AEW Booms and Duds: Kenny Omega took too long to beat … who?

AEW has hit a nice groove with their pre-taped episodes of Dynamite. Did that streak continue last night? Here are the “booms” and “duds” for the Apr. 22 episode.

It’s been a nice run for AEW in 2020, even during this pandemic.

Their decision to shift to mass tapings even with a limited crew has proven to be a smart and effective decision. It has allowed AEW to focus in on a manageable number of stories without diluting the overall product. This has provided a platform for some talent who were lower on the card to receive a spotlight to be exposed to fans.

Further, AEW has done remarkably in procuring video from talent, both at the tapings and from the homes of others. These trends continued tonight.

The biggest, and most welcome, change came in the form of videos highlighting talent not associated with The Elite, Inner Circle, or Jon Moxley (though they had some as well). I was particularly excited and engaged with one particular video, which will kick off the “booms” and “duds.”

As a reminder of my criteria, I’m not going to run through each match/segment. Rather, I will identify a couple of segments that either worked (“boom”) or didn’t for whatever reason (“dud”).

My criteria includes quality of match/segment and how it starts and/or builds stories. After all, we watch partly to be caught up in the stories. If a great work-rate match happens with no context or bearing on the stories, it’s going to be a miss.

Also, just because something is a hit/miss doesn’t mean it was an overwhelming choice. The selection could be 51 percent hit, 75 percent miss, and so on.

There are other subtleties to my criteria, but those are pretty much the parameters.