FULL GEAR VII - 11/22/2025

[The Natural]

 

[Craig H]

What a fucking show. Holy shit. Tony Khan always has another bullet in the chamber. He’s a one man bullet club.

Never would I think Joe would win, but that’s the good kind of surprise you need in wrestling. I also fully welcome a title reign that doesn’t last forever. And with Swerve back this storyline has longer legs, the developments with the DCF family have longer legs, even the Death Riders look like things are about to get shaken up. Plus, it’s looking like this may be the best CC yet. 

AEW rules the motherfuckin world.

[username]

I am surprised this many people are shocked Joe won, this is the exact same "lose the first title match, get a questionably necessary second one he ends up winning" setup they used last time.

What I liked is that Swerve's return video was burning house related, which doesn't make a ton of sense if he thought Joe was gonna win but made all the sense in the world if he thought Hangman was >_>

Kinda hope Hangman eventually gets a better title run one of these years

Gotta see more of the Opps having random underlings all of a sudden if it remains a thing to make up how I feel about it, if it is a ppv one off then sure but I'd be lying if my mind didn't go "yeah, let's not do a MLW Contra Unit deal here" for a sec.

[The Natural]

What was your MOTN? Mine was either Mark Briscoe vs. Kyle Fletcher or FTR vs. Bandido. Honourable mention to PAC vs. Darby Allin.

Edited November 23, 2025 by The Natural

[The Natural]

Jon Moxley: Titty Master.

[colonial]

Okada driving to the arena in a McLaren AND in his underwear? Typical Jersey suburbia on a Saturday night.

Alex Abrahamtes appeared to get his outfit from a Sha Na Na garage sale ...

 

 

 

I like Megan Bayne and she has tons of potential, but she has to learn to sell better. After Skye Blue kicked her in the face during the four-way, Bayne just kind of stood there on the apron, seemingly wondering what to do next, before jumping to the floor.  She had similar issues at Blood and Guts -- hopefully someone works with her on selling. 

Love the look of the National belt and the Gauntlet was interesting. But I somewhat expected a surprise entrant -- Matt Menard and Mark Davis weren't it. 

[just drew]

I really liked this show. It's a shame the DR shakeup couldn't come at the hands of someone with a personality, but you can't have everything, I guess. I've yet to see anything to refute the opinion that O'Reilly is a charisma vacuum. Even his defender on here was like "nuh uh he's the best someone tell him" followed by crickets. He's a fantastic worker. Just not interesting. And that's fine, but I question the wisdom of this being him and not a guy that might make something off being the guy to tap Mox out twice, like Speedball or Hook or someone who hasn't gotten as far up the card as they're going to go. Anyway; everything else ruled. 

[hammerva]

While the match itself wasn't as good as the Toni Storm matches, thank god they were smart enough to keep the title on Statlander.   The only way this 13 belt Mone works if she can't win the one that actually matters.   Going to suck for about 5 - 10 current women's champions because she will probably end up being 20 belt Mone real quickly to compensate

Not sure I like the Continental Cup basically being the Don Callis family invitational.   Seems like the semis and finals have already been determined before the brackets are even announced

Don't hate Joe win another title run although I am worried that we are basically going to get another Death Riders like reign where it is nothing but run ins and bad finishes just to keep the reign long.   Too early to be doing that again in my opinion.  Hopefully it doesn't mean that Eddie Kingston is on the back page.   I know that people want Swerve but if this ultimately turned into a Joe vs Kingston feud there won't be a dry eye among sickos everywhere 

Also side note I don't like Swerve's new entrance.  The old one was so easy to vibe to at shows. 

I seriously dispute people who say that Kyle O Reilly is boring and has no charisma.  His charisma is his complete goofiness.  I can't understand Kyle character because frankly most wrestling fans are the same way.    Personally, I find Kyle way more interesting as a person than HOOK who charisma seems to be "I am Italian"

 

 

Edited November 23, 2025 by hammerva

[AxB]

Swerve, Hangman &  Kingston to challenge Joe, Shibata & Hobbs for the trios titles?

Darby Allin had a new DA logo on his tron and for a second I thought it was familiar, but I realised it was reminding me of the old Dean Ambrose logo.

When they rounded up all of the local indie wrestlers who showed up to hang out, how do you think they picked which dudes got to be Team Taz Opps Dojo, and which dudes got to be Mone belt boys? Because you can tell that the one really jacked dude with the two belts, they thought "No way is anyone buying him as a jobber for the babyface beatdown at the end".

