AEW Dynamite Review - March 24, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW World Champion Kenny Omega def. Matt Sydal (Non-Title)

These two got into it backstage on the debut edition of Dark: Elevation and it was established that Sydal would earn himself a shot at the AEW World Championship if he won. I think people tend to forget that Sydal is really good and has been for years. This was an awesome opener and a ton of fun even if the outcome was never in doubt. I just wish Sydal wasn't positioned in a tag team right now with his brother (who is completely forgettable). Him being on his own would have made this more unpredictable.

"Hangman" Adam Page def. Cezar Bononi

I've mentioned in my reviews of Dark and Dark: Elevation that Bononi isn't bad, but there's still a lot of work to be done there. How much did he really improve during his time in WWE's developmental system? If anyone can get a competent match out of him, and it's Page. There wasn't much to this, but I'm glad it wasn't more competitive than it needed to be and that it was kept on the shorter side. Now that his feud with Matt Hardy is over, I'm curious what's next for him.

Tony Schiavone Interviewed Britt Baker

I (along with many other people) have been saying for months that Baker should be the one to beat Hikaru Shida for the AEW World Women's Championship, so I'm glad she still appears to be on course despite last week's loss to Thunder Rosa. Hey, it was an Unsanctioned Lights Out match, so it technically didn't count on her record. Her promos just keep getting better and better and I really hope she's the one who gets the next shot, preferably at Double or Nothing.

The Pinnacle (Shawn Spears and FTR) def. Dante Martin and Varsity Blonds

I love the look of The Pinnacle on paper (with the exception of Spears, he bores me to tears at this point), but I think I'd be higher on the idea of them as a faction if AEW didn't already have more than they know what to do with. This was designed to be a showcase for The Pinnacle and nothing more, so it succeeded in that respect. They put Inner Circle on notice with their post-match promo and FTR's intensity on the mic was terrific.

Cody Rhodes Confronted QT Marshall

Serious question: Does anyone actually care about Marshall's heel turn? Better question: Does anyone care about Marshall in general? His bad blood with The Nightmare Family has been brewing for weeks and even with a logical explanation here, I can't say I'm invested in the story of him being jealous of Cody. Please, AEW, stop dedicating so much television time to this guy. The segment was fine, but this being Cody's latest feud (or whatever it's supposed to be) does nothing for me.

Laredo Kid and The Lucha Brothers def. AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks and Brandon Cutler

Yes, Cutler found his way onto Dynamite yet again. It played into Kenny Omega's post-match promo where he talked about how the Bucks chose Cutler over him. Even if Omega is a heel, he has a point. The match itself was a total spot-fest and not in a good way. Omega vs. Sydal was all action as well, but at least that had a bit more suspense and storytelling to it. This was just constant moves with no real flow. The stuff afterward with Omega and the Bucks was better, but I'm not sure what they're going for. If the endgame is the Bucks vs. The Good Brothers, then maybe, but I sure as hell hope this doesn't end with Omega and the Bucks reuniting as heels.

Tay Conti def. Nyla Rose

These two already had two prior matches with each other, so there was no reason for them to face off again unless Conti was winning. Thankfully, that was exactly what happened. They told a nice story with Conti fighting from underneath and ultimately pulling out the upset victory. She's been gradually building momentum on Dark, so this was well-deserved. Why not just leave it at that instead of doing that dumb post-match angle? I realize it set up the tag team match for next week, but it came out of nowhere and felt unnecessary.

AEW TNT Champion Darby Allin def. John Silver

The idea here was that Allin regards as the best TNT Champion AEW has had, so he wanted to defend it against a member of The Dark Order in his honor. It was really cool that they got the main event spotlight here as both guys are great. I don't know if Allin needed Sting in his corner, but I understand it was done to combat the rest of Dark Order. When the outside interference wasn't the focus, this was an entertaining main event. That would have worked as the ending to the show instead of that stupid brawl. Can AEW cool it with the pointless show-closing brawls? That was just a mess.

Overall Show

I've seen critical acclaim for this episode online and I can't understand why. If you thought this was the greatest edition of Dynamite of all-time, more power to you, but I didn't find it to be the strongest show by any stretch despite there being some above-average action. The opener was my favorite part of the night, but nothing else came close other than Baker's promo. The main event was very well-wrestled, but the aftermath was meaningless. I hate how every match or moment has to immediately be followed by an angle. It's a bad habit they need to break. They filled the time well enough, but it felt like there was almost too much crammed into the two hours and not a lot of it landed for me.