Welcome everyone to the latest edition of #MouthingOff (with MikeJC): Dynamite Weekly, the weekly review feature on AEW Dynamite here on SLTDWrestling.com. I will be giving my thoughts and opinions on all the highlights of the show as well as giving the “Remarkable Wrestler” of the week. So here are the highlights of the special Wednesday, July 14th edition of AEW Dynamite: Fyter Fest Night 1.
IWGP United States Championship: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Karl Anderson
Fyter Fest opens with the return of Jon Moxley as the crowd erupts for Wild Thing by X and Jon Moxley is noticeably got an intense look on his face you can tell he’s so happy to be doing this in front of fans again. The match kicks off and Eddie Kingston goes for Doc Gallows immediately and they fight to the back so there’s no interference at all. I loved this match as an opener it got the fans excited immediately the history of these guys was well documented by commentary, and they proved that by laying in all there strikes. This match was fast paced throughout and they traded signature moves and near falls keep the fans on the edge of their seats. The finish saw Moxley hit the Paradigm Shift clean in the middle for a pinfall victory to retain.
After the match we go backstage to Jake The Snake trying to calm down Lance Archer and Lance congratulates Moxley and says it’s been over a year since Moxley won that very title from him in Tokyo in a Texas Death Match, so Archer thinks they should run that back, and even though Moxley has beaten so many big names to keep that belt he isn’t gonna have the same luck against Archer next week.
Moxley would respond later in the night and says that Lance Archer won’t ever stop coming for him he’s beaten him twice and just keeps coming. He accepts the Texas Death Match part two between them and says that Archer may be Texas born and Texas bread but next week he’s gonna be Texas dead. Loved that line.
Segment Rating: 6/10
This was a great match between two great workers with great chemistry, the winner was never in doubt to me though. Moxley goes into next week to another Death Match with Archer which should be fine, and since Archer hasn’t appeared on New Japan programming at all he probably isn’t winning but it will be a hell of a match.
FTW Championship: Brian Cage (c) vs. Ricky Starks
This match started off slow and Starks showed a little ring rust very early when he went to take an arm drag neckbreaker which didn’t look great from someone who just came back from a neck injury. They would bounce back though have a hell of a match that kept the crowd from there. One thing you can tell immediately is fresh match ups keep people interested. Cage used his power throughout and Starks even got in on that with a nice sit out powerbomb. Near the ned of the match Starks wanted to use the title as a weapon but Will Hobbs took it from him which lead to Starks turning around into an F-5 by Cage but Starks somehow kicked out. Then Hook would distract the ref and Hobbs hit Cage with the belt which gave Starks the opportunity to capitalize with a spear to secure the pinfall victory and win the title. After the match everyone in Team Taz is celebrating and Taz hugs Ricky, the crowd lost it for the finish.
Segment Rating: 5.75/10
So this match was good, the thing I don’t like is Cage turning babyface. I don’t how that will affect him going forward, not being part of Team Taz anymore will probably get him lost in the shuffle especially as a babyface. Starks gets the win in his first match back, I still hate the spear as a finisher for him, I don’t think he’s big enough to do and beat someone like Cage with it even after a belt shot. Starks needs to stick to doing the Rochambeau or do something else.
Cody Calls Out Malakai Black
We get a recap of Black’s debut last week where he gave Arn Anderson and Cody both a spin kick knocking them. Cody interrupts the recap and gets on the headset and talks about Black’s legitimate background in fighting and kickboxing and knows he has a chip on his shoulder and something you just don’t do is kick a sixty-two year old man in the head and leave him unconscious and says he isn’t making it clear on the headset and asks for a microphone. He gets on the mic and says he might be over stepping but he doesn’t care he wants Malakai Black to come out here right now.
Black appears on the big screen, he tells a story about a prized race horse who didn’t have it anymore an sometimes you just have to take that horse to the back feed it and put a bag over its head do what you have to, and when he looked at Arn and Cody last week, “It wasn’t there.” Cody says that he’d like Black to come out and get a better look.