[Mike Campbell]

The only matches that didn't do much for me were the women's four way match, and that was still perfectly fine, and the Young Bucks six man. After Moxley/O'Reilly and Fletcher/Briscoe, there was just no way they could hope to follow it. My MOTN was probably the tag titles match, but Mercedes and Stat was just a step behind it. With how early they worked in the dive where Stat hurts her arm, she never forgot about selling it or keeping it in mind. I thought the spot where they did the dive off the apron and Stat caught her was too much, but the replay showed that Stat used her other arm to do the heavy lifting.

 

I was pleasently surprised by the World Title change. Hangman was pretty much made anyway, especially after he won the final blowoff with Moxley clean. Outside of the obvious upcoming title match of Joe and Swerve, it also gives the possibility of Swerve, Hangman, and Kingston going for the trios titles. I do wonder if the Hook turn was always the plan, or if they saw that him and Kingston as a team weren't working and just pulled the plug. 

[NoFistsJustFlips]

Not sure if it's because I went in with such low expectations, but this show WAY over delivered. One of the best PPVs of the year I thought. Crowd unfortunately got a little tired and didn't give the last few matches 100%. But still a very good show.

I did not expect Joe to win. That was a left field win for me. I assume Hook slides in as the Trios Champ now.

I do not like The National Title. In concept. In execution. In design. None of it. I also thought that was the worst Casino Gauntlet they've done. A real low point for the show. I do like Ricochet getting rewarded for all of his hard work and character progression tho. But why in the world would the title design just be a straight rip off like that? Essentially makes the belt feel like a replica title for me. A very unserious move for a national wrestling company.

I loved the Tag Title & TNT Title Matches. The cage match over delivered for me. Thought Mercedes & Stat had a great match. Million Dollar Trios was fun as hell. Them doing the overlapping match gimmick AGAIN was a little much. But I did like the nuance of Okada not even considering showing up for a pre show and only coming out once on PPV. Although no commentator mentioned that plot point unfortunately.

[hammerva]

There is a great photo of Moxley with Shafir in the background and Marina has the look of someone who knows that it is time to put their favorite pet down 

[Curt McGirt]

41 minutes ago, hammerva said:

Also side note I don't like Swerve's new entrance.  The old one was so easy to vibe to at shows. 

They're 0-2 at this new music/entrance thing, aren't they? Hook's was atrocious and now they did a new Swerve song that's too fast to chant to. It also seems really missing the point of a return to put something new out that nobody knows what it is. Save that for AFTER your guaranteed enormous pop. 

Okay lets do this thang

Spoiler

- I showed up in time for us to laugh about Statlander's weird jewelry (Alien Breathe-Right?) and catch some of the Mistico tag. Mistico shows up late, does not sell damaged arm. He's Misticocal! Hechicero using great big sweeping gestures to try and tell his teammates that they should kiss and make up was really great. That's a very underrated and currently not particularly well-used part of the wrestling game. You gotta play to the crowd, people; let 'em know what's up. Unfortunately I didn't really pay much attention because I was still trying to make my ass stop scrolling Facebook. This would reoccur later. 

- Really wanted Darby to hit PAC with a flaming lariat like Shadow WX or something. The arm bandaging looked like loose toilet paper at first. Darby got TP'd! Then PAC rips it off and arm-wringers him which was fuckin' nasty. Darby's running clothesline was dope since he never gets what kind of amounts to a strength move, unless it's a dropkick (and boy he busted out one hell of a Misawa-lands-on-his-head-on-the-floor one from the top). Cheapshit heels win with the bat. After a very nice run of not irritating the living shit out of me, Nigel is back to his heeling, but the irritation starts with the moronic quote of "I guess if you live by the bat... then you die by the bat."  He also does the "it's really a steel cable" which is right up there with "it's the hardest part of the ring" in THINGS I NEVER WANT ANNOUNCERS TO SAY AGAIN EVER.

- Just a random thought: 

How come they haven't used some Fans Bring the Weapons weapons yet? Like, a thumbtack wiffle ball bat? Or an empty water refill jug on a stick? Are they trying to leave something special for the death match feds to keep exclusively, since they already stole glass and staple guns? 

