There might be a secret weapon in AEW that can finally get rid of the Death Riders

Swerve Strickland might have some secret backup waiting to help him end Jon Moxley’s reign as AEW world champion at Dynasty.

All Elite Wrestling returns to pay-per-view tonight (Apr. 6) with Dynasty 2025. The show comes our way from Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The free Zero Hour pre-show kicks things off at 6:30 pm ET, which runs for 90 minutes on AEW’s YouTube channel and right here at Cageside Seats. That leads right into the PPV at 8 pm ET, which you can buy from on Triller TV, PPV.com, Amazon, and YouTube, as well as on traditional PPV.

There might be a secret weapon that can finally get rid of the Death Riders

Swerve Strickland challenges Jon Moxley for the AEW world championship in the main event of Dynasty. Swerve won the world title at last year’s Dynasty event and is trying to repeat that accomplishment tonight. However, it won’t be an easy task given all of the help Moxley always gets from his henchmen in the Death Riders.

Every babyface has eventually succumbed to that damn numbers game over the last six months, but there’s at least a chance Swerve will have some backup tonight. His secret weapon might actually be his most hated rival, Hangman Page. Page once promised that he will never allow Swerve to win the world title again, and he even burned the man’s house down to show just how far he will go. However, there was a revelation this week on Dynamite when Swerve finally admitted to Hangman’s face that he deserved it for invading Page’s home and threatening his family. Hangman was stunned by Swerve’s admission, and it’s not clear if that is enough to get the cowboy to change his tune about his longtime rival.

If Hangman isn’t willing to do the right thing and fight off the Death Riders’ inevitable interference in tonight’s main event, Swerve still might have some help in the form of The Opps. Samoa Joe’s group said they will be in the building tonight and watching the show carefully to see if anyone is lacking. If Joe, HOOK, and Shibata happen to have their eyes on the Death Riders world trios championship, it could make sense for them to show up to beat the shit out of Claudio Castagnoli, PAC, and Wheeler Yuta when they try to ruin yet another AEW world title match.

Will Swerve Strickland have some backup and win the AEW world title at Dynasty for the second year in a row? You’ll have to order the pay-per-view to find out.

The rest of the card

These remaining 11 matches and segments are also currently advertised for tonight at Dynasty:

“Timeless” Toni Storm (c) vs. Megan Bayne for the AEW women’s world championship

It’s hard to follow the Hollywood Ending from Revolution, but AEW is doing so in a story where Megan Bayne is dominating the women’s division and appears to be too powerful for even the champ to handle. Nonetheless, Toni Storm has vowed to put Megan’s tits in her purse as she retains the gold, so perhaps we’ll see what exactly that looks like on pay-per-view.

Kenny Omega (c) vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey vs. Ricochet for the AEW International championship

AEW ran a tournament to see who would be Kenny Omega’s first challenger for the gold, and that dork Ricochet cheated his way to a double-pin finish in the final match. The end result is that Omega has two opponents tonight, including “Speedball” Mike Bailey, who just debuted in AEW last month. Can Ricochet find a way to steal the pin away from one of the babyfaces at the end of this match in order to become champion?

Death Riders (c) vs. Rated FTR for the AEW world trios championship

Something strange is going on with Dax Harwood. He’s been kind of a dick to Cope after the Rated R Superstar failed to win the AEW world title from Jon Moxley. Harwood also accidentally put his hands on his own tag team partner, Cash Wheeler. It doesn’t look like Dax’s heart is really in this trios title chase, and a lot of people are expecting a betrayal at Dynasty, even though Rated FTR were seemingly on the same page by the end of this weekend’s Collision.

Daniel Garcia (c) vs. Adam Cole for the TNT championship with no time limit and no interference

Cole challenged Garcia for the belt twice last month, but those matches didn’t have a conclusive winner thanks to outside interference or a time limit. Naturally, that means it’s time for one more championship rematch, with both of those elements taken off the board. Who is really the better wrestler between Cole and Garcia? We should find out the answer to that question tonight.

Will Ospreay vs. Kevin Knight in the Owen Hart Tournament

It sounds like Jay White was originally penciled in as Will’s opponent in the opening round of The Owen, but he was pulled due to injury. Ospreay now faces Kevin Knight in what is immediately the biggest match of Knight’s career. Good luck kid, because you’re gonna need it to hang with the best wrestler in the world.

Mercedes Mone vs. Julia Hart in the Owen Hart Tournament

It looks like Mone is on a collision course with Athena in The Owen, but in order to make that match happen, the undefeated TBS champion will have to first knock off Julia Hart in the opening round. That shouldn’t be too hard for The CEO to handle.

Mark Briscoe vs. Kyle Fletcher in the Owen Hart Tournament

Fletcher is looking to bounce back from his loss at Revolution, and what better way to do that than by winning The Owen? He kicks off the first round in a match against Briscoe, who lost against Kyle back in February. However, Briscoe scored a tournament win over Fletcher in last year’s Continental Classic, so this one could go either way.

The Hurt Syndicate (c) vs. Big Bill & Bryan Keith for the AEW world tag team championship

It’s been rumored that the Murder Machines were originally set to challenge The Hurt Syndicate on this card, and there isn’t much reason to think The Learning Tree stands a chance. Perhaps MJF is the key to the challengers winning this match. He was recently disrespected when Bob Lashley rejected him as a new member of The Hurt Syndicate, so it might be time for payback. But even if MJF is plotting to take down Bob, this match still doesn’t seem like the right time for it.

Chris Jericho (c) vs. Bandido in a Title vs. Mask match for the ROH world championship

Jericho fucked with Bandido’s family when he stole Gravity’s mask. Now it’s time for Bandido to make Chris pay by beating his ass for the ROH world title. Bandido loses his mask if he fails, so the stakes couldn’t be higher.

AR Fox & Top Flight vs. CRU & Nick Wayne (pre-show)

Nick Wayne is having some problems with his father Christian Cage, so Action Andretti and Lio Rush wisely used those daddy issues to recruit his help in neutralizing AR Fox as part of their feud with Top Flight. If Wayne and CRU can stay on the same page, they are probably the favorites to win here in Andretti’s hometown.

Max Caster’s Best Wrestler Alive open challenge (pre-show)

Max Caster is exposed as the worst wrestler alive every time he is quickly beaten in one of these Best Wrestler Alive open challenges. Which AEW star now gets to humiliate him on the zero hour pre-show? They should all be lining up for this spot.

Summary

In many ways, this Dynasty card looks like a big step down from last month’s Revolution, but that’s one obvious downside to booking a pay-per-view event with 10+ matches only four weeks after the last one. It turns out that a filler AEW pay-per-view card like this one still features plenty of matches that can be great, even if some of the stories behind these matches aren’t fully developed.

What will you be looking for at Dynasty?