AEW Dynamite – 4/1/2026: 3 Things We Loved And three We Hated

AEW is on the road to Dynasty, and Chris Jericho is back. The jam-packed edition of “Dynamite” saw the previous AEW World Champion return in his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. As at all times, there was plenty to like and many to hate on the show.

As at all times, we’ll leave the outcomes to the outcomes page, and keep this focused on an important thing: our feelings. There was much to like, just like the crackerjack essential event between Mike Bailey and the AEW World Champion MJF, and many to hate, just like the underwhelming return of Jericho.

Don’t love it? Pontificate within the comments and tell us your highs and lows from the show. Without further ado, here’s the most effective and the worst of Wednesday’s show.

The feud between Will Ospreay and The Death Riders really brings out the most effective of each entities. Ospreay is at his best when his reckless, high-impact style has caught as much as him, and The Death Riders are at their best after they are actively attempting to murder certainly one of their co-workers. So just about all the pieces about tonight’s Ospreay and Moxley interactions brought me numerous joy. The 2 are essentially the 2 sides of AEW: the high-risk and the ultraviolent. This can be a feud for sickos, and Wednesday delivered more great motion.

I even have little question the match at Dynasty will probably be good, but getting matches like Ospreay vs. Pac on the road to the match has been something of a cherry on top. I’m sufficiently old to recollect when the 2 of them had a feud on the indie circuit before Ospreay joined AEW. Putting matches like that on television is what the promotion is about.

Written by Ross Berman

Prone to sounding incredibly insensitive, I used to be sick and uninterested in hearing about Kenny Omega’s diverticulitis quite a while ago, and that is actually mostly as a result of commentary bringing it up at any and each probability they get. I consider it was last week, or perhaps the week prior, they brought it up without Omega being within the ring, or his storyline even anywhere near what was happening at that moment. I hope Omega’s doing okay, physically, and it definitely looks like he is that if he’ll be wrestling for the AEW World Championship at Dynasty. He looks like a wise guy to know how you can handle himself, now that he himself knows of his limitations. So, no shade to Omega as an individual here, in anyway, because it really all boils right down to the writing.

I might need been thrown off by Chris Jericho’s sudden appearance, after which him not being a component of this contract signing segment, but when MJF brought up “chatting with Omega’s doctors,” I audibly groaned, because I knew what direction we were moving into. While yes, I believe Omega’s heel opponents should deal with the undeniable fact that perhaps his best days are behind him, and retirement could also be looming as a result of his diverticulitis and all of the beatings he’s taken through the years, but specializing in the person’s guts is just getting so old. It’s such a serious condition that perhaps it must have been used sparingly after his initial comeback.

The best way MJF worded it tonight was also just strange to me. He made it sound like Omega’s insides are a dangerous ticking time bomb, and he even said that Omega’s doctor told him that “The Cleaner’s” insides could “explode at any moment” or something like that. For whatever reason, that made me think that Omega could explode like a cartoon character at any point. While I’m not a physician, I’m unsure that is exactly how that works, unless it’s Omega taking some form of physical contact to his stomach during a match, where MJF must have said he’s “going to make Omega’s guts explode,” or perhaps something worded slightly higher.

Or, perhaps I’m improper, and it will possibly occur at a moment’s notice like MJF alluded to, however it still all just sounded strange when MJF could have just said he’ll try and put Omega in the bottom, in the event that they don’t desire to start out talking about retirement around him just yet. It was made all of the more silly, to me no less than, by the undeniable fact that Omega was just superb wrestling in a trios match alongside Jack Perry and Brody King right after.

Written by Daisy Ruth

The ladies of AEW may only have had one match tonight, however the Triangle of Madness and the Brawling Birds, alongside Mina Shirakawa, fought in a solid trios bout that did numerous good for the babyfaces. I’ve mentioned before that I actually love the way in which Shirakawa and Thekla work together. tThey just have such great chemistry, and that held true again tonight.

