AEW Dynamite Review - April 19, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW World Champion MJF Informed Darby Allin, "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry and Sammy Guevara of an AEW World Championship No. 1 Contender's Four Pillars Tournament

I've praised the mic work of Allin, Perry and Guevara over the last month as part of this "four pillars" feud, but I didn't think any of their promos in this segment were all that great. MJF trumped all three of them when he came out and proved how he's on another level in that department. He established that there will be a mini "four pillars" tournament with the winner getting a world title shot at Double or Nothing, except he won't be involved and Allin got a bye due to MJF picking his name out of a hat. I'm not a fan of this approach as I feel like a four-way is the natural route to take and what everyone wants to see after everything they've done since Revolution.

Britt Baker and AEW Women's World Champion Jamie Hayter def. The Outcasts (Ruby Soho and Toni Storm)

Baker was super over in her native Philadelphia as she always is. She was clearly the star of the match (hence why she picked up the pinfall win for her team), but everyone had strong showings and it was an entertaining outing. The Outcasts have been on a winning streak as of late, so I had no issue with them eating the loss here, especially given the angle that gave them their heat back later in the night.

The Elite and Blackpool Combat Club Brawled

The ongoing rivalry between The Elite and Blackpool Combat Club has been of the better parts of the program in recent weeks, so I thought this was an effective way of furthering the feud. The Elite found themselves outnumbered, but because Adam Page is still sidelined from the screwdriver attack, Don Callis brought in Konosuke Takeshita (who he's been scouting for months now) to help even the odds. Maybe it will wind up being a swerve, but it was a nice development of the story, nonetheless.

Wardlow def. Powerhouse Hobbs to Win the AEW TNT Championship

Wardlow and Hobbs worked well together, but it was hard to get excited about this encounter because of how tame the feud has been and even harder to care about the championship changing hands for the umpteenth time. The title has virtually lost all of its value and feels like an afterthought. Why bother putting the belt on Hobbs for a month and giving him a forgettable reign if Wardlow was going to win it right back? Again, I liked the match, but I'm not optimistic about Wardlow's third reign being any better than his first two.

Jay White def. Komander

This was a weird match. It marked White's first in AEW since signing with the promotion earlier this month, but we also now know (per Tony Khan on Twitter) that Komander is officially "all elite" as well. My question is, who was this supposed to showcase? They had a highly enjoyable affair and the crowd was into the action, but it seemed like Komander got more of the shine here and that's not good seeing as how White is a much bigger star. I also fear Komander will be lost in the shuffle beyond having fun matches on Dynamite once in a while (a la Bandido).

Jericho Appreciation Society and The Outcasts Attacked Adam Cole and Britt Baker

I was looking forward to the verbal exchange between Cole and Chris Jericho knowing what both guys are capable of on the mic, but it left something to be desired. Hopefully they can deliver better promos in the buildup to their eventual match. The beatdown of Cole and Baker from Jericho and Saraya was well done, though. Cole and Baker have been featured a ton together on the All Access show recently, so it's logical to get Baker involved in the now-established issue between Cole and Jericho. It also gives Cole a reason to want to face Jericho.

The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn def. Jericho Appreciation Society ("Daddy Magic" Matt Menard, "Cool Hand" Angelo Parker and Jake Hager)

If The Acclaimed's team lost, they would've had to join Jericho Appreciation Society (and possibly Gunn but I'm not sure). In other words, you knew they were winning this match, unless Tony Khan really wanted to drag out this rivalry I don't care about. It was a perfectly fine six-man tag team match, but I thought the shenanigans were dumb and the crowd understandably sat on their hands for most of it. Th best thing I can say about this is that it hopefully marked the end of this short-lived storyline.

Sammy Guevara def. "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry by Count-Out to Advance in the AEW World Championship No. 1 Contender's Four Pillars Tournament

I was shocked when MJF said earlier in the evening that this was the first-ever one-on-one meeting between these two given that they've both been in AEW since Day 1. That said, this should have felt bigger than it was considering the crowd wasn't all that hot for it. They had a quality main event, but that count-out finish was lame and ended the show on a flat note. Now we're getting Guevara against Allin next week and it's pretty predictable Allin will win unless there's some sort of a swerve that leads us back to a four-way.

Overall Show

This was one of Dynamite's weaker efforts in recent memory. It was a somewhat eventual episode with the TNT title changing hands (though I'm not sure how noteworthy that is at this point), White wrestling his first match as a member of the AEW roster, and the announcement of a "four pillars" tourney, so it wasn't a waste of an episode. However, I had several criticisms of what we got and it certainly feels like we're in a placeholder period at the moment until the Double or Nothing build kicks into next gear.

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