Welcome to another edition of eWN Round Table, where we gather some of the most active writers here on eWrestlingNews and share the platform to answer some questions surrounding a centralized topic, upcoming event, etc.
This is meant to showcase the potential for both a wide range of perspectives as well as how sometimes, there can be a group consensus no matter what your viewpoint is, so we also invite all of you to join in on the discussion by answering these questions yourself in the comments section below.
For this particular volume, we’ll be focusing on All Elite Wrestling’s second event, Fyter Fest.
Participants for this round = Anthony Mango, Vincent DiPietro, and Richard Staple.
1) “Fyter Fest is a parody of the Fyre Festival. Are you familiar with that fiasco? Did you see the documentary?”
MANGO: I hadn’t heard of it AT ALL until the documentary was recommended to me. I guess I was living under a rock. But the documentary is great and the situation is so ridiculous that I laughed real hard when I first heard of Fyter Fest. Now, I’m curious if anyone in AEW is willing to take one for the team.
DIPIETRO: Yes, I am familiar with the event. However, I have yet to watch the documentary In full.
STAPLE: I actually did! I was incredibly surprised at the level of disorganization and what a colossal failure that festival turned out to be. But hey, throw caution to the wind I guess.
2) “How do you feel about Fyter Fest being free on B/R Live? What impact has it made on your impression of AEW, B/R Live, and this event?”
MANGO: FANTASTIC idea. This is a perfect method and time to build a stronger fan base, as people will have heard some good buzz from Double or Nothing and will be interested in checking out AEW, but might be turned off by the high price otherwise. Making this free allows people to tune in that otherwise wouldn’t, and since the card doesn’t look like a free show’s cop-out, it should be a valuable method to gain more momentum.
DIPIETRO: I think it being made available for free is great for exposure in the beginning. AEW giving fans something for their support, thumbs up from me. Reminds me of WWE’s In Your House events as they will have core events such as All Out. Only issue I have is the lack of app accessibility over various platforms such as PlayStation.
STAPLE: I don’t really have strong feelings about it. I’m not going to complain about free pro wrestling. And since I don’t have a laptop at the moment, this will prove to be useful for me.
3) “Before Laredo Kid was announced, who did you hope or think would be the mystery partner? What do you think of Laredo Kid replacing Pac?”
MANGO: I had thought Jon Moxley would be, until the Joey Janela match was announced. Then, I thought that it would just be “some random dude I’ve never heard of before” and was right. I didn’t think it would be a big surprise like CM Punk or anything.
DIPIETRO: Honestly, I had no idea who the choice would be. In regards to to the selection, it was a good choice.
STAPLE: Personally, I would have liked to have seen one of the guys from the Dragon Gate promotion get a crack because they tend to kill it in high profile matches and I think they’d do very well with YB and Omega. Masato Yoshino is a name that comes to mind. It’s a shame they couldn’t work an arrangement with PAC.
4) “Outside of SCU, Best Friends and Private Party, what other tag teams would you like to see compete in the eventual tournament to crown the AEW world tag team champions?”
MANGO: To be honest, I’m not familiar with indie tag teams—especially when it comes to which ones have contracts elsewhere and which ones are available—so I don’t even know who I’m missing out on. I’m assuming that team The Dark Order will be factored in and there will be some other pairings from the roster, as well as some outsiders brought in just to strengthen the numbers of the tournament, but I wouldn’t know where to start. Give a spot to ROH’s One Mean Team. Brian and Justin are buds of mine, so why not?
DIPIETRO: Angelico and Jack Evans
STAPLE: I really like the Angelico/Jack Evans pairing a lot, and Lucha Brothers always adds an entertaining dynamic. They can always come up with another pairing, though, such as, say, Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus?
5) “Does the CEO gaming aspect of this have any positive or negative effect on your interest for this show?”
MANGO: I don’t think it will have any impact on the show at all, actually. But hey, even though I’m not a competitive gamer and I’m not the target audience they’re appealing to, I see no negative in it. If this is a side attraction and it comes off as one, that’ll be a shame, but it doesn’t feel like it quite yet. If anything, it seems like CEO is the side gig, and that’s perfectly fine with me.
DIPIETRO: Doesn’t have a effect of me regardless. However, I do think it’s a unique concept for a event.
STAPLE: Eh, not really. As long as I get good pro wrestling, you’ll have a hard time hearing me complain.
6) “What are your expectations of Fyter Fest? Does it have to equal or exceed Double or Nothing, or is it okay for it to not be as good, since it isn’t as grandiose of an event?”
MANGO: This doesn’t need to be “as good” as Double or Nothing, or better, for it to be a success. However, it can’t be bad. Being the second show out, if they botch it, it’s going to reflect poorly on them as being one-hit wonders and possibly not being able to sustain a full company going forward. Plus, it’ll lose them the potential fans who are tuning in because it’s free. But I’m not setting my expectations to “must be better” because that’s unrealistic.
DIPIETRO: I think Fyter Fest will be a great showcase for the AEW roster. The show can’t absolutely tank because the promotion is still in its infancy. I could be wrong but I don’t think Fyter Fest will be looked back on as a pivotal moment in the company’s history.
STAPLE: It’s certainly okay for it to be not as good as DON, because it officially ushered in the dawning of a new era, so it’s kind of hard to beat those expectations. That being said, there are matches that can still kill it on the card, so I certainly can’t excuse it if it’s a bad show (which, let’s face it, is pretty hard with the talent involved).
7) “Which match are you most excited to see on this pay-per-view?”
MANGO: I’m more intrigued about Moxley vs. Janela than anything else, but I have a feeling the Cody vs. Darby Allin match will surprise me the most.
DIPIETRO: Jon Moxley vs Joey Janela
STAPLE: Six man tag is an easy answer, so I’ll go with Moxley and Janela.
Big thanks to everyone who took part in this edition!
Those are our thoughts, but what do you have to say about these issues? Keep the discussion going by chiming in via the comments section below!
