AEW Dynamite Review 2/19/2025
Three straight great Dynamites in a row? Yep. Anyways, here's a bunch of words about Adam Page and MJF.
As you might have seen in recent reviews, I have been bullish on AEW Dynamite in the last two weeks. My first review on this very Substack largely centered on the company’s misallocation of television time, leading to a situation that was hampering story and character development for the show. This episode was another bucking of the trend that was my biggest problem with the show in early 2025.
The show started with a long and heavy promo between MJF and “Hangman” Adam Page. The two have been circling each other for weeks in what had been a methodical build up until last week’s brawl in the ring and in the stands. This promo made the subtext in this feud concrete and laid MJF’s latent insecurities bare. MJF sees a character in Hangman who has done awful things in recent months, yet the crowd still adores him. He even touched on the “Hangman done nothing wrong” line, which has become a bit of a meme in wrestling communities after Page’s feud with Swerve.
Despite the difference in crowd reactions, a big part of this feud is about how at the end of the day, Hangman and MJF have not been so different. Hangman ended Christopher Daniels’ career just a few weeks ago, for example. In Hangman, MJF sees parts of himself: someone who will do whatever it takes to come out on top. But the crowd doesn’t offer MJF the same grace as they do to Page. MJF lost any trust he had in the crowd and his fellow wrestlers after the feud with Adam Cole, and that throughline persisted in his feuds with Cole and Will Ospreay. It’s at the top of mind here.
The promo ended with MJF asking Page how the two were different, to which Hangman replied “I am real.” It’s the perfect three word thesis to why the crowd loves Hangman Adam Page so much, no matter what he does. He wears his heart on his sleeve and lets his emotions do the driving, for better or for worse. MJF, on the other hand, showed glimpses of his true character during that partnership with Adam Cole. He showed himself to be a wrestler who loves what he does and will do whatever he needs to for his friends, prior to Cole’s betrayal. But the heel character that MJF plays on TV is a coping mechanism for the aforementioned insecurities.
After the promo, Christopher Daniels entered the ring and, without a mic, audibly said that he did not want Hangman to become like MJF. The things that Hangman did may have been awful, but Daniels knows there’s still a heart beneath Hangman’s pain.
As can be gathered from the last few paragraphs, I thought that there was a lot to chew on here and this may have been the best in-ring promo battle between two wrestlers in quite some time. These two characters diverged at the beginning of AEW and are finally coming back together in a way that draws upon the 5 year history of the characters and the company. I’m hoping this is a feud that goes the distance, perhaps even to All In 2025 or even longer.
The next segment was a quick backstage interview between Renee Paquette and the Undisputed Kingdom, hyping up the night’s main event of Orange Cassidy vs Roderick Strong. Kyle O’Reilly said that despite the match, Orange Cassidy was “still his boy.” It seems like we’re already getting a bit of intra-stable Undisputed Drama!
The first match of the night was The Opps vs. The Patriarchy. This was a solid match that served as a way to further establish The Opps in the trios division. I’ve mentioned it before, but this is a perfect spot for Hook. The crowd seems to immediately love the stable and the three have great chemistry. Belt them up!
After the match, Renee was backstage interviewing Chris Jericho. This was a more serious, angrier tone from The Learning Tree who has shown a bit of a temper in recent weeks. This time, the target of his frustration was Bandido, who he challenged to a match on Collision. Solid segment that didn’t overstay its welcome. I’m hoping Bandido wins the ROH Championship eventually, as his first match with Jericho helped him get signed.
The next match was a street fight between Big Bill and Powerhouse Hobbs. I would have loved to see this on the PPV but there’s also nothing wrong with putting a bigger match on television. I’ve enjoyed the simple but fun build for this feud and the match paid that off with the two brawling all over the arena, using weapons like a sound mixer and a keyboard. The match ended with the two bloodied up, and in a unique finish Hobbs threw Bill through a barbed wire table. Bill couldn’t escape from the wire and he was counted out. This was the type of feud that Hobbs has needed for a while and I’m glad he’s had so much forward momentum in recent weeks.