- I get them wanting to give the ladies all a paycheck but "four-way tag for stipulation decision" just makes me want them to hurry up and finish this goddamn tournament already. Somebody needs to count the weeks it's been going. Another thought I had is the Timeless Love Bombs actually choosing "apartment wrestling" and then AEW having to show examples to the fans so the youngin's understand, hahaha. We got the Everyone Goes Down spot to keep entire tag teams out of the ring... *sigh*

- The batting percentage on this card keeps dropping as Brodito and FTR decide they are four whole Energizer Bunnies and keep going... and going... and going... AND GOING... This was every single possible fake finish with an enormous match-finishing bump humanly possible. Totally ridiculous overkill from the team known for it and a team with the guy who did a match with Hechicero that defied any kind of sanity down the stretch, and felt like it went an hour. 

- I really didn't mind the gauntlet match at all, there was good work from all involved and they booked it really well, but my vote for winner went in this order: 1. Mark Davis (to give him a big boost) 2. Yuter (for the heat) 3. Ricochet (for the heat). They picked Ric and that's all well and good but he's still #3 on the list. Thus, Mark Davis continues to just be A Guy. But, Ric proves he is a total pro by somehow pinning on a DDT by sticking straight up in the air upside down and at an angle which is just absurd, and then frickin *breakdancing* to troll everyone. Just fantastic. Oh, and my other option for a finish was Hurt Business laying out the entire time, letting everyone decimate each other until it's just one person (preferably Ricochet), then destroying them and doing rock/paper/scissors to see who keeps the belt. 

- "Damn, what can we do now? Well, let's finally have a singles match, and have it be Moxley and O'Reilly mutilating each other! That'll get this deal back in Curt's Cool Book for sure!" And it sure as hell did. All you KOR haters can shut-the-fuck-up (TM Black Bush from Chappelle's Show). I mean c'mon, he is now the VIOLENT ARTIST, how can you dislike that? Danielson has been reading my posts because I explained the whole Death-Jitsu thing just the other day. This was a whole lot of the forking and the bleeding and the wrenching and the agony of "I am stabbed and my limb is being destroyed". The chain being used as a fulcrum to help one-armed Kyle get the Ankle Lock was a little Wrestling-Logic-stupid and didn't look great but whatever. Mox tapped again and was a big fuming baby afterwards. Matt D is gonna write the hell out of this one. 

- So, I was hoping for blood in this match too, and we got (so far) QUAD JUICE! They must've had a betting pool in the back (or on Draft Kings) to who will bleed the most in this PPV. This might've been No DQ but it might as well have been Tables Ladders and Chairs. The small ladder getting destroyed was pretty gnarly especially, and Kyle destroying his own arm in between Chicken and the chair on the floor. I quickly realized this was also gonna be A Battle of the Loud Wrestlers (that Also Make Goofy Faces) and it was great for that. Commentary was great for saying Mark was "using his tooth" and then Callis calling him a "crayon eater" which is just about the best insult ever. They might have done a lot of heavy construction to set up the spots, but all of them were brutal, and the finish was particularly final with two in a row to destroy Fletcher. Mark gets the belt and we all rejoice. Great match. 

- I did not watch the next match at all. Facebook and Warcollapse on the turntable time!

- I did not watch the next match after that at all either. But I kept the sound on to find out when it ends and boy is Aubrey up there with Fletcher and Briscoe in the loud performances. She was practically shrieking out those fall numbers. 

- After those epics along with the pre-show we had a burnt-out, damn near completely silent crowd and needed to go short, so this one was probably planned out time-wise well in advance. Joe officially wins the backstage bets by cutting a full-Muta, fucking gunshot level blade job -- I mean it literally looked like he was shot in his head and it exited the back in one angle where the camera was facing his side and you could see both front and back. Hanger tried, so we got six lettings of the BLUD in one night, which the announcers admitted to being a bit of overkill. I hope this doesn't make Tony pull back completely on blood. At least let Moxley juice, man. Everything goes completely screwy in a short amount of time. The Opps go full heel (maybe this will give Hook some heat) but we get the return of Swerve! And as noted above, it doesn't seem to have the same pop that his old music would get. People even seemed a little confused about the house on fire which should have been totally obvious. *shrug* Anyway, match was good enough for me even with it being some NWO-level bullshit.

Eh. This was kind of a two match show for me. But what a hell of those two matches, and the main wasn't bad either. 

[The Natural]

10 minutes ago, hammerva said:

There is a great photo of Moxley with Shafir in the background and Marina has the look of someone who knows that it is time to put their favorite pet down 

Not just Marina Shafir. Claudio Castagnoli and PAC.

