For the past few weeks here in these loved and hated pieces, I even have gushed about how exciting the AEW Men’s World Championship picture is in the mean time. MJF has to contend with the likes of Hangman Page, Brody King, Swerve Strickland, Samoa Joe and Kenny Omega, but now he has a distinct type of problem, an ungovernable one.
It has been clear since his return to motion in 2026 that there may be a distinct level of fireplace burning underneath Andrade El Idolo. For years, everyone has known about how talented his is — that was evident when he was La Sombra, when he was in WWE, and even in his first run with AEW. The guy is primary event level talent, he just had something missing. Whatever that something is, he has found it, or Don Callis has found it. Whoever has found it, Andrade is finally showing the world why everyone rates him so highly, and tonight’s match on the January 28 episode of “AEW Dynamite” against Swerve Strickland was a primary example.
Swerve has made it very clear how much he wants his AEW Men’s World Championship back, so when the match with Andrade was booked, it was met with a mix of pleasure and trepidation. Everyone knew it was going to be good, but wouldn’t it be the very best idea having Andrade lose so early into his second run with the corporate? Absolutely not, and as an alternative of taking the simple way out and having a non-finish, Andrade actually got the win. Sure, it wasn’t the cleanest and he needed to get a low blow in there to assist get the job done, but Andrade beat Swerve, he beat a former AEW Men’s World Champion, someone who’s considered one of the faces of the corporate right away. That is huge!
The match itself was also great. Two guys meeting within the ring for the primary time showcasing how freakishly athletic they’re, while also portraying how much they need to be the highest guy in AEW. Andrade and Swerve pulled out all of the stops, every trick they might pull was pulled and it still couldn’t get the job done. Backwards and forwards, move for move, counter for counter; I didn’t know what to anticipate from these two considering they’re quite similar, but I used to be very happy with what I got, and it ended with a surprising result that keeps an already exciting title picture much more interesting.
Andrade now gets to face Kenny Omega next week, but where does Swerve go from here? How does that impact Hangman’s trajectory? Brody King has an Eliminator Match against MJF next week, will that change things? A wonderful end to a different excellent show.
Written by Sam Palmer