AEW Dynamite Review - May 1, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Patriarchy Attacked AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland and Price Nana

Christian was not who I was expecting to challenge Strickland for the AEW World Championship, but he's a great choice. Of course, he's done nothing to deserve a shot as we haven't seen him since he lost the AEW TNT Championship to Adam Copeland in March and it goes against the completely-pointless power rankings, but I appreciate how the acknowledged how he still had bad blood with Strickland over Strickland eating the pinfall loss in their tag team match at All In last year. Christian isn't winning the title from Strickland, but I'm really looking forward to that match.

AEW TNT Champion Adam Copeland def. Buddy Matthews

The idea was that Copeland didn't know which member of House of Black he'd be defending his title against until the bell was about to ring, but it was pretty obvious it'd be Matthews since Copeland should be working his way up to Malakai Black, ideally at Double or Nothing. They were given a ton of time. Aside from feeling like it went a few more minutes than it probably needed to, this was a very good match. Here's hoping Matthews isn't legitimately hurt/injured. He was selling for a long time during the commercial break and coming out of it.

Samoa Joe def. Isiah Kassidy

This was Joe's first appearance since losing the AEW World Championship at Dynasty. It would have been easy for AEW to not feature him for a while, but I'm glad he's already back on TV. This was a simple squash where he went over decisively and picked up a rebound victory. Props to Kassidy for playing his role well. I'm curious what Joe does next because there's no one obvious rival for him.

Trent Beretta Interrupted Orange Cassidy

Cassidy had an interesting line in his promo where he said Chuck Taylor will never wrestle again after the damage he endured in last week's Parking Lot Fight. I don't know if that's legitimate or not, but I can't say I'd be too upset if it was. At any rate, this was a solid segment to set up Cassidy vs. Beretta. I'm surprised it isn't being saved for Double or Nothing. Cassidy walked off with Don Callis, but I think Beretta (and possibly Kris Statlander) will end up with Callis instead.

FTW Champion Chris Jericho def. Katsuyori Shibata in an FTW Rules Match

Even though Jericho is now calling the FTW Championship the "For the World" title, he's apparently still going to defend it in hardcore matches with FTW Rules. Honestly, this exceeded my expectations in being a fun brawl. The fact Shibata had never been in a hardcore match before this is wild. Big Bill helping Jericho win means he's indeed joining The Learning Tree, which is absolutely a step backward for him.

Claudio Castagnoli def. Brian Cage

Where the hell were the rest of Mogul Embassy when Strickland and Nana were attacked at the start of the show? What purpose was this supposed to serve, anyway? Those two things aside, this was an enjoyable outing. Cage never wins anything of note these days but at least can be counted on for a quality contest. I assume this existed to give Castagnoli a rebound win following his loss to Strickland in that AEW World Championship clash on Collision last week.

Serena Deeb def. Mariah May

Deeb resurfaced on Dynamite last week and made it clear she was coming for Toni Storm's AEW Women's World Championship, so having her beat Storm's protege before the title match was logical. It was a well-wrestled affair. Giving Deeb more of a straightforward win would have made more sense to make her come off as a bigger threat to the title, but I understand wanting to make May look competitive in defeat.

The Elite Attacked Kenny Omega

You'd think the Winnipeg crowd would have been louder for their hometown boy, especially considering he's been gone for almost five months. Nonetheless, he cut a strong promo (if you can call it that) about his road to recovery and if he's telling the truth, then it sounds like he won't be back anytime soon. I thought he may declare himself an on-screen authority figure in the meantime, and that could still happen, but it didn't happen here. The Elite's attack on him was very well done and put more heat on the group.

Overall Show

This was a better edition of Dynamite that what we've gotten in recent weeks, but man, that Winnipeg crowd was really disappointing. They were tame for a majority of the night, but it was a largely entertaining episode despite that. Double or Nothing is coming up quickly and they've already announced four matches, which is an admirable start. The Elite stuff will be dominating Dynamite it seems for the foreseeable future and although I wasn't high on the initial angle, I'm willing to see how it pans out and how they handle it.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews