AEW Full Gear 2024 Discussion

[Chili]

12 minutes ago, Cannibal Man said:

fuck me there needs to have been a ban on spooky goth shite years ago already. Cannot think of a shittier well still visited so frequently. Ban on ANIMAL IMAGERY, on SCRATCHY FONTS, WEIRD HATS, the fucking LOT OF IT. BAN. PRISON.

I blame gritty reboots and people creating 'vague' meaning behind their spooky gimmick in lieu of any actual thought of an end game or thinking to flesh out the character into anything solid.

Plus Wyatt syndrome.

[Olly1984]

11 hours ago, Supremo said:

I used to have to watch AEW pay per views either live, or as soon as possible. Especially during the Pandemic. Sometimes, that was all that was keeping me going! The idea of just casually catching up on a big AEW show in the following days, with everything mostly spoilt, would seem alien at one point, but that’s exactly where we now are. Shame.

Costco Guys pre-show match was great fun. I saw reports that WWE were considering bringing them in after seeing the buzz they’d generated for AEW, but forget online buzz! After watching this match, they need to hire that AJ fella full-time at the Performance Center to teach everyone else how to throw a punch. He had better punches than 80% of the full time guys currently on mainstream television! Double J approved!

Perfect pre-show fodder. Even the way The Rizzler didn’t give a flying fuck and looked bored senseless every time they cut to him had a certain charm about it. Anyone who had complaints about this needs to get in the bin. This is the business! First time my son has ever asked to watch pro-wrestling, just to see The Rizzler. Didn’t they also shift a few thousand tickets in the final week, when these two were doing press everywhere? Thanks for the house, lads.

Tag team opener was mostly crap. Outrunners were robbed. I’ve conveyed my displeasure via stamped addressed envelope. The spot where The Acclaimed tried to pin each other was interesting. I’ve definitely seen The New Day do that before in a Four-Way Tag, and it was funny and charming, getting a big laugh from the crowd. But Max Caster doing it didn’t work at all. He’s got such little goodwill that the crowd barely made a sound and even the commentators refused to play along. Like there’s this undercurrent of everyone being absolutely sick of him, both in and out of the fiction.

I guess we’ll see. Leaning into Caster’s Go Away Heat is certainly a choice, but like with Jericho I’m not convinced it’s something you can turn around in your favour. At least this will eventually free Bowens up though, who has tonnes of potential.

What followed next was three consecutive matches that completely exemplified where I think AEW has fallen off a cliff. All good-to-great matches, completely undermined by dead characters left floundering after AEW’s weird Autumn of Flip Flopping babyface/heel dynamics, recasting everyone once Jimmy Jacobs left.

Roddy Strong is suddenly now a sympathetic babyface, just because their muddled storyline requires it. Statlander is suddenly now a babyface again, just because Mercedes is that desperate for a good match. And then suddenly Jay White is also a fan favourite, for seemingly no other reason than they needed to give Hangman something to do after Tony did his usual booking trope of building to a huge match (Hangman vs. Swerve in the cage) and then panicking Monday morning that he has nothing in his notes going forward.

In all cases, it’s just good wrestlers doing good wrestling that I don’t care about because all the characters have been Big Show’d. Turned out of the blue, with no rhyme or reason, and then I’m left just doing the Partridge Shrug, no matter how good the work is.

It’s where I think the biggest gap has emerged between AEW and WWE. They’ve been completely lapped in terms of writing logical, smart turns that play off everything that’s come before it, evolving organically, and having clever, interesting consequences. Look at Kevin Owens going heel. It’s so obvious it’s all been plotted and thought through. It’s super satisfying to watch and follow. By contrast, sometime in October Tony Khan appears to have just shook up his action figures and thrown them randomly into the Heel and Babyface boxes. It kills my investment dead.

On that subject, I reckon - scientifically - on a talent vs. investment ratio, Roderick Strong might be the best wrestler I care the least about. He’s always so excellent, yet they never capitalise on it and he’s always playing second or third fiddle to some Undisputed Era bullshit that only Tony Khan still cares about. Bin the rest of them off, drop this whole nonsense storyline and actually push Roddy as a singles. That’s the move. He’s better than Cole, MJF and Kyle combined.

