Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: Dark Order Forever Dynamite

Broadcast live from the hometown of the late great Brodie Lee, this week’s Dynamite was tinged with low-key tributes to the former Exalted One from the opening TNT Championship match to the Dark Order’s special address. In between, we saw someone finally step up to defend a fallen star’s honor, developments within both the men’s and women’s tag team scene, and an intensely personal grudge match all before the interim AEW title was defended for the first time. But which matches and segments were the most successful? Let’s take a look at the highlights and lowlights from this week’s show.

Best Match of the Night

I will say from the outset that none of the matches from this week’s show were 5-star classics – all of them had either a clunky moment or two or a finish that just didn’t land the way it should have. However, when we’re talking TV matches that are meant to build to more significant developments later on, that isn’t the worst thing in the world. For instance, Swerve in Our Glory vs. the Butcher & the Blade was a good match overall, showcasing that Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland can stay on the same page long enough to pick up wins, with a few disjointed moments (planned or otherwise) that held it back from outright excellence. The storyline about Lee and Strickland’s fractured relationship and questions about how long they can coexist was of fundamental importance in this match as it will likely play into the finish of their three-way tag title match next week. While that storyline is well established on AEW’s Friday night and online programming, it has not been given as much of a spotlight on the flagship Wednesday show, so this match primarily existed to get that story some more airtime in case people forgot Swerve’s elimination of his partner in the Casino Battle Royale last month. That’s why when Keith Lee was lined up to pounce Blade out of his boots, the wily heel pulled Swerve in the way to plant seeds of doubt as to whether it was truly accidental or not. The faces ultimately got on the same page to hit their combo finisher for the win, and the post-match announcement from the Young Bucks confirmed that they will be in line for a title shot along with Team Taz on next week’s Fyter Fest. Butcher and Blade are a solid team, the kind of “glue guys” that any division needs because they can put on a good match with just about anyone even if they are rarely featured or rewarded for their hard work, and they filled their role nicely here. Aside from a notable botched leapfrog in which Swerve almost landed on Blade and a few moments that weren’t as clean as they could have been, there wasn’t really anything to complain about here – it was a fairly routine bout that ended with a predictable but satisfying outcome.

The show’s main event of Jon Moxley vs. Brody King for the interim AEW Championship also deserves credit for being an above-average if somewhat flawed match. I’ve noted this on multiple occasions, but I feel like Dynamite‘s main event all too often ends up getting rushed – despite having a couple of extra minutes to work with, this match felt significantly pared down from what it should have been, which is especially odd because earlier in the night it was announced that a supplemental match (The Acclaimed and Gunn Club vs. Fuego del Sol and Ruffin It) was being added to the card. I understand not wanting to stretch out a match between two brawlers like Mox and King, but it felt like their strikes and power moves needed a bit more time to sell the impact they were having on the competitors’ bodies. It’s easy to say in hindsight that a few segments or matches could have been trimmed to give the main event more time, and it’s certainly not easy to produce a live wrestling show for TV with the time constraints associated with it, so it’s an understandable problem to have. That minor quibble aside, this was a good first outing for the newly-crowned champ that established why he was chosen to carry the belt in CM Punk’s absence while giving the House of Black behemoth a larger spotlight than he’s received so far in the company. In particular, Lord Regal on commentary did a good job of both putting over the toughness and tenacity of the champion while also selling the threat of his hulking challenger, stating he was “perturbed” (great word choice, by the way) to see his champ facing a 6’6″ monster like King in his first defense. King did bring the physicality as expected, standing toe-to-toe with the brawling champ and delivering a devastating clothesline/piledriver sequence for the closest two-count of the contest. Not surprisingly, however, it was the interim champ who ultimately prevailed with the Bulldog Choke, which caused the ref to stop the match rather than the big man actually tapping out. Apart from feeling rushed, the match was the kind of strike-heavy contest you’d expect from these two and a good first defense for the new champ while not quite living up to its full potential.

