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Full Gear IV - 11/19/2022


Dolfan in NYC

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I could get behind that concept.

Dominant face champion like a Wardlow vs a low ranked guy in a best of 7 series. Wardlow wins the first 3 all in squash matches. Then next credible contender emerges and issues a challenge. Costs him match 4 by DQ and then 5 by countout. Heel then talks about how in two weeks time he's taking the belt in his home town.

So Wardlow deliberately loses match 6 to ensure it goes to a 7th match and the other heel doesn't get the shot in his home town. Have a stip that any match 7 is held in a cage for definitive conclusions or whatever. Play up that he's getting that additional insurance too.

Then squashes the other guy in match 7 because why not.

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Excellent stuff in the 10 Man (yeah, loved that Factory hug), Cage-Starks and the emotional Kingston-Akiyama bouts. No surprise to see Luchasaurus v Jungle Boy put on a helluva deal! Christian provided some great comedy with the key steal and toss out. And then fuckin’ Kansas plays. Wrestling has a way of taking the most tired, never-wanna-hear-it-again-songs, and making them seem fun or funny. Death Triangle v the Elite was as spectacular as expected. I bet a few of those salty posters who feel the need to express their hate of the Elite secretly loved this. A Best of 7 sounds like a fucking lot of wrestling from the same 6 guys, but I have a feeling they’re going to find a way to make it work. Nyla v Jade was fine. Sammy-Jericho-Danielson-Claudio proved the right people can make 4 ways work just fine. Beautifully in fact. Pleased to see Jericho escape with the title. Saraya v Baker was fine. I liked Alvarez’s suggestion on WOR about how they should have done a ‘she’s not quite ready’ type loss for Saraya in quicker fashion and come back with a stronger rematch. Wardlow-Hobbs-Joe was fun and again exceeded my expectations for a multi-man bout. Double Champion ‘Joe-sus is just alright with me!’ Jarrett-Lethal v Darby-Sting was wonderfully fucking fun like every Darby-Sting match! The visual of Sting holding Satnam in the death drop and calling for Darby was wild! Jarrett was fantastic in this match. Toni Storm v Jamie Hayter really built strongly to that finish. They woke up the joint and so happy they did for that big title win pop! Such big blows! Loved the visual of Toni Storm with the messed up lipstick and bloody nose. Does Storm need a heel turn? Whereas the crowd thankfully sees and applauds the great work/efforts of Hayter, they seem oblivious to how fucking great Toni Storm is. Acclaimed v Swerve/Lee was really good. I'm not gonna complain, but I really wanted Big Keith to find his way to the dark side there. Throughout the last few matches the crowd is clearly exhausted and more in need of sleep than more wrestling. MJF v Mox was a fun little match. Kind of a bummer finish. I have the same question as was similarly posed earlier ‘what the fuck, so William Regal has a preference of Max’s ‘International Object’?’ ‘Explain this one to me, Bill!’  Perhaps it only appeals to a certain sense of humour, but I thought Max’s scrum promo was a fantastic piece of business! If nothing else it suggests Max will be up for the task of being a true heel. In a sorta related note I just listened to the Gentleman Villain episode ‘Mr. Regal becomes an Unamerican’, in which Regal proudly discusses his ability to do what is necessary to inspire hate. Speaking of which, I liked seeing Moxley heeling it up out there. He looked really excited to do so. It would not have been clear to me on a live marathon viewing, but in multiple parts this was an excellent show.

Edited by HarryArchieGus
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45 minutes ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

I could get behind that concept.

Dominant face champion like a Wardlow vs a low ranked guy in a best of 7 series. Wardlow wins the first 3 all in squash matches. Then next credible contender emerges and issues a challenge. Costs him match 4 by DQ and then 5 by countout. Heel then talks about how in two weeks time he's taking the belt in his home town.

So Wardlow deliberately loses match 6 to ensure it goes to a 7th match and the other heel doesn't get the shot in his home town. Have a stip that any match 7 is held in a cage for definitive conclusions or whatever. Play up that he's getting that additional insurance too.

