Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: AEW Homecoming

Dailey’s Place in Jacksonville, FL was once again the site of AEW Dynamite as the company sought to reward its most loyal fans with an exciting program after several weeks away from its home base. Homecoming promised another “Labour of Jericho,” an exciting title defense, and an explosive debut as well as developments in several ongoing storylines. While the name of this weekly feature has changed (YEAH NEW NAME) the purpose has not – let’s look at the best (and worst) matches and moments from this week’s Dynamite and all the noteworthy developments that bear watching in the weeks to come.

Best Match of the Night

There were a few standouts this week – Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston, and Darby Allin vs. Danny Garcia & 2.0 (Mike Lee and Jeff Parker) was a lot of fun for a pointless match featuring three of the most popular performers in AEW against some fairly unknown competitors making their first appearance on Dynamite. (No offense to Garcia, Lee, and Parker, but I literally wrote down “some guys” in my notes – yes, I take notes while I watch wrestling – as I didn’t catch their names in the intros and had to go back and re-watch it to make sure I could get their names right.) Christian Cage vs. The Blade was a further showcase for the presumptive #1 contender for the AEW World Championship against one of the low-key most consistent performers in the company since his partner The Butcher suffered an unfortunate hand injury in April. (Yes, I included that reference to his tag partner entirely so I could reference the fact that he’s the rhythm guitarist for the band Every Time I Die. And yes, I plan to link to one of my favorite songs by Every Time I Die every time I mention The Butcher in one of my reviews, so you’ve got that to look forward to. You’re welcome.) The main event between Malakai Black and Cody Rhodes was a phenomenal showcase for the debuting Black even if the match itself was mainly a setup for what followed. (More on that in a bit.) For my money, though, the best match of the night was the TNT Championship match between Miro and “Big Shotty” Lee Johnson. This match was a perfect example of how to build up both champion and challenger at the same time. The outcome of the match was not really in doubt – before it even began, the announcers put over the challenger’s work ethic and preparation while making it clear that he would have to wrestle a basically flawless match to even have a chance against the dominant champ. Considering Johnson had been mainly relegated to Dark since his debut in the company, this match felt like a squash waiting to happen, as the new TNT Champion needed to establish himself and show just how dominant he could be. The match certainly started out looking like that would be the case, but Johnson hung in there against the massive Bulgarian and put on an extended comeback before finally being put down. While he may not be close to winning gold in AEW just yet, the name “Lee Johnson” will not be easily forgotten by those who witnessed this match, which is more than most would have predicted coming into this contest. As for the champion Miro, he clearly outclassed his opponent but still had to show his adaptability and toughness to retain the title against an upset-minded underdog. It may not have been a match of the year contender, but it was certainly an eye-opening match that was better than anticipated in a big way.

Best Moment of the Night

I would never give a “best moment” to a commercial (which is why I didn’t mention Nick Gage cutting Chris Jericho’s forehead with a pizza cutter while a Domino’s ad played, even though that was hilarious) but I do have to give an honorable mention to the Pabst Blue Ribbon commercial starring Matt Cardona, Brian Myers, Chelsea Green, and Swoggle, which was brilliant to put on during a wrestling show. A few other honorable mentions for best moment included Aubrey Edwards refusing to count a pin for Chris Jericho after a backbreaker because he had to win off a top rope move; Darby Allin absolutely obliterating Mike Lee as he was marking out about coming face-to-face with Sting; and Malakai Black‘s entrance (not to mention the way he pinned Cody Rhodes with one foot on the chest) that immediately established him as an intimidating presence and a huge deal within the company.

All of these moments were great, but the best moment came from the best storyline AEW has running now – Adam Page telling the Dark Order he needs a break to do things for himself, and later in the show when The Elite was ganging up on Page, Stu Grayson and Evil Uno preventing the rest of the group from getting involved to respect his wishes. (Technically that’s not a single moment, but the moment of Grayson and Uno holding back the others only makes sense considering that earlier promo.) Page continuing to struggle with the idea of accepting help from the Dark Order one week after being fully onboard with the group may seem like backtracking, but it makes perfect sense for his character that accepting that responsibility for anyone beyond himself and failing to hold up his end of the bargain would hit him especially hard. Plus, the brawl with The Elite was sparked by Kenny Omega pointing out that Page couldn’t re-join his friends because they’re all winners and he’s a loser. That exact point plays into one of Page’s biggest insecurities – that he secretly just wants his friends back even though they’re monsters, but he doesn’t feel worthy of it because he keeps failing to win matches even when the odds are stacked against him.

Evil Uno, on the other hand, knows the value of failure – it’s been the Dark Order’s biggest recruiting tactic from day one, targeting people who feel like failures and showing them the value of belonging to a group. Sure, originally it was a heel faction preying on weak-minded individuals, but it has evolved over time into a genuinely inspiring group of outcasts and misfits where broken people feel welcome to work through their issues. So for Uno to tell his guys to hold off and let Page deal with his own problems alone is fully on brand – he knows how messed up Cowboy is right now, and trying to help him against his wishes would only be more destructive to his mental state long-term. It’s called character work, folks. And this moment was exemplary in its execution because we can easily identify with everyone involved – Page for defiantly refusing help, Uno and Grayson for trying to respect his wishes, and the rest of the group for wanting to spare him the pain of a 6-on-1 (or 6-on-2 once Frankie Kazarian got involved) beatdown at the hands of his former friends. It’s disappointing that Page is reportedly out of the planned AEW Championship match at All Out, but if the development of these characters continues the way it has been, it will ultimately lead to an even stronger payoff in the end, especially if All Out is potentially going to be overshadowed by the big debut(s) that are planned to take place.

