AEW Dynamite Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights After Dynasty

Doc-Chris Mueller@@BR_DoctorX.com LogoFeatured Columnist IVApril 24, 2024

AEW Dynamite Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights After Dynasty

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    Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of AEW Dynamite on April 24.

    Sunday's Dynasty pay-per-view saw a couple of title changes and some exciting action, but All Elite Wrestling wasted no time getting right back to business.

    Here is a look at what was advertised for this week's show:

    • Jon Moxley vs. Will Hobbs (IWGP Championship)
    • Willow Nightingale's championship celebration
    • Chuck Taylor's BFF decision
    • Swerve Strickland vs. Kyle Fletcher
    • Mina Shirakawa vs. Anna Jay
    • Chris Jericho speaks

    Let's take a look at what happened on Wednesday's Dynamite.

Swerve Strickland vs. Kyle Fletcher

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    Jack Perry, The Young Bucks and Kazuchika Okada were shown arriving at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida.

    Back inside the arena, Orange Cassidy was making his entrance when Trent Beretta attacked him from behind.

    Chuck Taylor arrived and looked concerned for OC as Beretta said they wasted five years teaming with him. Taylor ended up attacking Beretta and said he may not be cleared for a match but wanted a fight in the parking lot.

    After a quick promo from Jon Moxley, we went back to the ring for Swerve Strickland's entrance to take on Kyle Fletcher in the first match of the night.

    They started with some takedown attempts and kept it clean as they traded holds.

    This was a relatively paint-by-numbers match. They kept a steady pace, taunted each other a lot, played to the crowd and hit some signature moves. Everything we saw looked good, but there was no sense of urgency.

    Strickland looked like he may have hurt his ankle during a Swerve Stomp, so Fletcher began focusing on it with an ankle lock. They picked up the pace as the new champion hit a sequence of moves to set them up for the finale.

    Feeding a midcard titleholder to a world champion is never ideal, but the match itself was entertaining. Strickland got the win and Prince Nana danced his butt off as he celebrated.

    Result: Strickland defeated Fletcher

    Grade: B+


    Notable Moments and Observations

    • The audio made it almost impossible to hear the Bucks and Okada, and the issues continued through the next segment. 
    • It will be interesting to see what happens with Fletcher when Mark Davis returns. 
    • It's too bad the crowd response forced Swerve to turn babyface. He's a natural heel.
    • Swerve's jumping back kick caught Fletcher right on the chin. 
    • Swerve flirted with a girl in the front row. 
    • There was a weird moment when Fletcher tried to find a table under the ring but couldn't. 

Mina Shirakawa vs. Anna Jay

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    Mariah May accompanied Mina Shirakawa to the ring for her match against Anna Jay while Excalibur gave us a brief history between the two competitors.

    Both women taunted each other a bit, but it was the former Dark Order member who took the first shot with a boot to the face.

    They kept a brisk pace as the Stardom visitor began focusing on Jay's knee. They worked through a commercial break and traded control a few times to keep the match competitive.

    While we saw some good stuff here, we also saw how a lack of experience working together can make it tough to find chemistry with new opponents. To their credit, they seemed to get more comfortable as time went on.

    Both competitors tried to win by submission a few times before Shirakawa was able to get the three-count with a nice pinning combination.

    Jay attacked May after the match until Toni Storm made the save. Serena Deeb came out and seemed to call her shot as the next challenger.

    Result: Shirakawa defeated Jay

    Grade: C+


    Notable Moments and Observations

    • Shirakawa has a fun, energetic entrance. 
    • The way Jay was dropped on her knees looked painful. 
    • The crowd audio was especially bad during this bout. 

International Title No. 1 Contender's Match

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    Kris Statlander and Stokely Hathaway were in the ring to bring out Willow Nightingale to celebrate her TBS title win. The new champion got to speak for about a minute before Mercedes Moné interrupted her.

    A lot of harsh words were exchanged and accusations made. Moné ended up slapping Willow after Statlander grabbed her arm, so it was clearly supposed to look like The CEO thought Willow grabbed her.

    This was a decent segment to hype their match, but Moné should wrestle at least once before the PPV.

    The next bout was a Double or Nothing gauntlet match that began with Jay White and Dante Martin. A shot at the International Championship was on the line.

    This was basically a one-fall contest with people coming out at intervals like the Royal Rumble until someone got a win.

    The order of entrants was White, Martin, Penta El Zero Miedo, Kyle O'Reilly, Will Ospreay, Lance Archer, Komander and Jay Lethal. Ospreay was able to secure the win by pinning Komander.

    This was an unannounced match with rules that needed explaining more than once, but it gave us a lot of great wrestlers all hitting some of their biggest spots, so it was an enjoyable bit of chaos.

    The Undisputed Kingdom came out so Roderick Strong could have a standoff with The Aerial Assassin.

    Result: Ospreay won

    Grade: B


    Notable Moments and Observations

    • Stokely referencing Bill Withers was awesome. 
    • The audio issues made it hard to hear Caprice Coleman singing to Willow's music. 
    • Bullet Club Gold was carrying both sets of trios titles, so they may not introduce a new design right away. 
    • KOR has had a haircut since Dynasty. It took a second to recognize him. 
    • Archer tossing Ospreay out of the ring onto everyone was a fun moment. 

Jon Moxley vs. Will Hobbs (IWGP Championship)

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    Chris Jericho gave a promo about winning the FTW title. Big Bill came out and said he wants to learn from the veteran, but they didn't make any kind of formal alliance.

    The main event saw Moxley put the IWGP Championship on the line against Powerhouse Hobbs. Mox was his usual aggressive self, but his opponent was just as violent and just as willing to throw hands.

    Moxley and Hobbs did a good job making this feel like an even fight. The champ had the experience advantage, but the challenger had size and power on his side.

    Unfortunately, it felt like the match was just hitting its stride when it ended with Mox choking Hobbs out.

    Konosuke Takeshita appeared on the stage and motioned at Mox to set up the next possible title defense for the champion.

    Result: Moxley defeated Hobbs

    Grade: B-


    Notable Moments and Observations

    • Jericho came out to a new song from Fozzy. 
    • There was too much Callis on commentary. 
    • Hobbs popping up after a German suplex was a cool moment. 
    • The transition to a commercial break was so sudden. 

The Final Word

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    Dynamite ended with Jack Perry asking Tony Khan to come to the ring so they can handle business. The AEW president came out and listened to Perry talk about wanting what is best for the company.

    He asked to be reinstated and Khan shook his hand. Perry hugged him and gave an evil smile before jamming the mic into his gut. The Bucks came out and joined in by hitting one of their signature moves on the company owner.

    This was an unexpected turn of events, but it will certainly get people talking. It's going to be very interesting to see how this plays out.

    As intriguing as this ending may be, it was also kind of a strange way to end what was already a very odd show. Not only did it feel somewhat thrown together, but the constant audio issues made it almost unwatchable at times.

    The wrestlers all did a good job, but a lot of what we got on Wednesday didn't feel like an appropriate follow-up to what we saw at Dynasty.

    Grade: C+

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