Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk Super News - I’m
Oli Davis. We’ve got a packed show for you today, including
my review of All Elite Wrestling’s excellent Fyter Fest (Fyter Fest) show from the weekend
- spoiler, I thought it was even more excellent than this guy’s face suggests!, the controversy
surrounding a botched chair shot on the event, and what this means for the eventual AEW TV.
Click the timestamps in the video description below to jump to any of those stories right
now! And make sure to have a Super Click party
and give us a subscribe, click the thumbs up button and answer our question of the day
down below: What did you think of AEW’s Fyter Fest (Fyter
Fest)? Because I’ll be replying to people in the comments FROM OUTTA NOWHERE.
But first! Just as the best wrestler in the world Will
Ospreay announced at the start of this video - WHOAH, EASY THERE SETH ROLLINS, no I don’t
want to look at your bank account, or that other thing - WrestleTalk’s mission is to
support independent wrestling, the lifeblood of this industry we all love.
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in the evening - which will also feature a match-up between Guns, Bobby Guns against
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But now for that other indie promotion that just really sells t-shirts…
AEW’s second official pay-per-view Fyter Fest had a brilliant cold open parodying the
event’s gimmick - the infamously botched and controversial Fyre Festival from 2017.
It was a great night long narrative of a show falling apart behind-the-scenes, probably
the closest we’ll ever get to the Larry Sanders Show in wrestling.
They had interviews with stage hands rather desperately saying they’d do anything for
the company, had the Young Bucks complaining about just having a kids’ inflatable pool
rather than the huge one they were promised, and having four swimsuit models on stage - ironic
objectification, which is the easiest objectification to intellectually justify - that had to be
replaced by manikins when the show ‘ran out of money’.
It’s a bold move to base just your second official show around such a pop culture joke,
and I can see why some fans felt it cheapened the product and undermined the reported sports-based
approach of the promotion. I, however, think it worked tremendously. 2019 isn’t based
around total kayfabe anymore. All the fans, particularly AEW’s more adult demographic,
are in on the work. The task instead is making the audience believe in each segment’s own
reality - switching up the verisimilitude (a big word that practically means buying
into a fictional world’s reality that makes me sound clever) every other skit and match,
just like how modern viewers click through different YouTube videos. Which means you
can go from a Netflix documentary in-joke straight into a time limit draw with a serious
concussion post-match angle right after. For me, I thought it worked magnificently,
and the AEW team have created a very modern product.
And another fantastic element of the card was how every match was booked to get everyone
more over than when they started, even in defeat. The opening three-way tag between
Private Party, SoCal Uncensored and the Best Friends being a perfect example - brilliantly
getting over Private Party’s insanely athletic moveset, but ultimately being beaten by the
more veteran teams. Unfortunately just like Double or Nothing,
the Dark Order post-match reveal, where they creepily surrounded the ring with minions
and then disappeared, wasn’t effective. Neither was the night’s biggest misstep
in Allie vs the Librarian Levi Bates. The Librarian gimmick with Peter Avalon feels
hokey even beyond AEW’s joke-switching powers. At least Brandi Rhodes watched on backstage
from an angle she could actually see the screen from!
And the final match of the pre-show saw CEO Gaming founder and untrained wrestler Alex
Jebailey put on a surprisingly enjoyable hardcore match with Michael Nakazawa. All fun, but
arguably not the best showcase of your product to a pre-show viewer you’re trying to convince
to buy the pay-per-view. The main card opened with Strongheart leader
CIMA beating Christopher Daniels in a fine opening match, getting back a win after SCU
beat Strongheart at Double or Nothing. This isnt’t 50/50 booking, though - it just shows
how singles competition is different to tag and six-man matches.
Then Riho defeated Yuka Sakazaki and Nyla Rose in a three way that was far better than
it looked on paper. It’s mostly down to Riho and Yuka making Rose look very strong.
Everyone came off looking great, even when Nyla got struck by the ‘surprise roll-up,
look really angry, then beat people up in the ring’ finish usually reserved for Samoa
Joe. As he’s fighting for the inaugural AEW World
Championship at August 31st’s All Out, it was quite obvious Hangman Page was going to
win the four-way against MJF, Jimmy Jacobs and Jungle Boy. But being predictable didn’t
make it any less fun - with MJF telling the crowd their mum’s all swallow in a pre-match
promo (how does he know?), and Jungle Boy being the perfect Jeff Hardy mix of likeable
and athletic. The problem is, these four men currently feel
slotted in AEW’s midcard. Which isn’t a slight. That’s a fantastic midcard. The
problem is that one of those currently perceived midcard acts will be fighting against Chris
Jericho for the promotion’s top title in just two months. Having Page win isn’t enough
to make him a credible title threat. It’s who he’s winning against that needs to build
him up, with big victories over main event talent. PAC, the man who was reportedly originally
intended for the Jericho title match, wouldn’t have had that problem with his already established
reputation. But in a booking masterstroke, after the predictable
win of Page, Darby Allin - a very compelling character pretty much based around having
nothing to lose - took AEW co-executive vice president Cody to a 20 minute time limit draw,
when everyone thought a Rhodes victory was a done deal.
