AEW Dynamite Review: 3/12/2025

The first show after Revolution propelled the main players into (mostly) brand new stories in a very eventful episode.

Sunday’s Revolution, which I attended in person, was one of the best PPVs in AEW’s history. Main event aside, it featured incredible in ring performances and meaningful closure to multiple storylines that have been percolating for months and even years.

Tonight’s episode of Dynamite left most of the roster open for what’s next and luckily, the show delivered with hooks for brand new stories that will take the company from March into the company’s biggest show in All In, which is now just four months away.

The show started with a promo from the new AEW International Champion, Kenny Omega. Omega talked about how meaningful it was to stand in front of the fans as a singles champion despite all he has gone through. He also thanked Konosuke Takeshita for being a worthy opponent that helped raise Omega to the next level. He promoted the AEW International Championship Eliminator Tournament, which began tonight and features 8 wrestlers from across the globe. The tournament will culminate in a 4 way match next week to decide Omega’s first title challenger. Omega mentioned that he wanted to face the very best in his title reign.

This was mostly a stage-setting promo, but it was great to see Omega with gold around his waist for the first time in a few years. I appreciated that he put some shine on Takeshita who, as Omega said, actually wrestled across the world as the champion.

After Omega’s promo, The Opps entered for a squash match. On his way to the ring, International Eliminator Tournament participant Katsuyori Shibata stopped to come face to face with Omega. I’m not sure Shibata ends up winning this thing, but given that we haven’t seen an Omega/Shibata match in some time this was a fun tease.

The Opps easily dispatched their opponents. I would’ve loved some sort of indication of the next move for the faction (they’d be great trios champs) but the show quickly moved on from there.

The promo heavy show continued with another backstage segment. This time, Ricochet talked about his loss on Sunday (according to him, it wasn’t his fault!) and re-stated his goal of gaining gold in AEW. He’s wrestling Shibata on Saturday for a spot in next week’s tournament final.

The program then flashed back to Sunday to show us a previously unseen interaction between Swerve Strickland and Adam “Cope” Copeland. Swerve said that in the main event of Dynasty, he would be challenging for the AEW World Championship and winning it for the second year in a row. Cope then entered the frame, mentioning that it might not be Moxley that Strickland faces as Copeland will have a match for the title next week. The two fist bumped and they parted ways. Moxley then cut a brief promo about Copeland, saying that he won’t make the same mistake twice.

This segment felt geared to make the fans think there was some chance of a Copeland victory next week and, regardless of the result, set up more Cope/Swerve interactions in the future. I’ve long been a proponent of getting Copeland out of the singles scene and finally reuniting him with Christian, so I’m hoping that’s the direction this is ultimately heading.

After attending the PPV, I can’t say I have much desire to see Moxley and Copeland wrestle again. A Street Fight should provide an opportunity for a more entertaining match, however, and hopefully a decisive victory ends this feud so that Moxley can focus on Strickland.

I’ve been pretty clear in recent weeks that this Death Riders angle isn’t working for me and the main event of Revolution really just underlined that, in super bold ink. The stakes haven’t felt nearly high enough for the type of language Moxley has been using and the matches he’s working have been mostly boring. But with a fan favorite in Strickland involved, I’m somewhat optimistic they can create a story worth investing in leading to Dynasty.

The first non-squash of the night was a tag team match between the team of Powerhouse Hobbs and Hologram vs. Dralistico and Brian Cage. This was a nice way to bring two different feuds together and get wrestlers on TV (I’m personally very happy to see Hobbs and Hologram in particular on the shows each week) but the match was rough. There were some cool moments but on the whole the two teams didn’t have much chemistry. Hobbs feuding with the Don Callis Family would be a nice direction, though.

Next up was another promo shot on Sunday, where MVP and the Hurt Syndicate were celebrating the team’s win against the Outrunners to retain the AEW Tag Team Championships. MVP told his faction to take some time off and enjoy the win and that he would hold things down at TV this week. More on that later!

Toni Storm then appeared in front of the live audience to essentially sum up her feud with Mariah and lay out the challenge to the rest of the locker room. This was classic Timeless Toni Storm at her most humorous, and featured several innuendos. After the phenomenal match on Sunday, Storm received a huge reaction and the crowd seems interested in what she’ll do next.

It turns out that Megan Bayne might be involved, as she appeared literally out of the shadows from one of the entrance tunnels to lay out Storm and stand over her. Bayne has looked so promising in her short time in AEW so far and it appears the company thinks very highly of her with how heavily she has been featured. Bayne will be an interesting problem for Timeless Toni to solve moving forward.

In the first match of the International Eliminator Tournament, a debuting “Speedball” Mike Bailey as the wildcard made their AEW debut, wrestling against The Beast Mortos. Bailey is such a talented wrestler and Mortos can work well with everyone. The match itself seemed designed to give the AEW audience a glimpse into Bailey’s deep bag of tricks and it worked out well. Bailey looked like someone who will fit into the promotion immediately, and Mortos is one of the best wrestlers on the AEW roster at looking strong in defeat. It would be awesome to see him pick up some wins in the future as well!

The next part of the show went backstage to The Patriarchy. Christian Cage was all excuses for his loss, and demanded his contract back. Nick Wayne took offense to Cage’s excuses and called him out for it. Cage tried to put him back in line, but it appears that all is not well in The Patriarchy.

With their separate quests for the AEW World Championship nearly done, I hope this is a sign that Copeland and Cage will reunite sooner rather than later. The two worked so well during their TNT Championship runs last year and I would love to see them continue to interact in a meaningful manner again. This also gives Nick Wayne some character development and something to do after he has been stuck in the same place for a while.

