All Elite Wrestlingis well known to have reignited the wrestling wars that fans recall fondly from Monday Nights during the 90s, making for some of the most compelling pro-wrestling programming in years, if not decades. But it seems thatAEWhas also reignited a different kind of war, a war of video game-related signs held in the audience. The latest example, taken from AEW’s Dynamite this past Wednesday, was made to start a fight between fans ofFinal Fantasy 6andFinal Fantasy 7.
The sign in question popped up during a segment in which reigningAEW champion Kenny Omegaand his faction The Elite were beating up Omega’s next opponent, Christian. It was a fun, hilarious segment, but watchful viewers noticed a sign held up by the audience behind the action. The sign read “KEFKA > SEPHIROTH,” a comparison betweenFinal Fantasy 6’s cackling God of Magic andFinal Fantasy 7’s sword-wielding summoner of Meteor.
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Regarding the context of the sign, there’s not much to it. It’s become an inside joke among wrestling audiences, and AEW’s in particular, for “hot takes” to be shared via signs. The sign alleging thatKefka is a better villain than Sephirothis supposed to be all in good fun, but also to stir up some heat among video game nerds at home who feel like arguing the point. “KEFKA > SEPHIROTH” is genuinely one of the tamer signs of the past several months.
There is some extra context to the sign that may or may not have been theAEW fan’s intent, however. Kenny Omega is perhaps best known for a heel run in the Japanese pro wrestling promotion NJPW in which his character was based on Sephiroth. Now Omega is doing a new heel run at AEW, a run where he’s much more of a comical madman. Because of Omega’s Sephiroth character before, some are calling this Omega’s Kefka run. It’s perhaps unrelated, however.
AEW has become ground zero for signs regarding JRPGs, retro video game, and other hilarious gaming arguments and they only seem to be growing more and more heated. Other signs at this week’s show include “The Worst Fire Emblem Game Is Better Than The Best Paper Mario,” “#FREEMVC2” in effort to get Capcom to re-release Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and “NERF Sol Badguy” in reference to theGuilty Gear Strive character’s current strength.
On tonight’s episode of AEW Rampage, thehugely popular wrestler CM Punkis expected to debut. But there will be a portion of the audience whose attention will be focused elsewhere. Instead of watching the action, they’ll be watching the audience for new video game signs.AEW’s become a destination for video game nerds.
