Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s weekly review of “AEW Dynamite,” the show where as of this week’s episode, the semi-finalists for both Owen Hart Cup tournaments are set, and so are two matches for Double or Nothing as we officially enter the month of May! Here at WINC, we have thoughts about that last “Dynamite” match, as well as — pretty much every major aspect of Wednesday’s show, actually. There might be a few backstage segments, etc, that we don’t cover here, but we’re actually going to talk about basically everything that happened, in one way or another.

That having been said, please feel free to check out our “Dynamite” results page if you’re interested in an objective look at the evening’s events. For the opinions and analysis of the WINC staff, however — from Mercedes Mone confronting Toni Storm to Samoa Joe’s hardcore challenge to Jon Moxley — here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 4/30/25 episode of “AEW Dynamite.”

Jamie Hayter is heading into the finals of the AEW Women’s Owen Hart Cup. Jamie Hayter’s moment is coming. Her moment is almost here. You ready? Here it comes. Here’s Jamie Hayter’s mome-Ah no, it’s gone, man. It just passed, we gotta move on to Toni Storm vs. Mercedes Mone.

Wednesday’s “Dynamite” saw Mercedes Mone call out AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm, saying that she plans on defeating Hayter and facing Storm at All In: Texas in July. While Hayter managed to come out and attack Mercedes, to remind her of her upcoming Cup Final at Double or Nothing, it certainly felt like AEW is already teeing-up their headline women’s match for GlobeLife Field. 

There is no doubt that Mone vs. Storm is a must-book match, and one that will likely live up to lofty expectations, but you still gotta pretend that Hayter has a fighting chance, and I feel like AEW gave up that particular ghost on Wednesday. The Double or Nothing match feels perfunctory, like a pit stop on the road to the true headlining match and that just sucks for the newly-returned Hayter. It feels like she’s been trying to find her place in the women’s division ever since losing the Women’s World Title, and Wednesday was another awkward reminder that her place is certainly not All In: Texas.

Written by Ross Berman

AEW has called a handful of bouts in the past “All Star Eight Man Tag Team Matches”, but the bout between The Elite, Ricochet, Kenny Omega, “Speedball” Mike Bailey, Kevin Knight, and Mark Briscoe is the first one to me where it felt like everyone in the match was worthy of that title and it made sense to pair everyone together with their intersecting storylines.

Given the long and storied history that The Young Bucks, Okada, and Omega share with one another, I expected this match to be at least solid with how well they all work with one another as both teammates and opponents. Briscoe, Bailey, Knight, and Ricochet worked as the perfect compliment to the four men, leading to an all around, high flying, entertaining 30 minutes that didn’t feel like it dragged on for one second. The eight men also being able to throw some comedic spots into the match such as Matthew Jackson accidentally wearing down Ricochet’s arm using the ropes thinking it was Omega and everyone attempting to land moves on one another but all rolling out of the way just in time. It was a refreshing and much needed element that feels like it’s been missing from AEW programming, setting the tone for the rest of the show to be (for the most part) a good all around edition of “Dynamite.”

Written by Olivia Quinlan

I don’t know if AEW is trying to tell me that MJF isn’t a smart guy, which we all know not to be true, but he’s forgetting the Hurt Syndicate’s motto and their entire schtick when it comes to joining the faction. He needs to HURT. PEOPLE. Just like the song says. Just like the crowd chants. He was reminded of that tonight by Bobby Lashley, who once again voted a “thumbs down” when it came to MJF joining the Hurt Syndicate, even after MJF gave him a watch, brought in women, and everything else. For me, this storyline is going on much too long.

While I like both MJF and all the guys in the Hurt Syndicate, especially Bobby Lashley, the story reached a point this week where it just fell off and it just really needs a conclusion. Lashley should have ignored both MVP and Shelton Benjamin and just beat the hell out of MJF tonight if his answer was still no. He should have just been done with the entire thing. Sure, MVP would probably have been irked for a minute, but Lashley is his boy, not MJF, so things would have been fine within a week or two with the Hurt Syndicate. If there are no tag team competitors for Benjamin and Lashley at the moment, you could have even put Lashley and MJF against each other at Double or Nothing – maybe even with a spot in the faction on the line if MJF could win. Which, he likely wouldn’t, and the story would be over anyway, but at least there would be some more direction.

