AEW Dynamite: 4/20/2022

It’s Wednesday night, and you know what that means! It’s AEW Dynamite time and man, what a monumental show. A HUGE announcement was made and it truly did change the landscape of professional wrestling, and it was definitely much more groundbreaking than AEW purchasing Ring of Honor. But what was this announcement? Well, we get to find out much later in the show! But until then, we have major action; starting with….

Match 1: CM Punk vs Dustin Rhodes. (Rating:3.5/5)

Yet another first time ever match, this time with the Natural Dustin Rhodes. Though it looked a bit wonky at times, this was still a banger of a match. And it also really shows how better with age Rhodes has gotten, as even with weird moments throughout this match like Punk seemingly not attempt to hit Dustin with the GTS it doesn’t take away the skill that Rhodes has had during the inception of All Elite Wrestling. Punk wins after a weird finish where he managed to lay atop of Rhodes after countering the GTS to get the pinfall victory. After the match as Punk made his way up the ramp, he was met by the AEW world champion Adam Page, planting the seeds for their eventual feud.

Match 2: Owen Hart Tournament Qualifier; Kyle O’Reilly vs Jungle Boy. (Rating:3/5)

If I’m not mistaken, I think this is Kyle’s first singles’ match since signing up with AEW. This went very well, and it really did put a shine on how great of a singles’ competitor Kyle could be when he isn’t in a tag team match. Though it did seem as if Jungle Boy was the favorite to win this match. Kyle gets the win via pinfall and advances in the Owen Hart tournament.

Segment 1: Tony Khan’s Announcement

Usually when AEW promotes Tony Khan having a “huge announcement,” nothing would ever truly get announced. It’s turned into a meme at this point because weekly it seems as if Khan has this groundbreaking announcement, though this one was quite the contrary. New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Elite Wrestling have NOW signed a partnership with each other! Not only does this mean that both competitors from each respect organization can compete at the other promotion but we’re also getting a MASSIVE payperview event on June 26th simply titled “Forbidden Door.” Professional wrestling is truly a beautiful sport to be a fan of. This is surely a wrestling fan’s craziest dream to have come true!

Segment 2: HookHausen

This was HOOK’s first ever appearance on Dynamite as opposed to appearing on Rampage, and what a better way to make your debut on AEW’s bigger weekly show than by competing in a squash match. The match itself ended relatively quick as Hook locked in the Redrum for the submission victory but the post match segment was the real talk of the town. Danhausen, for the better part of several weeks now, had tried to curse Hook to no success whatsoever. So instead of cursing the man once more, Danhausen ended up CHALLENGED HOOK TO A MATCH!! Of course Hook gave no response and just left the ring but just the idea of Danhausen’s first ever match in AEW being against Hook is even more mind-blowing.

Main Event: Coffin Match; Andrade vs Darby Allin. (Rating:4/5)

Honestly this feud had dragged on a bit more than it should’ve, but if this was the final match between El Idolo and Allin then what a way to end this feud! Of course there was interference from the Andrade Family Order but Darby wasn’t alone as the Hardy Boyz and Sting were able to even out the playing field. Andrade did spend most of the match absolutely decimating Darby with his size and power advantage. However Allin seemed to barely just pick up the win after closing the coffin by laying on top of the lid. Really hard-hitting stuff, and I’m glad that Allin has made the Coffin match HIS match similarly to how Hangman Page made deathmatches his thing.

Final rating:4/5