[Curt McGirt]

Ooof, yeah, after watching the video of that... he might be in for a jumpin'. Which will be great when he's begging Marina, being the last one not joining in to help him, and she just judo throws him and chokes him out. 

Where did we get Moxley's Titty Master thing from, by the way? That was a loooooong time ago.

[JLowe]

2 hours ago, AxB said:

Swerve, Hangman &  Kingston to challenge Joe, Shibata & Hobbs for the trios titles?

Darby Allin had a new DA logo on his tron and for a second I thought it was familiar, but I realised it was reminding me of the old Dean Ambrose logo.

When they rounded up all of the local indie wrestlers who showed up to hang out, how do you think they picked which dudes got to be Team Taz Opps Dojo, and which dudes got to be Mone belt boys? Because you can tell that the one really jacked dude with the two belts, they thought "No way is anyone buying him as a jobber for the babyface beatdown at the end".

I thought about 80% of the belt boys were Opps minions.

[Craig H]

Not pictured are Garcia and that piece of shit Yuta giving similar looks. Garcia always has a look of buyer’s remorse.

[JLowe]

my wife to me, while I’m reading this thread:

”Did you have fun last night?”

”yes”

”You still mad about the PPV?”

”YES”

[JLowe]

6 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Ooof, yeah, after watching the video of that... he might be in for a jumpin'. Which will be great when he's begging Marina, being the last one not joining in to help him, and she just judo throws him and chokes him out. 

Where did we get Moxley's Titty Master thing from, by the way? That was a loooooong time ago.

I still just do not get why everyone is so hyped for Marina. Her whole thing is that Moxley brought her along because she is his judo partner and she can hold a mean expression for a long time.

[Curt McGirt]

2 minutes ago, JLowe said:

my wife to me, while I’m reading this thread:

”Did you have fun last night?”

”yes”

”You still mad about the PPV?”

”YES”

It's always like that! Unless I've had enough to drink. Then I can watch a Bucks match. 

People seem to be getting into Marina now that she is trying to exhibit the most limited amount of charisma and is trying to wrestle again. I think that's fair, but we need to be getting results. 

[JLowe]

I thought top to bottom there were a lot of great matches, but I really hated a lot of the booking decisions and I’m worried its going to kill a lot of the buzz they’ve had. Anyway, this is going to be a list of my negative reactions, feel free to skip if that’s not something you’re interested in,

Why did they end up having the 4-way be a face-v-face battle and why did they have Harley take a pin from Toni. The crowd was not into that at all. There is no reason why Skye or Julia can’t take a pin. I get they want to protect Megasus and Marina  but Skye and Julia have both eaten plenty of pins without losing heat.

I loved KoR and Mox, but it ended up just being the Blood and Guts finish again. KoR has already proved he can outbleed, outwrestle, and submit Mox.

Does anyone really want or care about yet another FTR title run? I guess they want to focus on Bandido’s hot singles run.

I assume they had Briscoe win for a feel good moment before they killed their super popular men’s world champion. I love Mark Briscoe, and I’m happy for him. Kyle Fletcher is on a heater and maybe the best heel in AEW, and now he’s being shifted into the Don Callis custody battle.

The most interesting thing about the Casino Gauntlet was the idea of Shelton and Lashley going at it for a few minutes to start, and instead they did the exact opposite. I’m good with Ricochet as the cowardly heel champion, but this was forgettable and probably belonged on Dynamite. Also, no surprise entries.

I agree with whoever said the Stat victory felt rushed and a little unearned. But I’m glad they went that direction in general.

Finally, after a year plus of mixed/bad feelings about AEW online and in ratings/attendance, they redeemed the Death Riders angle drag with the Hangman redemption arc. He is beloved. He wrestles regularly. He is the main character, the face of the company. And you have him loose to Samoa Joe (who I love as a wrestler) on a screw job to fucking Hook, the wack nepo baby? Just fucking stupid.

 

Edited November 23, 2025 by JLowe

[SovietShooter]

7 minutes ago, JLowe said:

Does anyone really want or care about yet another FTR title run? I guess they want to focus on Bandido’s hot singles run.

Bandido is winning the CC

[JLowe]

10 minutes ago, SovietShooter said:

Bandido is winning the CC

Doesn’t he already have the ROH World Title?

[Curt McGirt]

Just realized we might have a Hangman/Joe/Swerve triple threat match  

But we will also probably get Eddie Kingston punishing Hook for being a disrespectful student

[Niners Fan in CT]

Surely the CC Final will be Okada vs. Take,  no?  They've been building this feud for months