BRM Reviews AEW Fyter Fest 2020: Week 2

[Big Red Machine]

AEW Fyter Fest 2020: Week 2 (7/8/2020)- Jacksonville, FL


AEW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Kenny Omega & Adam Page(c) vs. Private Party (w/Matt Hardy)- 6.75/10
This was a fine spotty opener.

JOEY JANELA vs. LANCE ARCHER (w/Jake Roberts)- 4.75/10
Joey looked around like he was expecting Sonny Kiss to be right behind him but he wasn’t. It turns out Archer has beaten Sonny up and is carrying him to ringside. So… what happened? Did Archer manage to sneak up behind Sonny and take him out without making a sound and without allowing Sonny to make a sound?
This is exactly the sort of stuff that drives me nuts, because you know that the way this came about was “wouldn’t it be cool if Archer started the match by throwing Sonny onto Janela?” “Yeah! And we’ll have Joey turn around during his entrance like he doesn’t know where Sonny is to foreshadow it and acknowledge Sonny’s absence!” And at that point they patted themselves on the back for having such a great idea instead of actually thinking through the logic of the situation they were going to create.

The announcers pointed out that Jake has a big canvas bag with him.
Tony: We all know what that is.
Ross: I don’t think that’s his lunch.
Me: I don’t know, J.R. Have you seen Jake lately?

This was very meh. There was a lot of Archer being the big monster, but it was totally destroyed by the fact that the f*cking babyfaces kept cheating!
When Archer was about to hit a big move on Janela and Sonny jumped up onto the apron to distract him, Tony put him over for being “a good tag team partner.” Dude… that’s CHEATING. A babyface announcer should not be okay with this! On the bright side, at least Tony didn’t complain when Jake hopped up onto the apron in a similar situation. Unfortunately, while Jae was distracting the referee, Sonny Kiss ran in and interfered. You’re a f*cking babyface, Sonny! STOP. CHEATING.
Fortunately, Archer was able to kick out. Unfortunately, the next spot was Archer cutting Joey off while Joey was on the top, setting him up for the Blackout and walking over to a table and putting Joey through it, right in front of the referee. I’ve been pretty loose on bumps off the apron through a table not being a DQ because there is usually at least some minimal amount of plausible deniability that the wrestler just did the move and didn’t know that the table was there. In this, that cannot apply because Archer very deliberately walked over to the table to do the move.
Of course, Paul Turner did not call for a DQ because that wasn’t the planned finish, and thus apparently the rules don’t apply, I guess. Is it rally that f*cking hard to not do a table bump in a match that has DQs? Really? And if someone can’t manage to do that, that person should not be signed to a deal by any wrestling promotion of any size. That person is a backyard garbage wrestler and out to stay in backyard feds and garbage indies. And the newsletters report that Tony Khan is a “detail guy?” F*ck off.

DARBY ALLIN VIDEO PACKAGE- He’s doing Coffin Drops off of a very high tower into a pit of foam sponges to… help him get his aim better, maybe? But if that were the case, shouldn’t he have some sort of target he’s aiming for in the middle of the sponges?
He said that he hasn’t forgotten that Brian Cage was the one who injured him, so that was good.

TAZ PRESENTS BRIAN CAGE WITH THE FTW CHAMPIONSHIP- didn’t like it
I’m not going to say that Taz didn’t cut a good promo here, but I thought this was a HUGE waste of a very precious resource. This is the sort of thing you can only do rarely as an angle in general, but with an already-established unrecognized championship with the history that the FTW Championship has, you can really only do this once. And they’re wasting it when Moxley is going to be back and we’re getting the title match NEXT WEEK. This is something you do to avoid stripping your champion of the title if he’s going to be out for MONTHS.

