It’s Fyter Fest time again, and … Wait? What’s that? It’s still three weeks until night one of Fyter Fest? Well, shoot. Tonight’s card still looks plenty good, with the in-ring debut of FTR, a star-studded women’s title match and a TNT title defense since that is now a weekly thing. Let’s drop in on Daily’s Place in Jacksonville and get things going.
What’s better than a three-man booth for Dynamite? Well, when Le Champion joins the announcers, the answer is a four-man booth. Possibly five, if you count Floyd. In any case, Chris Jericho grabs a headset and will be doing commentary for tonight’s entire show, which can only help liven things up even more.
Match 1 – The Butcher & The Blade vs. FTR
Chris Jericho calls FTR “the hottest free agents in wrestling,” and while that might be an arguable claim, it’s not a ridiculous one, and it’s very on-brand as far as how AEW is positioning Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood (and yes, it’s going to take a while to get used to those names). Jericho also chastises Tony Schiavone for swearing last week when asking the duo what their moniker means, suggesting instead that it stands for “Follow the Rules.” We probably shouldn’t overlook the fact that Butcher and Blade are getting a chance to work a match of a decent length for the first time in a while, but FTR gets the ‘W’ as expected with a spike piledriver finisher they call the Mindbreaker.
Winners: FTR by pinfall
Schiavone wants to get a word with the winners, but Nick and Matt Jackson crash the party pretty quickly. The Young Bucks congratulate Wheeler and Harwood but also sarcastically introduce themselves. Their formal introduction quickly turns into a brawl involving Butcher and Blade, Kip Sabian and Jimmy Havoc, and Kenny Omega and Hangman Adam Page.
Backstage, the Natural Nightmares get an interview about their upcoming tag team title shot. Because everyone gets one now, apparently. QT Marshall is questioned both by his partner and Brandi Rhodes about not having his head in the game, as he’s been distracted by his new girlfriend Allie, the artist formerly known (briefly) as The Bunny. Hey, when you’re as good at your craft as Marshall, you can afford to turn it on and off when you want. OK sorry, I can’t even type that without laughing.
Match 2 – Penelope Ford (w/ Kip Sabian) and “The Native Beast” Nyla Rose vs. “The Galaxy’s Greatest Alien” Kris Statlander and Hikaru Shida
I don’t criticize AEW’s booking all that often, but putting the top four women into matches together all the time only highlights how shallow (in numbers, not talent, because these four are all solid to great) this division is. It might be interesting if there was a twist of some sort here; maybe something that sets up a Shida-Statlander feud. Rose has the spot of the match when she goes off the top turnbuckle to smash both of the faces as they’re strung out over the ropes. Sabian proves his worth by causing enough of a ruckus to allow Ford to hit Shida with her own title, then hit a fisherman’s suplex to pick up the victory. She could use it more than any of the others, so this turned out to be good booking after all. I should have just kept the faith.
Winners: Penelope Ford and Nyla Rose by pinfall
Whoa, that’s Tony Hawk! A video package shows the skateboard legend assisting Darby Allin, still not medically cleared to wrestle, to drop off a ladder on his skateboard. Looks more painful than actual wrestling in a lot of cases as Allin crashes numerous times before he finally gets the hang of it.
Dr. Britt Baker’s promos while she’s out injured continue to be a delight. That is all.
Match 3 – Santana, Ortiz and Jake Hager vs. Best Friends and Orange Cassidy
It’s a smart move for the Inner Circle to neutralize Cassidy early on, but it’s only a temporary sidelining. Freshly Squeezed fires through a very energetic sequence of moves when he finally joins the fray, and he ends up picking up the win for his team as well. An enraged Jericho leaves the announce table with Floyd in hand to help get some post-match payback, saving most of his enmity for Cassidy. Adding injury to insult to injury, Jericho nails Cassidy with a bag of oranges (20 pounds, according to smart bulk shopper Schiavone), busting him open and declaring that he has “juiced” Orange. We see you, Jericho.
Winners: Best Friends and Orange Cassidy by pinfall
Man, we almost got an interview with the Gunn Club. I say almost because MJF interrupts to both put himself over and run down Jungle Boy. There’s a near altercation with Billy and Austen Gunn, possibly setting up some in-ring action. Or not. We’ll see. Then we flash back to two weeks ago and bear witness to Colt Cabana getting the recruitment pitch from the Dark Order.
Match 4 – “Spanish God” Sammy Guevara vs. Colt “Boom Boom” Cabana
Though these two put on an entertaining match that only ends when Guevara hits the GTS, this is really just an appetizer for the main course question of the Dark Order. Mr. Brodie Lee and his henchmen arrive after the bell and literally offer a hand to help Cabana back to his feet. He wanders backstage while Matt Hardy comes the other way. He tries to give Guevara some respect but ends up changing to “Broken” Matt mode and promising to delete him instead. As one does.
Winner: Sammy Guevara by pinfall
An introspective Joey Janela? This is somewhat unexpected, with the Bad Boy musing that he feels directionless and that his best days in wrestling might be behind him. As Janela stumbles out of a bar after drowning some of his miseries, he’s picked up by fellow wrestler Sonny Kiss, who apparently is just in the area in a convertible. To be continued.
Cabana shuns a backstage interviewer and enters the Dark Order dressing room/office/hangout spot.
Outside the arena, Jon Moxley tells Alex Marvez he’s extremely motivated by Taz’s trash talk. The man himself arrives to exchange verbal jabs with Mox, but it’s just a distraction: Brian Cage sprints from behind the production truck and lays out the AEW Champion. The ensuing fight ends up with Moxley smashing a car window and getting slammed onto the trunk of that same car. It’s enough to warm the heart of anyone who remembers the WWE Attitude Era, when it felt like every brawl that left the ring ended up damaging some vehicles.
Main Event – Marq Quen (challenger) vs. “The American Nightmare” Cody (champion) – AEW TNT Championship Match
Interestingly, this is Quen’s first AEW singles match, so quite the way to make your solo debut. He pulls out the full complement of dives to the floor and then somehow tops them with a 450 splash onto the ramp. All the while, he’s selling the recent injury to his knee. So when he misses a shooting star press and ends up in a kneebar, it’s not surprising to see him tap out. It’s a nice way to build up Quen and end things in logical fashion.
Winner … and still AEW TNT Champion: Cody by submission
Someone is coming out before we wrap things out, and in this case, that someone is Hager. Though he has his eyes on Cody’s belt, Private Party comes to the rescue strapped with steel chairs, and with Hardy directing traffic. Hager receives reinforcements as well, and all of a sudden we’ve got ourselves a Pier Six brawl. The Inner Circle ends up as the group that retreats, but Hager’s ploy works as Cody tells him they’ll battle for his belt at Fyter Fest. Only in wrestling can you get someone to offer you an opportunity by beating them up. That’ll have to wait, though, as we’re out of time. See you in seven!
