AEW Dynamite Review - April 1, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW World Tag Team Champion Kenny Omega def. Trent

I applaud the effort by both men, but it seemed strange that they went all out for no reason. Don't get me wrong, it was a very entertaining encounter, but the outcome was never in doubt as I never once bought into the possibility of Trent winning. That said, Omega continues to kill it every chance he gets. It feels like a flip was switched inside of him at some point in the last two months and now he's back to being the Omega of old. I don't know why it's taken so long, but I'm glad we've got this Omega again.

Hikaru Shida def. Anna Jayy

Shida has ranked high in the AEW Women's Championship power rankings for so long now that it's both surprising and ridiculous she hasn't received a one-on-one shot at the title yet. It's possible they're building to it happening at Double or Nothing, but these wins have to lead somewhere eventually. I didn't expect Jayy to score as much offense as she did, but I thought she had a solid showing. The stuff with Britt Baker at ringside (screaming "Six feet!" because of social distancing) was a riot.

Lance Archer def. Marko Stunt

Stunt was the absolute perfect person for this spot. There's such a significant size difference between these two that Archer looked like a monster simply by standing next to him. His offense was hard-hitting and he held nothing back, tossing Stunt around the ring like a rag doll. He has a fantastic finisher to boot. This was a terrific debut for Archer and I can confidently say that AEW was smart to pick him up.

Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall def. The Dark Order (8 and 9)

It's cool that Dark Order is having more than just Evil Uno and Stu Grayson wrestle the tag team matches. Unfortunately, this felt like something you would see on Dark. It was a decent little match while it lasted, but it was mainly designed to give Rhodes and Marshall another victory. Brodie Lee surfaced afterward and laid out the one who got pinned with a brutal powerbomb, so it's possible we won't see either of these guys again. Speaking of Lee, I hate that his gimmick is basically a parody of Vince McMahon. It was funny for the first two weeks, but now it just screams anti-WWE.

Shawn Spears and Sammy Guevara def. Darby Allin and Cody

Cody will meet Spears in the first round of the AEW TNT Championship Tournament and Allin vs. Guevara will also go down in the first round. Cody and Allin work as well as partners as they do as opponents. Meanwhile, the mid-match shenanigans with Spears and Guevara betting on each other was hilarious. They made excellent use of the time allotted to them and Spears scoring the win for his team was the right call considering how badly he needed it. Allin punching Cody post-match all but guarantees they'll both be advancing to the semifinals. I'm not complaining because of how good their first two matches against each other were.

Overall Show

To be honest, the pre-taped segment with Chris Jericho and Vanguard 1 was easily the best thing on the entire show. That isn't to say the rest of the episode was poor by any means because it was entertaining as always, but that segment was pure gold. I also enjoyed the main event immensely and thought they utilized their new empty arena well (wherever it was). To top it all off, Tony Schiavone had great chemistry with Cody and Colt Cabana on commentary throughout the broadcast. This episode gets two thumbs-up from me and I hope they can continue to tape TV despite the current circumstances.