AEW FULL GEAR

Baltimore

BRITT BAKER vs. BEA PRIESTLEY (11:35): This match was on the pre-show. Apparently, if you watched the pre-show on YouTube, they forgot to stop the feed so the whole PPV was on there for free. Oh, well. I still watched it for free. I love AEW but even I won't pay $50 for a wrestling show on TV. I never did watch this match, thanks mostly to BRLive not showing a pre-show replay. It sounds like I didn't miss much. The AEW's women's division is not that exciting, although Britt Baker, Adam Cole's girlfriend, is cute and went to Penn State. Speaking of girlfriends...Priestly is dating Will Ospreay. This is like a tabloid gossip rag or something.

SANTANA & ORTIZ vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS (21:00): I didn't even realize that Santana and Ortiz are not using their TNA Impact names, LAX. I guess that name is copyrighted. I did see a few LAX matches in Impact over the years and the one thing I learned is that they're entertaining but only when in hardcore, clusterfuck matches. This match was good because the Bucks are always good but it wasn't stellar or anything. With the Bucks and Omega losing tonight, somebody in AEW has to go tell them that just because they're part owners and management and all of that it's still okay to fucking win once in awhile. Jesus. **1/2

ADAM PAGE vs. PAC (18:30): This was like a standard New Japan match. It started slow and boring but went long enough to get the crowd into it and become hot with big, back and forth moves by the end and turn into something good. Neither guy is a superstar in my opinion. I think PAC is great but hasn't been in a great match since NXT when he faced Balor. Even his main event title matches this year in Dragon Gate were good but never great. Oh, well. **1/2

SHAWN SPEARS vs. JOEY JANELA (11:45): If Janela isn't diving off ladders and falling backwards through tables then I'm not particularly interested in him. He built his career being the crazy, hardcore nut job...so when he's just wrestling it's kind of dull. Wrestling the boring Spears didn't help. Spears' best asset is his manager, Tully Blanchard, who should really be doing more since he's the true star. This was average, forgotten stuff. *1/2

SOCAL UNCENSORED vs. PRIVATE PARTY vs. LUCHA BROTHERS (13:00): I thought that this match would be better. It was still good, but I figured it would a four star masterpiece with these three teams leaping over the top rope left and right. Fenix did steal the show during this match, though, which of course he did. SoCal Uncensored kept the titles and then Christopher Daniels returned dressed up as Pentagram for no good reason after the match to beat up the Lucha Brothers. **1/2

RIHO vs. EMI SAKURA (13:20): I think Riho is great but this match was boring. Sakura is her real life teacher so it was teacher vs. student. Sakura likes Freddie Mercury for some reason so she came to the ring wearing a fake mustache and holding a microphone and doing Freddie Mercury dance moves. Okay. Riho retained the title. 1/2*

CHRIS JERICHO vs. CODY (29:35): By the end this match was stellar...but I'm still wondering why they had to go and do the stupid stipulation that if Cody lost he would never wrestle for the title again. Even with him losing by screw job, a stip is a stip and it'll be stupid and make him look idiotic if he ever does wrestle for the title again. Cody did a dumb top rope leap onto the entrance ramp that connected to the ring and he fell head first onto the steel and cut his forehead open and separated a rib. Smart. The big finale had MJF, who was Cody's ringside "friend," throwing in the towel when Cody was in the Walls of Jericho. So of course MJF kicked Cody in the balls after the match and turned heel, which he was earlier this year in AEW anyway. By the end this was dramatic as hell but early it was kind of slow and dull. Cody's mom at ringside slapped Jericho. They had three judges at ringside who were scoring the match in case it went to a 60 minute draw (the judges were Arn Anderson, Malenko, and The Great Muta...all who looked bored as hell and didn't want to be there...except for Muta who wore a mask so you couldn't tell). So this sets up Cody vs. MJF, which should be good since MJF is a hell of a heel talker. Jericho as champ is good in that he's a good promo guy and character, unfortunately he's 49 years old and can't really be in great, fast paced matches. But this was about as good as it gets for him and it was better than most of this show. I said most. ***

JON MOXLEY vs. KENNY OMEGA "LIGHTS OUT MATCH" (38:45): Before these last two matches, I thought that this show was a little on the disappointing side. And while this match wasn't Omega/Okada great or anything, it might have been the most memorable match I've seen all year. While this wasn't as bloody or as violent as a Big Japan death match...this was one of the most gruesome, big time American wrestling matches I've seen in quite some time. It's one thing to see Big Japan guys hitting each other with light tubes, sticking skewers through their cheeks, and wrestling on a mat covered in broken glass in front of a few hundred fans. It's different to see barbed wire, blood, and broken glass in a match in front of ten thousand people in a big arena on a major American show. It reminded me of those old Onita matches in Japan in front of huge crowds during exploding, barbed wire matches. So seeing CZW at a bingo hall is one thing...but seeing Omega stuffing broken glass into Moxley's mouth then kneeing him in the face in front of an arena crowd is a totally different animal. Which made this match unique and something you don't see every day. And these two fucking did it all. Omega didn't really get to show off his hardcore side in New Japan. We got a taste with that Ladder match against Michael Elgin in NJPW a few years ago. But who knew Omega had this sadistic side in him? And why are these two huge stars doing shit like this? They don't have to. But the chains that New Japan and WWE bound them in are off and they can finally do what they want to do and they end up doing...this? It's pretty bold...also reckless. But they're true wrestling fans and wanted to do it and they fucking did it. The one bad thing about this match was that instead of getting moves and wrestling we got two guys looking under the ring, not seeing something, then walking around to the other side of the ring and looking under for what they needed. This happened maybe ten times. So what was under the ring? A board with mousetraps glued onto it. A barbed wire broom. A barbed wire bat. Trash cans. A bag of broken glass. A metal spike. A pile of chains. Jesus Christ. We also got a huge, barbed wire spider-web contraption that Moxley suplexed Omega onto by the ring entrance. When they were both stuck in the barbed wire web it took like five or six guys to help them out...giving me deja vu of when the crew had to help and cut Sabu and Terry Funk out of the barbed wire jungle in ECW during that infamous, no-rope, barbed wire match. They were both bleeding thanks to the barbed wire bat and broom used. Omega speared Moxley through a plastic, Full Gear logo/sign thing by the entrance. Omega did his over the top rope flip through Moxley and a table. After broken glass was introduced, Omega had Moxley in a crab submission hold and Moxley had to, literally, crawl across broken glass to get to the ropes (which was by far the most creative and memorable moment in wrestling this year). By the end, Moxley tore off the ring mat to expose the hard wood floor. In what was the most painful thing perhaps I've seen this year (and reminded me of how far Omega is willing to go in big matches...remember his top rope Dragon suplex to Okada that look like it broke his neck?), Omega did a Phoenix Splash from the top rope and Moxley moved and Omega crashed down right on his face on the wood floor. Omega even took his time before that to climb up to the top rope, perhaps having second thoughts on what could have paralyzed him for life. So this match had it all. It went almost forty minutes. When was the last time a big time American match went that long? Bate and Walter went longer in August but that was in the UK in NXT. Taven and Jay Lethal did a 60 minute draw but that was in ROH in front a few hundred in February. So while this wasn't a great match or anything, it was certainly noteworthy and something to talk about for years to come. And it definitely made this show...as it wasn't particularly a great AEW show until these last two matches which really felt like big, PPV worthy spectacles, especially this lights out melee. Moxley ended up winning. But all that I could really think about was that the best bout machine, who'd been mostly absent since losing to Tanahashi in January, is back. Maybe all of us fools were just idiotic to think he wasn't still around. ***