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Write Forever: When Hangman Met Swervey on AEW Dynamite for April 2

Write Forever: When Hangman Met Swervey on AEW Dynamite for April 2

Back in the saddle again with another Dynamite, this time with less than a week to go before AEW Dynasty in Philadelphia. Tonight we get a Tornado Tag Match with Jon Moxley and Marina Shafir against Swerve Strickland and Willow Nightingale just days away from Swerve saving us all from Jon Moxley and Death Riders once and for all.

Ahead of her title match against Megan Bayne, Toni Storm wrestles Penelope Ford. Ford and Toni had one of the all-time great shots in AEW history on Collision with Toni, bathed in a spotlight at the edge of the ring, had her head taken off by a Penelope Ford kick coming in from off-screen. Just beautiful stuff.

Also Cope wrestles Claudio Castagnoli. It's fine. It seems like we're on some sort of breaking point with Rated FTR that could come at Dynasty. Is a split for FTR on the horizon? Is FTR going to turn on Cope after setting their own goals on the backburner for far too long? Will we see something more unexpected like Copeland beating FTR to the punch and turning on them first? Who knows! As long as Copeland stays out of the World Title scene, I think I'm okay with whatever comes.

A little intergender wrestling, accidentally

Intergender wrestling has always been a thing teased but not done in AEW. Or, maybe more accurately, intergender physicality moreso than an actual intergender match. It's never been more teased than with Willow Nightingale and Marina Shafir being involved in and around Death Riders for the past several months.

Tonight, the Tornado Tag Match saw a bit more intergender action than usual but it was mostly woman-on-man which is the go-to for AEW. Most of the time, the intergender spots in AEW rely on a woman beating a man's ass on purpose or a man accidentally hitting a woman.

We got more of that tonight, as well as the classic "man teases he's going to hit a move on a woman but gets interrupted" trope. In the finish, Marina shoved Mox out of the way to sacrifice herself by taking the full brunt of Swerve's House Call kick.

Following up on this, Willow shoulder blocked Mox off of the apron and through a table before finishing Marina off with the Babe with the Powerbomb.

Post-match, Moxley drilled Willow with a Paradigm Shift before vacating the premises with Marina. They annoyingly sold this like death for Willow which really bugged me. Why is Willow's neck more susceptible to damage from a DDT just because a man does the move? She's been in some brutal fucking matches in AEW but one DDT from Mox is enough to almost kill her?

It felt like total cheeseball stuff and unnecessary. Sell it like she got sneak-attacked and hit with someone's finisher like normal; don't amp it up just because it happened to be a man's finisher.

Introducing: Kevin Knight

Kevin Knight's debut on Collision came out of nowhere but was a good one! He had a great singles match with Jay White and Tony Schiavone revealed, rather nonchalantly on commentary, that Knight was "all elite." This was followed with a post-match promo from Jay putting Knight over and an official graphic on the socials.

With Jay injured, Knight was slotted into his spot in the Owen Hart Tournament. Knight will face Will Ospreay in the first round and tonight they teamed up against Blake Christian and Lee Johnson who have just recently popped up on AEW TV after spending months and months in Ring of Honor.

I hope that Blake & Lee are here for the long haul and that they're not just in AEW for a few months to eat some losses. It's nice to have the people who have been working hard in Ring of Honor get bumped up to AEW. It freshens up the show quite a bit.

It was announced that Knight and Ospreay would have their first-round match in the tournament at Dynasty. What a welcome for Kevin Knight! I'm curious as to what the plan for him would have been had Jay White not been injured. Everything that's happening with Knight feels so natural that it's hard to believe he's a replacement.

If you were going to plan someone's first few weeks in the company, you couldn't plan a better one than this: wrestling Jay White one week, teaming with Will Ospreay the next, and then a PPV match with Ospreay a few days later. I don't see Knight beating Ospreay in the tournament, but his performance could make him a made man in AEW on Sunday night.

