9 Match Star Ratings For AEW Fyter Fest

For All Elite Wrestling's first 'B' show, the build for Jon Moxley Vs. Joey Janela's Non-sanctioned match was A+ in how expertly it conveyed the imminent danger.

Even the wording of the announcement was smart and succinct: ..."the statements coming from both camps," ran the graphic, putting this over as a real fight. Those statements bordered on the disturbing. "The moment I die in that professional wrestling ring," Janela said, "is the moment my name goes down in the books." The certainty of those words, twinned with Janela's psychotic in-ring style, plunged empty dread into the stomach. Janela held his own funeral on the Road to Fyter Fest, massaging this uneasy feeling to a point at which it felt like something far more harrowing than even a death match between two men with scant regard for their wellbeing.

The drama engineered was almost unbearable - Janela's "Please don't die" bit brought to its fatalistic conclusion.

Elsewhere, the six-man tag sold itself as something that couldn't not be a dream match. Darby Allin, ahead of his match with Cody, introduced himself to a wider audience as a vulnerable, interesting performer with a pathos underlining his recklessness. "It's not a gimmick," to use his words. Similarly, the charming as hell Private Party endeared themselves as an act to watch.

Broadcast on Bleacher Report Live and FiteTV/ITV Box Office (the high streaming quality of which never dipped), the show over-delivered on whatever was expected from it...

Private Party are bread, biscuits, bacon, coin, cash, dough, duckets, lettuce.

They are f*cking money.

Very intelligent in structure, this match emphasised their creativity, their cool factor, and their likeable blend of charisma. What a phenomenal act they are, and what a phenomenal narrative choice it was to show the audience this before limiting their role. This showcased without exposing their ability, inspiring a rabid level of support. They also aren't the finished article; they've yet to master truly emotive selling, though it can be glimpsed, and so the crowd reaction wasn't this sustained, invested buzz. It was more patchy than that, possibly because the match went a tad too long.

Still, this smashed the objective, and the two senior teams played their roles very well, too, even casting one another glances throughout as if to convey how rattled they were by Private Party's unique repertoire - and how helpless they were to counter it.

A triumph in itself and a great indication of AEW's overarching in-ring storytelling mentality, if wins and losses are to matter, it's reassuring how well the company can book performers in defeat.

Star Rating: ***3/4