AEW Fyter Fest is in the books and it was if nothing else an extremely varied show. Which is what AEW is all about really. Inclusiveness in every sense of the word. Open to any style of wrestler and any kind of wrestling fan. When you embrace every aspect of this artform, from the technical minutia, to the wild athleticism, to the intense blood feuds, to the brutal barbarism, to the out-and-out wacky, there’s inevitably going to be parts of your show that get some pretty intense criticism. And so that’s what happened.
Personally, this is one of my favorite things about AEW, and that’s saying something. I would truly hate it if there were ever such a thing as an ‘AEW style’, honestly. I get that not everybody is going to like every part of a show like this, and they’re well aware of that themselves. The point is that everyone should be able to find something that they love on an AEW show. That’s a great intent to me, though I get that it’s a method that will take getting used to.
But let’s not bury the lead here, this is a full review of the show match-by-match. I can give you my overall thoughts once we’re through the card. Plus, I’ve got predictions to re-evaluate! I was 7-2 from my Stomping Grounds preview, which is pretty darn good! This time I uh… didn’t do so good. But hey, we’re all new to the AEW booking style, so I think it’s understandable… let’s get into it!
(Click the match listings to see my previews for each bout.)
SCU vs. Private Party vs. Best Friends
It’s safe to say this one was very much what I expected it to be. It was a hotly-paced opener, once again promising great things for the AEW tag division in the future. I could not be more excited for this division going forward! Private Party got an awesome showcase as predicted, and also got officially signed later that night to the shock of no-one. And the Best Friends won, earning their way to a high stakes match at All Out! That started me off at 1-0!
More importantly, this match was very good, accomplished everything that it was meant to. Fast as I said, but not to the point of being difficult to follow. These aren’t spot monkeys, they’re masters of the style. All three sides will no doubt be cornerstones of this tag division which has already shaped up so nicely.
The Dark Order made a cameo afterwards, again threatening the Best Friends. That act still isn’t really going over well, with the crowd or with those watching at home. It’s really the only one that I can say genuinely isn’t working for either thus far. Hopefully that’ll change once they actually get in the ring, because by all accounts they are very good workers.
Allie vs. “The Librarian” Leva Bates w/ “The Librarian” Peter Avalon
Yes, I’m aware that I’m only using nicknames for this one match. Yes, it’s purely for the silliness of putting them next to each other like this. No, I don’t feel bad about it. Atleast not as much as I should~
So okay, this was all kinds of goofy, sure. Leva bandied about, shushing in various ways and used roughly as many taunts as she did moves, sure. And Allie… uh, isn’t Kylie Rae, who that leaked ITV graphic convinced me was Leva’s opponent in this match. I nonetheless stand by this as being exactly what I thought it would be. AEW is a celebration of all types of wrestling, including campy gimmicks like this. And I think Leva and Peter both played their parts really well.
It’s cool if you don’t like it, but I’ve always been of the opinion that all kinds of wrestling have their place. As long as you have people who are good at what they’re doing, I can enjoy it. I’ll be talking like that a lot more in the next match but for this one I can also say that I’m glad it gave the a crowd a chance to show their chanting chops. “We Can’t Read”, “Books Suck”, “Reading Rainbow”… in addition to all of the shushing, of course. I’m sure being a part of that is fun and, to me, it’s fun to listen to all it’s own, provided people stay creative.
Allie won, putting me at 2-0 (hey, I predicted the right loser!) and looked alright doing it. I will say it was a match much more focused on the heels and their antics, not giving Allie the most room to shine in the process. But she gets momentum heading into her match with Brandi regardless and that outing will probably be built much more around her.
Hardcore Match: Michael Nakazawa vs. Alex Jebailey
Now, let me preface this by saying that I have very, very rarely seen a celebrity cameo of any kind that I’ve enjoyed. (Some may mock the use of that term here, but I did actually know Jebailey’s name before his Nakazawa beef began, which is more than I can say for a looot of former Raw guest hosts…) There have been a handful of exceptions where they were legitimately entertaining, but typically speaking when a celebrity gets involved in wrestling, it’s a little embarrassing. Doubly so if they’re actually in a match.
But this wasn’t a desperate attempt at making tabloid headlines or getting clips shown on ESPN. This was done for the fun of those in attendance, and frankly, to play to Nakazawa’s strengths. At it’s core, it was simply a Michael Nakazawa match, and there aren’t that many people on the roster that they’d want to have him do his shtick with to quite this degree. Atleast that’s how I look at it. But you have to let him do this every now and again, it’s his bread and butter.
I can also honestly say that I’ve cringed at many a comedy segment in the past.
That’s not because I don’t like humor in wrestling, though. I just tend to hate what WWE considers humor… it’s easy for these kind of things to come off exceptionally poorly. Especially if the guy writing the jokes is 70 years old. But in this case, I think it was fantastically done, honestly. I expected it to be fun and it actually surpassed my expectations.
