Will Ospreay needed some backup to help him fight off the Death Riders on the April 8 episode of “AEW Dynamite,” and after his recent trip to Japan, he ran into some old friends of his. Fresh off of reuniting with the United Empire at NJPW Sakura Genesis on April 4, Ospreay managed to convince Francesco Akira, HENARE, and the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion Callum Newman to take a trip to Canada to create some chaos in Edmonton, and that’s exactly what they did.

Much like the Mile High Madness match we saw back in February, this was essentially a mini Anarchy In The Arena built for a TV audience, only with fewer split-screens and music playing over the loudspeakers to accompany the action. However, that didn’t make this match any less fun than some of its predecessors because this was great.

All eight guys got their licks in here, with the MVP award of this match from yours truly actually getting split three ways between Akira, HENARE, and Claudio Castagnoli. Those three guys knew they had to get their stuff in and made the most of every second they were the center of attention, to the point where Tony Schiavone probably dropped a text to Tony Khan saying, “If you have any money left over from the Jericho contract, give it to Akira.” Massive table spots, including a Newman double foot stomp that would make the ECW version of Tajiri extremely proud, Alex Windsor and Marina Shafir got involved. It seemed like everywhere you looked, something new was going on.

I was hesitant about this match going into it, mainly because this would have been a great fit for the actual Anarchy In The Arena setting, or even a Forbidden Door match, but sometimes when you get the chance to do something, sometimes you just have to do it there and then. I also would have liked to have seen more from Newman, considering he just made history over in Japan, and maybe it ran a little long, but it’s a multi-man AEW plunderfest, it’s going to be long, and I’m okay with that these days.

It also sets up the Jon Moxley/Will Ospreay match for Dynasty to be more unpredictable, as Ospreay and Newman both got the pin on Moxley. Does this mean Mox is retaining? Does it mean Ospreay has another summer title run in his sights? All of that will be answered this Sunday, but this was a rollercoaster of a match that built hype towards a marquee pay-per-view title match while making everyone involved look like a million bucks, and even in Canadian dollars, you can’t ask for much more than that.

Written by Sam Palmer