AEW Dynasty review: Matthew & Nicholas ruin everything

Those darn Young Bucks are back.

The main event of Dynasty saw Jon Moxley manage to walk away with the AEW Championship briefcase yet again. This time, it was thanks to the returning EVPs The Young Bucks, who laid out Swerve Strickland with the EVP trigger allowing Moxley to cover him for the win.

Unlike last month, this main event was pretty damn good, capping off another strong pay-per-view for AEW. It wasn’t brutal so much as it was gritty. There was a bit of blood, but it wasn’t a complete bloodbath like you would see in some Swerve matches. To their credit the crowd, who at that point had been watching wrestling for at least five hours, got into this match strongly especially after The Ops came out and chased away the Death Riders, realizing that for once, hey, someone may actually beat Moxley. Then the finish went down.

I get that this wasn’t a particularly well-recieved finish, and I would have loved to see Strickland emerge as champion. I would also love it if every Jon Moxley match didn’t end with House of Torture nonsense that I feel is infiltrating every wrestling promotion now. But I also understand that the long-term planning is for All In, AEW’s biggest show of the year. Moxley will very likely be champion heading into July. So for right now, the focus is on Moxley doing his shtick while the Owen Hart tournament unfolds.

This was a very long show and I think this is a good time to vent about AEW’s “for the sickos” booking. Look, I like AEW. I don’t make a living criticising them for the YouTube algorithm, this was a good show. Dynamite and Collision most weeks are fine, even good! But there are many times where I feel like they ask for too much of my time. They just announced a FOUR HOUR television block for June 4. They’re running 5 1/2 hour pay-per-views, and that isn’t including the 90 minute pre-show and the post-show where I’m hearing questions like “what is your favorite chicken wing” and “what is your Waffle House order” at 10 pm PST. I have a life, AEW. Please let me live it on days when you have shows.

The rest of the very long show. Which, for the record, was good!: 

• The best match on the show was Kenny Omega retaining the International title over Speedball Mike Bailey and Ricochet. These three went out there and busted their butts to have an excellent match. A ton of cool dives and innovative moves, ending when Omega pinned Ricochet with a One Winged Angel off the turnbuckle. This was also an excellent showcase for Bailey, who looked like a million bucks, though I have to question how his knees are doing after smashing them on the apron.
• The Hurt Business retained their titles, defeating Big Bill and Bryan Keith. There was never a moment where I thought the challengers would win, and they didn’t. The key to this match was building towards whatever’s going on between MJF and the rest of the Hurt Business, attacking Bill in the crowd during a moment on the outside. Match itself was fine.
• Adam Cole won the TNT title, defeating Daniel Garcia in a pretty good match, at least on a technical level. The crowd didn’t seem to care about the match or Cole’s title win. I’ve liked their series of matches in the last couple of weeks, but for whatever reason the crowd just wasn’t into them.
• Bandido and Chris Jericho had a good match, with Bandido winning the ROH World title for a second time. I don’t know if I liked the false finish with Jericho pinning Bandido with the bat, but it did get reversed and we got a nice ending with Bandido celebrating with his family. It’s nice to have happy moments with family so everything worked out in the end.
• Kyle Fletcher defeated Mark Briscoe in what I think was the second best match on the show. These two had a fantastic match on a recent episode of Collision and they followed that with this match, which was also excellent and very hard-hitting at times. Mark Briscoe is at a point in his career where he’ll be over no matter what as he’s such an engaging personality and always goes out there and delivers. Fletcher is someone special and should win the tournament, but I don’t feel like he will.
• Death Riders kept their Trios titles, defeating Rated FTR. The match was pretty solid, but it will be remembered more for the post-match attack that saw both Cash and Dax attack Cope, giving him stuff piledrivers onto chairs and conchairtos, putting him out of action probably until All In. I wonder if they’re reuniting Cope with Christian, and after all of these years of Christian being a mega heel, how does he end up reuniting with Cope?
• Timeless Toni Storm managed to walk away as the AEW Women’s Champion in a pretty good match, defeating Megan Bayne with a cradle. Whoever structured the match did a great job as I thought the strongest points of the match were Bayne looking like a monster kicking out of Storm’s strongest offense.
• Mercedes Mone continued her streak of great matches by defeating Julia Hart. This didn’t start off hot, but by the final few minutes it was really great thanks to the crowd, who got super into the match, particularly for Hart. If Mone and Athena isn’t the All In match, I wonder if Mone is winning this and challenging Storm.
• Will Ospreay opened the show by defeating Kevin Knight. I wish Knight didn’t take so many losses early in his AEW career as I think he’s a talented guy that they should take time getting over. But considering the kind of matches he’s had in the last couple of weeks, I think he’ll be fine. I wonder if this is the year that Ospreay wins the Owen and challenges Moxley, because if it’s anyone’s time to be the top babyface in the company, it’s either Ospreay or Strickland.

Source