AEW Full Gear 2021 (Sat 13th Nov)

[Pinc]

Great show. Eddie Kingston is the new Stone Cold if they want him to be.

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, Infinity Land said:

What are the gory details?

He was publicly accused in 2018 and went back to work in RoH. He was publicly accused again during SpeakingOut and went back to work in RoH. This hasn't been something new in the wrestling world. While the wrestling committee were happy to blackball Scurll from RoH and then NJPW Strong. Lethal hasn't had the same issue.

And this is most of the problem with the whole scene of Speaking Out. All I could see about Lethal was accusations of people not being pushed for not sleeping with him in 2018. Or 1 person then, 3 more said the same last year. I guess it’s hard to prove if he had that much sway or not with the booking/management in ROH. It is absolutely shitty behaviour.

But we have people like Banks, Starr, Scrull, Gallagher, Havok and Riddle. All accused of Rape or Sexual Violence, sometimes with minors. They have all lost their gigs and been blacklisted except Riddle who with the help of a Lawyer printing out statements on CD paper ended up getting a major push in WWE instead. 

And it’s ok to say I’m wrong in saying this, but for me there are levels in this bad behaviour. The latter guys should all be blacklisted from the industry. Hell, there should be police investigations and arrests. There were people who said ROH did get police involved with Lethal but wasn’t taken further. I don’t think individuals who offer preferential treatment to people who will sleep with them should be blacklisted, but they should not be allowed to be in any positions of power. 

I’m basically defending the hiring of someone I don’t actually care one way of the other for. But I don’t think everyone named in this are on the same level. For me there is a distinction of people being cunts and people being criminals. And there are probably even more people who could be involved in Speaking Out and haven’t been outed and most likely won’t be because the people involved aren’t comfortable with speaking out about their experience. But it unfortunately happens in all industries.

[Chris B]

It's an incredibly frustrating move to bring Lethal in, considering the accusations. It's another case where a wrestler is using their clout to damage women's careers. I'm hoping he'll be an easily-skippable part of the show (and that there's enough fan backlash that they don't try to do much with him).

Also frustrating because it put a damper on a really good show. Pretty much every match could have been a main event of a good episode of Dynamite. Everything's already been covered, so a couple of random thoughts.

Baron Von Rashchke looking like the happiest man in the world doing his Iron Claw made me laugh a lot.

I've rarely thought this, but did Adam Cole use fake blood? Considering how covered his face was, it didn't get anywhere else - no marks, no drips. Punk got similarly busted open and he was bleeding all over the place.

[gmoney]

5 minutes ago, Chris B said:

 

I've rarely thought this, but did Adam Cole use fake blood? Considering how covered his face was, it didn't get anywhere else - no marks, no drips. Punk got similarly busted open and he was bleeding all over the place.

I thought it looked a bit odd at first, but then it seemed to flow later in the match, so I don't think it was. 

[DavidB6937]

Not wanting to skip over the Lethal stuff (and that conversation seems to be happening in the other topic), but I had to watch Punk and Eddie again this morning. I think I loved it even more this time round. It's a genuine character masterclass. All it took them was the entrances to make you realise shit was going down, and it didn't matter if you'd seen the build up or anything like that. It was clear that we had two guys who absolutely fucking despised each other at that point, had no interest in doing poses or any other shit, and genuinely just wanted to mess each other up. What an unusual and enjoyable vibe. I know you get 'feuds' but so many of them miss what feels like legit heat between the opponents.

The match itself played all of that up too. Eddie's big fuck you opening hit. Punk focusing on his more vicious strikes and knees. The blood gave it just that little bit more. So many times throughout I had no idea who was going to win. That's one of the most important things about Eddie Kingston - he makes you believe he can win against anyone. And perhaps even more importantly - he makes you want him to win. How many people are getting CM Punk booed at this point in his career? I would've LOVED to be in that crowd for that match.

Punk's an absolute pro too. For everything Eddie delivered here, the man on the other side of the ring knew exactly what he was doing. He knows how to play a crowd. He knows how to tell a story. I know a fair few people have called his run underwhelming so far, portraying a man who's just 'happy to be there' but that wasn't the man we got at Full Gear. This was a glimpse of the man we hopefully get going forward at some point. For me it's the best version of Punk. Deadly and slightly unhinged with an edge and a cocky streak.

