Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: Pillar Pitfalls Dynamite

The road to Double or Nothing continued this week as Dynamite was broadcast live from Sunrise, FL. Two title matches were promised along with a number one contender’s match and a showdown between two of the company’s top stars. With so much of consequence going on, the only question remained: would the show deliver up to its potential? Let’s take a look at all the best, worst, and everything in between from this week’s show.

Best Match of the Night

I’m not going to mince words here: this was not a particularly strong episode of Dynamite. Not much that was outright terrible – we’ll get to that a little later – but the highlights were few and far between. That’s no fault of the performers – I don’t think Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara or Kenny Omega and Konosuke Takeshita vs. the Butcher and the Blade were ever going to be bad matches unless the performers themselves decided they wanted to put on a bad match for some reason, but they were actively held back by what they had to work with. Takeshita/Omega vs. Butcher & Blade was mainly held back by time constraints – it was a shorter match than it needed to be because the main focus was the post-match assault by the Blackpool Combat Club. That’s never really ideal, but in the main event, it’s almost inexcusable. Still, anytime B&B can get on the show, it’s going to be a highlight in my opinion, and Takeshita continues to look like a star in the making if AEW can get everything lined up right. In the case of Sammy vs. Darby, their match was always going to be good because of the performers involved but held back by a screwy finish the audience saw from a mile off, setting up a tag match next week in which Darby and Jungle Boy will try to earn their way into a four-way for the title that we’ve all known was coming ever since the Four Pillars first assembled back in March. (The actual screwy finish that they went with – MJF throwing a skateboard to Darby while the ref’s back was turned and Sammy taking a back bump as if he had gotten hit with the foreign object to draw a disqualification – was particularly bad. How many times has the ref counted a pinfall when something has gone on behind his back when it’s a heel doing it? Also, where was Jungle Boy? I could have sworn they had an entire promo segment where he said or at least implied he’d have Darby’s back, but he was nowhere to be seen until after these shenanigans went down.) There’s only two possible outcomes for that tag match next week – either Darby and Jack win to make the four-way official, or MJF and Sammy cheat to win and drag this storyline out even longer. Either way, however good that match will undoubtedly be, it will feel perfunctory at best because it’s an artificial barrier set up to raise drama about whether AEW will end up giving the fans what they want. I’m not saying fans should be entitled to whatever they want all the time, but AEW has built a reputation for delivering dream matches and listening to its fanbase. So, to borrow a catchphrase from one of its top stars, cut the $#!t and just give us what we want. Seriously, the fans want a four-way between the company’s top young talents? Cool, make the match already. It’s not that hard. Imagine if instead of all this convoluted nonsense, AEW had just had Sammy, Darby, and Jungle Jack declare in that famous in-ring faceoff that each was going to prove himself worthy of a title shot and then spend the two months leading up to Double or Nothing trying to outdo the others with banger matches each week. Use those matches as an opportunity to have lesser-utilized wrestlers on the show, and maybe insert some intrigue by having Sammy interfere in Jack and Darby’s matches and causing them to lose occasionally – MJF could then seize on the opportunity like he did last week to form an alliance with Sammy to screw the other two pillars out of a title shot, and it would be up to Darby and Jack to outsmart the heels and make sure the four-way match would happen as expected. Instead, we’ve gotten a bunch of repetitive promo segments in which everyone basically makes the case for why it should be a four-way while the company insists that the match isn’t official in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. Yes, the eventual match is going to be awesome regardless. I just don’t want to see AEW fall into the same pattern of mediocre at best booking from week to week just because they know there’s a can’t-miss matchup at the end of the build. WWE did that for years (and I’m not convinced they’re 100% out of the woods on that front) and it drove a lot of fans away to alternatives like AEW, so if the alternative ends up doing the same thing, what will keep its audience from leaving too?

