Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: AEW Dynamite Nov 4th

Greetings, fellow wrestling fans! Generic opening in which I run down the main matches announced ahead of time, preview the implications of those matches, and of course conclude with the city from which this week’s show was broadcast! Let’s get to it!

Best Match of the Night

This sure was an episode of Dynamite! There were matches! Some of them were okay, while others could even be described as good! Orange Cassidy vs. Miro was decent – Cassidy looked like he might win, until he didn’t and Miro won instead! Wow, what a turn of events! Alan Angels vs. Kenny Omega was pretty good too – that 5 guy from the Dark Order sure didn’t want to let Kenny win, even though he eventually did! It took more than the AEW World Champion probably thought it was going to – he hit a V-Trigger and then just sat on his opponent’s chest like he was definitely going to win, but Angels kicked out because Kenny was too lazy! Well, Kenny sure showed him by hitting him with a knee in the back of the head – TWICE – to win for real!

The most okay or even maybe good match this week was Cody Rhodes vs. Andrade El Idolo – both guys did well until those dastardly FTR guys helped Andrade cheat to win but the Lucha Brothers ran them off afterwards! Boo Andrade and FTR, but yay Lucha Bros! Also, Cody Rhodes was there! But never mind about that, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard almost fought! Can you believe it?! Those guys were a tag team a long, long time ago! They shouldn’t fight each other! What a crazy ending!

Best Moment of the Night

Okay, I need to drop the pretense here – I sped through the first part of this article because from an in-ring standpoint, this week’s episode was quite blah. I’m a generally positive dude, but if AEW is going to be on autopilot like this week’s episode was, it only seems fair that I get to be on autopilot for a bit too. But there were some actually positive moments this week that deserve to be talked about even if the show itself was basically filler leading up to Full Gear. Adam Page‘s short but to the point promo after the opening match was a really nice character moment heading into the biggest match of his life – as the commentary team stated, Page is carrying himself with a ton of confidence these days, and Omega had to be quaking in his non-cowboy boots when Page told him to enjoy that title for the next ten days. I’ve said it plenty of times already, but devoting an entire year to building up the eventual championship match between former friends Omega and Page has paid off big time for AEW as their match at Full Gear promises to be an all-time classic. MJF and Darby Allin facing off was also quite good and builds heat to their showdown at Full Gear – MJF saying he’s going to outwrestle Allin because he’s nothing but a “glorified stuntman” who will be too emotional and just want to fight is an interesting angle for this feud, and Allin promising to take out all his aggression tonight so he’s focused on winning rather than just beating up his loudmouthed foe at the pay-per-view was a deft countermove that left MJF with no choice but to run away. Sting cutting off his retreat was unsurprising as there really needed to be some physicality between the two competitors, and the involvement of the Pinnacle to fight off the army of masked Darby Allin supporters suggests that there may be a role for Shawn Spears and Wardlow to play in this feud before all is said and done. The violence between Maxwell and Darby was necessarily brief but characteristically intense for the straightedge daredevil, and the cocky heel managed to deny his rival the final coup de grace (not Finn Balor’s finishing move) by rolling out of the ring before Allin could hit him with a Coffin Drop. This rivalry has been built up extremely well, especially considering a match between two of the “pillars of the company” as MJF labeled them was always going to lead to a money match, and it is going to be one of the most anticipated matchups on the Full Gear card.

Great as those moments were, the best moment of the night has to go to CM Punk, who got real with the audience and addressed one of the biggest stories in the wrestling world this week, Jon Moxley‘s decision to enter treatment for alcohol abuse. (I’m highlighting Moxley’s name too because that’s exactly what Punk did in his promo, so it only seems right to give him equal credit here too.) Most of the time, professional wrestling can exist in its own world with only cursory mentions of real-world events, but this was the kind of moment that called for someone to address it onscreen, and it’s not surprising that task fell to one of the most respected mic workers in the industry. Punk made a point to skip the frivolity – no stage dives to be had on this night as he had something serious to talk about – and make a simple, clear, direct point about how it isn’t weakness to admit when you need help and how a guy like Mox could easily have just put on a tough face and pretended like he was okay but actually made the braver choice to face his problems head-on. It’s a message that everyone needs to hear at a time like this, and especially the mostly male, mostly younger audience that AEW (and professional wrestling in general) primarily appeals to. Hopefully Moxley makes a full recovery and his example will give others the courage to get the help they need rather than continuing to suffer in silence because they think that’s how “real men” handle things. Punk’s words were a perfect example of how to break down the stigmas surrounding issues of substance abuse and mental health, and it was a classy move on the organization’s part to put him out there with a microphone in his hand to address the issue with dignity and tact.

Okay, back to the silliness!

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

Anna Jay vs. Jamie Hayter took place almost entirely during a commercial break, which makes it pretty hard to pay attention to the match! And it ended with a pretty normal-looking clothesline! That doesn’t seem like a finishing move! The Inner Circle made jokes about their opponents at Full Gear, except they weren’t very funny! Also, it was totally predictable that Dan Lambert was going to be their final choice since he started the segment by saying he was the #1 member of American Top Team! What a dumb thing to say! Christian Cage hit Adam Cole with a con-chair-to! That seems like an awfully extreme thing to do when you’re supposed to be the good guy! And Jungle Express just watched and didn’t try to stop him or anything! Jeez guys, maybe you shouldn’t have let him do that!

Parting Shots

• That Samuray Del Sol guy sure looks familiar for some reason!
• Cash Wheeler grabbed the ropes AND his opponent’s tights to get the pin! You’re not supposed to do either of those things! But somehow the referee didn’t see it! Bad job, ref!
• Fans had signs! It’s fun to see the crowd having fun!
• Did Dr. Britt Baker DMD bite Anna Jay during her match with Jamie Hayter?! That’s not a good thing to do, especially if you’re a dentist!
• Here’s an Every Time I Die song! Because The Butcher is in that band, did you know?! Also it was just Halloween and the song title is a kind of monster! Cool!

That’s the end! That sure was an episode of AEW Dynamite, huh?! Leave us a comment, follow us on Twitter, check out our brand-new YouTube page, and read lots more articles! I’m going to go lie down because all these exclamation points make me exhausted! Bye!