Steve Cook’s Top 5: AEW Fyter Fest Reflections

Steve Cook gives you his perspective on AEW Fyter Fest with his latest Top 5.

Business is starting to pick up on the All Elite Wrestling front again. The company held Fyter Fest, its second show this past Saturday night in Orlando, Florida. It was available to the United States wrestling audience for free via B/R Live, and since I had nothing else to do I figured I’d check it out.

I had plenty of thoughts during the show, but will narrow them down to five.

5. The Buy-Ins haven’t sold me.

.@AEWrestling's Fyter Fest is already INSANE
and this is just the preshow 👀

Watch the full event FREE on #BRLive ➡️ https://t.co/fbe7Neb8V6 … pic.twitter.com/ScnrQtWzYe

— Bleacher Report Live (@brlive) June 29, 2019

To be fair, the opening 3-way tag team was a fun spotfest and a good way to get Private Party on the map right away. I thought Allie & Leva Bates worked hard in their match in spite of the Librarian gimmick. The hardcore thing wasn’t great, but it was their equivalent of the Rockin’ Rebel match on early CZW cards. The cost of doing business.

With that being said, AEW is continuing the long-standing tradition of pre-shows not meaning much. I don’t know if the Buy-In should either…except for the idea that it’s the first time a ton of people are viewing an AEW presentation. First impressions are important. I get using these shows to try things out, but they need a better hit rate.

4. I’m less worried about the announcing than I was before.

Listen, we all know that Jim Ross isn’t going to be UWF-era Jim Ross or even WCW or Attitude Era JR. Gordon Solie wasn’t all that great in mid-1990s WCW either. If Fyter Fest is any indication, I think the AEW version of JR is going to be ok. The best thing about the booth’s performance on Saturday night was someting so simple:

They called the action.

JR, Excalibur & special guest Golden Boy didn’t spend the entire evening bickering with each other & making jokes at the expense of the talent in the ring. They talked about the action & explained the stories being told. A novel concept, right? Big ups to Golden Boy too, who I have never heard of in my life because he announces e-sports and that’s not my deal. Dude obviously did his homework and fit right in. I also like how AEW heard the criticism people had about Excalibur announcing under a mask and with his ring name from back in the day and leaned further into it.

3. Adam Page & MJF are the keys to AEW’s long-term future.

If there’s one thing AEW needs to ensure a future, it’s young stars. Sure, it’s important to have guys like Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, the Elite guys and other guys we recognize from other places, but if AEW can’t present us with interesting characters we haven’t seen 15,000 times before, we will get bored eventually.

Adam Page got some run in New Japan & ROH, but it’s fairly obvious that he’s going to be a top guy for AEW. The brass loves him & the fans dig him. Then there’s MJF, who is that character that every fed needs. That guy that talks a lot of crap, backs it up a bit, but usually ends up getting his comeuppance. You know, like The Miz was for years, or Chris Jericho before him, or Shawn Michaels back in the mid-90s, or whoever.

MJF just verbally murdered this crowd… #AEW #FyterFest

pic.twitter.com/eqSqwLL1g1

— Get The Tables (@GetDaTables) June 30, 2019

Sure, going after video gamers is kind of cheap, but at least MJF went all the way with it. He had a little beef with Bret Hart and now he’s wearing pink and trying to do sharpshooters. He & Page first crossed paths at Double or Nothing in a battle royal, then were in a 4-way together at Fyter Fest. One assumes they’ll meet again.

If you’re starting a worldwide wrestling promotion, you need to have a pretty good idea of who you want your top stars to be in five years. Maybe the stars don’t pan out, or don’t stick around, but you need to be building somebody for something.

2. Is it hypocritical for me to criticize a chairshot in a Chairshot article?

Cody Rhodes helped out of the ring after a brutal hit to the head 🙏🏻

Watch #FyterFest FREE on #BRLive: https://t.co/fbe7Neb8V6 pic.twitter.com/6IoePAhohB

— Bleacher Report Live (@brlive) June 30, 2019

I was not a fan of Shawn Spears wrapping a chair around Cody Rhodes’ head. AEW is telling us it wasn’t supposed to go that way, but I don’t think most of us are buying that. It seemed like a violent spot with the intention of ginning up interest in a feud with Spears & Rhodes.

I was never as high on Tye Dillinger as some were, so I’m probably not the right person to sell that to. Regardless of who was swinging the chair and who was receiving it, AEW shouldn’t be looking to make unprotected chair shots one of the things separating them from WWE. Sure, there’s an audience for it, but you can get them in other ways.

By the way. While we’re all losing our minds over this chairshot, we’re forgetting that Jon Moxley & Joey Janela brought out some barbed wire boards & thumbtacks for their match. The only thing missing was a bale of light tubes. I’m sure Jim Cornette will say something about it, but everybody else crying over Cody & CTE isn’t saying boo about the ultraviolence presented in the main event. I enjoyed it because I was in a mood to, but I’m just making sure people are aware of what’s going on here.

1. Wrestling is best enjoyed when you’re trying to enjoy it.

I’ll be honest. I don’t enjoy everything I watch. Typically when WWE presents a several-hour extravaganza, my mind is wiped out from a full day of work. Add in the fact that I’m typically working early in the morning and the idea of a show ending at 11 or later is pretty much the opposite of fun to me.

I got to sleep in a little on Sunday. This meant I could sit back, relax, drink a little Jim Beam & enjoy the show on Saturday night. I had no expectations going in and was willing to let the action win me over. It was a fun time. I don’t know how it will rate compared to future AEW events. Hopefully for the company’s sake, their future shows will improve on the negatives and keep the positives going.

I run the risk of being labeled a Kool-Aid drinker by saying I enjoyed an AEW show and didn’t rush online to see crowd pictures or make CTE jokes. Let’s be honest though, who doesn’t like at least one flavor of Kool-Aid? Wrestling has enough flavors for all of us to enjoy one. Maybe you only like the most established flavor from the biggest Kool-Aid producer.

Me, I wanna try them all.