AEW Full Gear 2023 - November 18th

[LaGoosh]

This was a good show, though probably not as all round good as All In, All Out and Wrestledream but those were 3 of the best PPVs ever so probably unfair to hold them to such a high standard. In many ways this turned out to be a one match show but by god what a match!

- Opening trios was excellent. Just strong, solid as a rock proper pro wrestling with all the good stuff: dastardly heels, beloved babyfaces, great selling, fiery comebacks, babyface-in-peril stuff. If Flair wasn't out there being shit and a cunt it'd would have been one of those perfect match templates. Adam Copeland was clearly having an absolute blast out there and that really came through. It's good to know the guys out there are having a good time. Christian doing a full on runner at the end was hilarious.

- Really enjoyed Mox/OC2 and again it was a pretty perfectly put together match with a great story. It's a shame Mox's injury had taken most of the steam out of the built because this deserves a better reaction. Top stuff.

- Toni Storm winning was probably the right result but the frying pan hanging out her arse was stupid. I'd have been alright with it usually but Shida is great and deserves better than being beaten by someone hitting them with their arse covered in a frying pan.

- Ladder match was solid. Unsurprisingly the best moments were when they ditched the ladders and just let them leather the shit out of each other. RUSH is obviously fantastic and needs to ditch LFI and go singles full time ASAP.  For the most part the bumps weren't too crazy which was a relief, I think everyone came out of this looking pretty good and the right team won. Two singles matches I'd very much like to see coming out of their interactions in this match: Big Bill vs Brody King and Rush vs Cash Wheeler.

- I'm a big Kris Statlander fan and was disappointed she lost the TBS title as I felt like she had more in the tank as the Champion but maybe feeling like this is a good thing? As a fan perhaps I should be sad that one of my faves lost the title when I wanted to see more and angry that a heel stole it off her. 

- Every now and again I think there has to be a match that just pushes the limit and goes too far into jaw dropping, horrific spectacle territory. Last time I saw a match like that was Killshot (Swerve Strickland) vs AR Fox in Lucha Underground where they did a 2/3 falls Hell of War which just went too crazy. With that match in memory it wasn't a huge surprise that years later Swerve turned it all the way back to that level of brutality again. I was definitely surprised at how violent Hangman got though! Texas Death was INCREDIBLE and deserves to be talked about for years. I wish we could have had prime JR calling it, screaming "GOOD GOD! GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY!" all the way through. The blood in the mouth spot is one of the grossest things I've ever seen but I loved it - instantly raised the match into "oh fuck" territory. Hangman told Swerve he was going to take him to Hell and a man drinking your own blood is probably the closest thing you can get to that. Outside of all the brilliant an disturbing spots I think the work in between was really good - exhausted selling, hateful and pained facials expressions, desperate scrapping and brawling. One of those few matches you watch between your fingers because you have no idea how much further they're going to take it. Both men come out of this looking like stars but Swerve is THE guy. If they aren't currently blueprinting his road to taking the title from MJF they are fucking idiots. The whole thing was an unbelievable concoction of hate, violence and drama. If I could change just two things from the match they would have been 1) Swerve shouldn't have been doing a big Hulk Up no-selling comeback and 2) no one should ever hit anyone with a cinder block in wrestling ever - that would kill someone, it's too unbelievable. But that ending imagine, Swerve hanging the Hangman with both drenched in sweat and blood - fuck me, wrestling is great sometimes.

- After that it was pretty impossible to care about Golden Jets vs Young Bucks even though the work was decent. I'm one of the bigger Jericho defenders on here probably but he is fucking ice cold right now and I can't think of anything they could do to make him interesting. If he could be a lower/midcard comedy character I'd probably enjoy him again. Omega needs to be back in a prominent singles position and away from Jericho and Ibushi.

- I think if they had kept the MJF thing as "the Gunns injured his knee and now he's going into the main event injured" it all would have been completely fine. But the cancellation, Cole stepping in then MJF turning up last minute stuff was just too much. And it was hard to buy MJF's knee injury from a steel chair shot when we had just seen Hangman and Swerve trying to murder each other. Regardless, I thought the match eventually turned into a really good one and I totally bought into the drama when it looked like Cole was going to throw in the towel. Another strong title defence from MJF and a good showing from Jay White who is now firmly established as an upper midcard star.

- Bit strange and disappointing they didn't further the Devil angle. Even a little thing at the end would have been good, like a video clip of The Devil clapping MJF's victory in a sinister manner. I still think the Devil should be Swerve.

