Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: AEW Fight For The Fallen

Who doesn’t love a special edition episode of Dynamite? Yes, we just had Fyter Fest the last two weeks and we’re two weeks from the ridiculously named Quake by the Lake, but it’s a recipe for success more often than not so the company has little incentive not to keep churning out the crowd-pleasing hits. Fight for the Fallen had more than a unique name going for it, with three title matches, a fan favorite addressing his recent return, and a big in-ring return in the main event. Did the show live up to the hype or fall (pun intended) short of expectations?

Best Match of the Night

Man, there were some great matches this week. From start to finish, there was very little to dislike on this show. That isn’t to say everything was equally good, but even the matches that didn’t make it onto my list were enjoyable enough (and I’ll talk about some of them in the next segment). And since I said “from start to finish” just a moment ago, we may as well proceed in that order, no? (Okay, it’s a coincidence, but I suppose it’s all right to set expectations even if it spoils what my match of the night will be.) The opening match for the interim AEW World Championship between Jon Moxley and Rush was outstanding and kicked the night off with a bang. I didn’t get a chance to watch Ring of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor this past weekend, but I heard Rush vs. Dragon Lee was an absolute banger, and I can’t imagine those two brothers delivering anything less than greatness, so this was an excellent follow-up just a few nights later. I really feel like El Toro Blanco has a great opportunity whether he ends up with AEW or RoH in the long term, and while he clearly wasn’t going to defeat the interim champ here, it just felt appropriate to put him in the ring with one of the top stars in the company to further establish that he’s going places. It also didn’t hurt that William Regal put him over on commentary, insisting his “former company” didn’t want Rush because they were worried he was too violent, and he proved that to be true as he busted the champ open early on in the match and worked over the injury throughout, digging his fingers into Mox’s forehead and biting him in a bit of “turnabout is fair play” for the often bitey champ. Speaking of the interim world champion, Mox gave as good as he took, trading big shots with his challenger and overcoming interference from Jose the assistant and Andrade El Idolo to pick up the win after Rush passed out in the Bulldog Choke. I’m not a big fan of this finish as I’ve mentioned before – I don’t feel like not tapping out is such a “tough guy” move when every submission finish is the same – but I suppose at least it makes sense for a chokehold to put people to sleep. Chris Jericho emerged post-match to challenge Moxley for the interim championship at Quake by the Lake, and if he wins Mox will presumably get his rematch at the less intense but equally ridiculous Shiver at the River, with the rubber match to be held at Shook near the Brook. All joking aside, I’m sure people are worried that Jericho will win the title after he beat Eddie Kingston last week, and I’ll admit that it doesn’t seem terribly farfetched. If I can dust off my conspiracy theorist hat (why is it so dusty? Is it because I never wear it, or is that just what the Illuminati wants me to believe?) it’s possible that AEW doesn’t want CM Punk to get booed if he faces and ultimately beats Moxley to unify the titles, so they may put the belt on Jericho so there’s no ambiguity about who fans should want to win. I still think Mox is likely to retain the title for now, and Jericho winning last week was just to prevent him from suffering a loss right before stepping up to the champ considering the whole “win/loss records matter” gimmick the company has going on, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out anyway. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Rush vs. Mox. Good times.

With all due respect to the FTW title match, the other standout championship match of the night was between Thunder Rosa vs. Miyu Yamashita for the AEW Women’s World Championship. I’ll grant you that the feud between these two women hasn’t been established that well – with Miyu defeating the champ in a non-title match in Japan to earn a shot at the title, not a lot of people saw the setup for this match except for the recaps AEW played. That said, the in-ring storytelling of the match was so good, with the violence ramping up and up as the match went on and both women got increasingly desperate to put their opponent away, that the audience was pulled in anyway. Even if you didn’t know anything about Yamashita’s offensive arsenal, you knew how close she came to winning off a spinning heel kick based on how snugly she hit it, and the champ had to force a rope break to escape from the pin. Rosa managed to overcome, of course, winning off a Fire Thunder Driver after a very even match that was actually given a decent amount of time to develop. Hopefully Thunder Rosa’s title reign is on the upswing and will lead to a high-profile match at the next pay-per-view, All Out. There are still valid complaints to be made about how her run with the title has gone so far, but as long as we keep getting good matches that eventually leads to a worthy feud, there’s still time for it to turn out well.

