AEW’s final Dynamite before Dynasty had the exact kind of energy a go-home show is supposed to have. It was chaotic, angle-heavy, and built around one clear idea: Sunday’s card is now set, but not without a few last-minute twists. The biggest one came before tonight’s show really settled in, as the TNT Championship was vacated due to Kyle Fletcher being sidelined for months, forcing AEW to pivot to a Casino Gauntlet at Dynasty. From there, tonight leaned hard into the road to Vancouver with United Empire arriving to back Will Ospreay against Jon Moxley and the Death Riders, Chris Jericho officially naming Ricochet as his Dynasty opponent, and Kenny Omega delivering one of the strongest final statements of the build ahead of his world title showdown with MJF.
Here are the full results
- Don Callis Family def. Darby Allin, Bandido, and Jack Perry
- Willow Nightingale (c) def. Queen Aminata (TBS Championship)
- Tommaso Ciampa def. Máscara Dorada
- United Empire def. The Death Riders in “Chaos in Canada” Anything Goes Match
Breakdowns & Reactions
The defining story of tonight was AEW making Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley feel bigger than a normal pay-per-view singles match. Tonight opened with Ospreay and Moxley already fighting in the parking area before the Death Riders swarmed him, only for Alex Windsor, Callum Newman, HENARE, and Francesco Akira to arrive and even the numbers. That was tonight’s strongest creative choice because it immediately made the feud feel urgent and pulled real continuity from New Japan into AEW television instead of treating outside names like throwaway cameos. AEW has been building Ospreay’s issue with Moxley and the Death Riders for weeks, especially after Collision on April 2 positioned the Dynasty match around Continental rules and the promise of no outside interference. Tonight was the logical next escalation: Ospreay finally got backup.
That is also why the main event mattered as much as it did. United Empire beating the Death Riders gave AEW the exact image it wanted heading into Sunday, with Ospreay and his side standing tall after a wild, violent brawl. The match looked and felt like a go-home show main event should feel: messy in the best way, heated, and built around personal hatred rather than clean exhibition wrestling. The live reaction to the match pretty much reflected that. Fans seemed to agree that the faction war gave tonight its strongest pulse.
The other major development was AEW being forced to change course with the TNT Championship. Tony Khan announced Fletcher is expected to be out for months, the title was vacated, and Tommaso Ciampa beat Máscara Dorada to earn the No. 1 entry in the Dynasty Casino Gauntlet. It is never ideal to lose a champion this close to a pay-per-view, but AEW handled the pivot cleanly. Instead of dragging the injury update out or turning it into a drawn-out story, the company immediately created a new hook for Sunday and gave Ciampa a meaningful win. That was one of the smartest booking decisions tonight because it kept the title scene moving without wasting time.
Chris Jericho’s segment was probably the most divisive part of tonight, but it accomplished its goal. Jericho framed his return around still wanting to contribute, admitted not every chapter of his run has been great, and then revealed his new contract gives him the power to choose his Dynasty opponent. That led directly to Ricochet interrupting him and getting named for Sunday. On paper, it is a clear match with star power, but the crowd response and the live coverage both suggested some hesitation about fully buying into Jericho’s latest comeback story. That feels fair. The angle worked, but it still feels like Jericho has more proving to do than AEW may want to admit.
Elsewhere, Willow Nightingale retaining the TBS Championship over Queen Aminata kept that division moving in a more straightforward way. It was one of the cleaner parts of tonight, and Hikaru Shida watching from ringside made sure the match still had forward momentum beyond the finish. On a night packed with promos, faction warfare, and pay-per-view pivots, Willow and Aminata gave tonight a needed wrestling-first segment without losing the thread of the bigger title picture.
Kenny Omega’s final promo opposite MJF also deserves real credit. AEW has spent the past two weeks framing this as more than a title match by leaning into the shared history between the two and the fact that Omega is getting another shot at the same man who beat him for the world title in October 2023. Omega’s promo tonight landed because it sounded personal without being melodramatic. On a show built around chaos, Omega and MJF gave Dynasty its most polished main-event presentation.
There was praise and criticism around tonight as a whole, and both sides are valid. The praise is easy: AEW made Dynasty feel important. Ospreay-Moxley now has a stronger aura, Omega-MJF feels heated, Jericho has a defined direction, and the TNT title vacancy created one more talking point heading into Sunday. The criticism is that tonight was almost too busy. Between Death Riders, United Empire, the Don Callis Family drama, Bucks involvement, Okada, Jericho, Omega, the TNT title change, and the women’s title threads, the show occasionally felt like it was juggling too much at once. That is part of AEW’s identity, for better and worse. When it works, the company feels alive. When it does not, it can feel cluttered. Tonight landed closer to the former, but the criticism is still fair.
One more note from tonight: Brody King was pulled from the advertised trios match for a personal matter, with Bandido stepping in as his replacement. That late change explains why the trios bout looked slightly different from the original preview, and it is one of the few notable card adjustments from the official lineup AEW advertised ahead of tonight.
Current AEW Dynasty card
- MJF (c) vs. Kenny Omega (AEW World Championship)
- Jon Moxley (c) vs. Will Ospreay (AEW Continental Championship)
- Thekla (c) vs. Jamie Hayter (AEW Women’s World Championship)
- Willow Nightingale (c) vs. Hikaru Shida (TBS Championship)
- Chris Jericho vs. Ricochet
- The Young Bucks vs. Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita
- Tommaso Ciampa enters first in the TNT Championship Casino Gauntlet to crown a new champion
- Alex Windsor (c) vs. Marina Shafir (NJPW Strong Women’s Championship, Zero Hour)
Final Thoughts
This was a strong go-home Dynamite because it understood what needed to matter most. AEW did not try to make every match feel equal. It made Ospreay vs. Moxley the emotional centerpiece, let Omega vs. MJF close the talking portion of the build with real weight, and used the Fletcher injury to create one more fresh reason to watch Dynasty. Not every segment hit the same level, and Jericho’s return still feels like the biggest question mark on the board, but tonight left Dynasty looking more eventful and more unpredictable than it did 24 hours earlier. For a final stop before Sunday, that is a win.
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I’m the quiet one until the bell rings then I’ve got takes. I live for WWE NXT and TNA, I want every promotion to succeed, and I will absolutely roast the bad decisions on sight (because someone has to). Anime taught me to respect long-term storytelling; wrestling taught me that sometimes the plan is “we panicked” and called it “unpredictable.” The Miz got me into all of this, so yeah I appreciate confidence, commitment, and the art of talking like you’re already the main event. Now I bring that same energy to the page as the main writer for Late Night Crew Wrestling because if you’re not here to be must-see and tell the truth, why are you here?!