AEW Dynamite Review - April 9, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW World Champion Jon Moxley def. Katsuyori Shibata (Non-Title)

I understand why this match was made (The Opps attempted to thwart The Death Riders' interference in the Revolution main event), but I can't say I was looking forward to it when it was announced. Thankfully, this wasn't a needlessly competitive contest and it was instead kept short and sweet with Moxley winning decisively. Nothing against Shibata, but we knew he wasn't winning here.

Swerve Strickland Saved AEW International Champion Kenny Omega from The Elite

Moxley dipped when The Young Bucks showed up to explain that they want to work with Death Riders to take over AEW, which is why they helped him retain the AEW World Championship at Revolution. Kenny Omega interrupted and acknowledged them shredding documents the last time we saw them on AEW TV back in November, but I didn't think his mic work was particularly strong. Strickland and Omega fending off the Bucks and Kazuchika Okada might be a preview of a potential Anarchy in the Arena match coming at Double or Nothing.

Swerve Strickland def. AEW World Trios Champion Pac

This was already advertised for the episode, but I liked the seamless segue from the previous segment into this match. What we got was good, but unfortunately, it was cut short by Pac suffering an injury. Props to him for attempting to finish it, though, rolling back into the ring so he can be put away by Strickland. Pac has suffered several injuries dating back to his WWE run, so hopefully he isn't sidelined for too long this time.

Will Ospreay, "Speedball" Mike Bailey, Mark Briscoe and Kevin Knight def. The Beast Mortos, Ricochet and CRU to Win $400,000

I hate these matches where money is on the line because we know it's not real and it's difficult to care about wrestlers making more money in storyline. The match was as fun as you'd expect given who was involved, so it didn't make much of a difference in the end. Yes, this was a random spot-fest that only seemed to exist to get these guys on the show, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

The Hurt Syndicate Once Again Turned Down MJF

All right, color me intrigued. Maybe I shouldn't be because we've seen this sort of thing with MJF before in AEW, but in my opinion, it's one of the most interesting angles on the show at the moment. Yes, this feels fairly similar to Sami Zayn wanting to join The Bloodline in WWE a few years ago, but I can't complain if it's working. Despite MJF helping Hurt Syndicate hold onto their AEW World Tag Team Championship at Revolution, Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin still don't want him in their ranks. I'm glad they're not acting like idiots by blissfully trusting him despite his many betrayals over the years.

Kris Statlander def. Thunder Rosa in a Women's Owen Hart Cup Quarterfinal Match

Amazingly, these two had never gone one-on-one before this, even though they've both been in AEW for years. It also made sense because they've been teaming up as of late. They had an entertaining encounter that could easily gone a few more minutes and Toni Storm was fine on commentary. Statlander will face the winner of Jamie Hayter vs. Billie Starkz from Saturday's Collision in the next round.

"The Learning Tree" Chris Jericho Expressed Disappointment in Big Bill and Bryan Keith on TV Time

Although I was happy with Bandido beating Jericho for the ROH World Championship at Revolution, that just means we're going to get Jericho back in a recurring role on Dynamite. Okay, so he was already appearing on Dynamite fairly regularly even while ROH World Champion, but his television time is probably going to increase again. Ugh. We're finally getting to the stage of this storyline where Bill is about to break away from Jericho, but I wish they'd skip ahead to the split because it's been long enough. Jericho saying he'll be going away for a while was a positive, but we'll see if that sticks.

The Opps (Hook and Samoa Joe) def. AEW World Trios Champions The Death Riders (Wheeler Yuta and Claudio Castagnoli)

I rolled my eyes when this was announced as the main event. Don't get me wrong, it was a quality contest, but it wasn't worthy of closing the show. On the bright side, The Opps won, so that should earn them an opportunity at the AEW World Trios Championship in the near future. Joe said as much during the post-match promo. The sooner we can get those belts on Death Riders, the better.

Overall Show

Dynasty left a sour taste in the mouths of many (myself included) and this post-pay-per-view edition of Dynamite didn't do much to make me more optimistic about the direction AEW is headed in with Death Riders, at least not anytime soon. Sure, Moxley will likely be dethroned at All In, but that's not until July. The product may very well continue to regress in the meantime. I thought this was a solid show on the whole and I'm looking forward to the two tournaments, but AEW has its work cut out for it in regards to building excitement for Double or Nothing coming off the last few days.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews