Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: TBS Dynamite Episode 2

Well, I sure picked a bad week to go on vacation, huh? Between the first Dynamite of the new year, the show’s debut on TBS, the crowning of three(ish) new champions, and three whole televised events in a week, it was certainly not a light week in AEW history to miss out on. Adam Page and Bryan Danielson tore the house down once again, Jade Cargill and Jurassic Express got their first taste of AEW gold, Sammy Guevara was crowned TNT Champion again (sort of), Jake Atlas made his debut on AEW television against Adam Cole, Dr. Britt Baker DMD picked up her first ever win against former champion Riho, and…well, probably some other stuff that I’m not even thinking of at the moment because so much happened in the week that I was off.

But hey, let’s talk about this week’s episode of Dynamite, eh?

The TBS era rolled on as AEW’s flagship was broadcast from Raleigh, NC with a title match in the main event, a couple of significant rematches, and plenty of storyline developments that were both easy to foresee and completely out of nowhere. So let’s run down the best and worst of this week’s show and what we should all be talking about going forward.

Best Match of the Night

I’ll be honest, and maybe it’s just that I spent so much time this week catching up on all the insanity from last week, but I didn’t feel like any of the matches this week were all that great. Not bad by any means, but there were a few that failed to live up to expectations and some that didn’t really need to happen even if the action between the ropes was perfectly acceptable. Among the highlights this week, I have to give credit where it’s due – Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Dante Martin round 2 fared a lot better than their first matchup back in September that I was…not as impressed with. Martin and Hobbs are two rising stars in AEW, and although big and powerful doesn’t always mix smoothly with fast and agile, this match was a pretty good example of how well it can work when things go right. I’m not sure what adding Jay Lethal to the mix is really meant to accomplish, other than I suppose giving the former ROH champ something to do for the time being, but it does feel odd that they’ve dropped the whole Lio Rush angle yet still seemingly want to give Martin a partner for his ongoing feud against Team Taz. CM Punk vs. Wardlow was also good, though mainly as a continuation of the ongoing feud between Punk and MJF, not so much as an in-ring match since it was primarily a one-sided beatdown. Still, Wardlow’s path of destruction has been fun to watch, MJF overstepped his bounds and costing his charge by insisting on inflicting even more punishment rather than letting him just do what he needed to do to win the match, and Punk absorbed all the physical decimation while still escaping by the skin of his teeth. It is kind of disappointing that we’re going to get Punk vs. Shawn Spears next week because, with all due respect to the Chairman, he has absolutely no chance of being the first to dethrone the undefeated Punk. Then again, most people would have said the same thing about Captain Shawn Dean last week against MJF. I certainly don’t expect the Second City Saint’s winning streak to end by DQ, but I would hope MJF has something up his sleeve to make that match more interesting and dramatic. Anyway, I said back at the start of this feud between Punk and MJF that it would be great if it is the final catalyst for Wardlow to break off on his own, and with developments like this week’s, it really feels like we’re heading toward that exact outcome.

Best match of the night honors go to the main event for the interim TNT Championship between Sammy Guevara and Daniel Garcia. There was a little something that held this match back from true greatness in my opinion, but it’s undeniable that these two are the type of exciting young talents that the TNT Championship should absolutely be built up as a showcase for. Featuring them in the main event is also an important step in developing new stars of the future, though it did end up showcasing the issues between Chris Jericho and Eddie Kingston as the show went off the air. Still, there was a good mix of Guevara’s aerial dynamism and Garcia’s technical prowess even if it felt like they were held back a bit by the time constraints and not wanting to give away everything they have in a match with minimal build. A full-fledged feud between the two may be too much to expect at this point, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see them face off again somewhere down the line, and if what we saw here was any indication, their rematch should really be something to see.

Best Moment of the Night

Lance Archer is back! He’s definitely going to lose to Adam Page, and he may well slip back down the card and disappear for a while again, but for now it sure was cool to see him back in an AEW ring! And the Blackout through the chair was quite the exclamation point on his return, so that’s something anyway. Dr. Britt Baker DMD getting involved in the Best Friends/Superkliq feud was a really cool moment, and the promised mixed tag pitting Adam Cole and Britt Baker against Orange Cassidy and Kris Statlander should be a great showcase for four incredible talents. Kyle O’Reilly calling Brandon Cutler “Landon” is a consistently hilarious touch, and Britt Baker calling him “Brandon Butler” was a fun twist on that formula, though nobody seemed to have any problem telling him to shut up when he tried to correct them. (Have I mentioned Brandon Cutler is the best? Because he really is.)

The overall best moment, however, has to go to the worst-kept secret in recent weeks: the debut of Brody King as the first official member of the House of Black. Back at Winter is Coming, Malakai Black had a cryptic vignette that the internet almost immediately identified as an obvious tease for King’s coming debut, pointing out that the entire scene appeared to have been shot at King’s home and of course Black referring to the hooded figure as “so much more than a king” was an apparent reference to their tag team, the Kings of the Black Throne. I’ll admit that I’m not as familiar with King’s work as I should be for someone who is also into heavy metal and professional wrestling as I am, but I must say I am very excited to see what he and Black do as a tag team and/or as two incredibly intimidating tattooed dudes who can easily wreck people on their own. PAC’s creepy blindfolded promo this week also raised the possibility of him joining the House of Black, or at least turning into a darker version of himself, so that’s also exciting/terrifying.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

Dan Lambert was on television again, so you know that was a lowlight. Not only was he on TV, he was in a segment with the world champion, so that was especially worrying even if it was apparently just a mechanism for drawing out Lance Archer for his confrontation with Hangman Page. I did appreciate that Page said “oh God, shoot me” when he realized Lambert was coming out to interrupt him. Our world champion truly is a man of the people.

Another more general bummer was the lack of women’s wrestling on the card – Serena Deeb vs. Hikaru Shida was mainly a storyline advancement rather than a proper match, even though the record books will reflect a win for Deeb and a loss for Shida, and there was no other women’s match despite crowning a second champion in the division just a week ago. I haven’t been as critical as some about the women’s division in AEW, but it seems like there is still room for improvement in terms of how they are presented. If nothing else, a match to build momentum for someone to challenge Jade Cargill for the TBS Championship would have been appreciated as that brand new title was relegated to a pre-taped promo from the champ and Mark Sterling. I know it doesn’t have to be defended every week to be considered a workhorse championship, but as a de facto TV title in the women’s division, it probably shouldn’t be left off Dynamite on a regular basis either. Sure, Kris Statlander and Britt Baker were involved at a few points throughout the show, so it wasn’t as if the division was left entirely unrepresented, but there were certainly a few matches and segments that could have been trimmed or eliminated to make room for some actual women’s wrestling.

Parting Shots

• Is PWI’s Faction of the Year award new? Chris Jericho and the Inner Circle winning for 2021 is cool and all, but I’m trying to figure out if I’ve just never paid attention to it before or maybe the winners just haven’t made a big deal out of it, or if it’s an award that just didn’t exist until recently. I’m not sure which is harder to believe – faction of the year seems like something that would have been a bigger deal in the ’80s or late ’90s/early 2000s, but the idea that I’ve just been unaware of it for the last 20+ years of being a wrestling fan also seems unlikely.
• Maybe it’s because I personally identify with 2/3 of his Anxious Millennial Cowboy nickname, but I sure did enjoy Adam Page’s Smokey Bear shirt. And before you call me an out-of-touch old man, here’s an old-timey vintage ad from 3 years ago featuring Smokey Bear for all you youngins out there. Now get off my lawn…er, um, something a young person (like me) would say.
• I understand the argument that Matt Hardy didn’t really need to be on the show except for the fact that the episode was emanating from North Carolina, but it seemed even odder that the backstage confrontation between Arn Anderson’s Nightmare Family team and Tully Blanchard’s FTR only happened because the show was in “Horsemen Country” just to set up a match next week in *checks notes* Washington, DC. Sure glad we got those icons some TV time for something that won’t pay off until it’s too late to matter.
• Alex Reynolds and John Silver claiming to be “top five hunks, top five meat” in addition to a top five tag team was just so perfectly on brand that I actually don’t have anything to say about it, I just needed to put it in this article in some form.

That’ll do it for another week! Pretty middle of the road Dynamite this week in my opinion – not great, but far from terrible. Thanks for reading once again and I hope you’ll all join me back here next week for more Chair Shots!