Hilariously though, the way things are going, I’m starting to smell an Adam Cole heel turn, where he re-joins MJF and feuds with Roddy and Kyle. Maybe call them The Devils. It’d make no sense and be absolutely shit, but isn’t that the theme of this angle for nearly a year now? Would it really be any worse than where we currently are? If not that, seeing what a fetish Tony has for 2017 NXT, I’m half expecting him to bring back fucking Bobby Fish or something! At least they’d have a funny Tag Line for the inevitable Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly vs. The Outrunners Collision main event. Youngest Men Alive vs. The Oldest Man Alive.

Mercedes had a great night, but I won’t get my hopes up. She’s the most inconsistent wrestler in the world. I also cannot stomach any more of her bickering and bullying bullshit with Kamille. It’s torture to watch. The only man alive who I think could enjoy this shit is Triple H.

Show turned a corner with Ospreay and Fletcher. Phenomenal match. Now that Bryan Danielson has gone to the big plastic bag in the sky, Ospreay’s probably the MVP of this entire company. Best wrestler in the world. Ridiculously selfless. Happy to put people over. Confident enough in his ability that he’ll remain over anyway. I know everything seems geared towards Darby beating Mox for the belt, but watching this, I think Ospreay’s the guy. Especially this hyper-violent version. Save us, Will!

I hope Tony kept his receipt with Bobby Lashley. He’s been rubbish thus far. No way he’d be successfully completing his probation if I was reporting back to HR. Dull, plodding, lifeless, drawn out heat segments straight of 2018 WWE. Even the agenting had that same boring, lazy attitude. “Any ideas how to make this good?” “Who cares, just do the Spear through the guardrail.”

Main event was excellent. Mox and Cassidy always have this amazing chemistry. Mox is a viscous bastard. Cassidy’s incredible at selling. I completely fell for the flurry at the start, too. Imagine the pop if Cassidy, pushed to his limits and powered by furious anger, just completely squashed him and won in ten seconds like Goldberg vs. Brock. That would have ruled!

The post-match was definitely messy, and Tony Khan is still definitely watching too much 2015-2019 WWE these days for inspiration, but I can’t complain too much when Hangman and Willow are being weaved into the top storyline. They’re the two main characters of the promotion and should be pushed as such.

I also love that Hangman looked less of a pure heel and more of a lost soul, being manipulated by Christian. Finally! A glimpse!  There’s still good in this man! Kenny Omega! Save him!

More fool me though. For a split second after the car flew into shot and smashed into The Death Rider’s truck. Even knowing it was almost certainly Darby driving. There was a 1% chance. My heart skipped a beat. Imagine if Eddie Kingston had stepped out of that car. I’d have burst.

Pretty much note perfect for how I currently feel regarding AEW. Had a shite week, had an infection in my elbow which caused it to look like a fucking tennis ball was living there, strong antibiotics prescribed, made me feel worse!! Then still going to work only to be told, after being approached by this company to work for them and basically fitting there new premises fully by myself, that they didn't think it was working and they showed me the door.... Anyway sorry back on track. After that bought the PPV to watch on Sunday with friends, found myself just not giving a fuck about the matches as they were just there. No connection to the audience, crowd were utter shite for most of the action, and as Supes said stop/start pushes, flipping between heel/face with no reason given. It's saying something when I found more connection from Paul Heyman saying" LADIES AND GENTLEMEN" than the slog that was watching Full Gear..... And sorry for the long, waffling post guys

[Devon Malcolm]

Julia Hart is exempt from the goth wrestling purge though, she's been absolutely superb.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

9 hours ago, Olly1984 said:

