Full Gear V - 11/18/2023

[Cobra Commander]

18 minutes ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

I'm arguably more concerned about where Hangman goes from here, rather than Jay White. 

Guy broke into his home, threatened his kids, and then beat his ass in a Texas Death Match. Not sure what the stipulation you use to give Hangman closure here, or what you do with him if you rightly give Swerve his title shot.

Yeah to repeat myself, I still think the home invasion part of the feud was stupid. Now I don’t know if there’s a more workable way to get the feud to the sort of match they had tonight, but there’s just no obvious reason why Swerve would know where Page lives and having Swerve win anyways kinda cuts off Hangman’s nuts because they escalated the feud in that fashion.

Guess we’ll see by Wednesday (either this one or the next) if there’s an official “this feud must continue” go-around or if they’ll just gonna give Page a few weeks off “due to the match” and then hope that the few weeks off doesn’t cool him off too badly when he returns at Nassau or wherever. But they already tried killing each other on PPV once and Swerve won so what exactly do you do for Hangman to get his heat back or whatever?

As for a hypothetical Swerve/MJF thing (which is probably still a feud or two away unless you just make Swerve the devil), which side of that feud ends up making more compromises to fit the others box when it comes to that sort of feud? Because those two have their own Universes of Lore and such and I’m not sure how they’d blend with each other.

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

Swerve breaks into Max's local synagogue but Max anticipates it. Long story short, Dynamite does a 15 rating on the back of MJF performing a bris on Nana.

[A.M.B.]

So I’m just starting this show and am absolutely amazed at how unbelievably insane this main event booking is. Completely ignoring that medical clearance means nothing apparently, why would any heel ever compete in an actual match for a belt when all you have to do is jump the champ beforehand and the title is just awarded to you for having done so.

[SirFozzie]

There was just too many reasons that MJF would win (his ongoing storylines with the Devil, Samoa Joe's title shot, Adam Cole), etcetera. It made all the attempts to try to make people believe a title change would happen seem like Roman Reigns like bullshit.

[MoeCristyV.1.6]

That has to be the best ever Texas Death Match. Just wiiiiild! And no, I don't think the interference soured the match. Hangman knew what he was fighting against, but his so called friends didn't help because they were acting like children. Hope he exits the Elite now. 

[MoeCristyV.1.6]

[double post] 

Edited November 19, 2023 by MoeCristyV.1.6

[StuntmanCrowley]

Regarding Hangman and Swerve, I'm going to quote Mr. Universe from Serenity.

 

"You guys always bring me the very best violence"

[Matt D]

Very excited to see if I’ll like or dislike Swerve vs Page. 

[tbarrie]

I seem to be the only one, but I thought Swerve/Page stunk and was easily the worst match of the night.

[Octopus]

Hangman absolutely ripped apart and stapled the fuck out of Swerve. A loss is low key ok considering everything that happened in the match. Especially given Hangman’s character always has built in loss protection. It could be spinner off into a Hangman vacation, a new feud with Cage, trying to keep the Elite friends bull shit, him being crazed now, or continue the feud if they have nothing ready for Swerve. 

[Sublime]

Would it make sense for Hangman to be the Devil? That would explain why the devil didn’t show up last night. It could work as the two of them we built from the stat of the company to be a hero (Page) and villain (MJF) and now with MJF being a hero maybe Hangman changes alignment for this era of AEW. The henchmen devils could be the Dark Order.

The best reason for the devil not showing is that either 1) Cole is the devil or 2) the devil was unable to because of something that happened on the card earlier so either Swerve, Hangman or maybe someone in the ladder match.

[Curt McGirt]

3 hours ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

Swerve breaks into Max's local synagogue but Max anticipates it. Long story short, Dynamite does a 15 rating on the back of MJF performing a bris on Nana.

Were you the joker in the chat who said Juice blinds Max with white phosphorus? 

