renditions of Alter Bridge every week, and the fact that he’s working for someone who grew up being a fan of him, meaning that he is going to reach the Chris Jericho echelon of talent who simply can’t get off the TV even if that’s what’s best for them, but Cope should not be main eventing an episode of “Dynamite” at this point.
As for the match itself, it was fine. It was inoffensive and dry, lacking in any major heat, and quite an uninspiring choice for the main event of a go-home show before a pay-per-view. It was a match where the result was sadly all too predictable, and didn’t get me to feel basically anything. If there’s one thing worse than feeling like a match is bad, it’s not feeling anything about a match at all. Had it not been for the show closing angle, seeing Cope defeat Claudio Castagnoli wouldn’t have convinced me to buy Dynasty on pay-per-view this Sunday. AEW has had a problem with go-home shows over the years, and this main event was a symptom of that problem shining through.
Written by Sam Palmer
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