Full Gear III - 11/13/2021

[J.T.]

4 hours ago, DEAN said:

Just watched the PPV.  Jesus Christ, that Punk-Kingston match was fucking awesome.  So... MJF is the best wrestlier in AEW?  And yes, I get to see Tomohiro Iishi live Wednesday in Norfolk!

I will be in a recovery coma after coming off of a week's worth of night duty on Wednesday morning for [redacted], so I will probably miss the Norfolk show.

Linked my FITE account to the streamer here at work and just finished watching the PPV.   Amazing show!  We pointed our VTC camera at our big screen so that the US 8th Army staff at the Korea Battle Simulation Center at Camp Humphreys could watch and they were appreciative.  We are a united fighting force.

Full Gear is the feel good equivalent of WWE's Wrestlemania, so I wonder which AEW show will be heel centric like Summer Slam?

Edited November 15, 2021 by J.T.

[Phantom Lord]

I've had over a day to digest this show and it still holds up. The only thing that I would mark as a negative on this show is how long it lasted. It was almost midnight here when Hangman/Omega was over.

Honestly they could have saved that street fight for a Rampage or something. That's the only match I could have done without. Not to say it was bad. I mean the MMA guys needed some hand holding during spots, but still I was surprised at Junior Dos Santos. He might have a future at this if he wants it.

The rest of the show was very solid. MJF is a lil bastard and I loved every second of him getting the win with the headlock takeover.

I hope the Lucha Bros vs. FTR feud continues because that was a damn good tag match. 

Britt vs. Tay was a damn good match. I liked Tay expanding her moves by doing some high flying stuff.

Black/Andrade vs. Cody/Pac is a match I would have saved for Dynamite, but it was still good. Cody's eventual snapping and heel turn will be fun to watch.

Bryan vs. Miro was a damn good match as was Eddie vs. Punk. 

With the main event, my brother told me that Adam Cole has been planting seeds of doubt into the Young Bucks on BTE which is why they didn't interfere in the ending and gave Hangman a nod to get the win. If that's the case that's going to be some fun story telling when Adam Cole takes over The Elite. 

Great show. Just wish it was an hour shorter.

[Go2Sleep]

2 hours ago, kafkonia said:

Also, that Andrade botch with the flip over the rope... kudos to him for going with it, but it wasn't that different from Jericho's chronic hysteresis during the lionsault.

The worst botch on the show was JR calling Danielson "Daniel Bryan" the whole match. JR wasn't even announcing for WWE regularly during Bryan's run, so I'm not sure why it's so difficult for him. 4 pillows was at least funny.

Tough to decide best match between MJF/Darby and Punk/Kingston. There wasn't anything worse than average on the show, but it still felt kind of long. I feel like the Cody match and probably the FCA could've main evented episodes of Dynamite instead, but I don't know how ppv bonuses work in AEW, so there might be good reasons to not do that.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

I might be getting sleepy but I missed the 4 pillows joke when I first saw it in this thread.  I actually did hear it in the moment and was very glad that X and Tony ignored it

Look, I like JR a lot, but he's an old curmudgen with cancer, give him a F'n break.  i think he adds a lot to the commentary and I'm not even close to not wanting him around

[eikerir]

3 hours ago, Go2Sleep said:

Tough to decide best match between MJF/Darby and Punk/Kingston. There wasn't anything worse than average on the show, but it still felt kind of long. I feel like the Cody match and probably the FCA could've main evented episodes of Dynamite instead, but I don't know how ppv bonuses work in AEW, so there might be good reasons to not do that.

The Pac/Cody vs. Andrade/Black match took about 25min with entrances, I think this was perfect "Buy In" material.

Apart from that, take about 5min off every other tag match on the show which all felt a bit long and you end up with a close to 3 hour, less tiring, show.

 

Edited November 15, 2021 by eikerir

[MoeCristyV.1.6]

Impressive how a loss against Cody and teaming him with Andrade killed off any heat Malakai Black had before it. 

 

[Guest Jimbo_Tsuruta]

I was in a pretty sour mood when I watched the bulk of the show so it didn't really hit me. Then I took another look and can't wait for Darby-MJF and Kingston-Punk to go again. 

I'm all in for Danielson heeling it up against Page, taking the title and Hangman having to claw his way back once more. 

Edited November 15, 2021 by Jimbo_Tsuruta

[The Natural]

4 minutes ago, Jimbo_Tsuruta said:

I was in a pretty sour mood when I watched the bulk of the show so it didn't really hit me. Then I took another look and can't wait for Darby-MJF and Kingston-Punk to go again. 

I'm all in for Danielson heeling it up against Page, taking the title and Hangman having to claw his way back once more. 

Hope you're okay.

Dickhead Danielson as seen in his September 2005-December 2006 reign as the Greatest ROH World Champion ever is my favourite version of Bryan Danielson.

[tbarrie]

9 hours ago, Dog said:

I don't think you should be surprised.

