[4.0] "The opening segment really set the tone for one of the worst Dynamites in a long string of pretty bad Dynamites. It's patronizing when a mid-carder gets the GOAT treatment just because he's in his hometown. Garcia wouldn't have gotten that reaction in any city but Buffalo, and they booked 2 months of story out of it. I'm sure Littlerock will love a 20 minute promo from the dancing man."

[5.0] "This was a messy show, but one which did offer positives in and out of the ring. I enjoyed the build for Mina/Toni, the in-ring action was solid, though no match went beyond 4 stars which limits the rating. The crowd did what it needed to but nothing more, occasionally not giving the desired reaction (Ishii got absolutely no reaction whatsoever). There was some poor segments, particularly The Learning Tree and some underwhelming inclusion of ageing New Japan Stars, and the lame DQ finish really undercut an excellent 6 man tag. Not a terrible show, and one with positives, but mostly just functional advancement of varying quality, and an underwhelming go home show."

[7.0] "This was a solid build for Forbidden Door, but nothing felt unmissable. Black pool Combat Club vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon was pretty good until the disappointing (but probably politically necessary) finish. Jay White beat Rey Fenix in a good match to advance in the Owen Hart Tournament. Mariah May, Mina Shirakawa, and Toni Storm vs. Anna Jay and the Outcasts was the weakest match of the night, but the ongoing custody battle provided plenty of entertainment. Kyle O'Reilly vs. Zack Sabre Jr. was the match of the night, even though it sill let me down. Maybe my expectations were too high. Finally, Swerve Strickland and Will Osprey vs. the Gates of Agony was a very good match."

[7.0] "wasn't a massive fan of the opening segment until will came out. max sold being upstaged very well but a babyface mjf doesn't work well enough. a pretty dry trios match ended in dq which is never good. the jay vs rey match was much better with a great finish. sadly billy gunn announced we will not be getting gunn vs okada, ruined my day. women's trios match was also very good with a great final angle, probably the best feud going into the ppv. the jericho segment was once again a pointless part of the show. the kyle vs zsj match was as excellent as expected, loved the closing angle as well. the main event told a great story with a better closing angle, no way swerve is losing yet."

[8.0] "Fun episode of Dynamite. BCC brawl to kick off the show, then the match of the night Jay White against Rey Fenix. Tremendous women's match with the best storyline in wrestling Toni Storm, with Mariah and Mina against the Outcasts. Swerve and the best in the World Will Osprey in fantastic main event against the Gates of Agony."

[7.0] "Man, I love Forbidden Door season. It gives AEW a whole new dimension with new stories and new matches. This show blended well AEW vs. NJPW inter-brand matches with the current stories AEW is telling. The show kicked off with MJF in the ring interrupted by Daniel Garcia. DG cut the best promo of his carrer so far and MJF challenged him to a match at Wembley Stadium. However he got interrupted (and outshined) by Will Ospreay who gave DG a title shot next week. DG deserves this spotlight and I'm happy they're giving it to jim and for the second week in a row there's a Ospreay/MJF tease. Really good opening segment. BCC vs. LIJ was a fine opener, it was a shame it ended the way it did. White vs. Fenix was good, happy to see Jay getting the W. The Patriarchy confronted BCG in the post-match. The Acclaimed/Elite segment was fine, Tanahashi teaming up with the Acclaimed is going to be cool. Women's trios match was satisfactory. In-ring action was good and storytelling-wise this "Custody of Mariah" storyline is one of the best stories of the year. Then we got the Learning Tree segment which was, surprisingly, enjoyable. Mainly due to Minoru Suzuki and the trio of Joe, Hook and Shibata being involved but the fact remains. KOR vs. ZSJ was the best match of the night, great technical affair. Ospreay/Swerve vs. Gates of Agony was a really good main event. Loved the post-match with Ospreay stealing again the World title from Swerve who got his receipt by hitting Ospreay with the house call. Overall: both in-ring wise and storytelling-wise this show delivered. The two final minutes are really worth watching and many stories progressed in the right way."

