AEW Full Gear 2023 - November 18th

[d-d-d-dAz]

1 hour ago, FUM said:

Not caring about Cole wasn’t even the worst of the logic. He didn’t compete for his Tag Team Championships because he wasn’t medically cleared then was cleared for a singles match the very same night.

To be fair to them, at that point he was just a bloke with a broken ankle. After the tag match and MJF’s attack, he was a bloke with a broken ankle who’d made a promise to his best mate that he wouldn’t let Jay White steal his title for good. I get why *he* would put himself in that position, just not why they all accepted it. His beard is a disgrace, though.

But, all in, it was an overbooked mess and the match just didn’t need it. It needed the devil reveal.

I’m a bit disappointed as well that the continental classic is for a mid-card title. It sort of feels like they’ve cheapened the tournament. With the Worlds End PPV finish for the Tourny, I had a feeling they were just going to do ‘our 12 biggest names compete to be the best’ and maybe give the winner a world title shot. Making it for a new mid-card title that will be defended in AEW, ROH and NJPW just makes it more likely they’ll stuff it with nobodies. Making it for Kingston’s titles already makes me think they’ve telegraphed he’ll be in the final.

At the very least, I was hoping for a tournament without an obvious final.

Edited November 19, 2023 by d-d-d-dAz

[I Bent My Wookie]

Excalibur swearing when Nick Jackson threw a shoe at the announce desk during his tantrum was my favourite part of the night.

[The King Of Swing]

Awful finish to another waste of time reign, for Shida. Match was rubbish, too.

Mariah May's 'obsessed fan' gimmick can also get in the bin.

TBS match was better but I'm not convinced that Julia Hart is the right choice. Felt there was more life in Stantlander's reign. 

Tag title was the typical cluster fuck, everyone expected.

Opener was fun and at least go Flair, out of the way early.

Page/Swerve was my match of the show.

The main event was really good but as others have pointed out, some awful logic holes. 

Calling it. The Devil reveal is going to be a massive wet fart.

Other stuff. 

Overall another good show that I'll forget about %90 of by next week.

[Matthew]

Enjoyed Nigel’s “the clap is normally something you’d associate with Ric Flair” being met with awkward silence from the other commentators, during the 6 man.

[The King Of Swing]

A mid-card Triple Crown is totally something Sniff lifted from an old save file. 

[kidzero]

Kyle o Reilly is something to do with the devil or his goons and jack perry as well I reckon but yeah the reveal is gonna be a total let down

[uklaw]

1 hour ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

To be fair, they’re collapsing Eddie Kingston’s titles into this new one, so they’ll actually be down one championship. 
 

I think it might be time for Tony to take a sabbatical. Get a fresh pair of eyes on things, simplify things and get back to basics.

The ONE thing that will likely not happen that probably needs to happen the most. 

[FUM]

32 minutes ago, Matthew said:

Enjoyed Nigel’s “the clap is normally something you’d associate with Ric Flair” being met with awkward silence from the other commentators, during the 6 man.

His fantastic line of Flair coming back like herpes and being just as welcome was also met with similar.

[The King of Old School]

I hope they push Swerve straight into a title program now with MJF for the next PPV.

He should be the next World Champion for me.

[69MeDon]

38 minutes ago, uklaw said:

The ONE thing that will likely not happen that probably needs to happen the most. 

My question would be, as it always is when this subject comes up, who? Where is this untouched mine of pro-wrestling booking talent? Because as far as I can see, prior to AEW, the same 4-5 dudes have been booking everything since like 1995.

On another note, I've been thinking more about the Texas Death Match and I don't see how it isn't my MOTY. Which is mad given that type of match has never been in consideration for that with me. It was just amazing, but in a totally different way than say a Omega vs Okada 1 type match.

Edited November 19, 2023 by 69MeDon

[Devon Malcolm]

I watched this! Not the free hour though, I had washing to do.