The women's main event trend has been broken

The last three shows were main evented by the women's division and it kicked ass! The matches were fun, the storyline hooks were cool, and it was nice to just have women's main events without it being made into a big deal. Just do it sometimes!

Tonight, Adam Copeland versus Claudio Castagnoli were in the main event and it was fine. I've not been shy about my displeasure for the whole Death Riders thing especially when it concerns the whole Copeland feud. It's all felt so boring and samey to me.

I'm okay with Copeland being involved if the feud is with the Trios Champions instead of the World Champion, but I can still only be so interested. The real story of the Trios Titles match at Dynasty is whether or not Rated FTR can make it through the match without blowing up on each other.

It seems increasingly likely that FTR will either split (low percentage) or turn on Copeland (higher percentage). What becomes of Copeland in that case? Well, with The Patriarchy seemingly dissolving before our very eyes, could Copeland find unexpected solace in his former partner Christian Cage?

I sincerely hope that whatever happens, we get heel FTR. They're more interesting than babyface FTR and the promo work Dax has been doing the past couple of weeks has been really good in selling him as a weird, self-absorbed, "everybody is against me but I'm trying my best" jerk of a heel. Let's get more of that, please.

NATURE IS HEALING

It was brief but it was beautiful. At the end of the show, Swerve Strickland was stomping around looking for Jon Moxley. Instead, Hangman Page found Swerve Strickland.

The two got into a shouting match with Swerve shouting "YOU BURNED DOWN MY HOUSE" and Hangman replying "YOU DESERVED IT" to which Swerve replied "I KNOW!"

Hangman staggered. He asked what Swerve had just said and Swerve repeated himself. Hangman, visibly conflicted and unsure of what the hell was happening in anybody's brain let alone his own, staggered off into the distance only for Moxley and Death Riders to find Swerve alone and lay a beating on him.

Bonus points because my favorite indie tag team Violence Is Forever were security guards in this segment. Please sign them, Tony. Sign them today.

Wrapping Up

We learned during the show open that Jay White had been "attacked earlier today" by Death Riders and would not be cleared to compete in The Owen Hart Cup. It looked like Jay was favoring his wrist at the end of his match with Kevin Knight on Collision, so I'm assuming something is broken in ole Switchblade's wrist.

I hope that a) Jay's injury isn't super serious and b) he comes back deranged and as a heel with The Gunns and Juice by his side ready to fuck everybody's shit right up. I don't know why The Gunns showed up for two weeks and then disappeared again, and I don't understand why they haven't been paired on-screen with Jay despite commentators still talking about Bullet Club Gold/the Bang Bang Gang. It doesn't make sense!

Congratulations to The Hurt People and The Learning Tree for getting through two whole segments without anyone calling someone a bitch! Maybe the roster got a little talking to about the overuse of "bitch" as an insult, and hopefully a further talk about why telling a guy that his tag partner is a woman and his girlfriend is stupid bullshit that nobody wants to hear anymore.

We got both brackets for The Owen tonight and they're looking good! The biggest surprise is maybe that they'll be giving away Mercedes Moné and Athena in the semi-finals of the tournament, which possibly means a Billie Starkz/Moné final to see if Billie can redeem herself from her recent loss to Mercedes? Honestly, lots of possibilities in both tournaments this year which is nice!


Best AEW Matches of 2025

Don't see a match on the list? It's not because I didn't see the match, but because I didn't do a write-up for that show for whatever reason (timing, schedules, etc.). This list is as comprehensive as it can be.

I've also decided to omit squashes from the list since they're just going to crowd space at the bottom.

