Three Things We Hate and Three Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s weekly review of “Aew Dynamite.” Though it doesn’t seem to be the main event of the PPV, AEW spent most of the evening building an anarchy officially announced at arena matches. It also covers the main event in the Women’s Division, and the promotional exchange that precedes it, the overall atmosphere of the episode, and perhaps most importantly, the experience of Ricochet’s sizer maintenance.

If you have never seen the show or want to read unbiased facts, you can do that on the “Dynamite” results page. If you want to know what WINC staff thought about what we saw this week (or at least what we felt the most strongly), then there are three things we disliked, and three things we loved about the 5/21/25 episode of “Aew Dynamite.”

I admit, I’m famous for hating Go-Home shows regardless of promotion, but tonight’s episode of “Aew Dynamite” was completely predictable when it comes to the format of the show. I don’t know if that was due to the NBA Eastern Conference Finals or that, but I didn’t feel like anyone tried to book the show tonight. The opening promotion featuring Will Ospreay and “Hangman” Adam Page was fine in the location, but it wasn’t spectacular and seemed to last too long. AEW touted that they were meeting face-to-face before the Owen Hart Cup tournament final match, as did Mercedes Mohn and Jamie Hater.

It also precedes a major event where everyone is already involved in promotions running multiman tag team matches. Thankfully, the match between Swerve Strickland, Samoa Joe and the Powerhouse Hobbs with Jon Moxley and The Young Bucks is a match “Can they coexist?!”, but it was still predictable. Of course, it was led in the same way as the predictable show end segment. This was like a mini anarchy in an arena match featuring all the competitors in the match and Gabe Kidd. Everyone was knocking on each other, taking weapons and everything else they would expect from Sunday’s match. I didn’t necessarily care about the ending, but it was predictable with a predictable show.

Overall, nothing was too exciting or shocking to make me even more excited on Sunday, just as all Go-Home shows were everywhere in what they looked like before. With MJF’s deal, even the deal with The Hurt Syndicate left almost intermittently. The only people who suspended this segment were Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin’s double or note-taking opponents, Dustin Rhodes, the son of Texas. I don’t think that’s very important. Because I’m really looking forward to having a double or nothing on Sunday, but I always feel the show before the pay-per-view is another thing to go into before a big event. Usually, AEW always shows us pay-per-views, so we’ll show you a better, more exciting, and more interesting Sunday night for all of us.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Wednesday’s “Dynamite” featured both pairs of the final promotional exchanges of both the 2025 Owen Hart Cup finalists before deciding on AEW Double or Nothing. “Hangman” Adam Page and Will Ospreay came first, but I thought the exchange was a real life, especially when Ospreay said he had to break the page and learn how to defeat Jon Moxley, but in the end, for me this didn’t have a fever. Page and Ospreay have in turn stated their claims as to why they need to win on Sunday and why they need to win, but they still have no reason to dislike each other or fight beyond what they met in the tournament. This feud drips with mutual respect, and mutual respect is incredibly boring.

In contrast, Mercedes Mohn and Jamie Hater had a final conflict late in the evening, just before the main event. They were a sit-in interview with Lenny Packet, not a one-on-one exchange in the ring. Historically, neither Heiter nor Mohn were necessarily the best on the Mike, but this segment actually worked pretty well. In particular, Heiter framed the contest as a war of class, organising himself as a crude underdog who fights from the bottom with the power of wealth and privilege. It played a match About Page vs. Something in a way that Ospreay cannot do. Mone took part in this framing with a haughty termination of Hayter’s journey, urging Hayter (playing himself) and leading the “belt collector” for losing the NJPW Strong Women’s Championship. This completely escalated to some very An incredible physicality from Mone followed by Hayter dominating, leveling her with Lariat while the crowd went wild.

Promo delivery may not have been perfect, but this was great pretty I invested more in Sunday’s match just by bringing together the two characters and making a difference. It’s not rocket science, but it’s I’ll do it It had to be done well and this was. Other 2025 Owen Heart Cup finalists need to take notes.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

A capable army teaches recruits about proper weapon maintenance. The weapon must be clean and ready to use immediately. Ricochet failed to own this basic weapon. Because his once sharp scissors are too dull to cut off the skin.

