11 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Fyter Fest 2021 Night 1
6. Christian Cage And Matt Hardy Over-Deliver
Far, far from the hottest feud on a red-hot TV show, most expected a respectable effort worked reasonably well between two veterans.
This was the best possible version of that match.
Both men used their rich knowledge of the ring to gain the advantage at various points of a very well-built match not without spikes of high spot excitement that fans did not expect from two performers of such advancing years. Christian Cage employed his knowledge with a strategic babyface bent, whereas Hardy trapped him in several precarious positions with his dark arts mastery.
The crowd were into this, which can't be waved away with the tiresome "But they're into everything!" self-own. Nobody was into this programme before Christian and Matt Hardy worked them into it with an elegantly worked match paced beautifully to peak at the finish.
It wasn't blow-away awesome - but it was a pretty bloody good effort that comfortably passed the gentleman's three with a finish that capped off the story nicely.
Cage, in one last definitive moment of cunning, won the match mere seconds after feigning being out for the count.