RIP Jay Briscoe
The wrestling world has had a rough week. One of the cornerstones of independent wrestling, Jay Briscoe, tragically passed away one day before this episode was supposed to air. It would have been very easy for AEW to postpone Dynamite, or phone the show in, on account of all the talent not ready to put on a show for the wrestling world. Tony Khan wanted to make this week’s episode a tribute to Jay, but Warner Bros Discovery sucks.
Even with everything that happened this week, AEW still had a fantastic evening of wrestling planned.
Let’s talk about it.
All-Atlantic Championship: Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Jay Lethal

The first match of the evening ended up being my least favorite. In a muddied and convoluted storyline stolen straight from a ripped-apart Vince McMahon Raw or Smackdown, Jay Lethal challenged Orange Cassidy for the All-Atlantic Championship.
The whole story revolved around Jeff Jarrett, Satnam Singh, and Sonjay Dutt being barred from ringside. Sonjay Dutt would be fired if any member of Jarrett’s weird faction got involved, for some reason. Apparently ‘ringside’ doesn’t mean being in the crowd, or inside the ring at all, because both of those things happened. Jarrett, Dutt, and Singh ‘bought tickets’ at ringside for this match. The Best Friends also had tickets and sat a few seats down. Both factions watched the match.
Notice I haven’t talked about the match at all?
Exactly. This weird side story took away from what could have been another good match between Lethal and Cassidy. Jay Lethal beat Cassidy a few months ago in a great match, but this one was complicated and way shorter than it could have been. Lethal bounced Cassidy off the ring post at one point, but Freshly Squeezed wasn’t down for long. Eventually, Cassidy was able to take advantage of the fifteen people going in and out of the ring to hit the Orange Punch for the victory. Meh.
2.5/5
Jeff Jarrett has been a lot better in AEW than anticipated, but this one fell way short. This was sports entertainment through and through. And not the good kind.
Young Bucks vs. Top Flight

The second match of the evening was much better than the first. The Young Bucks faced off against the up-and-coming Top Flight in their first tag match since July. The story in this match revolved around that tag match layoff and the Bucks feeling the effects of their best of seven series with Death Triangle. Could Top Flight take advantage of the Bucks’ vulnerabilities?!
You could feel that something was different throughout the match. Usually, the Bucks are the ones hitting sneaky tags and tandem moves out of nowhere, but Top Flight held control of this match for a good portion that way. Eventually, the Bucks took over and isolated Dante Martin, but it took a while for the Bucks to hit their usual groove.
The pace ramped up after Darius Martin got the inevitable hot tag, which cranked the intensity through the roof! Both teams chained move after move after move in an escalation toward the finish. The Young Bucks hit Briscoe’s Doomsday Device, which would have ended it had Dante Martin not saved his brother. This seemed to be Top Flight’s match for the taking.
Which was the case! Darius Martin dodged the BTE Trigger and surprise rolled up Matt Jackson for the victory! Top Flight upset the Young Bucks! This was a fantastic match that should have been the opener!
4.25/5
Segments:
- Gunn Club stole Acclaimed’s segment time up next. The Acclaimed proceed to rap and argue with the Gunns. Daddy Ass interrupts them both to say that he’s had enough. He wants them all to sit down and talk. Who’s going to call Jerry Springer?
- An excellent and straightforward promo segment followed. Renee was backstage with Hangman, who wants to mend fences. With whom, might you ask?! Moxley told Renee that Hangman makes him better, which prompted Hangman to ask Renee about Moxley’s health. There was a lot going on in this small segment. Hangman looked remorseful about hurting Moxley but still wants to fight him. And not to mention that he teased patching things up with the Elite. Good stuff!
Ricky Starks vs. Jake Hager

The first hour of Dynamite this week was incredibly up and down. It started weirdly with Cassidy and Lethal, became amazing with the Bucks and Top Flight, and cratered back to earth with this next match. Ricky Starks and Jake Hager had a fine match, but it just felt out of place and unnecessary.
The feud between Ricky Starks and the Jericho Appreciation Society is an odd one. It’s trying to do too much. The story is trying to build Ricky Starks, but also Action Andretti. Starks feels like he’s cooled off a little after his amazing feud with MJF. Putting him in awkward matches with Jake Hager will do that. I like Jake Hager and the new direction of his character, but Starks should be beating Daniel Garcia or Sammy Guevara to crank up his stock.
This match was fine. We got some fun Starks and Hager banter with the purple hat, as can be seen in the photo. Hager used his strength to command the match for a while, but Starks inevitably built his momentum out of nowhere with a nice swinging DDT. Daddy Magic and Cool Hand did their darndest to distract Starks, but Hager hit his teammates instead of Starks. This allowed Stroke Daddy to hit the Spear for the victory.
3/5
- Jericho quickly came backstage to bitch and moan about Ricky Starks. Le Sex Gods, Jericho and Guevara, are facing Starks and Action Andretti next week on Dynamite. However, if Daniel Garcia beats Action Andretti on Rampage, he takes Sammy Guevara’s place in that match.
Bryan Danielson vs. Bandido