I guess? I'm Canadian; I'm not all that familiar with the stereotypes or personalities of specific American cities. I mostly just assume they're all lawless urban hellscapes.

[Brandon Bones]

What an exhausting show!  So much good stuff.

On a macro level this show is nearly spotless.  Great matches, good conclusions, and the continuation towards future shows.  
 

At the micro level there is a fair amount of nitpicking to do.

I’m with many of you in the opinion that much of this show could have been either shuffled off to the buy in or somewhere later this coming week.  Take your pick.

The UFC guys were horrible and seemingly unprepared.  I was of the understanding they did work with Arlovski and Junior.  But as far as the celebrity match goes… there have been many better presented than this.

The finish to Miro/Bryan came across a tad awkward until they called it as a KO making the attempted choke unnecessary.  
 

The selling of “conchairtos” has had my attention as Cole seems entirely unaffected by the hit he took.  Matt Jackson did come out selling during the ME.  It would seem the hit he took basically precluded them from doing the Bucks normal attempts to interfere. But it remains questionable that Matt (at least) would be well enough to be there at all.  Though storyline wise they had every motivation to want to be present at this moment.

Otherwise, I was pretty drained by the time of Women’s title match.  But the show was relentless in its energy and drive.  It swept me up in it.  
 

AEW remains the best bang for your dollar in wrestling and then some…

and then some…

and then a bit more.

 

I love you AEW.

 

 

[Jenalysis]

8 hours ago, J.T. said:

I will be in a recovery coma after coming off of a week's worth of night duty on Wednesday morning for [redacted], so I will probably miss the Norfolk show.

Linked my FITE account to the streamer here at work and just finished watching the PPV.   Amazing show!  We pointed our VTC camera at our big screen so that the US 8th Army staff at the Korea Battle Simulation Center at Camp Humphreys could watch and they were appreciative.  We are a united fighting force.

Full Gear is the feel good equivalent of WWE's Wrestlemania, so I wonder which AEW show will be heel centric like Summer Slam?

 

One thing I'm curious about.  Did NJPW/Japanese stuff have more interest when you work mid shifts?   I think my interest in NJPW was hurt a lot by no longer working overnight (EVIL's reign of mediocrity didn't help either)

 

[Matt D]

I just put together my thoughts on Kingston vs Punk (and I'm glad Phil got there first so I could see what he thought, though we're not quite in the same place on it). That'll go up overnight at SC and I'll go into more depth here tomorrow, but one thing is suddenly very clear to me.

Cody's screwed. If his gimmick is "Cheer me, boo me, I'm just Cody. I'm not a face. I'm not a heel. I'm just me." that absolutely pales to Punk just being Punk.

[Dog]

2 hours ago, tbarrie said:

I guess? I'm Canadian; I'm not all that familiar with the stereotypes or personalities of specific American cities. I mostly just assume they're all lawless urban hellscapes.

You know what happens when you assume.

[JLowe]

Enjoyed reading this, seeing some varied opinions on some matches and then almost universal agreement on others. I was thinking of buying the PPV because I was excited about a number of the matches, but I choked on the $50 price tag. I was expecting $30, I guess I'm just old and out of the loop on these things. I don't know if they eventually run some of this on TV, or put it on YT?

[Dog]

TK's floated the idea that a streaming service is closer than we might realize, so I can wait until then for all the PPVs.

[Shartnado]

4 minutes ago, Dog said:

TK's floated the idea that a streaming service is closer than we might realize, so I can wait until then for all the PPVs.

This news is very, very welcome! Hope it comes to pass.

Edited November 15, 2021 by Shartnado
Small typo

[Dog]

17 minutes ago, Shartnado said:

This news is very, very welcome! Hope it comes to pass.

A recent episode of Wrestlenomics played a clip of Khan on a different podcast. Said he's been talking to Warner Media about options, and that "The House Always Wins" was always meant to be used as "exclusive" content for a streaming service.

"It's gonna be soon," was his exact quote.

[JLowe]

Also, after the OU loss on Saturday I posted on a Texas football board "JR is going to be miserable tonight when he's announcing the PPV", sounds like I was right.

[Log]

4 minutes ago, JLowe said:

Also, after the OU loss on Saturday I posted on a Texas football board "JR is going to be miserable tonight when he's announcing the PPV", sounds like I was right.

That might have been it!  He did sound like he sat down with the intention of just shitting on everything.

I caught myself saying "Oh, Jesus, Jim!" out loud at one point during the show.

I do think Ross had been better in the last couple months, so I was surprised at how annoying he was on this show.  It's not that he's just grumpy, but he keeps being a black hole on commentary.  He just says things that the other two have no idea how to respond to, and it makes things awkward.

[(BP)]

JR definitely cares and he comes off very self conscious about the criticism he’s gotten when he discusses it on Grilling JR. He scheduled his radiation appointments around his work schedule so he wouldn’t miss any shows. He has a hard time staying in the groove Schiavone and Excalibur can get into, but then he throws out stuff that really sells the moment like, “That was a goddam fistfight,” after Punk vs Kingston and it feels worth having him there. And let’s be real, my mind and body was devastated for at least a day after staying up for Full Gear and I’m half his age. I’d be cranky if I was him too. 

