Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: Filler Dynamite Is Filler

Tulsa, OK played host to the second-to-last Dynamite ahead of March 3rd’s Revolution pay-per-view. With so little time left to build excitement for the show, it was frankly shocking that only two full matches – a tag match and a trios match that ended up bookending the show – were announced ahead of time. Still, AEW has a history of making a lot out of seemingly little, but was the company able to pull it off once again this week?

Cheers

• This was a rough week for AEW – no idea what was originally supposed to happen, but Tony Khan referenced it on Twitter ahead of this show:

• That said, there were some good promos at least. Sting and Darby Allin cut a good promo ahead of their match against the Young Bucks at Revolution. Sting referenced the beating Matthew and Nicholas put on his sons and the death of his own father as factors contributing to his readiness to hang it up before mortality catches up with him. He promised the Bucks would have the fight of their careers on their hands as he rides into battle one last time.
• Wardlow cut an exceptional promo, claiming he was tired of starving waiting for scraps while wrestlers he’s beaten (referencing without naming CM Punk and MJF) were eating well in the world title scene. It seems like the Wardog is still working his way up the ranks – obviously Swerve Strickland and Adam Page are the co-number 1 contenders at the moment, and Wardlow isn’t even in the top 5 at the moment – but if he’s given more to work with over the next couple of months, he could be ready by the time Double or Nothing rolls around, probably in May. That would also give Swerve time to complete his face/antihero turn so it isn’t heel vs. heel for the title.
• The in-ring action wasn’t all bad (or rather meh) – the main event trios match between the team of Brian Cage, Samoa Joe, and Swerve Strickland and the team of Adam Page, Hook, and RVD was decent, especially when Page powerbombed Strickland through the announce table, and the opener between FTR and the BCC (Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli) was great until the damp squib of a finish. AEW has made quite a reputation for having definitive finishes, so it’s been really odd how many time limit draws and other non-finishes there have been recently. I get it – these two teams are most likely going to face off again at Revolution – but they could have at least had the decency to have BCC cheat to win in order to set up that rematch. Maybe it’ll be some sort of Iron Man match to ensure they don’t run out of time, but otherwise I can’t think of a great reason not to deliver an actual finish.

Boos

• Out of all the women on the roster, Madison Rayne was the choice to have a surprisingly competitive match against Deonna Purrazzo? In 2024? Look, I get that Rayne was hired to basically be a booking agent and coach for the women’s division, so she doesn’t wrestle on TV much (Excalibur pointed out it was her first match of the year) but I’d be perfectly fine if that was reduced to “doesn’t wrestle on TV at all.” This match was dull and didn’t need to be anywhere near as long as it was, not to mention the botched flatliner that looked like Rayne landed straight on the top of her head. Hopefully she’s all right, but there definitely shouldn’t be any rush to get her back into the ring after that.
• Ricford Judas Iscariot Flair (to use his full legal name) showed up this week to say he was disappointed that he hasn’t been more involved in the leadup to Sting’s retirement match (that makes one of us) before heading into the Young Bucks’ locker room for a chat. Of course, Flair will probably turn his back on the Bucks to help Sting win his final match considering how over he’ll definitely be in North Carolina, but what an appropriately petty moment for one of the most egotistical men in wrestling who’s never demonstrated that he’s capable of being out of the spotlight. What a stupid segment that preemptively took away from the actually good Sting/Darby promo later in the night. “Wah, Sting’s retirement hasn’t featured me enough, how dare he make his own retirement more about himself than ME?” Go chug ten of your garbage energy drinks to keep your heart beating and get off my TV screen, you gross old man.

Parting Shots

• Here’s your weekly Collision recap: there wasn’t one this week. This has been your weekly Collision recap.
• Renee Paquette interviewing Orange Cassidy backstage is always great, but after recounting all the injuries suffered by the Best Friends, she asked about Cassidy’s status after numerous title defenses recently including a Texas Deathmatch and a surprise appearance at RevPro in the UK. OC deferred to the doctor who was conveniently standing just out of shot, who said basically “yeah, he can wrestle, but he’s mostly dead so…” and Cassidy was like “yeah, but I’m not ALL dead, I’m still slightly alive, so I’m gonna wrestle.”
• If you didn’t remember how good Matt Taven was until last week, you definitely didn’t remember how good Mike Bennett was until this week. Of course, his match with OC was just a regular midcard match and not a main event deathmatch, so it wasn’t quite as much of a showcase, but Bennett was still solid in it.
• Random Jake Hager appearance is random!
• Toni Storm winning with Deonna Purrazzo’s own Venus de Milo submission hold was a nice touch, with Purrazzo returning the favor by winning with the Break a Leg ankle lock. If not for her opponent’s brightly-colored attire, I’m not sure why Toni’s match wasn’t in black and white, but at least the celebration afterwards was, setting up the split screen color/B&W faceoff between champion and challenger as Storm headed to the back and Purrazzo entered the ring for her match.
• Hopefully Hangman Page is okay – he was lying on the outside grasping at his ankle after the match, which if he was just selling it as a reason he couldn’t get in the ring and break up the submission, that’s fine, but I can’t think of any reason he’d be selling a leg injury. He seemed genuinely upset when the camera was on him, which made me think maybe it was legit, but I don’t know for sure – I’d have to rewatch the ending sequence of the match to see if he landed weird on the Buckshot Lariat or escaping the Muscle Buster. Anyway, good vibes to the Anxious Millennial Cowboy, hopefully it’s nothing.

That’s it for another week – I’m not going to mince words here, this was comfortably the worst episode of Dynamite of 2024 so far. Not saying it was outright irredeemably terrible, but it was not a particularly good show by any means. Maybe “most skippable” is a better descriptor than “worst” – if you missed this week’s episode, you basically missed nothing of any import. Still, I’m surprised it was such a nothing show with a pay-per-view right around the corner. Revolution figures to be a great show regardless, but hopefully next week’s show will do more to build hype for it. I hope you’ll all join me then for more Chair Shots!