Cero Reviews AEW Full Gear 2021

[cero2k]

AEW Full Gear 2021
November 12, 2021
Minneapolis, Minnesota

** The Buy-In **

Hikaru Shida & Thunder Rosa vs. Jamie Hayter & Nyla Rose (w/Vickie Guerrero) - 6.5/10
Good match. It was given about 12 minutes, so it was given a good amount of time to build the heat segment and a strong hot tag for Rosa. Last couple of minutes were all over the place, Shida was out there fueling her feud with Serena Deeb, who was ringside, taking shots from Vicky Guerrero, and getting back to the ring to the finish when she rolled over Rose. Spot of the match was Rosa hitting a top rope plancha on Hayter, who took it like a champ.

The match was a combo of two of the matches of the TBS title tournament, so I really hope they also book Velvet/Soho vs Jade/Statlander or something similar to have them also wrestle matches outside of the tournament.

** Main Show **

MJF vs. Darby Allin - 8/10
I really liked this match and what it was representing. The whole build was about two of the AEW "pillars" coming to it with a particular non-existing 4 spot ranking between them, and while MJF did so much to trigger Allin, it was the idea that MJF could be a better wrestler than Allin that fueled this whole thing.

The match was a good mix of showing how both guys are in ways, similar to each other, but also have their own game. MJF hurt his knee early in the match, and became part of Allin's focus, whereas MJF focused on Allin's back after missing a coffin drop on the apron. The match would eventually see Allin gain momentum, which prompted The Pinnacle to come out, only to get taken out by Sting, but through the chaos, MJF armed himself with his ring, he knocked out Allin, get him in a side headlock as he had promised, and pinned him.

While I don't want AEW to take this "pillars" thing and overuse it like the Fed would, to the point that it feels like a copyright, I do hope that it's something that can be visited every now and then, once or twice a year, when two of the four men come into a program, and one day, once one of them is set to get crowned as the World Champion, make that the number one contender 4-way match.

AEW World Tag Team Championship Match
The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Cero Miedo & Rey Fenix) (w/Alex Abrahantes) (c) vs. FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) (w/Tully Blanchard) - 7/10
Great action in this match, but the finish failed to deliver. Towards the end, FTR put on the frog masks they used to win the AAA titles away from Penta and Fenix, the idea was that the illegal man would get in the ring and the pin attempts wouldn't count, but all that happened was that the referee didn't tell the difference and the plan backfired on FTR. On paper, I think this could work with more time and some historical reference to the spot, but the way it happened, it just looked like a weird decision to put on masks for some reason and nothing mattered. I'm guessing this will become a perfectly fine argument to get a rematch, but getting there could had been better.

As for the rest of the match, I liked the action for what it was, FTR are great at tag team work, and Fenix is great at doing highlight level spots. At the end, I did think this match went a bit longer than it needed, I don't even think there is any spot that I'd consider memorable, and part of that is because the nature of the finish required the match to slow down and halt to set up the mask stuff.

AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament Final Match
Bryan Danielson vs. Miro - 8.5/10
Awesome match. It was the story of a powerhouse monster vs the technical wrestler, with the latter getting a lot of offense, but not making as much damage as the monster does every time they get their hands on the technician, but as the match goes on, the technician's offense starts to pile up until they cripple the monster. In addition, they came in with the story that Miro, while having a weak neck that Dragon can target, has had an easier schedule leading up to this match; whereas Dragon has taken on many top wrestlers, taken Omega to the limit, fought Suzuki, fought Kingston to get to this match, and so on.

At the end, it came down to Miro having a weak neck. Miro had a certain amount of control for most of the match, but Dragon was able to drop him with a DDT, lock in a guillotine, and I don't know if Miro was knocked out of the DDT or choked out from the guillotine, but the referee stopped the match.

I'm really interested to see how Miro will take this 'Neck of Sand' towards in his AEW career, will it be his reason to lose the matches he does? will he eventually workout the neck and overcome that weakness? He has a tool that can revitalize his run later on if the monsters managers to remove his one weakness.

Falls Count Anywhere Match
Christian Cage & The Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus) vs. The SuperKliq (Adam Cole, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) (w/Brandon Cutler & MT Nakazawa) - 8/10
There are three referees assigned to this match, since it's a 3-on-3 falls count anywhere, and any given pair up can get pinned at any point. Somehow, I feel that not all promotions would pay that level of attention and would simply keep the referee with the people doing near falls, or keep people together while pins will happen.

I thought this match was going be more of a spot fest with the fun spots and the high falls and tables, but this ended up being really violent, of all the feuds tonight, this was the match with thumbtacks and chairs and balcony dives. The story of the match was a bit of a coming of age story for Jungle Boy, who went from not wanting to cross the line of violence and having his team lose all control of the match for it, building to them regaining the upper hand and JB being pushed to the limit, that at the end, he finished Matt Jackson with a con-chair-to in the middle of the ramp.

Cody Rhodes & PAC (w/Arn Anderson) vs. Andrade El Idolo & Malakai Black (w/Jose The Assistant) - 7/10
This was a bit of a weird match, the wrestling was really good, everyone is quite good in there, but the whole interaction between the parties felt like they were trying to get an idea across that no one cared about. Cody and PAC kept stealing tags on each other, which ended up making Cody look more like a someone that is embracing the hate and acting heelish, than someone who can't coexist with PAC. The saving grace of this match is that these four men are really good wrestlers, even Cody who heavily relies on drama-based wrestling, so any of the pair ups created some great sequences.

The wrestling in this match was mostly all over the place with tags, to the point that the rumored 4-way match could had been a better direction, but if you try to pin point the highs and lows, it's hard, it was all just there, stuff happening, really good stuff, but nothing memorable. PAC won with the Black Arrow on Sombra.

Take away the whole dissension stuff and you could have been much better.

Post-match - Cash Wheeler ran down and jumped PAC and Cody before walking to the back with Black and Andrade.

AEW Women's World Championship Match
Dr. Britt Baker DMD (w/Jamie Hayter & Rebel) (c) vs. Tay Conti - 7.5/10
Two years ago, Conti was nothing, and thanks to AEW setting her up with proper training, she now delivered a perfectly good singles pay-per-view match. I liked this match more than I expected, the whole storyline coming up to this match was about Conti being Baker's biggest challenge ever, and I thought they meant about the challenge of carrying Conti to a 15 minute singles match. Some of the spots were a bit wonky, but overall the story and progression was great.

The story of the match was that Baker kept going for the Lockjaw, but Conti kept escaping or reversing the move. Conti kept working the head, using her kicking proficiency to take Baker's head off and working towards the DDTay. When things got harder for Baker, Rebel and Hayter got involved and Conti dealt with them, but even then, then Baker locked in the Lockjaw again, Conti reversed it, and in desperation, Baker rolled over Conti and escaped with the win.

Interesting that of all the challenges Baker has had during the 6 month reign, Tay Conti got to walk away clean as the one that Baker couldn't tap out.

CM Punk vs. Eddie Kingston - 8/10
This had a serious heated feel to it, the video package, the way the commentary sold it, and the way Punk got the ring (not Kingston as much, even if he did try to portray something), it all gave this way more heat that a two week built should be able to give you. Of all matches tonight, this is the one that felt like a fight, even with the Cena sequence in the match, everything had a fight vibe to it. In addition, the fans were somewhat divided between the two, Punk got way more boos than I expected, especially for some of the spots he did, like kneeing Kingston. Punk did get cheers and chants too though, particularly on the finish.

The match was well paced, it wasn't long, but the intensity was so much that in 11 or so minutes, they built to the end. Kingston hit a backfist before the bell and got some momentum there, Punk would get busted open leading up to a first desperation GTS that dropped Kingston and leveled out the match, with Punk perfectly selling that he couldn't even capitalize, that if not for that GTS out of nowhere, he'd be done. Eventually the match would end with Punk dodging a backfist and hitting a second GTS for the pin, which Kingston sold as a knockout.

Now, let's talk about the Cena sequence. Punk did the 5 Moves of Doom sequence with the shoulder tackles, dodge the lariat, slam, You Can't See Mee, and 5 Knuckle Shuffle. The latter two were not completed, probably for legal reasons, but also because it wasn't necessary to be that obvious and they already had the crowd going crazy about it. I don't really know if there is more behind this other than Punk doing an 'entertainment' spot on Kingston of all people, for Kingston to throw his middle finger to 'entertainment' wrestling.

Post-match - Punk offered Kingston a hand-shake, acknowledging him, which had been Kingston's issue with Punk, but Kingston didn't take the hand.

Minneapolis Street Fight
The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Ortiz, Sammy Guevara & Santana) vs. American Top Team (Andrei Arlovski, Dan Lambert & Junior Dos Santos) & Men Of The Year (Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky) - 7/10
Given the chaos, the amount of people, the amount of people that are not trained pro wrestlers, and the position of the card, this match worked well to hit the high points, deliver some good wrestling with the MenOTY, and a happy ending, especially if you are from Minneapolis, this match was completely customized for them, hence the Prince and Von Raschke references. The only fault you can give the match is that they started with tags in a street fight, I figured it was for the sake of giving one-on-one time to some guys and build that spot with Lambert jumping in when Jericho is down, but I think this could had been done differently throughout the match.

The match itself was mostly chaos and jumping from one spot to the other, but it allowed for the intensity to escalate and everyone got some stuff in. Even Arlovski got a couple of spots in during the chaotic part of the match, the street fight aspect is to hide the ATT guys from being in the ring by themselves doing spots, but all three ended up doing stuff and looking ok for that matter. Lambert was obviously the one that did the least, but not that by much, he had a couple of spots here and there. Dos Santos at one point took a double superplex. Other highlights were Sammy doing a 20ft or so ladder dive on Sky, Baron Von Raschke locking in the claw on Page, LAX vs MenOTY pairing up in the ring, and at the end, Jericho getting the win over Lambert with an Eddie Guerrero tribute Frog Splash.

Surprisingly enough, they managed to have the same chaos as the JE/Cage vs SuperKliq match, but make it feel completely different with less heavy vibe to it.

The one thing I don't know what to expect is what will happen with ATT from here on, I think Dos Santos enjoyed the wrestling, I think Paige likes the idea of wrestling, I think Lambert is too good to let go, and I think most of us want a Masvidal performance, so there are still places to go with this, but not to build all the way to Revolution.

Jay Lethal Debut - Schiavone introduced Jay Lethal, who announced that he is ALL ELITE and since Sammy Guevara has his TNT title open challenges, he officially challenged Sammy for Dynamite. Sammy came out and accepted the challenge.

It'll be interesting to see how this goes down. Lethal had a couple of sexual harassment allegations that not everyone has forgotten about.

AEW World Championship Match
Kenny Omega (w/Don Callis) (c) vs. Adam Page - 8.5/10
This was a really good match, the heat was strong, the escalation well paced, the near falls happened at the right time, both guys worked their parts perfectly, Don Callis and the Bucks did so too, but at the end, with the big crowning of Page, I still felt that something was missing for me compared to many comments I've heard about it. I'm just talking wrestling-wise here, I thought that this was a nice culmination, or at least high point of the storyline that started years ago when Page claimed he would chase the AEW championship. Many ups and downs relating The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega.

The match was mostly back and forth, trading momentum as it went on, built like an Omega match where you can clearly point to the moment he hits second gear. This would had been the match they would have had years back in Japan. Many of the spots played in a way into both men knowing each other quite well, like Omega countering a Buckshot Lariat with a V-Trigger, or Page countering a OWA into one of his own, landing it for a near fall. Don Callis would eventually get involved, but get his comeuppance at the hands of Page. The Young Bucks would also come down to the ring later in the match, all banged up, but when they had the opportunity to stop Page from hitting the Buckshot on Omega, twice, they let him do it and in a way, acknowledged that he had earned this win.

The match was 25 minutes, and I didn't think it went long or short, but I did feel like it missed that epic struggle of a big time title match. Watching the final minutes, I saw two guys that still had energy to keep going. In a way, I like the idea that the man that defeated Omega did it in less than Bryan Danielson's 30 minute draw with him, it positions Page on the true top of the ladder, but that doesn't take away the fact that this match felt like a really good main event, but not the epic clash between these two, after a year long build.

Post-match - The Dark Order came down to celebrate with Page, they offered a beer, but all he wanted was a hug from the stable that took him in, backed him up, and believed in him. It was a great happy ending to the story.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Great pay-per-view. It's not a card that will go down in history as a memorable show, not like ALL OUT was, but there is no doubt that it was bell-to-bell one of the better shows produced in the US.

This show took place on the 16th anniversary of Eddie Guerrero's death, and it took place on the same city where Eddie passed away. Because of that, there were many references to Eddie, the crowd themselves chanted for Eddie from the very first match of the night during the Buy In.

[Big Red Machine]

I like the idea that the man that defeated Omega did it in less than Bryan Danielson's 30 minute draw with him, it positions Page on the true top of the ladder,

I had not considered this, but I don't think it was a necessary thing because simply beating Mega when Dragon could only go to a draw with him already puts Page up on Danielson.

[cero2k]

I like the idea that the man that defeated Omega did it in less than Bryan Danielson's 30 minute draw with him, it positions Page on the true top of the ladder,

I had not considered this, but I don't think it was a necessary thing because simply beating Mega when Dragon could only go to a draw with him already puts Page up on Danielson.

Well, beating Omega past 30 minutes leaves the question open that maybe Dragon would had beaten Omega by that time or quicker if he wasn't limited by time, which could be perfectly ok given that Dragon has a title shot now.

[Big Red Machine]

I like the idea that the man that defeated Omega did it in less than Bryan Danielson's 30 minute draw with him, it positions Page on the true top of the ladder,

I had not considered this, but I don't think it was a necessary thing because simply beating Mega when Dragon could only go to a draw with him already puts Page up on Danielson.

Well, beating Omega past 30 minutes leaves the question open that maybe Dragon would had beaten Omega by that time or quicker if he wasn't limited by time, which could be perfectly ok given that Dragon has a title shot now.

Right, so going longer would have been better.

[Thelone]

While I don't want AEW to take this "pillars" thing and overuse it like the Fed would, to the point that it feels like a copyright, I do hope that it's something that can be visited every now and then, once or twice a year, when two of the four men come into a program, and one day, once one of them is set to get crowned as the World Champion, make that the number one contender 4-way match.

You know they will (buy the shirt at ShopAEW.com btw), but my issue with this concept is how lopsided those pillars are today. Both MJF and Allin could be in main event storylines, but Guevara is still the lowest guy in his faction while Jungle Boy... really hasn't done much in two years when you think about it, and is being passed over by guys like Dante Martin and Garcia lately. Like, I don't know why Page isn't one of the pillars and I guess Baker could have been the fourth. They're slightly older sure, but it's not like they were made when they signed with AEW.

[cero2k]

You know they will (buy the shirt at ShopAEW.com btw), but my issue with this concept is how lopsided those pillars are today. Both MJF and Allin could be in main event storylines, but Guevara is still the lowest guy in his faction while Jungle Boy... really hasn't done much in two years when you think about it, and is being passed over by guys like Dante Martin and Garcia lately. Like, I don't know why Page isn't one of the pillars and I guess Baker could have been the fourth. They're slightly older sure, but it's not like they were made when they signed with AEW.

I don't mind the t-shirt, I just don't wanna see a "pillar's match" on every PPV nor it become an ranking that we start qualifying who deserves to be a 'pillar'. You're right that they're not all equals, but look at this card, MJF and Jungle Boy had wins, Guevara had a strong showing, and Allin lost, but to MJF. The idea of the pillars is not about who is holding down AEW right now, but who are the future guys in the business, and by all means, I would love a future story where someone like Martin/Moriarty/Garcia/Starks are the ones supporting the promotion