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Full Gear III - 11/13/2021


Dolfan in NYC

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You know what I like about AEW? They actually follow through with payoffs. Page's arc over the last 27 months came to a satisfying head on Saturday. We got Hangman on the shoulders of the Dark Order to end the show. The whole thing was pitch perfect.

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Black absolutely needs to get away from Cody. Dude should just squash people for the next few months to see if they can rekindle the buzz they waisted.

Punk/Kingston was my MOTN. Punk has complete control of the crowd and I think we are getting close to that full on heel turn. Eddie/Punk rematch please.

Underwhelmed by Danielson/Miro. Combination of the odd finish and the worst commentary performance of the night. JR couldn’t get out of his own way. 

Loved loved loved that Jackson nod before the finish of the main event. Great main event and post-match celebration
 

 

Edited by Jrag
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Yeah, the real rematch out of full gear i'm looking forward to the most is a rehabbed Miro vs. Danielson. It was borderline great as is, but they have a way, way better match in them. They leaned into Danielson torturing Miro, so we could get Miro's all time big man selling, but it lacked a flow and fire. Commentary didn't help. Think the audience was still coming down from the MJF/Darby match too; I know I couldn't get as emotionally invested in the Danielson match as I wanted. The work was really good but they can do better.

Do we think they run back Punk/Eddie in the near future? Seemed a conclusive finish. Eddie's arc probably goes elsewhere before circling back to Punk with, likely, a different dynamic. Now that the story of Hangman's ascent has been told, Kingston has the most compelling narrative in the company and he should be an even bigger focus than he has been. 

Edited by Jiji
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Two folks lost a match and it did not matter - Miro's storyline is possibly even enhanced and Eddie is even more over. Great booking can do this. 

The Jackson nod I liked - I am in the minority. Cole/Bucks split with Omega whenever is cemented.  Page beating Daniel somehow should be interesting. 

Time to get Sammy on his own

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18 hours ago, matwarz said:


A few thoughts:

- These shows are just too long. It’s tough on fans both live and in their homes. NJPW would do it better with the brisk undercard and longer feature matches. It’s great the guys have space to tell their stories but some editing is really required for consumption. 

- Dax quite obviously yelling at Tully to get into position for the trip spot was funny

-Tag title match had some amazing stuff but they hit their peak and the finish was gassed. A clever idea but it required both FTR guys masked causing confusion. That said, wasn’t there word Dax got waffled (hence he didn’t appear for the run-in later)?

-the Cody match isn’t getting nearly enough love. That turned into quite the match with tons of great stuff. 

-finish to MJF-Darby was just perfectly done, totally paying off the great pacing and storytelling of the match. The way Max caught Darby after knocking him out was terrific. The payoff is surely the big match where someone gets the ring from Max and returns the favour.

- was Punk setting the table with the video of him watching Necro v Joe? A great fight, perfect length. Punk has a great wrestling mind.

-Britt and Tay both worked their butts off but probably went 5 minutes too long without a general like a Deeb or Rosa. Both ladies bring charisma in spades however. My 4 year old son has just starting noticing me watching wrasslin’ and loves the ladies. He thinks the DMD is the greatest!

-I’m going to say it; for good or bad, Kenny Omega is going to go down as one of the most influential figures in modern pro-wrestling. His big match layout, style and amazing attention to detail is incredible. It’s amazing to think this is not the end of the story, just another chapter.

 

 

If you combine Omega's in-ring influence, with him being the reason AEW was even conceived and possible as a concept- Omega is the most influential pro wrestler of the past 20 years, and I would entertain the argument he was as influential as Bret/Rock, but not Hogan.

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7 minutes ago, chriskbrown50 said:

Two folks lost a match and it did not matter - Miro's storyline is possibly even enhanced and Eddie is even more over. Great booking can do this. 

The Jackson nod I liked - I am in the minority. Cole/Bucks split with Omega whenever is cemented.  Page beating Daniel somehow should be interesting. 

