AEW Dynamite Fyter Fest Week 2 Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights
The months-long feud between Eddie Kingston and Chris Jericho came to a head Wednesday night in a brutal Barbed Wire Everywhere match that headlined Night 2 of a special Fyter Fest edition of AEW Dynamite.
That bout was just one for All Elite Wrestling fans to sink their teeth into. Tag team action dominated the card while a grudge match between Darby Allin and The House of Black's Brody King promised to escalate the rivalry between the former TNT champion, mentor Sting and the enigmatic House.
Who emerged from the main event victorious and what did it mean for the immediate future of AEW and its top stories?
Find out now with this recap of the July 20 broadcast.
Darby Allin vs. Brody King
Darby Allin and Sting have been on a collision course with The House of Black and, after Brody King attacked Allin during a recent promotional appearance, the big man battled the former TNT champion in one-on-one action to kick off the show.
King overwhelmed Allin with his strength and size advantage and brutalized the face-painted antihero. He executed two picture-perfect sentons, driving the air out of his rival as the audience chanted "Let's go, Darby!"
Allin used his own belt and a cannonball tope to spark a much-needed comeback, but it was short-lived.
King cut him off and ended his night with a Gonzo Bomb for the pinfall victory. A post-match beatdown brought Sting to the ring, followed by an appearance from Malakai Black.
The heels' dominance brought out Miro, who sought to avenge the misting from Black that cost him the AEW All-Atlantic Championship, for a tense staredown that seemed to tease an alliance with the villains.
This was as a great way to kick off the show and a one-sided ass-kicking that put King over as a monster heel. He was fantastic, utterly demolishing Allin en route to the biggest win of his still-young AEW career.
King is trending upward, and performances like this—with the support of creative and the efforts of a willing dance partner like Allin—will only expedite the process.
Put him in there with Wardlow and let them beat each other up for the TNT Championship. Otherwise, book him against Miro and let them tear the house down in a battle of clubbing heavyweights.
Speaking of The Redeemer, the story with The House of Black and a potential pairing with Sting and Allin will make for some intriguing television in the coming weeks.
Result
King defeated Allin
Grade
A
Top Moments
- King chopped the hell out of Allin, who answered with a kick but had his attempted comeback shut down quickly by the dominant heel.
- King replicated the hanging sleeper that won him the Royal Rampage battle royal, dropping an unconscious Allin to the floor.
- Miro rocked a pair of aviator sunglasses with different colored lenses, teasing an alliance with the House of Black. It's a little detail that goes a long way in telling the story without having the announce team beat the viewer over the head with it.
- Cole Karter interrupted a promo featuring Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs, setting up an FTW Championship match with the former for later in the night's show.
Jon Moxley and Wheeler Yuta vs. Best Friends; Tag Team Championship Celebration
The issues between Trent Beretta and Wheeler Yuta that led to the latter departing Best Friends and joining Blackpool Combat Club reared their head early and often in the tag team match pitting Beretta and Chuck Taylor against the Ring of Honor Pure champion and Jon Moxley.
Beretta and Yuta threw fists and forearms before Best Friends seized control of the match entering the picture-in-picture break, all while William Regal and Orange Cassidy joined the commentary team.
A desperation tag to Moxley sparked a comeback. Moments later, he trapped Beretta in a Figure Four at ringside while Yuta scored the win on mentor Taylor with a pin taught to him by The Kentucky Gentleman.
The match was a high-energy tag team contest that explored the relationships Yuta forged with his opponents and featured the hard-hitting action synonymous with Moxley.
Daniel Garcia of the Jericho Appreciation Society watched closely, as he will challenge Yuta for the ROH Pure Championship Saturday at Ring of Honor's Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view. Based on everything we have seen from Yuta over the last year and what we know the challenger is capable of, that may well steal the show on a loaded card.
After the match, Tony Schiavone brought out new AEW tag team champions Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee for an in-ring promo that focused less on them and more on celebrity guest, rapper Kevin Gates.
Mark Sterling arrived, as did Tony Nese, and the result was a harmless comedy segment that let the babyfaces get the star rub from Gates.
