Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: Long Island Dynamite II: Electric Boogaloo

AEW once again ventured into bizarro land where fans cheer MJF, boo Wardlow and CM Punk, and generally just do their own thing regardless of established precedents concerning faces and heels. This week’s episode also heralded the start of the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament as the men and women who qualified over the last few weeks began facing off in the tournament proper. That doesn’t mean other longstanding feuds didn’t advance, of course, as several matches and segments were built around storylines that will likely culminate at Double or Nothing at the end of this month. As always, let’s check out the standout moments, both good and bad, from this week’s Dynamite from Long Island, NY.

Best Match of the Night

Adam Cole vs. Dax Harwood kicked off the night and the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament in grand style as one of the overall favorites to win the tourney clashed with the competitor who has been most vocal about the Hart Foundation’s influence on his wrestling career. There were two major narratives driving the action – Harwood’s rib injury that was triggered by Cole slamming him into the ring post early in the match and the babyface Hart vs. heel Shawn Michaels dynamic that the two competitors embody. Harwood tried to lock in the Sharpshooter to win the match but his ribs couldn’t hold up and he was forced to release the hold, and Cole explicitly tried to “tune up the band” before going for a superkick and ultimately won the match on a Sharpshooter of his own. Dax played the gritty underdog despite the size advantage because Cole, like the good heel he is, took a shortcut to take control, and the crowd was firmly behind the FTR representative every time he mustered a comeback. As much as his underdog run as a huge Hart fan would have made for a great subplot going forward, Cole winning was probably the right call and provides a number of great potential matchups in the next rounds. Cole may not need to win the tournament to remain at or near the top of AEW’s hierarchy, but he definitely should advance a good way into the tournament if not all the way to the finals. With the Young Bucks likely facing the Hardy bros at Double or Nothing and Adam Page’s dance card obviously full at the moment, the Panama Playboy needs something significant to do, and that’s what the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament represents for stars in Cole’s spot on the card.

Another standout this week was Jungle Boy vs. Ricky Starks, a match pitting two of the young rising stars in the company. The FTW Championship may not get defended with any regularity, but since it is not an officially recognized title, that doesn’t really matter. What does matter, however, is that the title gives Starks opportunities to mix it up with other midcard stars with some extra juice since he is technically a champion. Also, Team Taz has quietly been on a bit of a roll lately, so it made sense to put Starks up against a high-profile star like Jungle Boy ahead of their probable tag title match at Double or Nothing. The match itself showcased why fans shouldn’t sleep on that upcoming clash between Team Taz and Jurassic Express – the teams’ smaller, more agile high-flying members showed out with a back-and-forth, highly competitive contest that served as a mere preview of what they are capable of. Sure, the finish was kind of lame with Starks trying to abandon the match only to be cut off by Swerve Strickland, only for the ref to miss JB’s rollup because he inexplicably felt the need to establish whose house the ring actually was, which allowed the heel to hit Rochambeau for the win. It was the right outcome, of course – Starks should retain the title until a storyline develops where someone has a reason to want to take the title off him, while Jungle Boy losing helped further the tensions between him and Christian Cage. With JB slumped over the ropes in disappointment after losing, Christian looked as though he was about to attack from behind to punish him for his perceived weakness, and the post-match interactions between Team Taz, Jurassic Express, and Swerve and Keith Lee helped cover over the relatively weak finish.

