AEW Dynamite: Fyter Fest: Night 1 Review - July 14, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley def. Karl Anderson

Moxley is sporting a shorter haircut since before and looks good. Anderson coming out to (what I believe was) his New Japan Pro-Wrestling entrance theme was a nice touch and it all but confirms he's headed back there sooner rather than later. I don't know what Anderson did on his own to deserve a title shot, but that's merely nitpicking. This was an enjoyable opener that the crowd was super into. We found out later in the night that Lance Archer will challenge Moxley to a rematch for the title under Texas Death match rules next week, which should be a blast.

Ricky Starks def. Brian Cage to Win the FTW Championship

The FTW Championship has been a pointless prop from the moment it was reintroduced last year, but I guess it was cool to have it on the line in this match given all the in-fighting within Team Taz lately. As expected, this was a really good match, and although Cage is clearly headed for a face turn, Starks was the face by default in this match because he's from Texas (where this show emanated from). Powerhouse Hobbs clobbering Cage with the belt and costing him the win wasn't entirely surprising, but it does set up Hobbs as Cage's next opponent.

Cody Rhodes and Malaki Black Brawled

I love how this transpired, as it wasn't advertised that Cody would be calling out Black. Rather, Cody crashed commentary, demanded a mic, walked to the ring and begged Black to come out. Black showed up on the big screen first and did his storytime shtick before the lights went out and he confronted Cody in the ring. A brawl ensued that the crowd was hot for. As I said last week, Cody is the perfect person for Black to be feuding with from the get-go given that he's established and easily beat him whenever they have their first match, hopefully at All Out.

"Hangman" Adam Page and The Dark Order Accepted The Elite's Challenge

This storyline with Paeg, Kenny Omega and everyone else has been my favorite thing on Dynamite for the last two or three weeks. It's progressing at the perfect rate and everyone is playing their roles well. I'm not huge on Omega and The Young Bucks acting like goofs constantly, but the storytelling itself has been spot-on. We found out here if that if Page and four members of Dark Order can beat five members of The Elite in an elimination tag team match one of these weeks, then they'll get title shots. I don't need to see Dark Order as AEW World Tag Team Champions any time soon (though I'd like to at least see them get a shot), but as I've stated several times, Page vs. Omega has to happen at All Out. There's no doubt about it.

Christian Cage def. Matt Hardy

This might have been the best match I've seen Hardy have since he came to AEW. The matches with Sammy Guevara never clicked for me (I was a fan of Elite Deletion but that was more of a guilty pleasure than anything) and I enjoyed his matches with Adam Page and Darby Allin, but they were also forgettable. This will likely end up being forgotten as well, but whatever reason, it exceeded my expectations and both guys killed it despite being well past the primes of their careers. There were a few suspenseful nearfalls, the effort was there, and the crowd was invested in the action. The feud isn't over yet due to Jurassic Express and Private Party coming out afterward, but let's do the obligatory six-man tag team matchup soon please so we can move forward.

AEW Women's World Champion Britt Baker Addressed Nyla Rose

It's ridiculous just how over Baker is at the moment. She was getting over with the audience around the time the pandemic started, but she managed to maintain momentum during the pandemic period (even while hurt) and look where she is now. She's also developed into a terrific talker, as seen in this segment. I personally couldn't care less about her AEW Women's World Championship defense against Rose next week (we all know Rose isn't winning, either), but it was worth it for the reaction to Baker alone. My only nitpick is that she should be doing more to turn the people against her if she's supposed to be a heel.

Sammy Guevara def. Wheeler Yuta

Yuta has had a handful of matches lately on the Dark shows, where he beat Ryan Nemeth one-on-one and won a six-man tag team match on Monday's Dark: Elevation episode. I was initially introduced to his work in Ring of Honor last year as part of the ROH Pure Championship Tournament, so if he's here to stay in AEW, he's a quality pickup for them. He and Guevara had a fun sprint and it was smart to keep this on the shorter side. Guevara is an upper-midcard and didn't need to be having a full-length competitive match with someone who isn't even signed.

Yuka Sakazaki def. Penelope Ford

It's been almost a year-and-a-half since we last saw Sakazaki in the ring on Dynamite. She competed in the women's tournament earlier this year, but her match was taped over in Japan. She was also in action this past week on Dark: Elevation. She had a subpar match on that show against KiLynn King and this wasn't much better. It was far from terrible, but it wasn't the most exciting outing, either. Ford didn't have her strongest showing ever, so the blame goes both ways. I'm glad the women had a match on this show in addition to Baker's promo earlier, but I don't know what purpose this served other than possibly setting up Sakazaki as a future challenger for Baker's title.

Darby Allin def. "All Ego" Ethan Page in a Coffin Match

This marked the first match of its kind in AEW. I've never been fond of Coffin/Casket/Buried Alive matches in WWE, but that's mostly because they've almost always featured The Undertaker and therefore a lot of them were slow and plodding. This had a much more energetic pace to it and didn't overstay its welcome. I liked how Sting counteracted Scorpio Sky's interference early on to eliminate him as a factor and Allin and Page doing their thing was great. This match was right in Allin's wheelhouse because he was able to do plenty of crazy stuff but nothing I rolled my eyes at. With Allin winning decisively, it's time for both of these guys to move on.

Overall Show

I can't stress enough how much better the last two weeks of Dynamite have been with crowds. I realize not every audience is going to be this electric, and that isn't to say Dynamite was terrible without them, but it makes a major difference. This wasn't a perfect show on paper, but everything flowed so well that you would never know from watching it. The gimmick match in the main event delivered, there was successful storyline progression, and we got a handful of entertaining matches. AEW's return to the road is off to a strong start and I'm really looking forward to seeing what the rest of the buildup to All Out will have in store.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews