FULL GEAR VII - 11/22/2025

[NoFistsJustFlips]

Yeah thought that was pretty telegraphed, but should still be good. Okada wins his block. Take wins his block. Take wins the tournament / Unified Title. Or just the Continental Title? Who the fuck knows with the scattershot way AEW books their titles. Take walking out for the main of Wrestle Kingdom (semi main because of Tanahashi?) with 4 belts would be a hell of a visual.

Take winning both the G1 & the C2 in the same year, and beating Okada in the finals of the C2 would really cement him as a top act too.

Edited November 23, 2025 by NoFistsJustFlips

[The Natural]

21 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

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

That's my prediction.

[Curt McGirt]

AEW put up a video online of Briscoe getting a new belt from the Conglomeration and you will piss your pants with laughter.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17U57hiz8b/

[Craig H]

I don’t know what it is about Joe, but whenever he bleeds he just gushes blood. This was like the match against Finn Balor.

[Octopus]

6 minutes ago, Craig H said:

I don’t know what it is about Joe, but whenever he bleeds he just gushes blood. This was like the match against Finn Balor.

Joe literally bleeds greatness 

[The Natural]

16 minutes ago, Craig H said:

I don’t know what it is about Joe, but whenever he bleeds he just gushes blood. This was like the match against Finn Balor.

NXT TakeOver: Dallas. Such a great show.

[Zimbra]

I was setting up dinner during the first trios match and dozed through the second one, but everything else was all-killer no-filler for me.  I do think having three separate bloody brawls on one show might have been gilding the lily, but all three were so damn good that I can deal with it.  And it felt like there was some actual forward progress in the booking, which has been sorely lacking.  

1 hour ago, SovietShooter said:

Bandido is winning the CC

Galaxy brain: Bandido is winning the AEW world title

[Mike Campbell]

1 hour ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

Take wins the tournament / Unified Title. Or just the Continental Title? Who the fuck knows with the scattershot way AEW books their titles.

During the promo last night, Callis specifically said that Okada was defending the Continental Title in the C2. And a friend pointed out that AEW's website lists Okada being the Unified Champ as well as being both the International and Continental Champs. I guess that how it plays out is that if Okada wins then he remains Unified Champion, but if not, then the winner is only the Continental Champion and the Unified Title will just fade away and classify itself as obsolete.

Edited November 23, 2025 by Mike Campbell

[sabremike]

1 hour ago, Craig H said:

I don’t know what it is about Joe, but whenever he bleeds he just gushes blood. This was like the match against Finn Balor.

A real irony is that a little over 21 years back Joe had a legendary cage match with Jay Briscoe roughly a few miles away at the old RexPlex where Jay was the one who bled buckets (I was there).

[Niners Fan in CT]

If I had one criticism it'd be the match placement.  I didn't care for having two bloody brawls back to back with another one inside of a cage match still to come.  I think that deflated the crowd midway through the event and then the wrestlers had to work twice as hard to get them back. 

[Curt McGirt]

They probably should have done Briscoe/Fletcher to start, Mox/KOR in the middle, then cage end. A simple matter of spacing things out. But then you are gonna have a dead tired crowd at the end of these shows anyway. 

59 minutes ago, sabremike said:

A real irony is that a little over 21 years back Joe had a legendary cage match with Jay Briscoe roughly a few miles away at the old RexPlex where Jay was the one who bled buckets (I was there).

I hope they got a picture of a clean smiling Briscoe pointing at an absolutely gore-soaked Joe. Maybe with a caption of "Finally!"

[Curt McGirt]

2 hours ago, Zimbra said:

Galaxy brain: Bandido is winning the AEW world title

I can see it down the road, for sure. But a long trip down that ol' galaxy it'll be. 

[SturmCRF]

Great PPV, I didn't exactly call Joe winning, but I told my girlfriend I wasn't ruling it out, so I'll take some credit for semi predicting it.

I enjoy Hangman and he seems like a lovely guy, but he's like Naito at this point, it's never enough that he just win the title, he has to win it and have a long reign, or win it and do the LIJ roll call in the Tokyo Dome, his fans are never fully satisfied. I'm pleased he had a short reign, AEW has too many overly telegraphed long runs with the men's World belt. Die hard sickos like me will keep buying the shows each month anyway (especially with the sweet two for £25 deals on Triller), but they need to have more genuinely hard to call main events.

Anyway, Joe should have a moderate length run and then drop it to Kyle O'Reilly (sorry Drew). He doesn't radiate star quality, but I'm not Tony Khan's accountant, I'm a fan who wants to see a rare underdog sports story done properly in pro wrestling. The blandness and goofiness is part of the point, as long as he conveys that that's a genuine part of who he is, which he does. Combine those qualities with being a high level ROH-ey Good Wrestler, and he's a perfect guy to do a Leicester City and shockingly win the big one. And they may actually be considering it, cos Moxley did a hell of an unselfish job putting him over, and it'd be a shame if all that effort ended up being a glorified Jericho vs Action Andretti.

[HumanChessgame]

2 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

If I had one criticism it'd be the match placement.  I didn't care for having two bloody brawls back to back with another one inside of a cage match still to come.  I think that deflated the crowd midway through the event and then the wrestlers had to work twice as hard to get them back. 

I thought having two No DQ matches and a cage match on the same show was overkill, but putting the no DQ matches on one after the other was especially egregious. 

4 hours ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

Yeah thought that was pretty telegraphed, but should still be good. Okada wins his block. Take wins his block. Take wins the tournament / Unified Title. Or just the Continental Title? Who the fuck knows with the scattershot way AEW books their titles. Take walking out for the main of Wrestle Kingdom (semi main because of Tanahashi?) with 4 belts would be a hell of a visual.

Take winning both the G1 & the C2 in the same year, and beating Okada in the finals of the C2 would really cement him as a top act too.

Even though I think they go with Tak/Okada in the finals, it feels like almost too obvious an outcome. One of them taking a fluke/distraction loss to Bandito in the semis, then one costing the other the finals is another route they could go to finally build up the match.

 

Is it possible to think the right people went over and be glad they won, but still feel like it's not going anywhere interesting? I'm a big fan of FTR and think Brodito are better as singles, but as others have mentioned yet another FTR reign feels pointless. 

I like Joe a lot more than Page, but Page was starting to get traction as champ.

I'm surprised and glad Briscoe won, but they have such a long track record of failing to capitalize with him I can't really get excited about it. 

Kyle beating Moxley was the right call but he's already done that under similar circumstances so no big deal aside from it potentially starting the DR breakup.

[Curt McGirt]

I don't get why anyone is misunderstanding the KOR storyline. I may get some of the details wrong but: first one, Mox wins. Second one, Mox cheats to avoid tap. Third one, Mox cheats to avoid tap again. Fourth one, KOR wins. Fifth one puts an underline on KOR as he wins with another tap, this time with no interference under NHB "rules". Puts a cap on the feud. "Makes" KOR. Puts Mox under the spotlight as a loser, moves along Deathriders breakup. I may be wrong about some of the matches, my memory can be fuzzy (and please feel free to correct me, I want to know), but this is really good simple writing with coherence and logic that makes its points, and makes them hard with intense, bloody wrestling to back it up. 

[AxB]

I think putting Mox vs KOR and Fletcher vs Briscoe back to back was fine, because they were such different matches. One was a technical wrestling match based around limb work and building to submissions, the other was a weapons brawl/ stunt spot match. They were worked completely differently.

Plenty of wrestling cards will feature a match with regular rules back to back with another match with regular rules, and nobody complains about Full Rules Overkill, do they?

[Curt McGirt]

The issue is merely the blood, and the enormous load of it. Nobody's complaining about the matches themselves being too similar (which they weren't). 

[Niners Fan in CT]

One thing that I am hoping gets sorted out.  I don't feel like the crowds are 100% all in on Statlander as the top babyface.  I almost feel like Willow should be in her spot.  That's not a knock on Stat AT ALL because I do think the crowds like her a lot and she's an awesome wrestler.  They've also made sure to protect her every step of the way, she beat Toni Storm decisively and now she's beaten Mercedes decisively.  The two top stars of the division. She's a made woman.  I just hope the crowds catch up. One thing I noticed watching last night, there were a lot of "C-E-O" chants when the match started, their were more chants during the match.  I don't know if it's simply a "respect for the legend" thing or what because she was being a heel through and through.  It could be that fans see her and Toni as bigger stars than Stat and I don't know how Tony Khan would help with that. He's done great with her booking. 

[The Green Meanie]

Not gonna lie, I'm intrigued by Hook re-joining The Ops, if that's what they're going with. There are a lot of ways they could go about explaining this.

[HumanChessgame]

1 hour ago, AxB said:

I think putting Mox vs KOR and Fletcher vs Briscoe back to back was fine, because they were such different matches. One was a technical wrestling match based around limb work and building to submissions, the other was a weapons brawl/ stunt spot match. They were worked completely differently.

Plenty of wrestling cards will feature a match with regular rules back to back with another match with regular rules, and nobody complains about Full Rules Overkill, do they?

KOR/Moxley featured them gigging eachother with a fork and choking eachother with a chain through several stretches. It wasn't the same plunder match as Briscoe/Fletcher but it had enough similarities that it would have been good to have a cooler match in between them.

 

[Casey]

My hot take is that Hangman isn’t the main character of AEW, never was, and that if a company has to bash it over your head that someone is the main character then maybe they actually aren’t. He’s infinitely better in the chase of a title than he is when he wins it and has to become the guy. 2021/2022 it didn’t really work out, through no fault of his own, and this time it didn’t either (also not his fault).

I also still believe Hangman’s redemption arc and title win was a pivot because Darby was the first choice and wasn’t ready yet. All of this makes more sense if you plug in Darby where Hangman has been (not to mention Hangman & Swerve settling their issues was extremely rushed). A story arc of Darby winning the Owen, challenging Mox at their biggest show of the year, dethroning him, and then losing it a few months later to a juggernaut of a wrestler like Samoa Joe just fits Darby better. They made the story fit Hangman due to the circumstances, I’ll give them that.

[Niners Fan in CT]

I just don't think there was anything wrong with Hangman's run.  Super long title reigns have become boring to me.  It's not 1984.  This was a pleasant surprise and now if they choose to they can run back the story of Hangman and Swerve which is always a welcome callback.  If you remember,  Swerve decided to help Hangman dethrone Mox even after they both made it clear they did not want each other to succeed.  Fast-forward and there is a mutual respect now between the two. Hangman had to overcome the Deathriders.  Swerve may have to overcome The Opps.  Will Hangman return the favor is something that would interest me greatly. 

[The Green Meanie]

Hangman will never truly be redeemed unless he does right by The Dark Order. 

[The Natural]

I agree running Briscoe/Fletcher and O'Reilly/Moxley back to back was a mistake. Put a match or two between.

[Curt McGirt]

3 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:

Not gonna lie, I'm intrigued by Hook re-joining The Ops, if that's what they're going with. There are a lot of ways they could go about explaining this.

The higher power is TAZ, BROTHA~! "It was me, Hangman, it was me all along!"