Edited November 20, 2023 by LaGoosh

[Chili]

I'm in pathetic nerd fantasy booking mode but I'd love this loss to really stir up Adam Page and I'd absolutely love if he even started calling himself 'The Hanged Man'. Someone got his number and he couldn't avenge a real personal issue. That should proper drive him. Make that man the gunslinger sheriff of AEW. Never turn him heel, don't put him back with the stupid faced Young Bucks (Matt Jackson is still a twat Hanger, don't ever forget it). Just having fighting alone, but now with a real harder dark edge. He drank blood for fucks sake.

Hangman has never looked more a top, proud babyface than after that TDM with Mox at Revolution, just about being able to amble triumphantly up the aisle, looking like a cowboy leaving at sundown after winning a proper ruck.

And that's why I'm not a wrestling booker.

Also I am very, very on board with Swerve Strickland winning the World Title next year. He is absolutely on it at the moment. We'll all be doing the Nana dance in tears of joy. He's an incredible villain and has the Eddie Kingston vibe of feeling outside of wrestling characters. 

Edited November 20, 2023 by Chili

[TildeGuy~!]

I’ll take a Swerve/Ospreay Title match to main event Wembley next year please.

[WeeAl]

I expect Ospreay coming in has him nailed on to be getting the title at All In. Which unfortunately will have weird implications for everyone else, as after Saturday 's show, Swerve should be the next champion - and really soon - and Hangman could do with the revenge of beating him for the title after losing in "his" match when he goes after Swerve again. The timeline isn't going to add up for that though. 

Swerve Vs Hangman was a magnificent piece of business. It cemented Swerve, finally, at the top of the card. Two sick bastards they were here too. It's all in the follow up here again though, as I mentioned above, for losing that match, Hangman needs to be booked incredibly strong in the coming months. 

It seems AEW have decided to do PPV's every 4-6 weeks or so. Max has to defend against Joe first, if that's not at Winter is Coming then it'll be World's End. In that case I'd be getting the title on Swerve by the end of January at the latest, whatever that PPV ends up being. He doesn't need to be a transitional champ, so he needs at least a run before Tony decides to go with the hometown win in Wembley in August. 

The main event made fuck all sense the whole night, but it finally started to draw me in when Cole had the spots with the towel, the belt and the ring. Clearly, he's the devil, but he is actually injured. We just aren't going to know at what point he's no longer injured until they do the Kaiser Soze reveal when both of Cole's legs are working and MJF gets a kick in the bollocks. 

Absolutely not on at all for this new tournament carry on. They have managed to make it less interesting than it already was. 

Mox and OC was class, as expected. I would have gone for 2-3 less Orange Punches though, I don't think it needed that. Well up for the rubber match whenever it may be. 

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by WeeAl

[d-d-d-dAz]

6 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

This was a good show, though probably not as all round good as All In, All Out and Wrestledream but those were 3 of the best PPVs ever so probably unfair to hold them to such a high standard. In many ways this turned out to be a one match show but by god what a match!

- Opening trios was excellent. Just strong, solid as a rock proper pro wrestling with all the good stuff: dastardly heels, beloved babyfaces, great selling, fiery comebacks, babyface-in-peril stuff. If Flair wasn't out there being shit and a cunt it'd would have been one of those perfect match templates. Adam Copeland was clearly having an absolute blast out there and that really came through. It's good to know the guys out there are having a good time. Christian doing a full on runner at the end was hilarious.

- Really enjoyed Mox/OC2 and again it was a pretty perfectly put together match with a great story. It's a shame Mox's injury had taken most of the steam out of the built because this deserves a better reaction. Top stuff.

- Toni Storm winning was probably the right result but the frying pan hanging out her arse was stupid. I'd have been alright with it usually but Shida is great and deserves better than being beaten by someone hitting them with their arse covered in a frying pan.

- Ladder match was solid. Unsurprisingly the best moments were when they ditched the ladders and just let them leather the shit out of each other. RUSH is obviously fantastic and needs to ditch LFI and go singles full time ASAP.  For the most part the bumps weren't too crazy which was a relief, I think everyone came out of this looking pretty good and the right team won. Two singles matches I'd very much like to see coming out of their interactions in this match: Big Bill vs Brody King and Rush vs Cash Wheeler.

