Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: Dynamite Grand Slam

There have been some big episodes of Dynamite in the show’s history, but none bigger than this week’s Grand Slam show in front of AEW’s biggest crowd ever at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY. Figuratively speaking, there may not have been a bigger Dynamite yet either, with a huge women’s world title match in the main event, some highly personal feuds primed to explode, and a massive in-ring debut from one of the brightest stars in wrestling against arguably the most dominant champion in AEW history. With so much packed into just two short hours and a special extended two-hour Rampage promised for Friday night, AEW was clearly going for broke to make this the most significant non-pay-per-view event of the year. Did the show ace its serve or did the company commit an ill-timed fault? (Tennis puns, you see, because Arthur Ashe Stadium is typically used for tennis. I am clever and witty.)

Best Match of the Night

Do I even need to say what the best match of the night was? Don’t get me wrong, there were five matches on the card, and on just about any other Dynamite any one of them could have been the best match of the night. But you know which one it’s going to be, right? Like, it should be obvious. I’ve kind of given it away already. Okay, okay, we’ll play it coy and talk about some of the other standouts. And by other standouts, I mean I’m just going to talk about all the other matches first, because they were all great. Probably the least great but still very good was MJF vs. Brian Pillman Jr. No disrespect to either of these guys, but their match was never meant to be the best match on the card. Still, they delivered a well above-average bout in the middle of a packed card, and the storyline heading into the match was probably the best developed of any outside of a certain match that I’m not going to talk about yet. Griff Garrison was conspicuous by his absence, though the finish makes me wonder if we’ll get a tag team rematch where Garrison tries to make it up to his partner by helping him even the score with MJF and Wardlow. Even if AEW chooses not to go that direction, Pillman has certainly raised his profile with this mini-feud, and he may get more singles matches going forward even as he remains largely a tag team star. MJF winning in less-than-honorable fashion and going after Julia Hart would naturally lead to a rematch of some sort, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if someone else had a bone to pick with him over his behavior lately. Christian Cage, for one, could probably use a new dance partner once he and Jurassic Express finish up their business with the Young Bucks and Adam Cole.

Sting and Darby Allin also had an above-average TV match against FTR, with the heels repeatedly trying their best to double-team and cheap shot their way to victory while the valiant babyfaces fought back with everything they had. Sting wrestled a good bit more than you might have expected – Allin is such an expert as the babyface in peril, and with Sting’s age…er, experience, it wasn’t unreasonable to expect him to pull hot tag duty only, but for such a big show, the Icon took his game up another level. Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler are great heels, especially Harwood who went for a Tombstone on Sting after a not-so-subtle throat slash reminiscent of…well, one of the people you probably associate that move with. All that cheating came back to bite FTR in their NWO-styled tights, as the chair propped in the corner by manager Tully Blanchard ended up going into the face of Harwood, who then got trapped in the Scorpion Death Lock for the win. A good match that will probably be a one-off, though the in-ring work was strong enough to justify a rematch or possibly a trios match involving Shawn Spears and a mystery partner for Allin and Sting.

Malakai Black and Cody Rhodes had an excellent match in what will hopefully be the blowoff for their feud – not that it hasn’t been entertaining, but it feels like it’s run its course and this was a great match to end it on. The crowd was so completely behind Black that even trying to drum up some sympathy by having Brandi Rhodes return to ringside to support her husband was to no avail. (Arn Anderson was probably there for the same reason, but he’s been there more often and this was Brandi’s first appearance since giving birth to the couple’s first child, so no offense to the former Four Horseman but he wasn’t going to get as big a cheer no matter what he did.) Case in point, the biggest cheer of the match, besides maybe the finish, was when Black kicked out of a Cross Rhodes at 2. Rhodes continued wearing down Black’s leg throughout the match, just as his older brother Dustin did a couple of weeks ago, trying to avoid the Black Ma…spinning heel kick (sigh) that his opponent is so well known for ending matches with. To his credit, Rhodes only took one early in the match, and his momentum propelled him out of the ring so his crafty opponent could not take advantage. However, Black found a way to win with a black mist to the face as the ref was reeling from an inadvertent strike, proving that he has more tricks up his sleeve than just his patented finisher. Unfortunately, that somewhat inconclusive finish may be what leads to another rematch, as Rhodes may claim that it wasn’t an entirely clean victory, but hopefully Black is allowed to move on with a new weapon in his arsenal and some new foes to use it on.

Ruby Soho and Dr. Britt Baker DMD absolutely delivered in a rare women’s main event match – with the men’s world champion occupied elsewhere and the tag champs not in action until Friday night, this was absolutely the right choice to close a red-hot show and give the women’s division a spotlight on a massive stage. The Women’s World Champion may be one of the most over wrestlers on the roster, but Ruby Soho gave her a run for her money on this night, as the New York crowd was split right down the middle cheering for the champ and challenger. This was a very physical match with plenty of strikes and kicks, possibly to make up for a lack of build with sheer intensity, and there were a few impressive spots to further up the intensity, including an Air Raid Crash from the top rope and a neckbreaker from the apron by Baker to sell her tweener character’s dark side when it comes to defending the title. Soho nearly won with a Riot Kick (with one t to avoid gimmick infringement, you see) only to fall victim to the numbers game as Jamie Hayter struck while Aubrey Edwards’ back was turned and the champ used the momentary advantage to retain via Lockjaw. We most certainly have not seen the last of this rivalry, and rightly so – these two have fantastic chemistry together, and with a longer build and more personal stakes involved, their rematch could well highlight Full Gear in November.