The best match of the night was the only one that delivered on its own merits, the International Championship match between Orange Cassidy and Bandido. I don’t think its exaggerating to say Orange Cassidy has been the best wrestler on the AEW roster in 2023 – week after week he puts on a highlight match, usually in the opener, and he manages to rise above the nonsense that has sometimes dragged the rest of the show down. Granted, part of the reason he has the opportunity to just wrestle a great match and not worry about anything else is the fact that he hasn’t really had an ongoing storyline, but if the International Championship is going to function something like a European/Intercontinental/TV title hybrid, that’s not necessarily a terrible thing. Eventually he needs a rivalry to last more than a week, but with over a month until the next pay-per-view it’s not like we’re running out of time for something to develop. Bandido was a particularly fun choice to put up against the Freshly Squeezed one, and the match blended comedy with the kind of agile, high-flying wrestling that have become OC’s signature style. Despite the unlikelihood of the challenger winning, he did pull off a couple of spots that had fans wondering if we might see a title change – in particular, his one-armed press slam followed by a picture-perfect frog splash had the live crowd biting hard that it would be the finish before the champ kicked out at a very close 2. Bandido is clearly a babyface but worked a bit more heelish in this match, so OC putting sunglasses on him (well, trying and failing and Bandido putting them on himself) and posing after the match was clearly a nod to there being no further animosity between the two. Having them come into the backstage area just after Renee Paquette finished interviewing Adam Cole and act confused that she wasn’t there to interview them was also a nice touch. I can’t remember the last Orange Cassidy match that I didn’t find entertaining, and against a quality opponent like Bandido that streak was never likely to come to an end, but I feel like they were able to accomplish even more than I expected coming in, so their match gets the easy nod for match of the night.

Best Moment of the Night

Again, I struggled to come up with any major highlights from this show – Jamie Hayter‘s fiery backstage promo promising that it would not be over with the Outcasts until they put her and Britt Baker in the morgue was good but short – but there was one moment that clearly stood out in my mind: the AEW debut of Roderick Strong. And AEW shelled out for the licensing rights to use “End of Heartache” by Killswitch Engage as his entrance music. (That’s also the name of Roddy’s finishing move, in case you didn’t know. I’m not sure he’s ever used the song before, though, so that’s very exciting.) I still question where, oh where is Keith Lee in all of this – not literally, as he’s apparently teaming with Dustin Rhodes again on this Friday’s Rampage, but why his involvement in the storyline was so abruptly introduced and then dropped – but it makes sense that Adam Cole would seek backup for his feud with Chris Jericho and the Jericho Appreciation Society. With Bobby Fish no longer on the roster (but apparently not signed to Impact) and Kyle O’Reilly possibly still injured, we may not get a full Undisputed Era reunion yet, but Roddy coming to his longtime friend’s aid is a very easy story to tell in the meantime. Whether he gets inserted into a tag match with Cole  at Double or Nothing against Jericho and Daniel Garcia, for instance, remains to be seen, but if I may just put a request out into the universe, I would love to see Cole vs. Jericho one-on-one and a mixed tag pitting Strong and his wife Marina Shafir against Anna Jay and, I dunno, Jake Hager? You can’t do a real life husband-wife vs. boyfriend-girlfriend matchup since Jay is dating Jungle Jack Perry, but I’m not sure who in the JAS would be a logical partner for her. I just would rather see Roddy in his own match, and since Marina is already on the roster not doing a whole lot, it could be a nice shot in the arm of her career to partner with him in a high-profile storyline like this. Orange Cassidy and Bandido are unlikely to stick around as backup for Cole, and although Britt Baker makes sense to neutralize the female component of the JAS, she’s more invested in the feud with Ruby Soho, Saraya, and Toni Storm. Just saying, if AEW wants to get anything out of Marina, this might be their best opportunity to heat her up with fans and do something meaningful to advance her in-ring career. Regardless of what we end up getting at Double or Nothing, though, it’s very exciting to have Roderick Strong in the AEW fold, and it should help to prevent Cole vs. Jericho from seeming too one-sided going forward.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

Jade Cargill vs. Taya Valkyrie should have been a huge matchup for the TBS Championship, but instead they gave it away on free TV with the entirety of the build being done on Rampage and not enough of a recap/video package to justify the stipulation that led to the finish. The announcers basically said “Taya’s finisher is too similar to Jade’s so she’s not allowed to use it” as if that makes any sense, and wouldn’t you know it but she tried to hit it anyway and ended up losing because Aubrey Edwards (and Mark Sterling) stopped her. I will confess that I only occasionally watch Rampage, so although I’m guessing there was more to it than that, I don’t actually know. Jade has been way too far out of the spotlight to care about recently, which is a shame because she’s one of the most obvious stars of the AEW women’s division, and although Taya’s résumé would seem to indicate that she’s a legit contender to break Jade’s winning streak, this match was so obviously an afterthought. The match itself wasn’t awful, and the wonky finish left the door open for AEW to revisit this matchup if they choose, but they really need to invest more time on the main show (which airs on TBS, by the way – this should be the championship of Dynamite, not Rampage) if they want the audience to care about this rivalry.