For as extremely limited as his experience is, Jebailey clearly put in as much work towards this as he could. I mean yeah, he sold like a non-wrestler… but this wasn’t exactly booked to be a psychological masterclass in the first place. This was well put together, a lot of fun for the live crowd and… I mean, different strokes and all, I get it. But it’s hard for me to imagine someone seeing guys get battered over the head with an inflated snake and tossed into a kiddie pool and not smiling just a little bit.
Wrestling is a lot of things and sometimes it’s very, very silly. And that’s a-okay. That said, I probably got a little too presumptuous in predicting a Jebailey win here… it didn’t occur to me that for as goofy as Nakazawa is, they still don’t want a member of their roster losing to a non-wrestler. So that put me at 2-1.
Christopher Daniels vs. CIMA
Not too much to say here, other than a very fine main card opener. Solidly done match between two master veterans, getting us off on the right foot whilst not threatening to overshadow the following matches in any way. To that end, they actually may have gone to the well a little less than I figured, as far as flashy moves went. But every time they did, they looked remarkably nimble, with Daniels in particular hitting an incredibly crisp springboard moonsault onto the back of CIMA.
CIMA got the duke here, giving himself a boost heading into his upcoming encounter with Kenny Omega. With that, I’m 3-1… not a bad record at all! I’m sure nothing could possibly happen to it…
Hangman Page vs. Jungle Boy vs. Jimmy Havoc vs. MJF
Oh right, the match where I went ahead and got really bold with my prediction. And it didn’t pay off at all. Ah well, I still like my idea but there’s obviously no arguing with putting Page over, makes all the sense in the world. And he and MJF will have definitely have big-time singles clashes down the road anyway, they seem to look at them as their top face and top heel of tomorrow respectively.
MJF continued to look and sound like money with everything that he did. He cut a promo before the match running down the crowd, standard stuff for him but very good as always. Jungle Boy showed off some exceptional, unique high spots and continued gaining himself a following. Jimmy Havoc probably shone the least of anyone here, but still got a couple nice moves and moments in.
Special credit should really be given to what was done with Page here.
He’s working an injured knee angle at the moment, and before the show, he tried to put forth that it was healed up already. In keeping with that, he wore flesh-colored tape on his leg, which was actually a little difficult to spot on TV but once commentary got you looking for it, you could definitely see it. This attempt to disguise the injury was lovely, as many have gotten sick of injured wrestlers coming out with bullseyes on their limbs for opponents to target.
This was an exciting one, put together well for being a four-way. Made pretty much everyone involved look good, and of course, Hangman got the win to continue building up momentum as he gets closer to his AEW World Championship match. Which… I did not predict, I went a bit out there with this and suggested that MJF could win by pinning either Havoc or Jungle Boy and then parade around claiming a victory over Page by proxy, with which he could then demand a singles match with him at Fight For The Fallen with his title shot on the line. Not happening, turns out, but hey, can’t complain about the finish we got. Puts me at 3-2 though.
Riho vs. Yuka Sakazaki vs. Nyla Rose
Man, was this night and day for Nyla Rose. Many commented that she wasn’t particularly impressive in that fatal four way at Double or Nothing and noted that she appeared green. And yeah, she was far from spectacular, though certainly not bad. But this right here was a beautiful showcase for her. This match was made for her, even if she didn’t get the duke in the end. Nyla just looked like a real monster tossing around the little girls, who in turn showed some real ingenuity with their unique double teams.
So in that respect, this was very much in line with my predictions… except I really thought Nyla would win. They’re perhaps going slower with her push than I figured, which makes sense considering that she still isn’t necessarily a main event talent yet. And they had the angle here of her being complacent and costing herself assured victory by simply being too smug and not capitalizing enough. So having a storyline reason to lose like that is always nice. But ultimately, Riho got the pin, leading to a 3-3 record for me. But I’m sure this will pick right back in a hurry!
Cody vs. Darby Allin
Or not. Alright, okay, sure… so I missed on this one too. But honestly, did you predict a time limit draw? Did anyone? I was admittedly aware that AEW were using time limits, but I kinda forgot that at the time that I was making my previews. And while it’s expected that you actually make that a finish eventually, if for nothing else than to get people thinking about it for long matches afterwards, I really didn’t think they’d go for one this quickly.
That said, it was a very good decision.
This match too was pretty much exactly what it needed to be. It was a spotlight for Darby to show the world he’d be willing to do anything to make his mark and make a big impression on the audience. It definitely succeeded in that, as he caught the attention of many and got over in a pretty big way. As a match, it was fairly good, a little slower than expected, but given the finish that made sense.
