Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: Hollywood Showtime Dynamite

AEW returned to Los Angeles for its first show at the renamed Kia Forum, and the company promised a big Dynamite show worthy of such an historic venue. The show’s obvious main event featured the culmination of its longest-running rivalry, and elsewhere on the card we got new entries in other existing feuds as well as new developments that promise to build for the future. Was this show worthy of a Hollywood marquee or relegated to bartending while waiting for its breakthrough screenplay to take off? Let’s take a look at all the best and worst of this week’s show.

Best Match of the Night

Whew, I sure picked a great week to return to reviewing Dynamite, huh? Happy New Year to me! (And to all of you as well, since I didn’t review last week’s show.) This show had pay-per-view quality matches from top to bottom, so why don’t we start from the top? The opening match saw Jon Moxley and Adam Page renew hostilities after Hangman’s extended absence due to a concussion suffered in their previous dust-up. These two clearly came to Los Angeles to chew bubblegum and throw bombs, and they were all out of bubblegum. The match understandably revolved around whether Mox would once again hit his King Kong Lariat, the move that injured Hangman last time around, and whether Page could survive and fight back. Both ended up happening as expected, but the match far exceeded that seemingly simplistic setup. Page managed to land the biggest shots of the match, finally dropping his bitter foe with the Buckshot Lariat for a much-needed win. Both men looked great here, and while their rivalry probably isn’t over, this was definitely a fitting endpoint for the time being if they want to hold off on the conclusion until Revolution in March.

For a good while, I really thought Bryan Danielson vs. Konosuke Takeshita was going to be the best match of the night, but then I remembered what the main event was and realized it probably wouldn’t be. And it wasn’t. But it was still a really good match despite the fact that I just gave away what the best match of the night was. (Like you didn’t already know.) Takeshita really looks like a star in the making with matches like this, to say nothing of the face-t0-face showdown against the world champ that preceded it. There is plenty of reason for optimism for better things to come, which I guess is especially easy to say when he obviously wasn’t going to win this match. The whole setup was that Danielson has to wrestle every week between now and Revolution to earn a match against MJF for the world title, and this was just match one in that series. The American Dragon wasn’t losing here, but that didn’t stop him from making Takeshita look good en route to his inevitable victory. Both men threw strikes, traded submission attempts, and flew around the ring at an impressive pace. If you couldn’t tell, I really enjoyed this match and look forward to Danielson vs. MJF and whatever Takeshita moves onto next.

Not surprisingly, match 7 of 7 between Death Triangle and The Elite for the AEW World Trios Championships was the best match of the night. It was the main event of a hot card for a good reason. Interestingly, the LA crowd wasn’t as solidly behind the SoCal Young Bucks as you might have expected, but I suppose Penta and Rey Fenix are particularly popular in that area as well. It’s hard to make the seventh match in a row between two groups feel fresh, but the addition of the Escalera de la Muerte stipulation did wonders for this match. Kenny Omega took an insane table bump after leaping over the top rope all the way to the floor below, Nick Jackson hit a 450 splash from the top turnbuckle to put Penta through a table on the outside, and Penta spiked Matt Jackson with the Fear Factor on a ladder bridge. Oh, and Kenny Omega hit a One-Winged Angel off the ladder bridge, Matt Jackson hit his Northern lights suplex sequence onto a ladder propped up in the corner, and Rey Fenix hit a hurricanrana off the top rope that left Nick Jackson’s lower legs bouncing off a ladder in what had to be a genuinely painful spot. Oh, and…y’know, I could be here all night listing rad spots from this match. If you didn’t see it, just trust me when I say this match was a fitting conclusion to their lengthy feud. If you did see it, you already know how awesome it was. Also, one minor detail that went overlooked but deserves mentioning, in my opinion – for everyone who wonders “why don’t wrestlers just climb the ladder faster” I submit to you Matt Jackson fast climbing and the ladder bouncing all over the place, nearly tipping over in the process. Yes, I know wrestlers generally climb slowly to sell the physical toll the match is having on them, but there are also practical reasons not to sprint up a ladder that nobody is holding the base of.

Best Moment of the Night

*insert obligatory MJF is good at promos mention here*

Okay fine, I’ll go into a little more detail. AEW managed to wrangle up a couple of celebrities, Ken Jeong and Freddie Prinze Jr., to sit ringside and get insulted by its world champ, which was okay – “Scooby Dooby Douchebag” isn’t a terrible line. His interaction with Takeshita, as mentioned above, was better, and of course the American Dragon cut him off before he could complete his catchphrase. It wasn’t a career highlight for Friedman by any means, but he’s such a dependable promo that it’s hard to make that particular list. It was good and memorable enough for a regular Dynamite, which is all it really needed to be.