Worst Match/Moment of the Night

I’m going to sound like a broken record if I say that there weren’t any outright terrible moments this week, so I won’t say that. Except I already did. Dammit. Anyway, some lowlights in my opinion: having Some Guy (again, I had to do some extra research to figure out it was Dan Lambert which…okay, cool? I still don’t really know who that is other than apparently he trains some MMA fighters) of America’s Top Team call out Lance Archer really did nothing for me, and if your feud isn’t worth recapping in any sort of specifics, it just feels like a waste of time, especially with the Murderhawk Monster already having a full dance card as IWGP United States Champion. Also, there was a nonsensical segment where Chavo Guerrero and Andrade El Idolo beat up Fuego del Sol for refusing to shine Andrade’s shoes only to somehow turn that into a threat that the Lucha Bros would never be champs if they stick with PAC. Like…beating someone up is meant to be a threat that you’re going to do the same thing to the person you’re cutting a promo on. How does beating up poor Fuego connect to warning Penta and Fenix that they’ll be less successful if they don’t align with El Idolo?

However, the worst moment of the night is once again going to be a controversial one, but I have to say that Cody Rhodes‘ fake “retirement” speech was…a little self-indulgent, and very obviously fake from word one. Mark Henry in a salmon blazer this was not. As soon as Rhodes started talking about “Legacy,” it immediately sounded like a career retrospective was coming, complete with some shots at Rhodes’ former employer, but there was no sense that this was or even could be a shoot. Instead, we were supposed to believe that losing to Black (a worked finish) got Rhodes to spontaneously decide to call it a career. The moment that really clinched it for me, though this is not meant to be a shot at the broadcast crew, was when Jim Ross started to explain what a wrestler leaving his boots in the ring might mean. Even Michael Cole (along with JBL and hey, Jim Ross) had the good sense to lay out while the Undertaker took off his ring gear in what was supposed to be an implied retirement (that was promptly ignored because $audi Arabia). You have to sucker the audience into believing what they’re seeing is real, and there was no reason to believe that in the case of the American Nightmare.

This moment felt like a blatant attempt to spawn countless YouTube videos with clickbait titles like “Did CODY RHODES Just RETIRE?!?!?!?1?” and, I guess, build up anticipation for… a rematch of the match we just saw, probably. Granted, the match itself was great, and a longer feud between Rhodes and Black could be a good way to establish one of the newest top stars in the company. At the same time, there were way better ways of achieving this goal – had Rhodes referenced in any way that he was considering retirement, that maybe he can’t go in the ring anymore, or that he’s considering whether he should focus entirely on his responsibilities as EVP of the company, the “spontaneous retirement” angle would have at least had some legitimacy. The fact that this was the first time it was brought up, however, made it seem like the ultimate outcome of all this is either going to be a rematch in which Rhodes will be forced to retire by losing to Black (in which case we didn’t need the post-match promo) or that Rhodes is going to heroically fight back against his own doubts and fears to show that he can still hang by overcoming Black. AEW does deserve some benefit of the doubt here, as they have shown an ability to turn even somewhat less-than-promising storylines into greatness, but it was definitely an eye-rolling moment that threatened to overshadow what was an otherwise well-booked debut for a legitimate star in the making.

Stray Thoughts

• Did Maxwell Jacob Friedman actually announce himself as the special guest referee in next week’s fourth Labour of Jericho? JR said as much, so I assume that’s the case, but from his actual comments it was not clear – he just said he would ensure that the match was called fairly after complaining throughout the Jericho-Guerrera match that Aubrey Edwards was terribly biased. That sounded to me more like a special guest enforcer role, so it seems like that could have been made clearer from his actual promo. If he’s stacking the deck that hard against Jericho, who will face Wardlow next week to earn a shot at MJF himself, you’d think a braggart like Friedman would gleefully hammer that point home for his opponent and, y’know, the audience.
• At the risk of sounding like an idiot (haha, too late, right?) is Darby Allin’s animated entrance video new, or have I just never noticed it before because there wasn’t a big screen opposite the hard camera in their previous arena setups? Super cool regardless.
• The Good Brothers giving Dark Order a shot at the Impact World Tag Team Championships after they just had a match to earn a shot at the Young Bucks’ AEW World Tag Team Championships was…confusing at best. Also, doesn’t that imply that the Impact titles are less valuable than the AEW titles, if you can just be given a shot at the former while having to win a huge 5-on-5 match to earn a shot at the latter?
• NWA Women’s Champion Kamille, who I know nothing about because I’m a filthy casual, is either super huge or has super tall boots or both. Cool that an undersized but powerful contender like Leyla Hirsch gets a shot at the title, and it was certainly a nice visual for them to stand toe-to-toe in the middle of the ring to hype their future clash. Not sure how much of AEW’s audience will cross over to NWA’s all-female EmPowerrr event at the end of the month, but an attempt was made at least.
• It was a big week for Some Guy, as he made a third appearance hyping up Jade Cargill (#JadeBrand) and her return to AEW programming on next Monday’s Dark: Elevation. (I’m reliably informed that this Some Guy is actually named Mark Sterling.)
• I think even Homelander would tell Cody Rhodes to tone it down a bit at this point. Heel turn when?

That’s all for this week – another solid show in the books, and one week closer to the highly anticipated All Out pay-per-view that promises to deliver some solid matches and storyline payoffs. What did you think of AEW Homecoming? What were your favorite moments and matches from this week’s show? Let us know what you thought, and be sure to follow us on Twitter @FilmIronic to stay up to date on all things entertainment. See y’all next week!