Speaking of... similar... things, the Swerve/Page finish unfortunately leaves an opening for a white guy named Hangman to get away with choking out a black man with a chain. And in storyline it would be justified. Page really should have won; you don't have a babyface lose a match after a guy breaks into his house in a way where you think he's gonna commit a kidnapping, and the babyface already came back at him crowing about how the heel's fiancee left him. It's too personal by that point and letting the heel off the chain (literally) defeats the purpose. I mean you got a rocket up Swerve (and by proxy the Embassy)'s ass now but to what end?

[ChrisPBacon]

I'm all for a Single White Female storyline between Mariah May and Toni Storm.  Does May have the chops to out crazy Storm though?

IMO, all logic of Adam Cole being the devil was thrown out after last nights match.  Im sure there can be some way to tie it all in if I think deep enough, but it would be hard to buy.  Not sure who you would go with aside from Cole.  Maybe Ospreay, Christian or MJF himself if you want to get weird with it.  My guess is they go with Jungle Boy and add a young crew of disgruntled guys and Anna Jay. 

Edited November 19, 2023 by ChrisPBacon

[Niners Fan in CT]

8 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

If they do less in a main event, then other people shit on it for being "unremarkable". If you do more, then it's "overbooked". American wrestling main event style is it's own beast, it probably needs to be changed up but I don't know who gets the honor of changing it

I think that's a copout.  I'm beyond tired of the Roman formula now just waiting for someone to interfere and this MJF/White match was along those same lines.  They had some good stuff in the match it just ended up being overshadowed by all the nonsense. 

If they had gone 20-25 minutes with no frills and just had a great technical match or match revolved around some limb work it would have been really good and nobody would have complained. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

As for 'The Devil' reveal,  I think it has to be Cole.  It just makes the most sense. I don't want to see them do some bullshit surprise just to shock everyone.  Cole was damn near handing Jay White the belt and the ring last night.   There was no "reveal" because The Devil was ringside. 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

54 minutes ago, Octopus said:

Hangman absolutely ripped apart and stapled the fuck out of Swerve. A loss is low key ok considering everything that happened in the match. Especially given Hangman’s character always has built in loss protection. It could be spinner off into a Hangman vacation, a new feud with Cage, trying to keep the Elite friends bull shit, him being crazed now, or continue the feud if they have nothing ready for Swerve. 

That's more or less my feeling, too. If he wasn't killed by crappy booking once he won the title, and he wasn't killed by the Punk nonsense, and he wasn't killed by his character being a bit of a dick to Dark Order, he's gonna be fine after this. Whether it continues or he detours to Brian Cage or moves on to the next thing, all it takes is a brief promo acknowledgement:

"Yeah, I might have lost that one, but I beat you within an inch of your life exactly like I said I would, Swerve. This wasn't about a win, this was about my family, and now everyone knows the hell that awaits them if they cross that line. And speaking of crossing the line: Brian Cage(Chris Jericho/Jacksons/Other)..."

[Craig H]

Why would anyone think we were going to get a Devil reveal last night. That was never hinted at or even built to. In fact, to date, the Devil has only appeared in glimpses less than 4 times. The goons have only been on tv twice. 

If they’re going to finally bring out the Devil then it would have been tied into something more. Jay and the rest of BCG already figured it was MJF. Bringing out the Devil last night would mean just adding more confusion or adding another thread to the story.

I’m still hoping it’s going to be Swerve just trying to bring MJF’s life down around him. And after last night, is there anyone that’s more of a made man in wrestling than Swerve. That was my other hope going into last night, that Swerve would win. And if it is Swerve you can go that route of him pointing out that only a mogul would have the money and the means to have one person after another go after MJF to break him down and did MJF just think it was coincidence that everyone went after him at the same time.

Hanger losing last night doesn’t hurt him much. That was how you look good in defeat. He went to a level no one thought possible, killed Nana, and it took a fucking cinder block and getting hanged with a chain to beat him.

