"AEW Dynamite" traveled a mile high to bring the Wednesday night action to Denver, CO. This week's "Dynamite" was action-packed, with plenty of matches, a chaotic main event, and a bunch of table-setting for March 15's Revolution PPV. But enough about what happened, that's readily available on the results page.It's time, instead, to break down the good and the bad from this week's edition of the AEW flagship program. There was a thrilling, PWG-esque main event, which saw a number of stars fly through tables and inhale vacuum cleaner dust. There was the incredibly entertaining coin flip between MJF and Hangman Page, which in a roundabout way resulted in Page getting his wish for a Texas Death Match against the AEW World Champion.There were also woeful lows, like the impromptu ending to the AEW Women's World Tag Title Match, or the lack of the AEW Women's World Champion.Without further ado, let the Wrestling Inc. Staff share their highs and their lows from this week's show.
If there's one thing in wrestling that everyone can get on board with, in the words of Big E, it's two meaty men slapping meat. This week's episode of "AEW Dynamite" gave us just that as Brody King went one-on-one with Mark Davis, and it was a match that did exactly what it needed to do: showcase two of the meatiest men in AEW beating the tar out of each other until one of them simply can't get up.To start, I actually want to give a lot of praise to Davis as he is quietly becoming one of the most consistent TV performers in AEW. Whether it be in singles, tags, or trios, he has been on top form since the turn of the new year, and given his track record with injuries, that really is something you love to see. Like many people, I was a little worried that when Jake Doyle went down with an injury, Davis would be relegated to the Lance Archer role of The Don Callis Family, where he would just stand around looking menacing, but between this and his match with Jon Moxley last week, Davis is earning his weekly spot on AEW programming.Then there's Brody King. Obviously, the national exposure that the ICE chants got a few weeks ago has turned him into a much bigger star than even AEW might have anticipated, but he is carving out his own path in the upper midcard that could lead to him being a main event player as the year goes on. The fans were solidly behind him in this one, and when he made any appearances throughout the night, you could hear everyone barking, but he has the bite to back up that bark, as there were moments in this match where he treated "Dunkzilla" as if he were a cruiserweight. The crowd did take a little bit of time to wake up throughout this show, but they treated King like a star, and this performance went a long way in keeping him as one of the most over names in the company right now.As for the aftermath, it looks as if AEW is putting its stock in Brody, as he issued a challenge to Swerve Strickland for Revolution, which has every chance of stealing the show. However, not to be outdone, Bandido also wanted a match at Revolution, and he looks set to take on Andrade El Idolo in what can only be described as a demonic piece of matchmaking by Tony Khan. Davis and King had a great TV match; two fantastic pay-per-view matches are now set up. Everything worked in this segment.Written by Sam Palmer
Now, let me kick this hated off by saying this: I didn't have a problem with the actual match between Kevin Knight and Mansoor. Considering that it was a squash and therefore not a lot of time was allotted to this match, I thought that Knight and Mansoor both did pretty good in the short timeframe that they had. My problem, more so, came with the booking behind the match and the promo that Knight cut in the moments that followed it.For one thing, both men have tag team partners, and this could've easily been a tag team match just to give both "Speedball" Mike Bailey and Mason Madden a little bit of time of their own on "Dynamite". Because Bailey and Knight are a tag team and two-thirds of the reigning AEW World Trios Champions, Knight shouldn't be focused on scoring tag team or trios wins rather than singles wins. It makes Bailey feel like he's a little bit like an afterthought and has been doing nothing more than hanging around backstage while Knight competes in singles matches, especially when considering that this was Knight's second singles match on "Dynamite" back-to-back after he scored a win against The Beast Mortos last Wednesday.It's already bad enough to have Knight focused on picking up wins in singles competition, but it's made even worse by the fact that he called his shot for the AEW World Championship by calling out the final part of the AEW World Trios Champions, "Hangman" Adam Page, in order to get a title match when he wins. I very strongly feel that any talent who holds a championship should be entirely focused on the title that they hold, so I just don't really see a need to have Knight want an AEW World Championship at this point in time. It would be a bit of a different story if Page and JetSpeed had lost the AEW World Trios Championship, but for the time being, I feel like Knight should be focused on defending that title and racking up wins in both tag team and trios matches. In addition, the AEW World Championship picture is also full of plenty of talent already, from Brody King to Kenny Omega to Swerve Strickland to Page, so there isn't really a need to add yet another name to that list in my opinion.Written by Olivia Quinlan
MJF and "Hangman" Adam Page sought to settle the stipulation for their World Championship at Revolution, meeting in the ring this week for a little chit-chat before MJF laid out his suggestion for the stipulation a one-way No Disqualification match in his favor and a way to determine between that and Page's suggestion of a Texas Deathmatch.Rather uncharacteristically, MJF offered up the fairest way of settling it: a coin toss. Which he won, because of course he did. And it appeared that he would be having his way as he walked off.But Hangman isn't stupid, or at least he shouldn't be after all of their interactions over the years, and demanded to see the coin once more. As anyone in his position would, MJF said no and went to walk off. Only to be blocked off by the emerging Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight, and then Brody King and Bandido.A combination of Hangman's allies and those MJF has screwed over in the past couple of months. A moment of catharsis. And MJF was forced to reveal that he had been using because of course he had a double-sided coin to rig the decision. Thus, Tony Khan made it official, via Tony Schiavone, that the match would be a Texas Deathmatch after all. Anyone who was confused before can no longer be. And when all is said and done, the better stipulation had been picked.It was a fun little segment that classically saw the heel thinking he had the high ground, only for it to be tugged from beneath him, in effect, by bad karma. Hangman came off better for it, less angry and more resolute.Written by Max Everett
