AEW isn't letting WWE hog the April spotlight, as the company presented Dynasty on Sunday. The show was an immense collection of matches, some very good, and some less so. There's a new TNT Champion, new Trios Champions, and the same old World Champion. If you want to read more about the show, the results page can be found here.It is now time for the Wrestling Inc. Staff to dig deep into our feelings, and come up with the best and the worst from Sunday's show in Vancouver, British Columbia. Some of the show was tremendous, like the main event, or the Continental Title match between Jon Moxley and Will Ospreay. There were also things that wore on our patience, like Gabe Kidd's injury throwing cold water on Kyle O'Reilly's big return.Enough of my bloviating, it's time to break down what we loved, and what we very much didn't.
Kenny Omega is the kind of wrestler who makes it very hard to buy him losing by underhanded means. Especially in main event matches, Omega has an almost superhuman aura about him, which can make things like low blows and loaded punches look like child's play.On Sunday, it was up to MJF to both win by nefarious means, and also look strong enough to defeat Omega, and the AEW World Champion threaded the needle tremendously. It nearly killed him, and it required a Tombstone Piledriver off the apron and through a table, but MJF both conquered Omega, and used just enough hokum to sneak away and leave Omega to fume about what could've been.Someone as young and talented as MJF deserves a humbling. It's just good for building character. However, he really is proving to be just as good as he says he is. More so than his first world title reign, this latest reign has proven that MJF is not resting on his laurels. Despite his success, he is still growing as a wrestler. In a business where many rely on "what's always worked," it can be very refreshing to see someone so intent on outdoing themselves.Written by Ross Berman
Dynasty was not a bad pay-per-view event by any means necessary, and I actually liked much of what happened during the show. With all said and done now, I still can't shake the feeling that it was all just a little bit lackluster for me.Outside of Kyle O'Reilly making his return in front of his hometown crowd, the AEW World Trios Championship changing hands, and a new TNT Champion being crowned, there weren't really a ton of notable things that felt like they happened on this show. Yes, there were some good storytelling advancements when it came to things like Takeshita essentially costing himself and Okada their match against The Young Bucks or Kevin Knight winning the TNT Championship when his tag team partner "Speedball" Mike Bailey was only moments away from winning the title himself. There wasn't anything that really left me shocked or super excited about anything, though, and I couldn't help but feel like AEW could've done something a little bit more. This rings especially true when you think about how much went down at their last pay-per-view in Revolution, where it became a little overwhelming for one night. I personally just think they could've maybe saved one or two of the surprises for that show for this one, which had the opposite problem of nothing happening at all.Written by Olivia Quinlan
Talk about making the best out of a bad situation.The injury to Kyle Fletcher was a piece of news that was a gut punch to many AEW fans as "The Protostar" was back as the AEW TNT Champion, and once again putting together a case for being the fastest rising star in the business. He will certainly be in the main event scene when he returns, or maybe he will come back for the TNT Championship because the man who now holds it is none other than "The Jet" Kevin Knight.Knight was victorious in tonight's Casino Gauntlet Match, a stipulation that a lot of people love, some people are beginning to get sick of, and other people still want to see a version of it where 21 entrants actually make it to the ring. This edition of the match was very fun, and very Lucha-coded with Bandido, El Clon, and Rush all being involved, PAC, "Speedball" Mike Bailey were able to join them in the high-flying and hard-hitting offense, Tommaso Ciampa carried himself as if he was the favorite, and the Death Riders' young boys, Wheeler Yuta and Daniel Garcia, also had nice cameos too. Anthony Bowens was also there. AEW really needs to find something substantial for him outside of "remember when he used to be in The Acclaimed" because I can't imagine him taking orders from Hook of all people.Lots of action throughout, with PAC being a particular MVP as he busted out a Sky Twister Press and a Black Arrow throughout. Bandido managed to hit a 21-Plex on Ciampa, who was literally lying on the floor, and Knight hit a UFO Splash on Garcia, who was leaning back in the Dragon Tamer that he had locked in on "Speedball," which must have killed the pair of them.Knight getting the victory was such a good move. It's fairly obvious that the guy is set for big things in AEW, particularly after his high-profile matches against MJF, Swerve Strickland, and his entire Continental Classic run. However, I didn't know if or when AEW would pull the trigger on him, but with Fletcher out of action, why not take a risk and see what happens with Knight as a singles champion?Hopefully, this run as the new TNT Champion can really boost Knight's stock to the point that when Fletcher does come back, you can set up that match, which will be great, but he will be featured on TV enough to the point where he could make a late-year charge to the main event scene. An inspired booking decision, and I'm excited to see "The Jet" fly high as TNT Champion this Spring.Written by Sam Palmer.