Sting, Darby Allin and Not Edge vs Christian and his kids

Just a really fun opener with plenty of stories going on. Christian's entrance was fantastic and he was great as ever during this. A couple of really badly done spots (Flair not knowing when to hit Christian, stupid old cunt) but Darby continues to be committed towards crippling himself, fair play. Nick Wayne looks like he could have something, he looked pretty good in this. Did Nigel McGuinness accuse Flair of having the clap during this? Terrific work.

Jay White haranguing Tony Schiavone was fucking shit and fake looking, what a knob. He has nothing to offer aside from good matches.

Orange Cassidy vs Jon Moxley

Ahh god. In fairness, this was one of the least bad Moxley matches I've seen, maybe because he didn't indulge in his usual stupid excesses even if he did bleed for no reason, the crap twat. Cassidy's a brilliant babyface though. This was a nice surprise!

Hikaru Shida vs Timeless Toni Storm

Toni's act is still hilarious and I'll never not find it funny. Toni adjusting her arse before winning was piss funny. Match never got going but she's the best character around right now. 

Tag team ladder match

The usual clusterfuck you get from these but a really good crowdpleaser. I didn't know who the Mexicans were but the hairy one (Rush?) seemed like fun, his stretch with Cash Wheeler was really good. Ricky Starks is every bit the charismatic, all-round great performer LA Knight thinks he is. Lots of fun, really enjoyed this.

Kris Statlander vs Skye Blue vs Julia Hart

The threeway between these three jokes write themselves. They've done superb work with Julia and Skye Blue lately and I genuinely had no idea who would win this. Statlander is absolutely superb, just the complete package. Julia gets better every match, it seems. This was probably the best match of the show. AEW could so easily have an excellent women's division!

Will Ospreay's signed! But he's not coming in yet. Thanks for that, what a waste of fucking time. Bruv.

Hangman Adam Page vs Swerve Strickland

I think Page could be the least likeable babyface in wrestling. I hate the silly twat. Swerve just pisses star power. If him or Starks aren't world champion by the end of next year then Tony Khan's a dafter cunt than I thought. The blood spot was fucking disgusting though and I never want to see that ever again. Who fucking signed off on that? It's like they switched in the middle of this, and Swerve is far more likeable so that worked for me. Not my kind of thing at all but for those who like this sort of thing I can absolutely see why this would be so highly thought of.

The Young Bucks vs Jericho and Omega

I like Omega but I hate the Young Bucks and Jericho just needs to fuck off so I wasn't looking forward to this. Jericho looks terrible and moves terrible and was completely out of place here but it wasn't as egregiously awful as I expected even though it was completely pointless.

MJF vs Jay White

All the daft bollocks aside, this felt like it went on forever but did a good job at the end of making you wonder, so well played to them for that. Also makes Jay White look like a huge idiot.

Overall I think this might be the best AEW PPV I've watched from start to finish. No real duds and I had a great time with it.

[Hannibal Scorch]

Fuck the logic of the main, this was a tribute to the kind of madness you’d see during an attitude era Raw. I’m not saying anyone is wrong for not enjoying it and thinking it’s stupid, but I’m so behind MJF at this point that I don’t care (and his performance at the media scrum after, oh my!).

I called Swerve/Page being MOTN, but Jesus wept, that match was absolutely gripping. I want Swerve to get a title run once the devil is revealed (the blood drinking spot was fucking stupid though, no one wants that bollocks). 
 

The only match which really felt flat as the Jets/Bucks. And fair play for putting that in between the TDM and the main event as that was normally the Women’s match spot, and the match wasn’t awful, but it was following something so incredible. 
 

Another homer of a PPV. And the Ospreay signing, even though he’s a bit of a knob, is very smart business and will definitely help sell All In next year.

[JLM]

Samoa Joe on Zero Hour was spectacular. Charisma through the fucking roof. Tremendous. 

Nice to see a big arena with a decent sized crowd in it. Some of the entrances had a great big time aura about them, which was nice to see after some of the sparse looking Collisions of late. 