Game Over Gimmicks will henceforth be known as the Bandido Appreciation Club. It’s all Bandido, all the time.
But seriously, Bandido is amazing. This match between him and Bryan Danielson is one of my favorites to start the year. Bryan Danielson matches usually end up being technical, but Bandido matching him was very surprising! They put on a wrestling clinic in this one. That’s not to mention how good Danielson is, obviously. He’s been on a tear in 2023 so far.
Danielson being a bully was surprising too. He was mocking and smacking Bandido around a little bit. But that stopped once the pace and technicality were amped up! They traded all sorts of holds and submissions with each other. Bandido had the American Dragon on the ropes after a brutal knee hold sent Danielson to the outside.
The impressive luchador threw everything he could at Danielson, except it was never enough. The Frog Splash, fallaway moonsault slam, and even the 21 Plex couldn’t put Danielson away. The American Dragon outlasted Bandido in the long run by ducking a lariat and hitting the Busaiku knee out of nowhere. This won the match of the night by a mile!
4.5/5
Match of the Night
MJF didn’t allow Danielson to revel in the victory at all. He popped up on the screen to warn Danielson about what is coming. “Masked” Max has been happy go lucky, but he warns Danielson that it’s time to unveil the monster underneath.
Segments:
- Backstage segment with Saraya, Toni Storm, and Hikaru Shida up next. Saraya was pissed at Shida for costing them the match last week with the Kendo Stick, and Toni sympathized with Shida. Toni understood that Shida didn’t mean to do that. Saraya then berated Shida and told her to stay backstage when Toni faces Willow. Saraya and Toni Storm look to be turning heel.
- The Embassy was backstage with Renee Paquette. Brian Cage faces Bryan Danielson next week. MJF wants Cage to break Danielson’s arm, and he has an envelope with a lot of cash in it to do so. MJF slaps Cage, which angers the Machine. MJF wants Cage to use that anger and hate against Danielson. This was simple, straightforward, and told a bunch of character stories. Perfect!
Willow Nightingale vs. Toni Storm

Well, if that earlier segment was an early indicator of a possible heel turn, this match between Toni Storm and Willow Nightingale made it a certainty. This was a good match with a surprising twist at the end of it. And it should be exciting to see where this goes!
The story was all about Toni Storm’s new attitude in the ring and Hikaru Shida not being at ringside. Despite Willow’s superior strength, Toni Storm grabbed the advantage with her patented hip attack. Toni was awesome at being a heel, by the way. She was cocky as hell and smacked Willow around a couple of times.
Willow fought back with a spinebuster and missile dropkick, but the story shifted once Hikaru Shida came down to the ring with her kendo stick. This aggravated Saraya and Toni Storm, which allowed Willow to gain the upper hand again. Saraya then distracted Willow, which then allowed Storm to steal a surprise roll-up victory. Not a huge fan of two surprise victories on one night like that, but this was still good.
3.25/5
Saraya immediately attacked Willow directly after the bell, which shocked everyone. Ruby Soho came down for the save and Hikaru Shida was just as shocked as everyone else.
Segments:
- Ethan Page and Stokely Hathaway were backstage and angry about Jungle Boy and Hook. Page and Jack Perry are scheduled for Rampage on Friday.
- Renee Paquette was backstage with Konosuke Takeshita up next. Wrestling Bryan Danielson taught him a lot, which made him happy. Takeshita wants to watch the American Dragon’s back because he doesn’t like MJF. He called MJF an asshole in Japanese, which was hilarious.
Darby Allin vs. Kushida

This week’s main event was a TNT Championship Open Challenge between champion Darby Allin and Kushida, who was making his long awaited AEW debut. Darby has been facing any and all challengers since regaining the TNT Title, but was he biting off more than he could chew with the former IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion?
Well, you could see how good Kushida was right away. He could match Darby’s speed while using his supreme technical ability to dissect the TNT Champion. Kushida’s entire strategy in this match was to destroy Darby’s shoulder, and he did that wholeheartedly. Darby kept mounting comebacks, but his lack of shoulder usage kept killing the momentum.
Even the Scorpio Deathdrop couldn’t keep Kushida down. This whole match was mostly dominated by the challenger. Darby had a nice stundog millionaire onto the apron, but everything went awry right afterward. Darby then sat Kushida down on a chair set up in the outside ring area but failed his attempt at a shotgun dropkick. Kushida’s technical mastery allowed him to catch Darby in midair and apply one of the nastiest cross armbreakers you’ll see. It looked nasty as Darby’s shoulder was being tortured.
The shoulder punishment finally came to fruition as Kushida pulled Darby back into the ring for his Hoverboard lock. Darby was able to escape the lock, and surprised Kushida with the Last Supper pinfall to steal the victory!
4.25/5
A little bummed about the ending of this one, but enjoyed how Darby could pull the Last Supper out of nowhere. It felt like the technical mastery of Kushida wouldn’t have allowed him to lose to that, especially after dominating the whole match.
Overall
And that was Dynamite for the week! Despite a couple of things that weren’t so great, All Elite Wrestling’s flagship show was great yet again. Dynamite has been fantastic every single week in 2023 so far. There are a bunch of interesting stories with a litany of future paths:
- Bryan Danielson and MJF are on a Revolution collision course, but there’s still a long time before that Iron Man match. MJF will throw in a twist very soon.
- The entire women’s division is captivating right now. AEW has interwoven Saraya, Britt, Toni Storm, Jaime Hayter, Willow Nightingale, Hikaru Shida, and Ruby Soho in a massive story that will probably end with a huge match at one point.
- Will Darby Allin’s arm fall off before he loses the TNT Championship?
- Is Hangman mending fences with The Elite now that he’s seemingly finished with Moxley?
There’s a lot to like going forward, which makes Revolution a hotly anticipated PPV!
Verdict: 4.5/5