AEW Dynamite 2/28/24 Review: A Fitting Farewell to Sting

It’s time to take it all home with the final edition of Dynamite before the Revolution pay-per-view event! There’s no doubt the PPV has a loaded card lined up, but will Dynamite deliver the final Wednesday hype?

The show kicks off with a despondent “Hangman” Adam Page feeling apologetic for being unable to compete this Sunday due to injury. This brings out Swerve Strickland to confront Page, showing some slight sadness he won’t be able to compete, but then gloats he is missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime. This brings out Samoa Joe who tries to tear into both men, but things get crazy when Swerve reminds Joe how he was stuck as a cruiserweight but is now main eventing for a world championship, while Joe was once a champion who was thrown on commentary wearing a poncho. 

SHOTS FIRED. 

Joe promises everyone will get mercilessly beaten up, just as Hangman then attacks Swerve with the crutch. 

The pop for Swerve is undeniable. Every week it’s louder and louder. If it’s time to take the belt off Joe then it has to be Swerve. 

The Blackpool Combat Club defeated Eddie Kingston and FTR

Talk about a fight. Chops, forearm shots, suplexes, big time slams, and some of the most intense brawling I’ve seen in a while. Everyone looked incredible, and again I have to credit Cash Wheeler for bringing the fight even more than last week. For a long time it always appeared Dax was the stronger of the two, and even potential for a singles run. Lately I’ve been inclined to think Cash could be a potential singles star if he could keep this pace up. 

When Eddie and Bryan were face-to-face alone, the crowd lost their collective minds and I did just the same at home. If tonight was a preview of Sunday, their match could be a Match of the Year Candidate and quite possibly steal the show. 

Danielson choking out Kingston for the win was painful to watch but boy could you feel the intensity. 

Throughout the night The Young Bucks search for Sting  to give him a send off for his final Dynamite appearance. Uh oh. 

Tony Schiavone brings out Will Ospreay

Man it’s great to see him on AEW television. He is soon joined by Don Callis and Family. The level of booing and crowd noise was insane. Callus couldn’t hear himself. While Ospreay seemed good with Will Hobbs, his opponent for Sunday, Konoske Takeshita did not seem interested in pleasantries. 

That match is going to be awesome. 

Orange Cassidy defeated Nick Wayne

Good match and I’m fairly certain Cassidy hurt himself doing a kip-up. Early on The Patriarchy was ejected from ringside. However, later on The Kingdom arrived to support Wayne. As they seemed to tease interfering, Trent Barretta and Rocky Romero arrived to even the odds, allowing Cassidy to turn attention to Wayne and KO him for the pinfall. Post-match, Roderick Strong and his buddies overwhelmed everyone else. 

Backstage it seems The Jackson Brothers have found Sting. With bats in hand, they rush into the locker room to find a room full of black baseball bats hanging from the ceiling. While this makes Nick irate, Matt appears a bit concerned. 

Skye Blue defeated Kris Statlander

This was an enjoyable match, Blue continues to impress, gets better and more adept with each match. Her destroyer was perfect. Definitely one of the better women’s matches in recent weeks. Lots of physicality and the brawling on the floor was GOOD.  Just as Statlander had victory in grasp, Stokely Hathaway got the crazy eyes in trying to get Kris to use a chain, but the distraction allowed for Julia Hart to strike with the belt, Blue gets the pin and win. 

Poor Stokely. 

Main Event (Sorta) for AEW Dynamite 2/28/24 Chris Jericho defeated Atlantis Jr. w/ Atlantis

I’m not sure what I was expecting here, despite Jericho bringing back the Lionheart persona and even using Electric Head by White Zombie, couldn’t really be the Lionheart. Atlantis seemed to slow down to accommodate Jericho, and overall the match didn’t seem to flow as well as they likely had hoped. Jericho locked in the Walls, then adjusted to the Liontamer which prompted Atlantis Sr. to throw in the towel. They shared a long moment in the ring post-match.

Eh. Neutral. 

A very strange rundown of the lineups for three different shows all mixed up. Alternating between Rampage, Collision, and the Revolution PPV. I don’t get it. We learn the “Meat Madness” is now an Eight-Man Scramble match with Hobbs, Brian Cage, Lance Archer, Wardlow, now with Hook and Chris Jericho added in. Two more names to be announced by Collision. 

Following the triple rundown, we get to the final segment of the night, with The Young Bucks taunting fans at ringside, only to get blindsided by Darby Allin! This proves useless as the Bucks overwhelm him, and then Ric Flair arrives. It seems he has aligned with Nicholas and Matthew, but he turns on them! This is short-lived as again the Bucks beat them down. Just then, Sting’s theme hits and the Bucks scramble up the ramp to head him off but in classic WCW-style, down from the rafters! It’s STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!!! Together with Darby, they beat up the Bucks to close the show for Sting’s final Dynamite appearance. Sting, Darby, and Flair stand tall to close the show. 

Flair is going to double-cross them on Sunday, isn’t he. 

An enjoyable go-home show, but a surprisingly low number of wrestling matches and more promos instead. However, the six-man between BCC and Kingston/FTR was a long one which honestly could have gone another ten minutes and I wouldn’t have noticed. 

A lot of hype for a PPV which is certainly catching eyes from everyone. 

AEW Dynamite 2/28/24 is on demand and streaming on the TBS app.