JungleHook vs. Lee Moriarty and Big Bill may not have been the greatest match ever, but for a match built around just one notable moment, it certainly delivered on that promised spot to perfection. Hook teased the suplex on Big Bill a couple of times earlier in the match but was blocked each time, but when it came time to deliver the goods, both men executed their roles to a T. Hook delayed just a moment, selling the possibility that he might be blocked one more time, before popping his hips and delivering a picture-perfect T-bone suplex on his much larger opponent. Bill took the bump like a champ and sold its effect by rolling to the outside and delivering the visual “WTF” that perfectly summarized the live audience’s response. It looked great, was shot and cut great, and delivered the huge crowd reaction it was clearly designed to.

Most obviously, the best moment of the night was the return of Adam Cole. Seriously, he was out for so long that there was starting to be speculation about whether he would ever return. The complete lack of build to his return made for an even bigger moment – Tony Schiavone announced that he was not excited to be joined in the ring by his interviewee, which initially made me think it would be MJF, so it was even more unexpected when Cole’s music hit. I know, Schiavone’s friendship with Britt Baker has obviously led to some tension with Cole in the past, but as I said, he’s been out of the picture so long that I wasn’t even thinking about him before he arrived. His promo was excellent, promising good news and bad news to some significant concern from the live audience before revealing that the bad news was actually for everyone else in the locker room because he’s back! Not only was this news warmly received by the LA crowd but it also capped off one of the most genuinely harrowing developments in the past year. I’m not saying I want more AEW stars to get scary concussions – quite the opposite, actually – but at least Adams Cole and Page have proved that the company can turn these moments into storyline gold when they do happen.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

As I said, this show really felt like a pay-per-view for the majority of its runtime, but there was one segment that stood out as obvious TV time-filler. That would be the Jericho Appreciation Society‘s segment with Ricky Starks and Action Andretti. Look, I know there was no way AEW wasn’t going to follow up on the JAS’s surprise appearance at PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles, but this segment was just way too long and relied on too many performers who don’t need to spend that much time talking. Daniel Garcia has developed into a decent promo, and Action Andretti was better than one might have expected from a fairly unknown indie performer, though can we please, in the Year of our Lord 2023, retire the babyface “bro, you gotta control your woman better” promo? It’s gross enough when a heel does it, but at least then the crowd is supposed to be appalled by the blatant sexism. Ricky Starks still looked like a million bucks here and I thought his portion of the segment was pretty good, but overall it just went on too long and only served to set up Starks vs. Jake Hager for next week, which didn’t need that much setup and feels like kind of a downgrade from Starks vs. Jericho. We may still get something worthwhile out of this feud, but this segment was a bit of a misstep.

Parting Shots

• So less than 2 weeks into 2023 and WWE has already undone my best moment of 2022. Wow. Great. Thanks. I hate it. Seriously, Vince McMahon returning to WWE (and apparently seriously considering or actively attempting a sale to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund) even if he isn’t taking over creative control (not for lack of trying, apparently) is such a worrying sign that last year’s Day One PLE ending with Brock Lesnar toppling Big E for the world title seems quaint by comparison. Ah well, there go my thoughts of getting back into WWE.
• I like the rebrand of Dynamite so far – it’s not so massive that it feels like an entirely new show, but it’s enough of a shift that it’s noticeable and feels like a new era for the program. I liked the old stage setup, but it felt too beholden to Cody Rhodes with that massive middle entrance tunnel hanging over things. I do miss the visible tunnels on either side of the stage, but the production still looks great overall.
• I know there was supposed to be some ambiguity about what Hikaru Shida’s intentions really were by sliding her kendo stick into the ring at the conclusion of Saraya and Toni Storm vs. Britt Baker and AEW Women’s World Champion Jamie Hayter, but it really didn’t seem like it was timed right to even give the impression she might have been trying to help the babyfaces. Like seriously, Toni Storm was completely down and out, so of course Britt Baker was going to grab it and thwack Storm to set up the finish. Besides, wasn’t Shida upset about Storm being chosen to be Saraya’s partner? Why would she help someone she’s mad at? If it were Saraya she was trying to pass the weapon to, it would have made more sense, but beyond that the spot was executed in such a way that it could not have been read as anything but a heel turn from the former champ. Also, I know everyone was hoping Shida would lay out Storm before the match so Mercedes Moné could take her place, but this clearly would not have been the right spot for her debut despite being in LA. I’d rather see the New Japan stuff wrapped up before the former Sasha Banks makes her next career move, whether that’s signing with AEW or not.

That’s it for another week – as I said, this was one heck of a show to return to reviewing. I’m going to try to keep things a little shorter like this going forward – I recognize that I’ve gotten a bit long-winded at times in these reviews at times, so I’m going to try to rein it in a bit. Consider that my New Year’s Resolution for 2023. Anyway, thank you all for joining me once again, and I’ll see you all back here next week for more Chair Shots!