Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: Tres De Mayo Dynamite

Sandwiched between Taco Tuesday and May the Fourth, this week’s Dynamite from Baltimore, MD promised to finalize the main event for Double or Nothing and determine a new top contender for the trios titles. In addition, a new signee debuted, a popular wrestler returned, and a recently-crowned champion called out his presumed challenger. Did the show deliver on the promised developments in a way fans would appreciate, or did the show continue a recent stretch of mediocrity?

Best Match of the Night

I was disappointed with last week’s show and didn’t make any secret of it. I’m not convinced this week’s show was actually better than that show – the result of the main event was never in doubt and paid off the most obvious storyline in the company, Wardlow squashed some nobody, and there was a battle royale which you should all know my opinion on by now – but I will say I enjoyed it a lot more. Probably because it didn’t feel as much like AEW is just treading water and more that they are building towards something. Like, I dunno, a pay-per-view that is less than a month away. Amazing how much that improves my perception of things. And even two of those negatives I mentioned weren’t that bad – the main event was still a good match (as I’ll talk about in a moment) and I will give the trios battle royal the highest compliment I can give a battle royal: I didn’t completely hate it. Also, I love when AEW busts out a ridiculous name for a fairly mundane match, and “Tres de Mayo Trios Battle Royale” is suitably absurd – it’s like they wanted to pay tribute to Cinco de Mayo, which is a thing (sorta), but the episode aired on May 3rd, which isn’t a thing, but they didn’t want that to stop them from adding a little something to elevate the match.

Anyway, without any further ado, let’s talk about the best in-ring work from this week’s show, starting appropriately enough with the opening 8-man tag pitting Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Orange Cassidy, and Bandido against the Jericho Appreciation Society’s Daniel Garcia, Matt Menard, Angelo Parker, and Jake Hager. My one complaint with this match was how much time Adam Cole spent being distracted by and threatening to leave ringside to go after Chris Jericho on commentary. If he couldn’t stay focused enough to complete the match, why not have a six-man match with him supporting Roddy while, say, Jake Hager or Daniel Garcia stayed on the outside for the other team? That’s a somewhat minor gripe in the grander scheme of things, but I feel like Roddy would have a legit complaint if Cole cost him his debut match just by getting counted out. By the end, though, Cole and Strong looked like a cohesive team that could be in line for a tag title match if they beat the JAS as Double or Nothing. Orange Cassidy is the king of the opening match, so of course he was involved here and had some fun spots including when he feigned chops to Daniel Garcia’s chest much to the Red Death’s annoyance. Unfortunately, I feel like his best bit of the match – causing Daddy Magic and Cool Hand Ang to hit each other while he rolled around with his hands in his pockets – happened during the picture-in-picture break. Bandido was the surprising highlight for his team, holding up Parker and then Menard for a delayed vertical suplex before double suplexing both of them at once and hitting his signature one-handed overhead slam. Cole vs. Jericho is clearly the feud that matters here, which paid off in the post-match brawl that started as soon as the match ended, but the match did keep Roddy, OC, and Bandido looking strong for whatever they have coming next too.

Another quality match on the night was Ricky Starks vs. Juice Robinson in a grudge match that was originally supposed to happen a couple of weeks ago when Jay White debuted. Starks has seen his star dim a bit lately since he defeated Chris Jericho at Revolution, but I feel like his rivalry against Bullet Club Gold has been a decent way to keep him busy, even if he will likely lose to Switchblade at the pay-per-view. Ideally, Starks will recruit someone from New Japan to help him get his win back against White and Robinson at Forbidden Door and he can ride that momentum back to prominence. Matches like this are great examples of why Absolute should be one of AEW’s next big homegrown stars – he has a magnetic presence in addition to his in-ring ability that makes him stand out even in a relatively inconsequential spot on the card. Crank that up to 11 and you’ve got the makings of the next big thing in AEW. Juice held his own as well, delivering a top-rope hurricanrana that led to one of the closer near-falls of the match, but of course Starks was ultimately able to hit a spear and Rochambeau for the win. Really nothing to complain about here in the end – the match was worked and paced well, both guys looked good even though the spotlight was clearly on Starks, and the post-match assault by Jay White kept the focus on their developing rivalry as we inch closer to Double or Nothing.

The best match of the night was the 4 Pillars tag match that saw Jungle Boy Jack Perry and Darby Allin face off against MJF and Sammy Guevara. Yes, it was predictable, but having four of the company’s best wrestlers in a single match is rarely going to disappoint. You always knew Sammy and MJF couldn’t coexist long enough to win, even though MJF offered an explanation as to why Sammy couldn’t ride with him last week and Sammy was still motivated to keep it a one-on-one match at Double or Nothing even if he didn’t plan on honoring his part of the agreement to lay down and let Max retain. Jack and Darby hit plenty of crowd-pleasing high-risk moves, as did Sammy to the usual jeers he gets whenever he does just about anything these days, and of course Maxwell tried to play team captain which basically meant he let Sammy do most of the work while he tried to take the glory. That backfired on him in the end as he tried to steal a pin from his partner with a blind tag, but the babyfaces rallied during the heels’ squabble and pinned Sammy so the champ has a further gripe heading into Double or Nothing. After all, it’s Sammy’s fault that it will now be a four-way instead of the (fixed) one-on-one match they agreed to. Again, it was four of the top stars in the company in a single match, and they got a decent amount of time in the main event slot to showcase their talents. This was never going to be a bad match. I’m sure their match at Double or Nothing will be even better because at least there the finish isn’t such a foregone conclusion (though the smart money is obviously on MJF retaining) but this match was at least a good preview of things to come.

Best Moment of the Night

I’ll admit I’m a sucker for a dominant wrestler or faction inventing its own rules – I was a big fan of Big E Langston’s 5-count rule back in the day, for instance – so of course I loved the House of Black‘s new “open house” format for trios title matches…even if I don’t completely understand what the rules are exactly. The first two rules – no rope breaks and 20-second count-outs – were straightforward, but then there was something about DQs and something called “dealer’s choice” and I’ll admit they lost me there. Are there DQs or not? Was the dealer’s choice related to the DQs or something separate? Aside from needing some clarification there, I really like the idea of making House of Black matches unique and especially suited to the group’s overall ethos. I am not sure if The Acclaimed are the right challengers to introduce this gimmick against – I expected them to start a tag feud by being eliminated by one of the other cobbled-together trios in the way the Lucha Brothers seemingly did with Powerhouse Hobbs and QTV – but I am looking forward to what they can do with it in the future regardless.

I’m going to cheat a little and lump the Blackpool Combat Club‘s and Kenny Omega‘s promos together as a single moment even though they were clearly two separate segments. They were talking to each other about the same thing – Kenny’s cage match against Jon Moxley on next week’s Dynamite – so they seem more like two halves of the same whole rather than two distinct promos. Also, if you know my feelings about Bret Hart, you’ll know I 100% agree with Bryan Danielson calling out “the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be” as the most egotistical nickname imaginable (even if Danielson the person doesn’t really believe what Danielson the character said in this promo) – what would be the point of watching wrestling at this point if you legitimately believed nobody could ever be better than a guy whose career ended over two decades ago? It’s like why I don’t watch the NBA anymore – I enjoyed Michael Jordan’s and Shaq’s eras but I can’t imagine caring about anyone new the way I cared about them, so what would be the point? Jon Moxley pointed out that the BCC is all about making themselves and others better by putting them to the toughest test possible in each match and promised to show the Best Bout Machine a new side of himself in their cage match. Kenny’s promo was somewhat interrupted by Don Callis, who continued to sell the legitimate head injury he suffered by accident during a BCC attack backstage as something intended by Moxley, and Omega promised to make Mox pay next week. The promise of two massive stars facing off in a brutal cage match is exciting enough, but the storyline up to this point has elevated this particular matchup to another level, and promos like this have contributed massively to the hype surrounding not only that match but also the eventual BCC/Elite faceoff that we’ll presumably get at Double or Nothing.

Nobody is more surprised than me about this week’s moment of the night. I understand if you think I’ve either taken leave of my senses or someone else has taken over writing this article when you read what I’m about to write: the segment with Jay Lethal, Jeff Jarrett, Sonjay Dutt, and Satnam Singh visiting Mark Briscoe‘s chicken farm was the best moment of the night. Yes, seriously. You may know that I am no fan of Jay Lethal and especially Jeff Jarrett, but this segment was hilarious and didn’t involve them challenging for the tag titles, even though they’re still going to do that in the future but not yet, so that made it good. Just the idea of Dutt and Singh chasing chickens around and Jarrett actually trying to play a guitar instead of smashing it over someone’s head was very funny to me, and Papa Briscoe showing up to warn Mark about “the Indian in the overalls” only for Mark to point out that there’s two of them was a perfect capper to the segment. It also made sense that Lethal and Jarrett would consult one of the last teams who defeated FTR as they prepare to challenge for the tag titles, though I don’t know why Briscoe would help them. Still, this segment had no business being as good as it was. Maybe the fact that it caught me by surprise the way it did elevated it in my mind, but as I think back on this week’s show I still feel like it was the single most entertaining bit. No, for the last time, I have not been brainwashed, thank you very much.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

I know I said I’m not sure if this week’s episode was really any better than last week’s, but the fact that I couldn’t think of a single majorly negative moment to put here should indicate the relative increase in quality over last week when I had two separate worsts for maybe the first time ever.

Parting Shots

• That Britt Baker shirt is pretty gross, in my opinion, but I don’t think I’d have as much of a problem with it if Chris Jericho and the Outcasts wore it without AEW selling it in their store. I did like that Baker took the opportunity to slap Jericho across the face and rip his shirt off him as he tried to have her boyfriend run out of the arena by security.
• I like Willow Nightingale and wish they’d let her partner with Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter to take on the Outcasts, but unfortunately that spot seems to have been filled by Hikaru Shida, who teased joining Saraya and co. before spraying the group’s leader in the face with their own spray paint (which I have long assumed was just temporary and that seems to be confirmed because I can’t fathom spraying a human being with a legit can of paint) and laying in kendo stick shots on all three women. It was a fun segment even if the match that came before it was the usual nonsense full of interference by the heels and Shida joining the group would have been entirely nonsensical.
• Taz’s suggestion that Anthony Bowens was able to hold onto the top rope to avoid elimination in the battle royale because of all the scissoring he’s being doing was hilarious. I also loved Butcher and Blade scissoring to taunt The Acclaimed.

That’s it for another week – I liked this show a lot more than in previous weeks, and I feel like the build to Double or Nothing is finally starting to ramp up. I always thought the pay-per-view would be good in the end, but the build didn’t get off to the best start, so I’m glad to see things are starting to turn around. Thanks for joining me once again, and I hope you’ll all come back for more Chair Shots!