Next up was a glimpse at MJF backstage after the PPV. Lexy Nair was attempting to get a word in, and looked inside MJF’s locker room to see him calling himself a fraud in the mirror before smashing it.

MJF then entered for a promo in front of the live crowd. Like Christian, he seems convinced that he’s not at fault for the loss. He threatens Hangman, letting him know that this isn’t over. In one of the biggest surprises of the show, it wasn’t Hangman’s music that hit next - it was The Hurt Syndicate’s.

MVP entered the ring to talk with MJF about their shared history. Back in the day, MJF drove MVP to a screening of a Bad Brains documentary and allowed the young MJF to pick his brain. The two then gained a mutual respect. But MVP hasn’t liked what he’s seen out of MJF lately. Instead of taking action, MJF was back in the ring complaining to the fans. MJF then said he was a 406 day World Champ and didn’t need MVP’s help. MVP called him out, saying the key word there is “was.” He then offered MJF his business card, and exited the ring.

This was one of my favorite segments of the show. MVP is one of the best talkers on the entire roster and MJF excels when put in the ring across from someone of MVP’s caliber. There are several different ways they can take this from here. MJF, as evidenced by his words in the locker room, may be at his all time lowest. The fans have rejected him, Hangman beat him and he is taking it all very personally.

While a past version of MJF may have taken this as a challenge and fought The Hurt Syndicate, this version of MJF stands to gain a lot from associating with MVP, Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin. This might be the lifeline he needs to regain his edge.

Next, Max Caster had another match in his “Best Wrestler Alive” open challenge series, where he was predictably destroyed by Konosuke Takeshita. Caster’s behavior in the last several months of The Acclaimed had gotten quite stale so it is great to see him on fire and one of the funniest parts of the show here.

Would it surprise you if the show then went backstage to another promo? This time, it was Chris Jericho talking to Gravity’s mask in what was clearly something of a Hamlet homage. Jericho called out Gravity’s brother Bandido and took some veiled shots at the members of his own Learning Tree faction, who he accused of taking advantage of him.

Jericho is not my favorite part of AEW shows these days, but this angry version of the character with an edge is far more interesting direction for him and one in which those involved in the story have more to gain. I don’t think we’re going to be hearing “Hi guys!” much anymore.

The next part of the show was a match between Willow Nightingale and Penelope Ford. This was a solid match that felt a little slow at times, but got the job done to reestablish Willow in the division. Post match, Ford attacked Nightingale and Kris Statlander came out for the save. Willow, however, thought she was being attacked by Statlander and there was a moment of confusion. Megan Bayne ran to the ring and took advantage, laying out both Statlander and Willow and standing over them.

After Statlander’s abrupt face turn and separation from Stokely Hathaway, it’s great to see them do the leg work to reunite Statlander with her former best friend in Willow. It also sets the stage for more Statlander/Bayne action, or even a Willow/Bayne match, which would both be pretty big for the company.

The show then went backstage again (these interviewers are busy!) to TBS Champion Mercedes Mone and Renee Paquette. Mone, after a hard fought match against Momo Watanabe at Revolution, bruised her larynx and couldn’t even do her trademark “Say hello to your CEO” (don’t worry, she had Renee valiantly make an attempt at the catchphrase).

Billie Starkz then walked on screen and compared her career to Mone’s. Starkz mentioned that like Mone, she started out young and quickly became a rising star in the industry. She challenged Mone for the TBS title next week, and Mone accepted.

As I mentioned in the last few reviews, this is clearly headed to a showdown between Mone and Starkz’s minion overlord, ROH Womens World Champion Athena. I’m shocked to see the story progress this quickly as I thought they would let things simmer a bit until we got closer to All In. It looks like this story might be a bit longer than anticipated and I can’t complain about Starkz and Athena finally making it back to AEW television.

In yet another in-ring promo, Tony Schiavone talked to Will Ospreay, who was acting like an old man who had just thrown out his back to sell the effects of his cage match with Kyle Fletcher on Sunday.

Ospreay reiterated his desire to be “the guy” in AEW and, with his eye on the main event of All In, stated his intention to enter the Owen Hart Tournament. After this, in another backstage segment Jay White mentioned his accidental(?) attack on Copeland and also called out Ospreay, seemingly stating his desire to win the AEW World Championship as well.

AEW has one of the best problems: there are so many wrestlers right now who feel like they could easily lead the company but they’ve been distracted elsewhere. With long-standing personal drama finally on the backburner, it’s great to see so many wrestlers refocus on the world title. Copeland has a shot, Swerve has a shot and guys like White and Ospreay are finally re-focusing on the top prize in the company as well.

In the main event of the evening, Orange Cassidy wrestled Hechicero in another International Championship Eliminator Tournament match. This was perhaps a more interesting match on paper, and possibly due to time constraints wasn’t as good as I thought it could have been. It was mostly centered around Hechicero getting Cassidy into clever submission holds and Cassidy finally sneaking a win with the Mouse Trap.

After the match, Mike Bailey showed up at the entrance ramp, teasing the 4 way match for next week.

This was a dense, promo heavy episode of Dynamite that might be one of the most forgettable in-ring episodes outside of the Bailey/Mortos match. While the in-ring work on the show as a whole was uncharacteristically boring, the new stories that were started here have me quite intrigued for the direction of the show. With Dynasty only three and a half weeks away, the show will hopefully continue to be packed with great storytelling moving forward.