AEW DYNASTY

St. Louis

TRENT BERETTA vs. MATT SYDAL (8:13): This was another good AEW PPV. I don't think it was as good as Revolution, but that had Sting's retirement, a once-in-a-lifetime event. The pre-show started with Trent Beretta's first match since turning heel for no reason. I guess he wanted to go the singles route? Maybe he was tired of Orange Cassidy outshining him all the time? He's not a particularly exciting singles wrestler, though, so I truly doubt his heel run will be anything to care much about. It definitely hurts Chuck Taylor, as he's definitely not a singles contender. They could turn Chuck Taylor heel, too, and have the Best Friends just be an evil team. This match was forgettable. *

KATSUYORI SHIBATA & ORANGE CASSIDY vs. SHANE TAYLOR & LEE MORIARTY (12:44): This was entertaining, though nothing special. Tony Khan must like Shane Taylor because he's been on TV a lot lately. Lee Moriarty sucks but he's already won life, as he married Julia Hart recently. This was pretty similar to a random Rampage match. **

BULLET CLUB GOLD (THE GUNN'S & JAY WHITE) vs. BILLY GUNN & THE ACCLAIMED (14:44): This was for the unified 6-man tag team titles. When Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks had these titles they actually meant something. Now? They're kind of superfluous. The Acclaimed is still sort of cheered but they definitely lost any kind of momentum they once had. The Acclaimed would probably thrive in the WWE, as they're more suited for that since they're more a fun, entertaining tag team than great wrestlers. I guess I'm just a little bored with both of these teams. The match was entertaining for the most part. **

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. PAC (21:55): Good opener for the main card. They had Jim Ross announcing this match (he left and came back for the main event). Okada is obviously not as great as he once was. He's just older and thus slower and less dynamic/exciting. Still, it was a good match. Okada did a great job playing the heel and getting the crowd to loathe him and shower him with boos. The crowd was pretty hot in spots tonight. It was a small building, a college arena with no upper deck, so in the quiet moments you could loudly hear the wrestlers talking. When Okada was about to do his arms raised, Rainmaker pose, he instead gave the crowd the finger. Then when PAC was about to do his top rope finisher, Okada grabbed the ref to pull him in the way. Okada is definitely smart when it comes to knowing what to do and when to do it. While his matches are slower now, they're still fairly entertaining. Okada retained the Continental title, which has no meaning in a company with 1,000 titles. Maybe they should do Okada/Ospreay at All In? That has to be the biggest question in terms of AEW booking this year; who will they put against Ospreay at the big show? ***

HOUSE OF BLACK (BRODY KING, BUDDY MATTHEWS & MALAKAI BLACK) vs. ADAM COPELAND, EDDIE KINGSTON & MARK BRISCOE (17:46): This was a good match, albeit pretty much similar to just a random Dynamite match. Mark did a cool spot where put a chair on the edge of the ring outside the ropes and jumped off of it and flipped over the ring post and down onto one of the HOB members. I do really wish they'd give Malakai Black a singles run. Considering he seemed to try to get out of his contract two years ago, I doubt Khan is ever going to push him as a main eventer, though. **1/2

WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. JULIA HART (6:01): This was pretty much a squash, as Willow won the TBS title fairly quickly to set up a match against Mercedes Monet at Double or Nothing. That's good that they at least set up a match for DOB, as often these AEW cards have short build. The crowds seem to like Willow, so it's good she's champ...but, c'mon, Mercedes ain't losing her first match in AEW. *1/2

RODERICK STRONG vs. KYLE O'REILLY (17:18): This match was great. These two are so hard hitting and wrestled at a fast pace. It's kind of a shame these two are kind of buried in the forgotten undercard. The crowd did wake up to realize that, fuck, this match is fantastic. Which is a shock because these two aren't exactly stars or anything. Strong retained the International title. ***

CHRIS JERICHO vs. HOOK (16:34): The crowds lately have been voraciously booing Jericho. Maybe it's because he got rid of his opening song that the fans used to sing along to? Or maybe it's because they like Hook? Either way, the last time a big star started getting booed everywhere in AEW, he left and went to WWE and won the title in the main event of Wrestlemania (that would be Cody Rhodes, in case you somehow forgot he was booed out of the company for no apparent reason). Not that Jericho is going to do that at his old age. This was a Fuck The World match, which they never say (it's just referred to as the FTW championship). That means it was a no-rules match. So Jericho kicked Hook in the balls. Jericho put his feet on the ropes during a pin. They used tables, Singapore Canes, and a trash can. The best spot was Hook giving Jericho a t-bone suplex off the apron through a ringside table. That looked rough, as Jericho hit his head on the table before going through it. The story of the match, really, was Jericho getting booed. At one point the crowd chanted, "Jericho Go Home." Yikes. Jericho won the title, which made the fans even angrier. It was a typical hardcore match. It at least held my interest. **1/2

