Pre-Show Thoughts on Fyter Fest (Part 2)

The second night of All Elite Wrestling’s Fyter Fest starts tonight at 8 pm on TNT.  Here’s a few quick pre-show thoughts.

 

1. Chris Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy. To me, the most interesting aspect of the show is seeing how Orange Cassidy plans to evolve his character. I mean, the whole sloth-style thing is cool, obviously. People love it. I love it! But the guy has gotten to a point where he could main event based on his popularity, save that it’s a little hard to market a high-energy main even around a guy who’s whole thing is that he’s NOT high energy.

I’m of two minds about it. 

On the one hand, I remember being in my early twenties and listening as all the Boomers complained that no one in my age cohort wanted to go out and get a Real Job… right up until that same age cohort created the dot-com revolution and changed the world. Think about the movie Reality Bites, but append a fourth act where Winona Ryder’s character publishes The Hunger Games. 

Part of me wonders if maybe the issue at hand is that I’ve been conditioned to think that there’s a certain thing that is pro-wrestling, while Orange Cassidy and the Best Friends are somehow breaking the mold to create something that is legitimately new. I mean, these guys drive to the ring with their moms, and they’re not in any way too cool for it. That doesn’t speak to me, but maybe I’m not the target audience. Let’s face it: in this analogy, I’m the mother.

On the other hand, though, I can’t believe that this is just it. If Cassidy is ever planning to evolve his character and grow into something bigger, now is the time, and tonight’s main event will for sure be the place. Maybe we don’t see Orange Cassidy in his final form tonight, but if he’s ever going to go somewhere new, tonight will be the night to begin laying that foundation.

AEW gave Jericho the job of getting that all over, which was obviously a good choice.

 

2. Tag Title Match: Hangman and Omega vs. Private Party. The champs are gonna retain. I mean, I like Private Party, but they’re not by any means my favorite tag team in AEW.

 

3. Young Bucks & FTR vs. Butcher & Blade and the Lucha Bro’s. The Young Bucks are also not my favorite tag team in AEW, which is heresy, I know. But really, I wasn’t super stoked about this match until last night’s edition of Dark, which featured a really good tune-up match for the heels.

Y’know what, though?  The Lucha Bro’s just might be my favorite AEW tag team. It’s either them or the Dark Order.

 

4. Dark Order vs. SCU. Fully expecting this to be my favorite match of the night. As I’ve said before, Brodie Lee is my favorite active wrestler, and he has been since he was just Jobber #1 in the Wyatt Family. The stuff with Colt Cabana has gotten me to care about Cabana in a way I’d have said was impossible. 

Whatever is going on with the Dark Order, it’s consistently my favorite thing on the show.

 

5. Nyla Rose vs. ??? How do you preview that?

 

6. Joey Janella vs. Lance Archer. I like both these guys, but I’ll be shocked if the story here isn’t Archer murdering Janella.

 

That’s it, friends.  We’ll talk again tomorrow.