Black obliges and the lights go out, they come back on Black smirks at Cody as they brawl, but officials break it up immediately and that ends the segment.
Segment Rating: 6.5/10
This was another great segment. I loved Black’s promo and his analogy of Arn and Cody as the animals that need to be taken out back. The symbolism of light versus dark and the contrast in characters between the two. The build to this match is only going to get better and better and I’m happy that this feud is happening out the gat for Black to immediately make him a big hitter in AEW and when the match eventually happens Black needs to win, and I hope he doesn’t have a match until he faces Cody.
“Hangman” Makes The Challenge
Page comes out and talks about how Dark Order has helped him and encouraged him so with that said he’s going to officially challenge…but he get’s cut off by Don Callis who comes out with all the members of The Elite. Matt Jackson says he wants to say something to Hangman’s face, he asks Page if he remembers him, and the people behind him who used to be his friends. He can’t believe he chose a group of losers like the Dark Order. He then says his breath stinks I guess he’s still hitting the bottle.
Matt says that Hangman is going to be the next wrestling tragedy and if it makes him mad then to hit him but he won’t and Hangman hits Matt immediately. The Elite members all storm the ring and The Dark Order make the save. Page gets back on the mic and says he came here tonight for a match and he’s not leaving until he gets it. Kenny Omega gets on the mic and says how about a five on five match you and your guys versus all The Elite. Page says that’s not the match he wants but if it’s what he has to do to get it then he’s on and if they win then his friends get a tag team title match as well.
Omega gets in the ring and tells The Dark Order to back up. He tells Hangman he will get his match but if they lose the 5 on 5 match nobody gets a title shot. Omega reiterates that Page won’t get a title shot either and he knows Page is afraid to fail. Page says The Dark Order doesn’t back down from a fight and Omega is on.
Segment Rating: 7/10
Another home run segment with this back and forth, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Adam Page should not wrestle Omega at all until All Out so I’m hoping that when they have that five-on-five match that they don’t wrestle each other at all. I don’t mind the five-on-five match at all it should be interesting and maybe The Elite even win to delay that title match but who knows. All I know is that this is the best story in wrestling today and the pay off is gonna be super emotional, super over with the crowd and I can’t wait to see how it plays out.
Matt Hardy vs. Christian Cage
This was the first time Matt Hardy and Christian faced each other one-on-one in eighteen years. This was only their third time facing each other ever and their first in AEW, and you can tell right away they put their working shoes on for this one. Matt Hardy almost forty-seven, and Christian almost forty-eight, had a hell of a match. They had a straight up wrestling match and it was really good. The momentum shifted numerous times and and each guy was trading signature moves and trying to keep the upper hand throughout.
Late in the match Matt Hardy hits a low blow behind the refs back and hits a twist of fate and goes for a pin and Christian somehow kicks out. They end up outside the ring and Matt locks in the leech submission tryin to get a count out victory and Christian gets back in at the count of nine. Matt goes for the twist of fate again but Christian fights it off and hits the killswitch for the pinfall victory.
Post match, the HFO all come out to corner Christian and Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus came out to make the save to end the segment, so a six-man tag is inevitable I’m sure.
Segment Rating: 6.25/10
This was a very good match and I enjoyed it as a fan of early 2000s wrestling the nostalgia for this match was real and that made me care about it. Christian continues winning matches so they are probably building him to a title match eventually but when that happens surely he won’t win.
Wheeler Yuta vs. Sammy Guevara
This was a hell of a match, I didn’t know too much about Yuta before hearing about this match I looked him up and watched some good matches of his and you can tell he has a very bright future. He had the kind of match you’d expect him to have with Sammy Guevara, fast paced the whole time, trading big moves. Yuta had the upper hand at one point hitting a big release German suplex and followed it up with a big top rope splash but Guevara kicked out at two after a pin attempt. Guevara would get control back after hitting a springboard cutter and followed that up with the GTH for the victory.
