6 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (26 April - Review)

MJF and Sammy Guevara's comedic charms elevate yet another uneven Dynamite.

Sammy Guevara
AEW

What's going on with AEW at the moment?

Has the return of CM Punk Discourse overshadowed the product yet again? Is it a "microwave baby" take to suggest that the promotion is cold at the midway point between pay-per-view cycles? Or is it just lacking?

After a superb few weeks after Revolution, the show over the last three has once again reached wildly uneven territory. It's becoming the norm.

Worked shoot edgelord promo trains in the Four-Way Pillars storyline. A very gotten-to "satire" of the wrestling media in QTV, which seems to function more as a way for QT Marshall to prove that he knows better than everybody else than an effective means of pushing Powerhouse Hobbs, the irony of which is too much to bear.

A women's division in complete stasis, with last week's very effective (if not particularly well-executed) angle being the rule-proving exception. At least two storylines, involving Matt Hardy and Smart Mark Sterling, centred around legal administration.

Where are the intensely personal, emotionally resonant one-on-one feuds?

Will Tony Khan's increasingly boring obsession with linking together so many wrestlers fade when he doesn't need to cram them all onto Dynamite?

Will Collision resolve the weird, incessant development of wrestlers - FTR/Jeff Jarrett, Jeff Jarrett/Jay Briscoe, The Acclaimed/Daddy Magic & Cool Hand Ang - attempting to co-exist in four-man tags?

What about the other incessant need to form temporary alliances to put off singles matches? Keith Lee has aligned with Dustin Rhodes and Adam Cole months after the Swerve Strickland match should have happened. Worthwhile build, or just pure procrastination?

Was this week's Dynamite similarly convoluted and unfocused...?

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!