AEW Full Gear 2021 (Sat 13th Nov)

[Factotum]

Kingston/Punk was just perfect. Fuck me what a war.

Hangman getting the win was the feelgood moment. Going to be interesting where they go with Bryan and him. BD can certainly heel it up with the best of them, but yeah you almost think heel Punk is the perfect opponent for Hangman. Plenty of time and plenty of options!

[The King Of Swing]

3 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

Is she? She's incredibly over and certainly the best female character they've got on the roster. Is she as good in-ring? No, but I think shit is pushing it.

I don't think she's shit but her matches are almost always the low point of any given show. 

Her title reign has been a massive bore for me. Basically the exact same match every time. 

[DavidB6937]

5 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

I don't think she's shit but her matches are almost always the low point of any given show. 

Her title reign has been a massive bore for me. Basically the exact same match every time. 

Doesn't really help that everything else on a given PPV is usually of a really high standard. Definitely makes the sub-par stuff stand out more.

[Sphinx]

2 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

There’s a lot of stuff that WWE do that is terrible, but their promo packages tend to do an outstanding job. Had WWE been producing this, that Pre-match video package would’ve been 3 times longer and hit every major plot point. What we got though here (and despite the special bit of entrance for Hangman) just seemed a bit rushed and not the culmination of something that’s had the better part of a full years worth of build. 

I realise I’m probably in the minority in thinking that and I’m not saying that it was a bad or anything like that, but it just didn’t feel like what Hangman’s crowning moment should’ve been

I'm with you on that. I know there's a lot to uncover with this story but I was glad I watched the YouTube compilations of the story beforehand as it seemed to miss a lot and didn't build anticipation as much as I'd have liked. 

Also, as was said earlier, the Young Bucks nods made the finish feel flat to me. I just put it down to me not following the story from the start and I guess that Adam Cole will become new leader so it feeds into that but the feel good moment for me is everyone trying to stop him winning and him overcoming the odds. There's enough of the Bucks being dicks that you want to see them get their comeuppance, not give him their approval.

[Chris B]

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

I just can’t figure out what they’re waiting for in not pairing her back up with Thunder Rosa. They clearly have great chemistry together, Rosa is the really fucking good, seems over with the crowds, they’ve got the storyline reason with Rosa having an, “unsanctioned,” win. I don’t know what the hold up is.

They didn't need it here. Save that one for a show or PPV that isn't stacked. I'd have liked them to do some more story with Tay Conti though - there was relatively little interest, because it was clear she wasn't going to win. Two weeks ago, she was in the middle of a feud with Bunny and Penelope along with Anna Jay. A couple of weeks of build would have helped a lot. 

[TildeGuy~!]

30 minutes ago, Sphinx said:

I'm with you on that. I know there's a lot to uncover with this story but I was glad I watched the YouTube compilations of the story beforehand as it seemed to miss a lot and didn't build anticipation as much as I'd have liked. 

Also, as was said earlier, the Young Bucks nods made the finish feel flat to me. I just put it down to me not following the story from the start and I guess that Adam Cole will become new leader

The Young Bucks nod felt like a call back to an AJ Styles/Kota Ibushi match in NJPW, Omega refusing to interfere on behalf of the Bullet Club leader Styles whilst defending the title against his former best friend Ibushi.

I can see Omega taking some much deserved rest, with Steen coming in early next year to reunite with The Bucks and Cole to reform Mount Rushmore.

[LaGoosh]

2 minutes ago, TildeGuy~! said:

The Young Bucks nod felt like a call back to an AJ Styles/Kota Ibushi match in NJPW, Omega refusing to interfere on behalf of the Bullet Club leader Styles whilst defending the title against his former best friend Ibushi.

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't but your probably the only person who would have made that connection. 

