Fight for the Fallen was a professional wrestling television special episode produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It was the second event in the Fight for the Fallen chronology. The event took place on July 15, 2020 and was broadcast on TNT as a special of AEW's weekly television program, Dynamite.
In June 2019, AEW stated that all of Fight for the Fallen's gate proceeds would be donated to victims of gun violence. AEW and event sponsor Farah & Farah, a personal injury law firm located in Jacksonville, Florida, raised more than $150,000 and the proceeds from the gate were donated to the Jacksonville Victim Assistance Advisory Council.
During Night 1 of Fyter Fest, it was announced that instead of airing on pay-per-view (PPV), the second Fight for the Fallen event would be broadcast as a special of AEW's weekly television program, Dynamite, on July 15, 2020. The show will be raising money for COVID-19 relief, which will be added to the $1 million already donated by Shahid Khan and Tony Khan. AEW launched an online donation drive and released a limited-edition Fight for the Fallen t-shirt on ShopAEW.com with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Florida’s First Coast Relief Fund and Feeding Northeast Florida.
On July 13, Chris Jericho was announced as appearing in a non-wrestling role at the event.
Results:
Singles match for the AEW TNT Championship
Cody (c) (with Arn Anderson) def. Sonny Kiss
I had Monday Night Nitro flashbacks during Sonny Kiss' entrance with him dancing better than the cheerleaders accompanying him onstage. It was the inverse of Kimberly Page dancing with the rest of the Nitro Girls who actually knew how to dance professionally. This match wasn't bad, but I didn't think it was a standout performance for Sonny Kiss either. I've seen a lot better from him back when he was XOLicious in Lucha Underground and this match seemed like a far cry from that. Cody seems to be going harder into this heel turn instead of teasing it subtly whereas in this match he was easily the heel on offense for majority of this match with Kiss playing the part of the underdog. Kiss got some good spots in here and there, but ultimately came up short. This isn't a knock on the talents involved, but Cody's title defenses since winning the TNT title have been nothing but bland and boring to me. The longer they drag this out, the more I am adamant in my opinion that Cody shouldn't have beaten Lance Archer for it in the first place.
Orange Cassidy Dumps orange juice on the Inner Circle
Seriously... I wanted to slap the shit out of Ortiz flopping around like he was a fish out of water after this. This wasn't the Kurt Angle milk truck scene on the Alliance during the Invasion storyline, so I don't understand why he was overselling this to the point that it made this whole segment stupid.
I know that I knock the guys in The Elite for lowering their own stock values in this company, but Jesus Christ, Santana and Ortiz have absolutely no credibility anymore at this point. They came into this company as bad ass top tier tag team and now a year later, they are just another pair of goofs on this traveling circus. Chris Jericho is already a legend in this business. No matter what he does here, he'll still be welcomed back to WWE with open arms for his Hall of Fame induction. He knows that. He just wants to rub elbows with the Elite in this company and stay relevant in the modern wrestling bubble.
Call me crazy, but Orange Cassidy might be the smartest man in this entire company to get these guys to devalue their own worth in this business to put over Cassidy's to minimal effort from him.
Tag Team Match
FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) def. Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix)
This match was really rough around the edges at a lot of points of this match as it seemed like the Lucha Bros. were adamant about wrestling their type of match and weren't going to conform to doing anything but their type of match. It even looked like they started working stiff with FTR as I saw Cash and Dax were bleeding out of nowhere before the break. FTR returned the favor with a few stiff shots of their own as the tag team rules went out of the window. I did enjoy the finish here though with FTR snatching off Fenix's mask, forcing him to cower and cover up out of fear of getting his identity exposed thanks to how sacred the mask is in traditional lucha libre. This allowed FTR to pick up the win off a quick rollup shortly thereafter.
This should have been a great match on paper, but unfortunately the clash of styles and possible the language barrier held this match back from being a true spectacle.
Six-man Tag Team Match
The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) def. Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus, and Marko Stunt)
At this point, I think it should be said that AEW needs to stop doing this shit where they have to have everyone be "competitive" and equal across the board. It's damaging your talent long term, just like WWE's infamous 50/50 booking, where no one gets over, but everyone has to look good and have a chance. Tony Khan needs to take a hard look at his roster and determine who in the blue hell that he wants to push for the next year or so then deem who else on that roster is just coming in to get beat. This shit where everyone and their grandmother gets the "participation award" and is competitive with even your alleged main eventers and top stars is fucking comical.I liked Marko Stunt back in MLW because when he would come in there, he got some shit in but ultimately, he got the bricks beat off of him like a drum. In this company, he's been in the ring with some of the top acts in this company and hanging with him as if they are equals. Just all kinds of no. This kid should be carrying their bags at best. Either that or getting shoved into a locker at every arena.
