Welcome to Wwesport.com’s weekly review of “AEW Dynamite,” where the build to Revolution 2025 continues — notably in the form of “Hangman” Page and MJF chatting about 2019 for some reason and the challenger for the International Championship awaiting the mini-tournament-determined champion. Spoiler alert: here at WINC we think both those lines are a little it backward, and we’re entitled to express so here because it’s an opinion space. Our opinions, which are purely subjective. If you’re more into plain facts and you just want to know what occurred on the show, check out our “Dynamite” results page.
Don’t get the notion that Wednesday night was all negative though – far from it. While there were a couple items we just didn’t care about at all, this column is about our strongest thoughts, and most of those were actually on the good side this week. From Powerhouse Hobbs smashing Big Bill to Megan Bayne feuding with Kris Statlander to Toni Storm filming a promo as women’s world champion once again (which just seems right) here are three things we despised and three things we loved during the 2/19/25 edition of “AEW Dynamite.”
Hated: Making it 2019 again (by magic or science)
Did you know that back in 2019, MJF and Hangman Page faced off in the inaugural match in AEW history? Because back in 2019, MJF and Hangman Page faced battle in the first match in AEW history. You saw the Casino Battle Royal at Double or Nothing 2019, the inaugural match in AEW history, featured MJF and Hangman Page. It’s history that AEW, MJF especially, loves to bring up whenever possible.
It’s become a tired note. 2019 was 6 years ago and it feels like MJF has been living in the past more and more. He talks about Cody. He talks about Punk. He talks about meeting Adam Page in the inaugural match in AEW history (the Casino Battle Royal at Double or Nothing if you didn’t know) and it’s starting to become its own vortex. MJF might not have the gravitas of a Chris Jericho, but witnessing the crowd reaction shrink with each jab really underscored just how much air MJF and Page pulled out of the balloon over the course of their constant harping to open the program.
Last week, the explosion between the two men was a highlight of the performance, and this week they made me want to rip my fingernails out one by one. The extended riff on Christopher Daniels is becoming especially tiring, as it’s extremely hard to miss a guy who comes up the second you speak his name. Daniels might not be able to wrestle anymore, but he’s still there, and every time MJF or Adam Page talk like they robbed the world of Daniels, the more hollow it rings. These men have painted themselves into a corner and at this point I’m not sure how they wrestle their way out of it efficiently.
Loved: Powerhouse Hobbs cuts down The Redwood in a street battle
I will admit, I had to be sure Powerhouse Hobbs was totally in the back before claiming this as a love in fear that Chris Jericho was going to appear, but happily, that wasn’t the case. Tonight’s street fight between Hobbs and Big Bill was quite good and I quite loved it. I’m someone who always enjoys a good stipulation match, and this didn’t disappointed. It was even positioned effectively in the program and wasn’t outshined by anything and didn’t over exceed its welcome. I’m a great fan of both of these guys, but Hobbs needed the win here after great Bill and The Learning Tree put him on the shelf for awhile. Hobbs hitting Bill with the rucksack full of bricks, the weapon that damaged him in the first place, was a wonderful touch.
The employed a few odd weapons that you don’t generally see in a street fight, including the rucksack, I believe a keyboard or something from a sound system, and a wrench, which is what Bill used to bust open Hobbs. We didn’t see much of Jericho, as he’s too busy dealing with Bandido, but we did see “Bad Apple” Bryan Keith come out to try and help Bill put up some tables in the ring and move some of the weaponry around. He was tossed through a table set up in the corner for his troubles, pulling him out of the fight at a decent time when he didn’t meddle too much, but he was still there and participated just enough to be beneficial, so it wasn’t like he abandoned Bill.
The match ended with what I thought was a fairly fantastic spot. The ring steps were placed up on the stage, and Hobbs mounted them with Bill, and sent “The Redwood” crashing down through a table draped in barbed wire below. Bill was attempting to get himself untangled from the wire, which looked brutal, but not too awful and bloody to be aired on television rather than a pay-per-view, and Aubrey Edwards counted to 10 before proclaiming Hobbs the winner. I thought it was a wonderful way to keep Bill looking a bit strong as well, as he was literally wrapped up in barbed wire and couldn’t physically get out to stand up and finish the bout. It was a site I haven’t seen, at least in recent memory, and I thought it looked really cool.
I can’t tell if this feud is finished or not by how this match ended, but I guess I’m fine with it any way. If Bill wants to challenge Hobbs to something even more violent at Revolution, okay. If this is the end and Hobbs moves on to bigger things, and ideally Big Bill and Bryan Keith move father away from Jericho, that would also be excellent. Overall, I think this worked well on tonight’s show, and I had fun watching this match.
Loved: Spotlights and titles and Timeless Ones, oh my!
There’s no denying that professional wrestling is full with folks who know how to cut a fantastic promo, but arguably, none are more inventive than Toni Storm in the present age of wrestling.
The beauty of the segment that the brand new four time AEW Women’s World Champion didn’t necessarily rest in its content, but rather its distinctiveness and fit to the “Timeless” image that Storm has been portraying for some time now. Everything about it from the theatrics to the presentation of the sole spotlight in the ring and Storm’s attire to the way that she spoke was virtually faultless. It all came together to make for an exciting, fun, and memorable segment of the concert that will remain in the minds of fans for quite some time whilst still working to promote the impending Queen Of The Ring film and set up the next chapter in the plot between Storm and May. On a “Dynamite” that was almost completely comprised of segments and bouts that were excellent, if not great, this one nevertheless managed to be a bright spot by standing above everything else and worked as the perfect way to call action on Storm’s reign as titleholder.
