Sting reminds MJF about Cody Rhodes, and turns up the heat in AEW’s Four Pillars feud

The Mogul Embassy era got off to a rough start on the April 12 Dynamite. Swerve Strickland delivered his usual entertaining performance while opening the show against Darby Allin, but after referee Aubrey Edwards sent Prince Nana & Brian Cage to the back, he took a pinfall loss to his old rival from the Pacific Northwest*.

As you can tell from the end of that tweet, this was prelude to the next chapter of the Four Young Pillars World title feud. Maxwell Jacob Friedman started by reminding the Milwaukee crowd about his history with Allin, particularly the Full Gear 2021 match he won with a side headlock takeover (and a shot with the Dynamite Diamond Ring, but the champ didn’t mention that).

Darby responded with a very good babyface promo about how his wrestling fame led him to work on himself in therapy, realize he wanted to take care of the people who’ve taken care of him by doing things like buying his parents a house, and vowing not to let the business change him.

MJF fired back with his usual justification about how only scumbags succeed in wrestling, and said Allin will only be remembered as “Sting’s bitch”.

That brought out The Icon to tell us he’s proud to be Darby’s cheerleader, and he had lots of pom-poms to prove it. Stinger also gave us a a history lesson, shouting out Ric Flair for supporting him as a young surfer, and Kevin Nash & Scott Hall for their Wolfpac days. Sting also reminded us that Max had his own mentor in Cody Rhodes.

Sting teased the end of his unparalleled run, but said showtime is just starting for his young protege. MJF had nothing to say to that, instead spitting in Darby’s face before heading for the hills.

AEW’s taken care to refresh issues between the World champion and each of his three rivals (Allin, Sammy Guevara & Jungle Jack Perry). When will we get a match?

Let us know what you think, and get complete results and coverage of everything from tonight’s edition of Dynamite here.

* Although business picked up in the main event when Swerve returned to cost his former tag partner Keith Lee his match against Chris Jericho.