The fact that Lashley told MJF while he had him in the turnbuckle that he needed to prove himself by hurting people was kind of a “duh” moment. How MJF hadn’t thought of that before seems kind of silly now. I’m not sure who he could go on to hurt within the next few weeks, but I’m hoping he takes someone out the next three weeks before Double or Nothing and we get a solution to this story at the pay-per-view. Even before would be great for how boring this is all getting, but MJF attacking and hurting people for a few weeks, even if he doesn’t end up in the Hurt Syndicate, wouldn’t do his character any harm.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Jon Moxley’s reign as AEW Champion has had one constant throughline: Idiocy. Cope, Swerve, Orange Cassidy, all who have come for Jon Moxley have done so in what can really only be described as in a sweetly idiotic way. Earnest and idealistic, they have been coming after some kind of redemption for themselves or for AEW in general, and they have all failed, usually assuming they would get a fair fight, or a fair enough fight at least, against Jon Moxley and his band of thugs. Maybe Samoa Joe will be the next to fall to Jon Moxley, but he at least looks like he’s been paying attention heading into his title match in two weeks.

Joe is not going to give an inch to the usual Deathrider shenanigans that have been plaguing the main event, asking for, and receiving, a Steel Cage Match instead of a traditional match. Deathriders will have to work to interfere, and otherwise, Moxley will be trapped. Joe has a way of talking about things that just makes sense. Nothing felt forced, nothing felt hollow; he just felt like a guy who had been paying close enough attention to know from the start that he was not looking at a fair fight in Chicago, IL. Nothing levels the playing field like a steel cage.

There are very few fair fights in our world. The dice are usually loaded, the deck is often stacked, and the tables are always tilted. Samoa Joe knows the best thing you can do is drag the fight to more hostile territory.

Written by Ross Berman

As a noted Hater of Christian Cage’s AEW character and The Patriarchy as a concept, I’ve actually really enjoyed what the group has been doing lately. After the creative disaster that was his any-time world title contract, Christian took a break, allowing the spotlight to fall on Nick Wayne instead. Now he’s back, and instead of playing the abuser as he did with Luchasaurus (particularly after he won a title belt) Christian is instead playing the supportive father figure with Wayne, which is a nice change of pace from what had long since become (to me) a boring schtick. Obviously Christian is going to backstab Wayne so hard it’ll make his mom’s head spin, but I like that we’re getting there in way that really puts the focus on Wayne rather than Christian himself.

That said, I’m having a hard time getting over the fact that this admittedly compelling storyline is anchored to the ROH World TV Championship. First, because it sucks for ROH talent any time one of their champions is spending more time on TNT/TBS than on HonorClub. Second, because even for an ROH title, the TV title is weak sauce — this is the belt Samoa Joe literally abandoned when he wanted to go after something actually important, and getting Jay Lethal on TV isn’t going to help. And third, because AEW has THREE men’s singles midcard title belts they could be using to elevate both Wayne and the storyline, but all three are currently around the waists of former world champions who don’t really need them. It’s a clear example of problems that can arise from having too many titles (and arguably too much top-tier talent, many of whom want something shiny and gold to carry around) — there’s simply too much of a temptation to give important belts to wrestlers and storylines who don’t need them, leaving just the scraps for the ones like Wayne, who do.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

This week saw the second of the semi-final bouts between “Hangman” Adam Page and the “Protostar” Kyle Fletcher within the Owen Hart Foundation Cup, looking to determine who would be going into the final at Double or Nothing against Will Ospreay. 

There were good reasons for either to advance, with Page on a seemingly never-ending trail back to becoming the AEW World Champion and Fletcher out to prove he is better than Ospreay and reach the upper echelon before he does. But there was also a tangible animosity between Fletcher and Page, with the pair of them visibly itching to get the match started and carrying that intensity throughout the entire contest. Fletcher took a gnarly bump to the guard rail, cutting and bruising his lower back, an unintended moment that was factored into the match with the back continually targeted and initially firing Fletcher back up – noticing the blood, he flew at Page with urgency. The bout was a semi-final fought like a final, which is a good sign considering the one that’s on the horizon with the result. 

That is the other aspect; what is to come from this week. The final is now set between Ospreay and Page, a first-time dream match between two of AEW’s top guys with the goal of challenging for the World title at All In Texas against either Jon Moxley or Samoa Joe (likely the former). Both have very credible reasons for winning the tournament, one is a former World Champion still seeking redemption, and one is a marquee signing seeking vindication. All you can ask from a TV main event is for it to be a great match and to lay the foundation for the future, and this week’s main event did that with a little more.

Written by Max Everett