Segment Rating: 5.5/10
This was a solid match with really good action throughout, the winner was never in doubt and it was a good showcase match for Yuta who I’m sure will be signed at somepoint if he isn’t already.
Penelope Ford vs. Yuka Sakazaki
This was not a great match, the pace of this match kept slowing mainly because of Ford I think she’s fine in the ring but the chemistry with Sakazaki was definitely not there at all. This match really felt out of place after everything else on this show everything else except the previous match had story development attached to it. The previous match was good though so it was fine. This was just not it. Yuka Sakazaki got the win after hitting an airplane spin and followed it up with the Magical Girl Splash for the pinfall victory.
Segment Rating: 4.5/10
The women’s matches on this show as opposed to Elevation or Dark are just not good recently I don’t understand why, just put more effort into the women’s matches on the main show, I don’t understand how that is so hard at all.
Coffin Match: Ethan Page vs. Darby Allin
This was such a good main event between two guys who have such good chemistry and have had amazing matches together in the past in and out of AEW. Early on in the match Scorpio Sky appears out of the coffin and attacks Darby but Sting would come out to make the save and dispose of of Sky. They fight into the audience area and Darby jumps off a balcony and Page catches him and rams Darby’s face into a wall multiple times.
There was so much stuff throughout this match like Page ripping off the turnbuckle and using it to choke Darby or Darby then turning that around and using to fish hook Page in the mouth. At one point Darby goes for the Coffin Drop but Page got up to the middle rope and hit an Ego’s Edge off the middle rope onto the steel steps such a crazy spot. Darby would fight off being put into the coffin after that and gouge the eyes of Ethan and pull out a skateboard and hits a double stomp on Ethan with the skateboard and puts him into the coffin and closes the lid to secure the victory.
Post match, Darby goes on the top rope and does a coffin drop onto the coffin with Ethan inside, breaking the lid and putting an exclamation point on the show and hopefully this rivalry.
Segment Rating: 7.5/10
This was an amazing match, amazing main event, these two can’t have a bad match together at all. With that said I’m ready for them to move on from each other. I’m ready for Darby to get another match with Miro down the line, I’m ready for Darby to do so much more. Darby is a huge star and will be for years to come in this company. For that matter Ethan Page has a huge future ahead of him as well and nobody got pinned here so both guys will have so much more to do going forward and I’m excited for both of them to do more.
Remarkable Wrestler of the Week
For this episode of AEW Dynamite, the Remarkable Wrestler of the week is, Darby Allin.
Darby Allin gets the RWOW this week for his stellar performance in the main event and the big spots he pulled off in the match. The man is crazy and he needs to not do these stunts as often but every time he does I’m amazed because he just gets right back up and its crazy. He’s a full blown star.
Overall
This was another great episode overall with great wrestling and great storytelling, overall I give this episode of Dynamite a 6.1 out of 10. I loved all the story development on this show, as well as all the good matches and except for one kind of off match it was worth the watch. As far as stuff not mentioned that didn’t deserve a rating, Jericho was attacked by Shawn Spears with a chair to the throat and MJF said Spears is his first opponent the gauntlet that Jericho must finish to get his match with MJF. Britt Baker did an in ring promo about her match with Nyla next week and Nyla responded backstage. QT Marshall did a stupid segment where he poured a drink on Tony Schiavone’s head, why I don’t know, and lastly Tully Blanchard confronted Santana & Ortiz and they held him back like they were going to hit him but they didn’t because they wouldn’t stoop to FTR’s level. So this show continues to have great segments and some questionable and the treatment of the women matches on this show compared to Elevation and Dark needs to stop. I look forward to everything going forward.
What are your thoughts on this special AEW Dynamite: Fyter Fest Night 1? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @SLTDWrestling.
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