Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I hope this finds you well, navigating this wild and crazy world as best as can be expected. This month has been about finding peace, trying to calm the conflict in my mind. Wrestling has always helped me do that, so when AEW presented three straight weeks of what Jeremy Donovan calls “Dynamite 1.5s,” I got the itch to jot down some thoughts about my experience. On my new blog, escapetosportsentertainment.com, I also wrote about NXT’s Great American Bash and New Japan’s return, and how the “War of the Three Kings” of my pro wrestling fandom rages on.
Fyter Fest Loses Viewership Battle, Wins Award for Better Quality
There is just something about AEW. Tonally, perhaps aided by the distinct Daily’s Place amphitheater setting, AEW feels like a bigger deal than NXT. For the longest time, NXT was the best alternative to WWE for WWE fans because they gave you that sleek production like their big brother, while offering a very aesthetically pleasing wrestling style. The best version of independent wrestling? Something you ought to see, but not something you feel like you have to see? Interesting questions, I think, in regards to the black and gold. AEW, conversely, gives the aura of a modernized NWA/WCW (it has from its May 2019 debut), well produced but with a gritty charm. The music at Fyter made it seem like I was watching a big Saturday night football game. Many little details like that make the AEW and NXT brands distinct, and their competition for Wednesday night supremacy all the more engaging.
Tag team wrestling, as was seen on Fyter Fest, Night 1, is the back bone of the product, like the tag team scene was during the heyday of Jim Crockett Promotions in the 1980s. The three tag bouts were all very good and all felt like important parts of the show; it was great to see Adam Page and Kenny Omega, who have been so awesome in their emergence as the leaders of the stacked division, in the main-event spot against The Best Friends, who may to bystanders seem like mere challengers-of-the-month but who were so valuable during the roster furlough period (thanks to COVID) that they needed their reward – that kind of high profile spot on a special show. That said, it was the AEW Women’s Title match, in my opinion, that earned Match of the Night honors. Hikaru Shida, the new champ, justified her position and her challenger, Penelope Ford, became a star. Fast-paced and heavy on the believable near falls, they stole the show.
Fyter Fest Night Two Upped the Ante
AEW made a regular habit of their Wednesday night television show on TNT being a can’t-miss affair before COVID, particularly during the lead-up to Revolution at the end of February. They had three shows that stand out as being absolutely awesome; Fyter Fest Part II joined the club. Orange Cassidy became a legit star in the main-event against Chris Jericho. He has gone from amusing comedy act to intriguing prospect who could turn it up a notch when given the chance to a guy on the brink of cashing in on his momentum as AEW heads toward their next pay-per-view, All Out. Heck of a performance from OC and a testament to Jericho’s presence. Le Champion, for whom I popped a bottle of “A Little Bit of the Bubbly” while watching Fyter, reminded me of Ric Flair wrestling Brian Pillman (whose son was one of the wrestler/audience members) or Ricky Morton during the waning years of his prime. I thought they justified their main-event slot, edging out a show-stealing bid from FTR, The Young Bucks, The Lucha Bros, and The Butcher and The Blade in a thrilling 8-man tag team match.
Generally, tag team wrestling again was on full display, with Private Party vs. Omega and Page for the titles entertaining me more than last week’s headliner and The Dark Order vs. SCU offering good storytelling and high quality action too (cheers to Stu Grayson in that one). The Bucks and FTR vs. Fenix/Pentagon/B&B lived up to the hype, though. My man, Rich Latta, whose show (One Nation Radio) with James Boyd I joined on Sunday, July 12th, said the week prior that those guys would go nuts and they did indeed. Highlights for me were the engagement between the protagonists (can’t wait for that match when it happens), the Nick Jackson super crazy amazing Canadian Destroyer off the ropes and into the six other wrestlers, and the fact that Fenix and Pentagon won.
Fight for the Fallen Sealed the Deal for AEW
Jon Moxley, still the AEW World Champion, holds an interesting place in my wrestling fandom. I was as big an advocate for the Shield’s ascent in WWE as anyone when I was regularly writing columns in the mid-2010s. Mox, as Dean Ambrose, had a heck of a run, but WWE left something on the table there and so did he. AEW came to be at the perfect time for Moxley to prove himself, and he largely has. He has been everything that I hoped that he would become for AEW, and yet there’s still another two notches higher he can climb as a top guy. Brian Cage, meanwhile, is someone I’ve followed for years. Lucha Underground made him a big hit with those tapped into the scene leading into the bigger promotions. He once retweeted me when I suggested that “Brian Cage is like John Cena with coordination.” He excelled when he moved into Impact Wrestling, showing he could be a Top 5 guy. I’m invested in his success, as well. No question, then: Moxley vs. Cage was one of the most anticipated matches of the year for me, amplified by having to wait a week longer to see it and wonder at times if it would even happen due to a coronavirus scare for Mox.
It was a great main-event for a big-time, non-pay-per-view show. You could clearly see there’s more in the tank for down the road, and Cage’s full arsenal being saved probably drove that point home as much as anything. I’ve been teased for this in the past, but I feel it’s appropriate to label a match like Cage vs. Mox as “smart.” The physicality was there to back up the considerably successful hype in recent weeks; giving Cage an out for his loss and then having him show such fire afterward, both toward Mox and the returning Darby Allin, was an intelligent way to conclude a really good title bout and make people want to come back to see the next chapter written. Give me some classic pro wrestling TV to compliment all these great matches; I’m totally for that and think it’s what differentiates AEW from NXT and New Japan, specifically the ability to do sports entertainment in a logical way consistently on a major television network.
Of course the rest of the show’s wrestling action was tremendous as always, with FTR vs. The Lucha Bros being in its own right an A+ textbook chapter 1, The Elite pairing for a blast of a 6-man with Jurassic Express, and Sonny Kiss coming into his own while taking Cody to the limit. Yet, it was the other touches that made this show memorable. Cody playing the heel, getting way too cocky and telling a story of a man perhaps professionally taxed; Kenny Omega gaining as much character momentum in one night as he had frankly in months, teasing his own heel turn and making my mental gears turn for how we could get back to Omega vs. Moxley for the title before the end of the year; and then the show’s closing minutes. It’s not going to sit well with some; I know that full well because the modern pro wrestling audience has a different expectation than me most of the time, but I’m telling you, from an older school perspective, I had wondered how they were going to pull off doing anything but Cage becoming champion given how valuable an asset I believe him to be and knowing simultaneously that Moxley was highly unlikely losing the title on television, and I am of the opinion that Taz throwing in the towel, in the way they framed it on commentary and immediately afterward, was a good choice and that they still set Cage up nicely moving forward. Great, great, great show from AEW in Fight for the Fallen.
It was a tremendous few weeks of wrestling and a much needed distraction from the real world. QUESTION before I sign off: How are you feeling about AEW right now?