Result
Moxley and Yuta defeated Beretta and Taylor
Grade
B
Top Moments
- The commentary team recalled the history between Yuta and Best Friends, laying out the narrative of the match to come.
- Strickland and Lee got the star reaction from the fans, who are clearly ready to support the duo as champions in AEW.
Varsity Blonds vs. Christian Cage and Luchasaurus
The product of last week's beatdown of The Varsity Blonds by Luchasaurus, this tag team match sought to continue building heat for the heels against an underutilized babyface tandem in Griff Garrison and Brian Pillman Jr.
It did just that as Luchasaurus steamrolled the competition and Cage, a master manipulator, tagged in just in time to score the winning pinfall.
After the bell, he had Luchasaurus hoist him on his shoulders like he would Jungle Boy, only for Jack Perry to make his comeback.
After revealing that he and Luchasaurus had swerved everyone, Jungle Boy chased his former mentor out of the arena.
Backstage, The Gunn Club unwisely challenged The Acclaimed to a rap battle Friday on Rampage.
The return of Jungle Boy was met with a thunderous ovation, which is a good sign for the feud. The 25-year-old is going to beat the life out of Cage at some point, and the crowd will go wild for it.
If there is one big head-scratcher, it's the revelation regarding Luchasaurus.
After three or four weeks of doing Cage's bidding, he simply reveals it was all a ploy to sucker the veteran in? If I was Pillman, Garrison or Serpentico, I would definitely be wondering what on Earth I did to deserve that.
That questionable decision aside, it was great to see Jungle Boy back, and that eventual showdown with Cage is going to be a tremendous match and a star-making moment for Perry.
Result
Cage and Luchasaurus squashed The Varsity Blonds
Grade
C+
Top Moments
- Jungle Boy's return was greeted by a huge ovation that reflected the near-perfect build into future main event stardom AEW has executed to this point in his career.
- Luchasaurus saw his buddy and immediately stepped aside, negating three weeks of television and what was a fairly interesting tandem with Cage.
FTW Championship: Cole Karter vs. 'Absolute' Ricky Starks
FTW champion Ricky Starks battled Cole Karter with the title at stake Wednesday night.
Despite a quality challenge from the NXT export, Starks retained. Ever-confident following his successful defense, he issued yet another open challenge, which was accepted by the very nice, very evil Danhausen.
Starks walked back the open challenge until next week, drawing boos but setting up some hellish storytelling potential.
We know Powerhouse Hobbs will probably make his presence felt at some point, setting up a two-on-one scenario that would seemingly bring out Hook to confront the team named after his father, Team Taz.
Hook battling Taz, Starks and Hobbs is an intriguing story that would only accentuate the 23-year-old's popularity and give him his first real taste of a high-profile feud.
Assuming, of course, that is the direction next week's match is taking.
Result
Starks defeated Karter
Grade
C+
Top Moments
- The look on Starks' face when Danhausen walked through the curtain was one of utter disbelief and absolutely perfect.
- Unsurprisingly, the crowd booed Starks pushing off the title match to next week as they wanted to see the bout there and then.
FTR Previews Death Before Dishonor; Women's Tag Team Action
Tony Schiavone introduced Ring of Honor and IWGP tag team champions FTR.
An impassioned promo from Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood put over their previous encounter with The Briscoe Brothers before looking ahead to Saturday's ROH Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view Best 2-Out-of-3 Falls match against them.
Harwood told the story of his daughter, who he said worked hard to close a hole in her heart discovered at the age of five, before vowing to fight as hard as she worked and retain the titles. It was a great promo from a guy who is absolutely in the conversation for Wrestler of the Year midway through 2022.
Following the promo, legendary recording artist Jermaine Dupri and Stokely Hathaway accompanied TBS champion Jade Cargill and Kiera Hogan to the ring for a match against Athena and Willow Nightingale that was originally supposed to feature Kris Statlander and Leila Grey but was changed when the latter could not compete.
An action-packed bout saw Cargill shake off a late surge by Athena to pin Nightingale with Jaded.