[Craig H]

I also love booking the Young Bucks to act like little bitches after losing. They just can’t beat Kenny.

Other things that were awesome about last night…

The ladder match was so good. Everyone was giving the appearance of killing themselves, but no one was out there like Fenix actively trying to literally kill himself. Plus, there was a real feel good moment for a brief second there when Big Bill was sitting at the apron looking at the title. It felt like real, actual, unplanned reflection and I thought he was about to break down. Like, he gets fired from WWE, battles addiction, has the seizure, looks like a mess, turns everything around, finds his way into AEW, and he walked out of a huge title defense and is still a champion. Regardless of his politics, I feel good for the journey that guy has been on.

Meltzer and Alvarez may dislike her, but I think Julia Hart has improved a ton and has been looking good in her matches. Great character, improving as a wrestler, and is now a champion. I wish I could say the same about Skye Blue. I think this screamo character is like Great Value Julia Hart. And I think she still stinks in the ring. Rarely does she look very natural in the ring. She always has this look of, “ok, and this is when I should do this.”

Toni Storm is the best act in women’s wrestling.

Loved OC beating Mox. OC is about as made of a man as Swerve at this point. And it’s the classic AEW story of the underdog that loses to a particular individual until they’re finally able to beat them.

Finally, when Darby told the crowd that it would be Sting’s final time in CA it dawned on me that, holy shit, it’s mid November, we’re only 3 months away from Sting being done forever. Pretty bittersweet.

[Just Dave]

I’ll review the actual ppv later, but right now I just want to say that in 1996 my dad took me to the Omni for my first wrestling show. It was Nitro. Sting wrestled on that show. Last night, my dad, my son and I sat together and watched Sting on pay per view. My son, who’s 3, loves to yell “big boys fight!!!” during the show. It was a blast.

[Octopus]

The Devil Derp does help with a PPV again in December. It’s not like it’ll be drawn out 3 or more months more, hopefully.

1 minute ago, Craig H said:

I also love booking the Young Bucks to act like little bitches after losing. They just can’t beat Kenny.

 

I loooooved the tantrums. Annoying Bucks are the best Bucks. 

[Curt McGirt]

30 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Regardless of his politics

Awww. Should I even ask? I'm gonna end up not liking the dude now aren't I? 

EDIT: Also, I just did a skip-through on the Hell of War. AR Fox bled like a stuck pig from his back, and the last spot (long fall through a glass plate) was pretty gnarly. I don't think it looked half as crazy as the Texas death match though. 

Another bump we're gonna forget is Darby being choke slammed with his hip nailing the edge of the apron. It doesn't get brought up how his body language, stiffening up and basically looking like a crash test dummy, is very important to these bumps looking so evil. And like the announcers said of course he would take that right before he has to hike up Mount Everest, because he's a fucking psycho. 

Edited November 19, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[For Great Justice]

Swerve as the next champion in the next 6 months feels as certain as anything else in wrestling right now, and in a while. The only question now is how we get there.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

Weird hours-later double post thing -deleted

Edited November 19, 2023 by Zakk_Sabbath

[Octopus]

I’m happy to be positive about the product again. 

[odessasteps]

11 hours ago, John E. Dynamite said:

A decent portion of the actual, not-terminally-online fanbase would have rejected Jay White as champion. Lord knows I'm not part of that group, but it's an issue in booking him. Because he comes off as nothing short of a world champion, except to the people who don't "get" him, which I don't "get", but here we are. He can't lose anything but the biggest matches but he can't be the top guy. Yet?

If my preferred kind of wrestling doesn't have room for stapling your child's finger paintings to a person you hate's face then I am no longer myself.

How much of the company’s is there that is not “perpetually online fan”? Isn’t there almost everyone in 2023? 
 

if you generously say the promotion has a million fans in the US, how many of them would be “casual?”