Time to get Sammy on his own

Agree on Miro. Turning him into the final boss is as simple as “he fixed his neck”. 

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I guess they don't hammer it, but Christian has been paired with JB in a mentor role pretty much since he started in AEW and they even had little touches like Jungle Boy initially in "trust/verify" mode and there was definitely an on-screen progression with the relationship in various different backstage segments.  And one would assume that's because JB is a lifelong fan who's seen Christian's entire career he knows what a creepy little bastard the guy is ?

Christian also pretty explicitly talked about it in the press, how a big part of jumping was a chance to be a difference maker backstage with the younger talent, and he didn't necessarily see that happening in WWE.  He specifically mentioned Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, adding layers to his story

I initially thought the angle with them was going to happen much sooner, but I've enjoyed the slow burn.  They haven't teased any sort of conflict other than Christian pushing him to have more of a killer instinct.

I'm a huge Christian fan and it's amazing to me how he more or less is able to look/work the same as he did a decade ago after the injuries he had.  He's lost a half step or two, but don't tell him I said that ?

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4 minutes ago, ExcellenceofAirPollution said:

Christian also pretty explicitly talked about it in the press, how a big part of jumping was a chance to be a difference maker backstage with the younger talent, and he didn't necessarily see that happening in WWE

A bit off topic, but I'd love to hear his (or any vet's) expanded thoughts on that. I imagine it's tough to dispense advice or criticism when the younger talent is trying to follow whatever management or agent directive they've been given without "coloring outside the lines" so to speak. It's probably not that interesting of a thought right now, but I could see something like that becoming more problematic/important in 5-7 years as more seasoned talents continue to retire or leave.

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14 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

Legitimately curious: what about the booking of this feud or the history of booking in this company made you think there was any possible finish to the FCA other than Jungle Boy getting the win?

Mostly the folks booked in it. The Young Bucks have torpedoed the forward progress of many an act the last two years. I wondered if they’d get to cut Jurassic Express off at the knees again.

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25 minutes ago, ExcellenceofAirPollution said:

I'm a huge Christian fan and it's amazing to me how he more or less is able to look/work the same as he did a decade ago after the injuries he had.  He's lost a half step or two, but don't tell him I said that ?

One thing about AEW having such an OTT "house style" in so far as there is one, is that guys like Christian and Dustin who can (and in fact kind of have to) work a slower, more methodical style than that really stand out in terms of their timing, pacing, selling etc when they're given some time to work with

Christian hitting a frog splash is never going to be the most spectacular thing you see on any given AEW show, but in that debut match against Kazarian he gave such a strong impression that he'd basically had to bust a gut to make FK stay down long enough to hit it, and that the move itself had taken so much out of him, that it made for a better near-fall than a whole bunch of more spectacular spots regularly do

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26 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I'm hoping we get a few more months of Christian as a babyface, because I much prefer him as a face to a heel, and I'd like to see him work a lot of the rest of the roster as he's been married to the Elite for months now.

I'm really torn on that, because I like his heel stuff a bunch. I wouldn't mind a "wily veteran who does heel shit to a baby response" type situation. I don't know if I'm describing this right, but think of like late-era Eddy or Flair stuff where the cheating is kind of endearing, for lack of a better term. 

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59 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

A bit off topic, but I'd love to hear his (or any vet's) expanded thoughts on that. I imagine it's tough to dispense advice or criticism when the younger talent is trying to follow whatever management or agent directive they've been given without "coloring outside the lines" so to speak. It's probably not that interesting of a thought right now, but I could see something like that becoming more problematic/important in 5-7 years as more seasoned talents continue to retire or leave.

people who leave always talk about the too many cooks element of WWE, and that it's Vince's show etc. etc. and I think for guys like Christian that's discouraging because at the end of the day it probably doesn't matter what he does because the culture there isn't going to change.  The fact that him, Henry and Show who were seemingly lifers but felt like they weren't going to be able to contribute much says a lot

