AEW Fight for the Fallen Review
After last week’s colossal success that was Fyter Fest Night 2, All Elite Wrestling closed out their “Welcome Back” tour that spanned the month of July with Fight for the Fallen. With a massive 10-man tag match with world title implications, Lance Archer’s first defense of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship and a No Rules match between Chris Jericho and Nick Gage, AEW set themselves up for a strong finish to the tour.
The show was kicked off by the 10-man elimination tag match featuring The Elite’s Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and The Good Brothers taking on “Hangman” Adam Page and The Dark Order’s Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver and Alex Reynolds. Despite coming out in jerseys inspired by Space Jam’s Tune Squad, The Elite were anything but heroic in this match, using their now-typical bending of the rules to their advantage on multiple occasions. With the match down to Page taking on Omega and Nick Jackson single-handedly, Jackson provided the distraction to the referee that allowed Omega to nail Page with one of his title belts. That hit put the momentum squarely on The Elite’s side, and Omega finished the match soon after with a One-Winged Angel.
The Elite donned custom “Elite Squad” jerseys for their match at Fight for the Fallen in parody of the recently released Space Jam 2. (All Elite Wrestling/411mania.com)
As per the stipulation of the match, Page’s shot at Omega’s AEW World Championship at the upcoming All Out event has been voided. The match was fun and a good way to kick off the show, but the outcome could be dicey. Page’s pursuit of Omega and his title has been built wonderfully up to this point, and he should without question be the challenger to Omega at All Out, but this outcome could make that a tough sell without nullifying the importance of this match.
Backstage, Pac was being interviewed when he was interrupted by Andrade El Idolo and Chavo Guerrero. Guerrero continued his attempts to sway the Lucha Brothers towards Andrade’s corner, and Andrade threatened that Pac needs to treat his teammates better or Andrade will himself.
Taz then introduced Ricky Starks for his celebration of winning the FTW Championship from Brian Cage, and Starks was played to the ring by a live band. Starks discussed Cage’s selfishness and inability to work with a team that he claims led to Cage’s fallout with Team Taz, but Cage soon crashed the party and laid waste to the band members in his way. Starks, however, was able to escape before Cage could get his hands on him. Starks is a great promo and he carried the segment, as the Cage interruption felt flat as all he did was attack some extras at ringside.
A promo from New Japan Pro Wrestling star Hiroshi Tanahashi aired next, and he declared that he would challenge the winner of tonight’s IWGP US Championship match for their title. While that match will not take place in an AEW ring, Tanahashi appearing on the episode even in pre-recorded form has such a gigantic magnitude. The working relationship between AEW and NJPW continues to create some of the most interesting crossovers and potential dream matches in wrestling.
Up next, FTR faced off with Santana and Ortiz in what was surprisingly the first-ever standard tag team match between the two duos. Both staples of AEW’s tag division and members of warring factions The Pinnacle and The Inner Circle, the four men put on a great match until things went south near its conclusion.
Cash Wheeler of FTR injured his arm when he was pushed off the top rope and onto the ring post, resulting in him spending the rest of the match with doctors at ringside trying to stop his bleeding. Because of the sudden injury taking him out of the picture, the three remaining competitors had to improvise, and Dax Harwood won out of the blue after hitting Ortiz with a brainbuster. Wheeler looked to be in rough shape on the outside, but hopefully, the injury is nothing long-term, as the tag division would sorely miss the presence of FTR.
AEW Women’s World Champion Britt Baker talked trash backstage with Rebel by her side, discussing her successful title defense over Nyla Rose last week. She also claimed that, because the whole women’s division is gunning for her, she will “get somebody here that is always going to have our back.”
Tony Schiavone announced an upcoming special episode of Dynamite taking place at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, and his announcement was met by immediate and enthusiastic chants of “CM Punk,” the Chicagoan former WWE star who has been rumored to be joining AEW recently.
Backstage, Darby Allin seemed to allude to Punk’s forthcoming arrival in AEW, potentially setting up a match with Punk that I would pay about $1 million to see, personally.
After closing last week’s show with a stare-down, the match between Hikuleo and Lance Archer left a lot to be desired. (All Elite Wrestling/lastwordonsports.com)
Lance Archer’s defense of the IWGP US title was up next, and his challenger Hikuleo was joined at ringside by his adoptive father and wrestling legend King Haku. The match was shorter than expected, lasting around eight minutes and seeing surprisingly little offense from Hikuleo in just his first in-ring appearance on Dynamite. He may not return to an AEW ring after this show, as nothing from this match seemed to indicate any desire to build him up or set up any long-term plans for NJPW’s up-and-comer.
Just as his interview with Alex Marvez was beginning, Cody Rhodes was attacked backstage by Malakai Black. The two brawled out to the entrance ramp, and despite Rhodes gaining the advantage for some time, a knee strike from Black laid him out, allowing Black the opportunity for some taunting ahead of their match next week. The hatred between the two has been the driving force for this feud, and I’m excited to see it come to a head next Wednesday.
In trios action, Christian Cage and The Jurassic Express’ Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy defeated the Hardy Family Office, represented by Angélico and Private Party. The match was mostly uneventful, as Christian pinned Marq Quen of Private Party after a frog splash in less than five minutes. Afterwards, Christian was blindsided by a hooded person who revealed themselves to be The Blade, using his patented brass knuckles to knock Christian out. These lackluster matches for Christian all seem to be built purely to let him move up the rankings in the world title scene, as he will most likely be coming face-to-face with Omega in the near future.
In her first match since signing an official contract with AEW, Thunder Rosa handily defeated Julia Hart, a recent Nightmare Factory graduate in just her second Dynamite match ever. Hart’s inexperience is plain to see, but I thought she had a much better showing here than she did in her Dynamite debut weeks ago. The match did what it was intended to do, as Rosa looked dominant and ready to re-enter the title picture.
Chris Jericho showed some death match chops in his No Rules match with Nick Gage. (All Elite Wrestling/whatculture.com)
In the main event, Chris Jericho brought back his “Painmaker” look ahead of a violent confrontation with independent wrestling star Nick Gage. The No Rules match featured steel chairs, light tubes, a pizza cutter and a pane of glass all being used offensively in a wild brawl. The extreme difference in styles between the two felt awkward at times, but the match delivered on its promise of brutality and gore, with Jericho being left a bloody mess after finally defeating a battered Gage with his Judas Effect elbow.
Eager to announce the third match in his series of the “Five Labours of Jericho,” MJF jumped on the microphone and called everyone’s attention to the big screen which played back a clip from a 2019 episode of Dynamite.
In the clip, Jericho humorously insulted MJF while making reference to his own matches with Juventud Guerrera in the long-defunct World Championship Wrestling. Because MJF “holds grudges,” he announced that Jericho’s third challenge would be one of his greatest rivals of all time, Guerrera, next week on Dynamite.
While the pacing felt awkward at times and the show dragged slightly in the segments prior to the main event, this was still a good effort from AEW overall and a high note to end the month on.
With All Out on the horizon, August’s episodes of Dynamite will see a ramping up of the build towards the event scheduled for Sept. 5, which could prove to be one of the company’s biggest and most important shows in their history.
