Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: Monster Behind The Mask Dynamite

All Elite Wrestling rolled into Fresno, CA for an absolutely stacked episode of its weekly flagship program, featuring two title bouts among the six promised matches on the card. Besides the All-Atlantic and TNT Championship matches, the presumed #1 contender for the world title continued his quest to prove himself worthy of challenging the champ, one of the most established tag teams in the company took on a young team looking to establish themselves, and a surprising heel turn led to an encounter between a previous fan favorite and one of the most likable additions to the roster in recent memory. Which matches and moments lived up to their potential, and which failed to deliver up to expectations?

Best Match of the Night

For a match card as loaded as this one, I felt like the in-ring offerings this week were good if not great (with one notable exception) in front of a crowd that was engaged but not always as enthusiastic as you’d hope. In part, I think the show felt sort of average because of who was missing more so than because of who was there – Adam Page had a brief backstage segment with Renee Paquette, whose husband Jon Moxley was MIA, Kenny Omega was nowhere to be found despite the Young Bucks having a scheduled match, and other notable stars like Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter, Jade Cargill, Adam Cole, The House of Black, Death Triangle, FTR, and Jungle Boy Jack Perry were all left off the card. There’s nothing wrong with giving some extra airtime to lesser-known performers, especially when pairing them with more established stars, but it did cause the show to feel more middling than it could have. One particular example of this was the Young Bucks vs. Top Flight – this should have been better than it was, but it had to settle for just “good” because the crowd didn’t really seem to care and probably would have preferred to see Cali boys Matt and Nick Jackson win. That said, this ended up being a good match despite a slow start that I realized in hindsight was the Bucks selling the aftereffects of their hellacious Escalera de la Muerte match from last week. (It was nice to see the Bucks returning to the tag division – as commentary mentioned, they have been so invested in the trios title chase that they haven’t had a proper tag match in months despite being one of the best tag teams in the entire galaxy.) By the end, both teams seemed to hit their stride and the crowd woke up a bit before sitting on their hands for the surprise win by the upstart Martin brothers. Maybe there was also a sense that we’ve seen this before – after all, Private Party beat the Bucks in a stunning upset in the first round of the inaugural tag team championship tournament, and there ended up being no real follow up to that, so hopefully there is more of a plan in place to make Dante and Darius into bigger stars as a result of this win. Regardless, for a weekly TV match, this was as good as you’d expect and represented a fresh matchup in the tag division, which is kind of necessary after the best of 7 series the Bucks were just embroiled in. It didn’t have to be a 5-star classic, which it wasn’t, but it was a good time with a mildly surprising and entirely welcome finish that will be interesting to track going forward.

Another good but just shy of great match was the main event for the TNT Championship between Darby Allin and Kushida. No, there was absolutely not even a bit of drama about who would win – Kushida was on loan from New Japan, and Darby just won the title in his hometown of Seattle from Samoa Joe. So of course Kushida shocked the world and captured the title to take home to…wait, no, of course he didn’t. Entirely unsurprising finish aside, this was a fun one-off match that played out differently than most Allin matches – here, he wasn’t physically overmatched by someone with the size and power to throw him around the ring but rather had to withstand a variety of strikes and submissions to retain his new belt. It was a bummer that the pin came somewhat out of nowhere, but at least it wasn’t a garden variety rollup – Darby’s Last Supper at least looks like it would be hard to get out of and somewhat protects Kushida by having him lose in abrupt fashion after a hard-fought, evenly-matched battle. We probably won’t see this matchup again – maybe they could run it back at Forbidden Door – but they did enough here to satisfy the fans regardless.

The best match of the night, by a comfortable distance in my opinion, was Bryan Danielson vs. Bandido. Again, there was no drama about the result – Danielson almost certainly won’t lose until he faces MJF at Revolution, and Bandido isn’t consistently on TV, nor is he a big enough heel to steal a victory against one of the most popular wrestlers on the roster. But again, high drama over the result isn’t really a necessary ingredient for a standout weekly TV match, and this match delivered some of the best pure wrestling you’re likely to see on a regular Dynamite. I’ll admit that I’m as guilty of sleeping on Bandido as anyone – I knew he was good, but every time I see him wrestle I’m somehow surprised by just how good he is. His 21-plex is mesmerizing every time I see it, and that flipping fallaway slam from the top turnbuckle was a thing of beauty. In fact, that latter move really encapsulates Bandido as a wrestler – a rare combination of aerial athleticism and surprising power. His delayed vertical suplex, which he momentarily almost lost control of but summoned reserves of strength and willpower to pull off like he totally meant to let Danielson slip slightly off-kilter, was another highlight mainly because you just don’t expect to see that sort of thing from a guy his size. Brian Cage or Powerhouse Hobbs? Of course, it’d be weird if they didn’t deadlift their opponent at least once a match. But Bandido is listed as 5’7″ and around 180 pounds – he’s a cruiserweight, for crying out loud. I’m taller and heavier than him and I just herniated three discs in my back even thinking about deadlifting 210 pounds of American Dragon. (Of course, that could be because Bandido is 180 pounds of angry muscle and I’m…slightly more pounds of Doritos and Mountain Dew.) On the other side of the ring, Danielson more than held his own because of course he did. He’s one of the best all around wrestlers on the planet, and when matched up with an opponent who can hold his own physically and deliver just as many inventive counters, it feels like the Yes Man takes his game to another level on an impressively consistent basis. Danielson delivered his signature running knee for the win, MJF looked unhappy backstage and paid Brian Cage to break D-Bry’s arm next week, and all was right with the world.

