Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: December 1 Dynamite

As we all try to come to grips with the existential terror of realizing that yet another year is very nearly over, AEW attempted to distract us all from the awful sense of creeping mortality and the seemingly inescapable progression of time with some good ol’ wrasslin’ as Dynamite aired from Duluth, GA. Two of Atlanta’s favorite (?) sons – at least in professional wrestling – were set for high profile matches, and the final quarterfinals match in the TBS Championship tournament promised to narrow the field down to the final four competitors to become the first champion in that coveted title’s history. Elsewhere on the card, two undefeated streaks were on the line, and AEW worked to build up hype for next week’s Dynamite Dozen Battle Royal (or Royale, if you’re feeling fancy, which I am not when it comes to multi-man over the top elimination matches) as well as Winter is Coming, a special episode of Dynamite that will air in two weeks’ time. What were the biggest hits and misses from the first Dynamite of the final month of 2021? Let’s run ’em down.

Best Match of the Night

With all due respect to CM Punk vs. Lee Moriarty, which was a good match for sure but somewhat overshadowed by MJF on commentary, there were really only three matches worth considering this week. Bryan Danielson vs. Alan “V” Angels was a great way to kick off the show as one of the most despicable heels on the roster faced off with the hometown hero in a match that was certainly more even than some might have expected. Angels is an impressive wrestler especially given that he’s only 23 (?!) and his high-flying style meshed well with the more technical approach of the American Dragon. It was a fairly short match that didn’t overstay its welcome or really even build that much drama that Angels might score the upset, but it certainly highlighted Mr. Yes Bryanson’s viciousness while still providing a career highlight for his younger opponent. Ruby Soho and Kris Statlander also delivered a standout performance in what was easily the most consequential match of the night as they fought to become the final entrant in the TBS Championship tournament’s semifinal round. This was a pretty intense and physical match for two babyfaces, especially considering one of them feigned a kick just so she could boop her opponent on the nose, and it really felt like the result could have gone either way for the majority of the match. About the only letdown in my opinion, aside from a decent chunk of the match taking place during a commercial break, was the rollup finish – I get that it somewhat protects Statlander in the loss as it was an unexpected counter to her own finisher that did her in, and at least AEW doesn’t overuse the rollup in favor of generally more decisive conclusions, but it was kind of a shame that it didn’t take a finisher to put down one of the bigger stars in the division. Still, it was a competitive match that saw both women have to dig deep into their arsenals in an attempt to put their opponent away, and I feel like the potential finals matchup between Ruby Soho and either Jade Cargill or Thunder Rosa is a pretty exciting prospect. (No disrespect to Nyla Rose, but considering she’s been a champion in AEW already, it feels like a foregone conclusion that one of the other three will end up taking the first title reign.)

The best match of the night may not have been a technical classic, and it may have relied on a bit more style than substance, but it’s hard to argue that Cody Rhodes and Andrade El Idolo didn’t deliver in the main event Atlanta Street Fight. Which, really, has got to be the laziest attempt at getting a match over – literally every city in the world has streets in which people could fight. There is nothing special about an Atlanta street fight, especially since this match wasn’t even fought in Atlanta. Even Mick Foley, the inventor of the cheap “right here in [insert city name]” pop, thinks the [Fill-in-the-Blank] Street Fight is lame. (Mick may have also had something to say about a spot later in the match, but we’ll get to that in a minute.) And to be fair, other than reminding people of the fact that Cody Rhodes is from Georgia, AEW really didn’t do anything to make this match seem specific to Georgia – they put more effort into making the Minneapolis Street Fight between the Inner Circle and American Top Team feel specific to Minnesota than they did with this match. No Chik-Fil-A? No Coke? No foam tomahawks so Cody could literally hit Andrade over the head with racism? Okay, so I’m getting off track here. The match may not have felt super Atlanta-ish, but it was a pretty darn good street fight. Cody did his best to play to both sides of the audience, eliciting cheers at times and boos at others, which feels like the exact right way to handle his character at the moment. Stubbornly trying to force the pure white meat babyface angle when people just aren’t buying it doesn’t make sense, but going full-on heel at this point would feel like a misstep as well, so AEW kind of has to have it both ways as best they can. Give him a few spots that his supporters will cheer, have him kick people in the groin and huck chairs in people’s faces so his detractors can boo, and keep letting him deliver good matches like this one so he doesn’t get the reputation for booking himself in spots he doesn’t deserve. (Well, that last one may be impossible to avoid, at least in some corners of the internet.) Andrade still looks good in defeat – he’s kind of a tweener too, with some people showing appreciation for his work in the ring and others booing his villainous ways – though he’s probably best served by moving away from this feud with Cody. This match did feel like a blow-off in a lot of ways as both competitors ratcheted up the physicality, and obviously the massive inverted superplex through a flaming table (eat your heart out, Mick Foley!) that finished the match felt like a spot that could not be topped in a potential rematch, so it seems like this is as good a place as any to let Cody bow out and return Andrade to his feud with Death Triangle. All in all, if this is the last we see of these two in the ring together for a while, the match delivered a satisfying conclusion that may not have reached the heights of car crash hardcore insanity but still managed to pack in some impressive spots and end on the unforgettable sight of Cody pinning Andrade while both men had chunks of table stuck to them that were still on fire. Not bad for the main event of a pretty run-of-the-mill TV episode.