Bryan Danielson has been absolutely tearing it up recently to the point that I think Punk's matches have been a bit overlooked. While I have been loving Danielson's run so far I think I'm enjoying Punk even more. He isn't having these huge epic crazy matches filled with death defying high spots or brutal chops that leave chests bloody. He's been far more subtle, story and psychology focused in his matches. He doesn't do a whole lot but everything he does in his matches really means something. He's working like a modern day Bret Hart. Simple yet incredibly satisfying matches to watch. Punk got the biggest reaction of the entire night by simply raising his hand in the air. I'm loving the slow story of him going from happy-to-be-here exhibition matches to getting into proper feuds and his real smug asshole personality slowly creeping into his matches. He's the best.

 

[Briefcase]

4 hours ago, HLSXN said:

Couldn’t agree more. Everton guy too.

Brock Lesnar guy is the absolute worst. Not one genuine reaction to anything he’s watching. You can actually see him looking for the camera then breaking out a chant when he realises he’ll be on screen. Everton guy might want to match his t-shirts to his chants occasionally too!

I think I said this years ago on here in some sort of Super-fan thread, but when I was at WM32 Axxess Brock Lesnar guy was using his 'celeb status' to be allowed into the disabled line (which is basically a fast track) with the meets & greets basically saying that WWE fans wouldn't leave him alone and he couldn't stand in a normal queue. Yet comes across as attention seeking at all the shows on camera. Twat. 

Edited November 15, 2021 by Briefcase

[BomberPat]

Weird show. A couple of genuinely great matches, and the ending that they absolutely needed to get right, but outside of the Hangman win, a lot of my feelings coming out of it are of things that were just slightly off.

MJF vs. Darby Allin was a really good opener - I don't rate MJF, but he showed here that he can have great matches with the right opponents, and doesn't need to over-rely on the edgelord cheap heat to get there. One of the benefits of WWE having basically stopped their heels from ever actually cheating is that a lot of hokey old heel finishes feel relatively fresh - MJF just being the guy to keep going to that well works for me in all of the ways that his promos don't. As confident as he is, and as well as he carries himself, he always has an air of somebody playing at being a wrestling heel to me, I find nothing believable about him at all, and that stops me getting particularly invested in his matches. This one was great, though, for what it was. I don't know if they'd hammered home the "can beat Darby Allin with a headlock takeover" idea before this show, or if it came up on the night - I liked it, but would like it more if it had a bit of build, as it did seem a bit of a random boast.

I loved Lucha Brothers vs. FTR. I couldn't watch a whole card of Lucha Bros style stuff, as it's exhausting and starts to get a bit much after a while, but this was two teams with shit hot timing and different styles that just meshed together very well. The attempt at a Killer Bees mask swap thing was a bit nonsensical, especially with the commentators actively calling out that it wasn't the legal man, so that shit on Rick Knox's credibility as the referee for being the only person to not pick up on that, but I'm assuming it's designed to give FTR an out and a way to weasel their way into a rematch. Speaking of Rick Knox, I noticed him getting up to six or seven on a count when both tag partners were in the ring, and realised that I don't think AEW have even mentioned since their first show that they do a ten count rather than a five count in tag matches, and I wish they'd make more of a point of that sort of thing. I liked the spot where Penta got his mask tied to the ropes, and wish it had actually played into something rather than just being a bit of business for a few seconds. Fenix does things that shouldn't be possible, and that just carries significant chunks of his matches even if they aren't good.

Danielson vs. Miro was fantastic, absolutely flew by for a twenty minute match. I wanted Miro to win, to set him as a scary heel challenger for Hangman, but I'm curious how Hangman/Danielson will go.

Falls Count Anywhere had some fun spots but was way too fucking long. I wouldn't have put money on Christian Cage, of all the people in this match, being the one to do a balcony dive, nor the story being "today Jungle Boy became a Jungle Man", but there we are.

Absolutely hated Cody & PAC vs. Andrade & Malakai Black. Absolute balls of a match that played to nobody's strengths. At a time when WWE are rightly getting routinely ragged on for doing it constantly, the competition doing an unironic "BUT CAN THEY CO-EXIST?" story, and having the commentators repeatedly ask that question, is a huge misstep. That they also decided to have the other team struggle to "co-exist" as well, had Cody sit out half the match, it just all added up to something that never got into the right gear and never really went anywhere. Having Malakai Black in this kind of situation makes him already feel less special than he did before, it drags everyone into the orbit of whatever nonsense they think they're doing with Cody, and it felt like Arn Anderson was the only babyface in the match.

