AEW Dynamite 2/26/25: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite," the show that continues to add potential bangers to AEW Revolution while teasing even bigger bangers for down the road! If you thought the WINC crew didn't have opinions on the matches being made and/or teased, you haven't been here long. In fact, you're probably so new that you need to be reminded that all opinions here are subjective, and that comprehensive coverage of the show in full can be found on our "Dynamite" results page.

The rest of you, however, we expect to know the score by now: This column is only for the WINC staff's most passionate takes, be they positive or negative. It's why, for example, we won't be talking about MJF bloodying Christopher Daniels in the opening segment (fun fact, it's actually physically impossible to have a passionate take about Christopher Daniels in 2025) but when we do choose to talk about something, we mean what we say. From Cope's continued Death Rider Con-Chair-To Hunt to Konosuke Takeshita's Intercontinental title victory in the main event, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 2/26/25 episode of "AEW Dynamite."

Everyone loves a good stipulation match in professional wrestling, but if a company is going to do one, then there needs to be a good reason for it and it needs to have clear rules presented to the audience going into it. Neither of those things applied in the Bounty Match between Will Ospreay and Bryan Keith on this "Dynamite."

While I did like the actual action and thought that Ospreay and Keith put on an enjoyable contest, there was absolutely no reason to add a stipulation to what was otherwise a normal match. There is some logic to Don Callis approaching Chris Jericho in order to recruit Keith with their long shared history in order to take out Ospreay ahead of his Steel Cage Match against Kyle Fletcher at Revolution. However, there wasn't enough of a storyline to even warrant any kind of stipulation to the match in the first place except for a short backstage segment, especially one that's never been used before or had absolutely none of the rules explained at all. It would've been far more sensical to just swap out Keith with Mark Davis (who was present at ringside anyways) or even any other member of The Don Callis Family after some edits to the card.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

A few weeks ago, I discussed how AEW might be on course to bringing the tag team division back to what it was when the company was formed in 2019. Sure, the Best Friends no longer hug, The Young Bucks are too busy being evil EVP's, and we've bid farewell to the likes of Santana and Ortiz, The Lucha Brothers, and SCU, but a new crop of talent was emerging in the Hounds of Hell, various iterations of The Don Callis Family, and of course, The Hurt Syndicate who are currently the team to beat. One of the Don Callis Family variations were The Murder Machines, who teased being the next challengers to Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin's AEW Tag Team Championships on "AEW Collision," a match that sounds like a lot of fun. So you could imagine my surprise when Brian Cage and Lance Archer were beaten by, of all teams, The Outrunners.

I have no real issues with The Outrunners. They are a fun lower midcard team who play their roles well, and that role is to be the plucky babyfaces that occasionally pick up a big win, but ultimately never reach the promise land of championship gold as they aren't as good as the rest of the division. A fine formula, and quite frankly, they should have lost tonight against The Murder Machines as it would have given AEW just over a week to make us care about a title match at the upcoming Revolution pay-per-view, but they didn't do that. Why didn't they do that?

Cage and Archer have been in desperate need of direction for years in AEW and as a duo, they finally look like they've found their true callings. Despite that, they get beaten by the comedy midcard act via a distraction entrance and a roll up. You can argue that it wasn't a clean finish and they can rightly continue their path to Revolution, but a clean victory would have been so much smoother going forward. Present Lashley and Benjamin with a pair of monsters who when they ultimately beat at Revolution, can stand tall as the true dominant force in the tag team division. It's so simple and easy to put together, but they gave the win to The Outrunners which is such a flat choice at this stage of the game.

Are they throwing The Outrunners in there because having two heel teams face off would have been stupid? Potentially, but having Turbo Floyd and Truth Magnum be the first pay-per-view test for The Hurt Syndicate feels like a backwards step for the progress of the division, and making it a three way dance muddies the water even more. The Hurt Syndicate needed a big team on pay-per-view to give their run as champions some more credibility, and The Murder Machines are much bigger than The Outrunners, figuratively and literally, but if this ends in The Outrunners getting squashed in under three minutes, some of this booking will be forgiven.

Written by Sam Palmer

The Swerve Strickland and Ricochet feud is one of the best things going in AEW right now, in part, because Strickland is my favorite in the company, and Ricochet is just so darn good on the microphone now that he's a heel. Things culminated tonight in two different ways that made this ongoing feud have multiple purposes to further the story, and that's exactly what it needed to keep things fresh. Strickland and Ricochet will be facing off at Revolution, and despite Ricochet saying he'd never face his nemesis again, Prince Nana was able to speak to Tony Khan, who apparently agreed the pair needed a rematch, but this time, the Number One Contender's spot for the AEW World Championship is on the line.

While I fully expected these two to face off again at Revolution, Nana and Strickland getting Ricochet to agree by looping the championship into it was an excellent play. It also makes me think a bit beyond Revolution, since I think Jon Moxley is retaining over Cope, and I'd love to see a brutal Strickland versus Moxley match. But, not getting ahead of myself, this match we're getting in a little under two weeks is going to be great and has the potential to be one of the best on the Revolution card.

The other part of this that I knew was coming was Nana being almost at his wits end with Strickland. He made great points tonight about taking metaphorical bullets in the form of not only Ricochet, but the likes of "Hangman" Adam Page and others for Strickland. The usual happy-go-lucky Nana made it known that if Strickland doesn't get The Embassy robe back from Ricochet at Revolution, "he doesn't know if he can do this anymore." It had all the makings of the beginnings of a dramatic breakup, with Nana first telling Strickland how proud of him he is and how he's glad he's taking steps to get the championship back. But, he wants him to go back to being the Most Dangerous Man in AEW. That's when he said he's taken a lot of bullets for his friend, and seeing Ricochet walking around in the robe hurts him. Nana told Strickland he needs him to fix his legacy.