Not surprisingly, the main event of Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia was awesome and my pick for match of the night. Duh doy. Garcia apparently came up just short of winning the Ring of Honor Pure Championship from Wheeler Yuta this past weekend at Death Before Dishonor, so it was nice to see him rebound with a main event match as a consolation. Danielson was returning after injuries infamously suffered at the hands of Chris Jericho and Jake Hager at Double or Nothing, which Jericho himself was quick to take credit for on commentary while questioning whether Danielson was returning too soon from that injury. In fact, that was pretty much the story of the match – Danielson fought hard to prove he hasn’t lost a step in his time away, while Garcia looked to take advantage of the lingering effects of the American Dragon’s history of head and neck issues. Danielson got the match off to a flying start with a running dropkick immediately as the bell rang, and the physicality continued from there as both men frequently traded shots back and forth and looked to rain down elbow strikes on each other’s head. The first glimmer of trouble for the Yes Man appeared when he hit a dropkick off the top turnbuckle, hitting the back of his head as he landed, which opened the door for Garcia to land some shots to his opponent’s head after being the first to recover from the flying strike. Garcia continued to wear down Danielson, most notably landing a vicious DDT onto the exposed concrete outside of the ring. Danielson continued to fight back but couldn’t or wouldn’t protect himself as he sought to put his scrappy opponent away, hitting a back suplex off the top turnbuckle but once again landing on the back of his head and neck. Ultimately, it took some Jericho Appreciation Society chicanery to give Garcia the final advantage needed to pull off the major upset, with Jake Hager reaching up from below the ring to trip up Danielson just long enough to allow Garcia to drop him with a piledriver and lock on the sharpshooter, which Danielson *sigh* passed out in, but I suppose after such a grueling contest it makes sense to sell the exhaustion. This was an absolutely massive upset that will only give Garcia and the JAS further bragging rights, and it goes to show that the Blackpool Combat Club isn’t the only group in AEW capable of building up young talent. Danielson will be fine following this loss, though it will be interesting to track whether the head/neck injuries continue to be used as part of the storyline going forward. As odd as it seems to have a non-title match cap off a card in which three titles were defended, this match absolutely lived up to its billing in that spot.

Best Moment of the Night

There was a short backstage segment with the Young Bucks feeling down in the dumps, but Brandon Cutler pointed out that they could go after the newly announced trios titles, volunteering to be their third which they, of course, rebuffed out of hand. They soon ran into Adam Page, who they wished a happy birthday and responded by wishing Nick a happy birthday also. (Yes, this is your reminder that the Bucks are not twins and have different birthdays.) Just as the Bucks were mustering up the courage to ask Page to join them to challenge for the trios titles, the Dark Order interrupted to bring Page some “birthday broccoli” (because they already ate all the cake, you see) and thoroughly ruin the moment. With the announcement that the Undisputed Elite will return next week, it will be interesting to see if the Bucks continue flirting with a face turn in opposition to Adam Cole and reDRagon, though it seems more likely that they hold off on that until Kenny Omega returns. Still, any excuse to get the Bucks, Page, and the Dark Order together in a segment is gold in my opinion.

I haven’t generally cared that much about Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh, and Sonjay Dutt‘s alliance and their shenanigans since joining forces, but their backstage segment with Best Friends was pretty hilarious. Trent Beretta and Chuck Taylor questioned how the heels could talk smack about them when they’re standing a short distance away wearing extremely loud tie-dyed suits, which is an extremely valid question. They then challenged the trio to a match on Rampage but acknowledged it would have to be a tag team match since Dutt can’t go in the ring anymore. Incensed at the insinuation that he would be left out of the fun despite being effectively retired from in-ring action for over 4 years, Dutt delivered a fiery response in which he accepted their challenge for a trios match with Orange Cassidy, but as soon as the babyfaces were out of frame, he immediately regretted everything, asking Lethal why he didn’t stop him from shooting his mouth off like that. If you’ve been reading these reviews for any amount of time, you’ll know that I enjoy comedy ridiculousness in my wrestling, so of course I appreciated this little backstage moment even if the feud it furthered is basically the definition of B-show filler.

