Write Forever: The Hangman and The Aussie-Opened Ass on AEW Dynamite for April 30

April 30, 2025

It's a big week here in the Ganso Bomb house – tomorrow I get my wisdom teeth taken out which I'm sure will be an incredible experience, and tonight I get to see Hangman Adam Page roughly and romantically Aussie Open Kyle Fletcher's ass! Wow! WOW!

Whoever wins that match heads into the finals of the Owen Hart Cup to face Will Ospreay, with the winner of that moving on to All In where they will, god that I don't believe in willing, save us from the national nightmare of Jon Moxley as World Heavyweight Champion. Nothing personal against Mox, but 90% of this Death Riders thing has been dog shit and it's time to move on. It's been time to move on.

Toni Storm wrestles Miyu Yamashita tonight which I hope is good! Miyu had one match on AEW TV against Thunder Rosa ages ago and I did not enjoy it all that much. Was that more on Rosa? Was it just two people not gelling? Why ask a rhetorical question at all? I don't know, but if they give Toni/Miyu some time then perhaps they'll work out a bit better.

Most importantly, we know that we'll get a continuation in the hottest story of the year, The Hurt People and MJF. It's always good to know I'll have a chance to grab coffee and a snack without missing anything of note.

Is Taz dropping hints about a Hook heel turn?

I think Taz is dropping little hints that he and/or Hook are going to turn heel upon Hook's return. Tonight he complained when someone was rammed into the announce table in the opening match. He then said he'd like to do the same thing to someone and if he did "it wouldn't be an announcer I do it to."

Last week he dropped a sly little line when asked about Hook's recovery – instead of giving any substantial update, he said something along the lines of “when he’s ready to come back, he’ll come back and do what he needs to do” and then ended it. Taz dropped a similar line tonight about Hook coming back to take care of business when the time was right.

He didn't say Hook would be back with The Opps or suggest that he was happy for his (former?) partners Samoa Joe and Katsuyori Shibata, though. In fact, Taz was careful to not say much during The Opps match tonight other than to say Jon Moxley may be in trouble with Samoa Joe on May 14.

Ever since the night The Opps won the Trios Titles, I've had a scenario running through my mind in which Hook returns and joins Death Riders with Claudio and PAC to take back the Trios Titles. It seems like the motivation is there if they want it: Hook was out hurt and Joe & Shibata immediately replaced him without a second thought. And, they replaced him with a former Team Taz guy!

I could be reading far too deeply into things. That's easy to do when you've watched wrestling for 40 years and assume everything that happens is part of some kind of story building.

An all-star preview of things to come, but maybe a little long

The 8-man all-star quest for the best $800,000 octuple opener was fun, but it did drag a little in the middle and maybe went on a little too long. It was the epitome of indie/house show "everyone get your shit in", but I'm not really complaining that much. My only real complaint is that as of show time, there were only 3 matches announced for the card so it felt clear that something was going long on this show.

What the opener did serve to do was paint a picture of what's likely to come in AEW. It seems clear as day that at All In we'll get Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada and the slow-burn to that match continued tonight. We saw the two of them tussle minimally tonight, making it clear that there is still much more gas left in that tank. The only thing I want to know is whether we're getting a title unification match between the two in Texas. I'd love to see some paring down of men's titles in AEW.

While we already got a Jetspeed/Young Bucks match last week, I doubt that was the end of things for the two teams. It's easy enough to come up with cute little tag team names when guys link up, but I think it'd be pretty wise to keep Mikey Bailey and Kevin Knight connected for the time being. The men's singles division is pretty deep right now and the tag team division is not. Building them up with the Tag Team Titles and another match with The Young Bucks down the road would be a fun journey.

I don't know if there's much more juice to get out of Mark Briscoe and Ricochet as a singles feud, but these are two guys who should be built up more and more. Briscoe brings such an insane quality every time he's in the ring but never really goes anywhere. He would, in my opinion, make a great TNT Champion - and if he were champion, Ricochet would be a great guy to take the belt off of him. Ricochet has simply been on another level since turning heel in AEW and the sky is the limit for him. There's no reason he can't be World Champion within the next two years.

The Owen Hart Cup Finals are set

We already knew going into the show tonight that the final in the women's Owen Hart Cup would be Mercedes Moné and Jamie Hayter. Tonight, the men's final came into view with Hangman Adam Page withstanding a kick on the dick to defeat Kyle Fletcher in the final semi-final match of the men's tournament.

This is a great result! Fletcher is incredible, but it's a little too early to run back Will Ospreay/Kyle Fletcher again. There's going to be plenty of time for that, say... after July 12.

The tournament has been fantastic on both sides and the finals should be absolutely bonkers. Jamie Hayter seems to have found her mojo again, getting back into the swing of things after coming back from injury. Her most recent match against Kris Statlander felt like the Hayter of old before she had to dip out due to injury.

We all know Mercedes always shows out and Mercedes/Hayter at a big PPV is as much a dream match in the division as anything else right now. With the way Hayter can beat the life out of her opponents and the way Mercedes can take a beating and throw herself around, I think we're in for a show-stealer.

Meanwhile, Ospreay/Hangman is a match of the year on paper. I don't see Ospreay walking away a loser in this one – everything seems to be primed for him to be the golden boy who saves AEW from the doldrums of Jon Moxley and Death Riders. While there is a little more story attachment with Hangman considering The Elite's shaky attachment to Death Riders, I don't see him going all the way.

With Ospreay, we get a whole new set of World Title match-ups, including a future Ospreay/Fletcher rematch with the belt on the line. While I do think Hangman will undoubtedly be World Champion again some day, I think it's Ospreay's time to run with the gold and walk into London and Forbidden Door in August for a hero's hometown welcome.

Athena's Dropkick Power Rankings

This week, Hangman Adam Page threw Kyle Fletcher into the video barricade. The video barricade did not break into static. We can now update our Athena's Dropkick Power Rankings thusly:

Athena's Dropkick (victim: Mercedes Moné)
(Tied For Last) Brody King splashing people into the wall; Hangman Adam Page throwing Kyle Fletcher into the wall

Wrapping Up

Continuing to show some human behavior (weakness, anger, frustration), Death Riders once again breathed a little bit of life into their entire deal. Since losing the Trios Titles and becoming pissed off babies, they've been far more interesting. You know, some character development really goes a long way. It doesn't make the parts of this story that have been boring and excruciating any better – it just means that they're finally telling a story, or part of a story, well.

Tonight, Death Riders attacked The Opps post-match and while Joe choked Moxley out in the aisle, Claudio dropped Shibata on a steel chair the same way they did to Hook a few weeks back. Thankfully, they didn't have to work around any vomit in the ring. Joe, frustrated about the run-punch-run antics of Moxley, called on Mox to power up their World Title Match (thanks to the power of Shazam!) to a steel cage match.

Toni/Miyu ended up being completely fine. Maybe I just need to watch some Miyu matches from TJPW to fully appreciate her, as her AEW & ROH matches haven't wowed me quite yet. I wish there were more hours in the day and more days in the week that I could devote to Japanese wrestling. I really do miss regularly watching STARDOM, but god damn there's only so much time.

Currently hoping for someone to place me into a Twilight Zone Time Enough At Last scenario but with wrestling instead of books and please do not make it so I can't see the wrestling.

I'll give them this: they at least kept The Hurt People/MJF thing short, but MJF was at least kind enough to remind us that he did the very normal thing of gifting the trio women a couple of weeks ago! Let's never forget, what a cool thing to do! Lashley once again turned MJF down and told him that if he wanted to impress Lashley, he should hurt someone.

In my book? If MJF were a real professional he would have pissed his pants. Why else wear white pants?

This episode of Dynamite felt way more in line with the quality we've been used to, with this past week's Collision being an anomaly due to being delayed due to basketballs. I don't think we know a single thing happening on next week's show, but we have a couple of matches announced for Collision and one match for May 14's Beach Break.

A Collision write-up this weekend is up in the air! I'm getting my wisdom teeth yoinked tomorrow afternoon and if I still feel like hell by Saturday night, the last thing I'm going to want to do is use my brain to write words about wrestling. But don't worry – I already have STARDOM's All Star Grand Queendom queued up and ready to go as part of my recovery process.

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.

Toni Storm vs Mariah May: Women's World Title (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
Swerve Strickland vs Ricochet (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
"Hangman" Adam Page vs Orange Cassidy (Dynamite: January 1, 2025)
Swerve Strickland vs Ricochet (Dynamite: February 5, 2025)
Daniel Garcia vs Mark Briscoe: TNT Title (Collision: January 4, 2025)
Konosuke Takeshita vs Orange Cassidy: International Title (Dynamite: February 26, 2025)
Mercedes Moné vs Momo Watanabe: TBS Title (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
Will Ospreay vs Kyle Fletcher (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
Toni Storm vs Megan Bayne: World Title (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
Mark Briscoe vs Kyle Fletcher (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
Will Ospreay vs Konosuke Takeshita (Dynamite: April 16, 2025)
Kenny Omega vs Ricochet vs Mike Bailey: International Title (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
MJF vs "Hangman" Adam Page (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
Mercedes Moné vs Athena (Dynamite: April 16, 2025)
Death Riders vs Rated FTR: Trios Titles (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
Will Ospreay vs Kevin Knight (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
"Hangman" Adam Page vs Kyle Fletcher (Dynamite: April 30, 2025)
Mike Bailey & Kevin Knight vs The Young Bucks (Dynamite: April 23, 2025)
Konosuke Takeshita vs Kenny Omega: International Title (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
"Hangman" Adam Page vs Josh Alexander (Dynamite: April 16, 2025)
Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, & Wheeler Yuta vs Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata, & Powerhouse Hobbs: Trios Titles (Dynamite: April 16, 2025)
Will Ospreay & Brody King vs Konosuke Takeshita & Josh Alexander (Dynamite: April 23, 2025)
FTR vs Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong (Collision: March 1, 2025)
Rated FTR vs Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, & Wheeler Yuta (Dynamite: January 1, 2025)
Roderick Strong vs Jay White vs Swerve Strickland (Dynamite: January 1, 2025)
Toni Storm vs Kris Statlander vs Willow Nightingale (Dynamite: January 8, 2025)
"Hangman" Adam Page vs Christopher Daniels: Texas Death Match (Collision: January 18, 2025)
Toni Storm vs Queen Aminata (Dynamite: February 5, 2025)
Jon Moxley vs Swerve Strickland: World Title (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
Kazuchika Okada vs Brody King: Continental Championship (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
Mark Briscoe vs Ricochet (Dynamite: April 23, 2025)
Orange Cassidy, Powerhouse Hobbs, Mark Briscoe, & Will Ospreay vs Bryan Keith, Mark Davis, Lance Archer, & Brian Cage (Dynamite: March 5, 2025)
Private Party vs The Hurt Syndicate: Tag Team Titles (Dynamite: January 22, 2025)
PAC vs Komander (Collision: January 11, 2025)
Will Ospreay vs Buddy Matthews (Dynamite: January 8, 2025)
Komander vs Nick Wayne: ROH TV Title (Collision: April 17, 2025)
Toni Storm vs Deonna Purrazzo (Collision: January 4, 2025)
Women's Casino Gauntlet (Dynamite: January 15, 2025)
Hounds of Hell vs Konosuke Takeshita & Kyle Fletcher (Dynamite: February 5, 2025)
Bryan Keith vs Will Ospreay (Dynamite: February 26, 2025)
CRU & Nick Wayne vs Top Flight & AR Fox (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
Jon Moxley vs Powerhouse Hobbs: World Title (Dynamite: January 15, 2025)
Swerve Strickland vs AR Fox (Dynamite: January 22, 2025)
Daniel Garcia vs Adam Cole: TNT Title (Collision: March 1, 2025)
Jamie Hayter vs Kris Statlander (Dynamite: April 23, 2025)
Nick Wayne vs Jay Lethal: ROH TV Title (Dynamite: April 30, 2025)
Will Ospreay, Kevin Knight, Mike Bailey, & Mark Briscoe vs CRU, The Beast Mortos, & Ricochet (Dynamite: April 9, 2025)
FTR vs Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta: Mid-South Street Fight (Collision: February 1, 2025)
Jamie Hayter vs Julia Hart (Dynamite: January 22, 2025)
Toni Storm vs Queen Aminata (Collision: April 26, 2025)
Cope vs PAC (Dynamite: January 22, 2025)
Jamie Hayter vs Julia Hart (Dynamite: January 1, 2025)
Will Ospreay vs Mark Davis (Dynamite: February 5, 2025)
Kenny Omega, Mark Briscoe, Mike Bailey, & Kevin Knight vs Kazuchika Okada, Ricochet, & THe Young Bucks (Dynamite: April 30, 2025)
Toni Storm vs Miyu Yamashita (Dynamite: April 30, 2025)
Konosuke Takeshita & Josh Alexander vs Rocky Romero & Tomohiro Ishii (Collision: April 17, 2025)
The Hurt Syndicate vs The Gates of Agony: Tag Team Titles (Dynamite: April 16, 2025)
The Beast Mortos vs Mike Bailey (Dynamite: March 12, 2025)
Toni Storm & Thunder Rosa vs Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford (Dynamite: March 26, 2025)
Kazuchika Okada & Ricochet vs Brody King & Swerve Strickland (Dynamite: March 5, 2025)
Brody King vs Kyle Fletcher (Dynamite: March 26, 2025)
Lance Archer vs Kevin Knight (Collision: April 17, 2025)
Rated FTR vs The Learning Tree (Collision: January 4, 2025)
Private Party vs Lio Rush & Action Andretti: Tag Team Titles (Collision: January 4, 2025)
Mercedes Moné & Harley Cameron vs Julia Hart & Kris Statlander (Collision: April 17, 2025)
Daniel Garcia & FTR vs Undisputed Kingdom (Dynamite: February 26, 2025)
Daniel Garcia vs Katsuyori Shibata: TNT Title (Collision: January 11, 2025)
Daniel Garcia vs Kyle O'Reilly vs Lee Moriarty: TNT Title (Collision: February 1, 2025)
Bandido & Powerhouse Hobbs vs Big Bill & Bryan Keith (Collision: March 1, 2025)
Men's Casino Gauntlet Match (Dynamite: January 8, 2025)
Cope vs Big Bill (Collision: January 11, 2025)
Mariah May vs Harley Cameron (Collision: January 11, 2025)
Will Ospreay & Kevin Knight vs Blake Christian & Lee Johnson (Dynamite: April 2, 2025)
Samoa Joe & Hook vs Kip Sabian & Nick Wayne (Collision: February 1, 2025)
Swerve Strickland vs Clark Connors (Collision: March 1, 2025)
Kenny Omega vs Brian Cage (Dynamite: January 15, 2025)
Hook vs Christian Cage (Dynamite: January 15, 2025)
Julia Hart vs Queen Aminata (Collision: March 1, 2025)
Daniel Garcia vs Lee Moriarty: TNT Title (Collision: March 8, 2025)
Swerve Strickland & Willow Nightingale vs Jon Moxley & Marina Shafir (Dynamite: April 2, 2025)
Brody King vs Lance Archer (Dynamite: April 2, 2025)
Will Hobbs vs Mark Davis (Dynamite: March 26, 2025)
The Outrunners vs Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta (Collision: January 11, 2025)
Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, & Roderick Strong vs Lee Moriarty & The Infantry (Collision: January 18, 2025)
Julia Hart vs Harley Cameron (Collision: January 18, 2025)
Rated FTR, The Outrunners, & Powerhouse Hobbs vs Death Riders & The Learning Tree (Collision: January 18, 2025)