Pretty much note perfect for how I currently feel regarding AEW. Had a shite week, had an infection in my elbow which caused it to look like a fucking tennis ball was living there, strong antibiotics prescribed, made me feel worse!! Then still going to work only to be told, after being approached by this company to work for them and basically fitting there new premises fully by myself, that they didn't think it was working and they showed me the door.... Anyway sorry back on track. After that bought the PPV to watch on Sunday with friends, found myself just not giving a fuck about the matches as they were just there. No connection to the audience, crowd were utter shite for most of the action, and as Supes said stop/start pushes, flipping between heel/face with no reason given. It's saying something when I found more connection from Paul Heyman saying" LADIES AND GENTLEMEN" than the slog that was watching Full Gear..... And sorry for the long, waffling post guys

That sucks. Hope work sorts itself out before Christmas for you

[Supremo]

On 5/24/2024 at 8:44 AM, Supremo said:

I’m doing my best to enjoy Tony’s new Attitude Era, stunt-angle kick whilst I can. If I know anything about his booking and his tendency to run tropes into the ground, I suspect we’re probably only a few weeks away from something like this.

 

I posted the above in late May. Considering I expected us to reach that point in weeks, I guess it has to be considered progress that it took months. But we are definitely at that point now. Darby smashing into The Death Rider’s truck. Jack Perry being kidnapped and strapped to the front of his truck. Statlander and Mercedes trying to run each other over in cars and brawling through walls made out of cereal boxes. Give it a rest, Tone. Find another fixation. Pick another time period to binge on Peacock. Hamflett and Benno are doing a podcast on all the old, “In Your House,” shows. Start binging them with the rest of us!

Some bonus pay per view thoughts…

- Not only is, “The Death Riders,” an infinitely better name than, “The Blackpool Combat Club,” but I love the new WOMP WOMP sound effect at the start of their entrance that sounds like the score from, “The Shining.” Gives it a real sense of, “oh fucking hell, someone’s going to die…”

- Quite funny and sweet though, during Moxley’s entrance, when he’s trying to act all tough and scary, that he noticed a fan had fallen over, so picked her up and kissed her on the forehead. Made me smile.

- It’s a shame the Continental Classic is going to to fill so much TV time over the next month because they’ve stumbled on something with the chemistry of Mercedes and Statlander. Drop all the stunts. Drop all the ANIMOSITY with Kamille. Drop all the dreadful WWE-style promos. Have Mercedes and Statlander do a couple of belters on TV. Trade the belt if you must. It’s not like holding onto the TBS Title is doing anything for Mercedes anyway. They’d be far better off doing a trilogy of Dynamite and Collision main events where they trade the belt in all-action matches.

Edited November 27, 2024 by Supremo

[LaGoosh]

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

Have Mercedes and Statlander do a couple of belters on TV. Trade the belt if you must. It’s not like holding onto the TBS Title is doing anything for Mercedes anyway. They’d be far better off doing a trilogy of Dynamite and Collision main events where they trade the belt in all-action matches.

A story based around Willow/Mercedes/Statlander all obsessively trying to beat eachother for the TBS title would be pretty perfect for all three women right now. They've all got history, they all have great matches with one another and the promos/angles would be good too.

All the pieces are right there Tony, you just need to book them right.

[Guest]

In agreement with the above, but also that we need Mercedes to lose fairly soon before it becomes a thing. 

[Devon Malcolm]

One thing I did enjoy about the main event was Willow's appearance. It's something that's always overlooked when companies do these 'taking over' and big stable storylines, actually involving the women! Her and Shafir is an angle to this that might get me interested in it, to a degree.

[LaGoosh]

I also liked that she was in casual clothes rather than in full gear (no pun intended) like most wrestlers usually do. It felt like she was just in the back hanging with her friends watching the show then saw some bullshit and came running out rather to help rather than what you usually see - wrestlers in full gimmick coming out to their entrance music to do a run in.

[Olly1984]

12 hours ago, Tim Healys Chutney Spoon said:

That sucks. Hope work sorts itself out before Christmas for you

Cheers matey, me too. 

[Lorne Malvo]

Been moving house the past week so it's taken me until now to catch up with this show. Despite AEW being ice-cold right now I enjoyed this for the most part! It had me feeling more positive about AEW moving forwards (although a common theme with this promotion is 'cracking PPV, this seems like a reset, now lets see how they squander this momentum on Dynamite..' - it seems like it happens with every PPV)

- Paul Water Hauser on the preshow! I love that guy, as long as he's not in-ring.