It’s a rare two bad matches/moments week! Though if you know anything about my opinion of Jeff Jarrett, you probably should have seen this coming. He has no business being in a match with Dax Harwood, much less winning it, much less getting yet another shot at the tag titles with Jay Lethal as a result. Please let Double J transition to a backstage role and get him off my television. Plus, and I feel like I say this every week, but why are babyfaces always so stupid?! Cash Wheeler was nowhere to be seen despite the fact that Jarrett was obviously bringing the entire Lethal Impact faction with him, but Dax was left out to dry as the heels cheated to win because his partner is a babyface and therefore an idiot. Don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to clever, sneaky heels getting one over on their babyface rivals, but this was so blatant and obvious that FTR just seem like big dumb dummies for not seeing it coming. Especially since they were heels themselves up until fairly recently and this is the exact kind of thing they would have pulled. Again, the match was not terrible, but what a weird booking decision to have a 55-year-old go over one of the most over wrestlers in the company and be perpetually involved in the tag title scene ahead of countless more talented duos on the roster. Mind-boggling.

Parting Shots

• I know I don’t really have to comment on this, but just for the record I don’t particularly care about CM Punk being backstage at Raw. Or that Vince McMahon reportedly had him thrown out. Or the rumors that Punk is returning to AEW to headline the roster for a new Saturday show. I would obviously care about that last one if it turns out to be true, but until AEW announces something, I don’t care about the “reporting” that it’s going to happen based on some nameless backstage source or somebody’s brother’s cousin’s ex-wife’s uncle who works at Nintendo who is drinking buddies with someone who does dry cleaning for someone who works for AEW. I see articles and videos on a weekly basis saying “CM PUNK AEW RETURN CONFIRMED” and “Why CM Punk Will ~NEVER~ Wrestle For AEW **EvAr AgAiN**” and…I’m over it. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a huge CM Punk fan and would be absolutely thrilled to see him in AEW again, but until it actually happens or AEW directly confirms it, you can miss me out with all that noise.
• I debated putting the announcement of the Owen Hart Cup returning as one of the best moments of the night, but Tony Khan’s actual announcement wasn’t anything special, just the news that he was announcing. Still, it’s great to hear that AEW is returning to Canada and the finals of the tournament will be in Owen’s home town of Calgary. I like wrestling tournaments in general, and the first edition of this tourney was pretty good, so I’m hoping this year’s version will be just as good if not better.
• Wardlow and Arn Anderson are still together for some reason. It’s not bad but just seems kind of pointless. Maybe I misunderstood Arn’s promo but I thought he was going to get someone else to back up the big man. Apparently he and his Glock are all the backup needed, I guess? Oh, and Powerhouse Hobbs is apparently giving QT Marshall an opportunity to make things right, thank goodness. Wouldn’t want the QTV stuff to come to an end so soon.
• I do harp on how dumb babyfaces in wrestling so often are, but I will point out how often little things undermine heels too. For instance, MJF refusing to let Sammy ride with him despite the fact that the entire backseat of the SUV he was being driven off in was completely empty will presumably lead to Sammy reneging on their deal and forcing MJF to defend his title in a four-way instead of a fixed one-on-one match. Granted, the decision to snub Sammy was related to a well-established flaw of MJF’s, his unbelievable selfishness and arrogance, rather than him temporarily taking leave of his common sense like so many babyfaces seem to, but it is worth noting that even top heels aren’t immune to an own goal.
• The Blackpool Combat Club further established themselves as the company’s top heels this week. No, not because they attacked Konosuke Takeshita with a screwdriver for refusing to join them. Well actually yes, because of that but not only because of that – what I’m referring to was the completely unprovoked assault on RJ City backstage. That man is a national treasure (well, he’s Canadian, but you know what I mean) and I will not stand for such treatment. I mean, I’m not going to do anything about it except express my displeasure in this article, but let the internet record reflect that I, for one, am outraged.

That’s it for another week – like I said, this was a pretty weak episode in my opinion, but there are plenty of plates already spinning ahead of Double or Nothing so I guess you could argue that they don’t have to do all that much from week to week other than just keep things going. I do expect Double or Nothing to be a good show, and hopefully they’ll heat things up between now and then to make sure fan investment is as high as possible. Thanks for joining me once again, and I hope to see you back next week for more Chair Shots!