For the past few weeks here in these loved and hated pieces, I have gushed about how exciting the AEW Men’s World Championship picture is at the moment. MJF has to contend with the likes of Hangman Page, Brody King, Swerve Strickland, Samoa Joe and Kenny Omega, but now he has a different kind of problem, an ungovernable one.
It’s been clear since his return to action in 2026 that there is a different level of fire burning underneath Andrade El Idolo. For years, everyone has known about how talented his is — that was evident when he was La Sombra, when he was in WWE, and even in his first run with AEW. The guy is main event level talent, he just had something missing. Whatever that something is, he has found it, or Don Callis has found it. Whoever has found it, Andrade is finally showing the world why everyone rates him so highly, and tonight’s match on the January 28 episode of “AEW Dynamite” against Swerve Strickland was a prime example.
Swerve has made it very clear how much he wants his AEW Men’s World Championship back, so when the match with Andrade was booked, it was met with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Everyone knew it was going to be good, but would it be the best idea having Andrade lose so early into his second run with the company? Absolutely not, and instead of taking the easy way out and having a non-finish, Andrade actually got the win. Sure, it wasn’t the cleanest and he had to get a low blow in there to help get the job done, but Andrade beat Swerve, he beat a former AEW Men’s World Champion, someone who is one of the faces of the company right now. That’s huge!
The match itself was also great. Two guys meeting in the ring for the first time showcasing how freakishly athletic they are, while also portraying how much they want to be the top guy in AEW. Andrade and Swerve pulled out all the stops, every trick they could pull was pulled and it still couldn’t get the job done. Back and forth, move for move, counter for counter; I didn’t know what to expect from these two considering they’re quite similar, but I was very pleased with what I got, and it ended with a surprising result that keeps an already exciting title picture even more interesting.
Andrade now gets to face Kenny Omega next week, but where does Swerve go from here? How does that impact Hangman’s trajectory? Brody King has an Eliminator Match against MJF next week, will that change things? An excellent end to another very good show.
Written by Sam Palmer
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