[6.0] "Enjoyable show but it had its issues. The opener was great at times but it also was sloppy at times and had an awful finish. White vs Fenix was an enjoyable match as was Outcasts vs May and her two partners. The storytelling and post-match angle made it my MOTN but admittedly the in ring quality might not be the best of the night. Enjoyed Sabre Jr and O'Reilly too. Post match angle just seemed like too much was going on in my opinion. Gates of Agony main event wasn't bad but it was very predictable and I don't take Gates of Agony as a threat to either of these two."

[6.0] "Not a bad Dynamite but the matches where so they could be followed by the post-match scenarios. Were they really bad themselves? Not really though except for Fenix/White and ZSJ/KoR, they were simply mild. I'll give the ME its flowers. It was somewhat creative and Gates of Agony is actually a credible threat to them both Ospreay and Swerve. It was a sound match which managed to tell the strife between the challengers. LIJ/BCC could have been much better if it didn't had an abrupt DQ finish so Naito/Mox and Danielson/Takagi can have a stare off. The Outcasts is beyond its expiration date and cannot be saved. The post-match angle was really the saving grace of it. I hope they really pull the trigger on Mina and let her have both Mariah May and the title. ZSJ/White taking up Ws were no surprise scenarios but I kinda wish they evolved more. Once again, companies do this shit when they produce matches. Distributing the TV time equally between them especially if it's a heavily promo/video package featured show. It is what it is. MJF is looking up for Garcia to have an All-In match at Wembley? Ngl, that kinda bollocks. I guess AEW is so lost in that Hangman-Swerve spiral so they cannot simply justify why MJF(or Joe) wanted to grab the title back. This disbelief cannot be suspensed."

[5.0] "This show felt pretty middle of the road to me, verging more towards good than bad though. Not a bad match on the card in my opinion, but with the exception of the ZSJ vs. KOR match, I can't say I was too terribly interested in any of them either. On the storyline front, MJF challenging Garcia feels like such a strange choice to me. I don't think Garcia would have been a bad first match back, but MJF really feels like he should be moving on to bigger opponents as his first big longer term feud and Garcia just isn't there yet. For example, Samoa Joe would make way more sense given their history, but whatever. I hope AEW's booking improves soon because they really don't have anything interesting going on right now outside of the Toni Storm stuff. [MOTN: Kyle O'Reilly vs. Zack Sabre Jr.]"

[7.0] "A solid episode of Dynamite, the segments were decent to good. Can't wait for Will Ospreay vs Daniel Garcia next week on Dynamite. Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Titan vs Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta: This was a solid match, on paper did sound it could have been better, some interesting interactions from Yuta and Takahashi as well as Claudio and Shingo, easy way out and lazy booking with the DQ [**1/2]. Jay White vs Rey Fenix: Both gave a solid performance, decently well worked match, White winning was okay but would like to have seen Fenix win [***1/4]. Mariah May, Mina Shirakawa & Toni Storm vs Anna Jay, Harley Cameron & Saraya: This match was average, should have had more time, there was dissension between Shirakawa and Storm which was the only compelling thing in this one [*3/4]. Zack Sabre Jr vs Kyle O'Reilly: This was a technically sound match, both had a great match, what they did in the 10 minutes they had was good to see [****]. Swerve Strickland & Will Ospreay vs Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona: Despite being opponents at the upcoming Forbidden Door ppv, Ospreay and Strickland were able to work together against dominant opponents like Kaun and Liona, Ospreay getting the win made sense [***3/4]"

[9.0] "If this show happened last year I swear it would have an overall rating of 8 or 9. It was the third very good dynamite in a row after weeks of mediocre episodes, everything was good from top to bottom we had good matches good promos some build towards the future and as a go home show it did a pretty great job"

[8.0] "Bit of a downgrade from last week, but still a very solid show. I'm certainly not going to complain about the push Daniel Garcia is getting, and I think the discourse around him is exposing a lot of people who want to talk nonsense without engaging with the product; after all, the Garcia of June 2024 is pointedly not the Garcia of June 2023, and the climb back up from the low points of the JAS to one of the most over mid-carders on the roster has been one of the more interesting slow-burn stories going on in AEW at the moment. Hell, I seriously do think it's high time he gets a midcard title shot."

