AEW Dynamite - 5/28/2025: 3 Things We Loved And 3 Things We Hated

Another "AEW Dynamite" is in the books, and the post-Double or Nothing edition of the Wednesday night program. As with every AEW show, there was plenty to love and plenty to hate.

The following will not focus on "what happened." We keep that kind of thing in our results page. Instead, we will discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of this week's show from El Paso. It kicked off strong and then became a mixed bag as the night went on. There were the dizzying highs of the women's plunder tag match, as well as the terrifying lows of whatever is going on with Josh Alexander's booking.

But enough previewing, let's break it all down. Here's the best and the worst of the May 28, 2025 edition of "AEW Dynamite," as selected by the Wrestling Inc. Staff.

More often than not, pre-shows for AEW pay-per-view events are mostly full of throwaway random matches that are meant to give an array of talent something that they can do on programming. It was a refreshing change of pace to see one of those pre-show matches in which Harley Cameron and Anna Jay defeated Megan Bayne and Penelope actually have ramifications for other AEW programming, let alone be a better sequel than their initial encounter.

On an episode of "Dynamite" that I personally felt was rather uneventful and boring to watch, this was the standout moment of the entire show for me. From top to bottom, Ford, Bayne, Cameron, and Jay didn't let the pace of the match slow down once throughout the entire thing. They kept the action fast and the excitement up, making good use of the No Disqualification stipulation with a wide array of weapons and spots. There was a little something for everybody throughout the match, and it opened the door for the four women to have one more bout with one another now that each team holds a win over the other that I would happily watch.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

In a landscape where TNA World Champions can appear at WrestleMania, it begs the question what it is Tony Khan signed the longest-reigning champion, Josh Alexander, to do? Since being debuted as the surprise entrant in the quarter-finals of the Owen Hart Cup, a match he went on to lose, he was immediately turned heel and aligned with the Don Callis Family, then he went on a three-match undefeated streak as a tag team with Konosuke Takeshita.

Meanwhile, he wrestled to a 15-minute time-limit draw with Brody King. Then he was the fall guy as that tag streak was broken by "Can they co-exist?" partners "Hangman" Page and Will Ospreay at "Beach Break," was part of a winning Don Callis Family trio against The Paragon at Double or Nothing, only to leverage that momentum by... losing to Brody King in 14 minutes, therefore failing to challenge Kenny Omega for the International Championship next week. Within weeks, he has become the fodder for the DCF in a faction containing Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta. It just seems bizarre as someone who has watched Alexander's near 60-minute bout with "Speedball" Mike Bailey, wherein he retained the World title, that he would be relegated to such a position while Bailey is being pushed much higher on the card and already has two pay-per-view title matches under his belt.

That is by no means a discredit to Bailey, but more to speak to the wider issue that top talent gets brought in to either sit on the sidelines or see their record battered while it's decided on-the-fly who they are meant to be to the company. That's not the alternative that was promised. Neither is this to any discredit of King. But he is already an established name on the roster with title reigns to back him, it really would not have hurt to see Alexander take the win here and vie for the title that another three opponents – one of which will hail from CMLL – will also get a shot at.

Written by Max Everett

Swerve Strickland and "Hangman" Adam Page have the best ongoing rivalry in AEW history, and that fact can't be denied. I didn't expect to see Strickland tonight during "Hangman's" promo following his Owen Hart Memorial tournament win at Double or Nothing, and especially after Strickland's brutal Anarchy in the Arena match before that, but what they did tonight really worked for me. After Page went out there and thanked Will Ospreay for the fight of his life and promised the fans he'd bring back the AEW World Championship and everything it stands for, Strickland's music hit, and he sauntered out to the ring.

The fact that Strickland brought up loose ends in their storyline was great. I had almost forgotten about the Young Bucks' return promo, where they said they interfered in Strickland's championship match against Jon Moxley at Dynasty a few months ago to make it up to Page. AEW replaying that portion of things was a good refresher, and having Page in the ring to watch it back was a nice touch, rather than Strickland just straight up explaining himself.

Strickland brought up Page's other promise, that he'd never let Strickland become AEW Champion again, and he asked his rival to his face if he had anything to do with the Bucks' interference. "Hangman" said he would've taken Strickland out himself, to which Strickland replied he was "full of s***," which then brought out Ospreay and the other interesting aspect of this opening promo segment. Ospreay put himself in a rather dangerous position as mediator between these two men, but it worked.

Ospreay added even more here by comparing Page and Strickland, which made sense, as he's faced them both to the same result: losing, then his opponent helping him up as a sign of respect. He reminded Page and Strickland that they're not as different as they may think. While I wasn't entirely a fan of Ospreay's "People are starting to believe in us again! We can beat Moxley, right guys?! 'Hanger' can do it!" aspect of this, because it was rather cheesy, his thoughts about Page and Strickland were pretty spot on – and something neither of them liked to hear.

