Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: All Out Go-Home Dynamite

Chicago once again played host to AEW’s flagship ahead of All Out this Sunday, and while the build to the pay-per-view has had its ups and downs, the company had one last opportunity to convince its fans to plonk down their hard-earned cash (not to mention commit like 5ish hours of their time) for arguably its biggest show of the year. To that end, the new AEW World Champion would learn the identity of his new challenger, two four-person bouts previewed significant matches at All Out, and half of the finals for the trios tournament were determined in the main event. Was AEW able to stick the landing ahead of Sunday’s big show? Let’s take a look at the best and worst from this week’s Dynamite.

Best Match of the Night

As I’ve mentioned in the past, the go-home show before a pay-per-view is a tricky beast, as you don’t want to give away too much or put your biggest stars at risk of being less than 100% for the big show, but you do want to put on a hype show to build excitement for what the audience can expect on Sunday. Thankfully, AEW once again managed to thread that needle well by saving a few consequential matches for the go-home show as well as some no-brainers to preview matches we’ll see at All Out. One such no-brainer was the tag team match featuring participants in the interim women’s championship four-way, pitting Toni Storm and Hikaru Shida against Dr. Britt Baker DMD and Jamie Hayter. With the four challengers for Thunder Rosa’s throne evenly split between faces and heels, it just made sense to turn that arrangement into a tag match, especially with Hayter and Baker’s preexisting connection. Sure, you could still tell the women were holding something back for the pay-per-view, which is to be expected, but that didn’t hold the match itself back from being good. One of the issues with the four-way championship match is that Shida, despite being a former champion, really has not been seen on AEW television recently. She even suffered a head-scratching loss (albeit in a tag match in which her partner was pinned) on Dark: Elevation a couple of weeks ago, but her role in this match fulfilled its purpose of reminding people just how good she is. Hayter played the workhorse for the heel team, as she often does, and nobody should be surprised if she ends up pulling the upset to become the interim champ on Sunday night – she has been that good, though largely under the radar, for quite a while now. Storm and Baker brought their usual fire with Storm hitting her usual wicked hip attack and a DDT to the outside and Baker with a corkscrew neckbreaker that looked particularly good. Shida picking up the pin on Baker will undoubtedly garner some intrigue for how things will play out on Sunday – will Baker get her win back to capture a second championship? Will dissention between Shida and Storm both being so driven to capture the title lead to an advantage for the heels? Like I said, it was clear these women weren’t going to go all out (pun intended) before the pay-per-view, but the match was good enough to raise the level of excitement for their upcoming title match.

Another match that seemed like an obvious choice ahead of All Out was the four-way match between Dante Martin, Rey Fenix, Wheeler Yuta, and Rush – all of whom will be featured in the Casino Ladder Match for a future shot at the newly unified world championship. While putting Yuta or Martin on a team with Rush would not have made sense like in the women’s match, the every man for himself setup served the four performers well, allowing them to mix and match opponents at will and keeping the pace as high as the performers could muster. Which, y’know, was pretty darn high given who was involved. Rush in particular looked good here, hitting a headbutt as Martin flew off the top rope in an obvious bid to get headbutted and landing an impressive straitjacket piledriver on Yuta. I still think he’s better off in the new Ring of Honor, whenever that gets off the ground, but reuniting La Faccion Ingovernable in the meantime isn’t such a bad gig I suppose. Fenix countered everything his opponents threw at him, Martin flew all around the place, and Yuta put his technical ability to good use, ultimately culminating in his new signature seatbelt pin for the win. Having the RoH Pure Champion go over here makes sense as a way of keeping him hot, and although none of these men figure to win the ladder match on Sunday, it provided a solid preview of the kind of action we should expect, which again is the whole point for a go-home show.

The best match of the night was unsurprisingly also the most consequential – the semifinal match in the AEW World Trios Championship tournament between The Elite and United Empire. I know there are people who will say this match was a spot fest with no psychology and nothing but a glorified gymnastics routine, but the sheer pace and athleticism on display were more than enough, in my opinion, to overcome any perceived lack of selling. I will say, though, if you dislike the Meltzer Driver as the flip into the assisted Tombstone Piledriver is completely unnecessary, Will Ospreay’s shooting star press into a piledriver took that criticism up another notch entirely. Seriously, his momentum was turning away from the piledriver rather than driving his bodyweight down onto the opponent like in the Bucks’ version of the move. That critique aside, this was a great match – Omega seemingly left the ring rust from last week almost entirely behind him, looking like he is back to his championship form just in time for himself and the Bucks to compete for the trios titles. Of course, the focus was on him and Ospreay as there seems to be an obvious feud between them in the works, and they didn’t disappoint while still holding enough back for a potential singles match somewhere along the lines. (Also, I absolutely loved the longwinded Justin Roberts intro that took shot after shot at Ospreay and put over how much better Omega is in every possible way.) That’s not to say that the Young Bucks and Aussie Open took a backseat role here either – it’s just that there isn’t much of a feud between them so their interactions didn’t seem as significant. It’s no surprise that Omega got the win, though not by pinning Ospreay – not only was United Empire never going to win the trios titles in a company they don’t work for full-time, but given another development that we’ll talk about shortly, it was always going to be the Cleaner and the Bucks competing for the inaugural championships. With the world title match addressed earlier in the evening, this was obviously the best choice for the final segment of the night ahead of the pay-per-view.