- Anna Jay has improved a lot, but not enough to make me care about The Vendetta.

- Using the AEW PPV pre-show to build up ROH womens division nothingness is an odd choice, but at least it got Athena on TV.

- I've loved Buddy since his 205 Live days. Get him away from the spooky lads, he's so much better than Malakai. Komander is great too. Fun 4-way with the right winner.

- I think in the early days of AEW I was one of the only QT Marshall fans on here. I still think he's a fantastic pre-show heel, the problem was when AEW had him flirt with main event angles. But in this role he's fantastic. Big Boom AJ did a cracking job for someone who hasn't wrestled for years. I popped for the Spear from Big Justice, sorry.

- The November Rain song has worked for me everytime they've played it. It has actually tricked me a few times into thinking AEW is red-hot. Then the next segment happens and I change my mind.

- Tag title match was shite. Private Party have regressed to their usual style after the banger against the Bucks. Acclaimed breaking up should be a good storyline but the 'pinning each other' stuff completely took me out of the match. The OutRunners don't work for me - a fun gimmick but it's completely one-note at the momoent and they're just not good enough in ring. And again, Malakai Black did the square root of fuck all. Fuck this guy off from the roster, he's a miserable arsehole who offers nothing. His best run was NXT black and gold, get him back over there pronto.

- MJF/Strong was the typical great match you would expect from these pair, just wrapped up in a horrible storyline. I think it was @LaGoosh who said MJF is overrated as a promo guy and underrated as an in-ring guy and I completely agree. All of his matches are fantastic but I really wish they would sort his character out.

- Mercedes vs Stat was match of the night, for me. Absolute cracker! I like Mercedes more than most but she's not exactly set the world on fire in AEW, but this was terrific.

- Hangman vs Switchblade was good. Not great, but a good cool-down match after Mercedes vs Stat. I like the storyline of Hangman just not being good enough to beat Switchblade.

- Fletcher vs Ospreay was another cracker. Ospreay should be champion within 6 months. Strap the rocket to him. Fletcher is great too, they just need to let Callis cut his promos for him. Putting a poor promo guy with a manager then still having him cut all his own promos is AEW in a nutshell.

- Not that arsed about Mariah vs Mina, and I like both of them. I just want Toni back now please.

- Daniel Garcia finally winning a belt was a big feel-good moment for me. Some of his offence in this match looked so good. In the early days I would've said him winning the belt a year after the Continental Classic was strong long-term storytelling and a nice bit of symmetry, but with AEW in it's current guise there's as much chance that it's just an happy accident.

- This has been mentioned already in this thread, but I don't think there's anybody in AEW whose character work is as bad as Jack Perrys. Just a load of muddled shite. Is he a smug nepo-baby who relies on the EVPs for protection? Is he a psychopath who is willing to set himself on fire for his cause and laughs when he gets kidnapped? And if he's both of those things, they need to find a way to make those two elements mesh together because at the moment he's not working at all.

- Takeshita vs Ricochet was a match that happened. I won't remember this next week.

- I'm not a big Lashley fan but thought Swerve dragged him to a decent enough match. I really wish they would give Shelton the spotlight instead of Lashley but can't see that happening. If AEW can ban themselves from signing any ex-WWE names for about three years I'd be a happy man, at times it's getting a bit TNA 2010 levels of overkill.

- Moxley vs OC was a great main event. OC is the best wrestler of the last 5 years. He's just incredible and I really hope he wins the big one one day. As mentioned earlier in the thread, I would've preferred Darby being fed to the Death Riders with OC stepping up and saving the day rather than the other way around, but I like Darby too so it's not the end of the world.

- The post-match was a bit of a mess, for me. I'm interested in if Hangman still has some good in his soul, or if he atatcked the Death Riders at Christian Cage's bidding, but the whole timing and execution of this was just confusing more than intriguing.

A very good PPV on the whole with enough bits of shite in there to serve as a constant reminder that AEW is in a bit of a state.