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

by Michael Sidgwick

1. Main Event Segment JUST About Works...Probably?

Butcher Konosuke Takeshita
AEW

Kenny Omega and Konosuke Takeshita Vs. the Butcher and the Blade was fine-to-good.

Oddly, given that Kenny Omega was in it, it lacked a certain focus. Omega, usually so masterful at the small details, didn't convey one way or the other whether he was keen on tagging with Takeshita - where on Being The Elite, he was ambiguous at the prospect.

The action was good, one mistimed spot on the part of the Butcher aside. Was Omega less than his electric self on purpose? To make sense of Bryan Danielson's accusation that he peaked in Japan?

That might be generous, but certainly the idea was to get Takeshita over. He did so with an unbelievable feat of strength in hoisting Butcher up for the Blue Thunder Bomb (Butcher made up for the earlier flub with this awesome bump).

In the post-match, Tony Khan booked yet another blindside attack, which summoned the Young Bucks into the fray. The Blackpool Combat Club were at the mercy of the Elite until Takeshita, at Danielson's urging, stopped Omega from taking Moxley's eye out. Takeshita then wouldn't stand tall with the BCC, who then bloodied him for making the wrong choice.

A compelling mystery has deepened, but the execution of these angles is still...weird in a way that is hard to pin down. Perhaps because the premise is thin, an indirect riff on CM Punk's feelings towards the Elite, the mid-action exposition dumps feel awkward and disruptive. Takeshita's emoting here wasn't particularly strong either.

The concept behind all of this is tremendous, particularly since Takeshita has bled with the BCC before all of this was emphasised as a main AEW plot, but there's an inorganic, stilted quality to every angle, and it feels like AEW is trying to cram too much content into them.

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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!