AEW Dynamite Review - March 10, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Rey Fenix def. AEW World Tag Team Champion Matt Jackson

It's very rare we see The Young Bucks compete in singles matches. In fact, the only other one I remember is when Fenix faced Nick Jackson back in late 2019. Their real appeal is as a team, but I like how their singles matches are far and few between and are kept special. This was an excellent opener, but if you aren't a fan of that style of wrestling, you probably thought otherwise. But I enjoyed how fast-paced it was and didn't even mind how long it ended up going. I'm very much looking forward to Young Bucks vs. Pac and Fenix.

Cody Rhodes def. Seth Gargis

This is how you do a proper enhancement match. I say that because AEW will do "enhancement" matches from time to time where the local athlete or whoever it is gets in way too much offense and it takes the established wrestler too much time to beat them. Thankfully, that was not the case here and Cody put Gargis away in under a minute. Penta El Zero Miedo then called out Cody from the crowd and the two got into it when Penta made a comment about Cody's unborn child, setting the stage for a bout between the two next week.

Lance Archer Interrupted Tony Schiavone's Interview with Sting

In typical Sting fashion, he didn't talk very long before being interrupted by Archer and Jake Roberts. Archer wasn't exactly who I had in mind for Sting's next opponent, but maybe that's not what this was designed to plant the seeds for. Rather, maybe this was designed to tease Archer going after Sting in an attempt to get closer to AEW TNT Champion Darby Allin, who has been aligned with Sting lately. That would make more sense. For what it's worth, Archer comes through the babyface tunnel, but I assume he's more of a tweener.

"All Ego" Ethan Page def. Lee Johnson

There were audio issues throughout the match, so it was hard to pay attention. From what I saw, however, this was a perfectly fine match. Page had a good run in IMPACT and I'm interested to see how much he'll be featured going forward. I figured he'd get lost in the shuffle in AEW, but that remains to be seen and at least he's off to a solid start. Post-match, Page continued to attack Johnson and QT Marshall (who was in Johnson's corner) didn't nothing to stop him. I honestly couldn't care less about the Nightmare Family drama and Marshall's apparent heel turn.

Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston Brawled with the Impact World Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers; Christian Cage Confronted AEW World Champion Kenny Omega

I appreciate the attempt from Moxley, Kingston and even Omega to explain why the explosives at the end of Revolution didn't go off properly, but it still sucked. Tony Khan should've come out publicly online and said they messed up and moved on. Kingston's a tremendous talker, but not even he could salvage it. Speaking of Kingston, I love the idea of him and Moxley becoming buddies again and potentially entering the tag team ranks. Them against The Good Brothers has already been made official for next week. Maybe they can earn a future shot at the Impact World Tag Team Championship if they win. As for Christian confronting Omega, that's pretty cool and a match I didn't know I wanted until now. Hopefully they'll give Christian a few wins before immediately inserting him into the main event title mix. Normally, I wouldn't have any issue with it, but you can't justify having power rankings and then give someone with a 0-0 record in AEW a title shot.

AEW World Women's Champion Hikaru Shida, Thunder Rosa and Ryo Mizunami def. Maki Itoh, Nyla Rose and Britt Baker

This was logical follow-up to the events of Revolution, but man, this was a mess. The action was all over the place and didn't have many redeeming moments. It was interesting that they went into the brawl right away and I liked that it didn't feel formulaic in that sense, but it made for too chaotic of a segment. I've also determined I'm not a big fan of the styles of Itoh and Mizunami. They're skilled wrestlers, but they clearly don't lay their stuff in and that's fine. It just isn't for me. As for Rosa and Baker, no one in the women's division deserves the main event slot on Dynamite more than them, and their feud is worthy of it. Hopefully there isn't too much interference in their Unsanctioned Lights Out match.

AEW TNT Champion Darby Allin def. Scorpio Sky

Allin's been so busy dealing with Team Taz for so many months that he hasn't been defending his TNT title as often as he should be. That said, this was a terrific title defense with strong showings from both men. You had to know Sky was going heel after how he acted last week on Dynamite and following his win at Revolution, so the post-match heel turn wasn't surprising. That said, it's an interesting character change for Sky that sets him up for what should be a fun feud with Allin over the belt.

MJF, Wardlow, FTR, Tully Blanchard and Shawn Spears Attacked Inner Circle

It's been heavily teased up to this point that MJF was going to boot Chris Jericho from Inner Circle and become the new leader of the group. I assumed that's where they were going until they turned the tables here and took the unexpected route with MJF being one step ahead of Jericho and forming a group of his own. It'll consist of Wardlow, FTR, Blanchard and Spears. FTR, Blanchard and Spears all appeared alongside each other last week on Dynamite, so it isn't totally random, but I don't know how to feel about the new faction. I feel MJF is better off on his own, and while I love FTR, Spears is damaged goods. Inner Circle turning face is something different, but I was hoping they'd go their separate ways so everyone involved can actually amount to something. Is this going to build to the Blood and Guts match we were supposed to get a year ago with Inner Circle and The Elite? 

Overall Show

As a post-pay-per-view show, I was expecting more from this episode, but it was still solid. The angle at the end was obviously big, but it didn't resonate with me as much because of how many factions AEW already has. It's one too many in my opinion, but I'm willing to see where it goes. Allin vs. Sky was a treat and seemingly kicked off a feud between them, something involving Archer and Sting was teased, Matt Jackson and Fenix had a quality opener, Christian made his intentions clear for coming to AEW, Ethan Page had a successful debut (audio issues aside), and multiple matches were set up for next week. The positives far outweighed the negatives and now the deck has been reset as we look forward to Double or Nothing.