THE BUTCHER & THE BLADE & LUCHA BROS. vs. FTR & THE YOUNG BUCKS- 8/10
You can’t talk about a “difference in philosophy” of tag team wrestling between the Bucks and FTR if you’re not going to explain it in kayfabe, because until you give me a kayfabe explanation of what you mean (because I can’t think of one), all you’re doing is damaging people’s suspension of disbelief by bringing up the fact that these people disagree on the proper way to artificially create the maximum drama and excitement in pre-planned wrestling matches.
Action-wise, I thought this was pretty awesome, but it definitely felt like they squandered the storyline here. The storyline has been this tension between the teams and the idea of an argument over philosophy… so show us that! They just had the usual multi-man tag spotfest when they should have spent time showing us the difference between the Bucks and FTR. Have FTR always following the rules (which was, if you’ll remember, one of the first things they said FTR could stand for) while the Bucks are just running in whenever they want and not staying on the apron or obeying the ten count… and have FTR yell at the Bucks about that because they don’t want to lose if the referee decides to DQ the Bucks, which he’d be well within his rights to do.

BIG SWOLE IS NOT BEING ALLOWED INO THE BUILDING TONIGHT- bad
I was hoping this would be because she showed up to a two-hour show more than half way through, but no. Instead it’s because of… something. The closest we got was Swole being told she has been served because “we take our code of conduct very seriously here” in AEW. Tony then tells us that Britt Baker has “petitioned AEW management to suspend Britt Baker for kidnapping and harassment.”
1. Lance Archer goes around and attacks random people, Jake Robers molests Brandi Rhodes, Pac at one point kidnapped Riho and also assaulted Michael Nakazawa, and any other number of things happen on Dynamite or Dark and AEW management gives a grand total of zero f*cks… but this time they take action?
2. Big Swole is absolutely right to be upset by the fact that they waited at the door of the arena for her to show up so they could just order her to turn around and go home instead of sending her a fa or a letter or calling her on her cell phone to tell her not to come to the building.

HANDICAP MATCH: Nyla Rose vs. KiLynn King & Kenzie Page- squash
So does this count as a single match for Nyla’s record and a tag team match for the other two? If you’re going to have records, you need to explain how they work in situations like this.

NYLA ROSE MAKES AN ANNOUNCEMENT- Her delivery was fine, but announcing a secret manager was dumb. Also, her claim that everyone with a manager is a champion is pretty clearly false. There are actually more people with managers who aren’t champions than who are.

Why would I want to win a Zoom chat with Chris Jericho? He seems like a mean guy who will just insult me if I don’t agree with everything he says.

COLT CABANA IN THE TRAINER’S ROOM (filmed earlier today)- mostly good
Something happened to Colt and he’s got this REALLY nasty bruise. The trainer shows it to us, but says he is still cleared to wrestle. Brodie Lee comes by and thanks the trainer for letting Cole wrestle. He then tells Colt that they don’t know who did this to him, but if Colt sticks with them, they’ll make sure it never happens again.
I think they forgot to tell us that this “trauma” Colt suffered was due to some sort of backstage attack or something, as he didn’t seem too hurt during last week’s match, and it allows us to read Brodie’s statement is a veiled threat if we’d like, and wonder if it was the Dark Order who attacked Colt.
Colt called Brodie “Mr. Brodie” at the end, which the announcers seized on, but it’s also totally within Colt’s personality to find Brodie’s demand entertaining and call him “Mr. Brodie Lee” like he wants, even if Colt doesn’t feel any particular need to do so the way Brodie’s disciples do. I think it would have been nice for the announcers to bring this up as a counter-balance, because otherwise it seems like a weird thing for Colt to do unless the angle is going to result in him being a believer very soon.

SCU vs. COLT CABANA & THE DARK ORDER (Brodie Lee & Grayson) (w/the Dark Order)- 6.75/10
The match was good, but I don’t like the way they’re handling this Colt Cabana thing. Basically, the Dark Order did all of the work for Colt and then let him get the pin in a way that was clear to Cabana that they were letting him get the pin. It makes Colt look really bad for not seeing through it.
Jim Ross this match: Who’s a better athlete in AEW than Scorpio Sky?!
Jim Ross two matches ago: Nick Jackson is the best pure athlete in AEW!

Next week’s card looks pretty strong.

BIG SWOLE HAS MaNAGED TO SNEAK INTO THE BUILDING- bad
1. This makes AEW look like sh*t.
2. Swole wound up throwing the balled-up suspension notice at Rebel’s face, which hit her in the eye, causing her to flail her arms, which one of which hit Britt in the nose. Why are we doing Three Stooges comedy?

