The March 25 episode of “AEW Dynamite” saw the stars of All Elite Wrestling take another step towards the Dynasty pay-per-view on April 12, with several big matches officially announced. Kenny Omega’s win over Swerve Strickland meant that he would challenge MJF for the AEW World Championship, Thekla made another defense of the AEW Women’s World Championship against Mina Shirakawa, and Will Ospreay issued a challenge to Jon Moxley that the AEW Continental Champion was more than happy to accept.

Last week’s episode of “Dynamite” turned a lot of heads ratings wise as it was the most watched episode of the show in nine months, but not to be outdone by what came before it, this week’s episode of “Dynamite” had an increase in viewership. The Programming Insider and Wrestlenomics have both confirmed that the March 25 episode of “Dynamite” averaged a total of 765,000 viewers, a 5% increase from last week, and 18% above the trailing four week average of 658,000 viewers. As usual, all of these figures don’t include those who streamed the show live on HBO MAX. 765,000 viewers is also the highest average viewership “Dynamite” has earned since July 2024, with that year’s Blood and Guts special averaging 786,000 viewers.

There was more good news in the demographics as “Dynamite” posted a 0.14 number in the 18-49 demographic, an 8% increase on the previous week and 27% above the trailing four week average of 0.11. This number took “Dynamite” into the top five in the prime time cable rankings for Wednesday night, placing fifth overall behind the NBA on ESPN which finished first, and the three hours of coverage on FOX News that took up the other three spots. However, “Dynamite” had some strong performances in other demos, placing second behind the NBA in both the 18-34 and the 12-34 demographics with another 0.14 number, and joint third in the 25-54 demo with a 0.21 number.

After a backstage confrontation with “WWE SmackDown” General Manager Nick Aldis and Trick Williams, Sami Zayn has found his way onto the WrestleMania 42 card after defeating Carmelo Hayes for the United States Championship on Friday’s edition of the blue brand. Aldis told Zayn he didn’t have a place for him at ‘Mania at the moment, so Zayn took matters into his own hands and answered this week’s US Championship open challenge.

Before the match got underway, Williams made his entrance and took a seat beside the commentary desk. Zayn took it to Hayes to start off the match and was in control until Hayes jumped off the ropes to take him out, then followed up with a springboard leg drop while Zayn was also in the ropes.

Zayn went for a frog splash, but Hayes hit him with a dropkick. The challenger caught Hayes off the First 48 attempt and countered into a pop-up powerbomb, but the champion was able to kick out. Hayes dodged a Helluva Kick and went up top, but Zayn met him there and hit a superplex.

After they battled through a picture-in-picture break, Zayn hit an exploder into the corner, but Hayes connected with the First 48 as Zayn looked for the Helluva Kick. Zayn countered the Nothing But Net with the Blue Thunder Bomb, but Hayes still managed to hang on.

That’s when Williams grabbed the title and threw it to Zayn in the ring. As the referee was distracted, Williams jumped up on the apron, but accidentally hit Hayes with a big right hand. Zayn finally connected with the Helluva Kick for the win. When Zayn ran into Aldis backstage and asked if he had earned his WrestleMania match now, Aldis told him he would be defending the title against Williams at the event.