  1. Toni Storm vs Mariah May: Women's World Title (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
  2. Swerve Strickland vs Ricochet (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
  3. "Hangman" Adam Page vs Orange Cassidy (Dynamite: January 1, 2025)
  4. Swerve Strickland vs Ricochet (Dynamite: February 5, 2025)
  5. Daniel Garcia vs Mark Briscoe: TNT Title (Collision: January 4, 2025)
  6. Konosuke Takeshita vs Orange Cassidy: International Title (Dynamite: February 26, 2025)
  7. Mercedes Moné vs Momo Watanabe: TBS Title (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
  8. Will Ospreay vs Kyle Fletcher (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
  9. Toni Storm vs Megan Bayne: World Title (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
  10. Mark Briscoe vs Kyle Fletcher (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
  11. Will Ospreay vs Konosuke Takeshita (Dynamite: April 16, 2025)
  12. Kenny Omega vs Ricochet vs Mike Bailey: International Title (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
  13. MJF vs "Hangman" Adam Page (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
  14. Mercedes Moné vs Athena (Dynamite: April 16, 2025)
  15. Death Riders vs Rated FTR: Trios Titles (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
  16. Will Ospreay vs Kevin Knight (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
  17. Mike Bailey & Kevin Knight vs The Young Bucks (Dynamite: April 23, 2025)
  18. Konosuke Takeshita vs Kenny Omega: International Title (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
  19. "Hangman" Adam Page vs Josh Alexander (Dynamite: April 16, 2025)
  20. Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, & Wheeler Yuta vs Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata, & Powerhouse Hobbs: Trios Titles (Dynamite: April 16, 2025)
  21. Will Ospreay & Brody King vs Konosuke Takeshita & Josh Alexander (Dynamite: April 23, 2025)
  22. FTR vs Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong (Collision: March 1, 2025)
  23. Rated FTR vs Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, & Wheeler Yuta (Dynamite: January 1, 2025)
  24. Roderick Strong vs Jay White vs Swerve Strickland (Dynamite: January 1, 2025)
  25. Toni Storm vs Kris Statlander vs Willow Nightingale (Dynamite: January 8, 2025)
  26. "Hangman" Adam Page vs Christopher Daniels: Texas Death Match (Collision: January 18, 2025)
  27. Toni Storm vs Queen Aminata (Dynamite: February 5, 2025)
  28. Jon Moxley vs Swerve Strickland: World Title (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
  29. Kazuchika Okada vs Brody King: Continental Championship (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
  30. Mark Briscoe vs Ricochet (Dynamite: April 23, 2025)
  31. Orange Cassidy, Powerhouse Hobbs, Mark Briscoe, & Will Ospreay vs Bryan Keith, Mark Davis, Lance Archer, & Brian Cage (Dynamite: March 5, 2025)
  32. Private Party vs The Hurt Syndicate: Tag Team Titles (Dynamite: January 22, 2025)
  33. PAC vs Komander (Collision: January 11, 2025)
  34. Will Ospreay vs Buddy Matthews (Dynamite: January 8, 2025)
  35. Komander vs Nick Wayne: ROH TV Title (Collision: April 17, 2025)
  36. Toni Storm vs Deonna Purrazzo (Collision: January 4, 2025)
  37. Women's Casino Gauntlet (Dynamite: January 15, 2025)
  38. Hounds of Hell vs Konosuke Takeshita & Kyle Fletcher (Dynamite: February 5, 2025)
  39. Bryan Keith vs Will Ospreay (Dynamite: February 26, 2025)
  40. CRU & Nick Wayne vs Top Flight & AR Fox (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