Probably the match that came closest to living up to its potential was Penta Oscuro vs. Rush, so that’s why it gets my match of the night honors. The pre-match video recapped the feud based on the disrespect shown by El Toro Blanco, who had on multiple occasions stolen the masks off Penta and his brother Rey Fenix in the lead-up to this encounter, so it is no surprise that the match started off with a show of aggression between the two as they traded strikes right out of the gate. In fact, the disrespect may have started even before the match began with Rush wearing a white bull mask as part of his entrance gear. Hmm, I wonder what “white bull” is in Spanish…anyway, perhaps seeing the mask-snatcher wearing a mask of his own was enough to set off Penta just that little bit extra. Not that Penta is a cheery sort of dude under normal circumstances, but you get my point. Rush focused on countering and cutting off Penta’s attempts at high-flying maneuvers, using his power advantage to keep his more agile opponent grounded, while Penta matched his opponent chop for chop and strike for strike while ratcheting up the intensity with sling blades, backstabbers, and a variety of topes. Penta looked to have the match won off a spinning kick and Fear Factor, but Andrade sneakily pulled his Los Ingobernables associate’s foot onto the bottom rope to break up the count. While Bryce Remsburg turned his attention to El Idolo and Rey Fenix on the outside, Rush landed a sneaky low blow and ripped off his opponent’s match once again to get a cheap roll-up win. That somewhat disappointing finish aside, this match was a good example of how two men who know each other well and have a long history can put together a good match out of fairly basic ingredients. Sure, they are almost certainly capable of better with a bigger stage, a longer match, and more of an established feud to raise the stakes, but as a first televised encounter in AEW this was certainly a well-executed match. Andrade, Rey Fenix, Jose the Assistant, and Alex Abrahantes all got involved at one point or another, but it wasn’t an overbooked interference-fest. We almost certainly haven’t seen the last of these two, especially since they have established tag partners who will likely come into play in subsequent encounters, but that’s far from a bad thing considering this first outing was so good.

Best Moment of the Night

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I do enjoy a good Ricky Starks promo, and he cut a good one on Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland this week. Starks is far from a hothead – in fact, he’s usually one of the coolest people in the room – but when he does get a fire lit under him, he will absolutely unload on anyone in his crosshairs. In this case, he laid into Swerve in Our Glory, claiming they are “several levels below us” and questioning why a team with obvious issues gets talked up more than the unified Team Taz. He was cut off fairly quickly by the emergence of the Young Bucks, but he did still deliver a memorable moment in his short time in the spotlight.

Another personal highlight for me is Danhausen, whenever he gets an opportunity to speak, and that was no different this week as he stole “Smart” Mark Sterling’s idea and passed it off as his own with absolutely perfect comedic timing and delivery. While Sterling and his associate Tony Nese were attempting to coerce Orange Cassidy and the Best Friends into signing their petition to ban Swerve Strickland from AEW, Danhausen had a brilliant idea: what if OC faces Nese on Friday’s Rampage to determine if they’ll sign or not? It was especially brilliant because Sterling had proposed exactly that just a moment before, but you never know when a moment of inspiration will strike and a true mastermind knows to seize the moment when it appears. Thankfully Danhausen is just such a mastermind.

While the match itself was just a notch above decent, Wardlow winning the TNT Championship was a big enough moment to deserve a mention. It is a shame that Scorpio Sky had to drop the title to facilitate this moment, but apparently he needs to take some time off due to injury anyway, so at least he wasn’t squashed just to put over a rising star at his own expense. And it really wasn’t a squash – Sky may not have gotten in a ton of offense, but he did nearly outsmart his opponent with a belt shot to the head for a two-count. Still, you kind of knew Sky was not going to last long against the powerbomb maestro going into it, and the point of the match was to make the Wardog look like an absolute world-beater, which it did. From a pure pro wrestling perspective, it may not have been the absolute best match ever, but the live crowd’s reaction alone told you everything you needed to know about how successful this segment was at what it set out to do.

