AEW Dynamite Review - April 10, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW TNT Champion Adam Copeland def. Penta El Zero Miedo

Much like when Copeland faced Minoru Suzuki a few weeks ago, this was one of those matches I never thought I'd see but am glad that we got it. This was easily the highlight of the night. Copeland proved he could hang (as he has his entire AEW run so far) and Penta was awesome as always. It was a very enjoyable opener despite the outcome never being in doubt. Willow Nightingale saving Copeland from Brody King and Julia Hart set up a mixed tag team match for next week.

The Young Bucks Interrupted FTR

Yes, they actually aired the footage of the backstage "brawl" between CM Punk and Jack Perry from All In 2023 and it was... pretty much what CM Punk said on Ariel Helwani's show last week. Basically, it was brief and underwhelming. The decision to air it was a dumb one because it accomplished absolutely nothing. Tony Khan can claim that it furthered the feud between the Bucks and FTR, but all their exchange did was establish that the company was aware of fans' criticisms and went ahead with it, anyway. What a waste of time.

Renee Paquette Interviewed Will Ospreay

Positioning this right after the last segment was terrible timing. In addition to there being two consecutive segments without wrestling, this also featured Ospreay taking a not-so-subtle shot at Paul Levesque. Honestly, what he said was valid because Levesque's comments from last week about free agents not wanting to deal with the WWE "grind" were stupid, but Ospreay could have easily responded online instead of a televised promo where it felt out of place. Otherwise, this was a very good promo from Ospreay hyping up his Revolution match with Bryan Danielson.

Shane Taylor Promotions (Anthony Ogogo, Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty) def. Katsuyori, Shibata and LionHook

Apparently Ogogo is a full-blown member of Shane Taylor Promotions after what went down on Collision and not just an ally. I guess that's one way to get him back on television. I'm shocked Shane Taylor Promotions actually won for a change, but the focus was obviously less on their victory and more on LionHook not being able to coexist. I truly do not care about their storyline and I'm not there's anything they can do to change my mind.

AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada def. Christiano Argento (Non-Title)

This was a straight-up squash for Okada as it should have been. Argento was a local loser and had no business getting any offense in against Okada, so it made sense for this to last less than 90 seconds. Establishing him with wins like this will only help him in the long run. Chaos ensued afterward with The Elite attacking Pac and FTR. That would have fine had the Bucks and FTR not already interacted earlier in the episode.

AEW World Women's Champion Toni Storm Attacked Thunder Rosa; Mariah May def. Anna Jay

Storm was supposed to have what was advertised as a "Charleston Championship Champagne Toast" before she threw the champagne in Rosa's face and left her laying. That was way too short to further their feud in any meaningful manner. The subsequent match between May and Jay was solid albeit unspectacular. Jay doesn't mean much these days, but it did provide May with a rebound win after suffering her first singles loss last week. Stardom's Mina Shirakawa showed up afterward and had a weird-ass interaction with May. I assume have history in Stardom, but this crowd didn't really react at all.

AEW World Champion Samoa Joe def. Dustin Rhodes in an AEW World Championship Eliminator Match

I'm convinced TK booked this bout on purpose days after another Rhodes faced off with another Samoan named Joe. That said, I'm not complaining because this was a very good main event and it was cool to see Dustin in such a prominent spot. I didn't think he'd actually win, mind you, but he put forth a commendable effort and it was a competitive contest. The show-closing angle with Swerve Strickland getting the better of Joe (after Joe stood tall following last week's contract signing) was well done.

Overall Show

I can't stress enough how idiotic it was for AEW to air that All In backstage footage. I don't want to say it was WCW levels of bad, but it definitely did the company no favors. Unfortunately, that is all this edition of Dynamite will be remembered for. This was actually a pretty poor episode otherwise anyway, but I appreciated that it started and ended on a high note with entertaining matchups.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews