Date: Sunday April 21. 2024 | 7pm (preshow)/ 8pm
Venue: Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, MO
Photo credit: AEW.com, AEW Dynasty details
Dynasty is AEW’s first pay-per-view following the company’s controversial decision to air the live security camera footage from 2023’s All In scuffle between CM Punk and “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry. If the intention was to bring eyes back to their product, Dynasty will be a great way to determine the success of those efforts. Here are our picks for the fully loaded event.
AEW World Trios Championship and ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship: Anthony Bowens, Max Caster and Billy Gunn (The Acclaimed and Daddy A**) vs. Jay White, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn (The Gunn Club). Prediction: The Acclaimed and Daddy A**. AEW has made it clear that they are not phased by the much-criticized decision to have 60-year-old Billy Gunn defeat a white-hot Jay White on April 3rd Rampage. While we’d like to see that wrong righted at Dynasty, it’s not looking promising.
Trent Beretta vs. Matt Sydal. Prediction: Trent Berretta. Prediction: Trent needs a win to help continue his new heel run.
Orange Cassidy and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty. Prediction: Orange Cassidy and Katsuyori Shibata. AEW rarely books Orange Cassidy to lose, and this will be no different.
Will Ospreay vs. Bryan Danielson. Prediction: Will Ospreay. This match is clearly the most anticipated match on the card, despite having no titles on the line. While Danielson is undoubtedly a legend, a technical wizard, a future hall of famer, and an extremely well-respected trainer and coach, AEW has invested a considerable amount of time, money, effort, and energy into making Ospreay the future face of the company.
Ospreay is undefeated in AEW, and Danielson has demonstrated his willingness to put over younger talent. Danielson doesn’t need this win to solidify his legacy, but Ospreay has something to prove.
AEW World Tag Team Championship: Nicholas Jackson and Matthew Jackson vs. Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler. Prediction: Nicholas Jackson and Matthew Jackson. Expect Jungle Boy Jack Perry and Okada to pop in somehow during this match. Interference is inevitable to secure the win for the dastardly EVPs.
FTW Championship: Hook vs. Chris Jericho. Prediction: Hook will retain. Jericho does not need this title or the win, and Taz isn’t taking the title off his son.
AEW TBS Championship: Julia Hart vs. Willow Nightingale. Prediction: Willow Nightingale will secure her first TBS Title win. Expect fellow House of Black members Malachi Black and Brody King to pop up, as well as Adam Copeland, Mercedes Mone, and Kris Statlander.
Adam Copeland, Eddie Kingston, and Mark Briscoe vs. Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews (House of Black). Prediction: House of Black will take the win, surely with some help from the Black Mist.
AEW Women’s World Championship: Toni Storm vs. Thunder Rosa. Prediction: Toni Storm will retain. AEW is not ready to end the Timeless Toni Storm era yet.
AEW Continental Championship: Kazuchika Okada vs. Pac. Prediction: Okada will win. After suffering an insanely hard-fought loss to Ospreay at Revolution, Okada needs this win or risks losing momentum and incurring the wrath of Don Callis.
AEW International Championship: Roderick Strong vs. Kyle O’Reilly. Prediction: Strong will win. AEW didn’t allow enough time for this feud to simmer, seemingly throwing it in at the last minute. Strong only turned on O’Reilly about 2 weeks ago, so to have him to win not having any secured allies to help him fight off the other members of The Undisputed Kingdom is highly unlikely.
Also likely: a disgruntled Wardlow could (and should) turn on Undisputed Kingdom for mistreating and slighting him in recent weeks. The fact that Wardlow doesn’t have a match on this card is a travesty.
AEW World Championship: Samoa Joe vs. Swerve Strickland. Prediction: Samoa Joe will retain. This feud (not between Strickland and Hangman, with Joe triangulating them, but specifically between Strickland and Joe) has not fully developed. AEW does not seem ready to take the title off Joe just yet. Also, to have Swerve pick up the win on a second-tier pay-per-view like Dynasty as opposed to Double or Nothing or even All In (or Out) seems short-sighted.
Joe hasn’t even been the champ 5 full months yet, and being a legend and future hall of famer himself, it would be a mistake to not paint a clear path for what he would do after dropping the title. Strickland will surely win at some point, but don’t expect it to be at Dynasty. A win of this caliber deserves a larger stage and a bigger crowd.
