AEW Dynamite from the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, the go-home show for AEW Forbidden Door, advertised Bryan Danielson calling out Kazuchika Okada, The Hardy vs. The Gunns, Orange Cassidy and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Daniel Garcia and Zack Sabre Jr., and Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara and Minoru Suzuki vs. Action Andretti, Darius Martin and AR Fox.

Despite being unadvertised, CM Punk appeared in the opening segment, challenging Bullet Club Gold and The Gunns to a four-on-four match against himself, FTR and Ricky Starks.

Last week’s broadcast of AEW Dynamite garnered 832,000 viewers. The debut of AEW Collision drew 816,000 viewers, and its 0.33 rating in the 18-49 demographic outperformed every AEW Dynamite in the demo with the exception of the February 22, 2023 broadcast featuring the debut of Jay Briscoe.

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There was a loud pop for the Hardys to start the show, and massive heat against the Ass Boys. This was the perfect match to start a show in front of a crowd like this.

While putting over The Gunn Club, Excalibur said you don’t become AEW world tag team champions by accident. But the irony was, beating the Acclaimed was one of the biggest mistakes AEW made last year.

Juice Robinson interfered, leaning to a win for the Ass Boys. The Hardys clearly didn’t need to win this match, and this was arguably the biggest win of the rising Gunns’ career.

During a post-match brawl, CM Punk made the save for FTR and Ricky Starks to a massive pop.

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This was a Concession Stand Brawl that didn’t take itself too seriously, and from the moment the bell rang I already knew it was going to be one of the segments of the yea in AEW.

When the match came back from commercial, the action had migrated to the ring, which I think is a mistake.

Papa Briscoe got involved after revealing a disguise, and both Jarrett and Sonjay Dutt bumped for him fantastically.

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Jay Briscoe went so high up in the air for a Satnam Singh chokeslam it was ridiculous.

There’s no better crowd in America AEW could trust to know the lyrics to “Kaze Ni Nare” more than Chicago.

Action Andretti picked up where he left off against Jericho, teasing multiple nearfalls (including the running shooting star press he used to beat Jericho)

There were loud AR Fox chants, and deservedly so.

Jericho challenged Sting to a six man tag team match against Suzuki Gods for AEW Collision. Sting accepted on behalf of himself and Sting, but they kept the third man a secret, simply saying “you’ve made a lot of enemies in a lot of places.”

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There was a backstage segment featuring The Elite and loud boos can be heard in the Wintrust Arena.

MJF received a massive babyface pop, but wasted no time insulting the audience to remind them he was a heel. They booed accordingly.

Tony Schiavone interrupted the segment, prompting both MJF and Adam Cole to say, in unison, “shut up, Schiavone!”

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Tony Schiavone announced MJF and Adam Cole would be partners in the blind tag tam eliminator, which seems very sus given his negative history with both men.

Adam Cole tricked MJF into defending his AEW World Heavyweight Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi.

Fans popped loudly for Daniel Garcia’s sports entertainment dance, just like they pop for Jake Hager’s sports entertainment hat, just like they pop and singalong for Chris Jericho’s sports entertainment entrance...

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Garcia put so much torque in his thrust while doing his dance, he split his pants.

Zack Sabre picked up the win by pinning Shibata, giving him steam heading into a Fatal 4-way match against Garcia, Shibata and Sabre Jr without pinning Cassidy.

Taya Valkyrie has every right to be upset with Kris Statlander, who only won the TBS Championship after Valkyrie did most of the work.

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This week’s signed message from Statlander was “more than a woman.”

Kris Statlander’s modified piledriver is called the Wednesday Night Fever.

MJF was advertised to make his first Rampage appearance ever on Rampage.