AEW Dynamite - 4/1/2026: 3 Things We Loved And 3 We Hated

AEW is on the road to Dynasty, and Chris Jericho is back. The jam-packed edition of "Dynamite" saw the former AEW World Champion return in his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. As always, there was plenty to love and plenty to hate on the show.

As always, we will leave the results to the results page, and keep this focused on the most important thing: our feelings. There was much to love, like the crackerjack main event between Mike Bailey and the AEW World Champion MJF, and plenty to hate, like the underwhelming return of Jericho.

Don't like it? Sound off in the comments and tell us your highs and lows from the show. Without further ado, here's the best and the worst of Wednesday's show.

The feud between Will Ospreay and The Death Riders really brings out the best of both entities. Ospreay is at his best when his reckless, high-impact style has caught up to him, and The Death Riders are at their best when they are actively trying to murder one of their co-workers. So pretty much everything about tonight's Ospreay and Moxley interactions brought me a lot of joy. The two are essentially the two sides of AEW: the high-risk and the ultraviolent. This is a feud for sickos, and Wednesday delivered more great action.

I have no doubt the match at Dynasty will be good, but getting matches like Ospreay vs. Pac on the road to the match has been something of a cherry on top. I'm old enough to remember when the two of them had a feud on the indie circuit before Ospreay joined AEW. Putting matches like that on television is what the promotion is about.

Written by Ross Berman

At risk of sounding incredibly insensitive, I was sick and tired of hearing about Kenny Omega's diverticulitis quite some time ago, and that's actually mostly due to commentary bringing it up at any and every chance they get. I believe it was last week, or maybe the week prior, they brought it up without Omega being in the ring, or his storyline even anywhere close to what was going on at that moment. I hope Omega's doing okay, physically, and it certainly seems like he is if he's going to be wrestling for the AEW World Championship at Dynasty. He seems like a smart guy to know how to handle himself, now that he himself knows of his limitations. So, no shade to Omega as a person here, whatsoever, as it really all boils down to the writing.

I might have been thrown off by Chris Jericho's sudden appearance, and then him not being a part of this contract signing segment, but when MJF brought up "speaking to Omega's doctors," I audibly groaned, because I knew what direction we were going in. While yes, I think Omega's heel opponents should focus on the fact that maybe his best days are behind him, and retirement may be looming due to his diverticulitis and all the beatings he's taken over the years, but focusing on the man's guts is just getting so old. It's such a serious condition that maybe it should have been used sparingly after his initial comeback.

The way MJF worded it tonight was also just strange to me. He made it sound like Omega's insides are a dangerous ticking time bomb, and he even said that Omega's doctor told him that "The Cleaner's" insides could "explode at any moment" or something like that. For whatever reason, that made me think that Omega could explode like a cartoon character at any point. While I'm not a doctor, I'm not sure that's exactly how that works, unless it's Omega taking some kind of physical contact to his stomach during a match, where MJF should have said he's "going to make Omega's guts explode," or perhaps something worded a little better.

Or, maybe I'm wrong, and it can happen at a moment's notice like MJF alluded to, but it still all just sounded strange when MJF could have just said he's going to attempt to put Omega in the ground, if they don't want to start talking about retirement around him just yet. It was made all the more silly, to me at least, by the fact that Omega was just fine wrestling in a trios match alongside Jack Perry and Brody King right after.

Written by Daisy Ruth

The women of AEW may only have had one match tonight, but the Triangle of Madness and the Brawling Birds, alongside Mina Shirakawa, fought in a solid trios bout that did a lot of good for the babyfaces. I've mentioned before that I really love the way Shirakawa and Thekla work together. tThey just have such great chemistry, and that held true again tonight.

