8 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (1 May - Results & Review)

There were some reasonable pre-show nerves being expressed over the possibility of what exactly Tony Khan meant when he referred to a “power struggle” within AEW following last week’s shocking and inadvertently hilarious attack by Jack Perry, Kazuchika Okada and The Jacksons, particularly when he confirmed that he wouldn’t be present at shows going forward due to not being cleared to fly out of Jacksonville.

It wasn’t that The Young Bucks in particular weren’t being given the benefit of the doubt with the developing story, but more if the story should even exist. How many years did it not even matter that Khan was there, because the show was about the action in the ring rather than behind the curtain? Is being AEW Champion not where the power lies anymore, and if not, does that not immediately lower the status of the title and all the wrestlers who fight for it? Crucially and perhaps damningly, was this not the sort of bizarre on-screen admin that cursed WWE television for decades during the wretched monopoly years?

Further speculation around an on-screen authority figure to push back on The Elite seizing power drew more concern than excitement, particularly when coupling it with the news that Kenny Omega was to return to television (in some capacity or other) for the first time since a scary bout of diverticulitis took him out of the game at the end of 2023. The confluence of all of these scattered events around a Winnipeg Dynamite was at very least encouraging - the plotting, mapping out and hidden-in-plain-sight details are Elite storytelling hallmarks, and there have been plenty so far to help assuage any worries. Were there yet more on display on the night?

Let's light the fuse...