Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: AEW Long Island Dynamite

Toronto has long been known in WWE circles as “bizarro world” where the conventional face/heel alignment has no bearing on the crowd’s response. Long Island might not quite be the equivalent for AEW, but there was some clear hometown favoritism working for the Dynamite debut at the UBS Arena. Though the company has generally booked babyfaces for high-profile matches in their hometowns, there was no getting around the fact that one of its biggest heels is the proud son of Long Island. Of course, the main event spot was reserved for a local who is cheered pretty much wherever he goes, and there were several non-NY-centric bouts planned for the evening as well. So how did the night’s proceedings play out? Let’s run down the highs, lows, and notable moments in between.

Best Match of the Night

Spoiler alert for the worst matches section of this review: there were no truly bad matches on this night. Sure, I find battle royal(e)s painfully boring, and the Dynamite Dozen match was no exception other than the fact that it had the benefit of having a smaller-than-usual field of competitors. All the other matches were above average, good, or even great. Two in particular stood above the rest, but first Chuck Taylor and Rocky Romero vs. the Young Bucks deserves an honorable mention as well. Rocky Romero has been a welcome addition to Best Friends in recent weeks, and he was a welcome addition in this match in particular, delivering some thrilling spots to keep the crowd invested beyond the usual Young Bucks shenanigans, which were also present and entertaining as always. The match was a little overbooked with Adam Cole, Brandon Cutler, and Orange Cassidy all getting involved at various points, but it was an energetic and mainly crowd-pleasing match right up until the Meltzer Driver finished off the babyface team for good. Freshly Squeezed staring daggers at the Superkliq as they exited the ring and…certain other post-match developments (that I’ll get into in a minute) would seem to indicate that this feud is not over, and in particular I would expect Cole and Cassidy to face off at some point, given their interactions in the match. The Bucks going over here was the right call, though, and an escalating issue between these two factions should give everyone involved something to do while not involved in any of the title scenes while continuing to produce some excellent in-ring work.

I really wanted to give the main event between Bryan Danielson and Long Island’s own John Silver match of the night honors, but it ever-so-slightly slips to the spot of best honorable mention. The American Dragon has, unsurprisingly, been on an incredible roll ever since he joined AEW at All Out, and Johnny Hungee is one of the more unsung standouts on the roster who is capable of having a good match with just about anyone. That was certainly true in this case – there was a good flow and chemistry to this match, not to mention some standout counter spots like Silver turning a shotgun dropkick into a nasty powerbomb and Danielson flipping out of a German suplex to deliver a big side kick to the head. Silver seemingly welcoming his opponent to kick him in the face to try to break out of a heel hook submission hold was a great spot, and his superkick/German suplex combo very nearly brought the house down even though surely everyone in the arena knew he wasn’t winning this match. Danielson continues to find new and original ways to win, hitting the Gotch piledriver and some form of head/neck submission to cause his opponent to pass out, though commentary speculated that Silver was already out from the piledriver alone. This was a satisfying main event that probably would have been the best match of the night on most episodes of Dynamite, and it certainly sets up for an even more epic encounter between the Yes Man and the Anxious Millennial Cowboy next week at Winter is Coming.

Best match of the night, for the second time in the last three weeks, goes to a women’s match involving Jamie Hayter, this time facing off against the first ever AEW Women’s World Champion Riho. It’s a testament to how much Hayter has come along since her return to the company, not to mention how much the women’s division as a whole has improved particularly in the past year or so and how much better AEW has done in presenting the full depth of the roster. This was a classic power vs. speed matchup as Hayter looked to punish her smaller opponent at every turn while Riho looked to use her quickness and agility to deliver high-risk, high-impact offense whenever she could find an opening. A few big spots in particular got the crowd on its feet, including a sheer drop brainbuster from Hayter and a Code Red from Riho. The finish, which saw Dr. Britt Baker’s other associate Rebel get involved to help Hayter set up for a backdrop off the top rope only for Riho to reverse into a crucifix bomb into her finisher for the win, was a particularly well executed sequence that left the impression that the former women’s champ could still pull off a big win even if she’s unlikely to dethrone the good doctor, who attacked her after the match and locked her in the Lockjaw submission to assert her dominance. Baker and Hayter are bound to clash in the not-too-distant future, as Rebel’s involvement here once again contributed to Hayter’s loss, and although I don’t see the student overtaking the master just yet, it will be interesting to see if the lack of backup ends up costing the DMD once she faces someone like Thunder Rosa or Ruby Soho with the title on the line. A non-title feud between a vengeful former champ and her star-on-the-rise former pupil would be an appealing prospect to keep the momentum going in the women’s division outside of the two championship scenes.

