AEW Fyter Fest (June 29. 2019) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Fyter Fest was a professional wrestling event promoted by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). This was the second event under the AEW banner and took place on June 29, 2019, at Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida alongside the Community Effort Orlando (CEO) fighting game event. The name of the event is a parody of the fraudulent Fyre Festival. The event aired for free on the B/R Live streaming service.

The card comprised nine matches, including three on the Buy In pre-show. In the main event, Jon Moxley defeated Joey Janela in a non-sanctioned match. Other prominent matches saw The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) defeated Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix) and Laredo Kid in a six-man tag team match.

Results: 

The Buy-In (Pre-Show)

Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta) defeated SoCal Uncensored (Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian) and Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) Three-way tag team match

To advance to All Out for an opportunity at a first round bye in the AEW World Tag Team Championship tournament

At first glance, I had Private Party pegged as another Cryme Tyme clone like WWE/NXT's Street Profits, but they definitely made me into believers here.

A lot of this match was great to watch, but I felt that the wrong team won here. Private Party definitely won over this crowd and it seemed like the air left the building when they didn't pick up the win after all of those near-falls and big spots. It just ultimately felt like a huge waste of time where they didn't put over the new blood here.

Allie defeated Leva Bates (with Peter Avalon)

This "Librarian" gimmick died on arrival here for Leva Bates and Peter Avalon, despite the fact that Bates pretty much had her ass hanging out on that skirt/shorts which she was wearing. Nothing much else to write home about this match that it was what you've come to expect from Allie's performances in Impact Wrestling.

Michael Nakazawa defeated Alex Jebailey Hardcore match

I honestly don't get what's the big deal about the Naka-Naka-Nakazawa guy and why he's pouring baby oil on himself as if he's Street Fighter IV's Hakan, but this match was stupid from bell to bell. I did chuckle a bit at Justin Wong at ringside handing off a tournament edition arcade stick to use as a foreign object, but at the same time, it's even more moronic when you know how much those things run for at retail ($149 to $249+ easy). I could hear the silent screams of the Super Smash Bros. Melee fans watching in terror at them using a Gamecube controller as a weapon as well. Those things aren't easy to come by either, especially brand new as the years roll on.

Truth be told, this is a rematch of the match they were supposed to have last year when Jebailey got injured training for the match prior to last year's CEO fighting game event when Kenny Omega brought his entourage down to play from New Japan for a wrestling show as part of the event. There wasn't much press about that event last year because AEW's name wasn't attached to it.

Main Show:

Cima defeated Christopher Daniels

As the first match of the "main show", I definitely thought this match delivered in a lot of aspects by playing off Daniels and Cima's strengths. Like I said in my Double or Nothing write-up, it's great to see these guys facing off again after what seems like forever from their time in Ring of Honor.

Riho defeated Yuka Sakazaki and Nyla Rose

Yuka's lucky she didn't get decapitated off the whiplash there. Besides that, why the fuck this wasn't the damn finish?

The bulk of this match did wonders establishing Nyla Rose as a wrecking machine. As impressive as that Diving Knee Drop (Andre the Giant style) over the rope hung Yuka Sakazaki was, I felt that move was a massive waste if it wasn't the finish, despite how impressive it was. Much like the triple threat tag team opener, I felt that the wrong person won here. Riho stealing the win killed any sort of momentum that Nyla Rose had going as a monster. She essentially did all of that heavy lifting and tossing these girls around like lawn furniture for nothing here. I don't want to discredit Riho and Yuka here, but they should have been cannon fodder to establishing Rose as the massive obstacle in the way of anyone - namely Dr. Britt Baker (who they are obviously marketing/establishing as their top babyface female) - gunning for the AEW Women's Championship (whenever they crown the first champion).

By the way, Nyla Rose was allegedly wearing ring gear inspired by Killer Instinct's Black Orchid. I honestly didn't notice that until I saw the photos online, but whatever.

Adam Page defeated Jimmy Havoc, Jungle Boy (with Luchasaurus), and MJF

For the second show in a row, MJF is the star here. That heel promo that he cut on this crowd was hilarious and one of the best things on this show bar none.

Every time I hear of Jungle Boy I think of the Johnny Bravo cartoon character of the same name.

Jimmy Havoc and Jungle Boy just come off as career midcarders in the presence of Adam Page and MJF. This company would be insane not to be pushing these two guys as their top "young" talent over the established ex-WWE talent and "indie darlings" that are running this place. You have gold with MJF. DO NOT SQUANDER IT.

This match was okay, but business didn't pick up until MJF and Adam Page squared off towards the end. There were a few fun spots with Jungle Boy (with the occasional assist from Luchasaurus) and Jimmy Havoc, but this was both MJF and Adam Page's time to shine. I didn't doubt that Page was going to win here, especially when he is set to face Chris Jericho to crown the first AEW World Champion at their next PPV.

Cody Rhodes (with Brandi Rhodes) and Darby Allin fought to a time limit draw

That was absolutely moronic.

