AEW Revolution is just a few days away and this is the last Dynamite before the big PPV, where we may see an end to the Death Riders' reign of terror. I'm not chomping at the bit for an Adam Copeland World Title run, but with either Ricochet or Swerve Strickland in line as the next number one contender I'm not too concerned with who is in the way when either of those guys takes their shot.

I don't think I'd love much more than a second Swerve World Title run or a first-ever Ricochet World Title run. Both guys have been on incredible rolls for weeks now (Swerve for months and months) and they both deserve to take their spots at the top of the card.

Tonight's Dynamite didn't have a ton built up for it – Thunder Rosa & Kris Statlander vs Megan Bayne Penelope Ford and Adam Copeland vs Wheeler Yuta. Earlier today we also got the announcement of some additional tag matches on the show building even more to Revolution.

Kazuchika Okada will team with Ricochet to face the insane combination of Brody King and Swerve Strickland, fresh off of the announcement that Okada will defend the Continental Championship against Brody on Sunday. It's time to make some changes and shake up the card, Tony! Put that belt on Brody King!

Eight Men of Magic (and Don Callis)

The opening match was a common staple of AEW, the All-Star 8-Man Tag AKA the party match. This one had players from a lot of different stories currently firing on all cylinders: Orange Cassidy, Powerhouse Hobbs, Mark Briscoe, & Will Ospreay vs Bryan Keith, Mark Davis, Lance Archer, & Brian Cage.

Since returning, Orange Cassidy seems to have a new pep in his step. He seems a bit more emotive in the ring, a bit more excitable. I'm not sure if it's been done on purpose or if he's just really feeling things right now, but I really love it. It's a neat new wrinkle added to his character that helps flesh him out just that much more.

The match was a backdrop for Kyle Fletcher vs Will Ospreay in a steel cage at Revolution, but it also gave us some fun world building with the Don Callis Family and The Learning Tree. The three Callis Family members seemed disinterested in tagging in Bryan Keith for most of the match, and he ended up eating the fall to Ospreay. Could we see further interactions between the two groups? Callis and Jericho obviously have history that could easily lead to a breakdown between the two groups.

Opening the show with this match was also a great move. Talking segments opening a show aren't always my favorite, but Swerve/Ricochet was short and sweet and the crowd was into it. The crowd was similarly into this, which was a ton of fun.

The rehabilitation of Wheeler Yuta

Cope/Wheeler Yuta didn't do a ton for me, and I've not been super into the whole Cope/Mox thing. The match was fine, though, and I really liked the ending! Cope wrestled the match rather than fighting Yuta which perplexed the announcers, though I very smartly picked up early on that Cope wasn't being hard on Yuta because he didn't hate him like the rest of the Death Riders. I'm a wrestling genius!

Post-match, Cope shook Yuta's hand instead of crushing his brains drawing the ire of Jon Moxley who came out to the ring to berate Yuta. Mox pushed Yuta around a bit before Yuta, once more remembering what self-respect feels like, brushed past Moxley and left the arena.

Mox stormed after him yelling at Yuta to "keep walking!" to which Yuta replied, "Yeah, I'll keep walking!" so at least they can still agree on that.

I don't think Wheeler Yuta is a World Title guy, at least not any time soon. But wouldn't it just be so sweet if Wheeler Yuta learned to care about himself enough to not only step up to Mox but to beat him? If anything, Yuta could be the nail in the coffin for Moxley's reign at Revolution if Yuta truly has had his circuits rewired.

We've been down this road before, though. We've seen Yuta get tempted to be a good boy several times only for him to fall back to his bad boy ways. I hope that if we're getting more Yuta character building that he actually does make the right call because being the bullied kid in Death Riders can only last so long.

Of course, then there's the problem of the Trios Titles that we'd have to deal with.

It's no Bunnelope, but Baynelope will do

Megan Bayne has been great since returning/debuting on TV and while Penelope Ford looked a little rough when she first came back, she's worked out any ring rust that may have been on her and is looking as crisp as she did before she went out with injury. The pairing is excellent on so many levels, not least of all the size difference that makes Bayne look like an even more monstrous woman than she normally does.

Kris Statlander, as usual, looked great as she continues to be thwarted by the dual forces of Bayne and Ford. The best place for Thunder Rosa is probably in a tag team at this point. Her singles match quality has fallen off of a cliff but she didn't look bad in tonight's tag offering. A little rough around the edges but not bad.

While Bayne does have a win over Statlander at this point, it's not a clean win and I imagine we'll run that match back at some point down the road.

