AEW Dynamite: Fyter Fest: Week 2 Review - July 20, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Brody King def. Darby Allin

I've been saying it a lot lately, but Allin just never seems to win whenever it matters most. That was once again the case here. I'm all for building up King and giving him a rebound win following his recent loss to Jon Moxley, but I'm not sure Allin has ever meant less in AEW (although he's still very much over with the audience). I loved the tease for Malakai Black vs. Sting afterward as well as Miro staring down Black. I'm all for anything that gets Miro back in a prominent spot on the show. 

Blackpool Combat Club (AEW Interim World Champion Jon Moxley and ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta) def. Best Friends

I honestly completely forgot that Yuta was a part of the Best Friends faction at one point before, you know, everyone left them (even Trent Beretta ditched Chuck Taylor briefly to reform Roppongi Vice). This was an enjoyable affair, but it probably lasted a little longer than it needed to considering how much higher Yuta and Moxley are on the totem pole right now. Speaking of Moxley, it was weird that his AEW Interim title came across like a total afterthought here. When are we finding out who's next to challenge him? And is he going to be in a holding pattern until then?

Mark Sterling and Tony Nese Interrupted AEW World Tag Team Champions Swerve In Our Glory

I wasn't over the moon about Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland becoming tag team champions because I feel like the division doesn't need it and I believe they'd be better off doing singles stuff, but I do think they can have a fun reign given their strong chemistry. That said, this segment went off the rails as soon as the two goofs Sterling and Nese showed up. I mean, are they challenging for the tag titles first or something? Sterling getting cake thrown in his face was dumb, too. I'm not sure what this was supposed to accomplished except kill time.

Christian Cage and Luchasaurus def. Varsity Blonds

Luchasaurus previously squashed Griff Garrison on Dynamite. I thought Varsity Blonds would put up more of a fight as a team, but they ended up being squashed within two minutes. They've obviously fallen far from where they were even a year ago. Post-match, Jungle Boy finally returned and chased Christian into the crowd. Luchasaurus stood alongside Jungle Boy, but I assume he'll end up turning on him and aligning with Christian permanently.

FTW Champion Ricky Starks def. Cole Carter

Let's just address the obvious right out of the gate: the FTW title means absolutely nothing. Why it continues to be defended as if it's an actual championship, I have no idea. It's a nice little prop for Starks I suppose, but again, I don't care. I will say, though: I loved that they referenced that Carter was "swimming with the fishes" the last time we saw him, referencing when Tony D'Angelo thought he killed him on WWE NXT recently. That was well done. The match was nothing special, but we do know it will be Starks defending against Danhausen next week. Considering the title is a joke belt anyway, I'd honestly have no issue with Danhausen winning it.

ROH World Tag Team Champions, AAA World Tag Team Champions and IWGP Tag Team Champions FTR Addressed The Briscoes

FTR are the best tag team in the game today, no doubt. I'm glad their Ring of Honor pay-per-view was shown some love ahead of time unlike when they faced The Briscoes at Supercard of Honor back in April (and yes, AEW owned ROH at that point). This was a tremendous promo from them and specifically Dax Harwood with that real story about his daughter. I wish we got to hear from The Briscoes on AEW TV, but I realize that's just not going to happen given the deal with them.

The Baddies (AEW TBS Champion Jade Cargill and Kiera Hogan) def. Athena and Willow Nightingale

It was said earlier in the day on social media that "interim baddie" Leila Grey wasn't cleared to compete, so this turned into a two-on-two tag team match instead. When it was revealed that Kris Statlander had to sit this out and not Nightingale, that made the outcome pretty obvious. It was a well-worked match and I appreciated that it received as much time as it did. Cargill pinning Nightingale protected Athena in defeat and left me looking forward to the eventual Cargill vs. Athena one-on-one matchup.

"The Painmaker" Chris Jericho def. Eddie Jericho in a Barbed Wire Anywhere Match (Jericho Appreciation Society Were Suspended in a Shark Cage)

It was said that The Painmaker was undefeated in AEW, as if that's supposed to hold any weight. I remember Jericho played The Painmaker for his Dynamite match with Darby Alliin in 2019 and his Dynamite match with Nick Gage in 2021, but when else? I didn't have high hopes for this to begin with, but I was hoping it'd exceed expectations and give us some violent entertainment. Unfortunately, it was one giant mess. From the interference to the overbooking, this sucked. Why bother doing the shark cage gimmick if the heels were going to escape anyway? Why weren't Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti locked in there? Wasn't this supposed to the blow-off to the feud? Does Jericho really benefit from this victory at all? So many question, so few answers. This was one of the lamest conclusions to Dynamite I can remember.

Overall Show

 I largely enjoyed this edition of Dynamite up until that awful main event. That's bound to be remembered by fans more than anything else and that's a shame. It wasn't meant to be a newsworthy show, but one highlight was that they effectively hyped up ROH Death Before Dishonor on Saturday and announced another two more matches for the card. I'm super psyched to be in attendance for that. At any rate, this show started hot and slowly faded, making for a slightly weaker show compared Dynamite's usual standard.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews