Quick Thoughts: AEW Fyter Fest

All Elite Wrestling returned to Pay Per View on 29th June 2019 for their second ever show entitled Fyter Fest, the main hook for this was the AEW debut of Jon Moxley against Joey Janela in what became an unsanctioned match. With this being the show following Double or Nothing it has a good amount of momentum to run with. The show had a 'B show' feel which i expect to carry on to Fight for the Fallen ready for All Out to be another major show. I went in expecting a good match card based on what was announced as well as some sort of announcement for Fight for the Fallen but overall the main aim to to continue the build for All Out. One quick side note, I felt that Goldenboy was a better third man commentator than Alex Marvez was at double or nothing, he seemed to add more to the commentary then Alex did at the previous show.

As it seems with most wrestling pay per views a pre-show is used a free viewing for last few minute buys. However, for the most part I feel this pre-show didn't achieve that. Let me start with the positive being the opening tag match between Best Friends, SCU and Private Party to get a chance at a first round bye in the tag tournament to crown the first AEW tag team champions. The winners will go onto All Out to face a yet to be announced team. While the rules to the first round bye are confusing this match was very good. For a lot of fans I imagine it was the first time they've seen a match with Private Party and they delivered when they needed to. The other two teams have had highlighted matches at Double or Nothing which they both won which meant they were at least established acts to the AEW audience whereas Private Party had a very minimal involvement in the Casino Battle Royal which meant this was their chance to show they could hang with the other teams in the company. This was a good opening match and I feel the right team won in the end. The post-match promo from the Dark Order was good as well, it moved the feud between them and Best Friends moving along, I imagine those will be the teams facing off at All Out for that first round bye.

Much like the majority of AEW fans, I do not understand this librarian stuff, is it supposed to be funny? Because it isn't, is it serious? Because it fails then. I'll give some credit Peter Avalon has good delivery of his lines (apart from the 'sssh' but that's just an annoying sound) and he'd probably be better in a different role but this librarian stuff is a death sentence to both of the wrestlers with this gimmick. I'm happy to see Allie return from the dead and get a win before Fight for the Fallen in her match with Brandi, but yeah the rest of it I am not a fan of.

Final match of the pre-show pitted Michael Nakazawa against Alex Jebailey. I have to be honest I don’t know why people went into a match with a comedy wrestler and a creator of a gaming convention with such high hopes of a masterpiece. I thought it was clear this hardcore match would be more fun and we weren’t getting Cactus vs Triple H 2 but I guess that was just me. I had fun watching this match, the use of the pool props and game controllers gave it a unique fun feel (in contrast to the unsanctioned match later which wasn’t as lighthearted with its weapons). I really enjoy Nakazawa and his antics, I always get a good laugh of the baby oil spot and Jebailey gave a good account of himself for what is his first (and probably only) match. I do have to wonder the ceiling for Nakazawa in the company but I imagine that’ll be seen when we reach TNT.

As far as openers for a main card go having Daniels and Cima is a good move. Both are veterans and know what is needed in an opener to hook the crowd. Both seem to play a role of veteran babyface at least for the moment which is fine. Cima winning makes the most sense here and I’m glad he did. With Omega as the scheduled opponent at FFTF it makes sense for Cima to carry some momentum into the show in order to seen a threat to Omega. I have to wonder the overall direction for both men going forward and will probably be something worked on once all main belts (World, Women’s and Tag) are in place. I feel personally AEW will have one normal mid-card belt and another centred around a gimmick (be it Hardcore or Junior Heavyweight) so it will be interesting to see where these two fit in the overall card, Daniels more so as it seems that Kazarian and Scorpio Sky will be the default SCU tag team going forward.

I very much enjoyed the women’s match. All women got their roles down well. As I mentioned last time, I saw Hikaru Shida and Britt Baker as the top two women going forward so to see these other three was good and helped them got over more. Very impressed with Nyla Rose and her diving knee strike to Rhio especially. All three women put on a good show but the camera work at the end for whatever happened with Riho and Yuka Sakazakj was odd. Seemed out of place as a story not making much sense, maybe it was to set up a future match, not sure time will tell.

A very enjoyable 4-way match between Hangman Page, MJF, Jungle Boy and Jimmy Havoc, all four had a chance to showcase themselves. Hangman getting the win is good as I was worried, they’d build him up into All Out on the back of two big losses. Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus will most likely be in the tag tournament which should be good, they have a nice look, but I want to see how they perform as a tag team as well. I have to wonder if MJF will cost Hangman the title at All Out, I have Jericho winning to go into TV with the most recognisable star as champ so have to wonder if MJF and Hangman will continue their feud going into the TNT debut through that. One guy who doesn’t seem to have a direction at the moment out of the four is Jimmy Havoc, I’ve speculated with him, Janela and Darby on the roster if a Hardcore title is on the way but I don’t think we will hear about that until AEW reaches TV.

As for FFTF for Hangman to face Kip Sabian it seems an odd choice to me. I talked after Double or Nothing that Hangman needed big wins going into All Out and while I like Kip, he isn’t a big name in AEW (as of yet). Hangman will most likely win and then be attacked post-match by Jericho. Seems they will go the route of Hangman winning but leaves Jericho to say he hasn’t beaten anyone on Jericho’s level yet still making him the underdog.

For the next match it was probably my favourite of the night, and if not for the post-match angle it probably would be talked about more positively. With Darby Allin if the gimmick you’re trying to get over for him is his loves pain and relishes it then having his match go to a time limit draw makes the most sense especially after the amount of punishment he took from Cody. There seems to be an annoying trend now in both of Cody’s AEW matches where he plays the heel in it but we need a post-match angle or promo turn him back face (which hopefully should be done now). Not to say Cody doesn’t play a good heel I just find the booking of bringing back face after every match to be repetitive, but it seems that should be over now. Quick side note if Darby could never take that coffin drop to the side of the ring ever again, I’d be happy. Would love for him to still be able to walk by the time he’s 40.

As for the post-match I’ve read that the chair used was supposed to be gimmicked (at least according to the Young Bucks and Tony Khan) but something seemed to go wrong. It looked to me like the metal rim of the top of the chair caught Cody as opposed to the main centre causing the bleed. An unfortunate accident which took away from the match. Shawn Spears looks poised now to have a match with Cody at All Out which is good for him to have a such a prominent role with a lot of history to play off from there. Shawn put the clip of Cody saying he (Shawn) is a ‘great hand’ which seems to point Shawn’s character to that of being bitter and resentful for how he’s viewed and what he hasn’t got. But hey, if it means the 10 chants are going and he has an actual gimmick it could work out well for Spears.

The Street Fighter reference by The Elite were nice (I’m more of a Tekken guy myself if we are being honest). My eyes in this match were mainly on Laredo Kid, while all other talent has been established as big names for AEW, he was the X factor of the match. While impressive I don’t see him being an AEW mainstay if I am honest, but I could be wrong on that. While a good match I was more interested in the post-match interaction between Kenny and Pentagón. I would love to see those two fight again, As I mentioned as part of my thoughts on Double or Nothing, I feel the Lucha Bros would be better served in AEW as solo acts I can see Omega feuding with Pentagón once him and Moxley are done.

The show worked the gimmick of AEW wanting nothing to do with the Janela and Moxley match due to how violent it would be so was listed as unsanctioned. The match became violent pretty quickly. Barbed wire being used in a major American promotion is a change of pace. I feel that both men came out of this match looking good. Janela first with his dive off the ladder through Moxley and a table will be something AEW use in highlight packages for a good while going forward, I expect it to be featured in the opening credits of their TNT show, for a company 2 shows in it’s one of their biggest spots so far. I think the whole match puts Janela over huge, the glutton for punishment taking the offence he did and getting back up will help him get over with an audience as the guy who will always keep fighting through the pain makes him a good underdog babyface, I hope they do enough to separate him and Darby in that gimmick as both seem to be getting over on being people who take punishment and get back up.

Moxley as ever looks a star. It’s nice to see him different to that of when he was Dean Ambrose. This was a lot more violent of a character will to hurt his opponent any way he can to get the win. He seems a lot more motivated here (and in New Japan) then the later half of his WWE run which is nice to see, he will be a valuable asset for AEW. The post match angle with him and Omega adds more to their All Out match build which is good. As a marquee match up it needed more shot for it bar the Moxley debut so this was good to see. Main question going into this match at All Out is if a stipulation will be added to the match. 

In conclusion Fyter Fest was a good show. While not as good as Double or Nothing the main show had good matches while the pre-show for the most part won't be held in high regard even though the tag match to open the show was very good. The show did a good job of establishing some new talent mainly Private Party, Darby Allin and Joey Janela and setting up another marquee match for All Out in Cody vs. Shawn Spears. It was a good 'B Grade' PPV show and considering it only cost me £8.99 I'm happy I got my monies worth. Very much interested in the final card for Fight for the Fallen now and how this will all set up All Out.