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AEW Fight for the Fallen (2021)
- Results & Afterthoughts -

Fight for the Fallen (2021) was a professional wrestling television special episode produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It was the third event in the Fight for the Fallen chronology and was a charity event that helped support victims of domestic violence and sexual assault survivors. It was also the third and last event in AEW's "Welcome Back" tour, which celebrated AEW's resumption of live touring during the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was held on July 28, 2021, at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina and was broadcast on TNT as a special of AEW's weekly television program, Dynamite.

Six matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Chris Jericho defeated Nick Gage in a No Rules match. In other prominent matches, Lance Archer retained the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship against Hikuleo, and The Elite (Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson), and The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) defeated Adam Page and The Dark Order (Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver, and Alex Reynolds) in a 10-man tag team elimination match, preventing Page and The Dark Order from challenging for the AEW World Championship and AEW World Tag Team Championship, respectively.

Match Results:

10-man Tag Team Elimination Match

Had Page and The Dark Order won, they would have received a future match for Omega's AEW World Championship and The Young Bucks' AEW World Tag Team Championship, respectively.

The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) (with Brandon Cutler and Michael Nakazawa) defeated "Hangman" Adam Page and The Dark Order (Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver, and Alex Reynolds)

Going into this match, you should know that AEW paid $50,000 just to license the Space Jam-style entrance for this match. Given the fact that the show is on TNT, you would think that Warner Bros. would cut them a deal or something, but nope. The vast majority of this match I didn't give a flying fuck about, but I did laugh at the Bucks and Omega attempting to do the Meltzer Driver at ringside underneath one of the basketball goals set up at ringside, only for the Bucks to miss the dunk completely upon execution. Just wow.

The biggest story to come out of this match was that "Hangman" Adam Page was the last man standing for himself and the Dark Order getting the next shot at Kenny Omega's AEW World Championship and the Bucks' AEW World Tag Team Championships. I was thinking that Page was going to run the gauntlet like we've seen Randy Orton do at the early days of his WWE career when he was on the rise after splitting up from Evolution. That would end with Page picking up the win for himself and the Dark Order getting future tag title shots. Boy was I wrong. The Elite pulled out every dirty, redundant foul play out of their playbooks to prevent Hangman from pulling out the win and caused his team to ultimately lose their chances at future title shots.

As of the time of me writing this up (Aug. 3, 2021), there are apparently no plans for Adam Page to face Kenny Omega at All Out in September. That news comes a little shocking as they have been milking this Hangman story for roughly two years now and it seemed now was the most opportune time to have him FINALLY topple Kenny Omega and become the AEW World Champion. I think Tony Khan and the rest of AEW needs to tread carefully because if all signs are true concerning the rumors that they have signed both CM Punk and Bryan Danielson, then it would be easy for Page to be quickly forgotten when those guys are added to the equation.

The alleged plan that I'm hearing that's going around for All Out's main event is Kenny Omega defending the AEW World title against Christian Cage. I'll talk about that in a bit.

I've seen a lot of people describe this segment as a "cheap knockoff/imitation of a modern day Monday Night RAW segment" and I can't argue that point at all because that's all what basically this is.

Explain to me how can ANYONE want to see Team Taz do anything when they lose every match against anyone except against themselves on matches on Dynamite? Sure, they can beat countless jobbers on Dark like everyone else, but shouldn't the wins matter on Dynamite when that's your more prolific show to showcase featured talent?

As for Brian Cage, I know that guy has to be regretting leaving IMPACT Wrestling for this crap. This company has colossally fucked him over since joining this company since Day 1, from how they've mismanaged him with the FTW Championship to losing several high profile feuds against everyone he's been lined up against. Does this guy have a shred of credibility anymore? Even though some people will argue that he lost all of it when he got beat by Tessa Blanchard in IMPACT Wrestling, but I digress...

I hate shitting on Team Taz as I want to see all of those guys succeed as Will Hobbs (whose mother passed away this week as of this posting 8/4/21), Ricky Starks, Brian Cage, and even Hook (who we haven't even seen work a single goddamn match) all have potential for greatness. I just think lumping all of these guys into a single group was a mistake in the first place.

That's one hell of a cameo to get "The Ace" himself, Hiroshi Tanahashi, to show up on this show. It's very interesting to see that New Japan would be setting up this match.

Sadly, Tanahashi won't be challenging for the title on Dynamite, but on New Japan's upcoming NJPW Resurgence show.

Given Moxley's promo later in the show (see below), it looks like they could be setting up Tanahashi to challenge Moxley at All Out next month. My fear is that I hope that Lance Archer doesn't go to that NJPW show, lose the IWGP US title to Tanahashi, only for Moxley to pick it right back up from Tanahashi in another month. That would be fucking stupid.