AEW is in an interesting situation with Dynasty, as there wasn't a lot of time to build a ton of storylines for matches right after Revolution. After this match, and even though they wrestled for the championship on the March 25 episode of "Dynamite," I think Shirakawa and Thekla could go again at Dynasty to get the AEW Women's World Championship on the card. Sure, Shirakawa isn't walking away the winner, but it would give Thekla another solid pay-per-view victory. I also think that Alex Windsor and Jamie Hayter could both be contenders for Thekla's title, and involving them in tonight's bout at least puts them a little closer to the gold, even if it was just in a trios match. Hayter got the win, with a pin on Julia Hart, which could lead to her being in some kind of eliminator match or something.

I also noticed that commentary didn't mention the attack on "Timeless" Toni Storm, or if they did, they didn't mention it too much. I think I've decided I actually like that fact. If Storm is going to be out for the rest of the year, and we're only in April, it's probably best not to overdo it.

This wasn't a long match or anything, and nothing too special, but I did think it was solid, and I really hope we get Thekla and Shirakawa at Dynasty. I feel like I haven't seen Skye Blue and Hart wrestle on "Dynamite" in a while, either, so it was nice they got some time.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Whether you love him or hate him, it's pretty undisputable that Chris Jericho is one of the biggest names that AEW has on its roster.

Having Jericho make his long-awaited return to the company in his hometown is a sound idea since it almost guarantees that he'll get a good pop from the crowd, and his return to the company was also always bound to be a big one way or another purely because of his name value. I still couldn't help but feel like Jericho's return just needed a little more sustenance to it, especially when you consider that it was his only appearance on this entire episode of "Dynamite".

To have Jericho do nothing more than come to the ring, pose in the ring for a good few minutes as the fans cheered him on, and say nothing more than 'I'm home' felt incredibly underwhelming. It may have created a little bit of mystery as to his reason for returning, but it also dampened the impact of his return by not capitalising on it with a solid promo (which he clearly had the time to do) in order to get fans excited about his reemergence.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

This week's show played the role of Winnipeg excursion and prelude to Dynasty with a main event pitting Canada's own "Speedball" Mike Bailey against AEW World Champion and self-coined "American Hero" MJF.

Bailey was fighting not just for himself but also Dynasty challenger Kenny Omega, coming out during a promo segment at the beginning of the show, just as MJF was goading Omega into attacking him and thus canceling their upcoming match. But it was also an Eliminator match so there was the promise of a title match should he beat the champion.

I am not a fan of Eliminator matches in general, but this was just a great non-title match, pitting a hot babyface who just so happens to be a great wrestler against a hot heel who also just so happens to be a great wrestler. And that was enough.

The feeling was always that MJF was going to get the win heading into his title match against Omega, and the bout did well to weaponize that belief. When Bailey looked close to winning, there was an edge-of-the-seat element where one found themselves thinking, "He could get this," only to have that rug pulled time and time again before the end of the bout.

It took a Tombstone Piledriver onto the apron, followed by Heatseeker in the ring to get the win, telling both the story of a man refusing to give up and one that knows what is required to win. That's why Bailey isn't World Champion – yet. But it's performances like this that will see that change in the coming future.

All in all, it was an excellent little match that served well to close things off. It didn't try to be the best match of the year. It didn't try to be melodramatic or marred by all manner of names interfering. It was just a pure wrestling contest between two legitimately great and compelling workers, a natural villain, and a lovable hero.

Written by Max Everett

I was a big fan of MJF and Speedball's match, much like my colleague, but I have a very hard time suspending disbelief with these Eliminator Matches. MJF vs. Kenny Omega is simply too important for me to believe that anyone will even get a sniff at the world title. I actually think I would've believed even more in Speedball's chances if MJF had given him a low-stakes exhibition match, as it would've at least given MJF reason to be off his game and lose.

I simply didn't believe Speedball would win, and I have that problem with 99% of Eliminator Matches. The 1% that make it work simply isn't enough though, especially in the main event.

Maybe they make more sense with the midcard titles, but the world title scene just isn't unpredictable enough for me to believe that there'd be any kind of shake-up this close to a PPV.

Written by Ross Berman