AEW Fyter Fest took place on June 29 in collaboration with the CEO fighting game tournament in Florida. CEO, for the uninitiated, is a fighting game tournament where matches take place inside an actual professional wrestling ring, so the team-up does make sense. But instead of AEW just hosting a show at CEO, things were taken a step further by having CEO organizer Alex Jebailey compete in a Hardcore Match against Michael Nakazawa.

The Hardcore Match between Michael Nakazawa and Jebailey came about due to a confrontation the two had at CEO 2018. The match was about as ridiculous as many expected, with the competitors attempting to drown each other in a pool, and utilizing a variety of bizarre weapons. And since the event took place at a fighting game tournament, some of the weapons included video game accessories.

One of the most notable spots involving a video game accessory came when Nakazawa clocked Jebailey in the head with a GameCube controller. Nakazawa then wrapped the cord around Jebailey's throat, strangling him while he pressed buttons on the controller. Other spots involving video game accessories included Jebailey slamming a CEO-branded fight stick on Nakazawa's back, as well as throwing Nakazawa on a pile of loose fight stick buttons.

ceo fighting game tournament boss strangled with gamecube controller in wrestling match

The match between Jebailey and Nakazawa wasn't the only bout at Fyter Fest that had video game references. For example, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks wrestled their match dressed as Street Fighter characters, and they even used hadoukens against their opponents. Jimmy Havoc performed a shoryuken on Jungle Boy in the Four Way Match, and the commentators made various video game references throughout the night.

Moving forward, it's likely that AEW will continue to have video game references at its shows. After all, Kenny Omega is a big gamer, revealing recently that he likes to conduct business meetings with people while playing Apex Legends, and that his favorite video game series is Nintendo's Earthbound. Combine this with other top wrestlers and executives in AEW enjoying video games, and it's clear that the company will stay connected to the industry in the future.