AEW Dynamite Review - April 7, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

"Hangman" Adam Page def. Max Caster

With his tag team partner Anthony Bowens still out injured for the time being, Caster has been rocking and rolling on his own lately, mostly on the Dark shows. It's no secret that I thoroughly enjoy The Acclaimed, so it's been nice to see him get the singles spotlight. He's beaten a bunch of members of The Dark Order, so it made sense for him to have a shot at taking on Page here. They had an enjoyable opener despite the predictable outcome. I'm curious what's next for Page as he's been treading water for a while now, and no, I don't think he should be the next person to challenge Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship. Hold off on that until at least the summer.

Best Friends Interrupted Death Triangle

Death Triangle will be getting their opportunity at the AEW World Tag Team Champions next week on Dynamite. That must mean Pac is finally healed up from whatever injury he was dealing with. Best Friends interrupting them was a pleasant surprise and I appreciate that Best Friends noted that they have unfinished business from last year. I believe they were supposed to have a Parking Lot Brawl on Dynamite before it had to be cancelled. Best Friends are coming off a big win in Arcade Anarchy and should be in contention for the tag titles before long as well.

Inner Circle Challenged The Pinnacle to a Blood and Guts Match

Man, this was fantastic. It felt like Inner Circle already got their revenge on Pinnacle with that brutal beatdown last week, but we all knew it was headed for a big blow-off in the ring eventually. Well, we found out here that it's going to happen inside Blood and Guts, which will be AEW's version of WarGames. We were supposed to get it in March 2020 before the pandemic caused the contest to canceled. Everyone cut quality promos here, but Jericho in particular was on fire. This was easily some of his best mic work in recent memory.

Jurassic Express def. Bear Country

The graphics were this were based off the posters and promotion for Godzilla vs. Kong, which is also a WarnerMedia property. I thought that was cool because I saw the movie last week and loved it, but if that's the only reason why this happened, then no thanks. I'm all for Jurassic Express winning on Dynamite, but this felt pointless and wasn't very good, either. I was hoping for a hoss fight as I like both teams, but this was clunky and disappointing on the whole.

Lance Archer and Jake Roberts Interrupted Sting

AEW has been promoting these interviews with Sting for months and it feels like they're always getting interrupted. It's getting to the point where it's just pure comedy. AEW has to be aware of this, right? Because it happens almost every single time. That said, I liked the intensity here from both Sting and Archer. They openly acknowledged how Archer can never win whenever it matters most, which isn't good unless he actually does one of these days. I have no idea what the endgame here is supposed to be.

AEW TNT Champion Darby Allin def. JD Drake

What Drake did to deserve a shot at the strap, I have no clue. He was literally randomly announced as getting a title match last week and that's all that was said. Nonetheless, they had a pretty good matchup. The early goings were a little rough, but they picked up the pace in the second half and had a solid outing. Drake has impressed me in the past, especially recently on the Dark shows, and he made the most of this opportunity. Matt Hardy is in next in line for a title shot, it seems.

Mike Tyson and Inner Circle Fended Off The Pinnacle

For the most part, this was an effective extension of what we got earlier in the episode from Inner Circle. The Pinnacle avenged their beatdown from last week by brutalizing Jericho and putting him through a table here. That brought out Mike Tyson, who has notoriously hated Jericho but apparently they're friends now because... they are. Okay, then. This was a random reason to bring back Tyson, but I guess they needed something to combat Night 1 of WWE NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver with.

Tay Conti def. The Bunny

The Bunny pinning Conti in that tag team match last week made zero sense to me with the momentum Conti currently has. It makes a little bit more sense in retrospect with Conti beating The Bunny here, but I would've preferred she not get pinned at all. This was a perfectly fine match, but all the shenanigans from The Dark Order and the H.F.O. at ringside were stupid and unnecessary. Can we please just have the focus solely on the women for a change?

AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers def. Jon Moxley and AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks

As a match, this was entertaining, but the story they were trying to tell was terrible. It doesn't help that The Young Bucks aren't the best actors. They had no problem combatting Omega week ago and agreeing to this match, but now we're supposed to believe that they've had a soft spot for Omega this entire time. I know their history, but all of this felt so forced and it made Moxley look like the dumbest babyface in the world. Here's a better question: Does anyone honestly care about the Elite stuff in 2021? The Bullet Club saga ran its course a long time ago. Rehashing that crap in AEW isn't exactly what I want to see out of a main event program.

Overall Show

I loved how there was more talking on this week's Dynamite than there was wrestling. Obviously, that shouldn't become the norm, but all of the segments clicked on this episode and thus it worked in this instance. The stuff at the end made me roll my eyes and didn't leave me as intrigued as AEW was probably hoping, but the rest of the night featured more good than bad and had an awesome energy to it.