We are exactly five days away from AEW Dynasty. March 30 in Kansas City. The vibe right now is a strange mix of high anticipation and low-level dread. If you have been watching AEW television lately, you know exactly what I mean. When this company fires on all cylinders, there is absolutely nothing like it in professional wrestling. They can put on pay-per-views that make you remember why you fell in love with this ridiculous fake sport in the first place.

But when they miss, they miss hard. They get bogged down in their own worst habits. Overbooking, endless matches, and a desperate need to fit every single person on the roster onto the card.

Dynasty feels like a pivot point. We are on the road to Double or Nothing in May, and the chessboard is being set up. So, what are we actually looking at here? Let's break down the best and worst case scenarios for this Sunday.

The Best Case: They Actually Edit Themselves

The absolute best thing Tony Khan could do this Sunday is look at his formatting sheet and take a red pen to it. AEW pay-per-views are notoriously long. Sometimes that works when the crowd is rabid and every match is a banger. But a four-hour main card plus a pre-show is a massive ask for a crowd in 2026.

In the best-case scenario, Dynasty is a tight, ruthless card. Eight matches. Maybe nine if you really push it. No filler. No random multi-man tags just to get a faction on the screen. Give the big matches the time they need to breathe. Give Swerve Strickland and his opponent twenty-five minutes to tell a story. Give the women's title match the semi-main event slot and let them go to war without rushing the finish.

When AEW limits the match count, the wrestlers don't have to kill themselves trying to stand out. They don't have to hit Canadian Destroyers on the apron at the seven-minute mark just to get a pop because the crowd is already exhausted. A lean card means a hot crowd from the opener to the main event.

The Best Case: Will Ospreay Does Will Ospreay Things

Let's be honest. Half the reason anyone buys an AEW pay-per-view is the promise of seeing Will Ospreay do something that shouldn't be physically possible. Since he signed full-time, he has been the most consistent in-ring performer on the planet.

The best case for Dynasty is that Ospreay gets a marquee singles match with no strings attached. No Don Callis Family interference. No weird faction warfare. Just Ospreay and a game opponent, like a Takeshita or a Pac, going out there and trying to steal the show.

Ospreay has this uncanny ability to pace a match so that the final five minutes feel like a chaotic sprint where every single move matters. We need that energy. We need that undeniable, visceral reaction where the entire arena is on their feet. When Ospreay is peaking, it lifts the entire perception of the promotion. It reminds the casual fans why AEW exists as an alternative. It is supposed to be the place where the best wrestlers in the world are allowed to just wrestle.

The Best Case: The Women’s Division Takes Center Stage

We have been talking about the rebuilding of the AEW women’s division for years. It has been a constant stop-and-start process. But right now, with Mercedes Moné fully integrated into the roster and a healthy mix of established stars and rising talent, there are zero excuses left.

The absolute best-case scenario for Dynasty is that the women’s championship match is the unquestioned match of the night. Whether it is Mariah May, Toni Storm, or Jamie Hayter in that spot, they need to be treated with the exact same gravity as the men’s main event. Give them the video packages. Give them the ring entrances with the elaborate pyro. Give them twenty-two uninterrupted minutes.

When Mercedes is motivated and has a dancing partner who can match her intensity, she is untouchable. She brings a big-fight feel that very few people in the industry possess. If the women’s title match delivers a classic, it silences a massive portion of AEW’s loudest critics. It proves that the division is not an afterthought, but a core pillar of the promotion.

The Best Case: A Clean, Definitive World Title Main Event

This cannot be overstated. We need a clean finish in the main event. I don't care who is holding the belt and who is challenging. I just need a match that ends with a definitive pinfall or submission.

AEW has leaned way too hard into the sports entertainment tropes recently. The lights going out. The masked attackers. The sudden betrayals from cornermen. It works once in a while. It worked perfectly for the MJF and Adam Cole storyline years ago. But it cannot be the default setting for your world championship program.

