Pantoja’s AEW Dynamite Review 4.6.22

AEW Dynamite

April 6th, 2022 | Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts

Adam Cole (12-1) vs. Christian Cage (13-5)

My girlfriend can’t stand Adam Cole and I swear he opens the show 90% of the time she’s around. It’s great to see Christian in the ring, he’s legitimately one of my all-time favorites. It’s wild how we thought we’d never see him, Edge, Bryan, and others compete again but here they are. I dug the early stages as Cole attempted a lot of underhanded tactics but Christian is a veteran who knows all of the tricks, so he was able to combat it. They worked through a commercial and upon returning, Christian did a surprising dive to the outside but mostly missed as it didn’t look very good. They had some back and forth incised that included Cole cutting off Bret’s rope back elbow with a Backstabber for two. Christian kicked out of some of Cole’s biggest moves, likely because Cole would do things like lazy covers. Cole avoided Killswitch with a thumb to the eye before winning by Lowering the Boom in 14:38. That started a bit slow, though it picked up in a major way late with a great final five minutes. [***½]

reDRagon hit the ring to jump Christian, which brought out Jurassic Express for a fight that took them all to the back. Hangman Page came out and Cole said he wouldn’t speak to him until he got another shot. Hangman snatched the microphone from him, demanded he look at him when he speaks, and then gave him a shot in Texas next week on Rampage. In a Texas Death Match. AEW loves that gimmick.

We got a recap of Samoa Joe returning to ROH as Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal beat up Jonathan Gresham.

Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Qualifying Match: Max Caster (51-25) vs. Samoa Joe (0-0)

Massive ovation for Joe. Max had some great lines about Joe being in the X Division, being injury prone, and being NXT Champion when AEW beat them in the ratings. Joe totally dominated here, as he should. He looked like he was having a blast with a few dance moves and some hard-hitting strikes. He won with the Muscle Buster in 2:53. [NR]

Post-match, we heard from Lethal and Dutt, which is just upsetting. I don’t want to see Joe feud with Lethal. Or anyone feud with Lethal. Anyway, Lethal said Joe only answers the phone for billionaires and ignored him for months. They have a surprise for him next week.

Backstage, William Regal spoke with the Blackpool Combat Club. He said that Bryan Danielson will be facing Trent Baretta on Rampage. Wheeler has impressed himself and Bryan but now he has to impress Jon Moxley, who he will also face that night. Moxley promised violence.

Shawn Dean (3-1) vs. Shawn Spears (42-18)

The BALLS on AEW to call this a PPV quality card and put this on TV. Spears does have a sweet theme though. Dean has mostly jobbed on Dark but one of his three wins this year was over MJF on Dynamite. Speaking MJF, he was on commentary here so you know this was all about Wardlow. The match was a whole lot of nothing until Wardlow indeed showed up and beat the hell out of some guards. He got closer to MJF this week but was still held back. Meanwhile, Dean was able to roll Spears up to steal a win in 3:48. I like Spears losing but this felt redundant and a bit too similar to last week. [*]

Best Friends were interviewed and Chuck Taylor said they love him but are wondering why he wants to leave the group. Trent stepped up to say he doesn’t love him and instead thinks he’s both a traitor and a scumbag. He told him to watch and learn from what he does to Danielson this week.

Sammy Guevara came out for his usual awful cue card gimmick. Love, Actually isn’t even that good of a movie and this just hammers home that he’s not a good promo. Also, he oddly tried to say that Scorpio Sky has more disses than wins, which makes no sense given that Sky is one of the winningest guys on the roster. I stand by what I said that the cue card gimmick is the worst thing I’ve ever seen live and I watched the Big Show/Erick Rowan Stairs match.

A brawl between the Justice Society of America and Eddie Kingston, Santana, and Ortiz backstage was shown. The JAS drove away but Kingston led his buddies to the ring for a promo. It was passionate as they said they’d beat the Jericho Bitch Society’s ass ON SIGHT. Good stuff even if this program isn’t doing much for me.

A Hook vignette aired.

Tony Schiavone brought out Jade Cargill for a stage promo. We all know it and I constantly say it but my goodness, Jade is such a star. Shoutout to the fact that the women who feel like the biggest stars in WWE and AEW are both Black. We love to see it. Jade told Tony to “cut the shit,” which is a running joke I dig. Anyway, Jade showed off the Baddie Section and then talked about Marina Shafir, who calls herself the problem and Jade is the problem solver. Tyson Tomko is about to sue for gimmick infringement.

