Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: Forbidden Door Go-Home Dynamite

AEW had one final chance (besides Friday night’s Rampage, of course) to build up the rivalries and matches for Sunday’s cross-promotional Forbidden Door show with New Japan Pro Wrestling, and it had a stacked card on paper aimed at doing just that. Opponents became teammates, motivations were revealed, and new matches were confirmed as the flagship program emanated from Milwaukee, WI. Which matches and moments stood out, and which fell flat? Let’s take a look at all the best, worst, and everything in between from this week’s Dynamite.

Best Match of the Night

There was quite a lot of good wrestling on this show, which is always welcome in the lead-up to a big show like Forbidden Door. The action here managed to tiptoe the line between playing it too safe to keep everybody healthy for the pay-per-view and giving away too much of the action we should be getting hyped to see on Sunday. In this case, we got good matches that delivered up to the capabilities of the talents involved while still leaving the most anticipated faceoffs and throwdowns for the bigger show coming up this weekend. At the risk of sounding biased, I’m going to give some overdue credit to one of my underappreciated favorites Silas Young, whose AEW debut against Hangman Adam Page was an above-average match designed to build up the former AEW World Champion while still giving the newcomer a decent chance to shine. Silas Young, who has long been billed as the “Last Real Man” in professional wrestling, is a Wisconsin native, and his throwback gimmick made him an ideal foil for the Anxious Millennial Cowboy. The fact that these two have history in Ring of Honor also gave this match more depth, and they played on that familiarity in the early stages of the match especially. Silas likely surprised many with some of his risk-taking in this match, though one aerial maneuver late in the match cost him, but the overall physicality of the match was as expected from two accomplished strikers. Page obviously won off the Buckshot Lariat, building momentum for whatever he will end up doing at Forbidden Door (more on that later) with Adam Cole and Jay White. Page has certainly been in a bit of a holding pattern after losing the title, though that’s been kind of unavoidable with the new champ CM Punk out of action, but he’s continued to put on good matches to keep him in the conversation at the top of the card. Silas is basically the definition of a good hand and hopefully will be involved in RoH going forward, especially as a mentor/backstage agent for the younger stars of the promotion. He doesn’t need to win a lot at this point in his career, and Page certainly isn’t going to lose much given his position on the card, and this match hit all the beats it needed to. Good, efficient booking.

The opening trios match pitting Roppongi Vice and Orange Cassidy against Will Ospreay and Aussie Open was also an exceptional showing. Seriously, I really wanted to name this my match of the night. I enjoyed it that much. Heck, keep reading because I might just talk myself into changing my mind and officially making it match of the night. You don’t know what I’ll do, I’m crazy. Anyway, the first notable element of this match is just how big Ospreay, Kyle Fletcher, and Mark Davis looked across the ring from Cassidy, Rocky Romero, and Trent. It’s easy to forget that Ospreay is over 6 feet tall, and both of his associates appear to be even taller, which is notable as neither AEW nor NJPW is really known as the land of the giants. That isn’t the most important thing in the world, of course, but it did give the heels an air of physical intimidation. They backed that aura up with their in-ring work, as they caught the babyfaces on simultaneous dives and drove them back-first into each other before planting their foes on the ring apron with stereo powerbombs. Beretta carried a lot of the match for the face team, only occasionally giving way to Romero and ultimately Cassidy for the finishing sequence. A lot of fans online expressed surprise that Ospreay and co lost their first match in AEW on Rampage two weeks ago, though Ospreay did get a singles win against Dax Harwood last week, so it was a little surprising to see them lose again here, but once again it was a member of Aussie Open taking the pin rather than Ospreay himself, which makes sense considering they do not have a match on Forbidden Door and their captain does. Still, the heels managed to look good throughout – Davis hit a particularly impressive spike piledriver on Trent, and Aussie Open managed to get some good double-team work in to keep them looking good despite taking another loss. Orange Cassidy remains as over as anyone in the company right now, having lost basically no momentum from his time off due to injury, and the crowd went nuts especially for his Stundog Millionaire on Ospreay and of course the Orange Punch that finished off the match. Romero and Beretta looked good enough in victory to at least give them a decent amount of legitimacy in their winner-take-all match against United Empire and FTR. Nobody should really expect them to win, of course, but they shouldn’t be considered an afterthought against the champions who seem likelier to take home the gold on Sunday. About the only reason I’m not changing my mind about giving this match of the night honors (sorry to disappoint) is that it felt a little formulaic in parts – I understand why so many trios matches have that trademark chain of signature moves where one guy hits a move on another only to be hit by someone else only for that person to be hit by someone else until everyone has had their turn to do something cool; I just feel like it’s overdone at times and would like to see that formula switched up more often. That’s not enough to hold it back from high marks in my opinion, and it deserves its status as very close runner-up for this week’s best match.