TONI STORM vs. THUNDER ROSA (15:08): Storm's 1920's gimmick has hindered her matches thus far, but this match was actually pretty decent. That's probably because Thunder Rosa is a pretty good wrestler and the fans seemed to actually care about her (unlike Deonna Purazzo, who did show up in this match to beat up Mariah May, who had on a black and white, checkered picnic short skirt schoolgirl outfit on). I'm thinking that they should probably have either Mariah May or Jamie Hayter beat Toni Storm for the title at All In. I don't know when Hayter is coming back, but both her and May are from England. The crowds seem to enjoy Toni's "Timeless" gimmick. Might as well keep it rolling. **1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. BRYAN DANIELSON (32:40): Some people said that this was the best match in the United States...ever. Funny, because I thought the Ospreay/Takeshita match was better, and that just happened last month. Takeshita is younger, faster, and does bigger moves than Danielson...so I thought that match was more exciting. This was an excellent match, though. It definitely had more mat wrestling and submission holds than the Takeshita match, which was just non-stop big, crazy moves one after another. I also didn't really like the ending to this match. After giving Danielson a Tiger Driver, Danielson held his shoulder and yelled to the ref and the ref yelled for the trainer to come into the ring. Meanwhile, Ospreay hit a Hidden Blade and pinned Danielson. Then all the doctors came in to help Danielson while Ospreay worriedly looked on. This was all storyline of course, as if it was a real injury they would have cut to the announcers or something. I'm guessing it was to give Danielson a reason for losing, hence him being injured. Either to set up a re-match or just to not have him be pinned cleanly. It was just kind of a strange ending. The rest of the match was great, though. It's crazy how over Ospreay is in such a short time. He's a fucking superstar. He would do all these fast-paced moves in Japan and they would politely clap. Here, he does a move and the fans go ape shit like they've just seen aliens land on the White House lawn. It was very brutal, very exciting, very dramatic. Just a fantastic match. ***1/2

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. FTR "LADDER MATCH" (21:34): A lot of this match was hard to watch. Nick Jackson took a bump off the apron onto a table but ended up slamming the back of his head hard into the guardrail. That had "concussion" written all over it. Dax did a pile driver on a ladder bridge and the ladder slipped at the last second and they all went crashing down. Thank God Nick didn't break his neck on that one. Cash Wheeler did a running dive through the ropes and Matt moved and Cash went head first crashing into a table that shattered. That looked rough. Dax was also a bloody mess the whole time. Oh...and there were ladders! But first, Nick did a 450 off the top rope through Cash on a table. But...there were ladders. They did all of the usual ladder spots. Nick did a flip suplex off the top of the ladder to Cash to the floor. Dax suplexed Nick off the top of a ladder and then Cash did a frog splash off the top of another ladder onto Nick. This match was a typical, crazy, wild ladder match. The ending had a masked man run into the ring and pull FTR off of the ladders to help The Bucks win the match. Security grabbed the masked man and pulled his mask off and it was Jack Perry. This all played into security footage of the CM Punk/Jack Perry fight backstage at All In that they showed on Dynamite two weeks ago. CM Punk got fired for that but we never saw the footage because, obviously, why would we? Nobody on Earth thought it was a good idea to show that footage on live TV now. The reason was...why bring up CM Punk again? He's in another company, it's time to move on. Well CM Punk went on a radio show and bad mouthed AEW a few weeks ago. Maybe Tony Khan was mad or something. Or maybe he always just had this idea to show it to give Jack Perry a jump start. In the long run, it worked. Jack Perry is a bigger deal now because of showing the security footage. Whether or not the momentum will continue and Perry will be this big star...who knows? His heel run last year never really worked. Maybe aligning himself with Okada and The Bucks will be a good thing. Hell, wrestling with Okada and The Bucks isn't going to hurt. Really good match. ***1/2

SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. SAMOA JOE (17:59): This wasn't a classic or anything, but it was great to see Swerve win the title and see the genuine emotion on his face as he celebrated with the fans to close the show. It's funny, because Swerve was this evil heel six months ago. Thanks to Prince Nana's dance and that awesome 'Hangman' Texas Death Match, Swerve got over and is now a good guy champion. Early on, Samoa Joe pretty much beat the shit out of Swerve. Samoa Joe exposed the concrete at ringside and slammed Swerve on it. Eventually they both kicked out of each other's finishers. Finally Swerve picked up Joe off the top rope and slammed him then did a top rope foot stomp to win the title. I think Joe's reign as champ is probably AEW's shortest championship reign, right? He won it on December 30th. It was pretty obvious Swerve was winning the title here, though, since why else would he be in two straight PPV title matches and lose both? It also brings up the fact that AEW has not yet had a surprise or shock main title change. That might be a good thing, though. And where do we go from here? You have to figure Ospreay is going to win the title in the main event of All In. Is Swerve vs. Ospreay good enough for that spot? I always thought that Ospreay vs. Danielson would be the biggest match they could do at All In. They decided to do it tonight instead. They could do a re-match, although Danielson would have to win the title. They could have a New Japan guy win the title at Forbidden Door. Though putting a New Japan guy in the main event of All In wouldn't make sense. They could do Okada vs. Ospreay. They did already do that as the main event of Wrestle Kingdom a few years ago. I don't know...Swerve vs. Ospreay doesn't seem like a big match you'd care to pay to see, though. I guess we'll see. And who will Swerve feud with now? What heels are there? They could do 'Hangman' again. They could bring back MJF. Both of them are babyfaces though. Chris Jericho? The crowds hate him. It'll be interesting, whoever they pick. **1/2