Cargill shoving Athena into the ring steps protects her potential No. 1 contender and leaves alive the possibility that they will clash somewhere down the line. Like, say, All Out on September 4.
The TBS champion improves every time out, and her willingness to expand her move set is going to endear her to fans who may have been skeptical about her arrival in AEW.
Seeing as how the company understandably wanted to protect Statlander as well, it makes sense to pull her from the match.
Finally, can someone please give Nightingale a contract? She is too good and has consistently shown up and shown out so many times that there really is no reason she is not regularly competing on international television.
Make it happen, Tony Khan, before someone else does.
Result
Cargill and Hogan defeated Nightingale and Athena
Grade
A+ for FTR's promo; B for the better-than-expected match
Top Moments
- "Saturday night, I'm gonna fight like an eight-year-old girl and we're gonna beat your ass," Harwood said of Saturday's match with the Briscoes.
- The random appearance of Dupri was just awesome and reflective of Cargill's star power.
- Backstage, Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter interrupted a promo from women's champion Thunder Rosa and Toni Storm and teased an appearance Friday night on Rampage.
Barbed Wire Everywhere Death Match: Eddie Kingston vs. Chris Jericho
With the Jericho Appreciation Society locked in a shark cage controlled by Ruby Soho, Eddie Kingston sought to spill Chris Jericho's blood in the main event of this week's show, appropriately entitled "Barbed Wire Everywhere."
Kingston succeeded early, blasting The Painmaker with a microphone to the face. He went about punishing Jericho for months of torment and misery, tossing him into the barbed wire ropes. He would soon find himself in agony, though.
Anna Jay shockingly turned heel, reuniting with Tay Conti and assisting the JAS in escaping the shark cage.
Blackpool Combat Club and Santana hit the ring, driving the heels away. Just when it appeared as though Kingston would win with a wire-assisted Stretch Plum, Sammy Guevara arrived on the scene. A Judas Effect later and Jericho inexplicably won the match.
The payoff? Kingston threw Jericho into the barbed wire to close the show.
And so the Kingston-Jericho feud ends not with a bang, but a whimper. One can at least hope it is the end.
The match was fine for what it was, but it was overbooked when it really should have been far simpler, with Kingston beating the life out of Jericho and pinning him in the middle of the ring.
Instead, we got a nonsensical heel turn from Jay, who appeared to be starting a feud with her former friend Conti last week, a dozen guys running in, and a finish so nonsensical that you would have thought it came right out of Vince McMahon's writers' room.
Kingston was done dirty here and the lame attempt to make up for the finish by having him toss Jericho into the wire was exactly what it appeared to be: a half-assed make-good that fell flat.
Jericho is a star, and in an industry that is not exactly pumping out genuine main event attractions every week, you have to protect him. He is also a 30-year veteran of the business who has won world titles, headlined WrestleMania and competed for the biggest promotions. He can afford a loss.
Kingston, while beloved by fans and bullet-proof for that reason, has to win one of these matches eventually. This should have been his Tommy Dreamer-beats-Raven match; his defining victory.
Instead, he ate another pinfall at the hands of a guy who least needed it. And for what? To set up a match with Guevara at All Out? Uh uh.
The finish, Jay's curious turn and Luchasaurus just peacing out of his partnership with Cage and the havoc they have caused of late created real questions as the company begins its march toward All Out.
Hopefully, the shows before the PPV will clean up some plot holes and leave a better taste than the conclusion of this main event.
Result
Jericho defeated Kingston
Yes, really.
Grade
C+ for the hard work and toughness necessary to compete in a match of this type.
Kudos to both guys for their efforts.
Top Moments
- The heel turn by Jay sets up a reunited TayJay to battle Ruby Soho for the foreseeable future. Who steps up to join Soho will be interesting. Even if the turn was rushed and came from out of nowhere, it does provide the women's division with a program away from the two titles.
- There was a very obvious look of disappointment on Kingston's face to close the show, most likely a reflection of his defeat.
- The final bump failed to elicit the desired reaction, with Jericho writhing around in the wire while fans sat in stunned silence, robbed of the payoff they desired.