Match of the night honors have to go to the main event “anything goes” match between Darby Allin and Jeff Hardy. It was easy to forget that this was a first round match in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, but that added level of significance just made the match that much more enjoyable. Let’s be real – having two face-painted daredevils in the ring together pretty much guaranteed that this was going to be a great match, and it hit the ground running from the word go and didn’t let up until the bell rang. Darby hit a suicide dive as the bell rang, and both men had their fair share of highlights as the match rolled on. I’m not going to lie, my back is going to be sore for a week just from watching this match – Darby’s flip from a huge ladder to drive Jeff and mostly himself into two rows of chairs set up outside the ring and Jeff’s missed Swanton Bomb onto a set of stairs perched on its side on the outside were particularly wince-inducing moments of high-flying spinal trauma. Heck, Allin missing a Coffin Drop onto the apron, which would be a notable ouchie moment in any sane match, seemed like a minor transitional spot in comparison to the rest of the insanity going on. Hardy winning was a bit of a surprise in my opinion – he and his brother Matt are probably going to face the Young Bucks (who emerged post match along with the rest of the Undisputed Elite) at Double or Nothing, and Darby doesn’t have anything obvious going on at the moment, so it would have seemed to make more sense for him to continue in the tournament. Then again, the match was such an enjoyably over-the-top sprint that it almost didn’t matter who came out on top. The real winners were the friends we made along the way.

Best Moment of the Night

This may be a personal thing, but I absolutely love it when wrestlers hit their opponent’s finisher or, even better, their rival’s finisher on someone else while said rival looks on, so CM Punk hitting his version of the Buckshot Lariat to beat John Silver while Hangman Adam Page watched on from commentary was a big highlight for me. Punk was always going to be a heel in Long Island given his rivalry with MJF from the last show in Friedman’s hometown, and of course he couldn’t resist riling up the crowd with a John Tavares hockey sweater (a former New York Islander who bolted for Toronto under controversial circumstances as soon as his rookie contract was up) so turning the knife a little by using the beloved champion’s finisher was just another nice character moment. I never thought Page’s promo last week signaled an official heel turn was in the offing, though I think that may happen at some point in the future or at least a more serious tease before Kenny Omega comes back to save him from making the same mistake he made when he won the AEW title, and I don’t think Punk will play heel beyond this week either. It sure was fun while it lasted anyway.

I fully expected the in-ring debut of Danhausen to be a highlight this week, and although it absolutely was not a wrestling clinic, he did get a couple of nice moments to make up for the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it loss to Tony Nese. First, Hook emerged to save his bacon after Smart Mark Sterling ordered his client to continue the assault after the bell, and the odd couple pairing between the zany Danhausen and the uber serious Hook finally came together as Taz’s kid finally accepted a handshake from the very nice, very evil Pazuzu cosplayer. Later in the night, Danhausen’s disappointing night was further redeemed by the announcement that Hookhausen will make its debut against Nese and Sterling on the Buy-In show before Double or Nothing. I know Danhausen isn’t necessarily for anyone, though I question whether you understand the concepts of fun and humor if you dislike him, but this was a fun, quick segment that made a good portion of the fanbase very happy if the live crowd’s reaction is anything to go by.

There was only ever going to be one best moment of the week, though the MJF/Wardlow contract signing was actually several great moments all in one. The opening “Dark Side of the Ring” parody, narrated by Chris Jericho who audibly questioned why he was doing so given his feud with the Long Island loudmouth only to remind himself that, oh yeah, money, was full of hilarious gags like Taz being labeled “MJF’s consigliere” and Jake Roberts being labeled “Snake Guy” as they provided not-at-all revisionist history versions of events that led to MJF’s feud with Wardlow. Also, perennial loser Barry Horowitz, here heralded as “legendary Jewish wrestler,” calling out Wardlow as a jobber was absolutely hysterical. Then there was the in-ring promo portion of the segment. MJF specifically told the crowd he definitely *wink* didn’t *wink* want them to boo Wardlow out of the building only to feign surprise when they did exactly that. He called out the people in the cheap seats as “poor but you’re still beautiful” in one of the best backhanded compliments that still got a cheer from the crowd. He referenced his “best friend” Cody Rhodes, who he labeled “the American Rollercodester” and, in mock surprise that the AEW crowd wasn’t too keen on this reference, said “you don’t want me to talk about 2024? That’s funny because neither does the guy in the back” in a moment that came the closest to drawing boos from his hometown fans. He set up the Chairman Shawn Spears for a Perfect 10 chant when talking about how Wardlow’s going to have to take some belt lashes if he wants a match with MJF. As someone who actually enjoyed Tye Dillinger when WWE actually let him do anything (so basically during his NXT run) I will never tire of that exaggerated hand gesture, so it was a nice throwback. Of course, Wardlow did get a measure of revenge, tricking MJF into having his handcuffs removed to sign the contract only to fight off security and Spears to nearly get his hands on MJF himself but settling for putting Smart Mark Sterling through the contract signing table. All in all, this was an awesome segment – yes, contract signings are kind of overdone, but this was an above-average example of a well-worn trope.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