The time limit draw did well to aid that, as he can now hold onto the fact that Cody didn’t beat him. He took him to the limit and while he got hit with Crossrhodes at the end, nobody can say for sure he wouldn’t have kicked out. Admittedly Cody’s stalling on the pin came off a tad forced as he hadn’t really made himself look all that banged up leading into the spot, that’d really be my only knock. But not a lot of people in the US are generally doing time limit draws, it’s not a common finish for either man, so I can understand the difficulty.
I do love a time limit draw as a finish though.
It’s basically the only kind of draw you can do that doesn’t feel hackneyed and begging for backlash, a lot of the time. And you can tell great stories with it, like what we saw here. But sadly, it does put me at 3-4.
After the match, calls for five more minutes were cut off by merganser of Shawn Spears. Shockingly and controversially, he gave Cody a massive chair shot, resulting in a nasty cut that required ten stitches. This angle will play off their history and Cody’s attitude towards signing Shawn. Cody identified him as a ‘player coach’, ‘a great hand’, codespeak for a guy who isn’t meant to get over himself. In other words, he’s storyline looking at him in the same way that WWE did behind-the-scenes. I like that angle and I presume they’re going to square off at All Out, which will be something to see.
The Elite (Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks) vs. Laredo Kid and The Lucha Bros.
This was probably the simplest and easiest one to call, not just as a result, but how the match itself would go. It looked like it’d be fast-paced insanity, and it very much was. The Street Fighter cosplay was really fun, with Kenny making it work in spite of not getting his Akuma gear in time. The “Round One! FIGHT” announcement really sealed it as endearing. And then the match of course was spectacular.
Kenny and the Young Bucks made the Elite name famous by being one of the best trios teams… ever, really. Their matches were always pure adrenaline rush affairs like few could ever duplicate. And with the stellar talent they had to work with here, there was never any doubt that this one would be a delight. I think you’re likely to see a bout like this on every AEW show, atleast once.
It’s not quite as special as it would’ve been if PAC were there like originally planned, sure. But it’s cool that Laredo Kid got a chance to shine on the big stage as a result of his pulling out. Obviously he’s not signed, so of course Kenny pinned him, en route to his upcoming matches with CIMA and Jon Moxley, just as expected. So I go into the final match at a dead even 4-4.
Unsanctioned Match: Jon Moxley vs. Joey Janela
This one really showed just how far AEW is willing to go with their extreme matches, when appropriate. And some would say this really wasn’t an appropriate time. It’s fair to argue that they didn’t really have a blood feud leading into it, that much was actually acknowledged on commentary. This happened because this was what the real dream match here was. Moxley, the former King of the Deathmatch, returning from years of having to water down his violence to face a modern day icon of carnage.
Doubtlessly, both Moxley and Janela wanted this match. And sure, I might’ve wanted more of a feud going into it myself… but I will say that this was far from pointless. This match actually accomplished a lot. It showed once more that AEW is very much the alternative. WWE would absolutely never do this kind of match in this day of age. It shone a big spotlight on Joey Janela, letting the world see him in his element, for the first time for many. And it gave more intrigue to other guys who like to work this style, like Jimmy Havoc and Darby Allin, now that people know for a fact they won’t have to be toned down, atleast on PPV.
Most importantly, it made it very clear that Dean Ambrose is dead.
The guy taking shots up his rear and legitimately using a move called the Wacky Line as a signature? That man is gone and he’s never coming back. In his place, a hardcore icon has been reborn. He’s ready to reshape himself in front of the mainstream audience. Jon Moxley is a completely different beast. He wanted the world to know that, AEW wanted the world to know that, and I think this match certainly showed it.
The bout was well-planned, well-executed and remarkably violent. So it was everything it needed to be. In spite of no blading or hardways, there was also plenty of blood. It’s just kinda gonna happen when you have this much barbed wire and thumbtacks. Joey really showed that he’s willing to take anything, as well. Especially when he ended up having the bottoms of his bare feet slammed into those tacks. It was a rough thing to see, to be sure. That had to be so excruciating… he’s a mad man, gotta love it.
But of course Jon Moxley won, there was never any debate about that. So I finish at 5-4. Could be better, but atleast it’s a winning record I suppose. I have a better taste of what to expect from AEW now though. So I think I can do better in the future.
But the show still wasn’t over!
After the match, Kenny came back out to attack Moxley in a solidly done beatdown. He made use of the stage props which was quite karmic. After Double Or Nothing, it was a fitting conclusion and another exciting beat on the journey towards what should be a classic clash at AEW All Out.
All in all, this was a really fun showing. Especially considering it was a quote-on-quote ‘b show’. I think it set a very nice precedent for what can be expected from this level of event from AEW. Mixed reactions abound for much of this card, sure. But that’s bound to happen when you set out to make a product like this.
Personally, I’m just thankful that I’m one of the lucky ones who can find something to love in every aspect of wrestling.
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