Britt Baker vs. Tay Conti was just fine. Speaking of playing to nobody's strengths, there were some far too ambitious spots and ideas in this match for someone as relatively inexperienced and in need of being well protected as Tay Conti is. They were selling her as Britt's biggest challenge, but there really wasn't any kayfabe justification for that. It could have made for a good story if they really played up Tay's Jiu-Jitsu background, but other than a few takedowns at the beginning, she just wrestled a bog standard modern wrestling style, so apparently Britt's "biggest challenge" was just another fairly standard wrestler. It wasn't bad, but it didn't really click, or add up to the story they seemed to want to tell. I agree with a lot of the talk about Britt Baker on here - she's a lot better than she was when she started out with AEW, when I didn't rate her at all, yet she was clearly handpicked as the golden girl of the division. I assume that they saw drive and potential and work ethic and whatnot in her and got behind her on that, knowing that she'd get better and better as they went along, and she absolutely has, but I don't think she's "carrying a division" good, and could do with more matches with experienced workers than what she's getting. She's not good enough to be the one carrying rookies to anything above their station.

Punk vs. Kingston was fantastic. Felt like a genuinely heated fight between real people, without falling into worked MMA stuff, mock-NJPW "you hit me, then I hit you" strike exchanges, or Shawn Michaels over-acting. Everything felt legit, everything felt earned, and Punk worked with a crowd that weren't in his corner to perfection without letting them turn him heel. Both men were absolute pros and came out of the match with more to show for it than they went in with. Neither needed a star-making match, and this wasn't necessarily that, but it's definitely one that puts both in a more interesting position than what they went in with, and I hope we get a rematch.

The Inner Circle vs. ATT was a weird disjointed mess. The usual weird No DQ tag match thing of everyone carefully making tags at the beginning even though they don't have to, until eventually it falls apart and nobody bothers any more, which messes up the dynamic of Dan Lambert hiding behind his fighters. Speaking of playing to nobody's strengths - they barely mentioned Junior Dos Santos or Andrei Arlovski in the pre-show or the pre-match hype, their names weren't on the match graphics, they were an absolute afterthought. Just such a weird use of that level of name - and then using both of them as generic mooks rather than playing to their strengths was just weird. Chris Jericho holding his own in a punch-off with JDS was a good laugh, though. Loved the Baron Von Raschke cameo, not sure this was the match for it.

Main event was great, right winner, could have done without Young Bucks over-acting - though assuming that's leading to Elite dissension and, eventually, Adam Cole stepping up to replace Kenny. 

Too many apron spots. I think there was a move on the apron in every single match.

[wordsfromlee]

22 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Too many apron spots. I think there was a move on the apron in every single match.

This seems to be a big thing in WWE too. They've had a massive hard-on for apron spots ever since Kevin Owens debut on that NXT Takeover. At least AEW doesn't have Michael Cole shouting "the hardest part of the ring!" every time someone does one.

[Chris B]

14 minutes ago, wordsfromlee said:

This seems to be a big thing in WWE too. They've had a massive hard-on for apron spots ever since Kevin Owens debut on that NXT Takeover. At least AEW doesn't have Michael Cole shouting "the hardest part of the ring!" every time someone does one.

Excalibur kept pointing out that the ring posts are the hardest point of the ring.

[Merzbow]

Not just apron shots, there were multiple times where spots were repeated between two or more matches which makes me wonder who the hell is agenting/producing here?

Also, who told everyone they could say fuck? That should have really only been a one off thing for Kingston, the impact lessens every time some other cunt shouts it.

[wordsfromlee]

39 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Also, who told everyone they could say fuck? That should have really only been a one off thing for Kingston, the impact lessens every time some other cunt shouts it.

Same with giving their opponent the middle finger.

[JNLister]

[I Bent My Wookie]

I love him. Absolutely love him.