An Elite Perspective (June 27th)

Greetings from Warwick, England. It's tipping down outside and the ideal time to catch up with writing. The NXT column is likely to be available on Monday, this is due to myself having to piece together the show. Besides WNS, I'm featured on three other wrestling websites and two video game domains.

Between working full time in accounts, keeping in shape, and spending time with my kids, writing is a passion I love doing. Well, enough about me you're not here to read that.

Ratings & Fyter Fest

All Elite Wrestling this week was better than last. According to the news across social media, NXT managed to get the upper-hand in ratings. This didn't surprise me, as NXT did leave some impactful hooks to draw interest to this past Wednesday. How those upcoming shows compete with the two Fyter Fest nights is going to be interesting, to say the least.

I will add that AEW increased their pace in bolstering the Fyter Fest event, which has boosted my enthusiasm significantly. 

FTR heading into an eight-man tag with the Young Bucks versus Butcher & the Blade and the Lucha Bros is the absolute highlight for me. The promo between Jericho and Orange Cassidy was stellar, hitting the right points and generating decent heat, that is a close second.

The Dark Order fighting SCU is a nice addition, Nyla Rose is going to be in action with some form of announcement for intrigue and Lance Archer has found a punching bag in Joey Janela. All this is to come on night 2, July 8th.

For a free to watch PPV of sorts, they've done a decent job under the testing circumstances. 

Jon Moxley vs Brian Cage Cancelled?

Without meaning to sound like a broken record player, I've not been high on the hype for the world title match, except for an instance on Dark a couple of weeks ago that showed promise. Last week I made reference to the absence of the World Champion, John Moxley, and news of his wife being test positive for Covid-19 now brings a clearer picture as to what's going on.

News on the web is sketchy, we can only hope the timing may mean he is cleared by the 8^th of July, as scheduled. You’d expect that if AEW heard any input from their champion which contradicting this outlook, they would have announced a change at this point in time. Another opponent for Brian Cage I’d expect, but against who?

That's one of a few questions, maybe an existing match is promoted as the main event, such as the Jericho/Cassidy match or the eight-man tag, and they'll extend all bouts to make up the difference. They could end up promoting a replacement bout on the first night for the second.

Fyter Fest July 1st - Night 1 Predictions

I'll breakdown my predictions for Fyter Fest on July 1st, and will cover July 8th next week. How will I score? Let's see.

Private Party vs Santana & Ortiz: Difficult to see through this one. Matt Hardy has been a mentor for Private Party and picked up a win over Ortiz on Dynamite. Except for their stints with Inner Circle, Santana & Ortiz are not factored into the overall tag team picture than Private Party.

Winner: Private Party 

MJF & Wardlow vs Jurassic Express: I'm going to be bolder in this one, as my confidence is high on the outcome. MJF and Jungle Boy in my opinion stole the show, as far as traditional wrestling matches are concerned back at Double or Nothing. The feud continuing is one of my favourite aspects of Dynamite. Wardlow got the 'W' over Luchasaurus thanks to a distraction by MJF which allowed the low-blow before landing the killing blow. MJF is going to suffer a loss, but Wardlow will be his fall guy.

Jungle needs to even the score, just not directly against MJF as he needs to maintain a record of never getting pinned or submitted for a bigger pay-off.

Winner: Jurassic Express

Hikaru Shida (C) vs Penelope Ford: Shida and Penelope got into an altercation on Dynamite, all thanks to Kip Sabian helping to stir the pot. An enraged and somewhat distracted Shida managed to squash development star Red Velvet in a matter of seconds before getting into a brawl with the contender for her championship. 

Penelope looks better than ever, I don't believe that is enough to slow Shida's momentum.

Winner: Hikaru Shida.

"Hangman" Adam Page & Kenny Omega (c) vs. Best Friends: Only this past week I'm sensing a change of the guards. The main event picture needs the likes of Adam Page & Kenny Omega to begin transitioning back into singles competition again. A telling remark is the Best Friends have never held the tag titles and that title change would not discount their involvement in the tag division against the likes of FTR & The Young Bucks from happening over the coming weeks for a slow deterioration.

Hangman and Page to me are one of those teams that will begin losing when they've felt they are hitting their stride. All prior matches have questioned how both men will function and depend on one another. 

When this match was first announced, I dismissed Best Friends of posing a threat. Now, I'm predicting a larger picture at work here. I am expecting a title change to happen and the beginning of dissension between Page and Omega.

Winners: Best Friends

Cody (c) vs. Jake Hager: Right, before I apologised about sounding like a broken record, here I won't. The whole press conference on Dynamite was just out of place on a number of levels. If Cody were a heel it would have worked wonders, maybe he is and tricking us all? Ok, that would be cool.

I've said this elsewhere, it would be better than Cody lost the title and regained on a rematch. A lot of people are finding his matches far too predictable and one brief detour isn't going to hurt the championship or Cody and make the TNT championship seem more spontaneous. 

A short and sharp question, have we had reason to genuinely believe Hager is going to win? He lost to Jon Moxley and since hasn't worked a singles contest since. I think he is an added victim in a long list for Cody's ambition to establish himself as a top TNT champion for some time.

Winner: Cody

Care to share your predictions?

Let us know in the comments section and on social media.

You can also contact me at dbarker89@hotmail.co.uk, find my new Twitter profile @danielajbarker1, or track my Facebook page @danielajbarker.

Have a great week!

Dan