Top 3 things that went right on the April 20 episode of AEW: Dynamite

The April 20 episode of All Elite Wrestling (AEW): Dynamite presented fans with the sort of exciting matches that AEW fans have become accustomed to seeing on the young promotion’s flagship show, including two more Owen Hart Invitational Tournament qualifying matches.

Fans also learned that AEW  and New Japan Pro Wrestling’s working relationship would culminate with a joint-produced supershow on June 26, aptly (or annoyingly, depending on your perspective) titled Forbidden Door.

But there will be time to discuss that show and the potential dream matches. For now, let’s discuss the other positives that came out of this episode.

These are the top three things that went right on the April 20 episode of AEW: Dynamite.

CM Punk vs. Dustin Rhodes

These show-opening matches with CM Punk have become a regular occurrence on Dynamite, but given how good these matches are, that’s not a complaint. This week, Punk found himself opposite “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes.

While watching this first-time-ever encounter (it’s stunning that these two never wrestled each other in WWE), two things became obvious: Rhodes is still a tremendous worker and CM Punk really loves him some Bret Hart.

The finish — ripped straight from Hart vs. The British Bulldog from SummerSlam 1992 — exemplified the latter the most, but there were plenty of other winks and nods to “The Hitman” sprinkled throughout this match, though it wasn’t so in-your-face to distract from the match’s story.

Aside from the tribute, Punk rolling up Rhodes effectively kept Punk’s “wily veteran who scrapes out tough wins” gimmick intact while continuing to build him for his inevitable showdown with “Hangman” Adam Page for the AEW World Championship.

Jungle Boy vs. Kyle O’Reilly

This qualifying match for the men’s Owen Hart Invitational Tournament was a little more competitive than some of the other matches, which was perfectly fine given the wrestlers involved. Jungle Boy has slowly become one of the most dependable workers in AEW over the last year and O’Reilly…well, there’s a reason why he’s a former Ring of Honor World Champion and was once earmarked to be NXT’s next top babyface before the technicolor rebrand.

Ultimately, the Undisputed Elite member got the win over the co-holder of the AEW World Tag Team Champion. As for Jungle Boy, him getting helped up the ramp by Christian Cage has to be planting the seeds for when Cage eventually turns on Jungle Boy in this same scenario, right?

Wardlow vs. The Butcher

In a vacuum, this was a standard sub-five-minute mean man match, but this accomplished what it needed to. It continued the story of Wardlow bulldozing through the obstacles that Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF) has put in front of him in his quest to get released as MJF’s employee.

The added wrinkles of Freidman making Wardlow matches as transactional as possible by stripping away his entrance music and dehumanizing him by forcing him to walk to the ring in handcuffs adds more and more heat to MJF, which should maximize the catharsis when Wardlow finally gets his hands on Max.

Also, the story of Max paying off every monster heel available to destroy Wardlow is good stuff, and his callback to his feud with CM Punk as a means to introduce Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Lance Archer — Wardlow’s next opponent — is a nice touch.