For my money, though, the absolute best moment of the night was Billy Gunn turning on the Acclaimed, cementing their babyface turn. Yes, it was predictable given that it’s his literal sons that he aligned himself with, and it’s not like two good talkers like Anthony Bowens and Max Caster actually need a manager, but there was at least a decent tease that Daddy Ass was fed up with his bonehead sons who never knew where they were and allowed themselves to get so upset about the “Ass Boys” chant that they’d get thrown off their game. With the Gunn Club fully united, however, they should pose enough of a threat that the Acclaimed will have to work hard to decisively put them in the rearview mirror before moving on to bigger and better things. Caster’s raps have been must-watch for a long time now, but it’s easy to imagine the sick burns he’ll have for people we already hate, not just against people we like. Bowens has shown flashes of athleticism that will get him over as a fan favorite in the ring, but he’s also got underrated charisma that will ensure Caster doesn’t have to do all the talking. The Acclaimed have been slowly but surely turning into fan favorites for a while now, but Billy and the Booty Brothers finally leaving them lying flipped the switch for good.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

I am 100% in on the new Christian Cage heel persona, but I feel like taking cheap shots at Jeff Hardy over his addiction issues is going a bit too far. I feel like he and Matt Hardy have enough history together to provide material for a heel promo, and to be fair he had some good lines about what a “clout chaser” Matt is, but it felt kind of gross to reference the younger Hardy who is currently in treatment after suffering a relapse of his addictions. If the company was confident that Jeff would be coming back soon to make Christian eat his words, this might have been acceptable, but as I’ve said before, I sincerely hope Jeff stays off our screens for a good while to truly deal with his issues rather than staying away just long enough to get a strong “welcome back” pop when he returns. Luchasaurus needs somebody legit to demolish if he’s going to prove he’s a real threat as a monster heel, so it’s not necessarily a bad idea to pair him with an icon like Matt Hardy this early into his heel run. It just felt like having Christian call Matt out for pretending to care about Jungle Boy or point out his hypocrisy after using and discarding the Hardy Family Office himself would have been enough to drive the story without the unnecessary references to real life.

Parting Shots

• Matt Hardy did get in one good line in his promo battle with Christian Cage – he said Cage is “the Michael Jordan of being an @$$#ole” which is absolutely hilarious despite them not being in either Chicago or North Carolina where making an MJ reference would really get a pop.
• I didn’t include the Dark Order segment in the best or worst moments above – I love Evil Uno and the boys, and it is cool that they let -1 talk for himself for once, but it was kind of meh having QT Marshall come down just to get beat up. Yes, it was a feel-good moment for the Rochester crowd, and having Adam Page show up for his friends despite not being aligned on-screen for a while now was an exciting development. It just felt sad to see the Dark Order with only 6 members (including Anna Jay and -1, who are definitely not going to be around every week) and even though Evil Uno announced the Dark Order is forever, it feels like the group is on its last legs unless the powers that be are really committed to reinventing the group. (Also, credit to Redditor Animated_effigy for the header image above.)
• I noticed a “Book Commander Sterling” sign in the crowd at the end of the show – I have to say that would be an absolutely wild development that I could totally see happening on Dark/Elevation at some point, and I would fully support that as a Jimquisition fan myself. AEW has brought in plenty of “internet wrestlers” in some capacity – Danhausen being probably the most popular unless you count Orange Cassidy, though we’ve seen Warhorse, Kidd Bandit, Max the Impaler, and others pop up for a match or two. Heck, somebody I knew when I was a kid who still wrestles in my hometown appeared on Elevation the other day. I’m not even joking. So yeah, throw Commander Sterling on there, bring in Simon Miller, have Brian Zane manage somebody, or put Steve and Larson on commentary. Why not have some fun with it?
• I hope these shows in Rochester continue to be a regular thing – not only is the crowd excellent, it also gives the company a good excuse to hold a significant TNT Championship match and reminisce about Brodie Lee, which is always a welcome thing in my opinion.

That’s it for another week – a good show overall with some decent matches and moments but nothing I would describe as can’t miss. Thanks for joining me once again, and I hope you’ll all come back next week for more Chair Shots!