Best Moment of the Night

I’m going to be honest here: I don’t think there was anything too memorable from this episode. MJF threatening CM Punk’s dog was a nice moment of bastardry that capped off an otherwise meh promo, the Young Bucks doing mock Kicks of Doom on Orange Cassidy before double-superkicking him for real was a nice touch even if it was a fairly flimsy way of keeping the Superkliq/Best Friends feud going for at least another week, and Cody Rhodes discarding an obviously planted sledgehammer in favor of a golden shovel, which he used to fend off a taser-wielding Jose the Assistant (yes, that’s his official name now and you won’t convince me otherwise) was pretty entertaining in an “I see what you did there” kind of way. That’s about it. Not saying this was a bad episode of Dynamite, but there wasn’t that much to get overly excited about.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

That said, there wasn’t that much to get upset about either, which is usually the case. MJF saying that CM Punk just wants to get into Britt Baker’s pants was almost entirely nonsensical – not only has AEW acknowledged Baker’s relationship with Adam Cole numerous times on TV, but also Punk has given his real-life wife a shoutout on a few occasions already in his short tenure with the company, so Punk making a single offhand reference to the good doctor in his promo last week does not in any way give the impression that he’s just trying to score in spite of all logic and reason. Taz doing Steiner math on commentary before Lio Rush interrupted with a live mic to…comment on what Taz just said that nobody in the arena heard led to a very awkward moment where the live audience didn’t seem to know what was going on (for good reason) before Rush tried to hype them up by referring to himself as a warrior…and then Dante Martin and Ricky Starks entered to get between Rush and Taz even though Will Hobbs and Hook already were between them. It was a weird little segment that didn’t seem to accomplish anything, that’s all I’m saying. Also, having the Gunn Club‘s winning streak sacrificed to Darby Allin and Sting didn’t seem to make a lot of sense – if the feud is intended to continue, surely a screwy finish where Billy and the Ass Boys (which the crowd hilariously chanted at them) pull a fast one for a cheap win would have served the purpose better. If this was always destined to be a one-off match, it seems kind of cheap to build up their winning streak only to have it ended by a team that isn’t really involved in the tag division. It wasn’t a bad match by any means, just a weird conclusion to a pairing that always felt kind of odd. At least the Gunn Club is still apparently undefeated as a trio as well as the pairings of Billy/Austin and Austin/Colton. Also, Sting in Darby-style face paint is a cool and kind of creepy look, so at least there was one positive takeaway from this match.

Parting Shots

• I will admit I may have missed something, but when was it established that Adam Page and Bryan Danielson couldn’t make physical contact before their match at Winter is Coming? John Silver running out to get between them seemed random, though of course his trademark ability to make just about anything seem awkward and homoerotic was on full display as he gleefully announced that Page may not be able to touch Bryan but he could before charging to the ring.
• Miro wandering around in a white void while threatening God was…interesting. Was I the only one who was reminded of another wrestler’s anti-Christian promos from back in the day? (RIP Sean O’Haire, one of the most underrated wrestlers/characters of the modern era.)
• Apparently we’re getting Penta and PAC vs. FTR on Rampage this Friday instead of a full-on Lucha Bros/FTR rematch because…Fenix is too injured to travel? Am I getting that right? Anyway, I’m sure they didn’t change the match simply because AAA threw a fit over having their planned tag title match at Triplemania Regia II given away on free TV the night before. It’s definitely that injury/travel issues/whatever thing I just said it was.

That’ll do it for this week – not the most eventful episode of Dynamite in history, but not a bad show all things considered. Check us out on SoundCloud, Twitter, Facebook, and of course right here on FilmIronic.com for more great content from the world of entertainment, and come on back next week for more Chair Shots!