Another PPV has come and gone without new tag team champions. The Young Bucks seemed primed to beat them at Revolution in their home state after FTR attacked their brother. But, nope. Ok, so Cope and Christian are returning, and they have a title match in their home country. Surely this is why FTR retained over the Bucks. Also, no. Both the Bucks and C+C need to get revenge on FTR, and neither one of them has been able to.For some reason, Tony Khan is content letting FTR's reign continue after defeating the Bang Bang Gang twice (and one of those ended in a Dusty Finish because they wrestle like an '80s tag team), Davis & Doyle, and The Rascalz. Not only are they not losing to younger teams, now they're beating veterans. Not just any veterans, but two of the best tag teams of their respective generations.So now what? There's been a rumored triple threat ladder match at Double or Nothing with FTR, the Bucks, and C+C. We do not need ladders in this match, especially with Cope in the match (I'm just worried about your legs, my guy). Stick to chairs and maybe a table. They could have done this match with C+C as champions. Let them retain at the second biggest pay-per-view of the year. If the goal is the real dream match of C+C vs. the Bucks at Wembley, FTR needs to be out of the picture, and tonight would've accomplished that. There's no point in having FTR take the titles into Double or Nothing when C+C could've gotten a feel-good win in their home country.If FTR wins at Double or Nothing, then I have no idea what we're doing with the tag division other than what it did the last time they were champions. No one could be elevated, and the division became stagnant. It took months to re-establish the tag division to get it into its current strength. If FTR continues to retain, they should change their moniker to the "Tag Team Division Killers".Written by Samantha Schipman
Will Ospreay failed in his bid to break the neck of and take the Continental title from Jon Moxley tonight at Dynasty, throwing several Hidden Blades and a Styles Clash but receiving several Paradigm Shifts and Death Riders to spike him on his own surgically repaired neck.By the end of the bout, Ospreay couldn't land any offense on account of damage felt in his neck and shoulder, failing to hit the Tiger Driver '91 and ultimately eating all of the offense that finally put him away. Ospreay falling short makes sense with Mox having been proven as the "Ace of AEW" over the years, and there were several moments he could have had the match won if that was his focus.He was after something else entirely, actively leaving the cover on a jackknife so he could turn it into a Styles Clash, not going for the cover when he had sparked Moxley out with the Hidden Blade at the starting bell.Ospreay was cost by himself and his own overzealousness. And Moxley gets to continue his reign as a result. The bout felt like a legitimate contest between two of the best athletes and started very much as it was intended to go on. It descended into a bit of a finisher fest once they realized what moves did the most damage, and while that can be a bad thing, it just worked in the vacuum of this match.Written by Max Everett
Truth be told, it was actually quite hard to find some hate for this show. Was the show long? Of course it was. Did FTR win? Of course they did, but hey, at least Chris Jericho lost, so there's something. It looked as if I was going to have to hate Kenny Omega not winning the world title just because he's great, and it would have been great to see him as champion again. However, the AEW World Trios Championship match didn't sit right with me.First of all, welcome back, Kyle O'Reilly. The wave of momentum he had created for himself in the fall of last year came crashing down when he suffered a knee injury that forced him out of the Continental Classic tournament, to the point where it's actually kind of annoying seeing him return in this spot, considering he literally made Jon Moxley tap out twice less than six months ago. Nevertheless, he's back, and in his hometown as well, and on top of that, he had the chance to finally get some gold in AEW as he, Roderick Strong, and Orange Cassidy challenged The Dogs for the titles.Things started off fine, and the crowd was riding high on the happiness surrounding O'Reilly returning to AEW in the arena where he saw his first pay-per-view as a child, but around halfway through, things just turned. The crowd goes a bit dead, everyone seems distracted, and the match kind of falls apart. What was the reason for this? Sadly, in a match where someone was returning from injury, someone else got injured.It's unclear where or how, but Gabe Kidd suffered an injury that forced David Finlay and Clark Connors to fight the match as a tag team while Kidd was escorted to the back. I'm sure more details will come to light soon as to what the injury is, but it's a real shame because it left the match feeling a bit awkward. The finish was obviously changed, whether or not the winners were is a different story, but as The Conglomeration celebrated winning the titles for the first time, there was this lingering feeling of wondering if Kidd is okay. We were obviously very happy for Kyle, but it's hard to feel 100% happy for someone when you've just seen someone suffer an injury so severe that they can't continue the match.Plus, the Dogs only won the belts on Saturday, and they've dropped them already? Come on now. They were made to be trio champions at this point. Hopefully, this is just a bump in the road for them.Written by Sam Palmer