[7.0] "That damn Jericho has *almost* got me onboard with this new gimmick, largely thanks to all the people around him in tonight's episode. Joe was a standout, and Keith and Bill are also doing good work. Max Caster has become absolute ass though, he sounds so juvenile on the mic, especially compared to Bowens. I get it, the tag team division needs teams more than the singles division needs Bowens, but I don't care about the Acclaimed anymore, and the herculean booking of Billy Gunn and the general annoying-ness of Caster has me ice cold on the Acclaimed. The other promos were all fine, the opener could've used some editing for sure. I feel like Danny is on the verge of settling comfortably into the upper midcard, which AEW needs. Orange Cassidy's relentless match-of-the-week superman booking as champion did real damage to any true competitiveness in the midcard, but guys like Christian, Darby, and Danny winning AND losing in unpredictable bouts can easily fix that. The ladies stuff was very enjoyable. As for Forbidden Door season, it feels like interest tends to fall around this time just because of all the new faces, etc, but the integration has been decent this year."

[7.0] "This episode was pretty mediocre overall, I've rated every match 6.0, and at the same time that it didn't had any really great match, it didn't had a really bad one, so that's fine, I don't know what they're cooking with MJF and Daniel Garcia there, and this event focused on telling some stories and that's cool, but there's still much more they need to get back on track."

[5.0] "Because it's Forbidden Door soon we have random New Japan people show up disrupting every story AEW had going. This time it feels less bad but that might be because they have less stories going on than ever (and that's saying something). Also, they're trying to use MJF to get people over that just aren't top star material (or at least they're not ready). Talking about Daniel Garcia. Speaking of MJF, he's only mentions it as a "btw" but he's wrestling some random guy as well... again, not what I want to see out of MJF, him just wrestling some dude. The two final matches of this show are worth watching though."

[5.0] "A show carried by the in-ring of the roster once again. Some solid matches even if winners were never in doubt for the card. A DQ finish in the first match of the show that did little to raise expectation for Naito/Moxley or Bryan/SHINGO (the latter of which I am looking forward to as a match.) Garcia being from the area makes sense to give him a spotlight promo but why spend so much time on that when he currently doesnt even have a match on the PPV? MJF/Ospreay fawning over the wins Garcia has collected also when actually looking at the list of names Garcia has beaten over the last 3-4 months since losing to Christian Cage, it is not impressive. MJF continues to join the list of former AEW Champions that dont care about regaining the title after losing it, a club that feels joined by most of their former champions except Moxley after his first and Adam Page. Strickland/Ospreay lacks a real investment of who one wants to win. Toni/Mina feels similar. Coming off of TKs recent claims of AEW having the best womens division in the world, they get sent out for their one <10 minute match a show business as usual. While the matches at Forbidden Door may overachieve, the build for many of them has felt weakly put together and this show, while not horrible, did little to make me more anticipated in it."

[8.0] "Opening segment went too long and felt out of place given it was building for All In when we have Forbidden Door this weekend. The several spots of standoffs/stare downs that resulted in basically nothing happening felt really weird. Liked everything else other than the Jericho stuff though."

[7.0] "4 matches ranging from decent to really good make up for the lack of overall action and too many interviews and segments. Approximately 45 minutes was dedicated to in ring action with 2 hours allocated. Less than half. However, there was also a lot of good hype for the Forbidden Door ppv so that's also a positive."