I know people want to come to the defense of Kenny Omega, but that's one guy who has completely devalued his own stock in the United States after coming to AEW - at least to the casual fans. The people who followed him in New Japan still have hope that he's going to show signs of that "Kenny Omega" again, but I'm not buying it. Here in AEW, he has been exposed to an extent. Kenny Omega doesn't have some of the best wrestlers in the world over in New Japan leading him through matches. He's been off to his own devices in AEW and it has been mediocre at best. Correction... I'll give him and Hangman that tag team match with the Young Bucks but that's about it. I get that he's in this "giving" mindset now that he's not main eventing in New Japan, but he's giving so much that it's devaluing his own stock. Think about it. Kenny Omega has nowhere near the amount of buzz and name value that his own stock had prior to signing to AEW. In the past year that followed, he's a shadow of his former self. Who knows, maybe he can turn things around and prove me wrong, but I don't give a flying fuck about this version of Kenny Omega.
Tag team match
The Nightmare Sisters (Allie and Brandi Rhodes) (with Dustin Rhodes) def. Kenzie Paige and MJ Jenkins
I dunno what the fuck this was supposed to be and nor do I care. I get that they have to keep the QT Marshall and Allie storyline going, despite the fact that he's at home recovering from COVID-19, but the formation of this tag team between Brandi Rhodes and Allie just feels like another "vanity project" much like the Nightmare Collective before this. They still haven't explained by Allie went back to being Allie instead of being The Bunny, who was managing The Butcher & The Blade. Like no one is pointing that out either. It's stuff like this that baffles me that gets a pass from the AEW loyalists and marks, but are VERY quick to point out stupidity everywhere else.
Singles match for the AEW World Championship
Jon Moxley (c) def. Brian Cage (with Taz) by technical submission
The longer I see Moxley with the title, the more I'm starting to side with WWE on their assessment that Moxley isn't very good as a World Champion. All of his title defenses to date have been stale and boring. This match was also hindered by the finish, where Taz threw in the towel. You're going to tell me that after Taz talked all of that shit to hype up this match, he didn't have a shred of confidence in Cage's skills to endure that hold and turn the match around into his favor? I wasn't too crazy about Cage's undefeated streak in the first place, but throwing him in there against Moxley for his second marquee/significant match on the roster just seemed like ass-backwards booking to me. They could have done this match down the road in a few months after Cage has accumulated a few more wins onto his resume. Beating Cage here took the wind right out of Cage's sails just like Lance Archer's loss to Cody for the TNT Championship did to him. Big guys get over by beating people in a convincing manner, not being beaten like it's trivial as if they are the same as every other guy on the roster.Darby Allin would return following the match to attack Brian Cage with his skateboard to close the show. Why couldn't Darby just cost Cage the match if he was going to come out here and attack him anyway? All of this mess tacked onto the finish just felt like putting a hat on top of a hat.
Closing Thoughts
After two weeks of Fyter Fest, I didn't think it was beneficial to do another "special" episode of Dynamite for the third week in a row. Even NXT went back to their normal routine this week; although, it was to their detriment not to mention that Keith Lee was putting both of his titles up for grabs. That being said, the show's profits were for a good cause, so I can't knock them in that regard.
From start to finish though? I can't say that I was overly impressed with this show. Much like a lot of modern wrestling these days, there's a lot of very talented athletes on this show, but in terms of the actual wrestling aspect and key component of this show, it's not very good as a concise and coherent package. You can rant and rave about the demographics and viewership ratings all you want, but this isn't a good wrestling show. It's a very mediocre one that a lot of people are too jaded and delusional to point out as such only because they either have a wrestling podcast/YouTube channel to keep viewers engaged/subscribed to or they are just that happy to have something that's NOT WWE and will make all of the excuses in the world that it's so much better and different. In reality, it's not - it's the exact same shit you see in the other company (WWE) on Mondays and Fridays with a different cast of characters.
From start to finish though? I can't say that I was overly impressed with this show. Much like a lot of modern wrestling these days, there's a lot of very talented athletes on this show, but in terms of the actual wrestling aspect and key component of this show, it's not very good as a concise and coherent package. You can rant and rave about the demographics and viewership ratings all you want, but this isn't a good wrestling show. It's a very mediocre one that a lot of people are too jaded and delusional to point out as such only because they either have a wrestling podcast/YouTube channel to keep viewers engaged/subscribed to or they are just that happy to have something that's NOT WWE and will make all of the excuses in the world that it's so much better and different. In reality, it's not - it's the exact same shit you see in the other company (WWE) on Mondays and Fridays with a different cast of characters.
I'm just wondering when people are going to wake up and get fed up of having their intelligence insulted on a regular basis with these weekly wrestling broadcasts.
