This week’s “Dynamite” succeeded in bringing some weight behind “Hangman” Adam Page ahead of this weekend’s Texas Death challenge against Jon Moxley, with the goal of rescuing the AEW World Championship from both the kayfabe and often-times literal reign of terror under the Death Riders. 

Until now, it had been the run of the mill Death Riders numbers game shenanigans constantly getting the upper hand over Page and hardly doing anything to cement the challenger who is supposed to be the flag-bearer for the future of the company heading into its biggest show of the year. And while that obviously cannot be changed by a single segment on the go-home episode of “Dynamite” at the very least it was certainly the right time to finally give him some form of momentum, as well as some well-needed progression on the status of Swerve Strickland’s kindling alliance with the man that burned his house down. 

Again, Page was running the route of getting jumped by the Death Riders and falling prey to the pack, with the Young Bucks also in the ring to put the kicking to their former friend. They looked to make a statement ahead of this weekend with the return of the plastic bag – that which they used to write off Bryan Danielson at WrestleDream – until the big screen flashed up with satellite image of Strickland in the cockpit of an excavator. Strickland then proceeded to crush the Young Bucks’ flash limousine, much to their dismay, and simultaneously providing enough of a diversion for Page, Will Ospreay and The Opps to get the upper hand over the heels and set them into retreat; Page came close to landing the Buckshot Lariat, hitting Claudio Castagnoli instead as he launched himself in the way, and making for the shot of Page standing tall against the World Champion. Meanwhile, the Bucks had gone to check their limo only to find it had been destroyed and dropping the golden line, “How are we going to financially recover from this?” 

It was a goofy bit of fun yet it delivered on what it needed to do, the limo spot itself being the hook for a message that the heroes have aligned and the numbers are no longer purely in the Death Riders’ favor. Time will tell where the story goes but for now, tonight at the very least was an entertaining spot of TV and felt like the right way to close the go-home.

Written by Max Everett