[8.0] "Back to back really entertaining episodes of Dynamite. ZSJ/KOR was just as good as we knew it would be, and the highlight of the night. Fenix vs. Jay White & the Main Event Tag were also superb. I thought the segments were hit or miss; I always turn Jericho segments off now, but the Toni/Mina/Mariah angle was very well done. A lot of integration between NJPW & AEW, which is always really cool. Swerve/Ospreay has been really intriguing from a story perspective, as Swerve is willing to do things where Ospreay hesitates. Excited for Forbidden Door!"

[8.0] "All of the in-ring work was pretty solid on this episode, but ZSJ/KOR and the Tag Team main event were a step above the rest. The former was better bell-to-bell but the tag match featured some legitimately creative spots I've neve seen before on TV wrestling. From a production standpoint, they crammed a lot into the show (and things felt a little rushed at times because of it), but the Forbidden Door builds were all handled in a coherent way while still managing to push a few stories and angles that'll endure into the build toward Calgary and even All In. The layered stories between Swerve, MJF, and Ospreay will make the summer programming so much more entertaining and the opening promo did a nice job of setting that up. The swerve with Suzuki/Jericho was legitimately surprising and fun. So too was the Mina/Mariah May post-match spot."

[7.0] "There was more good than bad here and this was a good episode, with the only low points being the womens tag match and some odd booking of the other tag matches. Good in ring work and Sabre Jr vs KOR is a match worth checking out"

"A great episode of Dynamite leading up to Forbidden Door, putting together the finishing touches on the PPV, and setting up further on towards All In. MJF opened the show before the hometown kid Daniel Garcia comes out to thank Max, before the two seemingly set up a match for Wembley. Before that, though, Ospreay interrupts and hands Garcia the International (and potentially World) title shot he's earned, upstaging MJF in the process. Take the best wrestlers of this generation and put them together in a program? I didn't expect this upon MJF's return, but it is a welcome turn of events. LIJ and BCC was chaotic, quick action combined with physical brawling; I was very surprised to see the rare DQ finish in AEW, felt a little unnatural considering BCC had control during the entire match, but it helped led to a confrontation between the American Dragon and the Rampage Dragon, as well as a quick brawl between Moxley and Naito. Jay White vs. Rey Fenix had some good action too, though it felt like the crowd didn't care too heavily about either man; it's a general issue with AEW to have so many "cool heels", guys that are supposed to be villains but play to the audience enough to have them cheer. Either way, they'll be playing the faces against The Patriarchy (hard not to), although we'll have to see where the House of Black business leads to. I don't particularly care for The Elite vs. The Acclaimed, but it's cool to see Tanahashi back in the mix to clash with Okada. I really enjoyed the women's tag match, it didn't overstay its welcome, had some hard-hitting moves (since when could Harley Cameron wrestle? ), and kept up the great rivalry between Mina and Toni. I've found The Learning Tree to be a fun gimmick in spots; if Jericho can be funny and annoying on the mic, stay out of the ring (PLEASE), and keep the segments short, it's a good way to give other stars some time to shine; a meeting with Suzuki is going to be very slow and plodding and end with a screwy finish, but whatever. As for Joe-Hook-Shibata, give me more of this every week! What a team they've put together, a band of killers going to work on everyone and anyone is needed. ZSJ and O'Reilly put on a technical masterpiece, great strikes combined with constant reversals and counters for every hold and submission, the two felt like they were on even ground the entire time with the limb work playing into the finish wonderfully. Swerve and Ospreay against the Gates of Agony put up the cliche "Can they coexist? " story to work, but the two champions are some of the best in AEW, so the in-ring action won't fail. Some fluid tag team moves with both teams, Kaun and Liona using the spotlight to full effect, and the pinfall goes to the Billy Goat after a Hidden Blade. Loved the ending with Swerve standing tall; mess with the world champion's title, and you will pay the price for it. Altogether, this has got me very hyped for Forbidden Door, can't wait to see what goes down."