Cope vs Wheeler Yuta (Dynamite: March 5, 2025)
Mark Davis vs Mark Briscoe (Collision: March 15, 2025)
Chris Jericho vs Bandido: Mask vs ROH World Title (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
Hologram vs Dralistico (Collision: March 8, 2025)
Mark Briscoe vs Konosuke Takeshita (Dynamite: March 26, 2025)
Cash Wheeler vs PAC (Collision: April 5, 2025)
Kris Statlander vs Thunder Rosa (Dynamite: April 9, 2025)
Kenny Omega vs Blake Christian (Dynamite: March 26, 2025)
The Hurt Syndicate vs The Outrunners: Tag Team Titles (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
Max Caster vs RUSH (Collision: February 1, 2025)
Bobby Lashley vs Mark Briscoe (Dynamite: January 8, 2025)
Private Party & Mark Briscoe vs Shelton Benjamin, Bobby Lashley, & MVP (Dynamite: January 15, 2025)
Serena Deeb vs Momo Watanabe (Collision: March 8, 2025)
Orange Cassidy vs Hechicero (Dynamite: March 12, 2025)
Mercedes Moné vs Julia Hart (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
Powerhouse Hobbs & Tomohiro Ishii vs Kyle Fletcher & Konosuke Takeshita (Collision: April 5, 2025)
Adam Cole vs Claudio Castagnoli: TNT Title (Collision: April 17, 2025)
Thunder Rosa & Kris Statlander vs Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford (Dynamite: March 5, 2025)
Kazuchika Okada vs Tomohiro Ishii: Continental Championship (Collision: January 18, 2025)
FTR vs Undisputed Kingdom (Collision: March 15, 2025)
The Outrunners vs Premier Athletes (Collision: March 8, 2025)
Adam Copeland vs Claudio Castagnoli (Dynamite: April 2, 2025)
Bandido vs Dralistico: ROH World Title (Collision: April 26, 2025)
Ricochet vs Katsuyori Shibata (Collision: March 15, 2025)
Top Flight vs CRU (Collision: April 5, 2025)
Toni Storm vs Penelope Ford (Dynamite: April 2, 2025)
Swerve Strickland vs Blake Christian (Collision: April 26, 2025)
Top Flight vs CRU: Tornado Tag Match (Collision: April 26, 2025)
Mike Bailey vs Dralistico (Collision: April 5, 2025)
Samoa Joe & Hook vs Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta (Dynamite: April 9, 2025)
Jon Moxley vs Adam Copeland: World Title (Revolution: March 9, 2025)
Mercedes Moné & Harley Cameron vs Athena & Julia Hart (Collision: April 5, 2025)
Jon Moxley vs Katsuyori Shibata (Dynamite: April 9, 2025)
Top Flight vs CRU: Tornado Tag Match (Collision: April 26, 2025)
The Hurt Syndicate vs The Learning Tree: Tag Team Titles (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
Chris Jericho vs Dax Harwood (Collision: January 11, 2025)
Thunder Rosa vs Megan Bayne (Collision: March 15, 2025)
Wheeler Yuta vs Willie Mack (Collision: March 1, 2025)
Top Flight & Hologram vs The Infantry & Lee Moriarty (Collision: March 15, 2025)
Willow Nightingale vs Penelope Ford (Dynamite: March 12, 2025)
The Acclaimed vs The Hurt Syndicate (Dynamite: January 1, 2025)
Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong vs The Infantry (Collision: March 8, 2025)
Komander vs Dante Martin vs Brian Cage vs The Beast Mortos (Collision: January 4, 2025)
Daniel Garcia vs Adam Cole: TNT Title (Dynasty: April 6, 2025)
Murder Machines vs The Outrunners (Dynamite: February 26, 2025)
The Outrunners vs Chris Jericho & Bryan Keith (Collision: February 1, 2025)
Hologram & Powerhouse Hobbs vs Brian Cage & Dralistico (Dynamite: March 12, 2025)
Taya Valkyrie vs Harley Cameron (Collision: February 1, 2025)
Deonna Purrazzo vs Harley Cameron (Dynamite: February 26, 2025)
Max Caster vs Konosuke Takeshita (Dynamite: March 12, 2025)
Murder Machines vs Top Flight (Collision: January 18, 2025)
Jeff Jarrett vs Aaron Solo (Collision: January 4, 2025)