  41. Jon Moxley vs Powerhouse Hobbs: World Title (Dynamite: January 15, 2025)
  42. Swerve Strickland vs AR Fox (Dynamite: January 22, 2025)
  43. Daniel Garcia vs Adam Cole: TNT Title (Collision: March 1, 2025)
  44. Jamie Hayter vs Kris Statlander (Dynamite: April 23, 2025)
  45. Will Ospreay, Kevin Knight, Mike Bailey, & Mark Briscoe vs CRU, The Beast Mortos, & Ricochet (Dynamite: April 9, 2025)
  46. FTR vs Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta: Mid-South Street Fight (Collision: February 1, 2025)
  47. Jamie Hayter vs Julia Hart (Dynamite: January 22, 2025)
  48. Cope vs PAC (Dynamite: January 22, 2025)
  49. Jamie Hayter vs Julia Hart (Dynamite: January 1, 2025)
  50. Will Ospreay vs Mark Davis (Dynamite: February 5, 2025)
  51. Konosuke Takeshita & Josh Alexander vs Rocky Romero & Tomohiro Ishii (Collision: April 17, 2025)
  52. The Hurt Syndicate vs The Gates of Agony: Tag Team Titles (Dynamite: April 16, 2025)
  53. The Beast Mortos vs Mike Bailey (Dynamite: March 12, 2025)
  54. Toni Storm & Thunder Rosa vs Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford (Dynamite: March 26, 2025)
  55. Kazuchika Okada & Ricochet vs Brody King & Swerve Strickland (Dynamite: March 5, 2025)
  56. Brody King vs Kyle Fletcher (Dynamite: March 26, 2025)
  57. Lance Archer vs Kevin Knight (Collision: April 17, 2025)
  58. Rated FTR vs The Learning Tree (Collision: January 4, 2025)
  59. Private Party vs Lio Rush & Action Andretti: Tag Team Titles (Collision: January 4, 2025)
  60. Mercedes Moné & Harley Cameron vs Julia Hart & Kris Statlander (Collision: April 17, 2025)
  61. Daniel Garcia & FTR vs Undisputed Kingdom (Dynamite: February 26, 2025)
  62. Daniel Garcia vs Katsuyori Shibata: TNT Title (Collision: January 11, 2025)
  63. Daniel Garcia vs Kyle O'Reilly vs Lee Moriarty: TNT Title (Collision: February 1, 2025)
  64. Bandido & Powerhouse Hobbs vs Big Bill & Bryan Keith (Collision: March 1, 2025)
  65. Men's Casino Gauntlet Match (Dynamite: January 8, 2025)
  66. Cope vs Big Bill (Collision: January 11, 2025)
  67. Mariah May vs Harley Cameron (Collision: January 11, 2025)
  68. Will Ospreay & Kevin Knight vs Blake Christian & Lee Johnson (Dynamite: April 2, 2025)
  69. Samoa Joe & Hook vs Kip Sabian & Nick Wayne (Collision: February 1, 2025)
  70. Swerve Strickland vs Clark Connors (Collision: March 1, 2025)
  71. Kenny Omega vs Brian Cage (Dynamite: January 15, 2025)
  72. Hook vs Christian Cage (Dynamite: January 15, 2025)
  73. Julia Hart vs Queen Aminata (Collision: March 1, 2025)
  74. Daniel Garcia vs Lee Moriarty: TNT Title (Collision: March 8, 2025)
  75. Swerve Strickland & Willow Nightingale vs Jon Moxley & Marina Shafir (Dynamite: April 2, 2025)
  76. Brody King vs Lance Archer (Dynamite: April 2, 2025)
  77. Will Hobbs vs Mark Davis (Dynamite: March 26, 2025)
  78. The Outrunners vs Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta (Collision: January 11, 2025)
  79. Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, & Roderick Strong vs Lee Moriarty & The Infantry (Collision: January 18, 2025)
  80. Julia Hart vs Harley Cameron (Collision: January 18, 2025)
  81. Rated FTR, The Outrunners, & Powerhouse Hobbs vs Death Riders & The Learning Tree (Collision: January 18, 2025)
  82. Cope vs Wheeler Yuta (Dynamite: March 5, 2025)
  83. Mark Davis vs Mark Briscoe (Collision: March 15, 2025)
  84. Chris Jericho vs Bandido: Mask vs ROH World Title (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