What this match really made me think about, though, was how AEW's women's division could excel with Women's Tag Team Titles. Now, AEW obviously already has way too many titles so why don't we just quietly retire the Trios Titles to make way for Women's Tag Titles? It's not like the Trios Titles will ever reach the heights of the Death Triangle/Elite Best of Seven series anyway.

A main event build to AEW Revolution

There is so much happening all over the card in AEW right now and the main event capped off a show that highlighted this fact.

For a little while now, Okada has been poking at the Hounds of Hell. Why? Who knows! He's a little rabble rouser, I suppose.

While Okada overcame Buddy Matthews at Grand Slam, he veered back into the Hounds orbit last week with Brody King. This will lead to an Okada/King match at Revolution for the Continental Championship, a match that I am dying for Brody to win.

The story with Swerve and Ricochet has, of course, been the center of television for quite some time. Tonight, in both the opening segment and the main event, Swerve and Ricochet delivered everything they needed to deliver to push their #1 Contender Match at Revolution.

In the end, Ricochet came out with the win thanks to a belt shot on Swerve – which probably does not bode well for Ricochet's chances on Sunday. However, this isn't WWE and AEW doesn't tend to fall into their old formula of "whoever gets the upper hand on the last show before the PPV loses at the PPV" so who knows! This may also have been one of the few belt shots that actually led to a direct pinfall. A belt shot has felt more like a misdirect in AEW in most cases, so it was kind of surprising (but also not surprising) to see it wrap things up here.

Everybody had a chance to shine in this one with Ricochet doing great work all over the spectrum: being a shitty little guy, being a great wrestler, and being a scared shitty little guy. He can truly do it all!

Informative video packages and succinct non-wrestling segments

The Informative Video Packages were in full force tonight with packages hyping up Konosuke Takeshita vs Kenny Omega and The Outrunners vs The Hurt Syndicate. Being an analog media boi, The Outrunners will forever have my 4:3 heart. They're certainly not going to win the tag titles on Sunday, but I love the stopgap storyline we're getting before we finally get The Hurt Syndicate/Murder Machines match.

MJF did some great work shouting into the camera in an alleyway outside of the building before Hangman Adam Page almost ran him over. Hangman dragged who appeared to be MJF to the ring but was revealed to be a cheap clone. The way the guy kept shouting "HE MADE ME DO IT! HE MADE ME DO IT!" while an incensed Hangman stared in confusion was, as they say, chef's kiss.

MJF is doing some great work coming off of the horrendously abysmal thing he had with Jeff Jarrett a few weeks back. What a fuckin' rebound! MJF vs Hangman Page at Revolution is going to be a true delight and I, happily, am hoping that it's merely the first stop in this story.

With only a few minutes on the show, Toni Storm and Mariah May continued to show why they are where they are at the top of the women's division. They're able to communicate so much with so little, Toni especially. Mariah did a lot of the heavy lifting in the segment in terms of going through every human emotion while a stoic Storm watched on.

The segment ended with both women face-to-face, Renee Paquette in the middle voicing her concern with a simple "I'm just praying that neither of you get seriously hurt." Champion and challenger responded with a terse "Pray for her" to wrap things up. These two are just doing it like nobody else on the show right now.

Wrapping Up

Another unique venue for AEW! I don't know how many people were crammed into this place but it looked cool and sounded even better on TV. Wheeler Yuta's one-shot entrance especially sold me on the building. The crowd was consistently hot and every bit of the visual presentation was on the money. I always enjoy seeing wrestling in more unique venues than just the standard arena setup and this place served that purpose for me.

The opening segment with Swerve and Ricochet was largely excellent, though Swerve still has the problem of his words running together from time to time. Swerve got a modicum of revenge by stabbing Ricochet with his own pair of giant scissors, but he stopped short of mangling Ricochet in quite the same way Ricochet did to Swerve.

I love Max Caster's dumb little open challenge. I love Max Caster's "Best Wrestler Alive" trademark. I love Max Caster's tights with the Max logo plastered all over them. He's such an incredible dweeb and while this thing can't last forever, I am honestly looking forward to where he goes next which is not a thing I could have imagined saying about either member of The Acclaimed a few months ago.

This was yet another great episode of AEW TV in a long run of great episodes of AEW TV. Collision on Saturday is the official go-home for Collision and will have Daniel Garcia vs Lee Moriarty and Serena Deeb vs Momo Watanabe. Not a bad start!