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AEW Dynamite
July 8, 2020 (Fyter Fest, Part 2)

by Samoa Rowe

From a mostly empty Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida, despite record breaking cases of COVID-19 in the state. Our hosts are Jim Ross, Tony Shiavone, and Excalibur.

AEW Tag Team Championship:
Kenny Omega and Hangman Page © vs. Private Party (Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy, with Matt Hardy)

A determined Omega trades holds with Quen, who keeps up with a cartwheel head scissors takedown. Omega blocks a standing moonsault. Page and Omega swarm poor Quen with chops. Page squats down and hits a mighty overhead slam. Quen blocks a glancing Kotaro Crusher. Private Party catch Omega with Silly String! Page powerbombs Quen into the crowd! Kassidy hits a springboard cannonball off the second rope into a pile of guys! Omega blocks a Swanton Bomb and nails a Snap Dragon. Page drops Quen with a running big boot. Page and Omega hit Quen with their tandem German, but Kassidy helps with a Spanish Fly for 2. Kassidy hurts himself delivering a slingblade-style backbreaker. Omega goes on a chopping spree and hits Kassidy with a Finlay Roll and monkey flips Quen onto him! Page tags himself in and piles Private Party with a powerbomb. Quen hits Page with an enziguri while Kassidy wipes out Omega with a top rope somersault senton. Private Party block the Buckshot Lariat and Page takes a tornado DDT onto the rampway. Quen's big SSP on Page forces Omega to break the cover. Page blocks Gin and Juice and kills Quen with an Avalanche Liger Bomb! The Last Call finishes Kassidy at 10:34! Better than average spotfest that would have torn the house down in front of most live AEW audiences, ***½.
Winners and still AEW Tag Team Champions: Kenny Omega and Hangman Page

Joey Janela vs. Lance Archer (with Jake Roberts)

Archer drags Sonny Kiss to the ring and throws him at Janela before the bell! Janela catches Archer with a baseball slide dropkick and top rope crossbody to ringside! Janela sets up a table but the referee takes away a chair, which allows Archer to hit the POUNCE! Janela looks dead on his feet while Archer puts him through the wringer. The Florida night sky looks beautiful, by the way. They cut to commercial and come back to a desperate Janela trying to punch his way back into the match. Janela strings together some running clotheslines and counters into an inverted DDT for 2. Roberts distracts the ref o n the apron, which backfires as Kiss interferes with a 450 splash! Archer answers with the Blackout off the apron and through the table! Janela is done for at 11:01! Perfectly good TV match with Archer looking properly beastly and Janela hanging in there long enough to build his resume, **¾.
Winner: Lance Archer

Darby Allin video package. He hasn't forgotten about Brian Cage, who put him on the shelf at Double or Nothing. Allin hits a Coffin Drop about 40 feet in the air into a pool full of foam blocks.

It's time for a special announcement from Taz and Brian Cage. Tony Shiavone wants to know what's up with Taz's orange towel and black bag. Taz promises an iconic moment, in lieu of Jon Moxley not being at Fyter Fest. He pulls out the FTW Championship, a belt that only true wrestling fans recognize, and awards the belt to Cage. This is some renegade sh!t, BROTHER!

Lucha Bros. and The Butcher and the Blade arrive in the antique truck they stole from FTR last week. Am I supposed to hate these guys?

The Butcher and Blade and Lucha Bros. (Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix) vs. FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) and The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson)

Nick Jackson tries to start, but Pentagon throws his glove at FTR, so Dax tags in. He cannot WAIT to club away at Pentagon and teach him some rules about tag team wrestling. Lucha Bros. answer with a flurry of attacks, forcing Harwood to eat some MOVES! Harwood cuts Fenix off with a sick lariat. FTR hit a popup powerslam for 2. Matt Jackson tags himself, and the Young Bucks show off with a flurry against Butcher and Blade! The game of one upmanship ends when Butcher and Blade cut Nick off with tande gutbusters. Nick takes rapid fire attacks but counters Fenix with a top rope rana for 2. Nick superkicks Fenix into Wheeler's German, and the match breaks down to send us to commercial. Back from break, Blade has Wheeler stuck in a good, old chinlock. Wheeler escapes and has no choice but to give Matt Jackson the hot tag. Matt cleans house like a world beater, hitting a top rope dive and flying elbow on Fenix for 2. Matt gets into trouble, but Harwood tags himself in to catch Blade with a DDT. Butcher runs into a SUPERKICK PARTY, but Fenix helps with a double missile dropkick. Matt and Wheeler hit Fenix with the Goodnight Express, which weirds both guys out. Matt and Dax hit the spike piledriver together, but Pentagon breaks the cover. Young Bucks and FTR make rapid tags to swarm Butcher and Blade with a superlex and More Bang For Your Buck variation, which might have ended it if not for Fenix splashing in for the save! THIS IS AWESOME! Young Bucks prepare a Meltzer Driver on Pentagon, but Rey Fenix tight rope walks into a penalty kick to break it! Fenix sends a Jackson onto the field with a Canadian Destroyer! In the aftermath, Lucha Bros. finish Matt with a tandem driver to win at 16:30! Spare me any garbage about “oooh, these guys only do flippy spotfests” this was complex, intritricate, high level in-ring storytelling, with FTR and Young Bucks trying to show each other up only to bring out the best out of each other, before falling to the well oiled Lucha Bros. machine. This is superior professional wrestling theater, ****½.
Winners: Lucha Bros. and Butcher and Blade

Despite the loss, FTR shakes hands with the Young Bucks.

Big Swole arrives at the arena, only to be informed that she's barred from entering the amphitheatre. She quickly puts the pieces together and figures out that Britt Baker is behind this. I guess AEW management frowns upon kidnapping your coworkers.

Nyla Rose vs. Kenzie Page and Kilynn King

King backs away from the start and tags in Page, who Rose just knocks over with ease. Rose tosses poor Page across the ring, forcing King to enter. King goes for a chokehold, but Rose rams her into the buckles. Page returns for a German suplex, and Rose spears King. Rose suplexes Page onto King, and then piles them with a powerbomb and pins both women at 2:25! Good squash!
Winner: Nyla Rose

AEW Women's Champion Hikaru Shida braces herself for Rose's big announcement. Nyla believes that actions speak louder than words. She looks around at all the great wrestlers with managers, and has found herself one, but refuses to reveal who it is. This person will help her regain the Women's Championship sooner than later.

Earlier today, Colt Cabana sees a medic about the horrific looking bruise on his ribcage. Colt is still cleared for action, which delights Mr. Brodie Lee, who assures him that the Dark Order will prevent accidents like this.

The Dark Order (Mr. Brodie Lee, Stu Grayson, and Colt Cabana) vs. SCU (Scorpio Sky, Frankie Kazarian, and Christopher Daniels)

Colt wants to start, but Mr. Lee overrules him, ordering Stu to start against Daniels. Kazarian tags and stomps the back of Grayson. Kazarian's release German suplex gets 2. Sky and Kazarian hit Grayson with a double shoulder block. Grayson kips up into a Pele Kick. Colt tags and complains loudly when Sky goes for his torso. Colt whips Sky into Grayson's knee lift, and the match breaks down. Kazarian dives onto the rampway at Dark Order minions while Loee interferes with a suplex on Sky! Dark Order controls the match during a picture-in-picture commercial. Back from break, the Dark Order completely swarms Sky, who still kicks out after taking Grayson's top rope crossbody. Sky saves himself with a roundhouse kick to Colt's bruised rib cage. Kazarian gets a hot tag and storms in to dropkick and DDT Lee. Kazarian catches Grayson with a guillotine leg drop, but Lee hoists him for a slam only for Daniels to save via missile dropkick. Lee cleans house, but Kazarian breaks it up with a cutter on Grayson. Daniels dumps Lee for a Tope Suicida! TKO by Daniels sets up the Best Moonsault Ever on Grayson. Colt breaks the cover, but is hurting. Daniels clocks Colt in the face, but Lee ambushes with a discus clothesline. Lee orders Grayson to tag in Colt to make the cover to win at 12:12! Good energy and pacing here, injecting a shot of adrenaline into what's been kind of a cold angle, ***.
Winners: The Dark Order

Big Swole sneaks in to bother Dr. Britt Baker on her Roles Royce. She throws the restraining order at Reba, which is powerful enough to make her backhand Baker in the nose, which she sells like a major injury.

Orange Cassidy vs. Chris Jericho (with Santana and Ortiz)

OC enters in the bloodied t-shirt from 2 weeks ago and sends the Best Friends away. This might sound strange coming from someone who “reviews” wrestling, but I really want OC to win, like, in a “I'm invested in the story” sort of way. OC puts hands in pockets and outmaneuvers Jericho to dropick him to ringside for a tope suicida. Back to the ring, OC hits a high crossbody, but Jericho reveses a DDT into the Liontamer! OC gets the ropes, but Ortiz throws the madball at his back. The interference allows Jericho to go to work on the lower back of OC. OC finds his second wind with quick pinning predicaments to no avail. OC misses the Superman Punch and spills to ringside for Jericho's baseball slide dropkick. Jericho controls the action during a picture-in-picture break. They return with Jericho cutting off OC's comeback with an abdominal stretch. Referee Aubrey Edwards catches Jericho using the ropes for leverage and kicks his hand off. OC throws some forearms but Jericho knocks him off the apron into the rail. Jericho's cocky pin gets 2, so he clubs OC's injured ear. OC fires away rapid shots and nails a rana. Hands in pocket, OC serves some lazy punches and then a LEGIT superkick for 2! OC blocks a superplex and nails a diving headbutt for 2. Jericho misses his apron dropkick, allowing OC to hit a springboard somersault senton onto the Inner Circle! OC hits the diving DDT, but JERICHO KICKS OUT! Jericho blocks the Superman Punch and delivers another Liontamer. OC pulls Jericho into an inside cradle for 2! Santana throws orange juice into OC's face, prompting Best Friends to run in for the save. Jericho wacks Floyd into the face of OC and hits the Codebreaker, but OC KICKS OUT! Lionsault misses, and OC hits a Michinoku Driver for another 2. OC wins a slugfest and counters into a Slum Dog Millionaire Stunner and swinging DDT. Sadly, Jericho blocks the Superman Punch with a Judas Effect and it's over at 18:44! I am so emotionally devastated by that finish, but in a good way. Even if this gets killed in the ratings against Cole vs. Lee, this was tremendous, and a huge coming out party for Orange Cassidy, ****.
Winner: Chris Jericho

Final Thoughts: AEW deserves higher ratings than it's currently getting, so do me a huge favor and watch it, okay?

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