The only championship match of the February 25 episode of "AEW Dynamite" saw The Babes of Wrath once again defend their AEW Women's World Tag Team Championships against Megabad, and when the match was announced, there was a sense of confusion from people, as this match literally happened less than two weeks ago. The reaction to the match itself was originally very negative from me personally, but now that more information has been reported, my feelings about this whole thing have gotten me a bit down, to be honest.As far as the match goes, it was fine. It wasn't anything special, and all it really did was showcase how good Megan Bayne is and how she should probably have at least one title around her waist by the time we get to the summer. The ending was initially very perplexing as Lena Kross decided she wanted her moment in the spotlight by grabbing one of the title belts and attacking Willow Nightingale right as the current AEW TBS Champion looked to be mounting a big comeback.I saw it unfold and thought, "Is Lena Kross actually stupid?" Like, why on earth would she get involved? She just got her allies disqualified by attacking Willow? It makes no sense. Sure, they might be setting up for a trilogy match at Revolution or something, but that doesn't excuse the trash ending to this match. Plus, when the only women's match on the show ends like this, it really isn't a good look for a company that has always been called out for its questionable booking of the women's division.Then the news broke that the reason the match ended up like this was that Penelope Ford got legitimately injured, and everything made sense. Bayne looked like a superstar because she was literally fighting in a Handicap Match at that point. The DQ finish was an audible so that the titles didn't change hands, but the challengers looked strong by beating down the champions afterwards, and it lasted as short as it did so that Ford could get to the back and receive immediate treatment for her injury. It's not yet known what injury she sustained, but Ford didn't get involved in any of the match after hitting her patented Moonsault to the outside before the commercial break.All of that made me a bit sad since Ford has had the most rotten luck when it comes to injuries in AEW. She literally just came back at the start of the year and looks to have been shelved once again. Someone wrap Ford in cotton wool and tell her to get well soon, that Megabad tag title run will be worth the wait.Written by Sam Palmer
This week's main event saw a band of interconnected babyfaces take on a band of heels they have been feuding with, looking to settle their differences with a Mile High Madness match essentially bringing Stadium Stampede or Anarchy in the Arena out of the stadium or off of pay-per-view, to the Denver crowd and those watching on TV.The Young Bucks teamed with the Rascalz and "Jungle" Jack Perry against the team of FTR, Gates of Agony, and Ricochet for this absolutely mental match. So there was flippy stuff, big people-y stuff, big people doing flippy stuff, and some superkicky stuff. In droves. But also with props.There were tables, a myriad of them. There were chairs. A kendo stick made a brief cameo but was dropped in favor of a vacuum cleaner by Perry. And he then used that both as its own weapon and also clonking the dust canister off the head of Toa Liona, exploding in a puff of, well, dust.The pendulum of momentum continued to swing, specifically when it came time for someone to try to put their opponent through a table. What that did was build to this eventual crescendo with the babyfaces systematically removing each heel from the match by putting them through a table.When all was said and done, it was just Ricochet left in the ring. He did what you would expect, legitimately one of the best sellers in the world of wrestling to do, selling ice cubes to Alaskans as each of the faces got their bit in. It was one of those matches that hearkened back to the very core of AEW, the seed planted over years of multi-man blowouts featuring the Bucks in PWG. It was fun. The crowd was super into it. And it was the perfect way to close out a show.Written by Max Everett
This is the second "Dynamite" in a row where AEW Women's World Champion Thekla has not been on my screen after she won the belt from Kris Statlander in a brutal strap match on the February 11 edition of the show. She cut an excellent promo from the crowd on "AEW Collision" on Saturday, directed toward her next challenger, the newly-returned Thunder Rosa, but you wouldn't have known that had you not been watching over the weekend, or at least caught it on social media, as I did.While I didn't love not seeing her with the title on "Dynamite" last week, after her excellent promo on Saturday, her absence really stuck out to me this week. It would have made a big difference if AEW bothered to play even a portion of her promo on tonight's show, but we didn't get that. Which was slightly odd, as Rosa referenced it pretty heavily. We also didn't see Thekla in any type of backstage or pre-taped segment, which is a real bummer.Instead, we got a backstage segment with Rosa and Statlander, which didn't do much for me, especially without a pre-taped response segment or something with the Triangle of Madness. The only thing interesting about that is how Statlander keeps telling Rosa to "be careful," and honestly, it seems like she's warning her to watch out more so for her than Thekla with the way she's acting. I like Rosa and all, but she's so obviously not winning the championship from Thekla that it all seems pretty pointless.I really like Thekla, and I'm excited to see what she can do as champion, but I don't often watch "Collision" and really only see what happens on the show through AEW's social media clips. That's fine with me, personally, but it kind of sucks for Thekla and the AEW Women's title if big things, like her first appearances after winning the gold, aren't on AEW's main show. While I'm glad she'll be on next week's show for sure with her title defense, I just think that match could have been set up a lot better on tonight's show in front of more eyes. AEW often gets a lot of flak for how it handles its women's division, and not having the women's champion on "Dynamite" for multiple weeks following her victory, especially after a brutal strap match, isn't exactly a good look.Written by Daisy Ruth