In the next segment, we had yet another all-timer promo from “Timeless” Toni Storm. It was a cinematic set up for a promo, featuring Storm in the ring with a spotlight on her and the rest of the lights in the arena off. She has gotten some amazing crowd reactions in recent weeks, between this and her reveal of the Timeless character on Collision a few weeks back.
The promo was a simple one but delivered humorously and expertly by Storm. She talked about Mariah May, showing her some respect, and also laid out a challenge to the womens division as a whole (while also managing to throw in a plug for her upcoming film, Queen of the Ring). The promo ended with Toni doing a pose as the spotlight on her dimmed.
It’s a bit wild that AEW was able to put their title on a wrestler for a record fourth time in five years, and the fans have no complaints. When she lost the title to Mariah, I wondered how far the Timeless character could go. Storm, however, shows there’s still plenty of juice in this gimmick and their investment in her as a performer and wrestler has paid off tenfold.
Afterwards, Renee was backstage interviewing Willow Nightingale. Willow was again attacked by Marina Shafir, and the segment was commandeered by the Death Riders yet again. This led to a promo where Jon Moxley called out Adam Copeland. He was then confronted by Jay White and later, Copeland himself who said that he would take out every one of the Death Riders so that it was just him and Moxley at Revolution.
I’m still not into the Death Riders storyline, but this was decent. I like the running theme of the stable “making their own time” on TV like this, but I do wish Willow had more to do after being attacked two weeks in a row. There is, of course, still a possibility they have something planned for her and Marina.
The next match featured Megan Bayne and Kris Statlander in a first time match. This was a great 9 minute match that served as a proof of concept - these two deserve another match on a bigger stage with double that amount of time. The two had immediate chemistry in a way that two first time opponents sometimes don’t and there were plenty of impressive feats of strength here, most notably Bayne grabbing hold of Statlander while the latter was on the apron and suplexing her into the ring. The match ended with Penelope Ford interfering, allowing Bayne to get the win.
While the match itself was great, the post-match segment was…odd. Ford attacked Statlander, and Thunder Rosa came out with the chair for the save. Ford, Rosa and Bayne had a faceoff. Not sure if there was a miscommunication here but the segment came across as awkward. Disappointing to be sure, but nothing that can’t be rectified with some explanations on a later show.
The next segment featured Ricochet, appearing with Jimmy Rave’s robe that he stole a few weeks ago. This was a solid promo from a guy who many said “couldn’t talk” prior to him joining AEW. I think the key to it is that Ricochet (intentionally) does not sound genuine in his tough guy act at all; the crowd knows it and they love to boo him for it.
Ricochet called himself a winner, and said he wanted to get out of town like Kevin Durant does. Then Swerve’s music hit, and Prince Nana entered the ring. He described what the robe meant to him, and asked for it back. Ricochet asked him to “take it” and when Nana didn’t react, he walked away.
The robe obviously has a ton of meaning, given its history, so this worked for me as another layer of justification for Swerve and Nana to be heated going into the next match with Ricochet, hopefully at Revolution.
The main event featured Orange Cassidy and Roderick Strong. We know these two can have a great match and the same was true here. It was a competitive match with no shortage of Undisputed Kingdom drama; Kyle O’Reilly hugged Orange Cassidy (twice!) during the match, must to the dismay of Adam Cole who has had his own run ins with Cassidy in the distant past.
The match ended with Orange Cassidy winning a shot at Konosuke Takeshita’s AEW International Championship next week. Afterwards, he was attacked by the Don Callis Family and Kenny Omega came out for the save. He held up Takeshita’s title, looking at both OC and Takeshita. Not sure if they’re selling that Kenny doesn’t know his Revolution opponent, or if a triple threat is planned.
The story they’re telling here doesn’t exactly have the depth of Hangman/MJF but the crowd loves everyone involved so much that it works. It will be interesting to see how they blow off the feud with Kenny, Ospreay and Callis with Omega presumably feuding with Okada going into the summer.
Outside of the miscues in the Bayne/Statlander aftermath, this was a great episode of the show and yet another positive step towards Revolution, which has the potential to be one of the best PPVs of the year on paper.
Rating: 4/5
Last Week: 4/5
2025 average (4 episodes rated so far): 3.75