Fyter Fest pre show was fucking terrible
I guess the three way tag was fine, but Leva Bates vs Allie was horrendous, the comedy death match with a non wrestler wasn't funny at all and there's really few things worse than unfunny wrestling comedy, the backstage shit being a riff on Fyre Festival 2 years past the reference date. It was just trash. Leva Bates is one of the worst wrestlers I've ever seen on such a stage.
As for the main show :ld
Daniels/Cima prob would have been pretty rad 10-15 years ago. 50 year old Chris Daniels is such a lamer (not that he was ever particularly cool or anything, now his gimmick is lame dad rocker or something) and flabby and sick. I don't think many people have interest in him doing long or big singles matches at this stage in his career, his best usage on screen is def in tags/trios at this stage.
Women's triple threat was pretty bad. Nyla Rose is bad.
MFJ, who I've been impressed with in the past, came off EXTREMELY corny both in his promo and in the match. Wasn't feeling it at all. Jimmy Havoc is terrible, and I'm not sold on Adam Page as anything more than "...oh, okay". Jungle Boy has some impressive spots but literally nothing else.
Darby vs Cody was way too long or at least too slow. Darby Allen matches are all about frenetic energy and death bumps, but Cody isn't really set for either of those things or being the big bruiser type, so his heat segments didn't fit with the story and character work involved. I like the booking more than the match itself. I think it could have been better with a 15 minute time limit instead of 20. Lmao unprotected chair shots in 2019. Their second show and they're running concussion protocol angles
I know crazy bumps and wipe outs are Darby's thing, but at some point promoters are being irresponsible and are going to end up with this kid paralyzed in their ring. So that that stuff was done with one of the EVPs and the EVP followed it up with an unprotected chair shot is pretty
It was also kind of weird in a booking sense as it immediately made you forget all about this unknown crazy kid who just took Cody to a 20 minute draw, which was the whole point of the match.
The Elite vs Lucha Brehs was pretty whatever.
at JR not getting the Street Fighter references at all but knowing he was disgusted with them anyway. Kenny is just...off. Maybe all the executive stuff has too much of his attention and energy, as he physically looks different and his energy is much different than where he was at when he left NJ. I haven't seen Big Match Kenny in these two AEW shows, and if one of the bosses is cool with not going 100%, what message does that send to the locker room?
Ambrose/Janella was violence for the sake of violence, which also obviously disgusted JR which was
The build was literally "these guys both came from CZW, let's get the wire and tacks out". I guess it's nice to see someone like Moxley look reborn and excited about life again, but where do you go from the first match having multiple barbed wire boards/chairs, ladders, tables, and tacks? And if a match with no real angle will go that far, how far do you have to take a heated grudge match?
Overall this show left me worried about if they really know what they're doing from a booking stand point. They've built Nyla Rose to be THE dominant force of the women's division, but she's lost both matches including a pinfall to a woman 150 pounds smaller. They gave Darby Allin a 20 minute draw with Cody where the whole match was about establishing his character and will, then immediately undercut it with a post match attack on Cody that went with an unprotected chair shot in 2019 and then Owen Voices about CTE, concussion protocol, and quality of life. Granted, the Bucks in the post event media thing said the chair was gimmicked but that obviously didn't work. No one was talking about Darby after the match, despite the whole match being built around you talking about him afterwards. Then you had Kenny and the Bucks doing jokey video game stuff and not taking the match seriously (I mean I get they were at a game thing, but they came off as taking a night off and playing around). THEN they have the main event. They've made such a big deal about how wins and losses will matter in AEW, then the second main event in promotion history has a match that literally doesn't count and is pointless, which was even acknowledged on commentary. And all the stuff Joey Janella did was also immediately undercut by Kenny Omega's post match run in, so you leave the show not even remembering Joey was doing barefoot thumbtack spots minutes earlier. Is it a coincidence this stuff involved the EVPs? Who knows, but it makes me cautious for them as a regular promotion not to fall into all the dumb shit and get a lolaew page in the future.
