Match	Kyle Fletcher vs. Bandido
Cagematch URL	https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=454424
Wrestlers	Kyle Fletcher Bandido
Promotion(s)
Event	AEW Redemption
Event Date	2026-07-26
Date Watched	2026-07-28 🔄
Rewatches	first watch
Rating	⭐️⭐️⭐️ ¾

rewatched the match and I think I figured out several of my dissatisfactions with it:

(1) clearly vamping in the beginning, like there’s a point when they’re talking about kyle’s shoes for a couple minutes, like you really got nothing else to talk about? it didn’t feel so much like trying to build anticipation as it felt like someone told them “ah shit the PPV is gonna run 10 minutes short pls fill up this time”

(2) the lighting. blue light works great for pink undertones like kyle fletcher has but makes golden undertones like bandido’s look soooo sallow and sickly. I think this is a not insignificant reason why I was reading bandido as having less energy than usual (though I did feel like his speed was also less explosive than usual and he did seem to be less hyper, and he was sweating a lot earlier than I expected). there was one closer camera where this seemed to have been mitigated probably due to closer proximity of full-spectrum lights, but once you pull away or switch to other cameras the blue from the redemption branding really washes bandido out

(3) the camera angles. shooting the frog splash to the outside from the floor just doesn’t capture the magnitude of the height that bandido’s getting. idk if another angle was possible, but from the side I would’ve gotten a better sense of just how dramatic that was. it felt like there were other spots where the camera angles weren’t doing them justice but the frog splash to the outside felt like the most obvious example

(4) but overall although I felt the pacing toward the latter end of the match felt better upon a second viewing, overall I didn’t “feel” something as the okada memes say. like on a second viewing I was able to appreciate some of the moves more (esp the dragon 21plex or whatever it’s called when kyle flips bandido over into the 21plex) but unlike bandido matches that I’ve rated 5 stars, I didn’t feel much of a sense of story. it’s like, when either of them is on the ground I’m not like OMG… GET UP… KEEP FIGHTING… I’m like are they just filling time? and the cheap rope breaks did not help, like just floppin over onto the ropes instead of really making it a Struggle.

idk. I can’t quite articulate why this doesn’t feel like it has as much story as for example the bandido vs. hechicero ROH death before dishonor 2025 match (which also started excruciatingly slowly and was quite a long match but ultimately built up to something that made me go insane). it just felt like both bandido and fletcher were holding something back. I’m just sure they’re capable of more and I expected to leave this match an utterly ruined mess and I… did not.

overall it’s not a bad match or anything, it’s fine, decent, it’s just not mindblowing. it’s not going in my top 3 bandido matches any time soon, but it’s also not near my worst bandido matches range either. I just wanted *gestures inarticulately* More