Fight for the Fallen was a professional wrestling event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It was the third event promoted by the promotion and took place on July 13, 2019 from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida. Fight for the Fallen, like the previous event Fyter Fest, aired for free on the B/R Live streaming service.
The card comprised nine matches, including two on the Buy In pre-show. In the main event, The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) defeated The Brotherhood (Cody and Dustin Rhodes). Other prominent matches saw Kenny Omega defeat Cima and Adam Page defeat Kip Sabian.
In June 2019, AEW stated that all of Fight for the Fallen's gate proceeds would be donated to victims of gun violence. The following month on July 3, it was announced that the event would be sponsored by Farah & Farah, a personal injury law firm located in Jacksonville, Florida, and the proceeds from the gate would be donated to the Jacksonville Victim Assistance Advisory Council.
Sonny Kiss def. Peter Avalon (with Leva Bates)
Before I have the LGBTQ community up in arms against me about my comments on this match, hear me out. The only thing I'm going to say that AEW might want to slowly ease into showcasing this guy. I personally thought he was cool on Lucha Underground as it's pretty normal in lucha libre and Mexico specifically to have the cross-dresser gimmicks (dubbed "exoticos" in that culture) competing regularly. I don't know if mainstream wrestling fans are ready for that quite yet. That's why I feel that you have to ease into it instead of forcing a gimmick onto their mainstream audience. That being said, if anyone can pull it off and make mainstream wrestling fans a fan of it, it's Sonny Kiss (formerly XO Licious on Lucha Underground if you're interested in looking up his matches from Season 4).
As for the librarian gimmick(s), this needs to just die already. Peter Avalon nor Leva Bates can make this thing work. They don't have heel heat with this thing. People are giving them "go away" heat in regard to this gimmick. Someone needs to tell them to trash this thing and go back to the drawing board.
Bea Priestley and Shoko Nakajima def. Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. and Riho
I'm sure everyone has seen the botch where Britt Baker went to tag the wrong partner on the ring apron, but to be fair she suffered a concussion at some point of this match. I don't know whether it was before or after that botch, but damn this match went on far too long for my taste. The standout performer was Bea Priestley though as she was beating the holy hell out of these girls like they owed her money or something. Bea definitely put those days of being compared as a look-alike for Paige/Britani Knight. That time in STARDOM has done wonders for her in-ring game and aggression that she shows off in her match here. Out of all of the women in this match who I would love to see more of when they get started on TNT, it's her - even though I know they seem to be dead set on building around Britt Baker.
MJF, Sammy Guevara, and Shawn Spears def. Darby Allin, Jimmy Havoc, and Joey Janela
Outside of MJF (obviously) and Shawn Spears (who has definitely turned his stock around since leaving WWE), the biggest guy to watch here in Sammy Guevara. Much like Sonny Kiss, I thought he was one of their standout newcomers for Season 4, but unlike Kiss he didn't get too many opportunities to showcase his talents. This match did a great job of showing that he could hang with the "big boys" and held his own against Allin, Havoc, and Janela. Even though I still think that Coffin Drop spot on the ring apron was fucking moronic at Fyter Fest two weeks ago, I think Darby Allin has some promise. Cody Rhodes has to see something in the guy too to say that he would endorse him in a match like that on one of these iPPVs. I think it wouldn't kill the guy to add a bit more muscle - not just for he can be more physically appealing and look intimidating for his gimmick, but for some extra padding for doing high-risk moves like that Coffin Drop and the bump between the ropes to the outside.
After losing a fight against Enzo Amore of all people at a Blink-182 concert a few days prior to this event, I'm surprised the AEW crowd didn't boo Joey Janela out of the building. That dude does absolutely nothing for me anyway. I just don't see what's the appeal of him outside of being yet another guy, much like Jimmy Havoc, in this match who has a reputation of doing stupid spots. Commentary did have a great point though during this match. I could totally see all three of those guys - Allin, Havoc, and Janela in some sort of a trios faction from their similar gimmicks.
That being said, I was surprised that Allin ate the pin to Spears here. He already had his moment stolen from him with his post-match attack during the last show and they beat him clean here? Could've beaten Havoc instead and still had Spears go over if they wanted to give him a win.
Brandi Rhodes (with Awesome Kong) def. Allie
The video package that preempted this match was excellent. It showcases Brandi Rhodes' struggles to stop criticizing herself and finding where she belongs in this sport while Allie wants nothing more to beat her. Fast forward to the start of the match and it's a complete 360 in terms of role reversal. Brandi comes off babyface as all hell in that promo, but she is instantly working heel in this match, especially after recruiting Awesome Kong (again) to be in her corner.
(Laughs) I joked with a friend about this, but watching Brandi in this match, she wrestles like CAW (Create-A-Wrestler) in WWE Games with a default Diva(s) moveset. Every single thing she does here is just generic and plain. Brandi's strongest asset is her ability to heel it up and I applaud her for playing her strong points here, but this was just a nothing match, even with Kong assisting and taunting at ringside. That's not entirely her fault either as it was obvious that her and Allie were off on cues and chemistry in this match. I don't know whether or not it was due to them wrestling outdoors like commentary was playing off of, but you could tell that they were completely out of it by the time the finish came up. I couldn't help but laugh at Allie was out of place for that too.
