AEW Fyter Fest Night 2
Darby Allin and Ethan Page faced off in a Coffin Match in the main event of one of AEW’s best shows of the year. (Cultaholic.com/All Elite Wrestling)
After All Elite Wrestling knocked it out of the park last Wednesday with Night 1 of their two-week special event Fyter Fest, they looked to finish the duo of episodes strong with another stacked card this week. With two championship matches and a slew of other enticing matchups, AEW had a big night at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas.
The show was kicked off by the first of the “Five Labours of Jericho,” a series of matches designed by Maxwell Jacob Friedman as prerequisites for Chris Jericho in order for the latter to receive his long-awaited match with MJF. The first of these labors was a match against MJF’s stablemate in The Pinnacle, Shawn Spears, where Spears was legally allowed to use a steel chair while Jericho could not. The match featured a light-hearted Jericho goofing off quite a bit, seemingly dismissing Spears at times to mess around with a TV camera and play to the audience. The match itself was well done, with Jericho even pulling out a Frankensteiner. Jericho grabbed the win when he threw Spears into a chair that he had placed between the turnbuckle pads (which I’d argue should have been grounds for disqualification, but it was murky enough to pass) and landed a Judas Effect on the rebound.
MJF, who had been on commentary for the match, quickly grabbed a microphone and reprimanded Jericho for having assistance from Jericho’s ally in The Inner Circle, Sammy Guevara, who intervened only to stop Spears’ manager Tully Blanchard from further distracting the referee. MJF declared that Jericho could not receive any outside help going forward and that Jericho’s next challenge will be a no disqualification match against one of the most notorious and violent wrestlers on the independent circuit, Nick Gage. The announcement of Gage was a huge shock, and one of the coolest moments AEW has produced as Gage has long been thought of as a performer too controversial to put on television. Considering AEW’s track record with going all out on hardcore matches, next week’s bout is must-see.
MJF appeared giddy to introduce his surprise opponent for Chris Jericho next week, the “King of Ultraviolence,” Nick Gage. (All Elite Wrestling/wrestlinginc.com)
Next up was Frankie Kazarian finally getting a one-on-one match with a member of the group he has held a vendetta against for weeks, as he took on The Elite’s Doc Gallows. The match was just okay, with no surprises and a tame finish as Gallows’ partner Karl Anderson distracted Kazarian, allowing Gallows to hit a two-handed chokeslam for the win. After the match, Don Callis and AEW World Champion Kenny Omega came out to join their allies in beating down and humiliating Kazarian, only to be interrupted by “Hangman” Adam Page. With a drink in hand, Page was quickly outnumbered by Gallows and Anderson as Omega and Callis scurried away, but members of The Dark Order came out to save their friend Hangman and passed Anderson around for some revenge. The Omega/Hangman feud is one of the best stories in AEW right now, but the underwhelming match and repetitive end to the segment felt a bit flat.
Brian Cage watched as his former allies of Team Taz announced next week’s celebration of Ricky Starks’ winning the FTW Championship from Cage, which Cage seemed more than happy to attend, as he “loves celebrations.” His short interview led to Wheeler Yuta versus Darby Allin, a match I was surprised to see occur just one week after Allin’s wild Coffin Match where he defeated Ethan Page.
Accompanied by Orange Cassidy and Sting respectively, the competitors matched each other with a fast pace that made for an exciting, albeit quick, contest. On the outside, Sting humored the fan-favorite Cassidy, going kick-for-kick with him in Cassidy’s typical lazy demeanor. After a unique exchange of pinning combinations, Allin dropped Yuta with his stunner variation, setting him up for the Coffin Drop to put him away. After the match, The Blade blindsided Cassidy at ringside, hitting a cheap shot with his brass knuckles ahead of the match between the two later in the night.