MJF and Shawn Spears were interviewed. MJF promised more security next week and he’ll be facing Shawn Dean.

Tables Match: The Butcher and the Blade (23-10) vs. The Hardys (1-0)

Matt’s run to the ring ENDED me. Uh, the less said about this match, the better. I don’t always expect much from tables matches but this was rough. The Hardys moved around like they were further past their primes than they are and the entire thing was a mess. I did appreciate them making it so you have to win by offensive moves through tables, which helps avoid goofy fluke wins like Cody over Big Show or Sheamus over John Cena. The finish saw Jeff do the Swanton off a ladder he has been doing since 2000 and it went a long 11:55. Just really bad stuff. [DUD]

Post-match, Andrade came out with The Bunny and Private Party but Sting showed up and beat up the cronies with his bat. Andrade hid behind The Bunny and got away scot-free.

Backstage, Jurassic Express agreed to face reDRagon for the titles next week.

Tony Schiavone spoke with Jamie Hayter and Toni Storm in the back about possibly meeting in the Owen Hart Tournament. Oh, AEW knows EXACTLY what they are doing here. Toni wanted a handshake but Jamie slapped it away and they traded some verbal barbs.

Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Qualifying Match: Hikaru Shida (53-12) vs. Julia Hart (3-1)

Julia is still doing her thing of having less emotions shown since the Malakai segment. She also jumped Shida before the bell and choked her with her jacket. When the Varsity Blonds questioned her, she kicked them out. Yes, Julia, get Brian Pillman Jr. out of there. Shida turned the tide with the dropkick off the chair and we went to commercial. Returning, Shida fired off some offense and avoided Twisted Bliss to win with the Falcon Arrow (SHE DID THE DEAL) in 7:40. I found this to be pretty lackluster. They never really seemed to click in there but it was fine enough. [**]

Serena Deeb came out with a chair but Shida spotted her and held up the cane. They had a standoff before Deeb backed away.

Backstage, Swerve Strickland was interviewed until Team Taz jumped him. In a great moment, Keith Lee made the save and put Hobbs through a wall.

RAMPAGE

· Jon Moxley vs. Wheeler YUTA

· Red Velvet vs. Willow Nightingale in an Owen qualifier

· QT Marshall vs. Swerve Strickland

· Bryan Danielson vs. Trent Beretta

BATTLE OF THE BELTS

· Thunder Rosa defends against Nyla Rose

DYNAMITE

· Jericho, Hager, and Garcia vs. Santana, Ortiz, and Kingston

· Jurassic Express defend the Tag Titles against reDRagon

AAA & ROH World Tag Team Championships: FTR [c] (31-6) vs. The Young Bucks (31-10)

I went ****¼ on their first match. FTR beat the Briscoes in one of the best tag matches I’ve ever seen at Supercard of Honor. Interestingly, it’s the second-best match I’ve seen from each team (FTR’s best is in Toronto against DIY, while the Briscoes’ was against the Motor City Machine Guns in ROH in 2007, both getting five stars from me). ROH announcer Bobby Cruise handled announcing duties, which was a nice touch. This started well with the teams trading solo stuff and being dicks to each other until they each tripped up an opponent and we got a hockey-style fight. The Bucks took control, putting the focus on Wheeler going into a commercial break. They did a great job of building the deprivation as the hot tag was cut off a few times until Wheeler found an opening with some luck and a huge uppercut. Dax’s hot tag was highly entertaining and babyface FTR is just as good as heel FTR. The way the Bucks cut off the Powerplex was pretty fantastic. The same goes for FTR cutting off the Bucks doing their signature stuff in the best way possible. The Bucks hit Big Rig (I remember DIY doing it and the Briscoes as well) before More Bang for Your Buck failed due to some showboating. The Bucks’ cheating attempts kept failing and even when they had this won with the BTE Trigger, Cash got his foot on the bottom rope. FTR interrupted the Meltzer Driver in awesome fashion, hitting a slingshot powerbomb and Tombstone. They then hit Matt with their own BTE Trigger, kissed him on the cheek, and won with the Big Rig in a wild 20:05. What an incredible pro wrestling match. The atmosphere was special, the action was fantastic, they told a hell of a story, and this was a reined-in, superior version of the Bucks. FTR is indeed the best team in the world. [****¾]

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

This was a weird episode because you had some truly great things and some awful ones. To get the bad out of the way, that tables match sucked, they actually put Spears on TV, and Shida/Hart missed the mark. On the positive side, we had a banger of an opener, some good promos, and one of the best TV matches ever in the main event.