I think I'm more interested to know how TK balances all the voices in the room.  He's said several times that after that really awful Dark Order angle he took the reigns more creatively, but that when it comes to the nuts and bolts stuff of matches being put together he leaves it to the pros

Another thing is.....who's even agenting in WWE these days?  Is Jerry Lynn still there?  Fit?  Noble?  I've been watching less/paying less attention to WWE the last few years, the product is just really bad to my tastes other than the occasional match or character here and there, but there's just so much about their product I actively dislike.  Patterson has been gone for a while, but it does feel like they have lesser experienced minds involved.  Remember when they brought in a bunch of TNA people to be agents?  What was that?  80's Vince never would have done something like that, but I can't chalk up the awful booking to Vince alone

anyway, this is the AEW thread......I'm also curious to know what Randy Orton and Roman Reigns thought of the show!

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Rewatched Omega-Hanger and loved it.  Liked it well enough on first view but 4.5 hours is beyond my threshold for pro wrestling in one sitting.  As strong as this show was, there’s much room to improve on pacing these marathons.  TK’s been adamant about keeping the running length, so perhaps there are some other options.  A half time show could be good.  Or I’d like it to be good, but even a mediocre one would allow for a much needed break.  I’d also like to see more promos - mainly for the later matches in the first half and then a selection of post match promos from the early matches in the second half.  Anything to get away from the bell to bell to bell to bell. I also rewatched Miro-Danielson and loved it.  I agree with @Jijion the Darby-MJF match being so strong that this suffered a little.  Rewatching as part of my hour plus encore special proved it to be much stronger than first view.  Tho, I definitely liked it on the first go around.  Punk-Kingston was also part of my viewing and even more wonderful than its live premiere.

Edited by HarryArchieGus
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Took me forever to really sit down and watch the show, but some late thoughts that may have been said already 

-MJF/Darby was incredible, if not a little too long. The openers tend to be the best matches on the shows but seem to tire the crowd out a bit, the audience seemed quieter than expected for Danielson/Miro. Some of the synchronized spots are a bit silly to me, but they got a good reaction and helped build momentum for the nearfalls. The interference was completely unnecessary and started a trend of too many fuck finishes on a show I’m paying hard earned money for that is all to common in AEW. Apparently MJF is way better against young flashy guys. I didn’t enjoy his stuff against Cody or Jericho much, so I tend to not look forward to a lot of his matches, but him vs. Jungle Boy, Sammy, and Darby have all been bangers. He does a great job of being exciting and engaging while not doing anything overly flashy that a heel shouldn’t do, compared to a heel like Jay White who doesn’t do anything flashy but just comes off as boring and exhausting (tho maybe that’s cause I’m always watching him go over 30 minutes)

-Punk/Kingston was my MOTN, everything it needed to be and then some. With Kingston’s recent matches against Miro, Punk, and Bryan I don’t think it’s crazy to suggest he’s in the conversation for best wrestler in the company

-Young Bucks tag was fun but these kind of matches are starting to blend together for me with the thumbtack gimmicks and spots off the stage. Felt like one of their Dynamite street fight tags dialed up. They really don’t leave a lot for the other roster when it’s a PPV. I would have taken the ATT match off and moved it to Dynamite as the Bucks filled the plunder brawl void. 
 

-Main was good, but I found the ending a bit too corny. I get what they were going for but thought they really dragged it out when it could have been more subtle. Even though he’s more over the top than his brother Nick Jackson somehow comes off as genuine and believable to me, but I cringe every time I have to watch Matt Jackson’s “acting”. Very interested where they go with Hangman as champ, and I agree that it’s intriguing that we have no idea who’s gonna get the belt next.

 

I enjoyed this PPV a lot more than others, likely in some part due to tempering my expectations beforehand. There’s always gonna be way too many matches with interference, matches that go too long, the need for a continuity director,  and crowd burnout by the middle that maybe lasts the entire show. So I can’t say AEW’s PPVs are on the level of the perfectly curated NXT PPVs from a few years back, but at least I’m wanting to watch their TV on a weekly basis.

 

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