It makes me wonder where we're going with this. Ospreay is very clearly in Page's corner before his match against Moxley at All In Texas, and I wonder if he's going to attempt to get Strickland on board here as well to maybe help fend off the Death Riders so Page can get the victory. I'm sure that will lead to the troupe that if Strickland helps, he'll be the next person to get a title shot at Page, for "Hangman" to prove he's a good guy once again, and he didn't mean all that talk about never letting Strickland be champion again. There is plenty of time for AEW to flesh out this increasingly intriguing story, and it's one I'm looking forward to.

Written by Daisy Ruth

It's always nice to see active champions like The Opps be used on television so as to not create a complete absence of the titles. It's also nice to see champions sometimes be given squash matches in order to keep them looking strong and established as competitors. It's not as nice, though, when the competitors that The Opps are suddenly presented on television out of nowhere and immediately made to be a big deal when they've never even been on "Dynamite". Case in point: The Frat House.

From the manner in which The Frat House was presented as a stable, it felt as though AEW was expecting much of their fanbase to know who the group was and the members that were part of it. If I had to place bets, though, there is likely a large percentage of said fanbase who doesn't watch Ring of Honor programming on a regular basis and would therefore have no idea who The Frat House was. It had the opposite effect as intended for me, and ended up leaving me quite confused about why this random group who I had never heard of before was suddenly facing reigning AEW World Trios Champions The Opps. Context was crucial here, and the addition of something small like a vignette that could've aired last week or even just prior to the match itself would've helped to establish who exactly The Frat House was, rather than leave many confused fans to identify and/or guess each member of the group.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

In the past couple of years, specifically, there has been a deluge of women's talent to be brought over the Pacific Ocean, ranging from former Women's World Champions like Jamie Hayter, Hikaru Shida, Riho, and Mariah May. All have arrived as relative unknowns to the western audience, yet all have eventually made their mark on the promotion in their own way. Tonight, it was Thekla's turn to officially make that transition, bringing a degree of catharsis as she was unveiled to attack Hayter in the ring. Currently, both the TBS and Women's World Champion, Mercedes Mone and Toni Storm, are occupied with one another in the lead-in to All In Texas.

So it's a good thing that the Cup finalist is being given something else to get stuck into for the immediate future. It also helps to have someone who has made the same transitions, somewhat different, but coming from the European circuit, moving to Japan, and then to the US, all the same. Hayter is a good name for Thekla to establish hers against, much in the same way May had done with Storm, but she's also a great worker to bring the best out of the new signing, emphasizing her strengths and neutralizing her weaknesses. The crowd reacted well, while obviously not completely aware of who she was at the time, and there wasn't too much given away right away. It's really hard not to see the benefit in bringing her in, someone new and exciting with a lot of time ahead to cement herself, and someone who adds depth to an already impressive roster.

Written by Max Everett

I'm well aware the TNT Championship should primarily stay on TNT, where AEW airs on Saturdays, but since it's a championship, I feel like it should appear on "AEW Dynamite" more often than it does. When it was announced that Adam Cole would be defending the title tonight on "Dynamite" against "The Protostar" Kyle Fletcher, I assumed that the gold would be changing hands. Fletcher is white hot right now. "Dynamite" is the show with the bigger audience, and maybe more people are tuning in to see the Double or Nothing fallout from Sunday. It felt like the perfect time.

But, no. AEW had to go and mess it up in one of the worst possible ways. Fletcher could have lost clean and worked his way back up to championship contention, but instead, The Don Callis Family's Josh Alexander interfered on Fletcher's behalf and took out Cole, causing the disqualification. Why would you book someone's stablemate interfering, incredibly blatantly, and not attempting to go behind the referee's back, when another member of the stable is attempting to win a title? It made no sense to me until a bit later in the night. Also, Don Callis was on commentary, and maybe I didn't hear him clearly, but he certainly didn't seem to be making a fuss about it. If I were managing a stable, I'd be pretty upset that one guy cost another guy his shot, even if it looked like he may be about to lose.

As for later in the night, we saw Fletcher upset backstage. He said that he didn't need anyone interfering on his behalf. But, instead of a confrontation with Callis himself since Alexander was in a match with Brody King, it was Cole who attacked him and let him know he was "going to kill him." Which, I suppose, I should be happy about because that more than likely means Fletcher is going to get another shot at the TNT Championship. However, now I know it's going to be on "AEW Collision" on a Saturday. Maybe that's where Tony Khan thinks the title should change hands, but in my humble opinion, I would have done it tonight to maybe get more eyes on the Saturday product.

No matter where you go from here, tonight's championship match finish just looked silly. I think Fletcher is made for that title, a championship that hasn't gotten a lot of love between Daniel Garcia and now, Adam Cole. I hope to see him win it soon, I just hated the fact it didn't happen tonight.

Written by Daisy Ruth