AEW Dynasty 2026: 9 big takeaways after Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay can't get the job done

AEW’s packed schedule in early 2026 rolled on with AEW Dynasty on Sunday night from the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada. The top acts in AEW maintained their respective places, with MJF, Thekla and Jon Moxley all retaining their belts. Kevin Knight and Darby Allin also took leaps of their own, with the former winning the vacant TNT championship and the latter earning a world title shot.

As we bridge the gap to this summer’s All In show in London, here’s our nine biggest takeaways from a relatively mild night in Canada.  

1. MJF keeps on rolling

Billed as what may be Kenny Omega’s last run to the world title, his showdown with MJF didn’t disappoint. It was emotional, as Omega alternated selling the toll injuries have taken on his body with finding openings to push the champion to his limits. Ultimately, it was MJF using the Dynamite diamond ring to help him gain the advantage over Omega, then Tombstoning him through a table and landing the Heat Seeker for the pinfall. 

This may be just the beginning of the best run of MJF’s AEW career. He’s the unquestioned top guy right now, he brings out the absolute best from anyone across the ring from him, and he’s balancing heel tactics with legit victories. He’s now on a collision course to face off against Darby Allin for the world title on Wednesday night “Dynamite,” which offers another chance for the champ to show why he’s the headline act. 

2. A setback for a bigger comeback?

Will Ospreay will have to wait a little longer to have his moment in the sun. After returning from a career-threatening neck injury, Ospreay fought valiantly and seemed like a sure thing to dethrone Jon Moxley. But Moxley put Ospreay down with a series of Deathriders, and refused to give him the storybook ending many (including myself) expected. 

Ospreay didn’t just fail in his attempt to claim the Continental Championship — he was pinned clean. From a booking perspective, coming up short in a time limit draw would have been plenty of setback for Ospreay. But immediately taking his legs out from such a strong return is a strange call. Perhaps he’s being groomed for even bigger things this summer? It’s difficult not to have a short-term view for a star fans have been impatiently waiting on to break through. 

3. Kevin Knight is ready for takeoff

Kevin Knight has been right on the cusp of singles stardom essentially since joining AEW last year. Back in January I called him one of the breakout contenders for 2026, needing only a Kyle Fletcher-esque mid-card run to make the leap. And here we are in April, and Knight hasn’t just set himself up for a similar run, but he’s holding the very title Fletcher held to catapult himself.

The ending sequence of Knight winning Sunday’s TNT Championship Gauntlet Match serves to enhance both Knight and his tag-team partner, “Speedball” Mike Bailey. With Daniel Garcia holding a submission onto Bailey, Knight’s frogsplash onto Garcia took advantage of an opening and gave him the victory at the expense of his partner. That’ll be one to watch in coming months as Knight steps into his new role as TNT Champion and Bailey attempts to find his footing. 

4. FTR’s generational run

FTR is on the run of a lifetime, with consecutive wins over the Young Bucks and now Adam Copeland and Christian Cage. Played as AEW’s ultimate heel tag-team champions, FTR’s role has been clear in recent months as they garner as much heat as possible in the bridge run to All In later this summer. They did just that again on Sunday, pulling on the heartstrings of the Canadian faithful with a victory that seemed to take the air out of the audience. 

Any title change looks like it will have to wait until London in August as recent wins have built real momentum for FTR. As of now, it feels like AEW’s tag-team division is possibly the organization’s strongest division with a clear path toward the biggest show of the year.

5. Darby Allin gets another shot

Sometimes Darby Allin meets someone just as crazy as him — or at least just as willing to take the insane bumps we’ve come to expect from him. Andrade El Idolo and Allin pulled out all the stops Sunday night, with Allin dropkicking Andrade on the stairwell in the audience, Allin taking a suplex from the ringside out to the floor, and the duo putting together an instant classic. 

Allin won with a Last Supper, earning him a handshake of respect from Andrade and guaranteeing himself a world championship shot. The win signals a potential turn for Andrade, who’s been a fan-favorite since his return, putting together unreal showings against basically anyone he’s been in the ring with. It also sets Allin up for another shot to reach the top of the mountain. 

For a guy like Allin, the timing feels off for a title change. He’s destined to hold it at some point in his career, but it feels like MJF is just getting started before potentially passing the belt to someone like Will Ospreay. 

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6. One step closer to a Don Callis Family explosion

Perhaps the best tag-team in the world, the Young Bucks, dazzled in tonight’s opener and set the pace for the evening. Their fluidity and ingenuity were on full display in a match that had only one logical conclusion: The Bucks getting their hands raised.

It was already well established that Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita despise each other, with a match slated for next month’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view for the AEW Continental Championship already set. Don Callis acknowledged that the original plan was to have Kyle Fletcher partner with Okada, but the former’s injury required a quick intervention. 

The decision for AEW to shoehorn the Okada-Takeshita rivalry into next month’s show is an odd one after teasing the Don Callis Family’s breakup for months. With an objectively larger stage in All In locked in for August, it makes the decision to set up their match for May all the more curious. 

Whatever the reasoning is, it’s a welcome sight to see Takeshita portrayed as an elite talent. He has all the tools to become an AEW World Champion, it’s really just a matter of presentation and opportunities at this point. 

7. Can Ricochet make the leap?

After a lengthy National Championship reign, Ricochet seems ready to turn a corner in his climb up the AEW roster. A matchup (and win) against the returning Chris Jericho certainly fits the bill for the 37-year-old passing the eyeball test of a guy who belongs in the main-event scene against someone who’s been there since the beginning of AEW. 

I don’t want to get too ahead of myself in earmarking Ricochet into the world title picture just yet, as there was a heavy dose of The Demand making their presence felt in Sunday’s tilt. That could very well signal more faction wars should Jericho align himself yet again with a couple of young, rising stars. 

8. Jamie Hayter and Thekla are just getting started

With “Timeless” Toni Storm out of action for the foreseeable future, Jamie Hayter stepped up and took the fight to AEW Women’s World Champion Thekla. Hayter and Thekla paired together with a strong, hard-hitting bout that has the legs to carry the women’s division. 

After a finish that saw Hayter potentially minutes away from claiming the world championship, it feels like this rivalry is far from over. A return to London would serve Hayter well in a chase throughout the summer and back to All In’s grand stage, with her eyes still fixed on the division’s top prize. 

9. The trios division is lost

There was a time when AEW’s trios division felt like it had some longevity. The House of Black, Death Riders, the Opps all had lengthy title reigns. But the last four trios champions have held the belts for just over a combined month and change, with Orange Cassidy, Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong being the latest group to claim the titles. 

Winning the trios belts these days feels relatively meaningless, meant to either serve short-term gains or to be used as part of a larger story to move along the world title picture. Sunday’s match itself served as a nice palette cleanser ahead of the main event, but these matches can happen without the crowded championship picture. It might be time to start cutting back on when gold is defended and when a grudge match is more than enough.