 

Man the Sting/Darby/Copeland super team up entrance was some amazing feel good shit until Flair started doddering all over the screen. Christian Cage's entrance was one of the moments of the night. Match was a perfect opener though. Great heat, lovely little teases of Edge vs Christian. They completely denied the audience the exchanges they wanted but still left them happy. That chokeslam made me jump out of my chair in abject horror. Fucking hell Darby. 

I adored OC vs Moxley. Mox no-selling or having an immediate response to all of OC's biggest moves was beautiful, particularly the stundog millionaire straight into the elbow smashes. It felt like Mox almost wanted OC to beat him and was challenging him to find another gear throughout. Just wonderful storytelling and the closing stretch was completely triumphant and immensely satisfying. 

Storm vs Shida was a TV match. I enjoyed the double shoe spot. Feel bad for Shida and her on again/off again relationship with the world title. 

The ladder match was bonkers and I was thoroughly captivated throughout. RUSH looked the business as he always does. I also thought this environment allowed Dralistico to have his best performance for AEW so far. Insane spotfest that allowed everyone to shine and weirdly, despite all the bonkers stuff they did, didn't have anything that worried me as much as Darby's bump. 

Enjoyed the TBS 3-way. I am unashamedly biased when it comes to Statlander, but I thought she looked fantastic here. She has a similar problem to Bianca Bel Air as a babyface champion, where she is so physically dominant and looks like the clear favourite against most of the roster, so you have to stack the deck against her. The three way with these two unpredictable weirdos was the ideal dynamic. No matter how dominant she was over each of them individually, her title was under threat because it's not all under her control. Skye Blue's spooky bollocks look will need some more work I think. But yeah, fun three way and think the right result. Julia has been pushed consistently, has improved in leaps and bounds this year and is over with the audience. Absolutely get behind her. Please don't let Statlander drift after this though, after a couple of weeks shaking of the rust she's looked great during this comeback. Having the reign after the Goldberg streak wasn't an easy role to fill but she's done an excellent job. 

The Texas Deathmatch was a masterpiece. I understand that the grimness of it will be beyond many people's tolerance and I won't argue with you if that turned you off. However, for me this was so good that I had no energy left for the remainder of the show. Swerve is operating in another galaxy right now. He is such a special talent and it has been a joy to watch him put everything together over the course of his NXT and AEW runs and ascend to become one of the best in the world. Him hitting himself with the staple gun with a look of psychotic defiance on his face is one of my visuals of the year. I could give his performance 5 stars based on his facial expressions alone throughout this thing. Hatred, arrogance, agony and then at times a singular focus, like by the end he'd realised this might actually be a fight to the death and he wasn't about to lose it. Swerve's entrance was wonderful, Hangman not having an entrance was even better. Amazing fire from Hangman throughout. This feud has woken him up and I'm fascinated to see where he goes next. Swerve needs to be THE guy though. 

I skipped the Omega/Jericho vs Bucks match and will need to rewatch the main event when I'm not half asleep. Both were 7.4 star matches though I reckon. 7.45 if Omega sells the knee. 

 

[Vamp]

1 hour ago, 69MeDon said:

My question would be, as it always is when this subject comes up, who? Where is this untouched mine of pro-wrestling booking talent? Because as far as I can see, prior to AEW, the same 4-5 dudes have been booking everything since like 1995.

To be fair, Khan's experience prior to booking AEW was playing EWR. Half this board is probably just as qualified. 

[SuperBacon]

12 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

I think Page could be the least likeable babyface in wrestling. I hate the silly twat.

Thank you! I also think he has shockingly little natural charisma, but I don't know his story, sorry his fucking "lore" as much as others, so maybe I'm wrong (probably)

I've only seen that match from the PPV, and my 13yo thought it was hilarious as she was with me too. Probably not the reaction they were going for to be honest.

Gutted.