[Log]

24 minutes ago, (BP) said:

JR definitely cares and he comes off very self conscious about the criticism he’s gotten when he discusses it on Grilling JR. He scheduled his radiation appointments around his work schedule so he wouldn’t miss any shows. He has a hard time staying in the groove Schiavone and Excalibur can get into, but then he throws out stuff that really sells the moment like, “That was a goddam fistfight,” after Punk vs Kingston and it feels worth having him there. And let’s be real, my mind and body was devastated for at least a day after staying up for Full Gear and I’m half his age. I’d be cranky if I was him too. 

I totally agree that I also would not be in a great headspace if I had to deal with the personal shit he's dealing with right now.

I just think he needs to remind himself that his job is to get the show over.  That's every wrestling commentator's job.  I get that he's not a fan of a lot of the in-ring stuff they do, but it's what they do.  He needs to remember that.  It's not about his personal preferences.  

I can usually deal with JR, and like I said before, he's been really good recently.  He just was really hurting my enjoyment of the show this weekend.

[Lawful Metal]

While I enjoyed all the matches, I thought most of them had clunky endings.  I thought MJF / Darby was chugging along beautifully up until the same diamond ring ending.  FTR / LB had nonsense mask thing which Excalibur made it seem like it was gonna be about who was the legal man, but that led to nothing.  Miro / Danielson ended abruptly, and I felt bad for Miro.  The Cody match was clunky all the way through, and there was no reason for dissension between Andrade and Malakai.  Punk / Kingston was again, pretty abrupt, with Punk hitting 2 GTS in quick succession.  IC / ATT again had a nonsensical finish with Lambert jumping in the ring to celebrate?  Celebrate what?  Weird Eddie tribute from Jericho (on a night with one in seemingly in every match).  And of course, the nonsensical Young Bucks nod of approval to Hangman for the finish.  Made it all about them, not Hangman. 

That said, I just about enjoyed everything despite these flaws. 

Also, Jungle Boy / Luchasaurus / Christian v. Superkliq was my MOTN. 

Jungle Man. 

[Log]

35 minutes ago, Lawful Metal said:

While I enjoyed all the matches, I thought most of them had clunky endings.  I thought MJF / Darby was chugging along beautifully up until the same diamond ring ending.  FTR / LB had nonsense mask thing which Excalibur made it seem like it was gonna be about who was the legal man, but that led to nothing.  Miro / Danielson ended abruptly, and I felt bad for Miro.  The Cody match was clunky all the way through, and there was no reason for dissension between Andrade and Malakai.  Punk / Kingston was again, pretty abrupt, with Punk hitting 2 GTS in quick succession.  IC / ATT again had a nonsensical finish with Lambert jumping in the ring to celebrate?  Celebrate what?  Weird Eddie tribute from Jericho (on a night with one in seemingly in every match).  And of course, the nonsensical Young Bucks nod of approval to Hangman for the finish.  Made it all about them, not Hangman. 

That said, I just about enjoyed everything despite these flaws. 

Also, Jungle Boy / Luchasaurus / Christian v. Superkliq was my MOTN. 

Jungle Man. 

I think there were some good ideas on this show for finishes, but the execution on them was off.

I think the tag title finish is going to be a story.  Lucha Bros didn't pin the legal man.  Now FTR can claim they deserve a rematch.

I liked the Hangman/Omega finish, but the staging was a little off.  Matt needed to be in place sooner.  Page kind of had to wait for him.

The ATT/IC finish was just bad.  I've noticed in a lot of these Jericho matches where there are a lot of people involved (see War Games), that he seems to want to direct traffic.  Problem is, he's not at all subtle about it.  The "JUNIOR! JUNIOR!" thing was particularly noticeable, but he's always looking around and talking when he's supposed to be selling.

The rest of the finishes really just suffered from the announcers not quite knowing how to explain them.  They seemed sort of surprised by a few of them.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

Jericho's spot calling was super noticable, but that match actually held together amazingly well.   It was definitely clunky at times, and I'm definitely over the IC at this point and would rather see Jericho on vacation clips on Dynamite, but it is what it is.  The crowd seemed exhausted and it was put in a cool down spot but they actually put on a good show.  I enjoyed it.

I also really liked the Cody/PAC v Black/Andrade match.  Those guys all come off as mega stars to me for their own reasons, and there's something I've always loved about thrown together singles stars in a tag situation.  This played to my bias as a fan, so I was all in for it.  And I definitely had a moment in the middle of this match where I thought "WWE had all 4 of these great motherfuckers and totally missed the boat on all of em.  whiffff"
 

[Curt McGirt]

The problem with the Miro/Dragon finish was the DDT didn't look good. I had to rewatch it to see what was going on and yeah... that didn't quite work. But Miro just going to black saved it.