Best Moment of the Night

To determine who will face The Elite for the trios titles, there will be one more match on Friday night’s Rampage, but it seems like a foregone conclusion given the announcement that Adam Page will join John Silver and Alex Reynolds to represent the Dark Order. I will admit that the segment in which Andrade and Jose the Assistant attacked Pres10 Vance and Evil Uno made almost no sense – is there any established heat between them? Why did Jose have a stun gun (!) to use on Vance? Are they trying to forcibly recruit 10, who had just been announced to be too injured to compete in the trios tourney? That segment was clearly a means to an end, however, so it’s best not to think too much about it. I’m not going to lie, dear reader, I did momentarily think this was an excuse to have Chicago’s own Colt Cabana return on Friday night to lead his team to victory, but of course that’s not the direction the company chose to go. Thanks, CM Punk. Instead, I guess we’ll just have to settle for Hangman Page teaming up with his current best friends to face his former best friends after beating the Best Friends. I am unabashed in my love for the Dark Order, so having Page step up for his pals in their moment of greatest need was a genuinely heartwarming moment. The trios tournament finals were going to be highly anticipated regardless, but it’s hard to argue that the company hasn’t absolutely nailed the build to this Sunday’s match. (I’m still a little sad they chose to further sacrifice the House of Black to get there, but I remain ever-hopeful that Malakai Black and his hired guns will be used as more than just spooky enhancement talent. That said, though, the rest of the tournament has been pretty perfect.)

I’m probably in the minority here, but I absolutely love the build to PAC vs. Kip Sabian. For the better part of a year, the company had Sabian sitting ringside with a box over his head for seemingly no reason other than giving him something to do while not having anything to use him for in the ring. I’m not saying this was the plan all along, but the payoff of having him start targeting PAC only to jump him from behind after putting a plant in his place on last week’s episode and now challenging for the All-Atlantic Championship at All Out was probably the best-case scenario imaginable. I understand that the feud between the two of them isn’t the hottest thing going, but it matters a whole lot more than it would have a month ago, and these two guys are so good that it’s hard to imagine their match not being an unexpected highlight of an already stuffed pay-per-view.

I’m sure I won’t surprise anyone by saying moment of the night goes to CM Punk and Jon Moxley‘s interactions, which were thankfully kept physically isolated but still involved some serious shots fired ahead of their rematch at the pay-per-view. Now, I’m not going to say these promos fixed the messy build entirely – having Punk “re-injure” his foot in a non-title tune-up match ahead of their unification match would have been significantly better and more straightforward than having him actually lose the title and then try to win it back less than two weeks later. That said, we are getting the best versions of both characters ahead of a consequential showdown that fans have been looking forward to for a long time. Again, they’d be looking forward to it more if they hadn’t just faced off in a disappointing match on free TV, but let’s not let that bog us down because AEW is really counting on us not doing that. Mox is clearly a heel only in Chicago, though his entirely unapologetic attitude prevents him from being a full-on babyface unless he’s facing a thoroughly detestable heel. Punk is probably only a babyface in Chicago too, though he’s about as over as it gets in his hometown, but it bears monitoring to see if he’ll turn full-on heel after suggesting that perhaps the mutual love between himself and the fans isn’t enough to sustain him anymore and maybe his rushed return from injury was the fans’ fault but never mind that because YEAH CHICAGO! HOT DOGS AND DEEP DISH! WE HAVE BROAD SHOULDERS AND WIND AND THERE’S A BIG LAKE NEARBY! CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN! Again, I’m not sure we needed Mox to cut a promo, then Punk to respond and sign the contract, then Mox to…confirm that the signed contract was indeed legitimate? But hey, I bet you didn’t expect an Ace Steel promo to be a highlight! Like if I had asked you who was going to have a memorable promo on this week’s episode, would Ace Steel have been anywhere on your list? And he dropped an uncensored f-bomb on live TV, which sure makes it obvious that MJF’s fiery promo demanding to be fired was a work, huh? But seriously, it was awesome, and I know there’s a growing resentment for Punk that his part in this segment obviously will not overcome, especially when he took a shot at some guy off camera who may have been heckling him or may just have been trying to get a Colt Cabana chant going, which is not exactly the nicest thing to do but maybe isn’t worth a guy holding a live microphone on national television dunking on for apparently being an overweight virgin. Regardless, Punk’s evolving relationship with the audience is clearly part of the storyline in addition to being something that a growing minority of fans online are genuinely rethinking, and I’m inclined to trust that AEW has something interesting planned for this – even though their track record isn’t perfect on that front, they certainly have more hits than misses.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