At first glance, Darby Allin looks like some kid trying to cosplay Jack Skullington from The Nightmare Before Christmas crossed with your typical Create-A-Wrestler found in WWE games and most e-federations. I thought the idea of Cody Rhodes having a competitive match against this scrawny kid was comical on paper. Who the fuck actually knew who this guy was before this show? I would love to see the poll results from that question. To his credit though, he made me a believer by the end of their 20 minute draw. Someone needs to pull Allin aside and tell him to lay off a bit on those stupid spots. The Jimmy Snuka sell between the ropes down to the bump at ringside didn't look fun at all and he's lucky that he wasn't hurt off that. If that wasn't bad enough, that Coffin Drop (trust fall backwards from the top rope) onto the CORNER of the ring apron was absolutely moronic.

I don't care who you are, but it's just plain stupid to be taking unprotected chair shots to the head in 2019.

As for the chair shot from Shawn Spears in the post-match segment that seems to be the talk of the town, I'll weigh in briefly about that. The stupidest thing I saw about that was Cody didn't even bother to put his hands up to protect himself. I know they wanted to make it look "legit" without that, but in this day and age when we know about the horrors of how damaging concussions are to the brain, there's absolutely no reason to be taking unprotected chair shots, even if the chair was "gimmicked" as how the Young Bucks put it. Watching live, I thought Cody was legitimately hurt when the back of his head started pouring out with blood like a fountain. It didn't help that everyone emptied out from the locker room to check on him. That was a scary scene and it didn't need to look

The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) defeated Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix) and Laredo Kid 

The Young Bucks came out dressed as Street Fighter's Ryu and Ken, while Kenny Omega, dressed as Akuma, came out and hit a Raging Demon on some random fan who was there as part of their entrance.

I knew what to expect from Laredo Kid from seeing his matches on MLW in his few appearances there, but for as cool and amazing a lot of the action in this match was, I hate to say that match was just all moves and no narrative outside of garnering cheap pops from this niche crowd.

Surprised to see Fenix doing this spot again after almost breaking his neck doing it on Impact Wrestling's last PPV. 

Jim Cornette would've lost his mind if he actually saw this spot and didn't fast forward past it.

I wanted to slap everyone in the ring after that Hadoken spot though. Just no. Leave that shit for house shows and the indie feds that don't have a major television deal coming up. Seeing stuff like that just makes me continue to question exactly how serious are Omega and the Bucks when it comes to how big of a deal this is going to be.

Jon Moxley defeated Joey Janela in a Non-sanctioned match

Here's my problem with this match right off the bat. Commentary was attempting to sell the fact that AEW wants nothing to do with this "non-sanctioned match" and these fools got full entrances and pyro. That completely contradicted what they said a few minutes prior to that. If AEW didn't sanction that match and didn't care then Moxley and Janela would be fighting in a barn somewhere in Buttfuck, Indiana (laughs) with someone filming this shit on their phone like this was the Final Deletion or some shit.

As for the match itself, it's that typical hardcore craziness in same vein as Jimmy Havoc, Sami Callihan, and most of the guys in CZW have made popular over the last few years. I'm glad there weren't any light tubes or any of that nonsense, but they enough going on here to entertain those interested in this style of match. It's not necessarily my cup of tea, but to each his/her own I guess.

The show ended with Kenny Omega returning the favor to Moxley following his attack on him during the closing moments of Double or Nothing. Moxley took a ton of punishment here, which makes me think that Omega and Moxley's match won't be a standard one-on-one match, but with a hardcore stipulation of some kind, even though I think their first encounter would benefit without one. 

Closing Thoughts

I've seen tons of people tear into this show and heard podcasts either do the same or attempt to defend what we saw here. I have an unique standing in this conversation as I come from both sides of the spectrum. As a fighting game fan and on/off again member of the FGC (fighting game community), I thought this was pretty cool of Community Effort Orlando (CEO) to host this event in tandem with AEW. At the same time, I think no one would have cared about this if AEW's name wasn't attached. Like I mentioned earlier in this write-up, Kenny Omega dragged several of his friends and colleagues along from New Japan last year to run a similar special wrestling event for the CEO crowd. There wasn't much press about it then either as it was catered specifically for the niche fighting game crowd. That was majority the problem here. AEW set up Fyter Fest to cater to this specific crowd and didn't factor in that they would have more eyeballs on this product, namely the masses who don't play nor follow the fighting game community nor it's competitive scene(s). That being said, a lot of the insider jokes and references were lost on the "outsiders" looking in.

As a wrestling fan though, a lot of this still came off looking stupid to me and gave off that impression of "a tale of two cities" in terms of booking. Once again, we have the glaring issue where the stuff on the pre-show/Buy-In are turning off any potential new fans looking to give their product a chance before even the main show gets rolling. It shouldn't be this way. I'm not saying that everything on the pre-show should be 5 star matches, but at least think this stuff out and have someone in charge to filter this stuff and go "that's fucking stupid" and tell some of these people not to even tarnish their product with this right off the bat. I thought AEW were priding themselves off the fact that they aren't WWE with the cheesy comedy bits and cringe-worthy matches. At this rate, I beg to differ from what I have seen on the Buy-In cards for both Double or Nothing and Fyter Fest is that they leave a lot to be desired. If AEW thinks that garbage wrestling is going to set the wrestling world on fire then they are going to get a rude awakening when their weekly television deal kicks in this fall. I beg AEW to take this constructive criticism as not as a knock but as feedback to know what NOT to do when it truly counts. Otherwise, this thing is going to die quicker than Global Force Gold...