ORANGE CASSIDY vs. CHRIS JERICHO (w/Santana & Ortiz)- 8/10
This was an awesome match, and that is NOT an endorsement of Orange Cassidy. Just the opposite, in fact. It’s an indictment of Orange Cassidy, because 98% of this match didn’t involve Orange Cassidy at all. This was Chris Jericho vs. Fire Ant without his mask on. No one has ever argued that James Cipperly isn’t talented. It’s just the gimmick that we detractors think is moronic.
And I don’t want to hear any of that “he cares now! The character is growing. It’s a story!” bullsh*t, because this is the exact same thing that happened in the Pac feud… and then he went right back to not caring again. AT BEST he’s a one-trick pony and they’ve already told that same story twice now. By definition, that’s not development because you’re going back to exactly the same place to tell the same story.


This was a very good show from AEW in the ring, but I really don’t like the booking on most of it. Hopefully Fight for the Fallen will deliver on both fronts.

[XIV]

How does Darby Allin ever expect to get cleared by AEW if he's backflipping onto skateboards and coffin dropping from 40 feet? Yeah, you could say "he's proving he can do a bunch of stuff" but this also shows that he's just being reckless with his own recovery.

Taz and the FTW Championship, not good. What's the point? I agree with you, if Moxley was out "indefinitely" or something, this would have worked because Taz could have gone with the whole "now we have a World Champion who is going to show up to work" almost how UFC uses their "interim champion" model.

I'm calling Vickie Guerrero as Nyla Rose's Manager

You could tell that not having the Jon Moxley vs Brian Cage match hurt this because it just lacked that big main event for me. I don't think Jericho vs Cassidy whilst okay, was not main event worthy. I'd have put the 4v4 at Main Event because of how it built other things. It would have been good going off air after the Young Buck f*ck up with announcers saying "what happens next?" etc.

Here's something I consider. Listening to JR now, he's just checked out and collecting pay. He gets paid to hang out with his mate Tony Schiavone and talk shit. He's not the announcer he was previously, nowhere near. BUT he still outshines Excalibur, if I have to hear him go "OH HO HO HOOOOO" or scream "TOPEI SUICINA" one more time. If everyone does this move, nobody may as well do it. It's not special, on that subject there's also 5 Canadian Destroyers in every show. Again, this makes it less of spectacle when it happens.

[Big Red Machine]

You could tell that not having the Jon Moxley vs Brian Cage match hurt this because it just lacked that big main event for me. I don't think Jericho vs Cassidy whilst okay, was not main event worthy. I'd have put the 4v4 at Main Event because of how it built other things. It would have been good going off air after the Young Buck f*ck up with announcers saying "what happens next?" etc.

This would have been a much better way to put the card together.

[Thelone]

In shocking news, Janela sucks and is just good at passing through furniture. Kiss... was also there I guess.

I think the Allin thing is more about how he thinks this is bullshit that AEW doctors won't clear him to wrestle and he's proving them wrong by doing dangerous shit.

The FTW angle was kinda odd, unless they think Moxley might be stuck some more and won't wrestle next week. Even then, you can have Taz tease a big announcement if Moxley keeps ducking Cage and only then, give him the FTW belt until Moxley is fine to come back. At this point, next week's match (if it's happening at all) will have a fuck finish, Cage wins the belt (which wouldn't be the worst idea since Moxley's reign has been pretty bad), or Moxley just defeats Cage and this whole thing is rendered worthless after a single week.

I know this is supposed to be this huge deal and all, but does that match between the Revival and the Bucks feel any important right now? I'm not just talking about the lack of crowd which doesn't help of course, but the Bucks have cooled down massively in the last year and a half and even the Revival has lost support with the constant whining on social media and people realizing that they're nothing special.

Apparently, a certain artist is very much booking this whole thing between Swole and Baker. No wonder it jumped the shark lately and feels more and more like a bunch of vaudeville skits.

You know what this promotion needs? More managers for people who don't need them at all. Most people seem to think that it will be Vickie Guerrero, but I have this sinking feeling """legend""" Luther will end up being her manager.

