Cope and FTR talk to the hometown crowd.
AEW held AEW Dynamite: Fight For The Fallen at the Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina, and proceeds raised from the event went to hurricane relief. In the main event, Asheville natives Rated FTR (Cope, Dax Harwood, and Cash Wheeler) beat The Death Riders (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta).
Cope, Harwood, and Wheeler addressed the crowd after the show went off the air. Harwood discussed how he previously moved back to Asheville, and he said it was one of the greatest decisions they ever made. He highlighted the impact of Hurricane Helene. Harwood noted that he, Wheeler, and Cope wanted to bring some hope and raise some money for hurricane relief, so they thought about doing a live event, but Tony Khan said they should do a televised show in Asheville.
“Last time I was in this building, guys it was very bleak in the stands. We had just about 1,000 people, but tonight, you packed it out to see Rated FTR, and we love you guys. Thank you very much," Harwood said.
Cope then commented on returning to the ring for the first time since he suffered a fractured tibia, and he sent a powerful message to the Asheville community by highlighting their strength and their perseverence in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
“First match back in seven months. One more surgery, another plate, seven screws, don’t matter. Because guess what? I live in the 828. Here in the 828, we’re tough sons of bitches. We don’t let a hurricane keep us down, do we? No, we don’t. We pick ourselves up, we dust ourselves off, we dig out, and we all come and have a good time. I cannot say enough about this community. I cannot say enough about the things I saw when we went out trying to help some people, just like all of you did. Because we’re a community, because we’re neighbors. So if I see any of you in the street, just come on up. ‘Hey Cope, what’s up?’ ‘I don’t know man, what’s up with you?’ Maybe we have a coffee, I don’t know. But we’d have a good time, just like we had tonight. So stand up, all of you get off your asses. Everybody get up and say, ‘Go to hell, hurricane.’ Now I want to hear, ‘828.’ We’ll see you next time, Asheville. I love you," Cope said.
Click here to see what Copeland had to say about wanting to help the Asheville community.
Catch up on our coverage of AEW Dynamite: Fight For The Fallen here. For a full review, check out the post-show podcast on our YouTube channel.
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