Look, I enjoy the Wingmen – especially Ryan Nemeth and Peter Avalon – but it was undeniably a waste of time having them demanding more screen time when the company genuinely has a hard time keeping high-profile talent happy with their booking. Yes, it was a means to an end designed to give William Morrissey an opportunity to look dominant in his apparent debut with the company. (I know, he was on Dynamite in the past, but he was still under contract with Impact Wrestling at the time, whereas now he’s a free agent that I guess AEW is going to sign?) That might be enough to justify the segment if you’re excited to see the former Colin Cassidy/Big Cass, and I won’t deny that the big man appears to be in great shape and has improved considerably since his WWE run, but considering he likely isn’t going to be at All Out unless it’s in the Casino Ladder Match, I wonder why he needed to debut in this way on the go-home show. Also, I know we don’t need a long match from Wardlow basically ever, and certainly not right before the pay-per-view, but it didn’t feel like we needed a squash match involving him and FTR against three jobbers that *checks notes* included Wrestling’s Last Real Man Silas Young?! Was I hallucinating when I took these notes? *rewatches match* Huh. No joke. He didn’t even tag in. I guess he didn’t want to even be involved in jobbing out that hard. Good for him.

Parting Shots

• Yes, yes, the opening match between Bryan Danielson and Jake Hager was good, it just felt like it was kind of rushed and both guys are clearly capable of more. I’m sure somebody reading this has their knickers all in a twist that I put a women’s match and a flippy-doo-dah showcase in my best match of the night segment and didn’t mention the highly technical opener. Untwist those britches, friend, I have now duly mentioned it.
• I liked the sit-down interview with Christian Cage and Jungle Boy, and the idea that a more serious JB is openly referring to himself as Jack Perry heading into their clash at All Out seems like a test run for potentially transitioning him away from the Jurassic Express gimmick (especially if Luchasaurus ends up turning heel and aligning with Christian) for a solo run in the future. Let’s face it, the phrase “AEW World Champion Jungle Boy” isn’t going to go over as well with non-wrestling fans as “AEW World Champion ‘Jungle Boy’ Jack Perry” would.
• It’s prediction time! Let’s run down all the results I expect to see at All Out so that you can more easily mock me later on.
  • Hook retains the FTW championship against Angelo Parker (duh-doy)
  • Eddie Kingston defeats Tomohiro Ishii because Sammy Guevara isn’t going to wrestle even though Kingston was the one who was reportedly suspended in the first place?
  • PAC retains the All-Atlantic Championship against Kip Sabian
  • Miro, Darby Allin, and Sting defeat the House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews) because we can’t have nice things (and I suppose because Miro needs the win)
  • Wardlow and FTR defeat Jay Lethal and the Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley)
  • Christian Cage defeats Jungle Boy, probably with an assist from Luchasaurus
  • Ricky Starks defeats Powerhouse Hobbs
  • Chris Jericho defeats Bryan Danielson, either with an assist from Danny Garcia or by cheating and then Garcia confronts him and joins the Blackpool Combat Club
  • The Acclaimed defeat Swerve in our Glory for the AEW Tag Team Championships, probably when Swerve Strickland turns on Keith Lee
  • Athena defeats Jade Cargill for the TBS Championship (I have the least confidence in this pick, but I just don’t know who else beats Jade unless they’re going to hold off until Kris Statlander is healthy again)
  • Jamie Hayter defeats Toni Storm, Britt Baker, and Hikaru Shida for the interim AEW Women’s World Championship
  • The Dark Order defeats The Elite for the AEW Trios Championships with a show of respect from Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks to Adam Page to show there’s no hard feelings between them and further establish that they’re babyfaces now
  • Jon Moxley retains the AEW World Championship against CM Punk
  • MJF returns as the Joker and wins the Casino Ladder Match (I would be more confident in this pick if the ladder match goes on last, but if the title match goes on last it would salvage the end of the show if MJF emerges to confront the champ; also I know this pick would seem to make more sense if Punk wins the title, but I just can’t see AEW hotshotting the title like that, especially not if it requires cutting the legs out from under Moxley like that)

That’s it for another week – decent go-home show, though I think the lead-up to All Out has not been especially good overall. I still think the show itself will be great, but this has certainly not been one of the stronger builds in the company’s history. I don’t want AEW to fall into the trap of making up for an uninspired long-term plan by leaning on the in-ring talent of its performers because that’s been one of my biggest problems with WWE in recent years. I’m not saying the build to All Out 2022 has been anywhere near as bad as WWE actively running interest in a particular matchup into the ground ahead of a monthly PLE, but relative to what AEW has pulled off in the past, the Forbidden Door to All Out period has not been the smoothest in company history. (And yes, I know WWE has been a lot better since Triple H took over – I might actually watch Clash at the Castle this weekend too!) Despite all of that, I hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend, I hope you enjoy All Out, and I hope you’ll all come back next week for more Chair Shots!