Reviewing Anna Jay's Heel Turn at Fyter Fest Night 2

You know, in the three years that All Elite Wrestling has existed, I've known that they've shown WWE how to properly do the simplest of things. It is not hard to actually elevate talent who deserve it, but WWE doesn't do it. AEW does. It is not hard to actually care about your women's division, yet Vince McMahon is a devout misogynist. Tony Khan isn't. And speaking of the women's division, it is definitely not hard to figure out which heroines should become villainesses, but we saw WWE screw this up not once, but twice in less than a week! As for AEW, well, they nailed it.

So on the latest edition of AEW Dynamite, which was the 2nd night of their Fyter Fest event, Anna Jay turned heel and became the newest member of the Jericho Appreciation Society. This was a move many fans (myself included) saw coming, and the story actually begins with Night 1 of the event, which saw Anna Jay face off against AEW's villainous "professor" of women's wrestling, Serena Deeb. It was a game effort from both women, but it ended with Serena victorious. It would not be the last we would see of Anna Jay that night, however.

As Jay was being interviewed by Tony Schiavone, she was interrupted by Tay Conti, which marked the first time we would see them together since Tay went dark side due to her relationship with Sammy Guevara. Jay scolded her running buddy for slamming a car door on Ruby Soho's arm, but Tay responded by telling Jay that she should make better choices to make sure she's on TV more often. This segment was needed. "TayJay" is not a gimmick; these two women have a genuine friendship, so it was nice to see them interact, even though they were on opposite sides of the moral pendulum.

Which brings us to Night 2 of the event. The main event was Eddie Kingston vs Chris Jericho in a "Barbed Wire Everywhere" Death Match, and to ensure a fair fight (or close to it), the rest of the Jericho Appreciation Society would be locked up in a shark cage above the ring. Ruby Soho was in charge of holding the key to said cage, but we would see Tay Conti appear and attack Ruby. It would be followed by Anna Jay entering the fray and pulling her former friend off Ruby, with the belief that she was trying to get through to Tay and save Ruby.

But instead, the evil Anna Jay delivered her own attack towards Ruby, turning heel and reuniting TayJay, with Jay now a member of the JAS. The newly-turned villainess gave Tay the key to the cage, and later lowered it so Tay could release the other members, which also led to Kingston's allies coming out to even the odds. Despite that part, Jericho won, but Kingston got the last word anyway--all the while, Anna Jay is now JAS through and through.

This isn't Anna Jay's first go-around as a villainess; she debuted as the lone female member of the then-villainous Dark Order faction led by Brodie Lee. A lot of the members had assigned numbers, and Jay's was #99, which pleased this hockey fan, as we all know who made that number famous. The Dark Order became babyfaces under the most tragic circumstance: the sudden passing of Jon Huber (aka Brodie Lee and Luke Harper) in December of 2020. Anna Jay became a very popular member of AEW's women's division, and it has included both halves of TayJay participating in (and winning) an immensely brutal match against The Bunny and Penelope Ford on an edition of Rampage.

Anna Jay's TV time has been lowered up to this point, so now that she's a villainess again and part of a major faction, we should see her on a weekly basis once again. I wouldn't be surprised if Anna Jay is pushed to go against Thunder Rosa for the AEW Women's World Championship (if they don't turn Toni Storm heel first), but for now, I will definitely enjoy seeing Anna Jay work her evil magic every Wednesday.

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