Literally nothing. No joke, I can’t think of anything bad enough to mention here. The ending of Toni Storm vs. Jamie Hayter seemed like a sort of botch and not exactly the best Storm Zero ever delivered even if it wasn’t an outright flub, but that just kept it off my list of matches of the night – the match itself was great. The Jericho Appreciation Society segment was pretty good too even if I never needed to think about what makes Matt Menard’s nipples hard and the involvement of the Blackpool Combat Club seemed fairly unmotivated except that they like to fight and Jon Moxley is buds with Eddie Kingston. Plus, I’m sure somebody backstage said, “Hey, what if we have William Regal punch Chris Jericho right in his face?” and nobody cared about about the logic of making that moment happen. (Also, someone check on Jim Ross – Lord Regal is famously lefthanded and very clearly landed a left hand, not a right as good ol’ JR called it.) Is any of that bad? No, of course not. But that’s the closest to something worth complaining about from this week’s episode that I could think of.

Parting Shots

• I do not look anything like Kenny Omega, but I made this exact face when I saw someone had paid enough money to sit close enough to the ring that they could be seen on camera and chose to use that primo seat to hold up a “Send the Young Bucks to wrestling school” sign.
• Mark Sterling had basically the opposite of Danhausen’s night – his client Tony Nese kicked off his night with a huge win, followed immediately by being chased off by Hook, then he got powerbombed through a table, then he got announced for his first match in AEW against the aforementioned Hook and Danhausen. At least he had this hilarious fake ad from Being the Elite to fall back on. So that’s something anyway.
• I submit that there is no funnier chant than “you f%@&ed up” when heels find themselves in easily foreseeable peril as a result of their own hubris, as evidenced when the Jericho Appreciation Society cockily pointed out their numbers advantage against Blackpool Combat Club only for Eddie Kingston, Santana, and Ortiz to emerge from the crowd to cut off their escape route. I should note, however, that this chant is not at all funny when someone (usually a ref) legitimately makes an honest mistake and if wrestling fans could all agree to use it only in the former scenario and not in the latter, that would be great. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
• I do not have the first clue who either Joker will be in the men’s or women’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament will be, which is a nice change from what is usually the worst-kept secret in all of professional wrestling. (And no, I’m not suggesting wrestling is only enjoyable if it’s unpredictable either.) If I had to guess/state a preference, I would say I’d like to see Athena (FKA Ember Moon) and Johnny Gargano in those roles, but considering the women’s Joker has to face Dr. Britt Baker DMD in the first round, I think it might be better if it was someone who could more easily absorb a loss in their first match. In that case, new Impact signee Mia Yim might be a better choice – it would be a fun one-off match and further AEW’s working relationship with her new home promotion. Samoa Joe could get screwed over by Jay Lethal and Satnam Singh to further their feud, so it might make sense to pair him with a Joker who could use a big win in their debut. If the company opts for an impactful return rather than a new signing, Brian Cage (who has apparently signed with AEW’s sister company Ring of Honor) or Miro would be an obvious choice on the men’s side, and Anna Jay would make sense on the women’s side.

That’s it for another week of Dynamite – I did not expect too much from this week’s show as most of it was devoted to the first round of the Owen Hart Foundation Tournaments, but the matches were all good and the contract signing segment especially went above and beyond my admittedly lofty expectations. Thanks for joining me once again, and I hope you’ll all return next week for more Chair Shots!