AEW Fyter Fest 2020 Night 2
July 8, 2020
Daily’s Place
Jacksonville, Florida

Watch: TNT / FITE.tv

Meet our Reviewer

Steve Case: One-third of the Midcard Matinee Podcast (@midcard_matinee, midcardmatinee.com). Follow @Coachcase44

AEW World Tag Team Championship
Kenny Omega & Adam Page (c) def. Private Party

I thought this would be a solid choice to start off the show, as these two teams can have the kind of high octane, energetic opener to start the show on a high note. Omega and Hangman had control for the start of the match. Things changed when Quen countered the Kotaro Crusher by landing on his hands and hit a beautiful drop kick on Hangman. Things then got a little nutty. We had a Silly String, Hangman powerbombing Quen into the face crowd, a springboard senton from Kassidy to Hangman on the outside, and a double Spanish Fly to Omega from Private Party. Things settled into more of a back and forth tag match, with both teams using their unique tandem offenses. Shortly after an inverted Silly String by Hangman countered into a spring board flatliner to the entrance ramp by Kassidy, Private Party went for the Gin and Juice to finish the match. In a great moment that led to the finish, Hangman caught Quen and Omega knocked out Kassidy with a V-Trigger. This set up the Last Call for the champs to retain. This was a fast-paced, all-action, back and forth match that is exactly how you want to open your show. Great stuff. ****

Lance Archer def. Joey Janela

Archer immediately comes out and throws Sonny from the entrance ramp onto Janela, and dominance ensues. After the initial onslaught, Janela got in some dives through the ropes and from the top to the outside. He then set up a table, which I will likely not end well for him. The referee stopped Janela from another dive from the top with a chair, which allowed Archer to regain control and hit a huge pounce. More dominance ensued from Archer, clubbing Janela with overhand chops, forearms, and tossing him around the ring to commercial. Out of the break, Janela is trying to fight back, only to get gloriously tossed all over the ring again. Janela finally pieces together some offense to stagger Archer, eventually hitting a DDT for a nearfall. Then for some reason, Jake Roberts gets on the apron with the snake bag, distracting the ref. This allows Janela to hit a huge senton and Sonny to hit a 450 on Archer for a nearfall. Archer is able to regain control from the apron and hits a Black Out through the table Janela set up outside. He rolled Janela into the ring for the pin. Both guys looked good, but I thought Janela got a little too much in. Archer had a big loss and needs some meaningful wins to build back up. They obviously like Janela and don’t want him to some bottom tier, but this should have been a little more than a 50/50 contest. Hopefully, Archer goes back to destroying guys. **1/4

We then get a weird video from Darby, leading to Tazz’s major announcement. Tazz and Cage come out for an interview with Tony Schiavone. Tazz cuts another tremendous promo, saying Cage will walk into next week a champion. He’s quickly becoming a god-tier manager. He then introduces the title he created for himself back in ECW, THE FTW BELT! Now hopefully we can get a Cage/Sabu one-off for the strap down the road (kidding).

The Butcher and the Blade & The Lucha Brothers def. FTR & The Young Bucks 

It should be noted that Cash is wearing a black glove, with Tully Blanchard and Shawn Spears in the crowd. Stable building perhaps? We start with essentially an FTR vs Lucha Brothers tag match after Pentagon throws his glove at them. My god, I want that match even more now. The slaps and hard-hitting offense rang through the building. The match will rule whenever it happens. The Bucks then tag in and things get a little more wild, with double teams and the heels running into tandem offense and dropkicks. We then get another little taste of Nick Jackson vs Fenix again, and it doesn’t disappoint, with Nick and Fenix hopping to the top rope for a springboard hurricanrana from Nick to Fenix. The little nods to past and future feuds in this already rules. The Butcher and the Blade take control through the picture in picture, which is very smart. Things pick up out of the break quickly with a Cash tag to Matt Jackson, who runs wild. Dax makes a blind tag to Matt, and in a GREAT spot Matt fakes the superkick making Blade duck his head and Dax hits the Arn DDT. We get a series of GREAT tandem offense with mixtures of the Bucks and FTR leading to a great nearfall that Fenix breaks up with a dive. We get some more tremendous back and forth when in an INCREDIBLE spot, Fenix breaks up a Meltzer driver, when Pentagon jumps off one Buck into a Mexican Destroyer to the rest of the teams on the outside. Amazing. The finish comes when Dax eats a superkick accidentally, leading to an assisted package piledriver from the Lucha Brothers for the win. This was absolutely incredible. A balls to the walls spotfest where everyone was able to shine and play their roles perfectly. We also see the seeds of the budding FTR/Bucks feud watered. Tremendous. ****3/4

Nyla Rose def. Kenzie Paige & Kylinn King

These poor Dark wrestlers can’t catch a break. This was Nyla throwing and spearing and throwing two poor souls around in glorious fashion. Excellent squash. N/R

We now get Nyla’s big announcement. She has a new manager, but she isn’t going to tell us right now. Well alrighty then. Let the wild speculation begin. My guess? Kong. Aja or Awesome. 

Colt Cabana & The Dark Order def. SoCal Uncensored

Before the match, we see Colt win the trainer with a gnarly bruise and hematoma on his hip, which Brodie ensures Colt will not be an issue. The rest of The Dark Order is standing ominously on the ramp for this match as we start. The story of this match was Colt nursing his ugly side/hip, and Brodie and Stu continuously pushing him to continue. This was also a nice reminder that Stu Grayson is really good and really athletic. We finally get to the moment we all expected, Daniels hits the no longer Best Moonsault Ever on Grayson, but Colt breaks it up. Daniels pops up and slaps Colt, but eats a big boot from Brodie for his efforts. Brodie and Stu then allow Colt to get yet another pin. This was a nice little story match, progressing the Colt/Dark Order story further. The work was fine, albeit a bit disjointed at times. **3/4

Chris Jericho def. Orange Cassidy

OC gets his very own entrance music finally! OC still has the bloody shirt on and tells Best Friends to go to the back. We are getting serious OC tonight baby! OC puts his hands in his pockets to tease he’s going with his usual schtick, but then headbutts Jericho. OC starts this off with incredible quickness and fire. He dives out onto Santana, Ortiz, and Jericho and throws Jericho into the barricade. Jericho finally takes control with a beautiful counter of the pop up DDT into a Walls of Jericho. Jericho then goes on the offensive, pummeling OC. OC gets a little momentum, using his quickness for some smooth cradles and roll-ups, but Jericho quickly regains control after OC misses his super man punch and flies to the outside. Jericho continues his beating through the break. Out of the break, Jericho continues to work on the back with an abdominal stretch. Jericho continues to pummel OC, even doing his classic one-footed flex pin. OC starts to fire up with some blows in the corner and hits a hurricanrana. He then teases the lazy superkick, but gives Jericho a hard kick to the face instead. He then hit a splash off the top for a nearfall. OC looks to finish the match with a superman punch, but Jericho catches him for the Walls of Jericho. OC turns it into a roll-up nearfall, then a big punch. Santana and Ortiz hit OC with orange juice, which causes Best Friends to chase them off. Jericho hits OC with the baseball bat while Aubrey is distracted, and then a Code Breaker for a big nearfall. We then get some awesome back and forth and nearfalls between both. OC goes for one last superman punch, but Jericho instead hits the Judas Effect for the pin. I could have done without the interference, but still a really strong main event. OC showed a much more serious side here, and took a great beating from Jericho. In the end, the wily veteran had too many tricks up his sleeve. ***3/4

Final Thoughts

Overall, this show capped off a tremendous two nights of wrestling television. Even with the last-minute adjustments AEW had to make due to COVID and roster suspensions, everything really came together for two excellent wrestling television shows. Here we had great angle advancements with FTR/Bucks and Colt Cabana/Dark Order, excellent matches with the 8 man tag being the best empty arena match I have seen to this point, and an energy in the arena that you rarely get in this pandemic era. With next week’s Fight For The Fallen looking PPV quality as well, this has been a knockout stretch for AEW. I’m excited about the future and build to All Out in a couple of months!