They really don't wanna let go with this Dark Order stuff, huh? I guess it's not badly done, but this is eating so much TV time for what is basically a low-to-midcard stable at this point.

Jericho vs. perennial lower midcarder once again tanked in the ratings. Yeah, it was against a big title vs. title match on the other channel, but this has been a consistant thread during this feud. This is fine to realize that OC has a ceiling and shouldn't be main eventing anything, just like Al Snow or Disco Inferno weren't in main events despite being popular acts who got pops.

[Big Red Machine]

I think the way they've chosen to build Bucks vs. Revival have cooled it off immensely. That's by design, as they're clearly stalling until they can have a crowd, but I don't think it will be possible to recapture the heat of what could have been if they had done the match right away.

[Thelone]

I do understand that a lot of what they're doing right now most likely weren't the original plans or even the backups, but this shit ain't going away anytime soon and there's a point when they'll just have to do what was originally planned, whether there's a crowd or not.

How long can you keep MJF away from Moxley, the Revival from the Bucks, breaking up Page and Omega, and whatever else "needs" a big crowd before people stop caring altogether? I also feel it's a bit hypocritical to be all "the show must go on even without a crowd", then hit the brakes on some programs because "it won't be the same without a crowd".

[Big Red Machine]

I do understand that a lot of what they're doing right now most likely weren't the original plans or even the backups, but this shit ain't going away anytime soon and there's a point when they'll just have to do what was originally planned, whether there's a crowd or not.

Either this or drastically rework your plans. Which I think is what they're doing... but they're not doing so in a manner that makes things more effective.

How long can you keep MJF away from Moxley, the Revival from the Bucks, breaking up Page and Omega, and whatever else "needs" a big crowd before people stop caring altogether?

Page and Omega breaking up might have just been scrapped (because AEW's fanbase decided that the thing to do when one of their heroes had a drinking problem was to encourage it. Modern wrestling fans, everybody).

As for keeping MJF away from Moxley... forever, I guess. Remember how MJF and Cody had this big PPV match where Cody was going for revenge on MJF for betraying him and screwing him out of the world title, and MJF cheated to beat that match, and Cody just stopped caring about getting revenge on MJF? They'll just keep booking Moxley against whoever and booking MJF against whoever and protecting him and having him complain about not getting title shots despite being undefeated and think that doing so makes them good bookers even though someone who was actually a good booker would have an actual explanation for when the heel claims the babyfaces in the office are biased against him and not giving him what he has earned.

I also feel it's a bit hypocritical to be all "the show must go on even without a crowd", then hit the brakes on some programs because "it won't be the same without a crowd".

I don't know that "hypocritical" is a fair word to use, but I get the point that you're making. Way what you will about WWE and the dumb sh*t they've done since COVID, but they feel like they have adjusted to the idea of "well... we'll just have to make due with things the way they are" a lot better than AEW has.

[Thelone]

Either this or drastically rework your plans. Which I think is what they're doing... but they're not doing so in a manner that makes things more effective.

I'd say it's been awfully unclear what they have in store for each title feud. Moxley's been feuding with "monster of the month" since he got the belt and they have seemingly no one believable chasing him right now (and I love the guy, but MJF ain't beating him for the title). Cody's doing his shitty Dusty tribute/Cena impersonation by beating a bunch of tomato cans and he's got no credible challenger also (MJF maybe, but that would imply using him for something other than teasing a break-up with Wardlow). Page/Omega should be beaten by the Revival at this point because they're out of credible challengers after them. Finally, Shida is on her own little island to the point where they have to re-heat Rose for the 4th or 5th time already.

The recruitment process has also been all over the place. It's nothing new really, but you think they'd be extra careful with limited resources. They signed Ricky Starks because "we thought of a storyline for him during the Cody match" and so far has done nothing of note. They brought Anna Jay who looks like a million bucks (I would bet... something that she's a Cody signing), but is green as grass. Same with cosplay girl Abadon who randomly disappeared after that big debut (Omega sure loves to book his wet dreams and garbage comedy). Matt Hardy is now the mentor/hype man/manager of Private Party, Archer was more or less "monster of the month" for Cody, Lee's been stuck in a dead faction, we'll see with Cage after this week's show, and the Revival's been there for a month. My point here is that they seem to bring people almost on impulse or with one short storyline in mind, then they kinda fizzle out and are clogging an already massive roster despite a bunch of them being unavailable right now.