- I'm a big Kris Statlander fan and was disappointed she lost the TBS title as I felt like she had more in the tank as the Champion but maybe feeling like this is a good thing? As a fan perhaps I should be sad that one of my faves lost the title when I wanted to see more and angry that a heel stole it off her. 

- Every now and again I think there has to be a match that just pushes the limit and goes too far into jaw dropping, horrific spectacle territory. Last time I saw a match like that was Killshot (Swerve Strickland) vs AR Fox in Lucha Underground where they did a 2/3 falls Hell of War which just went too crazy. With that match in memory it wasn't a huge surprise that years later Swerve turned it all the way back to that level of brutality again. I was definitely surprised at how violent Hangman got though! Texas Death was INCREDIBLE and deserves to be talked about for years. I wish we could have had prime JR calling it, screaming "GOOD GOD! GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY!" all the way through. The blood in the mouth spot is one of the grossest things I've ever seen but I loved it - instantly raised the match into "oh fuck" territory. Hangman told Swerve he was going to take him to Hell and a man drinking your own blood is probably the closest thing you can get to that. Outside of all the brilliant an disturbing spots I think the work in between was really good - exhausted selling, hateful and pained facials expressions, desperate scrapping and brawling. One of those few matches you watch between your fingers because you have no idea how much further they're going to take it. Both men come out of this looking like stars but Swerve is THE guy. If they aren't currently blueprinting his road to taking the title from MJF they are fucking idiots. The whole thing was an unbelievable concoction of hate, violence and drama. If I could change just two things from the match they would have been 1) Swerve shouldn't have been doing a big Hulk Up no-selling comeback and 2) no one should ever hit anyone with a cinder block in wrestling ever - that would kill someone, it's too unbelievable. But that ending imagine, Swerve hanging the Hangman with both drenched in sweat and blood - fuck me, wrestling is great sometimes.

- After that it was pretty impossible to care about Golden Jets vs Young Bucks even though the work was decent. I'm one of the bigger Jericho defenders on here probably but he is fucking ice cold right now and I can't think of anything they could do to make him interesting. If he could be a lower/midcard comedy character I'd probably enjoy him again. Omega needs to be back in a prominent singles position and away from Jericho and Ibushi.

- I think if they had kept the MJF thing as "the Gunns injured his knee and now he's going into the main event injured" it all would have been completely fine. But the cancellation, Cole stepping in then MJF turning up last minute stuff was just too much. And it was hard to buy MJF's knee injury from a steel chair shot when we had just seen Hangman and Swerve trying to murder each other. Regardless, I thought the match eventually turned into a really good one and I totally bought into the drama when it looked like Cole was going to throw in the towel. Another strong title defence from MJF and a good showing from Jay White who is now firmly established as an upper midcard star.

- Bit strange and disappointing they didn't further the Devil angle. Even a little thing at the end would have been good, like a video clip of The Devil clapping MJF's victory in a sinister manner. I still think the Devil should be Swerve.

This is close to a perfect review.

Though, I’d maybe add that I think Jay White looks a bit of a loser coming out of it.

That said, agree with pretty much everything here.

Edited November 20, 2023 by d-d-d-dAz

[RedRooster]

6 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

If they aren't currently blueprinting his road to taking the title from MJF they are fucking idiots.

There’s a fucking phenomenal story to be told with Swerve as champ, and Hangman eventually going after the title, desperate for revenge on the back of his two defeats and Swerve’s reprehensible actions. That long term plot line - that goal for Hangman - could be what takes them through much of 2024.

[Kfogg1991]

I am absolutely ecstatic that will osprey is the newly signed talent for aew. 

Say what you want about him and he can be a absolute tit, he is so so talented in the ring and he created his own path when every single British wrestler signed to NXT UK and went to the WWE he stayed with new Japan and continued to grow and put on phenomenal matches and put in so much effort to live over there so he really has earned this opportunity in a huge company in the states, and it's definitely the right choice because him in the WWE would be a wasted situation.

We have too get osprey Vs omega 3 at all in in Wembley please God 

[DavidB6937]

19 minutes ago, Kfogg1991 said:

it's definitely the right choice because him in the WWE would be a wasted situation.

I think they would've done everything they could with him. It's 2023. You could argue he may have potentially stood out even more over there and been a more unique talent.

But yeah he's definitely a better fit for AEW and no real surprise he went there. Hopefully he doesn't suffer from Tony's tendency to jump all over the place and get distracted by the next new toy.