The best scenario for Kansas City is that the main event is a fight. A grueling, bloody, emotional fight that ends when one man simply cannot kick out anymore. No shenanigans. No post-match beatdown that overshadows the result. Let the winner stand tall, hold the belt up, and let the broadcast fade to black. That kind of booking builds real credibility.

The Worst Case: The Chris Jericho Vortex Consumes Us All

Now we get to the dark side. The worst-case scenario. And it almost always starts with Chris Jericho getting twenty minutes of television time that he absolutely does not need.

I respect Chris Jericho. The man is a legend. His longevity is insane. But we are in 2026, and the current iteration of his character is just exhausting. The worst thing that could happen at Dynasty is a Jericho match being placed right in the middle of the card and grinding the show to a complete halt.

You know the match I am talking about. It will be a plodding, walk-and-brawl around the ringside area. There will be at least three run-ins from his underlings. Someone will get hit with a baseball bat behind the referee's back. The crowd will sit in total silence, waiting for it to end. It is a momentum killer. It is the exact opposite of what AEW is supposed to be. If this match goes longer than 10 minutes, it is a massive failure of formatting.

The Worst Case: The Overbooking Epidemic

Tony Khan loves a surprise. He loves a debut. He loves a swerve. But sometimes, you just need to play the hits.

The worst-case scenario for Dynasty is that the entire card is littered with unnecessary twists. Imagine a fantastic tag team title match being ruined because the Young Bucks decide to do a ten-minute meta-comedy routine involving the referee. Imagine a blood feud ending in a disqualification because someone used a chair. AEW was founded on the promise of decisive finishes and a sports-based presentation.

When you overbook a card, you train your audience that the actual wrestling doesn't matter. You train them to just wait for the post-match angle. We don't want to watch thirty minutes of grappling just to have the finish ruined by a random guy in a black hoodie jumping the barricade. If Dynasty is full of dusty finishes, the goodwill of the fanbase is going to evaporate incredibly fast.

The Worst Case: The Death Slot Strikes Again

Conversely to the best-case scenario, the worst thing they could do is fall back into their old, lazy habits regarding the women’s roster. You know exactly what the death slot is. It is the match placed right before the main event, immediately following a thirty-minute bloodbath, when the crowd is using the bathroom and buying a final beer.

Putting a highly anticipated women’s match in that position is setting the talent up for failure. It is incredibly disrespectful. The crowd is exhausted, the reactions are muted, and the wrestlers have to work twice as hard to get a fraction of the response.

If AEW books a massive women's title match and drops it into that slot right before the main event, it tells the audience that management still does not view the division as a true priority. It kills the momentum of whoever is holding the belt and actively hurts the performers involved.

The Worst Case: The Crowd Dies at the Three-Hour Mark

This ties directly into the pacing issue. Kansas City is a great wrestling town. They will show up loud and ready to go. But you cannot ask human beings to scream for four straight hours. It is physically impossible.

The nightmare scenario is that the first three matches are absolute wars. Guys taking insane bumps, kicking out of multiple finishers, tearing the house down. The crowd goes wild. But then, match number four is a twenty-minute slog. Match number five is a sloppy multi-man cluster. By the time the co-main event rolls around, the arena sounds like a library.

We have seen this happen so many times. A genuinely great main event gets crickets because the audience has nothing left to give. It ruins the atmosphere on television. It makes the product look cold. If AEW ignores the pacing and tries to cram fourteen matches into the night, they are going to shoot themselves in the foot.

The Verdict

AEW Dynasty has all the potential in the world. The roster is ridiculously stacked. The talent is there. The desire is there. It all comes down to execution.

If they keep it simple, let their stars shine, and avoid their worst booking impulses, this could be an all-time great show. It could set the perfect tone heading into Double or Nothing. But if they give in to the bloat, the overbooking, and the self-indulgence, it is going to be a long, frustrating Sunday night.

I am holding out hope. AEW usually delivers when their back is against the wall. But I am keeping my expectations entirely in check until the bell rings for the opening match. Just please, keep the Jericho match under fifteen minutes. I am begging you.