AEW Fairway to Hell 9th May 2026
They are in an in-door golf venue, where’s Kerwin White? The set up looks weird to me, it’s giving me indoor Mall vibes.
They show Renee Paquette on the green and she talks up the opening match which is AEW National Championship: Jack Perry © vs. Mark Davis. Davis has Don Callis with him, Tony puts over the venue on commentary. Don Callis joins commentary and says he’s played 42 holes today, Tony questions how he managed 42 holes in a day. Loud “Fuck Don Callis” chants from the fans at the start. Don says they know he’s a great golfer, he asks Tony if he wants to know what his handicap is, Tony says no, and Don says he’s too good looking. Wow look at that I’ve written more about commentary than the match. Davis missed a charge in the corner and Perry hit a moonsault off the top to the outside. Shotgun dropkick from Perry on the outside, he went for a 619 around the ring post but Davis caught him and slammed him into the post, Callis puts Davis over on commentary. In the ring, Perry tries to fight back with chops but Davis drops him with one. Perry managed a jawbreaker and dodged a Davis charge in the corner, went for a springboard but Davis dropped him with a forearm strike and sent him to the outside. Back from an ad break, Perry is trying to make a comeback but can’t take Davis fully down. Perry manages a Sunset Flip Powerbomb off the top for a 2 count. Both men were on the apron and Perry hit a thrust kick on Davis and a leaping Rana to the floor. “AEW” chants from the fans. Perry then hit a 619 around the ring post, which Tony referred to as a “Sweeping Area Code Kick”. Perry comes off the top with a diving elbow drop for a 2 count. Perry was going for something but Davis dropped him with a lariat, and an elbow in the corner for a 2 count. Jack hit a Rana with a pin for 2. Davis came back with a Discus Clothesline and a short piledriver for a 2 count. Crowd chant for Perry, as Davis sets up for his Piledriver off the second turnbuckle but Perry reverses it into a Rana, Callis runs down to distract the referee and Ricochet runs in in golf clothes and hits Perry with a golf club. Davis hits his Piledriver for the 3 count and we’ve got a new champion. Winner: Mark Davis
They show a video package on Nick Wayne and how he will be competing in the Best of the Super Juniors tournament in New Japan.
Renee is on the green, saying that Will Ospreay has been medically cleared for competition and he will face Ace Austin on Dynamite.
Tony plugs the main event World Title match which is a No-Countout match.
Backstage Jack Perry is finishing up a phone call saying “Let’s do it, thank you guys”. He says winning the National Championship was one of the proudest moments of his career, he says Ricochet and Don Callis took that away from him. He says he knows Jericho and The Hurt Syndicate are looking for two partners at Double or Nothing, he says how about he brings you four guys instead, himself, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega. Presumably the Don Callis family will fill the other spots on Ricochet’s side.
We see Nigel and Tony on commentary and Tony says there is going to be a rebuttal from Mark Davis and Don Callis who are with Renee. Ricochet is also with them, Callis says Perry is a dumbass he would have paid good money to beat up Jericho, the Bucks and Kenny Omega but now he gets to do it for free. Ricochet and Don say they are going to talk business about who from the Don Callis family will team with The Demand.
The Women’s Tag Team Champions Divine Dominion come out for presumably a squash match as it’s announced this match has a 5 minute time limit. The champs cut a promo saying they are doing a 5 minute challenge, offering any teams the chance to survive five minutes with them and they will earn a title shot. They put a timer up on the screen and the champs are wrestling two jobbers. The champs win in 2:15.
They show highlights of Hikaru Shida and Kris Statlander and Jamie Hayter winning their respective matches on Dynamite and how it will be a Four-Way match for the Women’s World Title at Double or Nothing, Thekla defends against Shida, Statlander and Hayter. That’s a weird mix and I’m surprised at Shida and Statlander being in the match.
The Owen Hart Foundation Tournament is returning, and the brackets will be announced on Dynamite.
Backstage Don Callis says the Don Callis family will be waiting for the winner of the World Title match, Kazuchika Okada has had to return to Japan for family business, so he won’t be competing for the World Title on Wednesday, instead it will be Konosuke Takeshita taking his place. Don says if Takeshita listens to him, he will be World Champion, he says he’s the best wrestler in the World. Takeshita says he is still going to win the International Title but he will bring the World Title back to the Don Callis family.
Kyle O’Reilly video package, showing him making Moxley tap out, and then returning at Dynasty and winning the Trios titles. They plugged a 10-man tag team match for Dynamite not including O’Reilly.
Tony says because the last match only went 2 minutes, they’ve got another standby match: “Speedball” Mike Bailey vs. Kiran Gray. Heres comes another squash. Bailey comes out with Kevin Knight in his corner. Gray tried to cheapshot Bailey at the start but Bailey took him out with kicks, and a Triangle Moonsault to the outside. Bailey went up top and Gray crotched him, he tried to kick Bailey but Bailey came back, knocked him off the top and hit the Ultimate Weapon for the squash win. Nigel said that might have been another 2 minute match. Kevin Knight gets on the mic and says Speedball is red hot, he may not be World champion but he is the face of TNT. The Jet says let’s make it to the top together, so they are sticking together as a team.
AEW World Championship: Darby Allin © vs. PAC PAC is sitting on a chair in the crowd, then makes his entrance through the crowd. Darby walks to the ring with the belt hanging from his mouth. Tony puts over Darby defending the title every week. The bell sounds and Darby jumps out of the ring and goes out onto the course, and baits PAC to join him, just when you think he couldn’t do anything more wacky, think again. They start punching each other on the course, PAC back body drops Darby then tries to Suplex him in the bunker but Darby hits a Code Red in the bunker instead, the crowd chant “AEW” and PAC tries to get away. They go over to the other bunker and Darby hits a shotgun dropkick sending PAC into it. More “AEW” chants from the fans. PAC throws sand into Darby’s eyes and hits an overhead Belly to Belly Suplex into the bunker and applies the Brutalizer in the sand trap. “This is Awesome” chants from the fans as the ref tries to get PAC to break the hold. “Darby” chants from the fans now, they are very much into this. PAC with a Military Press Slam dropping Darby into the bunker. Back from an ad break and they are in the ring. PAC is tying Darby’s necklace to the tag rope in the corner, he then pulls him out of the corner. Darby trips PAC and hits a Scorpion Death Drop for a 2 count. Darby goes up top, but PAC crotches him and hits a Falcon Arrow off the top rope for a 2 count. Darby rolls to the outside and Tony questions if that’s a good idea. PAC pulls a table out from under the ring and the fans chant “On The Green”. PAC sets up the table and puts Darby on the table, PAC goes up top and goes for a Shooting Star Press but Darby moves and PAC crashes through the table. Darby gets PAC back in and puts him in a Scorpion Deathlock but PAC gets the ropes. PAC starts signalling for help and the Death Riders (Garcia & Yuta) come out and distract Darby, PAC appears to be bleeding from the shoulder. Garcia and Yuta bring a table out, Tony says if PAC puts Darby through a table he’ll be disqualified, I don’t think he would be Tony this is AEW. PAC hits a Tombstone Piledriver on the steel steps. Meanwhile Marina looks on at PAC’s handiwork and Yuta and Garcia are setting up more tables - they’ve stacked four tables. PAC looked like he was trying to decide what to do next, something in the ring or somewhere else. Back from an ad break, both men are up on the balcony fighting, Marina Shafir distracts the referee and PAC tosses Darby off the balcony and he goes through two of the four tables, “Holy Shit” chants from the fans, and PAC is shown sprinting down the stairs to try to get back to Darby. PAC lifts Darby up on his shoulders, runs him down to the ring, pins him but Darby kicks out at 2. They show Garcia and Yuta in disbelief and PAC too, they show replays of Darby going through the tables. Nigel says you’ll have to kill this man to take the World Title from him. PAC is wasting a lot of time here doing nothing, the fans chant “Darby Allin”. PAC gingerly walks over to Darby and Yuta tries to slide a steel chair in the ring, this distracts the ref and Marina hands the World Title to PAC. The referee is throwing Yuta and Garcia out, Darby gets up to his feet and PAC hesitates a belt shot, Darby fires up and hits PAC with a low-blow, hits him with the title belt and goes up top and hits a coffin drop for the 3 count. Winner: Darby Allin ©
Post-match Yuta and Garcia carry PAC out, as the doctor checks on Darby. They plug Darby defending the title against Takeshita on Dynamite, and MJF will be there.
Anyone for golf?
For a 1 hour show there wasn’t a lot of actual wrestling on it, I should have known from the start that Darby would do some wacky stuff on the golf course. It was definitely unique, but boy am I still waiting for a Darby wrestling match, the table spots were a bit over the top, and sadly won’t be remembered in this title reign of Darby’s since he’s going to be defending the title again next week. They are genuinely throwing away a lot of memorable moments on this run of his, by cramming everything in, in such a short space of time. I keep saying that they need to hold off on more of this kind of thing, in order to make it more special when it’s actually done.
I’m wondering if Okada being replaced by Takeshita will be a ruse, and Okada will cost Takeshita the title? At the very least, if Okada doesn’t directly cost Takeshita the match, Okada will be able to pull the “you lost the World title match” card with him.
I wasn’t expecting The Elite to join Jericho’s team, but I guess it’s a logical way to get them there, helping Perry. And of course, I had forgotten about Ricochet’s issues with Perry, and Ricochet was cutting promos on Omega as well, a few weeks back so there’s quite a lot of substance to this. Not to mention the history between Callis and The Elite.