Will Ospreay needed some backup to assist him fight off the Death Riders on the April 8 episode of “AEW Dynamite,” and after his recent trip to Japan, he bumped into some old friends of his. Fresh off of reuniting with the United Empire at NJPW Sakura Genesis on April 4, Ospreay managed to persuade Francesco Akira, HENARE, and the brand new IWGP Heavyweight Champion Callum Newman to make a journey to Canada to create some chaos in Edmonton, and that is exactly what they did.
Very like the Mile High Madness match we saw back in February, this was essentially a mini Anarchy In The Arena built for a TV audience, only with fewer split-screens and music playing over the loudspeakers to accompany the motion. Nevertheless, that did not make this match any less fun than a few of its predecessors because this was great.
All eight guys got their licks in here, with the MVP award of this match from yours truly actually getting split 3 ways between Akira, HENARE, and Claudio Castagnoli. Those three guys knew that they had to get their stuff in and made essentially the most of each second they were the focal point, to the purpose where Tony Schiavone probably dropped a text to Tony Khan saying, “If you could have any money left over from the Jericho contract, give it to Akira.” Massive table spots, including a Newman double foot stomp that might make the ECW version of Tajiri extremely proud, Alex Windsor and Marina Shafir got involved. It appeared like in all places you looked, something latest was happening.
I used to be hesitant about this match going into it, mainly because this could have been an excellent fit for the actual Anarchy In The Arena setting, or perhaps a Forbidden Door match, but sometimes whenever you get the prospect to do something, sometimes you simply must do it there after which. I also would have liked to have seen more from Newman, considering he just made history over in Japan, and possibly it ran slightly long, however it’s a multi-man AEW plunderfest, it’ll be long, and I’m okay with that today.
It also sets up the Jon Moxley/Will Ospreay match for Dynasty to be more unpredictable, as Ospreay and Newman each got the pin on Moxley. Does this mean Mox is retaining? Does it mean Ospreay has one other summer title run in his sights? All of that will likely be answered this Sunday, but this was a rollercoaster of a match that built hype towards a marquee pay-per-view title match while making everyone involved seem like one million bucks, and even in Canadian dollars, you’ll be able to’t ask for way more than that.
Written by Sam Palmer