Loved: Megan Bayne and Kris Statlander going at it
It’s becoming a bit of a ritual for me to commend AEW for making a certain division feel like it’s on the edge of something exciting. Two weeks ago it was the tag team division, last week it was the trios division, and this week it’s the women’s division, and it’s all thanks to Megan Bayne and Kris Statlander.
After their altercation last week, plus the fact that Tony Khan may or may not have forgotten to book a women’s match until earlier today, the match that could have genuinely been a dream match to some people with a little more build was given away in the second half of this week’s “AEW Dynamite” and let me tell you something right now: it was great.
If there is one thing unique about AEW’s women’s division, it’s that they have collected some of the biggest, most physically imposing women in the world under one roof. Bayne, Statlander, Jamie Hayter, Willow Nightingale, Nyla Rose, and so on, and this match was a fantastic illustration of what these females can achieve when they are allowed to just go out and do what they want. Aided by the fact that the show seemed a bit promo-heavy at points, the matches all got a little more added to them and these gals made the most of it. Hard-hitting attacks, enormous bombs being landed, Megan Bayne showing the world that she can not only hurl people around with ease, but that she can absorb some terrible bumps too. That back suplex on to the apron where there was absolutely no give, incredible.
For me personally, Statlander has a propensity to function better with people roughly half her stature, just look at the AEW TBS Championship matches vs Mercedes Mone as instances. However, Bayne being the immovable object allowed Statlander to show off her athleticism a little more, letting her to really lean into babyface bag that she is so skilled at digging in to. Plus, and this is just a little detail, but her axe kick is a thing of beauty.
On a show that was main evented by Orange Cassidy and Roderick Strong, two incredible wrestlers and former AEW International Champions, a show with the dream team of Samoa Joe, HOOK, and Katsuyori Shibata being the coolest guys in the world, a show with Big Bill getting thrown into barbed wire, Bayne and Statlander got the crowd going arguably more than anyone just by being excellent at what they do. While it might have been a wiser idea to have them virtually tear the building down and brawl all over the place, these two gals put on a darn amazing wrestling fight, and I for one cannot wait to see a rematch later on down the line.
You’ll notice I haven’t discussed the finish of the match, or the post-match angle with Penelope Ford and Thunder Rosa, and there is a reason for that: it merits its own entry, but not for the proper reasons…
Hated: But why not let Bayne win clean, though?
First off, Megan Bayne won a tremendous win over Kris Statlander following a fantastic match. I am not here to disparage any of the work those two put on exhibit, and everything about the match truly suited my attitude — except for one thing. Towards the end of a brilliant effort notably in the case of Bayne, one that really should have been topped off with a clean win, Penelope Ford emerged to distract Statlander for the finish. Ford was on the losing end of Stat at last week’s event, after which Bayne emerged to set the wheels in action for this week’s bout. But aside from that, there feels to be very little rhyme or purpose to having Ford connected – temporarily or not – with Bayne at all. The interference ending up tainting an otherwise star-making effort for Bayne, and pushed it into the box of countless previous matches throughout AEW’s limited history when such a finish happened.
It certainly knocked the wind out of the sails of a brilliant match, and by no means is this meant to be disrespectful to Ford herself; but why does she need to be a part of this arc? It sometimes feels that much is trying to be jammed into a tiny area within AEW, and that’s especially apparent in the women’s division, with various talent clustered together seemingly as a means of guaranteeing they’re featured at least semi-regularly. But it feels like that is overwhelming the tales and missing a nuance that can be done with one-to-one storytelling. Not every babyface loss needs to come with an asterisk, especially when it comes at the disadvantage of fully solidifying a blossoming talent. Give Ford another reason to live within the canon without being connected to another heel, and let the characters stand alone as their own entity.
Hated: The International Championship mini-tournament
I completely thought I missed something today when I learnt that AEW had announced the International Championship Series Match pitting Orange Cassidy vs Roderick Strong. I was confused since, when I caught up on “Grand Slam: Australia,” I vividly recall Kenny Omega throwing out Konosuke Takeshita. Omega stepped off backstage, stood behind Will Ospreay, and called out Takeshita in part, because he hates him and The Don Callis Family, and he wants his turn at the International Championship. He spoke quite a bit more than that, but from what I remember, that was a decent gist of it when he and Ospreay defeated Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher. I thought to myself, “Oh! That will be a terrific match at Revolution!” and went about my day. While I’m thrilled Cassidy won the win tonight, I just think it’s very useless.
I don’t think that Cassidy is going to defeat Takeshita next week. I don’t think Strong would have won the belt, either, so it’s just absurd. I genuinely feel the fight at Revolution is going to be Takeshita versus Omega for the International Championship anyhow, so I’m not completely sure why these extra matchups had to be added for both Strong and Cassidy to take losses. I can’t even truly say I hope that I’m wrong, since while I like Orange Cassidy, I want to see Omega versus Takeshita more at the pay-per-view.
The entire “International Championship Series Match” notion is just rather ridiculous, in my opinion, at least. Even the image screams “silly” to me, with “Omega versus Champion” at Revolution being what’s billed as the final. I have no idea why AEW believed this was necessary, and I think we all would have been OK with Takeshita versus Omega being booked outright. It’s not like there’s a super long time before Revolution, and there’s enough that could be done between the pair, including the Don Callis Family, and maybe extra support from Ospreay for Omega, to fill the weeks before Revolution.
