Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: 4th Anniversary Dynamite

AEW’s first episode of weekly television aired live on October 2nd, 2019, so this week the company’s flagship program celebrated four years of Dynamite programming. The newest member of the roster figured to play a significant role, in addition to a title match, a new #1 contender being named, and a surprising return. Did this week’s show live up to the reputation Dynamite has built over the past four years? Let’s take a look at all the best and worst of this milestone show.

Best Match of the Night

Surprisingly, there weren’t a ton of great matches on this week’s show. I say “surprisingly” because this was an anniversary show, but considering we were just three nights out from WrestleDream and six nights from next week’s “Title Tuesday” that will be going head-to-head with NXT, so maybe the company just needed a lull between bigger shows. With Adam Cole and Sammy Guevara out of action (though Cole was still featured on the show in some capacity – more on that later) the roster was even thinner than usual, so it makes even more sense that this show was a little light on the graps and a little heavy on the chats. Speaking of Sammy Guevara, he was originally meant to be Konosuke Takeshita‘s partner against Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega, but Aussie Open’s Kyle Fletcher was subbed in instead, and the resulting match still turned out to be pretty good. I will note that saying this match started off at a glacial pace is actually insulting to glaciers, which can move up to the brisk pace of about 130 feet per day in case you didn’t know. (I’m using hyperbole to emphasize that this match started off very slow in case that wasn’t clear.) I get it, Jericho is old, he’s trying to work at a slower pace to prolong his in-ring career, and normally I don’t have a problem with it. I hardly notice it most of the time, but it was definitely noticeable here. That said, the action picked up considerably as the match went on, with Kenny Omega pushing the pace more to match the younger heels. He and Fletcher traded suplexes with Fletcher initially reversing an attempt from Omega into a half-and-half suplex and Omega later hitting his signature snapdragon. Takeshita hit a Blue Thunder Bomb as Fletcher simultaneously hit a Michinoku Driver, Jericho and Fletcher wore each other down with strikes, and ultimately Jericho hit a Codebreaker on Fletcher before Omega finished him off with a One-Winged Angel. This was far from an all-time classic, but it was a very good TV match especially with an audible needing to be called at the last minute with Sammy Guevara unable to compete.

Best match of the night honors go to the opener between International Champion Rey Fenix and Nick Jackson. Yes, this match was basically engineered in a lab to enrage “old-school” wrestling geezers like Jim Cornette, but if you take their opinions seriously I probably don’t take your opinions seriously, so there’s that. I actually didn’t think the selling (or lack thereof) was too bad here – no, they didn’t do a lot of spots where both guys were lying on their backs trying to catch their breath or locked in a rest hold for five minutes, but Nick sold a foot injury and Fenix sold a back injury so there was some level of psychology at play. As you might imagine given the participants, there were too many cool spots to list them all here, but Nick’s avalanche cutter and Fenix’s frog splash were particular highlights. The finish could have been better with Fenix reversing a rollup into a rollup of his own, but the action leading up to that moment was so good that it didn’t really make that much of a difference. It was fast-paced, high-flying, athletic, agile, and smooth as butter. Plus, it was fun to see two guys who have mainly been used as tag team/trios specialists to this point in their AEW careers getting the chance to shine in a solo match. It’s kind of surprising it’s taken AEW this long to allow guys like Rey and Nick an opportunity to have a singles run, particularly when the tag division has been fairly crowded (to the point that even a team like FTR has been squeezed out at times) and I don’t necessarily expect the Bucks to run solo for any extended period of time, but it’s always nice to see that tag wrestlers aren’t inferior to their singles counterparts just because they usually have a partner.