Best Moment of the Night

CM Punk‘s heelish promo was obviously a ton of fun for him, as he’s just so naturally good at drawing boos even if 99% of his material was seemingly devoted to the local hockey team. (I guess the Islanders play in the arena where Dynamite was taking place, so it’s sort of understandable, but there seems like no shortage of easy targets when it comes to New York sports teams. I’m just saying, Punk could have diversified his cheap heat insults a little.) Punk also mentioned that he’ll be keeping an eye on next week’s AEW title match, which needless to say is very exciting news even if I don’t expect him to get into the title picture anytime soon. MJF‘s special Long Island entrance was particularly entertaining as he did typical LI things like drive a Ferrari very briefly and reminisce about his conquests from high school. (Okay, one of those things seems more typical of Long Islanders than the other, come to think of it.) Eddie Kingston getting Santana and Ortiz involved in his ongoing feud with 2point0 was a fun development – that should make for a great trios match someday soon. The internet’s favorite moment was obviously Taz announcing that he’s sending Hook! To fight Fuego Del Sol on Friday night’s Rampage. So it only sort of counts as a moment on Dynamite because the actual thing to look forward to didn’t happen yet. But I guess it’s worth an honorable mention anyway.

The best moment of the night, clearly, was the long-awaited return of Sue Beretta! (Or, y’know, whatever her actual last name is. I prefer to keep it kayfabe here.) And her epic minivan! Oh, and her son Trent too! Did you know they’re from Long Island? What a shocking and not at all foreseeable but nonetheless delightful turn of events! Trent returned to help the rest of Best Friends/the CHAOS Contingent (as commentary kept referring to them) run off the Superkliq and reunite for the biggest group hug ever…only to top that hug with an even BIGGER hug when Sue and Kris Statlander joined in. It’s great to see Trent back, looking to be in good shape and ready to jump back into the thick of things with Chuckie T, Wheeler Yuta, and Freshly Squeezed. (Presumably Rocky Romero is going to return to Japan at some point, but I’m guessing he and Trent would also do well together if they get a chance. Call it a hunch.)

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

As I said, there were truly no bad matches tonight. Not many bad moments either – Malakai Black has to get better at spraying people in the face because he wasn’t even close to hitting Julia Hart, even though she did a good job selling it afterwards and mostly covered her face so you couldn’t tell there was nary a drop of black mist anywhere near her eyes. I’m all for Black committing senseless acts of violence (in storyline anyway – I don’t want anyone to get the impression that I condone him running out into the street and kicking random people in the head) but I definitely remember many other purveyors of mist-based attacks doing a better job of leaving evidence behind rather than relying on their victims to sell the pain and agony. Ethan Page threatening the return of Dan Lambert was a moment I certainly could have done without – as much as I’ve grown to appreciate some of Lambert’s schtick, I feel like that American Top Team storyline has pretty much played itself out now and Men of the Year are ready to stand on their own, thanks. That’s not to say their promo was bad, just the news that ATT will be returning is kind of hard to get excited about.

Parting Shots

• I may have misheard it, but was the Long Island crowd chanting “f*ck your pizza” at CM Punk? Because if we’re talking the relative quality of pizza, I’m with Deadspin. Except New York pizza as the 22nd-best state-specific foodstuff seems a little high to me. Yeah, I said it.
• Dante Martin turning face again so soon after seemingly turning heel is…well, it’s nice to see a babyface apparently outsmart the heels for once. Taz thought he had it all worked out for one of his representatives to make it to the final for the Dynamite Diamond, only for Martin to punch his own ticket instead. On the other hand, though, his partnership with Lio Rush was seemingly thrown aside for no real reason, and going back to that after he made such a bold move to position himself for singles success would feel lazy and counterproductive at this point. So it’s a bit of a mixed bag, I guess.
• I don’t care what anyone says, I like the idea of Cody Rhodes challenging for the TNT Championship. Sure, some will see it as a sign that he’s sliding ever-closer to heeldom, as he’s honor-bound not to challenge for the AEW World Championship and this feels like a sneaky way to get himself a title shot without technically violating his promise. Plus, as Men of the Year pointed out immediately afterwards, it seemed awfully easy for someone who isn’t even ranked in the top 5 to get a title shot when he’s got an in with the boss. Regardless, I think having Cody blur the lines between face and heel is a smart move as I mentioned last week, and considering he was already TNT champ twice, I don’t think there’s much risk of him winning the title again, but it should make for a good match against Sammy Guevara, who has had a string of quality bouts since becoming champ.
• Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb at Winter is Coming next week. That is all.

That’s it for another week of AEW Dynamite. Really good stuff this week – you could tell the company wasn’t going to go all out with a special edition episode coming up next week, but they did an admirable job of putting on a good show on its own while also building excitement for an even bigger show to come. Check us out on Twitter, SoundCloud, Facebook, and YouTube, and of course don’t forget to read more articles, news, and reviews right here on FilmIronic! Catch you all next week for more Chair Shots!