Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: AEW Winter Is Coming

As great as AEW pay-per-views generally are, they only come around every few months. That means sometimes the company has to put on special editions of its regular weekly programming to keep its fans’ excitement levels high. After last year’s Winter Is Coming saw Kenny Omega win the AEW World Championship from Jon Moxley and Sting’s debut with the company, would this year’s edition live up to that level of hype?

Match of the Night

It’s Bryan Danielson vs. Adam Page. Sorry, I know I usually like to build up to it with some honorable mentions and everything, but I’m not going to insult your intelligence and pretend it might be anything else. The AEW World Championship match that led off the show was one of the best matches of the year on one of AEW’s last shows of the year, and the only remotely negative thing I can possibly say about it is that I kind of saw it coming – as soon as it was announced to be the first match of the night and Justin Roberts announced it was a 60-minute time limit, I immediately thought, “Wouldn’t it be wild if they did another time limit draw like Danielson and Omega did at Dynamite Grand Slam?” Well, they did, but that slight lack of originality aside, there was nothing to complain about here. I could write about it for an hour and not do it justice, so instead just go watch the match yourself and imagine I wrote something impossibly clever, witty, and profound here to summarize its brilliance.

There were, however, two other matches on the card that would have been match of the night on just about any other show, so I will talk a little about those matches before moving on. Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb was a great conclusion (at least for now) to an excellent feud, paying off weeks of storytelling in an intense back-and-forth match that saw both women put on a display of what they do best in the ring. Deeb found an innovative way to punish her opponent, pulling the padding off the middle turnbuckle – not the metal ring, but the part that anchors the ropes to the ringpost itself – to deliver a neckbreaker onto the exposed metal. Shida played her role as fiery babyface fighting through injury, countering her aggressive opponent at several points throughout the match to give herself the opening she needed. In the end, it was somewhat of a bummer that Shida won off a jackknife pin resulting from Deeb being propelled into the exposed turnbuckle ring, but the somewhat inconclusive finish gives me hope that we may yet get to revisit this feud at some point in the future.

The main event between MJF and Dante Martin also deserves an honorable mention for match of the night – MJF continues his crusade to prove he’s more than just a talented talker, while Martin looked to cap off a breakout year with his biggest win to date. The result was never really in doubt, of course, as MJF is the only Dynamite Diamond winner in AEW history and Martin’s recent betrayal of Team Taz figured to come back to bite him. Still, this was a heck of a match, with Martin stealing the show with his high-flying offense and MJF getting in a few quality offensive maneuvers of his own, including a couple of well executed powerbombs that each nearly put the match away. The high-flying Martin gave MJF all he could handle, but Ricky Starks’ involvement late in the match proved too much for the young star to overcome, and ultimately MJF was able to trap him in the Salt of the Earth armbar for the win. With an even gaudier, more ostentatious ring on his finger going forward, MJF figures to be as obnoxious as he’s ever been, and given the size of that rock, it’ll be even more legit when he pins someone following a loaded punch – it’s half the size of most sets of brass knucks and it’s meant to be worn on a single finger. (The pinky, no less.) Martin still looks good in defeat, even though it’s dumb that he got so distracted by Starks putting his opponent’s foot on the rope, and his continued feud with Team Taz should give him plenty to work with going forward. All in all, the match delivered on what it needed to and felt like a satisfying enough main event on a night when everything else was destined to be overshadowed by the opener.

Best Moment of the Night

Dante Martin getting a two-count off a side headlock takeover was a great moment, reversing MJF’s boast that he could win off that move by nearly pulling it off himself. MJF calling out Punk for unleashing a 10-minute promo on why “the local sports team sucks” last week despite criticizing him for going after low-hanging fruit was an astute observation…that I made a week ago. Get some original material, Friedman. The Superkliq (and Bobby Fish, who the Bucks were quick to point out isn’t an official member of the group, ouch) threatening to end Sue’s career and…I guess to destroy her minivan? I wasn’t entirely clear on what they were going to do with the van though it was clear they aren’t fans. Anyway, it was a pretty funny backstage segment that sets up for a fun 8-man tag between the Bucks, Cole, and Fish against Best Friends on Friday night’s Rampage. Though apparently Rampage is going to be nothing but multi-man tags, as Eddie Kingston also challenged 2point0 to a 10-man tag against himself, Santana, Ortiz, and the Lucha Brothers. (No autocarrot, Santa is not going to be on Kingston’s team, I don’t care what time of year it is.)

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

Wardlow squashing Matt Sydal was kind of pointless, especially after a very similar match just two weeks ago, though I suppose Shawn Spears ordering the big man to buy some celebratory champagne for MJF’s upcoming win in the main event rather than in any way acknowledging Wardlow’s own victory could be considered storyline development. It remains clear that Wardlow and MJF are not exactly on the same page lately, and the Chairman isn’t helping matters. I’m not sure we needed the match to establish that, however. Otherwise, there wasn’t anything notably bad this week, just as there wasn’t that much notably good outside of the matches this week. Everything else was just kind of…there, which is not a complaint – the three best matches of the night were fantastic, and nothing else stunk up the joint enough to be worth complaining about.

Parting Shots

• This isn’t directly related to this week’s Dynamite, but since the story broke on the same day, I figured I may as well comment on the news that Kevin Owens re-signed with WWE on a multi-year deal. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed to know he won’t be reuniting with Adam Cole, the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and others whose paths he’s crossed over the years, but I have to say that I get why he’d want to stay where he is now. The money is reportedly quite good, and he’s in a good spot having faced Roman Reigns for one world title recently and being about to face Big E for the other world title at Day 1 on January 1st. He hasn’t always been booked this consistently throughout his career in WWE, but hopefully the company continues to build him into one of the strongest competitors of this generation, because that’s what his reputation should be by the time he hangs up his boots for good.
• Penelope Ford vs. Tay Conti in a submissions match on Rampage figures to be great – I remain impressed by how well AEW has booked its women’s division lately, with multiple non-title feuds complementing the Women’s World Championship and TBS Championship scenes. The match type obviously favors Conti, but saying a submissions match rules out the use of Ford’s brass knuckles is obviously untrue, so we’ll see how things play out.
• Malakai Black’s vignette was some enjoyable nonsense – I didn’t follow a single word he said but it was awesome. Also, the idea that he greets members of the House of Black by misting them directly in the face is just too perfect for his character. It would be great if he continues recruiting new members, though it’s not like AEW is short on factions at the moment. Hey, maybe the former Dark Order Creepers are available and need work! They could become new House of Black lackeys! …On second thought, maybe not.
• I have to admit, as much as it makes sense for Darby Allin and Sting to attack MJF and FTR, I was really hoping for someone more exciting when the lights went out. After all, Sting debuted at Winter Is Coming last year – sure, him appearing this year is a nice bit of continuity and all, but there are free agents out there who could have used this moment to make their own debut. Perhaps someone with a history of turning out the lights. Just saying.

That’s it for another week of Dynamite. Great show overall, of course anchored by that unreal opening match. With several months until the next pay-per-view, shows like Winter Is Coming are a nice change of pace from AEW’s regular weekly offerings to keep things interesting. Hopefully the company can keep the momentum going strong as we head into 2022 and the show shifts to its new home on TBS. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and come on back next week for more Chair Shots!