Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: Valentine’s Violence Dynamite

Love was in the air this week as AEW rolled into Cedar Park, TX…well, something was in the air – Revolution, perhaps – with just two-and-a-half weeks until the pay-per-view. With several feuds just heating up, this show didn’t feature many must-see matches on paper, but then again wrestling matches aren’t contested on paper, so maybe things would be different on the ring canvas. How did the show fare in the end? Let’s take a look at all the best and worst of this week’s Dynamite.

Cheers

• This was a really good episode from top to bottom in my opinion, very lean with almost no filler (we’ll get to that in the next segment) and some matches that really over-delivered. Probably the match that exceeded expectations the most (though expectations really shouldn’t have been that low for this one) was the main event Texas Deathmatch between Orange Cassidy and Matt Taven. I think just because Taven has a reputation for being more of a tag guy and not having the best Ring of Honor title run (during a bad stretch in the company’s history, it must be said) people kind of forget he’s actually a very good wrestler. And of course OC is awesome. Was there any reason for this to be a deathmatch other than the fact that the show was in Texas? No, of course not – Best Friends and the Undisputed Kingdom are barely feuding at this point, and there has been no animosity between Taven and Cassidy in particular that I’m aware of. Still, both guys went hard in this match – Taven held nothing back on that suicide dive that ended up launching him through a table on the outside, and the heart-shaped box full of thumbtacks from Chuckie T provided no shortage of havoc with multiple spots on, around, and into the pile of metallic nastiness. Taven tried to take away the International Champion’s most dangerous weapon, his pants pockets, to no avail as a steel chain-assisted Orange Punch put him down for the count. Trent Beretta and Cassidy’s Revolution opponent Roderick Strong tried to get involved, but they cancelled each other out in the end as Trent ate a running knee intended for Cassidy and the champ sent Roddy out of the ring to preserve the victory. It will be interesting to see if there’s any tension within the UK as Roddy could have helped Taven avoid the ref’s 10 count but instead took a shot at the champ ahead of their title match at the pay-per-view. It’s too early for them to even tease a breakup, but it bears watching going forward anyway.
• The opening match between Dax Harwood and Jon Moxley got the night off to a romantic start with each man kissing the other in an attempt to psych them out. (Don’t worry, Mox’s wife Renee Paquette wasn’t left out as Anthony Bowens gave her a flower later in the show. Because everybody loves the Bang Bang Scissor Gang, of course.) As with the main event, this was a singles match that arose out of a budding faction feud, so the more accomplished singles star was always going to pick up the win, but Harwood more than held up his end of the match as he and Moxley made you believe they really wanted to take each other out for the better part of 20 minutes. Probably the scariest spot was the suplex to the outside in which both men went over the top rope – Moxley in particular looked like he narrowly avoided a very bad bump. Mox won with a submission hold that he refused to let go of after the bell, which drew out Cash Wheeler followed shortly by Claudio Castagnoli, so I think we know what the tag match will be here. Maybe Danny Garcia and Bryan Danielson get involved at some point to lead to a full trios feud.
• AEW World Champion Samoa Joe addressed the situation with Hangman Adam Page and Swerve Strickland, who both came to the ring to say their piece. Allow me to summarize their respective positions – Joe: “Last week’s #1 contender’s match didn’t have a winner, so how come I have two #1 contenders suddenly?” Page: “I was the de facto #1 contender and Swerve failed to beat me to take my spot, so he shouldn’t even get a title shot!” Swerve: “Whose house?” Okay, there was more to it than that – it was a fantastic promo segment that you should really seek out if you missed it – but that’s the basic gist of it anyway.
• Speaking of fantastic non-wrestling segments, Toni Storm’s “Wet Ink” vignette was also great – after so much had been made of her sharing an ankle tattoo with Deonna Purrazzo, her former friend and current challenger, the heelish champ went so far as to have it altered to add a dagger going through it. First of all, if she got a real tattoo as part of this storyline, that’s metal as hell and kudos to her for committing to the bit. Even if it was just a temporary tattoo, it’s still a cool story beat that Storm sold fantastically. Apart from the men’s world title feud, Storm-Purrazzo is the feud I’m most excited for on the show right now, and this was a great continuation.

Boos

• Let’s talk about the only filler match on this show: Oh hey look, Wardlow is still squashing guys. Call me when somebody cares. Seriously, I think Wardlow is great and capable of so much more than he’s been given in his time in AEW, but he’s so obviously been spinning his wheels for so long that it’s nearly impossible to buy him as a serious threat to anybody or anything.
• I don’t mind multi-man matches – AEW has excelled in them over its history so far – but it seems like repetitive booking to have two #1 contender’s matches in back to back weeks that end inconclusively and will presumably result in a three-way match for the title. This week’s match between Adam Copeland and Daniel Garcia was far from bad, but the lame finish that saw Killswitch and Nick Wayne attack both men to force the ref to call the match off felt predictable. It seemed especially uninspired right before the segment between Joe, Swerve, and Hangman. Hard not to see the parallels between those two storylines when they’re right next to each other.

Parting Shots

• What a great night for Botchamania. Deonna provided a “you talk too much” and Taven failing to put Cassidy through a table on the first try is a classic “I am the table” moment. Throw in a Simpsons meme or two and that next episode is pretty much done. You’re welcome, Maffew.
• The Young Bucks beat Top Flight while still wearing their bloody white suits and attempted to set Tony Schiavone up for an EVP Trigger after the match, only to be interrupted by Darby Allin. His promo on them was okay, but loyal readers will know I will not tolerate any Brandon Cutler slander. You have crossed a line, sir. I demand satisfaction! Skateboards at dawn!
• Is Stokely Hathaway officially managing Willow Nightingale (and possibly also Kris Statlander) or is he still just randomly showing up as if he’s her manager? He helped her get a win over Skye Blue, which I suppose helps his case if he’s still trying to win her over as a client, but I feel like maybe I missed something where she finally agreed to let him manage her.
• Don Callis booked a match between Konosuke Takeshita and Will Ospreay at Revolution, making it official that Ospreay’s first post-NJPW match will indeed take place on pay-per-view. It really seems like that match is a setup for the Don Callis Family to exorcise Ospreay from the group and allow him to turn face to begin his tenure in AEW, but time will tell on that one. It seems like the Family came together to fight Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega, neither of whom have been on the show recently (Omega is reportedly dealing with diverticulitis so it’s understandable why he’s not around) so it feels like Takeshita, Hobbs, and Fletcher need a new target, and Ospreay might just provide them exactly what they’re looking for. (Fletcher might very well take the side of his former United Empire running mate to even the odds.)
• Not much to say about this past week’s Collision – Cassidy vs. Ishii was good, most everything else was okay with the exception of Brody King vs. Mark Briscoe, which was the match of the night in my opinion. The House of Black seems to be in a holding pattern at the moment with Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews potentially going back to WWE, so pivoting Brody into more singles matches makes a lot of sense in the meantime. I would of course love to see Malakai and Buddy return to AEW and get the push they’ve deserved for so long, especially since I doubt WWE would book them as strongly as they have been in AEW, but if they want to be around their spouses more, I can’t really blame them for making that choice.

That’s it for another week – like I said, this was a very good episode, following a strong show last week as well. AEW has some momentum building, especially with the storylines in the men’s and women’s world title scenes, and if they can add a few more complementary matches for the undercard along with Sting’s retirement match, Revolution figures to be a can’t-miss show. Thanks for joining me once again this week, and I hope you’ll come back next time for more Chair Shots!