Page and Omega breaking up might have just been scrapped (because AEW's fanbase decided that the thing to do when one of their heroes had a drinking problem was to encourage it. Modern wrestling fans, everybody).

I'm not sure they would feud after losing the belts, more likely Omega goes for the world title while Page chases the TNT title.

As for keeping MJF away from Moxley... forever, I guess. Remember how MJF and Cody had this big PPV match where Cody was going for revenge on MJF for betraying him and screwing him out of the world title, and MJF cheated to beat that match, and Cody just stopped caring about getting revenge on MJF? They'll just keep booking Moxley against whoever and booking MJF against whoever and protecting him and having him complain about not getting title shots despite being undefeated and think that doing so makes them good bookers even though someone who was actually a good booker would have an actual explanation for when the heel claims the babyfaces in the office are biased against him and not giving him what he has earned.

The sad thing is that MJF could have easily cut a promo about how he wants to beat Moxley in front of a crowd to expose him as a fraud or whatever, then make a storyline out of that. If they had any idea how to use their stupid rankings, they would roll them out after six months and MJF would slowly lose his *checks* 7-0 record and potentially the #1 seed unless he wrestles some more. He could (and should) get impatient as well and just announce that he will not deprive himself of the belt for a bunch of plebeians anymore and will challenge Moxley for the title at [Insert PPV here].

I don't know that "hypocritical" is a fair word to use, but I get the point that you're making. Way what you will about WWE and the dumb sh*t they've done since COVID, but they feel like they have adjusted to the idea of "well... we'll just have to make due with things the way they are" a lot better than AEW has.

That was my point yeah. I'm sure WWE would have preferred to have McIntyre win the belt in front of a big crowd and crown Reigns for the 500th time (those two are pretty bad examples though because Lesnar most likely has no interest in wrestling during the COVID era and Goldberg is older and sucks ass at this point), but they did one anyway and changed plans with the other when Reigns told them to leave him alone for now. Meanwhile, AEW seemingly put everything on hold for the last four months and it's very noticeable now.

[Big Red Machine]

Either this or drastically rework your plans. Which I think is what they're doing... but they're not doing so in a manner that makes things more effective.

I'd say it's been awfully unclear what they have in store for each title feud. Moxley's been feuding with "monster of the month" since he got the belt and they have seemingly no one believable chasing him right now (and I love the guy, but MJF ain't beating him for the title). Cody's doing his shitty Dusty tribute/Cena impersonation by beating a bunch of tomato cans and he's got no credible challenger also (MJF maybe, but that would imply using him for something other than teasing a break-up with Wardlow). Page/Omega should be beaten by the Revival at this point because they're out of credible challengers after them. Finally, Shida is on her own little island to the point where they have to re-heat Rose for the 4th or 5th time already.

I don't think anything you've said here is wrong, but I think that as far as at least the world title goes, you're not looking at it from the right angle. Monster of the Month is a fine way to establish a babyface champion, and I think their logic is "everyone knows Moxley isn't losing the belt this quickly, so why waste someone people think might actually have a chance with a title shot early in the reign? Lets give Moxley some monsters to slay, and hopefully do it in a way where the loser will get a rub for having been in the ring with the champ." With Cage I think this has worked (although maybe that's more down to Taz's talking). With Hager and Brodie, I think it failed.
Also, as I think about it, I'm having real trouble coming up with anyone I think fans would buy as having a chance of beating Moxley. The list I came up with was:
Pac (stuck in Europe)
Penta
Fenix
Jericho
Omega
MAYBE Page

Most of those guys are in the tag division at the moment, and I think Jericho is really more of the "credible challenger you'll buy the nearfalls for, but I don't think anyone would really think he would win going into the match."
Maybe their biggest mistake here is that they're not building anyone up in the background.

There was a point where I would have been tempted to be generous and say that what they were doing with Cody was fine because you need to establish the title, but so many of the challengers have been completely undeserving that it definitely comes off as more of a 2015 Cena act.