I'm sure I'll watch the match over and over. For all the tears Hangman Page brought to my face, Punk and Eddie made me feel alive.

[Guest]

Have to say I’m the opposite on Kingston @DavidB6937, I don’t think he can win given all his losses, but I’ll be happy shocked when he does have that big win. Seen him Described as the Shirt & Tie era Mankind, he could shock win a big one and give a massive moment 

[Supremo]

I had no idea until I read it this morning that Kingston and Punk went eleven minutes.

A lesson to everyone else on this roster.

[The King of Old School]

On Lethal, the live crowd gave him a great reception. Was it the shock value and it will eventually wear off?  I don't know much about him really, remember when he was pretending to e Macho Man and obviously seen the allegations etc.

Loved the show though, only match I didn't really care for was the Cody tag. Thought everything else was brilliant.

Special mention to Punk/Kingston though, incredible and my new favourite match of the year. Hangman getting his moment was every bit as good as I thought it would be too.

[DavidB6937]

The one thing I noticed with a couple of matches is how they didn't necessarily have my attention to start with but once they clicked they really clicked.

I thought Luchas/FTR felt a bit off for a while but really enjoyed it by the end.

And Miro/Daniel Bryan BRYAN DANIELSON took a while to get going but I did think it was decent. I don't know if my hopes were too high on that one but yeah I'd like to see them face off again.

[Jazzy G]

I look forward to the "BRYAN DANIELSON!" montage on the next episode of Botchamania. Interestingly one of my mates who insisted on calling him Bryan Danielson for the whole of his WWE run has also started inexplicably calling him Daniel Bryan since he arrived in AEW. 

Punk & Eddie was a real pallette cleanser after a pretty baggy middle portion of the show. Brought the crowd back after Cody killed them off. 

[FLips]

It would have been a perfect PPV if you got rid of the Cody tag and changed the stip in either of the Jungle Boy/Jericho tags and changed the match order a bit. MJF and Darby's MOTN followed by Lucha Bros followed by Danielson was too much fast paced workrate back to back and by the time it got halfway through the Lucha match I couldn't be arsed any more. All 3 of them going around 20 minutes each didn't help either. 

I imagine this PPV will hold up better over time when you can skip matches or split it up a bit. Watching 4 hours of non-stop wrestling til 5am was a killer and it was lucky I was so invested in the main event and that Punk and Eddie had a killer match to wake me back up.

[Pinc]

3 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

Punk's an absolute pro too. For everything Eddie delivered here, the man on the other side of the ring knew exactly what he was doing. He knows how to play a crowd. He knows how to tell a story. I know a fair few people have called his run underwhelming so far, portraying a man who's just 'happy to be there' but that wasn't the man we got at Full Gear.

I’ve been thinking about Punk and his character and had worried they weren’t going to find the right niche for him. In WWE his character was built on being an anti-company man. Which is great when the company is a heel, but everyone loves AEW so that’s not going to work. So does he just… have wrestling matches with a smile on his face? Wasn’t working for me Clive.

I still think he’s going to have to turn heel eventually as Eddie is a unique character and not everyone can conjure a sense of such real hatred in about twenty minutes of TV, but for now this looks like a workable version of Punk with some nice shades of grey mixed in. Also thought this was the first AEW match he’s had where he didn’t seem blown up. More of this please.

[DavidB6937]

Forgot the most stupid thing of the night which was Brock Lesnar Guy pointing to the sky while everyone was chanting Eddie for Kingston. Twat.

[Merzbow]

How fucked is the women's division? That's the best they could do for possibly their biggest ppv yet, a decent match but absolutely lacking any kind of heat and they think they can fill a second championship?

Punk was right when he said there was no point in creating the TBS title yet.

[TildeGuy~!]

Fun show but I had to watch it in 2 sittings, the matches just go on forever. 

Punk/Kingston was the shortest and the best match on the card.

Britt Baker is shit.