As spectacular as the two matches to come are, this was actually my favourite of the
night, as it took a guy in his debut match and made something of him. It also gave us
this guy’s reaction to when Darby missed a trust fall off the top rope and fell right
on the apron. That, SWAFT Nation, is the expression of: ‘But that’s the hardest part of the
ring’. The post-match, however, has proved quite
controversial - where Shawn Spears, the former Tye Dillinger in WWE, ran down to the ring
and hit Cody with an unprotected chair shot to the head that, while gimmicked, busted
Rhode’s head open hard. It was an unfortunate botch, and a very ill-advised spot when, as
a new company meant to be built around putting the wrestlers first, you really want to avoid
the idea you’re unsafe. Luke will be covering the fallout to this and what actually happened
in the news portion of this episode in a bit, but for me, it wasn’t even a good angle,
as the history and friendship between Spears and Cody wasn’t fully established - meaning
it came off as just a superficial hardcore spot for a random heel turn. Speaking of superficial
spots! The Lucha Bros and Laredo Kid vs the Elite
put on all of them, and it was incredible. Their six man tag, with The Elite cosplaying
as Street Fighter characters because they lost their ring gear, was ridiculously fun
to watch, and it subtly continued the professional rivalry between Kenny Omega and Pentagon Jr.
Or was it Chris Jericho in a mask? Nope it was Pentagon. I think.
And the main event went to the dream death match of Jon Moxley vs Joey Janela. And while
there was no backstory or character rivalry to make their numerous hardcore spots mean
anything, the action was hugely enjoyable anyway - including barbwire wrapped chairs
and boards, a Janela flying elbow off a ladder through two tables outside and thumbtacks,
all the thumbtacks everywhere - where Moxley took Joey’s boots and socks off and chucked
him on the tacks barefoot. Moxley won, which led to an Omega brawl around
the stage to close the show - the reverse of the ending of Double or Nothing. But while
Kenny stood tall, it was Moxley who really won, manically smiling as the show went off
air. His character is about creating chaos, and that’s exactly what he’s unleashed
in Omega. A terrific show that I whole-heartedly recommend,
although I understand why people would be put off by either the comedy or hardcore spots.
And now over to Luke with the news on what happened with that botched chair shot…
Great review Oli! I wonder if that chair Laurie hit me with a few months ago was also supposed
to be gimmicked? AEW might be off to a hot start as a promotion
with Double or Nothing and Fyter Fest both getting rave reviews from critics and fans,
but they’re not resting on their laurels just yet - as in just two weeks All Elite
Wrestling is heading to Jacksonville to hold Fight For The Fallen, a show where all of
the proceeds will be donated to victims of gun violence. The show will also run on the
same day as Evolve’s 10th Anniversary show which will take place on the WWE Network - which
I am sure was purely coincidental. You know, just like how NXT UK announced TakeOver: Cardiff
to take place on the same day and just a few hours away from New Japan’s Royal Quest
in London and AEW’s All Out in the US. Purely coincidental.
Already announced for Fight For The Fallen is Brandi Rhodes vs. Allie, Kenny Omega vs.
CIMA and The Rhodes Brothers vs. The Young Bucks in tag team action. And it was announced
on Fyter Fest that British wrestler Kip Sabian will take on one of the top contenders to
the AEW World Championship, Hangman Page. One thing that has been noted from the first
two AEW shows is the level of violence - from Jimmy Havoc stapling a lit cigarette to Joey
Janella and Dustin Rhodes bleeding a gusher at Double or Nothing, and Darby Allin’s
insane back bump and that brutal hardcore match between Janella and Jon Moxley at Fyter
Fest. And, of course, Michael Nakazawa taking a holy s-word bump into the luxurious pool
at ringside on the Fyter Fest Buy In show. So devastating.
However in a media interview following Fyter Fest, AEW money man Tony KHAAN told Chris
Van Vliet that we shouldn’t expect to see All Elite’s weekly TV show on TNT to be
quite so bloody. “This was not TV, this was a streaming show. It was effectively a
pay-per-view in a lot of the world. In the U.S. it was presented free but this was a
pay-per-view, and so you can expect different rules for pay-per-view. And we said going
in these are unsanctioned hardcore matches, and I think that expectation was going in
and we wouldn’t have advertised that kind of violence, you know? We wouldn’t have
offered that on TNT, 100-percent no.” But of course perhaps the biggest talking
point of AEW’s Fyter Fest going by social media feedback was the Cody chair shot heard
round the Twitter world. Following his match with Darby Allin, Cody
was attacked by Shawn Spears with a vicious chair shot, which was unprotected. The chair
shot drew a lot of negative attention to AEW, particuarly in a post-Benoit world where concussions
and the damage they can do is more in the public conscience. WWE banned unprotected
chair shots in 2010, with the company publicly saying Triple H and Undertaker were fined
for doing one at WrestleMania XXVII. AEW quickly announced via Twitter that Cody
received 12 staples from the chair shot but suffered no concussion, and was back in his
backstage role for The Elite’s match against Lucha Brothers and Lordeo Kid.
In a post-show interview, Tony Khan said that doctors were called immediately, and called
the chair shot “really regrettable. He added, “We had taken precautions in this situation,
in that specific situation, and a doctor was available.” Khan later added that the chair
was supposed to be gimmicked - meaning it would be as safe as possible to hit Cody with
very hard - but it didn’t quite go to plan: “You could build the safest airplane in
the world and if there’s pilot error there’s pilot error. That was not good.”
Despite Khan’s comments, there is reportedly no backstage heat on Spears for the botch.
The Young Bucks addressed the chair shot in their post-show media scrums with Nick Jackson
saying, “I don't even know what happened, to be honest. All I know is he did get staples,
so I'm going to have to look back and I'll have a comment on it later. I do know that
they 'gimmicked' the chair and it clearly didn't work since he was bloody.” He also
added that it was Cody’s idea to do the spot.
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Wrestling. I’ve been Luke Owen and that was wrestling.