When Ricochet first picked up the blade, he did so in such a frightening way that the first bloody thing of Swab Strickland could keep the scissors as merely a threat to swing them around. Then on Wednesday’s “Dynamite,” he unleashed his weapon, stabbing Anthony Bowens in the head, causing him to fall into total blood. The blade was dull, and the weapon was no longer a threat. Certainly, Bowens still lost the match, but now the scissors could also be a pair of brass knuckles. They lost the uncomfortable presence they once had. It’s a shame to see such creative weapons being castrated so quickly.

Ricochet can now return, but you’ll need a display that’s even more frightening than the previous one to help you get back to heat the object. But it is an unnecessary sight, repeating the flattened balloons. Perhaps it’s time for Ricochet to find a new office implementation that will hurt people. Has anyone been using staplers these days? Perhaps he can open and slice his opponent with the sharp edge of the ruler?

Well, it was fun while it continued.

Written by Ross Berman

The AEW women got the main event match of “AEW Dynamite” tonight. Shirakawa won the Heart, but with the help of a newly returned Sky Blue, he caught a beatdown from Heart. The champion “timeless” Toni Storm was in the commentary of the match and jumped in to help Seihara as expected, but the pair didn’t make the segment all cute and affectionate like the previous segment when Mariah May was in the photo.

After Babyface escaped the other women, Shirakawa took advantage of the double or nothing in the ring. The pair fought the championship temporarily, with Seihara bringing out the storm. She placed a storm on four leglocks around the ring post in an attempt to soften her before Sunday’s title match. If you’ve seen anything between these two women in the past few months, you wouldn’t really have thought that Shirakawa was trolling the storm like that. It was a challenger who left with his own feet, but Arashi had to be carried to his back by Luther, perhaps even playing something dramatic.

Now that she is officially part of the AEW roster, I loved this simple act of violence to show that she means business. She was cute and fun, had a triangle of storms and May love, but now she’s all business by Sunday.

Written by Daisy Ruth

This week’s show finally saw the line of fights depicted for Anana in the arena (and the competitors announced), but I had to say I was scratching my head with the omission of Gabe Kidd. The NJPW star was announced as the latest member of Death Rider at the end of John Moxley’s World Championship defense against Samoa Joe. Moxley then revealed that he was part of his faction.

But then he was notedly present for most of tonight’s group fight, especially as the babyface put his heels on top to retreat them. The match was then announced, confirming that he is not part of the official six-inning lineup. He eventually showed up minutes before Shaw swung a ringside brawl courtesy of Death Rider.

It’s strange that Kid made his debut in that way so that he wasn’t included in the match. And that doesn’t mean he was waiting for a brawl that would never have happened if his heels had it. The brawl itself began solely for them to be ambushed, as they boasted of leaving Samoa Joe’s team untouched. What was Kid doing while all that was happening? Why didn’t he attack Babyface in advance?

There is no doubt that Aita’s match itself is interesting and maniacal in the best way. Kid will be featured in some way. But that makes him not to participate in the match, he has all the reasons, with the dynasty feud of his efforts against Kenny Omega and the fact that he sacrificed Joe’s title. Even in the way he was presented it was as if he was going to make a surprising appearance as a different maker. So why do you place that emphasis on people who don’t participate in the game?

Written by Max Everett

There are plenty of matches to look forward to at Double or Nothing on Sunday, but the disorder in the arena is undoubtedly one of the biggest (if not the biggest) matches across the card. So it’s good to see a large portion of this show that was dedicated to the All-Start Rio match. John Moxley, Young Bucks, Swellve Strickland and the OPP were involved to close the post-match brawl and the show. There may have been a lot in less than two hours, but in many cases, not in modern wrestling, but in large matches like Anana in the arena, there is one short pull-split after one or more competitors’ matches. It’s a much needed pace change to see that pattern breaking, highlighting a lot of time about how much tension there is between all the competitors throughout the match. Otherwise, it’s quite forgettable (especially with go-home shows), but this happened to be one of the only memorable things that happened to create the excitement of the final moments of the arena’s disorder.

Written by Olivia Quinlan