AEW Dynamite 4/5/2023 Match Ratings and Commentary
(Credit-AEW)
Here’s how we rated this week’s Dynamite from Long Island. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
AEW Dynamite - 4/5/2023
House of Black def. Orange Cassidy and Best Friends to retain the AEW Trios Championship: ★★★
Jamie Hayter def. Riho to retain the AEW Women’s World Championship: ★★★
Sammy Guevara def. Komander: ★★★
Hook def. Ethan Page: ★
FTR def. The Gunns to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship: ★★★
Jay White shocks Starks (Credit-AEW)
Show Highlight—
Building goodwill with fans. Usually I’m of the opinion that you shouldn’t focus on the competition, but focus on yourself. Well, that’s easy to say when you’re the winners and the competition never poses any tangible threat. This episode of Dynamite was an opportunity, and AEW took it and delivered on making the fans feel great about their investment. This isn’t tribalist bullshit—AEW books for their fans, WWE books for Vince. You’re fucking brainwashed and part of the problem if you view the outcomes of this week as anything but. Vince McMahon does not give a fuck about you. He doesn’t want to put a smile on your face, he only wants to fleece you from your money.
WWE had all the oxygen in the room, good and bad, and AEW needed to make noise to get attention and they did. Not only did you get an authentic surprise with the Jay White signing, the hometown guy and crowd were celebrated, you got an announcement that wasn’t a sad attempt to try to come close to the landscape-changing WWE news this week in running Wembley, and then finally you also got the relief that FTR re-signed. In-ring, was it the greatest Dynamite of all-time? Not even one of their top 50 episodes from a pure wrestling standpoint. But in the elusive, “creating memories” department, this show made a crowd feel rewarded for getting their hopes up.
What Worked—
Jay White is All Elite. Holy Shit! Like a lot of fans, I was resigned to a debut on the Raw after Mania. Not because it was the best place for him to go per se, just that in some inexplainable sense, I thought he’d think succeeding in that ecosystem would be more of a challenge? He’s going to be a huge star, a heel that gets real heat, and wrestle incredible matches on PPV. This will be a huge deal with time.
MJF Day. Every time you think he’s running out of material, he just brings it with a segment that’s as good as anything from any era of pro wrestling. This week’s segment was like one of the better trainwreck Tuesday Night Titans bits. Because MJF Day would mean to his character that he needs to demonstrate that he’s a true triple threat—singer, dancer, and wrestler. And he got the crowd to do a non-ironic chant for Attention Deficit Disorder. It’s not quite there yet obviously, but at some point in his career, he’s going to cause an automatic sellout whenever he’s in the arena, like a Punk in Chicago or Rock in Miami.
Jamie Hayter vs. Riho. Now that her visa issues are up, it’s good to see her back on TV wrestling. Riho had a good build and a push to make this seem like a bigger deal. Jamie’s star power is there, but she can be instrumental in helping them sell out Wembley with her character’s path carefully constructed.
Tony Khan’s Major Announcement. Cynically, I did have a fear that it would be something about that silly video game or re-signing Big Show or whatever. This was huge. Running Wembley and making that a big success could be what gets AEW past where they once teased they could reach at the end of All Out 2021. More on this topic on the Podcast and website later!
FTR vs. The Gunns. The Gunns tried but they just aren’t in the same stratosphere as FTR. And as talented as FTR are, the heat in this match was more on the company and if they’d let them walk away, then if the Gunns would win. Nice spots with the attempts for attentional DQs. It worked at it’s conclusion. Again, nice feel good moment at the end of a show where babyfaces didn’t look like losers.
What Didn’t Work—
Keith Lee/Chris Jericho. Guess who’s going to tell someone to fuck their own ass when they Tweet at him he’s going over Keith Lee cynically as a receipt for eventually putting over Adam Cole five months from now?
Show Cringe—
Matt Hardy. …So…what prevented him from doing that to Ethan Page months ago?
FTR (Credit-AEW)
Follow us on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/WrestleElitists