As for keeping MJF away from Moxley... forever, I guess. Remember how MJF and Cody had this big PPV match where Cody was going for revenge on MJF for betraying him and screwing him out of the world title, and MJF cheated to beat that match, and Cody just stopped caring about getting revenge on MJF? They'll just keep booking Moxley against whoever and booking MJF against whoever and protecting him and having him complain about not getting title shots despite being undefeated and think that doing so makes them good bookers even though someone who was actually a good booker would have an actual explanation for when the heel claims the babyfaces in the office are biased against him and not giving him what he has earned.

The sad thing is that MJF could have easily cut a promo about how he wants to beat Moxley in front of a crowd to expose him as a fraud or whatever, then make a storyline out of that. If they had any idea how to use their stupid rankings, they would roll them out after six months and MJF would slowly lose his *checks* 7-0 record and potentially the #1 seed unless he wrestles some more. He could (and should) get impatient as well and just announce that he will not deprive himself of the belt for a bunch of plebeians anymore and will challenge Moxley for the title at [Insert PPV here].

This would be tremendous!

[Big Red Machine]

The recruitment process has also been all over the place. It's nothing new really, but you think they'd be extra careful with limited resources. They signed Ricky Starks because "we thought of a storyline for him during the Cody match" and so far has done nothing of note. They brought Anna Jay who looks like a million bucks (I would bet... something that she's a Cody signing), but is green as grass. Same with cosplay girl Abadon who randomly disappeared after that big debut (Omega sure loves to book his wet dreams and garbage comedy). Matt Hardy is now the mentor/hype man/manager of Private Party, Archer was more or less "monster of the month" for Cody, Lee's been stuck in a dead faction, we'll see with Cage after this week's show, and the Revival's been there for a month. My point here is that they seem to bring people almost on impulse or with one short storyline in mind, then they kinda fizzle out and are clogging an already massive roster despite a bunch of them being unavailable right now.

I think that this is actually a symptom of several larger problems. I definitely agree with you about Abadon (and she's not the first case of them signing people in the women's division and then not doing sh*t with them), and I think you're dead on about Starks.
Matt was pretty clearly going to do something with Sammy Guevara... although maybe their match in May was supposed to be the end of that? I don't know.

The real problem, I think, is that they really don't seem to know how to effectively blow-off a story. AEW books angles, and those angles mostly lead to matches at a big show, but then it's usually just "okay, it's a new cycle now, so we're doing some new angles" and they don't make sure that they finish the story they started telling in the build-up to the PPV.
- Sure, Cody beat Archer in a wrestling match so that's revenge for Dustin, but Jake suffered no consequences for molesting Brandi, and Jake's whole debut speech about how he was here to slay Caesar (a.k.a. Cody) appears to have been completely forgotten, as he's now off doing Lance Archer's new story, which is that Archer is a bit out of control.
- MJF cheats to beat Cody at the PPV and Cody has no desire for revenge, because he's supposed to be feuding with Jake now
- They do a segment where the Inner Circle vows a bloody and violent revenge on the Elite... and then the Inner Circle goes off to feud with Orange Cassidy while only Hager is feuding with a member of the Elite... and that member is the one who jokes about being so removed from their stuff that he doesn't know if he's a member anymore.
- Jericho is insisting that he should still be champion, but never seeks a rematch with Moxley.
- Moxley is so upset when he is told that his match with Omega at Full Gear will be unsanctioned because then his win over Omega won't be official... then he actually beats Omega in the match and never once brings this up.

And I could give numerous smaller-scale examples, too. I do think that AEW has large, long-set plans. The problem is that just don't seem to think through the implications of things when they first book them, and thus they leave all of these threads hanging once they've gotten to the PPV match and shown us the desired result. They've done a good job of showing us that the results of the big matches matter, but they have done a very bad job at making the events that surround those results matter. They've shown that they can do pathos well in the micro, but in the macro they seem to completely ignore it. It makes the angles all feel like an excuse to set up a big match rather than actual things happening to real people who we are supposed to care about.

[XIV]

I'm calling Vickie Guerrero as Nyla Rose's Manager

Called it.