Jungle Boy‘s promo hitting back at Christian Cage was also a great bit of character work and storytelling but with the benefit of being longer and serving a better storyline. Given the vitriol spewed in his absence, it was no surprise that Jungle Jack brought the fire, calling out Christian for his cowardice in trying to make himself more relevant by talking smack about his family but then running away when he finally returned. He reaffirmed that Luchasaurus is his best friend, which was undercut by the fact that the giant dinosaur man was still wearing his black heelish gear and the camera lingered on the entrance tunnels as if it was unclear whether he would come out the left (boo) or right (yay) entrance. That was a really interesting aspect of this segment that bears watching as we go forward – it’s unclear how much Christian actually got to Luchasaurus and how much he was just pretending as part of their plan. JB’s intensity was entirely appropriate and well-received by the live crowd, who roared with approval at each body shot he landed on the slimy heel, especially when he mentioned that Christian needed the bonus money from that battle royal that set off this entire feud because his wife divorced him and mimicked the “call me” gesture Christian had used in a crass reference to JB’s mom. Jungle Boy’s best line was when he said Christian was “like the bad guys in movies with the turtlenecks and the small pr!cks…what do you think happened to the wife?” Christian still got to play a part, cutting off Jungle Boy from backstage as the promo threatened to turn genuinely emotional with him recounting a story about his father’s funeral, and he promised to send the Jurassic Express star six feet under like his dad. This feud likely still has a lot of twists and turns ahead, but this was an excellent way to advance the storyline while putting off the physicality a while longer.

Even though the matches for the FTW Championship weren’t anything to write home about, I’m going to give moment of the night to the entire segment involving Danhausen, Hook, Ricky Starks, and Powerhouse Hobbs. Danhausen predictably didn’t last long against Starks, though he did deliver a spot-on impersonation of Starks’ iconic pose rather than going for his usual curse before falling in defeat. Starks asked for another challenger – “for real this time” – and his challenge was answered by Danhausen’s tag partner Hook, who received a hero’s welcome from the crowd in Worcester, MA. Not surprisingly, Starks was no match for Taz’s boy, who felled him with Redrum for his first title win in AEW. While the show cut to commercial after the match to imply that the segment was over, the show returned from break with Tony Schiavone in the ring to interview the former champion, who cut an impassioned promo about how he made the FTW title relevant and how overdue he is for a push. The crowd was already behind him before this, but he was in full babyface mode here, which was only underscored by the fact that Powerhouse Hobbs took this opportunity to blindside his partner with a clothesline and spinebuster, leaving him lying as boos rained down on him and Taz expressed his disbelief on commentary. This was an incredibly well-executed segment, delivering several standout moments that will power a few different storylines going forward. Is Team Taz still a thing? What about Hookhausen? Will Taz remain aligned with Starks, Hobbs, or neither? Who will challenge for the FTW Championship now that the El Diablo Guapo is champ? How hard and how soon will Starks be pushed as a babyface? I enjoy some intricate storytelling as much as I enjoy ridiculous comedy in wrestling, so this was right up my alley and it’s no wonder it was my favorite segment of the show.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

I really couldn’t think of anything negative this week, so I’m going to pivot briefly to a semi-AEW-related negative from this past weekend’s Ring of Honor show. As great as it was for Claudio Castagnoli to win his first world championship, his win in the opening match was not without its controversy, as some felt it was an excessively short contest that was not given the attention it deserved. Former champion Jonathan Gresham apparently was among those who felt the match was not booked suitably, as he reportedly demanded to be released in its aftermath. Gresham is an undeniably talented wrestler, and I was looking forward to him being a big part of the RoH relaunch, potentially even moving over to AEW once the program was suitably off the ground, so it’s disappointing that the relationship between himself and Tony Khan has gotten so bad that it apparently can’t be repaired. Now, this is professional wrestling, so there will always be a “never say never” attitude for many fans, but this entire situation is just depressing. Khan has been criticized for his poor communication with talent at times since AEW’s launch, and this is just another unfortunate example of what can happen when a company is lacking in the talent relations department. Here’s hoping they can mend fences with one of the most talented technical wrestlers in the world today, as he would be a significant loss if indeed he does end up walking away.

I’m actually going to end the AEW portion of things here and dedicate the Parting Shots section to something WWE-related, so if you’re just here for my sorta-review of Dynamite (or my sterling wit) you can feel free to bow out here. Overall, I’d say Fight for the Fallen was an excellent show, and I am very excited about the direction the company seems to be going in at this point. Now for something completely different.

