 United Empire and Alex Windsor Attacked The Death RidersKicking off the show with a big brawl in the parking lot was refreshing. Granted, I had no idea who any of those guys were who helped out Will Ospreay at first until it was said that they're members of United Empire (I don't regularly follow New Japan Pro-Wrestling and thought the group disbanded years ago when Ospreay left), but it did set up the night's eight-man tag team main event. It was also cool seeing Ospreay link up with his wife Windsor on AEW TV for the first time (if I'm not mistaken). The Don Callis Family (Andrade El Idolo, Konosuke Takeshita and Mark Davis) def. AEW National Champion Jack Perry, ROH World Champion Bandido and Darby AllinBandido filled in for Brody King, who missed the show to attend a funeral (my condolences for his loss). This was a fun preview of what we can expect from Allin and Andrade at Dynasty. Everyone played their roles well and the action was entertaining. Andrade winning probably means he's losing to Allin on Sunday, but I'd prefer to see him go over so he can challenge for the AEW World Championship soon. AEW TBS Champion Willow Nightingale def. Queen AminataNightingale successfully defended her AEW TBS Championship against the returning Hikaru Shida on last Saturday's Collision, hence why Shida was shown watching from the crowd here. Speaking of returns, this was also the return of Aminata, who we had not seen on AEW TV since late last year with an injury. She and Nightingale worked well together and had a good match. I'm glad Nightingale is getting back to defending her TBS title more frequently after it was put on the back burner for a bit while she was AEW Women's World Tag Team Champion. The Demand Confronted Chris JerichoJericho officially announced that he has re-signed with AEW, and as part of his contract (in storyline, anyway), he had the ability to choose his opponent for Dynasty. Ricochet was a logical choice considering he has credibility but can also afford to lose. Most of this segment was whatever to me, but I did enjoy seeing Jericho bring back his "list" gimmick from 2016/2017 at the end, if only for a one-off. Tommaso Ciampa def. Mascara Dorada to Earn the No. 1 Spot in the AEW TNT Championship Casino Gauntlet Match at DynastyDon Callis mentioned at the start of the show that Kyle Fletcher is indeed injured and has to vacate his AEW TNT Championship, so a Casino Gauntlet will be held at Dynasty to determine a new champ. That's a tough break for Fletcher, who was regaining momentum again. At any rate, this was a nice match from Ciampa and Dorada and Ciampa going over made the most sense. I was happy to see Ciampa on Dynamite for a change because he's exclusive to Collision most weeks it seems. AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR, Stokley and RPG Vice Attacked Adam Copeland and Christian CageThis was designed to build toward the AEW World Tag Team Championship match at Dynasty, so it was effective in that respect, but nothing they said or did really stood out to me. I actually thought it was a bit of an underwhelming segment. Considering how much bad blood there is between the two teams, it was rather basic, but FTR standing tall at the end did more heat on them. United Empire (Will Ospreay, IWGP World Champion Callum Newman, Francisco Akira and HENARE) def. The Death Riders (AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia and Pac) in Chaos in CanadaThis Chaos in Canada match was the equivalent of Anything Goes, or that Mile High whatever match from a month or two ago. As you'd expect, it was all action, and although I'd assume a decent chunk of the crowd weren't overly familiar with the NJPW guys, they got behind them down the stretch. Ospreay pinning Moxley and not any other member of Death Riders left me thinking Moxley will retain come Sunday. Kenny Omega Attacked AEW World Champion MJFI totally forgot this segment was even advertised because the show was already well into its overrun when this started. Unfortunately, it wasn't worth staying up for. That isn't to say it was bad, but it didn't move the needle for me at all. Omega's promo felt like it'd never end and even MJF's rebuttal wasn't his best mic work. We've seen stronger stuff from them in recent weeks, but I'm looking forward to their match at Dynasty, regardless. Overall ShowI didn't think this was supposed to be a two-and-a-half-hour show, and it certainly didn't need to be. God bless the "sickos" who want more, more and more, but it didn't make for the most exciting go-home episode. On the whole, it was solid, but I probably would've taken out Nightingale vs. Aminata since it had nothing to do with the pay-per-view so this could've been closer to two hours. Dynasty definitely has potential, though. It has a hell of a card on paper.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
May 2026
|
RSS Feed