AEW Dynamite - 4/23/2025: 3 Things We Loved And Hated

Another "AEW Dynamite" has come and gone, solidifying the finals of the Women's AEW Owen Hart Cup, as well as Jon Moxley's next World Title contender. The show was jam-packed with action, leaving us at Wrestling Inc. with plenty to love and plenty to hate.

If you need results, you can find them on the results page. This will instead break down the pretty, the dirty, the good, the bad, the ugly, and all the other things that got us riled up. There were plenty of highs, such as the blistering main event contest between Kris Statlander and Jamie Hayter, and there were plenty of lows, like the lack of direction for AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm.

Without further ado, here's what we loved and hated from "AEW Dynamite" on April 23.

MJF is desperate to make friends, and that has been of great benefit to The Hurt Business. Last week, Shelton Benjamin took advantage of MJF's desperation to get a watch and a night with some beautiful women. This week, Bobby Lashley withheld his approval of MJF joining the Hurt Syndicate just long enough to get a Corvette.

MJF tried to sway Lashley with the car, but in his desperation, gave Lashley the keys and let him get in the vehicle, opening the door for Lashley to drive off with his thumb down. It was a long buildup, but a very funny punchline. MJF is far removed from the braggadocio of the last few years and is looking considerably human in his quest to be accepted. The repeated shakedowns from The Hurt Syndicate have also given them a lot more characterization beyond being in the business of hurting people.

The segments have gone a long way for both men, and the story continues to make me chuckle in ways a lot of wrestling doesn't. It may not be a complex storyline, but it sure is a fun one. At some point this will all come to a head and the parties will go their separate ways, but for now, I'm enjoying watching MJF get taken for everything he's worth.

Written By Ross W Berman IV

For the past few weeks the Women's Owen Hart Cup has shone a spotlight on some of the very best wrestlers in the company, and this week's main event continued in that vein with a really fun contest between Kris Statlander and Jamie Hayter, a battle of power moves and stiff strikes with Hayter emerging the victor.

With that result comes a first-time dream match in the final at Double or Nothing, pitting the former Women's World Champion against "Four-Belts" Mercedes Mone. The tournament has been the latest attempt from Hayter to get back on track to challenge for the title she only lost through injury, and while Billie Starkz in the first round was a challenge, it was undoubtedly one that favored Hayter. But Statlander was someone who credibly could have put an end to Hayter's tournament and gave it a good go in the bout, and she proved to be the first real sign that Hayter is ready to be back in the hunt for gold (that is less on her and more on the booking up to this point).

Whoever was going to come out the winner was going to meet Mone in the final, that much had been established, but there were two engaging prospects on the table depending on where things went. Statlander has already had two unsuccessful attempts at Mone's TBS Championship, with a trilogy bout seemingly inevitable. It feels like the right move to have a totally unique match for the tournament final, though, and Hayter also feels like the right kind of opponent for Mone at this stage. She is someone who can make the most of Mone's stature and speed, while Mone is someone who can truly exemplify and sell the stopping power of Hayter – essentially, reinforce the idea of "Hayter hits hard." There can also be no complaint that Hayter winning this week allows her to continue on the path to a potential title bout against Toni Storm, and since Storm is the one who took the title from her injured rival in the first place, it just feels cathartic to have Hayter challenge for it at, say, All In Texas. But until then, this was a fun spot of TV if nothing else.

Written by Max Everett

Ricochet did just a good enough job with his scissors attack on Swerve Strickland that he's actually created a scary little quirk.

In Ricochet's match with Mark Briscoe on "Dynamite," Ricochet gestured with the scissors, ready to strike Briscoe, and I had a small moment where I realized it had been long enough since Ricochet stabbed anyone that it could be happening any moment. It sounds ridiculous, but that's what actually building something in wrestling is all about. Even if Ricochet never stabs another guy again, the gruesome image he left people with the last time he got stabby makes me nervous that any beloved babyface could be next.

I'm probably a broken record at this point but Ricochet's character work has been phenomenal since he came to AEW. The fact that he's made scissors more than just some joke that The Acclaimed used to make is a testament to how good his character work is. His athletic prowess might actually someday be a secondary accolade for him if he keeps it up.

Written by Ross W Berman IV

If you tuned in to this week's episode of "AEW Dynamite" looking to see what was next for AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm, you would have witnessed her in a brief backstage interview with Renee Paquette, where she promoted her upcoming appearance at the TCM Film Festival, wished Jamie Hayter and Kris Statlander luck in their semi-final match in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, and issued a challenge for this weekend's episode of "AEW Collision" for an eliminator match. That challenge was answered by Queen Aminata, who will get a shot at Storm's title with a victory.

