AEW Dynamite Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights for May 4

The march to Double or Nothing continued Wednesday night on AEW Dynamite with a blockbuster episode, headlined by a Ring of Honor Women's Championship match pitting Impact Wrestling's Deonna Purrazzo against Mercedes Martinez.

Was The Virtuosa able to successfully retain her title against an opponent she has sparred with before or did Martinez usher in a new era for ROH with a defining championship victory?

That match headlined a broadcast that also featured the latest in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, MJF's mystery opponent for Wardlow and another dismantling by the Blackpool Combat Club.

• Ring of Honor Women's Championship Match: Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs. Mercedes Martinez
• Owen Hart Foundation Men's Tournament Qualifier: Rey Fenix vs. Dante Martin
• Owen Hart Foundation Men's Tournament Qualifier: Jeff Hardy vs. Bobby Fish
• Grudge Match: Santana vs. Chris Jericho
• Blackpool Combat Club vs. The Butcher, The Blade and Angelico
• MJF's Mystery Opponent for Wardlow
• The latest in The Varsity Blonds' feud with House of Black

Jeff Hardy, a man who once squared off with Owen Hart early in his WWE run, defeated Bobby Fish in a qualifier for the memorial tournament named after him Wednesday night. The Charismatic Enigma overcame a focused offensive by his opponent to defeat one-half of RedDragon with his trademark Swanton Bomb.

The match was not one of the better matches of the tournament thus far, thanks in large part to a clash of styles. It was disjointed early and, while the action picked up late, it still struggled to get out of first gear. 

Hardy remains massively over but this is the second consecutive Dynamite performance in which he looked a step slower and a tad off compared to the performer fans have known and loved for two decades.

Hopefully, a favorable first-round match allows him to get back in the groove and prove why he still has plenty left in the tank for one last main event run.

Grade

C

Top Moments

• Adam Cole joined the commentary team for the match.
• Sting and Darby Allin watched from the stands.
• The avalanche falcon arrow by Fish is a great spot in any match.
• Fish had to bend his way into a Whisper in the Wind from Hardy.

Blackpool Combat Club continued its winning ways in trios action as Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson and Wheeler Yuta defeated The Butcher, The Blade and Angelico in a high-intensity tag match.

The heels controlled the action into the picture-in-picture commercial but as they have so many other times, the BCC upped the violence and beat the opposition down, ending with Danielson scoring the submission victory.

This highlighted Moxley, Danielson and Yuta well while giving them their strongest victory to date. It remains to be seen where this trip is headed and what will keep them busy at Double or Nothing but there is no denying that it has been a hell of a star-making vehicle for Yuta and a showcase of pure physicality for Danielson and Moxley.

William Regal has been a godsend for all three, enhancing their acts and adding to the company both as a manager and storyteller.

This was BCC's best match as a trio yet, even if Yuta was not the singular focus this week. 

Grade

B

Top Moments

• Regal repeatedly referring to Excalibur as "man in the mask" is a great bit each and every time he joins the commentary table.
• Butcher jumping Moxley before he made it to the ring was the perfect way to kick this match off.
• Regal corrected Tony Schiavone, claiming Yuta's snap German suplex was not "desperation," but "pinpoint accuracy."

A colossal clash between Wardlow and MJF's hand-picked opponent, Impact Wrestling's W. Morrissey, saw the War Dog once again infuriate his former charge by scoring another victory in his toughest test to date.

Wardlow overcame a big Bossman Slam by Morrissey before uncorking a moonsault and finishing him off with a single powerbomb.

The match was hard-hitting and saw Wardlow put in a position to fight from underneath if he sought to continue his winning ways. He did, then decimated security and sent them to the arena floor in yet another display of destructive power.

Morrissey received a warm reception but the idea of him working with MJF despite a budding babyface run in Impact was certainly a choice. Hopefully, his current employer capitalizes on this appearance and continues Morrissey's career renaissance.

Grade

 B-

Top Moments

• Morrissey toyed with MJF during a high-five attempt, then blowing off Shawn Spears was a fun moment and indicative that the big man sees this as a business transaction more than a relationship.
• Morrissey shut up a portion of fans chanting "we want Enzo" in reference to his former tag team partner.
• MJF accepted a match with Wardlow, but with a few conditions. Conditions that he will reveal next week in his own hometown of Long Island.
• Backstage, Ruby Riott and cut a promo on Britt Baker ahead of her tag team match with Toni Storm against Baker and Jamie Hayter.

AEW world champion "Hangman" Adam Page cut a different tone as he took to the squared circle for an in-ring promo with Tony Schiavone ahead of his defense against CM Punk at Double or Nothing on Sunday, May 29.