Then squashes the other guy in match 7 because why not.

Dude, that's a great call. I'm not trying to derail with fantasy booking, but there are tons of ways to go with this:

* Wrestler 1 takes a DQ loss in the first three, by brutally beating Wrestler 2 with weapons, and having their teammates interfere for a multi-man beatdown. Wrestler 2 is now weakened and becomes the automatic underdog for match 4-7, despite the fact they're up three wins (which is kind of a unique story- the closest example I could think of is like, an NFL team making it to the Super Bowl, but their MVP is injured in the conference title game, or something). It's like a longer scale version of Guevara taking the first fall by DQ in the Danielson 2/3 match a few weeks back. You use those weapons shots/beatdowns to build in a body part to tell the story around during the last 4 matches (e.g. 'Good God, not Willow's knee! That's the very same knee that Jade and the Baddies injured on Elevation just three weeks ago!') and it's icing on the cake. 

* Dominant Champion (a Joe, Wardlow, Hobbs type) squashes Wrestler 2 in four in a row - you can then use Dominant Champion to make an open challenge at BOTB and hype that, or you can show a graphic during match four that you have a stand-by match ready to go - just as a fun little off the beaten path thing to 1) make it seem a little more real, like for example the couple times a match ended during PiP, and 2) push the historic nature of Dominant Champion pulling off four in a row.

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18 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

MJF's whole spiel as a heel is running down the town / garnering cheap heat. If they give him a year long title reign (or at least until his contract runs out) and have him do nothing but that, fans going to the show would get sick of it. "I'm going to defend the title tonight!" *fans cheer* "But not in a crappy town like (insert name of town). I'm taking the night off." That gets stretched for months and eventually people stop paying money to see AEW because the World champion won't do anything but talk about how it's his time.

MJF needs to change/evolve his character and this run-up for the title match was the opportunity to do that. Moxley's character also needed a change too. But no, TK books the show for a bunch of fickle fans who are cheering MJF right now and it's such a cluster of an ending.

Agreed, the Piper comparison is always there but I definitely felt babyface Piper vibes when he was beating up the Firm the other week but now just feels like back to the same old routine. 

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It would be great if Regal’s actions were because he thinks the BCC is losing their way (Yuta lost the Pure title, Dragon and Claudio couldn’t beat Jericho for the ROH title, Moxley didn’t even know what day the show was and couldn’t finish MJF off when it mattered) and he helped MJF win to light a fire under the group’s asses to make them killers again. 
 

I don’t think that’s what we’ll get, but it would be pretty cool if we did. 

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Would arguably make the most sense. 

That's not to say I don't want a 90 minute explanation of Regal assisting MJF with his Ancestry.com results and turns out he was the grandson of Big Daddy, which leads to a few months of Big Daddy Friedman rediscovering his British roots on top of the card doing World of Sport tag matches, and a response to critics of his promo style being given re-takes of The Young Ones or Monty Python sketches instead. 

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12 hours ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

I could get behind that concept.

Dominant face champion like a Wardlow vs a low ranked guy in a best of 7 series. Wardlow wins the first 3 all in squash matches. Then next credible contender emerges and issues a challenge. Costs him match 4 by DQ and then 5 by countout. Heel then talks about how in two weeks time he's taking the belt in his home town.

So Wardlow deliberately loses match 6 to ensure it goes to a 7th match and the other heel doesn't get the shot in his home town. Have a stip that any match 7 is held in a cage for definitive conclusions or whatever. Play up that he's getting that additional insurance too.

Then squashes the other guy in match 7 because why not.

Kinda reminds me of the Buff v Lex feud in WCW where Buff kept getting these cheap wins, CO over the top rope DQ ect

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All in all I thought this was a really good show that narrowly missed being “great.” I’ll try to keep it brief;

-I really like Jungle Boy and think he’s a world champion in the future. I thought this match was exactly what it needed to be. What I hope they don’t do is draw this feud out until Christian is healthy enough to wrestle. Jungle Boy should take out Luchasaurus and give Christian a con-chair-to on Dynamite and let that be the end of it. I did like that this showed Jungle Boy’s more vicious side, like that excellent singles match with Dax from a couple years back.
 