If this was roughly a decade ago, I would have marked the hell out for the Aja Kong and Awesome Kong stare down. Today, it's obvious that both of these women are broken down. Aja Kong is set for surgery on her knee and meniscal injuries, as reported by Diva-Dirt. Awesome Kong isn't her top fighting form anymore either as anyone who saw her last two returns to Impact Wrestling can testify to that. She's clearly not as mobile/agile as she used to be. I could easily see both Kongs on opposing teams for a tag team match with Allie and Brandi Rhodes.
The Dark Order (Evil Uno and Stu Grayson) defeated Angélico and Jack Evans and A Boy and His Dinosaur (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) (with Marko Stunt)
To advance to All Out for an opportunity at a first round bye in the AEW World Tag Team Championship tournament
A Boy and His Dinosaur, the unlikely duo of Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, were the unexpected stars of this match. I don't understand why they went with the Dark Order winning this match, when they could have pinned Angelico and Jack Evans to get the same result without taking the shine off of Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus getting over with this crowd. It just screams typical WWE booking where they put the WRONG guy(s) over. As much as I enjoy Marko Stunt being the human crash test dummy/ragdoll for most bouts, I can't see that guy having a lengthy career in wrestling outside of getting the piss beat out of him and taking unnecessary bumps until it catches up with him and his luck runs out.
I know what to expect from Jack Evans and Angelico in terms of being familiar with their in-ring ability on four seasons worth of Lucha Underground, but the Dark Order wasn't bad at all here. I think Stu Grayson is the breakout star of those two though if AEW decides to split them all up down the road.
Adam Page def. Kip Sabian
It was at this point where the show started to lose me. This match was too fucking long. I get it - they want to establish new stars by working with some of the top tier talent, but Page is fighting for the AEW World Championship in another month. If he's taking this long against a guy who is at the bottom of their roster, then how long is he going to take against Chris Jericho? I don't want to knock Kip Sabian either as the guy shows promise, but he could have had a different opponent on this show if they wanted to showcase his talents like they did at Double or Nothing.
Speaking of Chris Jericho, I thought he did an excellent job with the post-match attack and in-ring promo later in the show. He's still one of the best talkers in the business today and it shows. He did the bare minimum to sell this title match and put Page over as a legitimate threat to completing his goal.
Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fenix) def. SoCal Uncensored (Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky) (with Christopher Daniels)
This wasn't a bad match, but it ultimately boiled down to what almost every Lucha Bros. match turns into, a bunch of spots without rhyme or reason with a ton of near-falls thrown in. I felt the narrative was lost at about the same point where Christopher Daniels was ejected from ringside. That's when and where I felt like both teams just started doing shit and gave up on the actual tagging in and out of this match. It looked cool and all that in terms of athleticism, but it just continued to drag this show out the longer it went on.
That being said, I don't think it was a bad match, just one they could have shaved off a few minutes off of more or less.
The post-match tease of the Lucha Bros. climbing up a ladder and challenging the Young Bucks to a ladder match at All Out next month definitely got me hyped for that match, especially given both teams' impressive resumes in matches of that elk.
Kenny Omega def. Cima
This was arguably the best match on this entire card, but much like everything else on the tail end of this show, it was too long. After a while, I stopped caring about the near-falls and started looking at the clock wondering how much longer they were going to drag this out to say that they still had a main event to do. I dare say that this was Kenny Omega's best match in AEW to date while Cima continues a streak of impressive performances on these last few AEW shows. It's too early to say whether or not Cima's going to be major player for them, but he's definitely more than a minor blip on the radar for most non-savvy fans now.
The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) def. The Brotherhood (Cody and Dustin Rhodes)
While I felt that this match was a far cry from Cody and Dustin's performance at Double or Nothing, I thought this was a great display by both teams, especially the Young Bucks to show that they can work a "normal/traditional" tag team match while the Rhodes Bros. showed off that they can keep up with the Bucks' showman style.
By this point in the show, the crowd was clearly burnt out, especially from sitting in that outdoor venue for over four hours. AEW was dragging this thing out with the unnecessarily long matches like this was a WWE production.
Once again, I ask the same question - weren't these the very same guys that was saying that AEW wasn't going to be like WWE? Cody's remark about "You can't counter-program against AEW" didn't help matters either as they are acting like they already won the battle before it even started. There's still some glaring issues with their product as it stands. Clearly far too many cooks in the kitchen in terms of creative and booking matches. And this is the third show in a row where they don't seem to have a clear handle on timekeeping for their shows and was about to get cut off the air. To be fair, from start to finish, this didn't have anything that was embarrassingly stupid unlike Fyter Fest. This was a better structure to this show than the previous one and I applaud them for the improvements on that front. I wish Excalibur would just take the mask off and show up as a normal commentator. Alex Marvez just needs to get his anxiety and nervousness under control if he is a lock for doing commentary. Jim Ross is warming up to his colleagues better on this show than he did on previous iPPVs, but I think he will continue to improve over time. Marvez was definitely not as bad here as he was on Double or Nothing, but he's far from perfect. I firmly believe that Jim Ross and Excalibur could call this just fine as a two-man commentary team and just let Marvez handle some of the work backstage and off-air.
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