By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
-Happy Independence Day to everyone in the United States (and a belated happy Canada Day to my neighbors to the north). I will be out enjoying a BBQ with family and friends today so the updates will be lighter than usual. It will be business as usual again this weekend with the NJPW G1 Opening Night and Impact Wrestling Slammiversary live reviews.
-The Dot Net weekly audio show hosted by Jake Barnett and I has been pushed back to Friday this week. Due to the holiday, the show will be “simulcast” as this week’s Pro Wrestling Boom podcast.
-Saturday’s AEW Fyter Fest received a majority vote of B in our post show poll with 46 percent of the vote. A came in second with 26 percent. Jake Barnett and I both gave the show C- grades in our members’ exclusive audio review on Saturday night.
-Dot Net voters gave the the AEW Fyter Fest best match honors to Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks vs. Pentagon Jr., Fenix, and Laredo Kid with 31 percent of the vote. It was a close vote with Jon Moxley vs. Joey Janela in an unsanctioned match finishing second with 28 percent of the vote, and Cody vs. Darby Allin finishing third with 22 percent of the vote. It really comes down to which style you prefer, but I side with the majority of the voters.
-Monday’s WWE Raw received a B grade from 43 percent of the voters in our weekly poll. A finished in second place with 20 percent of the vote and C finished third with 18 percent. I gave Raw a B- grade with some taken off for the bad implementation of Vince McMahon’s edict that matches are no longer able to take place during commercial breaks.
-Tuesday’s WWE Smackdown received an C grade from 32 percent of the voters in our weekly poll. I gave the show an C+ grade.
-There are no NXT live events this weekend due to the Independence Day holiday in the United States. The live events will resume on July 11 with a weekend of Florida spot shows.
Birthdays and Notables
-Barry Windham is 59.
-Former WWE referee Joey Marella died at age 31 in a car accident on July 4, 1994.
-Adrian Adonis (Keith Franke) died at age 33 on July 4, 1988. He was a passenger in a van that was driven into a body of water in Canada when the driver swerved to avoid a moose. Independent wrestlers Mike Kelly (William Arko), Pat Kelly (Victor Arko), and Dave McKigney were also killed in the accident.
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Anything above a C for Fyter Fest, that didn’t even sell out, is just AEW fanboy BS. Barely adequate show with no single match that was worth being rated “best.” It was just a herd of sloppy, stupid indy BS and nobody should believe the company is going to last beyond Tony Khan getting tired of his shiny new toy.
I enjoyed the women’s match the most, with a close second of Cody/Darby. But that is mostly due to how little I cared for the rest of the card. I watched less than the first two minutes each of the last two matches.
I just hope that WWE decides to compete with AEW by improving their own matches and stories, rather than trying to emulate AEW’s match styles.