10 Things We Learned Attending AEW Dynasty 2025 Live

7. FTR Heel Turn Was Undeniable Success

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Scott Carlson/WhatCulture

From the moment that Cope started lining up a spear with Dax Harwood in the line of sight, fans knew something was up, and they never let their guard down.

But Dax’s piledriver and Cash Wheeler’s subsequent decision to side with his tag partner in battering the Rated-R Superstar into a pool of quivering jelly sent the Philly faithful into a frenzy. Everything they did went over huge with the crowd: the Shatter Machine, both con-chair-tos, and especially Cash stealing the neck brace and climbing onto the gurney to pretend he was Cope.

All of it worked exceptionally well in the arena and ended with FTR being showered with boos. The only thing that could have driven it harder would have been if Dax and Cash returned to ringside to attack Cope on the stretcher while he was being wheeled out of the arena.

Overall, this was fantastically executed, with the tease of the miscommunication spear, the loss, the anticipation of a turn being slightly subverted, and then the pendulum rapidly swinging back to a full-blown turn with the piledriver.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.