I, for one, don't want to see Prince Nana and Strickland break up, and I don't see Ricochet getting another win to go after the championship with who's in the mix for the top title right now. But, I very well could be wrong, and no matter what, Revolution is going to be interesting and tonight's segment did all it needed to accomplish to further the stories between Strickland and Ricochet and Strickland and Nana quite nicely.

Written by Daisy Ruth

You've heard of "The Jericho Vortex," well let me tell you about "The Cope Hole." It's a well, roughly the depth of the one Baby Jessica fell down in 1987. Every few months, an AEW star or two is thrown down the well, where they are forced to either tell Adam "Cope" Copeland how much of a legend he is, as they carry him to Trios victories, or they get their asses kicked by him in a desperate display of strength from a 50-year-old man. Either way, Cope going to huff and puff his way through an out-of-breath promo and then get the win.

The nature of the Cope Hole has become clearer during his feud with the Death Riders. The group had started as a rather ineffective group of miscreants but since they've been targeted by Cope, they've looked like outright geeks. Wednesday's display was the most egregious, with the entire group feeling like clones of Wile E. Coyote, but instead of having an aloof roadrunner as a foil, they have a man who is still trying to prove to himself that he is, and was, the star he is in his head. Outside of the initial asphyxiation of Bryan Danielson, the group hasn't really done enough actual damage to make getting put in the hospital feel like a proportionate response. It feels like overkill, and that only exacerbates the sweaty insecurity of Cope's booking.

Even FTR seems to have noticed that Cope was leading them down a road to nowhere and cut bait, now feuding with, of all people, Adam Cole. They've traded one Adam for another and I can't blame them.

Written by Ross Berman

Guys, I think they're actually going to do it.

While I'm not a fan of the fact that a lot of the women were kept backstage tonight aside from Willow Nightingale killing Marina Shafir (excellent stuff), and Harley Cameron beating Deonna Purrazzo (not as excellent but still good), one backstage segment has me very excited for what could potentially happen later this year. Mercedes Mone was ready to accept the challenge from Momo Watanabe for a match at Revolution for the AEW TBS Championship when she ran into someone in the middle of her segment. That someone was none other than Billie Starkz, who got a cup of water in the face for not bowing down to "The CEO" right away. While the segment ended with Starkz and Watanabe standing tall with the TBS Championship belt, we all know who Starkz is most closely associated with don't we?

Mone already has belts in AEW, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and RevPro in the United Kingdom, but she's never held a title in Ring of Honor. Now sure, if Mone did end up in ROH for whatever reason, people would get their pitchforks out and ask why someone like Mone was on ROH instead of AEW, but she hasn't held the ROH Women's World Championship because that belt belongs to the "forever champion." "The Fallen Goddess" of wrestling who has somehow managed to stay away from Mone since her arrival almost a year ago, and I could way off the mark here and fantasy booking myself into a corner, but having Mone interact with Starkz in the manner that she did tells me that we might actually be in the early stages of a feud between Mercedes Mone and Athena.

People have called for Athena to be part of the AEW roster instead of ROH for literal years at this point, and while taking Athena out of ROH takes away arguably the brand's biggest selling point these days, she deserves to be rubbing shoulders with the cream of the crop on Wednesday's and Saturday's. Athena has been one of, if not the best women's wrestler in the entire world for a while, but no one knows about that as ROH is tucked away in its own little bubble on HonorClub. However, this could be the start of a build towards a match that absolutely needs to happen at All In Texas on July 12, not just because Athena is from Texas, but because it would be a genuine dream match that would feel even bigger with a little bit of story behind it.

AEW has almost been too good at keeping its top stars away from each other in order for the eventual showdowns to feel special, just look at how many dream matches CM Punk and Bryan Danielson never had in the company. But having Mone and Athena cross paths is absolutely the play here, and hopefully this segment was the moment where the seeds for July 12 were officially planted.

Written by Sam Palmer

After this week's show it is official that Konosuke Takeshita will be the defending International Champion against Kenny Omega at Revolution, defeating the objectively greatest holder in the title's history, Orange Cassidy, in the main event on Wednesday.

It's been a long time coming for Omega and Takeshita following their initial bout at All Out 2023, with Takeshita picking up the win that night and Omega later ruled out of contention with diverticulitis. And it feels like the right time for Omega to get back in the championship hunt after returning from that illness with starring performances against Gabe Kidd at Wrestle Dynasty and then later alongside Will Ospreay against the team of Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher at "AEW Grand Slam Australia." Omega got the pin on Takeshita in that match, setting the "Best Bout Machine" up as the challenger for whomever walked out of this week's "Dynamite" with the title. It was by no means an easy position for Cassidy to be in, the challenger for a title that had a plan in place and thus never really considered to have a chance of winning. But what it lacked in the livelihood of an upset it more than made up for in action, and it was the kind of action that instinctively brought both myself and the fans in attendance into the naive sense that he could actually take the title.

Regardless of the strength in the story and the narrative going into the match, it's incredibly hard to take anything away from Takeshita and Cassidy for their exploits in the ring. They meshed excellently, with Takeshita explosive power counterbalanced by the speedy underdog style of Cassidy; Cassidy and Takeshita are masters of momentum in the ring, and it came off excellently, with each taking turns to swap spinning and snapping movements to get ahead. The bout was never going to be Cassidy's coronation, but it served as the perfect demonstration of Takeshita as a fighting champion who has what it takes to stand toe-to-toe with a man argued to be the greatest wrestler on the planet. It certainly got me excited for Omega-Takeshita at Revolution (more than, admittedly, I already was).

Written by Max Everett