Best Moment of the Night

So last week I promised to try to keep these reviews a bit shorter in the new year, yet that first section was kind of long, right? Well, it turns out that when there are six matches on the card, it doesn’t leave a lot of room for great moments. So we’re going to save some word count here because there wasn’t much to say about, for instance, MJF‘s promo threatening to unmask the darker, less fun version of himself on Bryan Danielson. It was an MJF promo. It gave this review its title. It was good. Water is also wet. I’m not sure what more to say here.

There was also a funny moment where the Jericho Appreciation Society was plotting its next move after Jake Hager failed to take Ricky Starks down a peg. Jericho announced that he and Sammy Guevara would take on Ricky Starks and (presumably) Action Andretti next week, but Daniel Garcia said that after he gets his hands on Andretti this Friday on Rampage, he wants to team with Jericho instead. Guevara, who has been mentoring Garcia in the ways of sports entertainment, much to the technical wrestler’s chagrin, expressed pride in his trainee and announced that he would relinquish his spot in next week’s tag match when — if Garcia beats Andretti on Friday. As a show of his support, Guevara revealed the “new gear” he had gotten for Garcia, a pair of nondescript black leather pants, which led Jericho to remark, “Is that leather? Wow!” before resuming his regularly scheduled promo. Much like Hager’s “I like this hat” this was just a funny throwaway moment in an otherwise fine segment. Sometimes that’s all that is required to produce a standout moment.

I’ll give best moment of the night to Adam Page‘s brief interview segment with Renee Paquette – it wasn’t anything earth-shattering, but Page seemed to be on the verge of asking Renee to deliver a message to her husband about wanting to “mend fences” before thinking better of it and walking off. Page got himself over with promos like this where his words seem genuine and come from a place of real thoughtfulness, where his character’s thoughts seemingly mirror the performer’s own, so it’s little surprise he excels in a moment like this. Renee is underrated for her role in segments like this as well – most of the audience knows her connection to Jon Moxley, so she is involved in the storyline to a certain degree, and she blends her personal and professional roles in a way that enhances the segment in a way that would only be noticeable if she weren’t there. Imagine Page delivering the same sentiment about getting his win back and needing to take some time to focus on some things he needs to do personally to Alex Marvez or Lexi Nair – not that either of them are bad interviewers by any means, but it just wouldn’t have had the same impact as it did with Paquette there. Both performers deserve credit for their work here.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

Not bad by any means, but turning Toni Storm and Saraya heel was an odd move to say the least when Hikaru Shida was the one who seemingly turned on them just a week ago. Saraya has often thrived as a heel in her career, so I suppose AEW putting her in that role isn’t too surprising, but it came almost out of nowhere and seems very early in her genuinely heartwarming return. Then there’s Toni Storm, who I wouldn’t say can’t pull off the heel role but certainly has been thriving as a babyface. Granted, her momentum as a top star in the company has necessarily been slowed by dropping the title to Jamie Hayter, who is genuinely over as a fan favorite, so it makes sense that Storm might be bitter about how things turned out. It’s just been hard to pin down from week to week what story AEW is trying to tell with its women’s division, so although this new direction isn’t bad or without promise, it does feel like a big shift from where it seemed things were going just a short time ago. Plus, I know this is a bit nitpicky, but having Saraya and Storm turn on the “AEW originals” who don’t know anything about working anywhere else, only to have Ruby Soho (who spent longer on the main roster in WWE than Storm did) turn up to run them off, seemed like an odd choice for sure even if she has an established rapport with Willow Nightingale.

Also, Billy Gunn playing mediator between his sons (the Gunn Club) and The Acclaimed is tired and we can retire that storyline anytime, thanks.

Parting Shots

• Rest in peace, Jay Briscoe. Truly a tragic loss at just 38 years old. I always thought Jay was one of the best wrestlers in Ring of Honor history – about the only reason I never owned a Briscoe Brothers shirt was the fact that most of their designs inexplicably included the Confederate flag. Still, the sheer volume of love, support, and grief that poured out from all corners of the wrestling business shows just how respected Jay was both as an in-ring talent and a dedicated family man. He will be greatly missed.
• I love Danhausen and the Best Friends, but their involvement in the opening match along with Sonjay Dutt, Satnam Singh, and Jeff Jarrett was excessive. First we got the heels walking down from the concourse to the front row, then Danhausen appeared in an usher uniform to check their tickets, then he called over Trent Beretta and Chuck Taylor to sit behind them, and it took around 5 minutes longer than the match itself. The camera didn’t even catch Trent dumping his popcorn on the bad guys – whoever was producing the segment was obviously so anxious to get back to the actual wrestling that they forgot the whole point of all that setup. All the drama about whether Satnam and Jarrett would get Sonjay fired was pretty unnecessary and took away from the match itself. In fact, let’s just blame the bad guys and let Danhausen off the hook entirely. Done and done.

That’s it for another week – pretty good week of wrestling under the circumstances even if there was relatively little in the way of storyline development. Thanks for joining me once again, and I hope to see you all back here next week for more Chair Shots!