Storm vs. Aminata? I think most people would be down for that, but the champion really feels like she has been hindered by the fact that her actual plans are for after Double or Nothing. Right now, it really does feel like Storm has been spinning her wheels waiting for the Owen Hart Cup to finish so she can actually craft a unique story with someone that isn't called Mariah May. Speaking of, one could argue that Storm has not really done anything earth-shattering since she feuded with May, and while her brief program with Megan Bayne was fun, with the benefit of hindsight, that now feels like it came far too soon.

Coming out of Revolution, Storm was being positioned as a true main event player who could bring eyes to AEW. Obviously, she can't main event the show every week, but already, just a few weeks on from feeling like one of the biggest stars in the entire business, Storm has kind of just been waiting around to get something she can really sink her teeth into. She does make the most of the minutes she is given, she's arguably better than everyone in AEW at getting the most out of the TV time given to her, but there's only a certain amount of times you can congratulate the Owen Hart Cup participants, or wish them luck, before you start saying "Ms. Storm, can we move on to the next scene?"

Why not do what you did with Megan Bayne, but have Aminata in that spot instead? A short program to elevate her up the card and make her a valuable challenger for whoever leaves All In Texas with the title. That would have been much better than just giving her a throw away match on an episode of "AEW Collision," and sure, people have won eliminator matches before, just look at Mariah May's feud with Anna Jay late last year, but Storm is the lead actress sitting in her trailer waiting for everyone else to film their scenes so she can get back out on to the set and steal the show.

We've still got a month to go before Double or Nothing, and there seems to be no signs of Storm actually wrestling on that card, which would be a very bad move. Even if it's something short, AEW, please give your biggest female star something to do.

Written by Sam Palmer.

If tonight's edition of "Dynamite" proved anything to me, it's that AEW really has a major tendency to overbook their angles and get too many people involved in them.

Exhibit A? The tag team match that pitted Will Ospreay and Brody King against Josh Alexander and Konosuke Takeshita.

Now, I had no problems with the match itself and thought that it was not only enjoyable, but also saw the right men going over in Alexander and Takeshita. The aftermath of the match though was a different story, as there were just too many bodies inside the ring at once to properly keep track of and understand everything that was going on. Ospreay and King were already outnumbered at ringside by Alexander, Takeshita, Archer, and Don Callis so there was really no need to get Kyle Fletcher (with a big entrance as well), Trent Beretta, and Rocky Romero involved as well. While it makes sense that The Don Callis Family is gaining new members and growing in their quest to take over AEW, they've recently added three new members to the stable in Alexander, Romero, and Beretta all at the same time which makes things feel slightly overcrowded. When you couple that with the fact that "Hangman" Adam Page's presence wasn't really necessary in this segment especially because he was the one to emerge victorious over Alexander in the Owen Hart Cup Tournament quarterfinals match, it just made everything feel all the more clunky and hard to keep track of all the converging storylines going on at once.

Written by Olivia Quinlan.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for big matches taking place on weekly wrestling shows. It makes the shows newsworthy (which is good for me on this end), but it gives people a reason to tune in when, at times, they might not have. AEW has been guilty of saving too many of their big matches for pay-per-views as of late, hence why it feels like half of the cards for each week of TV get announced an hour before the show hits the airwaves, so seeing that Jon Moxley vs. Samoa Joe for the AEW World Championship will take place at the Beach Break edition of "AEW Dynamite" on May 14 was refreshing to see. However, there is a major problem that comes with this match being on TV.

To put it simply, Moxley vs. Joe is a dream match that deserves top billing on a pay-per-view. It would most likely be the best match of Moxley's reign since he beat Bryan Danielson, and would certainly get people to fork over their hard-earned money to see it play out at Double or Nothing, even if the result is a little predictable with All In Texas looming in the future. However, putting it on TV is a symptom of something that WWE has been very guilty of, that being that Double or Nothing, and the weeks that follow it, usually come with a big stipulation that completely derails the flow of the main event scene. Remember when heatless feuds in WWE ended up having Hell in a Cell matches because that was the next event? That is what's happened with Double or Nothing and Anarchy in the Arena.

I myself have thoroughly enjoyed the chaos that comes with Anarchy in the Arena over the years, but now that we know that it's coming up, having an AEW World Championship match like Moxley vs. Joe being bumped from the show just so they can both brawl in the crowd while some music plays over the speakers a few weeks later just seems a bit stupid to be honest. You're already giving people the big match that they want to see before Double or Nothing, so what does Anarchy in the Arena really do for anyone? Especially in Joe's case, because you absolutely know that whoever wins the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament that same night will immediately be shifted into the limelight against Moxley.

Do title changes happen on TV? Absolutely, but a match that already had a predictable outcome has now become even more predictable now that it's taking place on TV. Not only that, but it's going to be on a show that is four hours long, something I know a lot of people are already dreading. I have high expectations for the match, but prioritizing their almost certain inclusion in Anarchy in the Arena (or Blood and Guts for that matter, I could be very wrong here) over the big title match just seems like a very avoidable mistake.

Written by Sam Palmer