The February 18 edition of "AEW Dynamite" was packed with action. There was a TBS Title Match, there was a Continental Title Eliminator Match, and there was even the first-time confrontation between Swerve Strickland and Kenny Omega.But enough about what happened, that's been covered on the results page.It's time to look into what went well, and what...well...didn't on Wednesday's show. As always, there was plenty to love, especially from an in-ring perspective, but there no matter how smooth the matches were, there were plenty of clunky moving parts to hate on the show as well, especially when it came to presenting ideas to the audience, be it the stipulation for the Revolution main event, or the idea that Hook can be any kind of serious leader.Enough of my bloviating, let's let the Wrestling Inc. Staff tell you what they loved, and what they very much did not from Wednesday's show.
Jon Moxley had a good match, you say? That must mean that it's a day that ends in a Y because that man is firing on all cylinders right now.With AEW now firmly on the road to Revolution 2026, it got me thinking about where Moxley was this time last year in his feud with Adam "Cope" Copeland. It was so flat, so forced, so uninspired, and now look at him, working every single week, putting on good-to-great matches with basically anyone put in front of him, whether it's singles, tags, or trios.This week on "AEW Dynamite," Moxley had to face "Dunkzilla" Mark Davis in an AEW Continental Championship Eliminator Match, with the story being that Moxley had been weakened by his time-limit draw with Konosuke Takeshita at Grand Slam Australia. I'm sure there is still a little bit of jetlag floating around in Moxley's system, but it certainly didn't show because this was another great match from the leader of the Death Riders.For starters, Davis is an absolute freak for punching that ring post, and I don't know if blading his hand is worse than busting it open the hard way, but wherever that blood came from, it made for a great visual. Moxley jumping right on the injured hand, forcing Davis to change tactics and go for elbows, kicks, and forearms rather than straight punches, might have been a small detail, il but it all added up here. Moxley knew that Davis had all the strength in the world to throw him around like a small child, meaning that he had to wrestle with more urgency and energy. Everything was working at a quicker pace, not a single motion was wasted, even the closing stretch where it seemed like the energy might have dropped a gear, Moxley was able to quickly counter and really wrench back on the Bulldog Choke to get the win. Just brilliant TV wrestling all around.Next up, Moxley has another date set with Takeshita, this time at Revolution in a No Time Limit Match. There's obviously the possibility of Takeshita wrapping up his story with Kazuchika Okada and having a Winner Takes All Match with him, meaning that there's a chance Moxley loses on March 15. However, I honestly think Moxley's consistency is too important to drop from weekly TV right now. If he stays on this form, this reign could rival or surpass Orange Cassidy's first run with the AEW International Championship, and that is a high bar to reach. With that said, Moxley is more than capable of taking this reign to that level, and I am fully on board with wherever it goes next.Written By Sam Palmer
Hook being the leader of The Opps is too funny to be bad, but as a group that used to be taken as seriously as a heart attack, he feels like a woeful step down from Samoa Joe.Hobbs is gone, Shibata is off recruiting, and Hook? Well, let's just say Hook is sitting around, cutting promos about how "in charge" he is, which is the easiest way to look like you're not "in charge" in the history of being "in charge." Every thing about Hook's promo, from the awkward wording (I swear to god I think he said he's been recruited by "divisional programs") made the clunky moment ring hollow.Hook's momentum has been very stop and start in AEW, and now that they're finally trusting him to run something, the effects of that stop-start momentum are starting to show. This is going to be a sink or swim moment for Hook, and he's already starting to flail around in the shallow end.I understand that Joe's injury forced Hook into this position, but it's going to be so hard to take him bossing around Katsuyori Shibata seriously.Written by Ross Berman
There are just some matches that you didn't know you needed to see until they happen, and you realize that you needed them all along. The TBS Championship Four-Way Match between Willow Nightingale, Marina Shafir, Mina Shirakawa, and Megan Bayne is a prime example of one of those kinds of matches.From top to bottom, this match was packed with a ton of energy and kept its fast pace throughout the entire contest. Aside from being a great opportunity for Mina Shirakawa, Megan Bayne, and Marina Shafir to get some television time to show what they can do in the ring, I also very much appreciate Willow Nightingale defending both the TBS Championship and the AEW Women's World Tag Team Championship. While sometimes one title can eclipse another when a talent is a double champion, this match was a nice last-minute addition to this "Dynamite" card as a means of making sure that Nightingale's TBS Championship isn't forgotten about, as herself and Harley Cameron continue to defend the AEW Women's World Tag Team Championship.I also think it was incredibly engaging to see all four women in the ring with one another at the same time. Traditionally, Four-Way matches have featured two competitors in the ring with one another at the same time as the other two on the outside, and they swap out with one another. It brought a really interesting dynamic to things and contributed to the high intensity and fast pacing of things.Written by Olivia Quinlan