Tag Team Match

FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) (with Tully Blanchard) defeated Santana and Ortiz (with Konnan)

When I was watching the show live Wednesday night, DirecTV went dark for roughly 7+ minutes, so I missed the majority of this match. I rewatched Dynamite over the following weekend and saw how Cash sliced his arm wide open taking a bump off the top rope and dragging his arm across the corner post. While it was a treat to finally see these two teams go at it in a traditional tag team match instead of the tornado tag team chaos that a lot of these tag team matches in AEW devolve into, it made me sad that these two teams weren't given more time with this. This match ran for a total of eight minutes. I would love to see what these guys could do with the 25+ minutes that the opening 10-man tag team elimination match got. After Cash's arm got sliced open, it felt like they rushed to finish anyway, so that was another thing that took attention away from this match. Regardless of that, I would love to see these two teams get another chance to show what they can do. These are two of the best tag teams in the world that AEW snatched up from IMPACT and WWE, yet we BARELY see them working matches on Dynamite.

As of this writing (8/4/21), there have been reports that this match was projected to go a bit longer, but the opening match ran a bit too long combined with Wheeler's injury caused this to be cut short prematurely.

Backstage, we have another amazing promo from Britt Baker. She notes that both her and Reba... err Rebel are hurt and they need someone to watch their backs for it won't happen again. A part of me is cringing in terms of why are they adding another faction/stable in this company when they already have FAR too many of them, but the other part is intrigued and excited to see who they bring in for that role. If Kamille wasn't currently the NWA Women's Champion, then I would have had her pegged for that spot, but I have to put "Alpha Female" Jazzy Gabert into the hat in terms of my predictions - that is if she's still wrestling. I've seen a lot of people slotting Jordynne Grace into their predictions and that wouldn't even make sense to me in the least, especially after her and Rachael Ellering patched up their differences for their tag team when it was looking like Grace was turning heel a month or two ago on IMPACT Wrestling.

At this point, AEW has all but verbally confirmed that they have signed some sort of deal for CM Punk to show up and debut at these upcoming Chicago shows. His most likely landing spot is the upcoming Rampage show that is being dubbed "The First Dance" that Tony Khan announced on this show. As of this writing (8/4/21), tickets have completely sold out for that venue. That being said, Darby Allin would make for a great opponent for CM Punk's first night back in a wrestling ring on national television.

Singles Match for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship

Lance Archer (c) defeated Hikuleo (with King Haku)

I popped more for seeing Haku coming out with Hikuleo and seeing him hit the Tongan Death Grip later in this match than anything else in this match from bell to bell. What can I say about this match than it was your standard fare when it comes to matches from Lance Archer. He gets his spots in, namely that ropewalk to the moonsault, and proceeds to do all of his normal big man shit. Nothing against this match, but I was left feeling a tad underwhelmed after this one. I never felt that Hikuleo was going to come out on top at any point of this match.

Is it even worth mentioning that Cody got jumped by Malakai Black again? Let's go ahead and get this match over with. I want people to take note of the audible boos that Cody is getting now. He's definitely not as beloved as he was when this company first started.

Six-man Tag Team Match

Christian Cage and Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) (with Marko Stunt) defeated Hardy Family Office (Angelico and Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen)) (with Matt Hardy)

I have never given a flying fuck about this HFO stuff even before they started feuding with Jurassic Express and Christian Cage and much like my write-up on Fyter Fest Nights 1 and 2, I still don't care. I will give credit where it's due that this was a decent match from everyone involved and didn't come off as sloppy as what I have come to expect from Private Party, Angelico, and Luchasaurus.

I'll say this much. If the rumors are true about Cage getting the next shot with Omega, then I'm fine with that as we know it would be a great match in terms of work rate, BUT is that the opponent you want to have in there with Omega for arguably your biggest crowd all year on PPV? That choice could run the risk of having that AEW crowd turn on the main event - at least until CM Punk walks out.

Singles Match

Thunder Rosa defeated Julia Hart (with Brian Pillman Jr. and Griff Garrison)

Lemme get this out of the way right off of the bat. Julia Hart is TOO goddamn adorable, but she didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning this match. It's a darn shame too because I liked the short promo for her with the rest of the Varsity Blondes. Her role on their team reminds me of what I originally thought NXT was going with Alexa Bliss when she first started out before she went heel and never looked back.

Thunder Rosa deserved the win here though as she's on an alleged 16-win winning streak - from beating jobbers on Dark no less - and it was her first match after officially signing with the company. There's not a doubt in my mind that Thunder Rosa is going to be the one who beats Britt Baker for the Women's Championship down the road in a few more months. They don't have to rush into that rematch right away. I rather see Britt Baker have a few successful title defenses first.