Gone was the self-doubting, anxious millennial cowboy. Gone was the humble champion, just happy to be here. Instead, Page cut a defiant, scathing promo that saw him vow to beat Punk and leave his fans rushing to the merchandise table to get a refund for their Punk merch.

This was a promo not only against Punk, but the fans that doubt him. Fans that abandoned him in favor of the Second City Saint. He was angry, vengeful and hellbent on silencing the pro-Punk audience.

Whether this is a momentary change of attitude or something more permanent, this was a stellar bit of business from a more confident, sure-of-himself Page than we have ever seen.

Easily, one of the best promos of his career.

Grade

A+

Top Moments

• "At Double or Nothing, there's not going to be a masturbatory Bret Hart tribute match. I am going to destroy CM Punk!" Page said, igniting a Punk chant.
• "You said you wanted a fight and Punk, it will be the fight of your life."

"The Wizard" Chris Jericho, leader of the Jericho Appreciation Society, scored another victory for his faction in their conflict with Santana, Ortiz and Eddie Kingston, defeating the most former in singles competition.

Santana was a game opponent, firing up late and having the fans in Baltimore on their feet as he scored near-fall after near-fall. Despite Ortiz utilizing Jericho's baseball bat, Floyd, to keep Angelo Parker and Matt Menard at bay, it was a low blow by The Demo God that set up the Judas Effect for the win.

It was a match that took a bit to get going but once it did, developed into a nice little contest between a grizzled vet and a wrestler in Santana that has not had a ton of opportunities to showcase his abilities in singles action thus far in AEW.

The JAS beatdown after the match was predictable but with Kingston still selling the effects of a fireball, made sense.

Grade

C+

Top Moments

• A vengeful Santana launched himself through the ropes and onto the Jericho Appreciation Society to start the match.
• Santana's tribute to Eddie Guerrero popped the crowd.
• Parker standing at ringside with the baseball bat in position to strike, even when the action was away from him, was unintentionally hilarious. 

Death Triangle saved The Varisty Blonds and Julia Hart from The House of Black, preserving the mystery surrounding Hart's status as a potential House of Black member by not exposing her blackened eye, the result of Malakai Black's trademark mist.

With the heels driven from ringside, Rey Fenix squared off with Dante Martin in the latest Owen Hart Foundation Men's Tournament Qualifier. When two aerial artists of that level square off, innovative offense is to be expected and this match had it in boatloads.

An uber-athletic match that saw neither man gain a sustained offense but both pull out the jaw-dropping moves and high spots that have come to define them, it ended with Fenix catching Martin mid-flight and flattening him for a pinfall victory.

Expectations for the bout were high given the strength of their in-ring exploits over the course of their AEW careers and this did not disappoint. An extraordinary display of two wrestlers who have risen to the heights that they have by ignoring any and all limits of conventional wrestling.

Fenix winning was probably the right call but Martin easily could have advanced to equally as strong fanfare. 

Grade

B+

Top Moments

• Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh was at ringside and Pillman Jr. referenced him as his late father's roommate at Miami of Ohio in a nice connection.
• Hart refused to hit Griff Garrison with a chair, teasing that she had not been fully corrupted by the heels.
• Black ripped off the eyepatch covering Julia Hart's rapidly deteriorating left eye, only for the young competitor to cover up, leaving an air of mystery surrounding her status.
• The double moonsault, ending with both men landing on their feet, was a fantastic spot.

Recognition as the undisputed Ring of Honor women's champion was at stake as Impact Wrestling's "The Virtuosa" Deonna Purrazzo battled Mercedes Martinez.

A competitive match between two strong in-ring competitors did not generate the desired reaction from the Baltimore fans, if only because it was thrown out there cold, with no established story. Martinez had not been utilized consistently whatsoever and Purrazzo, despite a reputation that preceded her, is a star for another company.

A company AEW fans may not be watching every Thursday.

The audience was respectful of the performers and politely applauded their efforts but the reaction was not what a match of this magnitude, with the stakes it carried, deserved.

Still, from an in-ring perspective, it was a really strong match between two superb competitors. Purrazzo is arguably the best women's wrestler in the world and Martinez laid the foundation for so many of today's competitors through her work on the indies and with the SHIMMER promotion.

They delivered a quality match, but not one that was the defining contest of either woman's career, as the stakes would suggest it should have been.

Grade

C+

Top Moments

• Prior to the match, AEW women's champion Thunder Rosa and Serena Deeb cut a back-and-forth promo that set up the title match for Double or Nothing.
• Purrazzo fending off a dragon sleeper attempt by biting Martinez's arm was a clever spot. Martinez fighting through it to tap out her opponent with the hold was equally as good.