AEW Dynamite Review - March 25, 2020

​By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Cody def. Jimmy Havoc

Although Havoc hasn't been seen on Dynamite in a while, he has been stacking up victories lately on Dark. They were building to a match between him and Luther before they had to start wrestling in front of no fans, so who knows if that's been called off or not. As for his outing with Cody, it was solid albeit slightly unspectacular. He didn't have the standout showing I was hoping for, but it was an enjoyable opener, nonetheless. I also liked Jake Roberts' promo on the big screen addressing Cody post-match.

Darby allin def. Kip Sabian

Allin cut a promo beforehand targeting Inner Circle, so I'm happy he's involved in a prominent angle at the moment. He's a star on the rise and it's a shame he isn't receiving the loud crowd reactions we're used to hearing for him due to the lack of live crowds. This was a decent match and they worked well together, but Penelope Ford constantly interfering in Sabian's matches and Sabian losing anyway doesn't make him look good.

Jake Hager def. Chico Adams

As I mentioned in my Dark review from Tuesday, Hager is so much better when he's kept limited in short and sweet squash matches where he gets to showcase his skills. That was exactly what happened here as he dominated Adams within one minute. Jon Moxley emerged afterward to attack Hager to no avail. I'm not thrilled about that being the next program for the AEW World Championship, especially since Hager just had his first match in AEW no more than a month ago.

Brodie Lee def. QT Marshall

As humorous as Lee's impersonation of Vince McMahon beforehand was, it seemed unnecessary. I liked his little dig at Vince during his debut promo last week, but I hope that he doesn't become part of his gimmick. It just comes off as anti-WWE. At any rate, this was a standard squash match, but nothing too amazing. He didn't underwhelm, so that was a plus. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can really do when he faces Christopher Daniels eventually.

AAA Mega Champion and AEW World Tag Team Champion Kenny Omega def. Sammy Guevara

Yes, Omega is still the AAA Mega Champion. You would never know it because he hasn't worn it on AEW programming in several months, but this was a nice reminder of that fact. Guevara gave him a great fight and scored plenty of offense, plus his antics early on were fun. This lasted a lot longer than I expected it to, but I guess they had to fill television time somehow. This is the side of Omega I've been wanting to see since he started in AEW and he's finally living up to the hype.

Cody and AEW World Tag Team Champion Saved "Broken" Matt Hardy From Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara

Hardy's "Broken" shtick isn't for everyone, but I personally find it wildly entertaining. It's funny to note that Jericho just had Hardy on his podcast less than a week ago, but I guess that's not supposed to count. Despite that, this was a blast of a segment. I'm sure it would have been even better in front of an actual audience, but they made due with the audience. Hell, they may have actually benefited from being able to tape in advance as it allowed Hardy to "teleport" in the stands. They had a strong back-and-forth and The Elite making the save successfully set the stage for Blood and Guts, whenever that may be.

Overall Show

One noticeable change AEW made to their show compared to last week was that there weren't any wrestlers sitting in the front row, which was a bummer. I don't think that was their choice and the shots of the heels screaming from the locker room got obnoxious after a while. It was going to be tough to top last week's awesome episode, but this show was still above average. The wrestling delivered, the right people were showcased, and storylines were effectively furthered. You won't get any complaints out of me.