No Rules Match

"The Painmaker" Chris Jericho defeated Nick Gage

It's the moment that everyone has been waiting for - the death of Chris Jericho at the hands of Nick Gage. To be fair though, I was surprised that TNT let them get away with this much blood and violence, especially allowing Gage to get in his trademark pizza cutter spot and bashing Jericho over the head with light tubes. Bryan Alvarez over on Wrestling Observer Radio claimed that the tubes were "gimmicked" - meaning that the filament and stuff that's inside of those tubes that are typically known to give people cancer from prolonged exposure, were removed. That was a smart decision, not that everything done in this match was smart, despite what people may say about this was the most viewed segment in the entire show and how high the demographics were in the quarterly hour, yada yada yada. At the end of the day, this was your run of the mill, discount deathmatch on national TV no less. I think that AEW are digging into the well far too many times here when it comes to these specialty/no disqualification matches here on Dynamite. It's even more ironic when this is a company known for touting that they aren't a "blood and guts" promotion after WWE's own Vince McMahon painted them as such, only for them to lean into it completely when it comes to a lot of these high-profile matches.

I don't understand whether Jericho is having a mid-life crisis since joining this company and wants to prove that he can hang with the "cool" kids or what, but he's an established name in this sport. He has a legacy and weight to his name. He doesn't have to "elevate" these undeserving individuals in matches like this. I say undeserving as in the fact that Nick Gage isn't a traditional wrestler. He's been popularized and glamourized to this day for solely his performance in deathmatches - along with his stupidity being a proven fact when he attempted to rob a bank without a mask on. I think a lot of attention was on this match as people wanted to see exactly how much AEW was going to let him do on a global platform. In that aspect, I was shocked too, but at the end of the day, I didn't think this was a particularly great match either, especially from all of the punishment and abuse that Jericho put himself through to say that he has 2-3 more of these special stipulation matches to go before he can face MJF.

I had to laugh at who MJF brought up as Jericho's next opponent as this episode of Dynamite came to a close - "The Juice" AKA Juventud Guerrera. Where the hell did they dig him up from? I know he was still wrestling here and there over the years after his run in WWE as part of the MexiCools, but goddamn. Who actually had Juventud Guerrera wrestling a match on TNT again in 2021 on their bingo cards? Definitely not this guy.

Afterthoughts:

Fight for the Fallen (2021) wasn't a particularly bad show, but a pretty average one coming from my perspective. It seemed like that they burnt out the live crowd by doing everything under the sun in the opener. The resulted in just about everything else in this show coming across was pretty tame in comparison until the anticipation and hype was renewed for the main event between Jericho and Nick Gage. As a Carolina native, I was a little letdown at the reactions to a lot of this stuff, but at the same time, this isn't the old school rasslin' that my uncles, aunts, parents, and grandparents reminisce about fondly from seeing live in their youth. By the time this show was over, I was left with a sense of sadness really...

Does this mean that I'm going to quit watching AEW? Nah, I still want to see where this train wreck is going to wind up in a few more years, especially where it is all but verbally confirmed by Tony Khan himself that they have signed CM Punk and Bryan Danielson but almost everything about the announcement for their show(s) in Chicago all but confirms it from how they are marketing the ticket sales without outright spoiling the surprise if it can even be called that now that the entire wrestling world is clamoring on and on about it.

I'm just weary of people acting like everything this company does is God's Gift to Wrestling and they can't do anything wrong. I'm just not seeing all of the "magic" and wonder that this company is doing when 98% of the people who fawn over everything this company does are the same ones who point out how stupid WWE or IMPACT Wrestling are when they make the same booking decisions.

The talk of the town following this show came from Domino's Pizza threatening to pull their ad sponsorship from AEW following their ad running side-by-side in the picture-in-picture during the main event on this show where Nick Gage used a pizza cutter on Jericho. The timing of that ad was purely coincidental as I'm with AEW in terms of that defense, but holy cow are people stupid that they thought that they could have that type of match on national television and not any type of blowback from sponsors. AEW is lucky that TNT didn't threaten to take them off the network after some of these gory matches that they have been putting on free television on their weekly show. Jon Moxley, Nick Gage, and other wrestlers chiming in about Domino's needing to chill the fuck out wasn't helping the matter either when TNT can definitely turn a complete 180 when it comes to renewing their television deal in a few more years - or even worse, they could pull their show completely like how Destination America did to IMPACT Wrestling for their stupidity in the past.

You don't have to be Omni-Man to have a brain between those ears, Tony Khan...

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AEW Fight for the Fallen (2021) - Results & Afterthoughts -