Match of the night honors go to Penta Oscuro vs. Malakai Black in the final All-Atlantic Championship qualifier. It feels like cheating to put a representative of Death Triangle against a representative of the House of Black at this point, and I’m sure there are those who would argue this feud has been overexposed, but when the results are this consistently good, can you blame them? I mean, I guess you could if you wanted to, but I don’t mind it for sure. Black and Penta are among the smoothest workers in the game, and both can match strikes and are willing to take risks – that avalanche Fear Factor was a particularly crazy spot. The back and forth, give and take between the two men was enjoyable and gave the impression that it really could go either way, even though Black was the obvious choice given that PAC already advanced to the championship four-way. He certainly had to earn the victory here, and it made sense given how he worked over Penta’s back following the aforementioned Fear Factor left Penta unable to follow up with a cover. Black took advantage of that weak point as Penta was unable to lift his opponent up for a finishing blow, allowing Black to strike with the Black Mass for the decisive victory. Penta has more often been used as a tag team specialist than a singles star during his AEW run, so it doesn’t hurt him too much to take a loss here, while Black is very much a dark horse (pun not intended) to take home the All-Atlantic title. Don’t get me wrong, Miro is still the odds-on favorite in my opinion, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the House of Black used the gold to raise its profile in the company and give them a unifying symbol of their devotion to the cause. Regardless of who takes home the win, the final four-way has a lot to live up to, as the qualifying matches have been consistently excellent, and the final qualifier was no exception.

Best Moment of the Night

Bryan Danielson opened the show with a promo that promised both good and bad news, so let’s focus on the good news first: there is a new member of the Blackpool Combat Club who will be introduced at Forbidden Door. Danielson cut a heck of a promo selling Forbidden Door (and, to a lesser extent, Blood and Guts next week) and talking about his own desire to participate in those events, but his focus on Zack Sabre Jr. trying to position himself as the best technical wrestler on the planet and wanting to prove him wrong (even if he is unable to do so personally) opens a number of possibilities for his hand-picked opponent. It was a nice character moment for Danielson, amid all the cheers that he understandably received as he vowed to see Chris Jericho’s head kicked in next week, to remind the crowd that he enters through “the bad guy tunnel” as justification for why he wouldn’t reveal who his pick for Forbidden Door would be. Of course, most of the chatter online will focus on external possibilities like ex-WWE talent Cesaro or (former? current?) Ring of Honor champion Jonathan Gresham, and that’s fair enough. I’m just putting it out there: if AEW wants to stay in-house but still make a big impact, why not Hook? It would be a major story for him to break away from dear ol’ dad Taz, and even though it would seem natural for him to leave Danhausen behind in order to join the BCC, I think it would be funnier to see Danhausen continue to hang around trying to be Hook’s partner to the exasperation of Lord Regal, who certainly would not approve of one of his charges continuing to associate with such a buffoon. I can imagine William Regal and Danhausen as AEW’s equivalents of Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey on the set of Batman Forever. Just my two cents, though I think there are a number of good choices available.

Under normal circumstances, Christian Cage‘s promo explaining why he took out Jungle Boy would probably have been the moment of the night, but even on a night when there was an undeniably bigger moment, this was still a standout segment. Christian has built the latter part of his career on exactly this kind of character work – he’s slimy, conniving, vindictive, and overall as punchable as it gets. As ridiculous as it sounds, Christian holding onto the slight of Jungle Boy eliminating him from the Casino Battle Royale at last year’s Double or Nothing for an entire year before stabbing JB in the back makes perfect sense within his established character. Christian’s outsized ego has been a feature of his character basically ever since he split with his former brother…er, good friend and tag team partner Edge, and he basically owned up to the fact that the only reason he’s in AEW is to cash in on his reputation and make as much money as possible for himself rather than helping the younger stars of the company. As Christian turned his attack from Jungle Boy, who he advised to retire after suffering this brutal beating, to his mother and sister who were at ringside last week, and even impugning the memory of JB’s late father Luke Perry, Luchasaurus emerged to cut him off, but Christian was able to successfully manipulate his giant charge into holding a private conversation backstage. Whether he will succeed in turning Luchasaurus heel remains to be seen and still, in my mind, seems unlikely, but for the moment he was able to use his words to hold off on the physical violence that he must have spent a significant amount of time planning to avoid, which is another fascinating part of this story. Christian’s cowardice and unwillingness to strike back at Jungle Boy for as long as he did may have been, as he claimed, a result of wanting to make as much money off the back of Jurassic Express’ success as possible, but it also seems to have been directly related to his desire to avoid a physical confrontation with the much larger dinosaur man who has JB’s back at seemingly all times. As I pointed out last week, it’s surely no coincidence that Christian’s attack coincided with Luchasaurus being laid out after being driven through four tables at ringside. That aspect of the story – Christian’s obvious fear of the retribution that he might suffer at the hands of the physically dominant Luchasaurus – bears watching going forward.

