6 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Dynamite (19 Apr - Review)

Double Or Nothing main event thrown into disarray and Britt Baker gets destroyed in Pittsburgh.

Chris Jericho Britt Baker
AEW

What to make of All Elite Wrestling just over a month out from Double Or Nothing 2023?

The top two programmes are objectively in reasonable health, regardless of where your subjective tastes in pro wrestling lie. The Elite and The Blackpool Combat Club are now on opposite sides of a blood-soaked divide, with Hangman Page and Kenny Omega yet to make amends as babyfaces, while the heels are as united and violent as they’ve ever been. The potential match quality of all the potential singles and tags are so high that it’s giving long-standing fans rosy reminders of the company’s stable-heavy early days, not least with the melodrama and tension hanging thick in the air between the heroes.

Speaking of heroes, Darby Allin and Jack Perry had been welcoming the opportunity to be big ones opposing MJF. Sammy Guevara is more about the belt than himself, but all Four Pillars want to be champion and are willing to fight for it. This is fundamentally enough, even if a little bit of spice between the champion and his contenders wouldn’t go amiss.

Pittsburgh promised to be another big night for both of these stories, but what else stood to get the locals spinning those Terrible Towels?

Let’s light the fuse…

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett