AEW Dynamite 5/14/25: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite: Beach Break," the show where you know it's time to set up Anarchy in the Arena when everybody and their mother storms the ring after the main event! We'll talk about that and basically everything else that happened Wednesday night in this column, though it's not too late to bail and check out our "Dynamite" live coverage instead — especially if you haven't seen the show yet. It contains all that cool factual information stuff, for those of you who are into that kind of thing.

For those of you who are more into the WINC staff's opinions of the show, however, welcome! From the one-legged wrestler vs. the no-haired man and MJF finally getting a thumbs up to Mina Shirakawa earning a title match and Nigel McGuinness potential teaming with Daniel Garcia, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 5/14/25 episode of "AEW Dynamite."

Look, I know I complain about basically every Will Ospreay match, but at least I'm complaining about this one for fresh, original reasons!

I don't think there was really a version of the "Dynamite" opener that would have worked for me, because I don't like "can they co-exist" tag teams. Unless the characters are tremendously compelling or have a particularly strong relationship with one another, it's difficult for me to find this sort of thing interesting. You want to do a "can they co-exist" tag team with Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland? I am all in (so to speak). I would be rooted to the screen. Without those deep connections, though, there's no emotional anchor for the match, and as mutual babyfaces who have never wrestled before, Page and Ospreay don't have anything even resembling that sort of history. So for me, this idea was doomed from the start.

Even with that in mind, though, I thought this was a particularly lazy version of the trope. They had a minor argument or two, nearly hit each other a couple times but didn't, and then got on the same page and won. That's just ... incredibly boring. Yes, Page and Ospreay not being able to resolve their differences and their rivalry costing them the match would have been cliched as all hell, but at least something would have happened to increase the tension for their match at Double or Nothing. This booking actively lessens that tension and makes their match less interesting, which is a choice I just cannot fathom.

At a time when WWE programming is actively destroying my sanity and it would be really great if a different promotion was good, this Ospreay/Page stuff is the kind of creative that always pulls me up short with AEW. They're both babyfaces, they respect one another, and now they've even won a tag team match together. YAWN. I have to assume the draw of the match is supposed to be the mere fact that they've never wrestled before and the promise of a quality in-ring performance, but that feels disappointingly unambitious for the current moment. I think AEW has a real chance, right now, to pull away a chunk of the WWE fan base, but uninspired stuff like "Can they co-exist? Yes, fairly easily" is not going to get the job done.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Some fans have a tendency to try and run away from the fact but wrestling really is and has always been a really bizarre entertainment medium. Legitimate fighters pursue legitimate competition, legitimate actors pursue a less physically involved line of work, and the wonderful sport of professional wrestling continues to get further away from its unscripted alternative. 

Pro wrestling itself rooted itself in the carnivals and circuses, an embellished athletic display with a preordained finish, one of the longer-running albeit light-hearted scams that we as fans opt to play along with for one reason or another. As the sport has modernized and elements from combat sports and entertainment media have been absorbed, it can be hard to remember that at its very root, professional wrestling was an outlet for those who wouldn't have been allowed to succeed anywhere else – those considered to be different in a world built for normal. 

That very idea is encapsulated in the career of Zach Gowen, having lost his leg at the age of 8 through a battle with cancer, and the match he had with Ricochet during this week's "Dynamite." Rather than being treated as a side-show act, someone to be laughed at or made light of, he was highlighted for his tenacity and ingenuity. He legitimately spooked Ricochet with his unorthodox yet deceptively agile movement, addressing the fact that really cannot be ignored but in a way that meshed well with the psychology of the bout. Once Ricochet gathered his bearings, he was shown to be much more clinical in pressing his advantage, but all the more arrogant enough to get caught underestimating his opponent. He wasn't presented as someone without a chance in the world, on some suicide mission who might fluke a victory.

But that doesn't mean he had to win, and in the end it was the right decision for Ricochet to go over – by a fine margin, to the credit of Gowen. It served to further Ricochet's arc as the detestable villain and a catalyst for Mark Briscoe to enter the fray in Gowen's stead, and it never hurts when the match itself is fun too.

Written by Max Everett

Even though Bobby Lashley gave Maxwell Jacob Friedman a "thumbs up" tonight to join the Hurt Syndicate – it's still not yet official. After the last few weeks, where myself and I think quite a few other fans have been getting tired of this angle, I don't know why I thought we'd be wrapping things up either way and moving on, especially so close to a pay-per-view. The Hurt Syndicate and MJF are moving on to a contract signing next week, and of course, we as professional wrestling fans know how contract signings usually always go.

If that fact wasn't irksome enough, AEW showed its hand and basically let us know something is going to go down next week. It happened when MJF and MVP were backstage, and MJF mentioned getting his lawyer, "Smart" Mark Sterling, to look over the contract. MVP was obviously extremely flustered about it, but tried to play it cool. It's so obvious that there's something in that contract he doesn't want MJF to see, and if I was a betting woman, I'd bet it has something to do with Double or Nothing, so we're going to continue things even further after this story already feels like it's fallen off.

If we're taking this through Double or Nothing, I can at least fantasy book how I hope it's going to go. Hopefully, somewhere in that contract, there's a clause that MJF has to win a match at the PPV. When MJF is in the ring, it's Cedric Alexander who comes out to face him. Alexander defeats MJF, so his contract to get into the Hurt Syndicate is null and void, and it's Alexander who joins, with the former Hurt Business in WWE now reunited under their new faction name in AEW. If that's the case, it would have been a hell of a long route to get Alexander into the stable, but at least it would have meant something positive after all this MJF-related nonsense.

Written by Daisy Ruth

I had a feeling last week when commentary started to discuss "Timeless" Toni Storm's massive win streak in title eliminator matches that things could be coming to an end for her – at least when it came to those types of bouts on AEW television. That was the case tonight when Storm ended her career hot streak at 12-0 when Mina Shirakawa, who made her debut as an official member of the AEW roster, countered Storm's roll-up into one of her own for the victory over the champion. I was kind of surprised that Storm was the one to take the pin, with AZM also in the match, who just pinned Shirakawa at NJPW Resurgence over the weekend to win the NJPW STRONG Women's Championship. However, with Shirakawa and Storm's history already in AEW, I don't mind it at all. They even had a cute little face-off with them exclaiming that they were friends before getting kicked in the back by their opponents.

I also don't mind Storm getting the pin, because it easily set up a match for her at Double or Nothing, and AEW wasted no time in announcing it. Before Storm and Shirakawa was announced, the only women's match on the Double or Nothing card so far was the Owen Hart Tournament final with Mone taking on Jamie Hayter. Which will be a good match, but the outcome of that is pretty clear. The winner of Storm versus Shirakawa is pretty obvious, too, but at least we're getting some more women's representation on the pay-per-view.

I absolutely love Shirakawa's charisma and just everything about her. This makes her look like a super credible opponent, as she's getting a title shot off her first victory as an official member of AEW. There's also possibly, but perhaps not likely, the Mariah May factor. If May has re-signed with AEW (though, I doubt it, but just to think of all options here), it would be a good spot to bring her back at Double or Nothing to comfort Shirakawa after losing to Storm. Even if that doesn't happen, I'm sure we'll have a Mone versus Storm stare down to end the women's portion of the event. I'm sure all of us shouting "We want Mina!" from the rooftops following her initial run in the company are excited for her, and Double or Nothing is shaping out to be a great time.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Daniel Garcia has essentially spent his entire AEW tenure being linked up with wrestlers who are supposed to take him to that "next level." Like Sisyphus, he never gets there, rolls back down the hill, and another wrestling legend is given a chance to get him up the hill. 

Like Charlie Brown, taking his paces and gearing up to once again try and kick a football, I am ready to be hurt by AEW's Sisyphean booking of Daniel Garcia again.

On this week's "AEW Dynamite," Nigel McGuinness made it clear that he will be the next wrestler to take on Daniel Garcia as his young ward, following in the footsteps of Chris Jericho and Bryan Danielson before him. Fresh off losing the AEW TNT Title, Garcia is desperately in need of a new coat of paint, and spending sometime with McGuinness might just be what the doctor ordered. While nothing is set in stone, it is possible that McGuinness will be Garcia's next feud, as the two will likely come up short against FTR on next week's "AEW Dynamite," and Garcia's frustrations with the over-protective McGuinness will intensify. It's the kind of feud that could fit on a stage like All In or one of AEW's next shows abroad.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

McGuinness is a tremendous fit for Garcia, as the two are wildly similar in style. Garcia has learned all he can from the Sports Entertainers of the world, a stint with the hard-headed McGuinness could help the young star get a little bit more polish, though I am starting to wonder how long it is going to take for him to fulfill all this promise with which he's been saddled.

Written by Ross Berman

There's no disputing that Anarchy In The Arena has become one of AEW's marquee matches over the past few years, and it has become tradition for it to be held at Double or Nothing. For that reason, it makes perfect sense that AEW would want to bring back the match for this year's Double or Nothing on May 25 and have several ongoing storylines converge with one another to make the match happen, but that doesn't mean it should all happen in the final 10 minutes of "Dynamite" all at once.

Considering that Jon Moxley was supposed to be defending his AEW World Championship in a Steel Cage match where the point is to keep potential interfering parties on the outside, there sure was a lot of people who were present at ringside as is in Marina Shafir, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, Willow Nightingale, and Powerhouse Hobbs. Yes, The Death Riders are known to interfere in one another's business. When the likes of Gabe Kidd, The Young Bucks, Kazuchika Okada, Kenny Omega, "Speedball" Mike Bailey, and Swerve Strickland were thrown into the mix in the closing moments of the show, it became almost impossible to follow who was in the ring, who was out of the ring, who was brawling to the back, who was fighting with who, and see what exactly was happening with the cage lowered. There was simply too much going on at once for it to all be followed with ease, and was an absolute mess to keep track of especially when certain competitors like Okada and Bailey weren't necessary to have involved in the whole thing due to their exclusion from the Anarchy In The Arena match. What could've been a cool moment to set up the match turned into an absolute disaster, and made it impossible as a viewer to well, view the show.

Written by Olivia Quinlan