AEW Dynamite Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights from March 27
AEW Dynamite Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights from March 270 of 6
Dynamite.AEW
Welcome to Bleacher Report’ss live coverage of AEW Dynamite on March 27.
Here is a look at the advertised card from Wednesday’s show:
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Swerve StricklandWill Ospreay vs. Katsuyori ShibataYoung Bucks vs. Private Party Best Friends vs. Undisputed KingdomKris Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale vs. Anna Jay vs. Skye BlueLet’s take a look at everything that happened on Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite.
Will Ospreay vs. Katsuyori Shibata1 of 6
Dynamite.AEW
Ospreay’s entrance kicked off this week’s show as he prepared to battle Shibata. All Elite Wrestling played highlights of their last encounter seven years ago in Japan before they locked up.
They played it safe for the first few minutes. They had some nice technical exchanges but never tried to go too quickly.
They did a good job progressively picking up the pace as they began integrating bigger moves into the match. They also made this feel like it went from a standard exhibition to a personal battle.
Both men gave the fans their money’s worth with this one. Even the one time they made a noticeable mistake, Shibata made it look intentional by transitioning into a submission.
Even the announcers sounded surprised by how good this was at times. After both men came close to winning several times, Ospreay got the victory with a Hidden Blade. He bowed to show respect and so did Shibata.
Result: Ospreay defeated Shibata
Grade: A
Notable Moments and Observations
Ospreay’s AEW entrance is pretty good. There’s crowd participation and it feels unique to him.The reaction from Ospreay when he ducked a kick was hilarious. Few people can no-sell a stiff chop as convincingly as Shibata. Ospreay did a lot of good selling to make Shibata look like a badass. Young Bucks vs. Private Party2 of 6
Dynamite. AEW
The last time these two teams met in a tag tournament, Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy scored an upset win over Nicholas and Matthew Jackson, so the Bucks were looking to ensure this was not a repeat performance.
Matt and Kassidy started for their teams and had a tense exchange that led to some pie-facing before they started fighting.
The Bucks continued playing up their heel persona, so Quen and Kassidy defaulted to the babyface roles even though they have also worked as heels recently.
This match had a lot of great spots, but it fell into the trap a lot of AEW tag matches fall into. They often relied too much on double-team spots to the point that it felt like tags were meaningless after a certain point.
Several near-falls were teased to make it look like Private Party may win before Quen missed a 630 and was taken down by a dirty-looking EVP Trigger.
Result: Young Bucks defeated Private Party
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
Nick and Matt were interviewed by Renee Young and looked like crooked real-estate developers from Florida who might end up being arrested by Don Johnson.They also changed into different colored suits just for this match. The double flip into superkicks from Private Party was a fun spot. This bout had one of the best executions of Gin and Juice by Private Party. The Bucks screwed up the EVP Trigger a bit.Kris Statlander vs. Skye Blue vs. Anna Jay vs. Willow Nightingale3 of 6
Dynamite.AEW
Mercedes MonĂ© joined the commentary team to watch this No. 1 Contender’s Fatal 4-Way with Statlander, Nightingale, Jay and Blue.
The match was high-energy right from the jump and gave all four competitors individual moments to stand out, even during the picture-in-picture section.
Moné seemed most focused on Statlander and Nightingale as she watched on, which may have telegraphed the outcome a bit. As soon as it was over, Julia Hart attacked Willow from behind with the title belt.
This was a decent match with a couple of standout moments, but it had some pacing issues in certain areas that kept it from being as exciting as it could be.
Nightingale winning was the right call.
Result: Willow won
Grade: C+
Notable Moments and Observations
Stokely Hathaway running back up the ramp so he could accompany Statlander and Willow separately was funny. Blue hit a nice kick to Statlander on the apron. There was a weird moment when Anna tried to pin Statlander and Blue at the same time but Stat’s shoulders weren’t down. Best Friends vs. Undisputed Kingdom4 of 6
Dynamite.AEW
Matt Taven and Mike Bennett already hold the ROH tag titles, but they are looking to add more gold, so they took on Orange Cassidy and Trent Beretta in the second tag tournament bout of the night.
Surprisingly, OC was the aggressor at first and went right after Taven. Both of these duos favor a slightly quicker pace, so they packed a lot into this.
Cassidy was showing a lot more emotion than usual, which has been a bit of a trend since he lost the international title to Roderick Strong.
Even though this match had plenty of moments when it was easy to forget who was legal just like we saw during Bucks vs. Private Party, it felt less jarring in this match. It’s hard to explain why, but it may be that they just managed those spots and their time better.
Roddy and Chuck Taylor both got involved, but it was Beretta and Cassidy who were able to get the win to advance in the tournament.
Result: Best Friends defeated The Kingdom
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
Cassidy exploding out of the gate to go after Taven was a nice change of pace. Beretta’s gear looked almost too similar to Taven’s attire. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Swerve Strickland5 of 6
Dynamite.AEW
This week’s main event was a singles match between Strickland and Takeshita. As usual, Don Callis was there by his client’s side.
Swerve extended a hand and Big Take shook it, but neither wanted to let go, so it turned into a struggle that led to an exchange of submissions.
Takeshita had a bit of a power and height advantage but not enough to dominate his opponent. It was only enough to overpower him occasionally.
These are two guys who have built reputations in AEW for putting on great matches every time they come through the tunnel, so there were high expectations on them leading into Wednesday.
Both competitors did an admirable job making this an entertaining main event, but it was going to be almost impossible for anyone to top what we saw between Ospreay and Shibata.
They went into overtime as Takeshita kicked out of a Swerve Stomp, but he was unable to kick out of Big Pressure.
Samoa Joe gave a quick interview backstage as Strickland celebrated in the ring.
Result: Swerve defeated Takeshita
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
Prince Nana’s dance is always going to be fun. The way they used a handshake as their initial lockup was unique. Swerve tried to do a flip over the top rope into a hurricanrana, but he appeared to take it too slow and almost didn’t complete the rotation. The DDT Swerve hit in the corner was wild. The way Takeshita hit the mat was nuts. The Final Word6 of 6
This week’s Dynamite continued the pattern of strong in-ring performances, but one match stood out the most.
Ospreay and Shibata kicked off the show with a contest that would have felt right at home on any PPV. They did not hold back and delivered over 20 minutes of some of the best pro wrestling you will see all week, maybe all year.
The other four matches all helped advance storylines or tournament placement, but the only bout that came close to matching the opener for excitement was the main event.
Swerve is on another level and continues to make every crowd love him. He and Joe will sign the contract for their title bout next week, but it sounds like the AEW champion may have more in store for the No. 1 contender.
Grade: B+