-If you’re a fan of what the Bucks & Omega do, then this was a fantastic opener. This style isn’t for me, but if it’s for you, then this match was state of the art. I think running this back 6 more times is overkill, but I think the Bucks being on more than 4 times a year is overkill, so I will concede that that is a matter of opinion.

-this ROH 4 way was pretty great, and all 4 guys got really cool moments. I’m just not sure this is the best use of Danielson or Claudio. I feel like Danielson has to be on the short list of guys to take the title off of MJF, and I don’t think that reign can be super long, so you’ve got a lot of rehabbing of Danielson to do.

-Jade Cargill is a star that does star shit. I’m just not sure Nyla is the kind of matchup to bring it out of her. I’m all in on Jade, though, so it’s all good. Let’s maybe move her on to a fresh matchup.

-I’m sure I’m forgetting matches. 
 

-Acclaimed/SioG was fantastic, as always with this bunch. I know a lot of folks thought FTR should’ve been in this, but the Swerve/Lee breakup deserved this spotlight. What a thing Acclaimed has turned into. Whenever I get frustrated with the booking of AEW, I remind myself that TK was the only person who had the idea to stick Bowens & Caster together. Moving on, after the inevitable Swerve/Lee match, I’d seriously consider Keith Lee being the guy to take the title off of MJF. Book it similarly to his thing with adam Cole in nXt. Turn Keith into the monster that just walks through anything MJF can throw at him. It’s a direction I’d consider.

-Britt/Saraya was very meh. I just don’t think Britt Baker is any good, and Saraya needs someone who can nursemaid her through matches. I hope for Saraya’s sake she’s selective of her matches moving forward.

-Hobbs/Wardlow/Joe was dope. Just big dudes being big. And dudes. Im assuming Joe holding both belts will lead to something

-Hayter winning was the right call, but I really like Toni Storm and hope she isn’t shuffled back into the deck. AEW could really use a womens tag division for this reason. More to do.

-This main was fine, from a ring work standpoint. Im just not as high on MJF as some others and I don’t think his title reign is gonna go the way TK thinks it is. Mox deserves his vacay, though, so I hope he comes back in a couple months and gets his payback. 
 

like I said, very good show that landed short of “great,” but probably exactly what AEW needed rn. Just getting back to great matches. They mostly accomplished that.

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5 hours ago, just drew said:

I’d seriously consider Keith Lee being the guy to take the title off of MJF. Book it similarly to his thing with adam Cole in nXt. Turn Keith into the monster that just walks through anything MJF can throw at him. It’s a direction I’d consider.

 

Only issue is that this is pretty similar, to MJF's feuds with Wardlow and Jericho

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Let's finish up the PPV!

  • Samoa Joe vs Wardlow vs Hobbs: I'll be honest. This was a bit of a blur but it was a blur where everything looked pretty great. Just guys absolutely smashing into each other. Hobbs looked like he more than belonged with these guys and my only regret is that there aren't more matches immediately booked. Go back and tell Samoa Joe that he'd be the King of TV when he was wearing that poncho in the rain. I have no idea what he'll be doing at the ROH PPV at this point. Does Wardlow go back after the TNT title? Does Hobbs challenge him for the TV title? Is it more of an ROH babyface going after him? Lots of good choices really.
  • BEST OF 9: Match 1: Nick Bockwinkel (c) vs Jumbo Tsuruta 12/13/78 AJPW: This was for Bock's AWA belt. It's basically in three acts. Bockwinkel controls the arm for one third, Jumbo controls the arm for one third, and then there's a finishing stretch as they work towards the draw. I can't even begin to express how hard they were working the holds. There are shots mid-match and you can just see the sweat pouring off of Jumbo just off of armbars and hammerlocks and in and out exchanges. In the middle of December. He created a ton of motion with Bockwinkel when he was working from underneath. Of course, the greatest strength of Bock is his reactions, the way he's always constantly in the moment and his pure elation of hurting someone. When Jumbo took over, it was all about Bockwinkel trying to escape and getting reversed back into it. With Bock on top, it was about Jumbo's different attempts at escaping. With Jumbo on top, it was about Jumbo using varied techniques to stretch Bockwinklel, switching things up after each escape attempt. There was a clear moment where he shifted to hammering Bockwinkel and going for the win. He knew time was against him and Bockwinkel had the champion's advantage. Some people might find this transition stilted or awkward or ignoring what came before, but it was really all about Jumbo trying to pick the exact moment where he'd worn down Bock just enough that he'd be able to hit his stuff and try to beat him. If he went too soon, Bockwinkel would reverse it. If he went too late, he wouldn't have enough time to put him away. And maybe there wasn't a perfect moment because the champ was just that good. Judging by the fact this went to a draw after they threw everything they had at one another, that was probably the case. We'll see how these matches develop from here, but the wrestling that took up at least two thirds of it was just so good.
Spoiler