The best moment of the night was also the most unexpected – Kazuchika Okada‘s surprise debut to back up Adam Page as IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jay White and Adam Cole attempted to take him out with the championship belt. I fully expected the reason Okada dropped the belt to White in the first place was to allow him to be written off Forbidden Door while allowing the title to still be defended on such a major show, so it was a genuine shock to hear the Rainmaker’s entrance music play, much less for the man to appear in person shortly thereafter. The segment began with very little fanfare, seemingly a rehash of segments we’ve seen numerous times lately between Cole and Page, and Jay White reiterated his desire not to face either of the Adams at Forbidden Door. Been there, done that. AEW seemingly recognized that this segment was treading familiar ground, going through those story beats fairly quickly to set up the double-team attack to draw out the debuting former champion. There were several crowd shots as Okada made his way to the ring that showed those in attendance knew what a huge deal this moment was, and I assume the Chicago crowd on Sunday night will also give him the appropriate response for a star of his stature. I will say it was a bit of a letdown to have it confirmed so quickly and perfunctorily that it will be a fatal four-way for the IWGP title on Sunday night – I feel like somebody with some level of authority, maybe Tony Khan or NJPW president Takami Ohbari, should have gotten on the mic and told Jay White that just because he’s the world champion, that doesn’t mean he gets to handpick his opponent or deny legitimate challengers just because he doesn’t feel like facing them. That would have made the announcement of a match between all four men feel more significant – as it was, there was basically a match graphic put up on the screen, but it didn’t generate as much of a response as a formal announcement would have. Still, Kazuchika Okada is rightly regarded as one of the greatest wrestling talents in the world today, so his last-minute addition to a show that was already hyped to the moon just adds another layer of intrigue and should make for an even more exciting main event for NJPW’s part of the card.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

As mentioned earlier, there was a bad news portion of Bryan Danielson‘s announcement, that he would not be cleared to compete at either Forbidden Door or Blood and Guts. AEW has a number of high profile stars injured right now, so this news was certainly unwelcome if not unexpected. Danielson has a significant history in Japan, so his inability to compete at the big crossover show with NJPW is a blow to the excitement for Forbidden Door. It’s hard to imagine anyone outside of Kenny Omega whose absence would be felt more strongly than Danielson’s. The fact that he put his own reputation on the line for his secret hand-picked stand-in gives me some confidence that we won’t be too disappointed in the end, but it was certainly a bummer to have it confirmed that he cannot participate in an event that is so near and dear to his heart.

The only actually bad moment of the night was the post-main event brawl that went on way too long and involved far too many people who were barely introduced, all while Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jon Moxley stood face to face in the ring looking like dweebs. I was already excited to see Tanahashi and Moxley wrestle, and this ridiculous moment doesn’t diminish my feeling of excitement, but I wouldn’t blame anyone for being less hyped as a result of this segment, which is the exact opposite of what it was intended to do. Yes, there are multiple matches at Forbidden Door (not to mention Blood and Guts) involving the various men involved in this segment, but I question whether we needed all of them together in a chaotic brawl rather than simply focusing on the visual of Moxley and Tanahashi standing nose-to-nose ahead of their probable main event showdown. The two parts of the segment – the brawl on the outside and the face-to-face confrontation in the ring – clashed badly with one another, and the show easily could have gone off the air a few minutes earlier to avoid both from awkwardly being drawn out longer than they needed to be. On its own, this wasn’t a terrible segment, but as the final images of the go-home show before a big pay-per-view, this was a significant misstep from a company that has largely avoided such errors in judgment while building up to Forbidden Door.

Parting Shots

• There was a shot of a kid at ringside joining in with a “you f@%#ed up” chant that made me laugh – on the one hand, I’m sure his parents would have been mortified to know that moment was broadcast on live television. On the other hand, it was kind of cool to see a kid that caught up in the moment and that excited about what was going on. The children truly are our future. *wipes away a single tear*
• I truly don’t mind the idea that some New Japan talents will be making their first appearances in AEW at Forbidden Door – it is hard enough to find screen time for everyone on the AEW roster on a weekly basis, so adding in a bunch of additional wrestlers who need to be introduced to an American audience for maybe the first time is a nearly impossible task. That said, it’s a bit disappointing that the Young Bucks and Darby Allin just namedropped their partners rather than actually having them appear on-screen other than in the match graphic. Granted, we’ve seen Hikuleo before, and Bullet Club is probably well-known enough that some will be familiar with El Phantasmo, but it wouldn’t have hurt for Darby to justify why he and Sting chose Hiromu Takahashi and Shingo Takagi to be their partners. Hopefully there is an opportunity for everyone to shine in that match even if there wasn’t the same level of anticipation built up for everyone who will be involved.
• I’m not going to make predictions for Forbidden Door because I genuinely don’t think it matters that much who wins and loses – obviously there are titles on the line, and that will obviously make a difference going forward, but I feel like a showcase event like this is more about enjoying the spectacle of having these big stars sharing a ring together. I just want to enjoy what’s being presented rather than worry about what the outcome or implications of those results will be.

That’s it for another week – I thought this was a very good go-home show even if it ended on a bit of a lame moment. Thanks again for joining me – I hope you all enjoy Forbidden Door this weekend, as I fully expect I will. I hope you’ll join me again next week for more Chair Shots!