I guess I expected a lot more from this advertised face-to-face tonight after "Hangman" Adam Page defeated Andrade El Idolo at Grand Slam: Australia, and I especially expected more from AEW World Champion MJF, but what we got tonight was a little confusing and very clunky.I expected MJF to come out hot out of the gate, possibly addressing the recent controversy around Page and who he remains friends with, but he didn't really have any witty lines that would make headlines at any point in this. And while, yes, that's obviously not the point of every promo, and MJF even said he wasn't out there to "cut a 'rasslin' promo" or sell tickets to Revolution, it all started off a bit flat for me.I thought it got better, for a little while, at least, when Page picked things up when he said that he looks at MJF, he realizes he's never met someone more like him. He made it all make sense, explaining that MJF is desperate for love and acceptance, just like him. Page said that he knew MJF could feel it, too, that their match at Revolution needed a stipulation. That was all well and good, but things fell off for me from there.MJF, of course, wasn't about it, so to get him to agree to a stipulation, "Hangman," for lack of a better term, Cody Rhodes'ed himself. He said if MJF gives him a stipulation, he'll never challenge for the AEW Men's World Championship again, as long as he lives. Not just when MJF is champion. Never again, a la Rhodes ahead of Full Gear in 2019. You'd have to assume that the powers that be in AEW knew just how terribly that worked out for Rhodes, to the point it might have even pushed him out of the company. While I certainly don't foresee that extreme for Page, it's either not going to work, or we just got one big ol' spoiler for Revolution with a Page victory.Things got pretty clunky after that, with MJF saying he needed a week to think on a stipulation that Page said he could choose. However, Page then said it would be a Texas Death Match, so I'm assuming MJF has a week to agree to the part of the deal, as well? I may be making it out to be more confusing than it was meant to be, but I found that part just strange and not-so-well worded.Overall, this wasn't the best thing on tonight's show. MJF has more in the tank in terms of promo battles for this feud, so hopefully, we get something a lot more exciting and clearer next week.Written by Daisy Ruth
The main event of this week's show promised a first-time dream match between Kenny Omega and Swerve Strickland, and that was delivered with just a little bit extra in the form of Strickland's heel turn and, presumably, Omega's writing off of TV for the time being.Leading into this match, Omega had been making a play for his second reign as AEW World Champion and returned to that effect, confronting MJF, while the champion stood in the ring with Strickland and Hangman Page. Page had been open in wanting to compete with his storied friend for the right to challenge, as he will do at Revolution, while Strickland was less than welcoming of another face in the field.That played into the bout, with Strickland ever more desperate to get past the "Best Bout Machine" to get his hands on the World title again. This was a face vs. face contest on the face of it, two of the righteous challengers for MJF if he can get past Page.The bout was brutally contested, with all of the high spots one would imagine from the competitors in the match. Omega delivered Snapdragon suplexes on the apron and sought to follow up with one to the floor. But it was Strickland who dragged the fight into muddy waters; he appeared to pull referee Aubrey Edwards into the path of a V-Trigger, wiping her out and leaving the match without an official.He followed the trope of hitting his finisher and going for the cover, getting the visual pin with no one to count. But when it was clear he would need to keep Omega down for the count of a replacement whenever they chose to come out he continued to deliver a Swerve Stomp onto Omega on the apron. When all was said and done, after a close near-fall, a Last Call, and an attempted One-Winged Angel, Strickland delivered the Big Pressure to get the winning pinfall.He had well and truly beaten Omega through somewhat questionable means and cemented his proverbial turn to the dark side with a post-match ambush putting Omega through the announcer's desk. Made better by Bryan Danielson's reaction on commentary, looking genuinely disturbed by Strickland's snap and getting implored by Tony Schiavone not to get involved (a man can hope for a return, after all).Everything from start to finish was excellent, the story running through and after the match, the actual action of the match itself, and the direction of the heel turn. This is the right time for Strickland to go over and position himself as the new villain of the story, especially as Hangman edges closer to maybe winning the title.Written by Max Everett
It feels a bit harsh saying that I "hated" this match because it was far from the worst match I've ever seen. I honestly don't think there was a bad match on the show, but if there is one thing we can all agree on hating in wrestling, it's people getting injured.Following Roderick Strong's walking out on Orange Cassidy last week, "Freshly Squeezed" turned to his fellow Conglomerates to see who he could team with to take on the team of Clark Connors and Gabe Kidd this week on "AEW Dynamite." He eventually landed on Tomohiro Ishii, who was making his first appearance for AEW in 2026, and his first for the company since October of last year. You can always rely on Ishii to pull something good out of his opponents, and thanks to the fact that he's worked with the former Bullet Club War Dogs countless times in NJPW (Kidd especially), this match would only go wrong if someone got hurt...oh no.While it's not been confirmed at the time of writing, it was clear as day that Ishii suffered some sort of injury during this match. Ishii has always been one to grit his teeth through the pain and try to continue, which he did in this one, but it was very obvious that something had happened. Whether it was a torn hamstring or something with his knee, we're not sure right now, but the sight of Ishii basically hopping on one leg trying to get through the match was sad to see. Ishii getting hurt meant that the match felt a bit clunky and all over the place, but that was due to everyone scrambling to try and get to a conclusive finish so that Ishii could get treatment.To my surprise, Ishii not only won the match with Cassidy, but he also got the pin, which I like on paper, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm not keen on. Kidd is only a semi-regular part of AEW, so his taking a few losses isn't a big deal, but Connors losing seems a bit backwards, especially considering it's against a team where one half of them only had one working leg. He's just signed from NJPW, and he's already taking a loss like this, and I'm not saying I need Connors to go on an undefeated streak that lasts 18 years, but at least get the ball rolling with him early doors rather than eating pins to an injured, bit-part member of a faction I'm not even sure exists at this point.Overall, good match, shame about the ending, get well soon Ishii, you're one of the last real ones left.Written By Sam Palmer