 

  • Lethal/Jarrett vs Sting/Darby: Loved Jarrett's reactions early to Sting. He looked great in there though I was glad he was mostly paired with Darby as it was more interesting than seeing the old guys up against one another. Likewise all the ways Lethal got beat up early. The Singh spots were so impressive. I know the finish was a bit botched but it actually just made Darby look better for being the one to hulk/Sting up and go nuts on the heels, which is something we do have to transition to at some point in the years to come. Darby came off as a bigger star than Sting here I think. The big in the middle where they pretended it was a standard tag match for a minute was weird but I did love the visual of Sonjay running around the ring celebrating in his red suit.
  • Acclaimed vs SIOG: So much to like here. Great heat on Bowens. I loved how both Swerve and Lee worked over the arm. Lee is so great at giving just enough and then doing something hugely impressive to punish the insolence who took even that much from him. I think they cracked a certain sort of structure here as things were not at all back and forth after they broke down but instead turned into another bit of heat on Bowens when he just had to survive and survive. It managed to keep narrative cohesion throughout the broken down period instead of just being spot after spot and nearfall after nearfall but still allowed for that sort of chaotic action.
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2 hours ago, zendragon said:

Only issue is that this is pretty similar, to MJF's feuds with Wardlow and Jericho

Yeah, but I’d have him get his hands on MJF a lot quicker. Like, MJF can’t make him go through all that stuff if Keith just hucks him into the fifth row first…

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3 hours ago, Log said:

Damn. I dozed off for a minute during Full Gear. It must've been when the Bockwinkel/Jumbo match aired.

You missed quite a barn burner. Arguably best match on the card. But maybe I’m just a Bock-mark.

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14 hours ago, just drew said:

Im just not as high on MJF as some others and I don’t think his title reign is gonna go the way TK thinks it is.

I think there's a good chance MJF ends up being a reverse Roman Reigns (2015-2019) where the promoter is dead set into making him a heel when the crowds all say he's a babyface, and the company is worse for it. I think Eddie Kingston is the only guy in the company who would get a majority face reaction against MJF right now.

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1 hour ago, Go2Sleep said:

I think there's a good chance MJF ends up being a reverse Roman Reigns (2015-2019) where the promoter is dead set into making him a heel when the crowds all say he's a babyface, and the company is worse for it. I think Eddie Kingston is the only guy in the company who would get a majority face reaction against MJF right now.

Eddie Kingston and Bryan Danielson.

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On 11/21/2022 at 9:12 PM, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

Would arguably make the most sense. 

That's not to say I don't want a 90 minute explanation of Regal assisting MJF with his Ancestry.com results and turns out he was the grandson of Big Daddy, which leads to a few months of Big Daddy Friedman rediscovering his British roots on top of the card doing World of Sport tag matches, and a response to critics of his promo style being given re-takes of The Young Ones or Monty Python sketches instead. 


MJF's too much of a lovable bastard in spite of his bastardry for these, his true comp in the BBC canon has to be Red Dwarf's Arnold Judas Rimmer, B.S.C.

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