Best Moment of the Night

I’ll admit this first one is kind of cheating and basically boils down to stealing from the best match segment, but I’m going to give Wardlow a best moment honorable mention because it really wasn’t much of a match, but it was a heck of a statement of intent. Wardlow, as the announcers helpfully reminded us, has been off television since June, and he looked absolutely enraged about being left out that long as he stomped his way to the ring and absolutely obliterated Griff Garrison, punctuating the assault with five powerbombs for the win. He then stalked out of the ring through the crowd, leaving everyone to wonder if this was a full-on heel turn or just a sign that the Wardog is not taking any nonsense any longer. Granted, the ideal trajectory for Wardlow is to eventually challenge his former associate Maxwell Jacob Friedman for the AEW title – their first in-ring clash ended with an unsatisfying match that was overshadowed by the “will MJF leave AEW” drama that surrounded last year’s Double or Nothing – so with MJF playing the babyface these days, it would make some sense for Wardlow to turn heel, blaming the fans for not caring that he was off television and absolutely wrecking anyone who dared stand across the ring from him.

Speaking of MJF, the world champ had a good segment confronting Bullet Club Gold over his alleged masked assault on their leader Jay White as last week’s Dynamite went off the air. I will say one aspect of MJF’s babyface character that I don’t particularly like is his tendency to start pointless chants that just eat up time. The “@$$ Boys” chants have mostly died out with the Gunns being presented as more of a serious tag team lately, but the champ was more than happy to resurrect it alongside a “talentless taint” chant for Juice Robinson. Then there’s the term “tofu” for White, which…ehh? We’re still making fun of vegans in 2023? I mean, I understand the metaphor MJF used last week, comparing himself to a steak whose flavor stands on its own and White to a piece of tofu, which absorbs the flavor of whatever it happens to be around, but it still seems like the chant caught on as a way of mocking the concept of tofu itself, a vegan protein substitute that has never really gotten its due respect among meat-eaters. After all, it only works as an insult if you buy into the idea that tofu is inherently inferior somehow. Anyway, that’s a long way of saying the segment was kind of meh until Jay White intervened, laying out the champion with his Bladerunner finisher and labeling himself an “elite” competitor unlike the current titleholder. He left the ring with the belt in tow, stating that if MJF thought he could prove him wrong, he would have to do so with the title on the line at Full Gear in November. MJF clawed himself upright on the ring ropes and responded to the BCG catchphrase of “Guns Up” with his own two words for them: “you’re on.” If the beginning portion of this segment hadn’t dragged as much as it did, it might have been a stronger contender for moment of the night (though considering the competition, I doubt it would have won regardless) but it hit all the beats it needed to – Robinson and the Gunns called MJF out for attacking their leader, MJF denied those allegations claiming his devil mask was stolen, and White laid out a challenge for the champ to prove he’s not a cheap shot artist. Fairly simple in concept, but it was well executed here.

Best moment of the night obviously goes to Adam Copeland (FKA Edge in WWE) and Christian Cage in the main event promo spot. I said in last week’s review (of Collision instead of Dynamite for the first time!) that although I wasn’t planning on ordering WrestleDream, the company could make me regret that decision if Adam Copeland made his debut on that show. What I should have said was AEW could make me regret not ordering the pay-per-view by debuting Copeland and a check from Tony Khan for $5 million. That’s my bad. I’ll make that clear next time. Anyway, since I missed his first AEW appearance, I was unsurprisingly hyped for his first appearance on regular TV, and his opening promo was great despite the overall segment running so long that I had to watch it on Youtube because my DVR cut off before it ended. Still, the man formerly known as Edge delivered his statement of intent, stating that he wanted to face wrestlers like Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega, Miro, and Powerhouse Hobbs, among others, while also claiming that the world title would look good around his waist. He said that as much as he looked forward to those matchups, however, there was a more immediate reason for him coming to AEW: his daughters’ advice to “have fun with Uncle Jay” referring to Christian Cage’s real name. That brought Cage out to the ring, where Copeland stated that he appeared at WrestleDream to prevent his best friend from doing something heinous to Sting, a man Christian wanted to be like from the time he was a young man. He stated that although Christian has always been an egotistical jerk, he has accepted and even loves that about him, leading him to invite Cage in for a hug stating that “it’s time” for them to re-form their tag team and chase the titles together. Christian embraced him before telling his longtime friend that he should “go” do…something; there was a weird audio glitch at that exact moment so I couldn’t make it out. Maybe he was saying Copeland should go to some famous local landmark as the Stockton, CA crowd made quite a loud noise in response to whatever he said. Then again, the crowd made some sort of anatomical reference to Cage that I swear I couldn’t quite make out either as he made his way back to the entrance, where Luchasaurus and Nick Wayne flanked him as the show came to a close. Copeland will make his in-ring debut against the former TNT Champion next week, so it made sense to introduce that conflict here. That aside, this was a great start to Adam Copeland’s AEW career and introduced his first major feud against his former partner and his associates. Copeland soaked in the chants of his own name for the first time in his career, and he delivered a promo that was both personal and logical, making clear what he intended to accomplish as well as why it matters to him. In fact, this promo was basically a more concise version of CM Punk’s debut promo, whose spot Copeland is basically taking if reports are to be believed. His picture being front and center on an updated Collision promo image does lend credence to that theory. Copeland’s in-ring and on-mic credibility and popularity among the fans should instantly position him as one of the top non-champions in the company, and this promo got his run in the upstart promotion off to a tremendous start.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

