AEW Dynamite Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights from April 8

All Elite Wrestling returned this week with another empty-arena episode of Dynamite and a handful of matches to keep us entertained.

The TNT Championship tournament continued with Cody taking on Shawn Spears in a semifinal bout to see which Superstars would move on to the final round.

We also saw Hikaru Shida battle Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D., Kenny Omega and Michael Nakazawa team up to face The Best Friends, and Brodie Lee in action.

Joining Tony Schiavone in the booth was none other than Le Champion Chris Jericho. Let's take a look at everything that went down on this week's episode of Dynamite.

The show opened with Jake Roberts giving a promo directed at Cody before we went to the arena for Lance Archer's entrance.

The Murderhawk Monster entered the ring and leveled his opponent with a kick to the face before the bell. He won in less than three minutes with the Black Out.

Grade: C+

Analysis

Archer is an imposing force. Giving him some quick wins to establish him as a monster is classic booking. It works for now because a lot of American fans may not know what Archer has been up to in recent years.

The promo from Roberts at the top of the show was well done. The Snake can still intrigue audiences with his words, and he is a great manager for Archer.

The match was nothing special, but it accomplished its goal.

The next match kicked off before the first commercial break. Baker and Shida exchanged a few kicks and shoves before Shida took control and forced the dentist to take a breather outside the ring.

Baker eventually turned the tables and employed some heel tactics to keep her opponent on the defensive. Shida made a comeback with a little help from the wrestlers who were surrounding the ring.

After the break, Baker received a bloody nose from one of Shida's stiff strikes. The dentist was bleeding profusely as she tried to apply her trademark submission. She tried to put on a rubber glove, but Shida was able to counter into a near-fall.

Shida scored the win with a running knee to the face after fending off Baker's best efforts.

Grade: B

Analysis 

Jericho and Schiavone made a great team on commentary. Le Champion put over Baker at every turn while making several references to old-school wrestlers a lot of younger fans probably have to Google.

Baker hammed it up once she started bleeding and used the situation to make herself look tough. It worked. She looked more dangerous as a heel than ever before.

Shida is one of the best AEW has in any division. She shined in this bout and looked like somebody who has a real chance at beating Nyla Rose down the line. This was a solid outing from both Superstars.

AEW aired a couple of video packages before this match got started. Jake Hager and Jon Moxley's feud was given a big spotlight this week. It was a well-made video that made both men look good.

Omega and Nakazawa may be best friends, but Chuck Taylor and Trent are The Best Friends, and they had Orange Cassidy at ringside to back them up.

Omega and Taylor started for their teams with an exchange of basic holds and counters. It didn't take long before both duos began using comedic double-team spots.

A lot of time was devoted to creating funny moments before it ended with Best Friends scoring an upset victory.

Grade: B-

Analysis

Nakazawa is an odd character because AEW doesn't seem to know how to use him properly. He is a comedy act who is closely associated with one of the top stars in the company, so it comes across as a strange pairing even though they have a long history dating back to their time as a team in Japan.

This was a fun match, but it wasn't as good as it could have been. At times, comedy seemed to be a bigger priority than competitiveness. If you like comedic wrestling, you will enjoy this contest. If you don't, then you won't. It's that simple.

Brodie Lee was out next for a squash match against a man by the name of Lee Johnson. This was exactly what you would expect it to be.

The Exalted One destroyed the young man and got the win with a vicious clothesline.

Grade: D

Analysis

Giving Archer squash matches makes sense because a lot of fans have not followed his career after he left WWE. It doesn't make sense to do it for Brodie Lee because everybody knows what he was up to in WWE recently.

This spot would have been better used giving a lower-level member from The Dark Order a victory because they need to be built up more than AEW's newest acquisition.

Cody and Spears have been waiting for a rematch since All Out. This time, the stakes were higher since the winner would move on to the finals for the TNT Championship.

The Chairman took control early and cornered The American Nightmare for some chops to the chest. Cody made a quick comeback, but a missed moonsault put Spears back in the driver's seat.

Other than a few bursts of offense from Cody, Spears dominated most of the match after the first of two breaks. He ended up hitting his C4 finisher to put Cody through a table at ringside.

After he recovered, The American Nightmare put him in the Figure-Four to get the win.

Grade: B+

Analysis

These two have known each other for many years, and their familiarity led to some great chemistry. Everything they did was smooth and precise.

This was a great way to end what was a somewhat uneven show. Spears and Cody are two of the few people with a longstanding feud in AEW that began in this promotion.

Jericho and Schiavone made the match even more enjoyable with their insightful commentary. The only issue was how many weapons came into play in a regular match. This is one of the issues AEW has been dealing with since it debuted.

If they wanted this to be a No Disqualification match, they should have booked it that way. Other than that complaint, this was a good main event.