But you know which match was the best of the night. Of course you do. It’s in the header image for this article. It went 30 minutes at the top of the show because, really, was AEW going to make fans wait for this match? It may well have been the best free TV match AEW has ever done. They scheduled a CM Punk talking segment right afterwards because, as the man himself pointed out, nobody should have to follow up that opening match. It ended in an extremely rare time limit draw and yet it didn’t feel like a cop-out or a massive letdown but rather the natural conclusion to a match in which neither man could possibly lose. It featured two men who haven’t faced each other in over a decade and inspired chants of “fight forever.” It was highlighted by as many chops, kicks, and knee strikes to the face as could conceivably be crammed into a 30-minute match that isn’t exclusively made up of those three moves. It also featured a super hurricanrana, a picture-perfect tope con giro, Cattle Mutilation (the submission hold, not the similarly-named death metal band or, y’know, something worse), a snapdragon suplex onto the entrance ramp, a vicious buckle bomb, a dragon suplex from the top rope, a countered finisher into a poison rana, a countered finisher into a one-armed powerbomb, a missed Phoenix Splash, and probably some other stuff that I forgot to write down because I can only transcribe so much while still trying to watch a match that was like 90% highlights. Do I need to say anything more? Could my words do it justice if you somehow haven’t seen it for yourself? Do I even need to say what match I’m talking about? It’s Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson. Of course it is. It was always going to be Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson. Any card with Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson on it is always going to have a hard time coming up with a better match of the night. I’m not sure a single person watching didn’t come out of that match looking forward to the next Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson match. There is nothing more to say. Go watch it yourself. Watch it again if you already saw it. I know I will.

Best Moment of the Night

It was admittedly a match-heavy night of AEW television, but there were still some highlights that didn’t get talked about above. Some in-ring moments that deserve a special mention include Brandi Rhodes sitting cross-legged across from Malakai Black and flipping the double bird while dropping the AEW special visual f-bomb and Darby Allin‘s incredibly painful-looking but also incredibly precise Coffin Drop on Cash Wheeler to prevent him from breaking up the finish to their tag match. Without sounding too repetitive or lazy, though, I’m going to give moment of the night to CM Punk‘s fiery promo. I’ve mentioned in the past that AEW needs to be careful not to over-expose these talking segments with Punk, and while I maintain that is still true, Punk really brought it tonight. After weeks of smiling, “gee it’s great to be here” speeches from a man best known for anything but that, we finally got a darker, angrier promo from the former Voice of the Voiceless (remember, he gave up that nickname) albeit in a self-referential way that made it clear he was still happy to be out there cutting a promo while amping up the intensity. Punk’s match against Powerhouse Hobbs may not turn out to be anything special, and his feud with Team Taz may not end up being anything more than a brief, if entertaining enough, diversion, but it has at least provided an excuse for one of the best talkers in pro wrestling history to do what he does best. If this promo is anything to go by, there is still plenty to look forward to from the Best in the World.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

No, we’re not doing this. I just put every single match of the night in the “Best Match” conversation, and Grand Slam was way too good of a show to nitpick some tiny “worst moment” out of. Let’s move on.

Parting Shots

• A somewhat underrated aspect of what makes AEW so much fun to watch is the Attitude-Era-esque signs people bring to the arenas. Case in point this week: the dueling “Will Leave Boyfriend 4 MJF” and “MJF is a Cuck” signs, held by a couple of creative wrestling fans who hopefully are actually in a romantic relationship because I don’t want to live in a world where signs that pure are held by fakers.
• And hey, if you didn’t have time to come up with a creative sign, you can always just hold up your kid who’s dressed up as Orange Cassidy, as someone also did this week. That’s an option too, I guess.
• Pretty sure Arn Anderson legitimately slipped off the apron or something – there was a moment when the crowd’s attention was clearly diverted to him rather than what was going on in the ring, but I didn’t catch it or maybe it was off-camera. He did end up taking the planned kick from Cody to knock him off the apron again moments later, so hopefully everything was okay and it was just a minorly embarrassing mishap.
• Sammy Guevara promising to buy Fuego Del Sol a new car if he beats Miro next week would be a better moment if we actually knew what happened to the other car – I suppose maybe they addressed this on Dark/Elevation or something, but I’m a busy and important man who doesn’t have time for such frivolity, so I don’t know. All I saw was Miro shoving the keys in Fuego’s mouth before applying the Game Over, but I thought he didn’t want the car? So was Fuego just too ashamed to drive it anymore? Is it still sitting in a parking lot in Newark somewhere? Come to think of it, that may be a worse fate than anything Miro might have done to it – forced to stay in Jersey forever? Eesh.

That’s it for another week of Dynamite – far and away one of the best weekly TV shows AEW has put on, and if this event becomes a yearly tradition, I think plenty of fans will be thrilled to have a semi-PPV-quality show on regular programming to look forward to. What did you think of Grand Slam? Are you looking forward to the special two-hour Rampage on Friday night? Am I the only one who thought of Goldfinger every time someone mentioned “Grand Slam”? (The James Bond movie, not the band, though they’re pretty good too.) Let us know what you thought, give us a follow on Twitter @FilmIronic, and check out the rest of our great content from the world of entertainment!