Parting Shots

Probably the biggest story in all of wrestling this week was the “retirement” (read: board-mandated removal) of Vince McMahon as head of creative in WWE after previously stepping down as the company’s CEO. Obviously, this is a very good thing for a variety of reasons, not least of which that he will no longer be in a position of power that he could abuse and that he may actually face consequences for his alleged sexual misconduct, but I mainly want to focus on how this will be a good thing for fans both current and lapsed. Chairwoman Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan splitting duties as CEO and Paul “HHH” Levesque taking over as head of on-screen creative marks the effective start of a new era in WWE, and while some long-needed changes (such as cutting ties with Saudi Arabia and returning Raw to 2 hours) may not be feasible immediately, if at all, there are plenty of things that the McMahon-Helmsley regime can do to make the product better starting right now. I know things won’t change overnight, and I recognize that we’re very much in the territory CM Punk warned us about in his pipebomb promo all those years ago where the company won’t be that much better under this leadership group than the previous one, but there is definitely some reason for optimism. And since I’m an opinionated former fan who’s willing to give the company a second chance, here’s what I would say the top five priorities for this new era of WWE if Trips and Steph want to fix the product and win back fans like me. I’ll even put it in a numbered mini-list form because I know what the internet likes! …No, not that. Numbered lists. Try to keep up.

5. Fix the tag team division. Vince McMahon is famous for disliking tag team wrestling. Wrestling fans are famous for liking it. Whose opinion should matter more if the former is gone and you want to bring the latter back?

4. Less scripted promos. If you’re not an English nerd like me, the distinction between “less” and “fewer” might not mean that much to you, but I want to stress that I do mean less and not fewer scripted promos. Essentially, I don’t want the number of scripted promos to drastically decrease, just the amount of scripting in any given promo. Some wrestlers do benefit from some degree of scripting, while others just need bullet points just to keep them on track, but virtually nobody needs an entire script just to deliver in-character remarks. So tailor the amount of scripting to the performer, but the goal should be to cut down on the amount that gets written ahead of time across the board.

3. Build new stars. This is something WWE has struggled with for years under Vince – so many performers got over on NXT only to be called up, stripped of anything that made them popular in the first place, and sent out to die while guys like Goldberg and Brock Lesnar took up semi-permanent residence in the main event scene. When NXT 2.0 debuted, as much as I hated to see the “super indie” version of the show die off, I argued that was actually a positive thing for the company overall – if Vince wanted blank slates upon which to build the kind of characters he envisioned for the main roster, at least the 2.0 era would serve its purpose better. With the new regime, the integration between NXT and the main roster should continue, so it will just be a matter of identifying who to push and how to get them where they need to be. And I’m not just talking about Vince’s guys like Riddle and Theory, both of whom have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct (gee, I wonder why Vince liked them so much…) – want Solo Sikoa to be the heir apparent to Roman Reigns? Cool, position him as a big deal on NXT before bringing him up to step up to the Bloodline. Think Zoey Stark is the next Trish Stratus? Awesome, develop her mic skills and figure out what her first main roster program should be to put her over as a big deal. Feel like Bron Breakker is the next era-defining superstar? Right on, give him a name that doesn’t suck and let him do his thing. This part of the plan also dovetails nicely with…

2. Long-term booking. No more ripping up scripts and re-booking the show the day of. Have plans for 6 months to a year in advance and adjust as necessary along the way. Don’t just focus on the main event scene. In addition to considering how new stars should be presented upon their call-ups, consider how to build lower-card players into solid mid-carders and how to help push those currently into the mid-card all the way to the main event scene. One of the best things about the Attitude Era was that just about everyone on the show had some degree of ongoing storyline involvement, and it’s no coincidence that that’s the last time WWE was mainstream relevant, so lean into that again.

1. Make sure Vince stays retired. Look, I know there are plenty of hardcore WWE fans who still revere the chairman of the board. People bowed down to him when he made his final on-screen appearance after stepping down as CEO. They chanted his name when Stephanie made her first appearance after he announced his retirement on Twitter. There will be a lot of pressure to bring him back if he escapes serious consequences from his sexual misconduct investigation. While I understand the argument that he shouldn’t be forced to retire if he’s cleared of the charges, it also would be a huge step backward to let him take control of the company again. It’s no secret that I feel Vince’s creative control has been the worst part of WWE in recent years. It’s fair to say McMahon has been out of touch with the cultural zeitgeist for at least a decade, if not more. The only way forward for the company is for him to leave one way or another to allow the next generation to take over. Resist the urge to ever give him any power in the company whatsoever again, and let us all move on for good.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you again for joining me, and I hope you’ll all return next week for more Chair Shots!