[Daaaaaad!]

Can I jump in and say that I hated the booking and situation surrounding Orange Cassidy vs. Jon Moxley 2 as much as I enjoyed the match itself? Perhaps it's because I needed to watch wrestling more closely, but when I saw it, OC got the jobber entrance (i.e. none) and they then cut away from his victory to show a package about Mark Briscoe?

I love Orange, but I'd have liked to see Moxley beat him again here. Make it a real 'white whale' situation for OC, especially since he's actually regained the title. Think Cormier/Jones but in a world where you can fix it so Cormier finally wins in the end. Great match and I really like both guys but I felt the occasion was glossed over when it should've been a bigger deal considering the same match main evented All Out.

[Supremo]

Between the fans, referee and wrestlers, there isn’t a facial expression in this photograph that isn’t brilliant. Proper pro-wrestling. I’ll remember this match forever.

[Chris B]

Hangman/Swerve was a work of art. As wrestling, as story, as believability, as performance, as shock value, as imagery. That was astonishing.

Small point, but one thing that made an enormous difference to a lot of other death matches (and Mox has been bad for this at times) - having weapons that are set up and used for one moment, and then get ignored. With this, the staple gun and barbed wire chair, the lengths of barbed wire - they kept going back to them when they were nearby, because of course you would.

But yeah, that was an absolute 'couldn't-take-your-eyes-off' piece of art, and the extremity was an important part of that.

[BomberPat]

11 hours ago, Daaaaaad! said:

Can I jump in and say that I hated the booking and situation surrounding Orange Cassidy vs. Jon Moxley 2 as much as I enjoyed the match itself? Perhaps it's because I needed to watch wrestling more closely, but when I saw it, OC got the jobber entrance (i.e. none) and they then cut away from his victory to show a package about Mark Briscoe?

That definitely wasn't the case. Orange got his full entrance, and they dwelled on his celebration for quite a while before cutting away. 

I watched the show last night. Some good matches, as you'd expect from AEW, with Hangman vs. Swerve being the obvious highlight, but a highlight I could probably gladly never watch again. The main event angle was a black hole of logic, hated almost all of it. 

[RedRooster]

13 hours ago, Kfogg1991 said:

Say what you want about him and he can be a absolute tit, he is so so talented in the ring and he created his own path when every single British wrestler signed to NXT UK and went to the WWE he stayed with new Japan and continued to grow and put on phenomenal matches and put in so much effort to live over there so he really has earned this opportunity in a huge company in the states, and it's definitely the right choice because him in the WWE would be a wasted situation.

It's not Vince McMahon's WWE anymore. I imagine he'd have been a big star for the company, had that been his choice; and had he avoided making a tit of himself while he was there. 

27 minutes ago, Chris B said:

But yeah, that was an absolute 'couldn't-take-your-eyes-off' piece of art, and the extremity was an important part of that.

I rewatched the match - something I rarely do, not least with something so graphic - and what struck me more than anything else was the level of disdain I felt - and continue to feel for Swerve. He's Joffrey from Game of Thrones, Hector from Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul, Homelander from The Boys - an utterly reprehensible villain with no redeeming features whatsoever. It's impossible to cheer his villainy, or to get behind him in any way. I want him to win the World title because he's a brilliant character; and it's exciting to consider what might come next from a storyline perspective. But I doubt I'd cheer his win. I wanted him to beat Hangman in both matches, but when the moment of victory came, while I felt like it was the right result, I didn't feel good about it. Hangman was, of course, an important part of the equation; but ultimately, Swerve has mastered the art of coming across as a nasty, horrible bastard in a way MJF could only dream of. There are so many subtleties to his character, both in ring and outside of it - he's a tremendous heel, and if 2024 isn't a massive year for him; Tony Khan has fucked up badly. 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

14 hours ago, Kfogg1991 said:

him in the WWE would be a wasted situation.

There are a number of physiotherapists and chiropractors who are breathing a huge sigh of relief that he signed for AEW. 

I know Ospreay has toned it down a bit, but his back must be ruined already. Had he gone to WWE he certainly would have been reined in a bit more. The one thing that is consistent about pro wrestlers though is their lack of regard for the future of their bodies. I don't like him as a person, I enjoy a lot of his matches but I wouldn't want to see him fully Dynamited and unable to pay his Sky bill. 

[300]

Doesn’t look like the show will be on ITV4 this Thursday ?

Does anyone know what’s going on there?