  85. Hologram vs Dralistico (Collision: March 8, 2025)
  86. Mark Briscoe vs Konosuke Takeshita (Dynamite: March 26, 2025)
  87. Cash Wheeler vs PAC (Collision: April 5, 2025)
  88. Kris Statlander vs Thunder Rosa (Dynamite: April 9, 2025)
  89. Kenny Omega vs Blake Christian (Dynamite: March 26, 2025)
  90. The Hurt Syndicate vs The Outrunners: Tag Team Titles (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
  91. Max Caster vs RUSH (Collision: February 1, 2025)
  92. Bobby Lashley vs Mark Briscoe (Dynamite: January 8, 2025)
  93. Private Party & Mark Briscoe vs Shelton Benjamin, Bobby Lashley, & MVP (Dynamite: January 15, 2025)
  94. Serena Deeb vs Momo Watanabe (Collision: March 8, 2025)
  95. Orange Cassidy vs Hechicero (Dynamite: March 12, 2025)
  96. Mercedes Moné vs Julia Hart (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
  97. Powerhouse Hobbs & Tomohiro Ishii vs Kyle Fletcher & Konosuke Takeshita (Collision: April 5, 2025)
  98. Adam Cole vs Claudio Castagnoli: TNT Title (Collision: April 17, 2025)
  99. Thunder Rosa & Kris Statlander vs Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford (Dynamite: March 5, 2025)
  100. Kazuchika Okada vs Tomohiro Ishii: Continental Championship (Collision: January 18, 2025)
  101. FTR vs Undisputed Kingdom (Collision: March 15, 2025)
  102. The Outrunners vs Premier Athletes (Collision: March 8, 2025)
  103. Adam Copeland vs Claudio Castagnoli (Dynamite: April 2, 2025)
  104. Ricochet vs Katsuyori Shibata (Collision: March 15, 2025)
  105. Top Flight vs CRU (Collision: April 5, 2025)
  106. Toni Storm vs Penelope Ford (Dynamite: April 2, 2025)
  107. Mike Bailey vs Dralistico (Collision: April 5, 2025)
  108. Samoa Joe & Hook vs Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta (Dynamite: April 9, 2025)
  109. Jon Moxley vs Adam Copeland: World Title (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
  110. Mercedes Moné & Harley Cameron vs Athena & Julia Hart (Collision: April 5, 2025)
  111. Jon Moxley vs Katsuyori Shibata (Dynamite: April 9, 2025)
  112. The Hurt Syndicate vs The Learning Tree: Tag Team Titles (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
  113. Chris Jericho vs Dax Harwood (Collision: January 11, 2025)
  114. Thunder Rosa vs Megan Bayne (Collision: March 15, 2025)
  115. Wheeler Yuta vs Willie Mack (Collision: March 1, 2025)
  116. Top Flight & Hologram vs The Infantry & Lee Moriarty (Collision: March 15, 2025)
  117. Willow Nightingale vs Penelope Ford (Dynamite: March 12, 2025)
  118. The Acclaimed vs The Hurt Syndicate (Dynamite: January 1, 2025)
  119. Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong vs The Infantry (Collision: March 8, 2025)
  120. Komander vs Dante Martin vs Brian Cage vs The Beast Mortos (Collision: January 4, 2025)
  121. Daniel Garcia vs Adam Cole: TNT Title (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
  122. Murder Machines vs The Outrunners (Dynamite: February 26, 2025)
  123. The Outrunners vs Chris Jericho & Bryan Keith (Collision: February 1, 2025)
  124. Hologram & Powerhouse Hobbs vs Brian Cage & Dralistico (Dynamite: March 12, 2025)
  125. Taya Valkyrie vs Harley Cameron (Collision: February 1, 2025)
  126. Deonna Purrazzo vs Harley Cameron (Dynamite: February 26, 2025)
  127. Max Caster vs Konosuke Takeshita (Dynamite: March 12, 2025)
  128. Murder Machines vs Top Flight (Collision: January 18, 2025)
  129. Jeff Jarrett vs Aaron Solo (Collision: January 4, 2025)

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