Britt Baker then defended her AEW Women’s World Championship against a familiar foe in Nyla Rose. The match was underwhelming and was fairly sloppy at times, which was a disappointment as both Baker and Rose have shown the capacity for high-quality matches in the past. The highlight was Baker’s attempt to recreate the late Eddie Guerrero’s famous spot where he uses a referee distraction to frame his opponent for illegally using a weapon, but Baker was thwarted by Rose’s manager, Eddie’s widow Vickie Guerrero, who slyly distracted the referee long enough for Rose to reverse the roles and put the blame on Baker. The sequence didn’t have much bearing, though, and soon after Baker was able to secure her Lockjaw submission on Rose and force her to tap out.
An odd video segment was then shown featuring a press conference between the teams of Santana and Ortiz and FTR. The video was very abruptly edited, with little connection between the speaking parts of any of the performers. It felt like a 10-minute press conference had been edited down to roughly one minute, and didn’t make much sense narratively.
Andrade El Idolo hit the ring with a personal assistant for an interview with Tony Schiavone, but he quickly announced a surprise, which Schiavone revealed to be Andrade’s hiring of Chavo Guerrero as his executive consultant, marking the second Guerrero family member featured on this episode with a third having been referenced. Guerrero began praising AEW and the locker room before shifting his focus to Andrade’s talent, but he was interrupted by The Death Triangle of Pac, Rey Fenix and Penta El Zero M. Pac didn’t take kindly to Andrade’s searching for the trio last week, but Andrade and Chavo attempted to appeal to Penta and Fenix and sway them away from Pac. The Lucha Brothers resisted, saying that Death Triangle was a family, but they were apprehended by referees before they could approach Andrade. This angle has a lot of potential with the sheer amount of talent involved in it, and I can’t wait to see some of the matches it could produce.
After questioning the whereabouts of Death Triangle last week, Andrade El Idolo’s intentions were revealed at Night 2 of Fyter Fest with his new executive assistant Chavo Guerrero at his side. (All Elite Wrestling/wrestlinginc.com)
The Blade then faced off with Orange Cassidy, who seemed to have recovered from Blade’s earlier attack and tricked him with an entrance fakeout. The two had a pretty good match, with Blade landing most of the contest’s offense, including a gnarly gutwrench powerbomb that planted Cassidy back-first on the top turnbuckle. When Blade attempted to cheat using his brass knuckles, Cassidy ducked the blow, missed on an attempt at the Orange Punch and then finally landed it on a second try to put Blade down for the pin. After the match, Cassidy got some retribution, utilizing Blade’s own brass knuckles for one more Orange Punch.
The main event saw Jon Moxley defending his IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship against Lance Archer in a Texas Death Match. This was a rematch of the Texas Death Match between the two at Wrestle Kingdom 14 on January 4, 2020, where Moxley defeated Archer for the very same championship. The match lived up to its name, featuring a variety of weapons used and plenty of brawling.
Darby Allin’s latest feat of death-defiance saw him throw his body through the lid of a coffin and onto Ethan Page inside. (via All Elite Wrestling)
Both competitors drew blood during the course of the match, mostly thanks to the use of a fork to stab each other’s forehead. After Moxley set up two tables outside the ring with barbed wire boards on top of them, Archer took the upper hand, chokeslamming Moxley off the ring apron and into his own contraption. Moxley was unable to get to his feet before the referee’s ten count, ending the match and cementing Archer as the new IWGP United States Champion. His celebration was interrupted, however, by Hikuleo of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, who was announced earlier in the night to be challenging for the championship next week. The two stared each other down as the show ended.
The main event was the best match of the show, but the highlight was definitely the announcement of Nick Gage’s AEW debut next week. We knew it would be hard to top last week’s all-timer of an episode, but Night 2 of Fyter Fest did just enough to close out the special event strongly while simultaneously setting up for next week’s conclusion to AEW’s “Welcome Back” tour, Fight for the Fallen. With a main event as crazy as Jericho versus Gage, next Wednesday’s show could be yet another hit.