I made a joke about an audio botch in the previous segment – I know Christian told his former partner to “go tuck yourself in” in reference to the fact that it was getting late and Copeland is getting up there in years so he needs to go to bed early, a level of disrespect to the elderly that Turner Broadcasting obviously couldn’t allow on-air. There was a legitimate audio botch earlier in the night, however, when an entire segment featuring Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, and The Kingdom aired with the sound so low that it was effectively inaudible. It was so bad that they had to re-air the segment in its entirety later in the show. Some might say that fixed it and there’s no need to talk about it here, but how did nobody realize that the sound was messed up, have Excalibur call an audible, and end the segment early so as not to waste the audience’s time? Given that the final segment ran quite long, imagine if the first airing of this pre-recorded clip had been cut off after about five seconds instead of airing the entire thing without sound. I’m sure it wasn’t long enough that any pre-planned segments or match sequences got cut, but what an embarrassing waste of time this whole thing was. I feel like I didn’t appreciate it near as much the second time around because I was so annoyed by not being able to hear it the first time. AEW has gotten a lot better about these production snafus over the years, but when something like this crops up after four years of the show’s existence, it is still embarrassing and makes the company look low-rent.

Parting Shots

• I should make clear that as excited as I am for Adam Copeland in AEW, I am not just excited when someone from WWE jumps to the competition. I’m very happy about what Cody Rhodes has been able to accomplish since returning to WWE, and I really look forward to seeing what Jade Cargill will do in the company. (I will admit, I would raise an eyebrow if CM Punk signed there, but that’s just because I feel like all the legitimate complaints he had about working there a decade ago have largely not been fixed in the intervening time. If he signs with another promotion like Impact, I won’t begrudge him at all because I don’t feel like it would be a betrayal of his ideals.) Sure, I am disappointed that AEW apparently didn’t have a better plan for Cargill after her long TBS Championship run came to an end, but that’s on the company, not the performer. Just because I don’t watch WWE anymore doesn’t mean I don’t want the best for anyone who signs with that company – wrestling doesn’t have to be so tribalistic. This business is better off when performers have multiple legitimate options for employment, plain and simple.
• I still love Toni Storm’s new character, but it’s a shame her continued rise through the ranks in the women’s division had to involve such a short, uncompetitive match against Skye Blue. I’m glad to see the young competitor getting opportunities to appear on TV, but I’ve mentioned before that I feel like she should be treated as more legitimate than she currently is. I’m not saying she should pull an upset on a competitor like Storm, though her reaction to the loss would be absolutely priceless given her current gimmick, but there are plenty of less-established women in the division who could have eaten a loss like this instead.
• Max Caster paid off years of online sexual harassment with an uncomfortable backstage segment with MJF. I feel like there’s no storyline or anything there, but it was kind of funny if you’ve been following them on social media.

That’s it for another week – decent show, but nothing too special given the milestone AEW was celebrating. There’s finally some time between pay-per-views, so I’m fine with the company taking its time to lay the foundation for Full Gear. Thanks for joining me once again, and I hope to see you all back here next week for more Chair Shots!