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You know Orange Cassidy is becoming popular when he gets to do the standard “liquid from the roof” bit. Only the best babyface wrestlers get to drop a random liquid on a bunch of heels. Ortiz was nice enough to sell it like he was drowning. Fight for the Fallen 2020 was another fun show by AEW.
I am sure it will be compared to the Fyter Fest shows. It likely wasn’t on that level but it still was still an important show. We had multiple title matches, heel turn teases and surprising returns. AEW seemed to be doing a really good job of setting up future storylines leading into All Out. These last three weeks remind us all why we are AEW fans.
While I try to figure out why Chris Jericho felt the need to bring up his 18-49 demo success, I present my list of the top five most surprising moments of AEW Fight for the Fallen 2020:
#5 Cody is slowly turning heel
One of the best things AEW is currently doing is the TNT Championship Open Challenge. It allows Cody to wrestle on virtually every show and showcase younger talent in AEW like Marq Quen, Ricky Starks and Sonny Kiss. The surprising thing is it also has allowed us to see Cody slowly turning to the dark side each week.
The match between Cody and Sonny Kiss was a pretty competitive affair. Sonny Kiss has shown tremendous improvement since joining AEW last year. He held his own with some good high flying offense and a nice brawling style finish as well. The fact that Sonny Kiss lasted over ten minutes seemed to really frustrate Cody. He slammed Kiss onto the ramp.
When the referees back was turned, Cody removed the turnbuckle pad and attempted to throw Sonny into it. That doesn’t scream babyface champion who just wants a fair challenge. It shows an increasing amount of desperation each and every week for Cody. The question is where will it finally led to in the end? Could we finally get a new Horsemen style group soon? It will be fun to find out.
#4 FTR steals Fenix’s mask to win at AEW Fight for the Fallen
FTR has been portrayed in a pretty interesting way so far in AEW. They have helped out the babyface teams like The Young Bucks and Omega/Page on numerous occasions. In a company that doesn’t really seem to follow any tag rules, they have been the new standard bearer of following traditional tag team rules at all times. I should say they were following the rules until Fight for the Fallen.
The match between FTR and Lucha Brothers was a solid tag team match you would expect to see. One of the surprising things was how much both teams followed the tag rules for most of the match, as when the Lucha Bros are around, AEW tag rules go out the window. So it was all the more shocking when Dax ripped Fenix’s mask off and pick up the Inside Cradle pinfall victory. That is such a disrespectful thing to do in the Lucha culture.
It now paints the image that FTR will do anything to win and get those AEW Tag Team Titles. That in itself seems to go counter to the rule following way by FTR so far. If you add in the fact they dumped beer on Kenny Omega’s head post-match then it makes you wonder where FTR is going from here. I am sure all of us are really looking forward to matches between The Elite and FTR.
#3 Vickie Guerrero becomes Nyla Rose’s Manager
I am not entirely sure I missed Vickie screaming “Excuse Me” at pro wrestling fans. But here we are yet again. Welcome back to weekly professional wrestling. Nyla Rose has been a pretty dominant character in the AEW Women’s Divison.
She has, however, faced two major problems so far in her AEW career. First, the division itself is a pretty thin roster. Second, Nyla Rose isn’t exactly the best at her mic work. It seems we discovered a great solution to the second problem.
Vickie Guerrero is one of the best talkers in pro wrestling. Few are better are getting crowd angry at them like Vickie Guerrero does. Just go back and listen to the nuclear heat she would get from WWE audiences just a few years ago.
AEW has done a good job of using its older veterans talent as managers to assist the newest generations of talent. That is why we have Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Jake Roberts and Taz in those important roles. It will benefit Nyla Rose greatly to learn from one of the best. The AEW Women’s Division will be better for it too.
#2 Kenny Omega loses control at AEW Fight for the Fallen
Kenny Omega has always been portrayed as the calmest guy in AEW. It seems to fit his natural personality that nothing really seems to throw him off his game. He doesn’t get frustrated by his opponents. That did seem to change in a surprising way on Wednesday night.
The match between Jurassic Express and The Elite was exactly what you would expect. It was chaotic and fast paced fun. Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy have a bright future in singles action. But the match came down to Marko Stunt versus Kenny Omega in the end.
Naturally, Omega won between those two wrestlers. The shocking thing was Omega got the pinfall, heard the Elite’s music play and then attacked Stunt with more strikes well after the match. It wasn’t until the Young Bucks arrived that he stopped his attack.
It doesn’t exactly make Kenny Omega look like a good guy when he attacks the smallest competitor in AEW. Could it be the beginning of a heel turn for Omega? Or is it simply frustration because of the beer pouring incident earlier in the show? Kenny Omega needs a little more depth to his character. This will certainly help.
#1 Taz throws in the towel in the AEW Championship match
We have had weeks of build to the Brian Cage versus Jon Moxley World Championship main event at AEW Fight for the Fallen. Cage had weeks of dominating performances on AEW Dynamite and AEW Dark. We had Taz running down Moxley in amazing promos. We even had Brian Cage destroy Jon Moxley on the roof a car. This build-up made it very surprising when Cage lost the match on Wednesday without a pin or submission. Taz literally threw in the towel and ended Cage’s world title chances.
The match was decent. Moxley was great. He does a great job of selling and looking strong on offense. Brian Cage was fine. I have certainly seen him do better in Lucha Underground and other promotions then his performance at Fight for the Fallen. His selling of his left arm was off and on to say the least.
Taz giving up for Cage does save him from a submission loss this early in his career. But you have to be concerned he will disappear like Lance Archer and Brodie Lee have after losing their title feuds. It is still a concern for all the heels of AEW. Time will tell.
