AEW Dynasty 2026 Discussion

[RedTwoster]

Although I didn’t like how they got there, I do think keeping the title on MJF was the right move. He’s been better as champion than I expected and in spite of the fact he’s a heel, he’s been a weirdly brilliant ambassador for the company. MJF/Ospreay in London feels like a risk though, as you’re running a match we’ve already seen at All In, so I might still feel inclined to have Kenny win the belt before then…just not quite yet.

Edited April 13 by RedTwoster

[Kamran]

8 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

That was an excellent show, but I agree with @SoloJones, the lack of women’s wrestling on AEW shows with a roster that strong is shameful. The sad reality in AEW is that you’re more likely to get TV or PPV time if you’re male and mediocre than if you’re female and exceptional. I hate that, and not just from a moral perspective, it’s because I actually want to see these wrestlers have matches. If there was greater parity, maybe they’d find it easier to retain the likes of Mariah May and Jade Cargill. And even if they didn’t, maybe they’d find it easier to attract top female stars in the way AEW has male wrestlers. 

I know not many watch Zero Hour but I thought it was good, Alex Windsor/Marina Shafir was decent, I can't believe how much better Shafir has got since those DARK days. I loved the Kamille/Willow angle in the back followed by the squash match. Kamiile looked the most impressive since she joined (not difficult, I know) and then you had the women's tag match to finish off the show too. (Jack Perry vs Mark Davis was good too!)

I do agree with you that they really need to feature more of the women more regularly. Queen Aminata is one I was hoping to see more of now that she's back along with Shida.

As always, I enjoyed the PPV, I was surprised to see Cope/Christian lose, I wonder if they'll save that for All In.

 

[The King Of Swing]

Young Bucks just casually having MOTY candidates in 2026. Match of the show for me.

Didn't care much for anything else, even if the wrestling was good to great. 

[RedTwoster]

2 hours ago, Kamran said:

As always, I enjoyed the PPV, I was surprised to see Cope/Christian lose, I wonder if they'll save that for All In.

I do wonder if they might run with C&C’s ‘last ever’ TLC match there, against The Bucks and FTR. It might be ill-advised, but it would probably shift tickets.

[BomberPat]

20 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

I had thought there were signs throughout the show leading to Kenny winning the title. Jericho lost on his return in Canada; C&C lost, in Canada; Ospreay lost his big return grudge match pretty decisively; even in the Casino Gauntlet match, the Canadian lost to his American tag partner. I suspect Kyle O’Reilly only won because it looks like Gabe Kidd got injured. Surely this meant one of AEW’s famed feel good endings.

And then Kenny went and lost as well! I have to admit, I saw this less as an Empire Strikes Back kind of show than as a “what a downer” kind of show. Even one of the babyface wins deprived us of the promised Okada-Takeshita for the International Title!

I'm with you on all of this - going into the week of the show, my working theory was Ospreay and Omega winning, for a Champion vs. Champion match at All In, but when Kenny looked stronger than MJF on Dynamite, I figured that probably wasn't happening. But when there were so many heel wins on this show, and with every Canadian wrestler losing, I figured that was to save the big emotional feelgood reaction for Kenny in the main event - until they had Kyle O'Reilly win in his hometown; at that point, I never suspected anything but an MJF win.

I agree that it was a downer show. In-ring was brilliant, as AEW reliably pretty much always is, even Cope and Jericho had their best matches in years. There's still Double Or Nothing to go, and I suspect we get rematches of a lot of this show at that PPV, but I'm not optimistic. I have no interest in Darby Allin as a title challenger, and even less in him as champion, nor do I have any interest in Ospreay vs. MJF happening again at Wembley, if that is the direction they're headed in. 

 

It's not just that it's a downer, it's that there's no obvious follow-up from how the babyfaces lost behind, at best, just doing the match again. Cope and Christian are surely going to get the tag titles eventually, but they just lost clean, so what's their route back to them? If they are winning them, will there be a better time than in the return match with their rivals (or at least, Cope's rivals - I hate the extent to which the story is all about Cope, and Christian is an afterthought) in Canada? If Kenny Omega beats MJF in a rematch, or Ospreay beats Moxley in a rematch, between now and All In, will it be better than if they had done it here? There was a lot of "it not now then when?" to this show. To say nothing of guessing at how many circuitous twists and turns Jericho will take to ensure that he gets his win back plus extras on Ricochet, but still gets to claim to have put him over and elevated him.

Yes, there was a continuation of the Takeshita/Okada beef at long last, with the added curiosity of Takeshita being happier to see Okada lose even at the expense of getting his own title shot, and Takeshita seemingly finally walking out on the Don Callis Family - but the last time it looked like there was a major progression in that story, they did fuck all for four months and it took Kyle Fletcher getting injured to do anything more, so why should I be optimistic that they move forward with it now?

Same goes for "what next for the babyfaces?" with Cope & Christian, Will Ospreay, and Kenny Omega. With C&C, "what's next?" is going to be a rambling and meandering Adam Copeland promo where he's the most serious and important person in all of wrestling. With Will Ospreay, well, what was next for the babyfaces who lost to the Death Riders during Moxley's interminable title reign? Usually losing again and then fuck all else, and Mox paying lip service to character development but ultimately being right back where we were last year despite him losing the belt, submitting to Kyle O'Reilly, losing Blood & Guts, and everything else that was supposed to be a major step in the Death Riders story - to say nothing of the pointless diversion into him being a babyface while the rest of the Death Riders were heels, which only served to confuse everything, and undermine the very simple story of the Ospreay match; it's a lot easier to get behind the babyface wanting to break his opponent's neck in front of their wife when the opponent is a dastardly villain with no concerns for other people's wellbeing, rather than someone who needlessly and inexplicably spent the last four or five months as a fighting champion we were told to respect.  

And as for "what's next for Kenny Omega after losing to MJF?" - what's next for any challenger after losing to MJF? Hangman Page lost and disappeared from TV without a mention. Bandido and Brody King went straight back into the midcard. What's next for anyone? Swerve Strickland hasn't been on TV since losing to Kenny. The wrestling has never been better, but it's hard to care about the stories or consequences of matches when we're constantly being taught not to.

[Hannibal Scorch]

I agree with you Twoster about the lack of Women on the main card. But using Jade and Mariah as people they could have tried to keep with stronger booking were poor choices. Jade wanted to get into movies and felt WWE would get her a Hollywood career. Mariah has been a WWE fan growing up and very open. Neither of them were signed to WWE when they had tryouts and only had interest when they were popular in AEW.

[organizedkaos]

I think Osprey losing does make sense even if Moxs recent run has been muddled. For Osprey this isnt Empire its end of act 1 or 2 of a story - he comes back, looks great, calls his shot but isnt ready yet. He lost in such a way that it was about his anger, some physical rust and most importantly his own mistakes.  Beating Moxley is now the main ordeal, he will overcome challenges to get ready for that and by beating Mox he will have undergone apotheosis (be back to being "the best") gain his reward (number 1 contender) and return to the real world to benefit us by becoming AEW champ

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

The other losses are definitely more if not now when? Kenny loses because im guessing theres no plans to belt up Omega and were dead set on the much less exciting but sure it'll be good Osprey/MJF. I get the desire to probably crown Will by defeating a big heel but  Osprey/Omega could be a way more interesting storyline/match.  One day ill go to AEW live, if I do im going.. sigh.. all out and making it a 1 in lifetime experience.  Osprey/MJF doesnt feel like it

Cope/Christian is most bleh. This is all building to TLC revisited at All In right? I actually think short CC run now makes things way more interesting and TLC serves as a big climax to their run. Instead I guess the idea is theyll take it then and mega put over a younger team.  (Or theyre actually trying to be super giving and will do all the dream tags but never take the title)

 

[TheScarlettChad]

Hasn't Cope said at his age, he doesn't want to do a TLC match?

[Chili]

1 minute ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Hasn't Cope said at his age, he doesn't want to do a TLC match?

Yeah, but throw a few more teams in the match like Bucks/FTR and he doesn't have to take many bumps.

[TheScarlettChad]

5 minutes ago, Chili said:

Yeah, but throw a few more teams in the match like Bucks/FTR and he doesn't have to take many bumps.

Good shout. I'd like to see it. We haven't had a triple threat TLC since what Team 3D vs The Hardys vs The Wolves in 2015? 

[Infinity Land]

29 minutes ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Hasn't Cope said at his age, he doesn't want to do a TLC match?

He never will as that's a WWE trademark 😁

He's done some stupid things since joining AEW. Most notably the dive off the cage. I'm sure he can be tempted into something involving a ladder. Christian obviously has had no concerns as he's been a few in AEW so far. I just hope they think of something more inventive for the name if it's at Wembley. 

[Supremo]

Cash Wheeler and Nick Jackson can bump for fifty men. Pair of glorious maniacs.

[LaGoosh]

If you watch any of those old gimmick matches back Edge barely took any of the big bumps even in his prime. Doing one now we'll barely notice the difference. 

[organizedkaos]

Ah perhaps not a TLC but sonething that reflects that. Its hard not to imagine when you've got three major teams with somewhat different styles orbiting the belts (obv ftr aren't really dudley analogous but the hardy/bucks parallels are clear).

I guess theres probably been plenty callback in the years I didn't watch but theres certainly some intrigue to me and those matches are legendary parts of the channel 4 shows ppv everyone starts watching wrestling era.  I genuinely think "edge and christian are in their final run doing one more tlc with the two best tag teams in the world" would get attention from casuals of a certain age (based on my sample size of about 10*)

* previous one was "sting does mad shit now" - turns out casuals are often way more into fun nonsense than whatever it is a lot of the iwc suggest

Edited April 14 by organizedkaos

[LaGoosh]

I would be genuinely shocked if there's not a TLC type match with all three teams planned for Wembley.