AEW is in an interesting situation with Dynasty, as there wasn’t numerous time to construct a ton of storylines for matches right after Revolution. After this match, and regardless that they wrestled for the championship on the March 25 episode of “Dynamite,” I believe Shirakawa and Thekla could go again at Dynasty to get the AEW Women’s World Championship on the cardboard. Sure, Shirakawa is not walking away the winner, however it would give Thekla one other solid pay-per-view victory. I also think that Alex Windsor and Jamie Hayter could each be contenders for Thekla’s title, and involving them in tonight’s bout no less than puts them slightly closer to the gold, even when it was just in a trios match. Hayter got the win, with a pin on Julia Hart, which could lead on to her being in some form of eliminator match or something.

I also noticed that commentary didn’t mention the attack on “Timeless” Toni Storm, or in the event that they did, they didn’t mention it an excessive amount of. I believe I’ve decided I actually like that fact. If Storm goes to be out for the remainder of the yr, and we’re only in April, it’s probably best to not overdo it.

This wasn’t a protracted match or anything, and nothing too special, but I did think it was solid, and I actually hope we get Thekla and Shirakawa at Dynasty. I feel like I have never seen Skye Blue and Hart wrestle on “Dynamite” shortly, either, so it was nice they got a while.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Whether you’re keen on him or hate him, it’s pretty undisputable that Chris Jericho is certainly one of the most important names that AEW has on its roster.

Having Jericho make his long-awaited return to the corporate in his hometown is a sound idea because it almost guarantees that he’ll get a very good pop from the group, and his return to the corporate was also at all times certain to be a giant a method or one other purely due to his name value. I still couldn’t help but feel like Jericho’s return just needed slightly more sustenance to it, especially if you consider that it was his only appearance on this complete episode of “Dynamite”.

To have Jericho do nothing greater than come to the ring, pose within the ring for a very good jiffy because the fans cheered him on, and say nothing greater than ‘I’m home’ felt incredibly underwhelming. It can have created slightly little bit of mystery as to his reason for returning, however it also dampened the impact of his return by not capitalising on it with a solid promo (which he clearly had the time to do) to be able to get fans enthusiastic about his reemergence.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

This week’s show played the role of Winnipeg tour and prelude to Dynasty with a essential event pitting Canada’s own “Speedball” Mike Bailey against AEW World Champion and self-coined “American Hero” MJF.

Bailey was fighting not only for himself but additionally Dynasty challenger Kenny Omega, coming out during a promo segment originally of the show, just as MJF was goading Omega into attacking him and thus canceling their upcoming match. But it surely was also an Eliminator match so there was the promise of a title match should he beat the champion.

I’m not a fan of Eliminator matches basically, but this was just a fantastic non-title match, pitting a hot babyface who just so happens to be a fantastic wrestler against a hot heel who also just so happens to be a fantastic wrestler. And that was enough.

The sensation was at all times that MJF was going to get the win heading into his title match against Omega, and the bout did well to weaponize that belief. When Bailey looked near winning, there was an edge-of-the-seat element where one found themselves considering, “He could get this,” only to have that rug pulled time and time again before the top of the bout.

It took a Tombstone Piledriver onto the apron, followed by Heatseeker within the ring to get the win, telling each the story of a person refusing to present up and one which knows what’s required to win. That is why Bailey is not World Champion – yet. But it surely’s performances like this that can see that change in the approaching future.

All in all, it was a superb little match that served well to shut things off. It didn’t attempt to be the most effective match of the yr. It didn’t attempt to be melodramatic or marred by all manner of names interfering. It was only a pure wrestling contest between two legitimately great and compelling employees, a natural villain, and a lovable hero.

Written by Max Everett

I used to be a giant fan of MJF and Speedball’s match, very similar to my colleague, but I even have a really hard time suspending disbelief with these Eliminator Matches. MJF vs. Kenny Omega is just too vital for me to consider that anyone will even get a sniff on the world title. I actually think I might’ve believed much more in Speedball’s probabilities if MJF had given him a low-stakes exhibition match, as it might’ve no less than given MJF reason to be off his game and lose.

I simply didn’t consider Speedball would win, and I even have that problem with 99% of Eliminator Matches. The 1% that make it work simply is not enough though, especially within the essential event.

Perhaps they make more sense with the midcard titles, however the world title scene just is not unpredictable enough for me to consider that there’d be any form of shake-up this near a PPV.

Written by Ross Berman