Powell’s AEW Dynamite Hit List: Thoughts on whether AEW delivered a strong follow-up to All In, Will Ospreay and Mercedes Moné’s first appearance as AEW World Champions

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

AEW Dynamite Hits

Will Ospreay’s show-opening first appearance as AEW World Champion: Ospreay’s promo went a bit long and ran past its peak. It should have ended once he finished shouting his lines late in the promo, but it was good to see he has that intensity. Ospreay is a little awkward at times, but that’s part of his charm. For better or worse, Ospreay is his authentic self. He occasionally wanders into some regrettable territory, but for the most part his realness is endearing.

Will Ospreay and Jon Moxley: It looked like someone was late putting up the graphic for their AEW World Championship match on the big screen, which made them going head-to-head a little awkward for a few seconds. Putting that aside, this was a simple and effective segment that had to happen. AEW invested a lot of television time in the Ospreay and Moxley relationship, only to put it on the back burner once they shifted the focus to Ospreay challenging Kenny Omega at All In. It’s good to see that they aren’t wasting any time in picking up where they left off now that Ospreay won the AEW World Championship.

AEW Women’s World Champion Mercedes Mone and Thekla: This felt like a big-time showdown. Thekla is really over with the fans despite not having a formal babyface turn. It’s too soon for Mone to drop her newly won title, but it would also be a mistake to have Mone win decisively and move on after one match. The company really has something with Thekla as a babyface. She doesn’t have to change anything, because the swagger she showed as a heel combined with her cussing and braggadocious approach was already over with the fans. Heck, even the “toxic” talk comes off better now that the fans are backing her. It will be interesting to see if the company can get the most out of it. On a side note, Mercedes came off a little too likable at the start of the promo to the point that a lot of the fans were siding with her over Willow Nightingale, but she was really good once she flipped the switch and went into heel mode.

Swerve Strickland and “The New Level” Kofi and Austin Creed vs. “The Rascalz” Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz, and Myron Reed for the AEW Trios Titles: I said on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast on Tuesday that I needed to see more of Kofi and Creed in AEW before I could get a sense of how they’ll fit in and whether they can hang with the top teams. I’m sold coming out of this match, which exceeded my expectations. I thought they might take the short and sweet approach, which would fit with the high-energy approach of Kofi and Creed, and it’s not like the Rascalz have been protected. But Kofi and Creed worked their asses off and made their opponents look good in the process. As good as they were, I hope that this opened some eyes about how good The Rascalz are. I’d like to see them in the mix with the top tag teams rather than just trading random wins and losses.

Darby Allin vs. Mark Davis for the TNT Title: I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Darby was back in the ring just a few days after what he put himself through at All In. I’m going with the conspiracy theory that Darby and Jeff Hardy are from another planet and either don’t feel pain or recuperate one hundred times faster than we feeble earthlings do. Anyway, this was a good brawl. It was good to see Josh Alexander back after a long injury layoff. Steven Borden’s spots were basic, but he executed them well and throws one hell of a dropkick. It’s a shame that he had his first match at age 33 rather than at age 23, but Dallas Page had a hell of a run for a guy who didn’t have his first match until age 35.

MJF promo: Damn. MJF was great during this promo that he cut backstage on Sunday after his loss in the Casino Gauntlet. MJF acted unhinged while showing great intensity. MJF is already great, yet he somehow continues to get better.

All In recap video and Dynamite as a fallout show: AEW got it right. They made All In feel like a marquee event by opening the show with a good, long video recap. It would have been nice if they had shown the post-match footage involving Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega from All In rather than just assuming that people found it on YouTube. But the important thing is that they made their biggest annual event feel like a mega event before, during, and now after. That’s how you make certain events stand out and feel special.

AEW Dynamite Misses

Will Ospreay, Andrade El Idolo, Callum Newman, Henare, and Francesco Akira vs. Ricochet, Toa Liona, Bishop Kaun, Gabe Kidd, and Clark Connors: The match was fine. The fun spot with Akira throwing caution to the wind and firing chops at Liona and Kaun got a good rise out of the crowd. Otherwise, the crowd’s quiet reactions to Akira, Newman, and Henare really stood out and showed that the company has a lot of work to do to get them over. It may happen, but is it worth the risk that the fans don’t budge and Akira, Newman, and Henare start to drag down Ospreay? It’s fine to give it a shot, but Ospreay has to be the priority.

Nick Wayne and Chris Jericho verbal exchange: The Miss is all about Wayne’s acting. He’s improved in this area, but he went way overboard with hand gestures. It didn’t seem like he could talk without moving his hands. Wayne is 21 years old, so there are going to be some growing pains. Some of the blame falls on the company for watching the verbal exchange and deciding to go with it rather than calling for another take. The sky is the limit for the talented Wayne, and I suspect this will be a promo that he’ll laugh about once he’s more polished.

Megan Bayne vs. Alex Windsor: A minor Miss. This felt like it went longer than necessary, which works against Bayne’s powerhouse persona. Windsor was protected by Bayne hitting her with a title belt for beating her, but I don’t know if she really needed it. A competitive loss would have been fine for Windsor and helped restore Bayne’s dominance after she and Kross lost the AEW Women’s Tag Team Titles to Windsor and Jamie Hayter at All In.

AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley vs. AR Fox in an eliminator match: The match quality was solid, but this felt random and could have taken place as borderline filler on any show. I was worried during this match that the company wasn’t going to revisit the Moxley and Will Ospreay storyline. Fortunately, they got there during the final moments of the show, and it was worth the wait.

(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time since 1997. He hosts the weekly podcast, Pro Wrestling Boom, and also appears regularly on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. Reach him via email at [email protected] and on social media via @prowrestlingnet.bsky.social or x.com/prowrestlingnet. For his full bio and information on this website, click here.)