AEW Dynamite Review - March 31, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Christian Cage def. Frankie Kazarian

Considering Christian hasn't wrestled a singles match in over seven years, he looked very good here. Obviously, having an opponent the caliber of Kazarian was a huge help. These two were having great matches together in IMPACT almost 15 years ago and they proved here they can still go in 2021. Amazing. This was everything you could have wanted out of an in-ring return for Christian and it only reminded me how happy I am to have him back.

Cody Rhodes def. QT Marshall in an Exhibition Match Ended in a No Contest

Marshall has been teasing tension within The Nightmare Family for weeks now and we finally got his full-blown heel turn here. I've seen people praise the execution of the angle that saw half of The Nightmare Family turn on Cody, Dustin, Gunn Club and Lee Johnson, but because I couldn't care less about Marshall, I couldn't bring myself to care about this, either. I will say that it was brutal, but that's about it. I continue to be underwhelmed by Cody's booking in AEW. For someone as popular as him, I'm shocked he feels like such an afterthought at the moment.

Jon Moxley def. Cezar Bononi

Bononi has been all over Dark and Dark: Elevation in recent weeks, but I haven't seen many signs of improvement. It's a shame because the guy has size and looks physically impressive, but he's probably better off being a bodyguard for someone such as Peter Avalon. That was pretty evident after he went for a while against Moxley here and nothing about the bout stood out as special. This didn't seem to serve a purpose other than giving Moxley a showcase win.

AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers def. Laredo Kid and The Lucha Brothers

Laredo Kid scoring the win for his team the week prior was smart because it meant more for Omega and Good Brothers to beat him here than if he didn't score that victory. AEW is known for their spot-fests and this was no different, but I enjoyed this more than most because of Omega's interactions with Laredo Kid and Lucha Brothers. Moxley and The Young Bucks coming out afterward and forcing the heels to flee sets up a six-man tag between the two trios for next week.

Allie and Nyla Rose def. AEW World Women's Champion Hikaru Shida and Tay Conti

Conti scored a huge upset victory over Rose last week. How did AEW choose to follow it up? Well, by having Allie pin Conti, of course! I know it was done to build to Allie vs. Conti next week, but it was a weird way to follow up on Conti's big win. The match was decent, but the interference at ringside from The Dark Order and Matt Hardy's faction was way overbooked. The focus should have solely been on the ladies.

Best Friends (Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor) def. Kip Sabian and Miro in an Arcade Anarchy Match

For a feud that hasn't done a ton for me since it started, I had no idea what to expect from this match. Sure enough, it ended up being a blast and much better than I thought it would be. They made excellent use of their surroundings, it was highly physical, and the returns of Trent and Kris Statlander (and even Sue!) were very well done. Now that this rivalry has run its course, Miro ditching Sabian is long overdue. He needs to blame Sabian for the loss and move on by himself.

Overall Show

There was a lot to like about this show between Christian coming back and having a strong showing, the above-average main event, and that terrific trios match in the middle. Inner Circle attacking The Pinnacle backstage also made for an awesome angle. As previously mentioned, the idea of yet another heel faction led by Marshall does absolutely nothing for me. We'll see what the follow-up, but I'm not intrigued as of now. This was one of the better all-around editions of Dynamite in some time, which was definitely needed after a few weeks of nothing notable happening.