 Bang Bang Gang Attacked "Hangman" Adam PagePage cost Jay White the win against Christian Cage in last week's main event, so White was out for revenge here. Colten Gunn attempted to get revenge first, but Page quickly got the better of him, so that made Gunn look like a moron. White and Juice Robinson double-teaming Page wasn't exactly a babyface move. This segment was perfectly fine as it furthered the feud, but I don't know why this had to start the show. Shelton Benjamin def. ROH World Tag Team Champion Sammy GuevaraThe early beginnings of whatever this Hurt Business reunion is going to be have been excellent so far and Benjamin has come across amazingly well. This was no exception as he had another strong showing here and Guevara was a great opponent for him. Benjamin will battle Swerve Strickland on next week's Dynamite and I assume that could be where we see Bobby Lashley finally debut. Kyle Fletcher Explained His ActionsFletcher has made major strides over the last year and truly feels like a singles star about to break out. The question is whether he'll be made to look like an equal to Will Ospreay during this feud or if he'll be booked like a stepping stone before Ospreay moves on to his next feud. Time will tell, but this intense promo was a nice start. It was a tad long, but the heat from the crowd was certainly loud. The Don Callis Family (ROH World Television Champion Brian Cage and Lance Archer) def. Local AthletesCage and Archer were also in action on the Battle of the Belts special over the weekend. This was pretty much the same thing in terms of how it was executed. I appreciated that it was short and sweet, but it felt out place on Dynamite. I guess it's all a matter of how far AEW intends to take this pairing. Neither Cage nor Archer have been involved in anything meaningful in a very long time, so I'm skeptical that they'll be pushed as threats to the tag titles in the long run. Chris Jericho def. Mark Briscoe in Ladder War to Win the ROH World ChampionshipLadder War has been a Ring of Honor specialty for many years and I was actually in attendance for two of them (All-Star Extravaganza in 2016 and Final Battle in 2018). This installment paled in comparison to those two, but I applaud their effort, nonetheless. Needless to say, I absolutely hated the outcome. I feared this might happen, but I'm still shocked they gave the title to Jericho. Worse yet, he was already ROH World Champion two years ago! AEW's insistence on featuring Jericho and the Learning Tree crap so heavily remains extremely questionable. The Undisputed Kingdom and MJF Exchanged WordsWe got the Undisputed Kingdom reunion here that no one asked for. The group had potential when they first formed at the end of 2023, but they've fizzled out so much since then that I can't imagine too many people care. I don't understand the point of putting them together if Roderick Strong, Matt Taven and Mike Bennett are just going to turn on Adam Cole soon, anyway. MJF told Cole and Strong that the first one to win three matches can face him at Full Gear, so we're clearly headed toward Cole and Strong facing each other with Cole winning and the betrayal happening there. This feels like lazy booking all around. House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King and def. Kevin Koa, Jaden Monroe and Pirata De La MuerteApparently this was Malakai's first Dynamite match since May. I'm sorry but that's inexcusable. Did we really need another tag team squash after getting one with Cage and Archer earlier? This was straightforward stuff but didn't seem to serve a purpose, at least until Matthews challenged Cole to a match on next week's episode. Why not just give Matthews a singles win here in that case? As an act, House of Black has been underutilized for a long time. Kamille def. Queen AminataI understand wanting to give Aminata another opportunity to have an impressive showing and look credible in defeat, but I would've scrapped the other two squashes on this show and booked this as a squash instead. If you want to establish Kamille as a threat to Kris Statlander ahead of their match next week, you have Kamille destroy Aminata. It's as simple as that. It didn't help that this wasn't very well wrestled, either. The Patriarchy Attacked HookChristian Cage being responsible for taking out Taz in the parking lot earlier this lot made all the sense in the world with his whole "Your dad's dad" gimmick, so I'm glad they went in that direction. The crowd was pretty quiet for the segment, but it accomplished what it needed to. My only nitpick is Kip Sabian's unnecessary involvement. I couldn't possibly give two shits if I tried. Private Party and Daniel Garcia def. The Elite (AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks and AEW TNT Champion Jack Perry)From an in-ring standpoint, this was the enjoyable main event you'd expect from these six. The Elite doesn't do much for me these days, but you can typically count on their matches to deliver. Giving Private Party the win was logical in setting up their rematch for the AEW World Tag Team Championship next week where Private Party have to disband if they lose. I truly hope that's a red herring and Private Party become champs because it would be incredibly stupid for them to lose again and go their separate ways. We got another Jon Moxley-led brawl to close the show, but that angle still isn't clicking for me yet. Overall ShowI know AEW hasn't been on a creative hot streak in recent months outside of the above-average pay-per-views, but this edition of Dynamite in particular was one of the weakest in many months. By Dynamite standards, this show sucked. Benjamin vs. Guevara was the highlight of the night for me and everything else just felt like it existed. The ROH World Championship changing hands was especially bad. Dynamite is very much in a rut right now and desperately needs more storylines worth getting invested in.
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