AEW FULL GEAR

 

Minneapolis, Minnesota

HIKARU SHIDA & THUNDER ROSA vs. JAMIE  HAYTER & NYLA ROSE (12:03): This was a great show. There wasn't one 4-star masterpiece, though, but every match was good to great except for the so-so, sloppy women's match and the kind of boring Danielson/Miro match. While you definitely got your money's worth if you bought this on PPV, I don't particularly enjoy 4 and a half hour marathon shows. For one thing, the crowd isn't going to stay hot for that long which makes a few of the matches less exciting than they probably would have been. There weren't really any surprises on this show, although Ring of Honor's Jay Lethal showed up to announce he joined AEW and, of course, Adam Page won the title. This first match was on the Buy In pre-show. There wasn't much to it, but Thunder Rosa is super over with fans. Hopefully they'll do a Britt Baker/Thunder Rosa title match in the future because the AEW women's division definitely needs a boost and that rematch would be very popular and perhaps great. **1/2 (out of ****)

MJF vs. DARBY ALLIN (21:56): This was probably the best match on the show. The problem was that the finish involved the ref being distracted and MJF using his diamond ring to knock out Darby and win. That was kind of a lame finish for a PPV match. Early on they did a great back and forth sequence of holds and locks and quick moves. A lot of the wrestling came across as way too choreographed, but it was still spectacular. The crowd wasn't tired yet so they were on fire for this. There wasn't any hardcore craziness or suicidal stuff from Darby. He did do a Coffin Drop from the top rope onto MJF on the floor, though. The end was disappointing but the match was great. ***

THE LUCHA BROTHERS vs. FTR (18:37): Penta and Fenix are high flyers and FTR are old-school wrestlers...so the clash of styles didn't exactly work here. It was still an entertaining match, though, because The Lucha Brothers are awesome. The end of this made little sense since FTR, for no good reason, put on their Lucha masks at the end and then just lost and got pinned. FTR are the AAA tag team champs so I guess they wanted to do something to call back to that. I think in a perfect world, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega would be the champs forever since you can't really get better title matches without them involved. I think this match kind of proved my point. And we'll see at the next PPV how well an Adam Page main event does. **1/2

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. MIRO (19:59): This was kind of boring. Obviously, a Jon Moxley/Bryan Danielson match would have been better. Moxley left the company to go into alcohol rehab so they put Miro into this match instead. Miro beat down Bryan for most of this match. They both did a bunch of submission holds, eventually Miro passed out in one and the ref rang the bell. This wasn't awful or anything just not great. I think one problem might be that it played out a lot more like a WWE match than an exciting, balls-to-the-wall AEW match. The reason is kind of obvious; these two were in WWE for years. It's kind of interesting that Bryan won since he now gets a title shot. A good guy vs. good guy title match seems strange and I'm not sure I'd be that excited to actually see Bryan vs. Page. **1/2

JURASSIC EXPRESS & CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS & ADAM COLE "FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH" (22:20): In August, The Young Bucks had a match of the year candidate against Jurassic Express. It was the main event on a Dynamite show and I remember the crowd was as hot as a crowd could possibly be. It was wild and fun and exciting. They had a hilarious sequence where Brandon Cutler waved a flare around to get the attention of Luchasaurus because, well, that happened in Jurassic Express. Alas, this was a wild and crazy and great match but it was not as good as that match. They brawled all over the building. They used a trash can, chairs, broke tables, used a ladder, and eventually they all battled on the stage by the entrance. Christian jumped off a balcony up in the stands. Luchasaurus did a Shooting Star Press off of the stage that the crowd popped big for. Cole and The Bucks put on knee pads that had thumbtacks on them and gave Luchasaurus a BTE trigger. Christian gave one of the Bucks a DDT onto a ladder in the ring. There were two top rope to the floor table break spots. Considering they were all walking around the arena, this wasn't non-stop action, which was probably the reason this wasn't a masterpiece or anything. Jungle Boy gave one of the Bucks a Conchairto to win. Good match. ***

CODY RHODES & PAC vs. ANDRADE EL IDOLO & MALAKAI BLACK (16:52): The most interesting aspect of this match is that Cody Rhodes got booed out of the building. Fans booing him seemed to start when his reality TV show started. It also started around the time he was feuding with Malakai Black, who the crowds love even though he's a heel. The crowd tonight didn't cheer for Malakai Black or Andrade, though, so it was a strange match with mostly just booing. They did pop for most of the big, high flying moves Pac did. This was entertaining but kind of just a typical Dynamite match. They did one spot where Cody fell into the crowd and then Andrade jumped onto him. That seemed to knock some fans over which was kind of dangerous looking. All four wrestlers brought their A game and it was a fun melee. **1/2

BRITT BAKER vs. TAY CONTI (15:16): The crowd was pretty quiet for most of this match. By the end this turned into a pretty good match, but most of this was sloppy and awkward. I don't know if these two were playing up the dramatic title match storyline or if they were just dead tired, but they both seemed to fall over too much. Tay did a Charlotte Flair top rope moonsault to the floor. Britt's goons interfered a bit. For whatever reason, the AEW women's division has just never really worked and turned into an exciting, worthwhile division. Britt's a star but not particularly a great wrestler. I think Riho's championship matches were better, though she's been gone for most of the year for whatever reason. When they do a Thunder Rosa vs. Britt Baker title match it should be better than this, as Thunder Rosa is great and a crowd favorite. **1/2

CM PUNK vs. EDDIE KINGSTON (11:07): The crowd woke up for this and was really behind Eddie Kingston. They even booed Punk at the end when he was about to do his finisher and win. The rumor was that AEW was going to turn Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston heel. That's probably out the window now because Mox is in rehab. Eddie definitely played the heel in this match for the most part. Early on he was going to do the GTS on Punk. The crowds love Eddie, so turning him a heel seems kind of pointless, though. And even though this feud between Punk and Eddie started in the stupidest way possible (Eddie interrupted a Punk promo), we finally got to see a pissed off Punk in a worthwhile storyline (the happy CM Punk was getting boring fast), which made this match something you actually cared about. It was short but really good and felt like an Ishii type of hard hitting, brutal affair. ***

THE INNER CIRCLE vs. AMERICAN TOP TEAM "MINNEAPOLIS STREET FIGHT" (19:37): You could tell that the crowd was kind of tired because Sammy Guevera did a Swanton Bomb off one of those extremely high ladders through a table and the crowd didn't really go ape shit for it. The MMA guys were a little sloppy but so was this match. Since this was a Minneapolis Street Fight, they used things that were supposedly invented in Minneapolis like hockey sticks, a toaster, a Prince sign, and a Bundt cake pan. Tony Schiavone was hilarious when he yelled, "Oh no the Bundt pan!" or something. Dan Lambert, in a velvet blue track suit, slapped around a beaten Jericho at one point and even tried to put him in the Walls of Jericho. This really was a mess of match and like a crazy, ECW street fight. It was entertaining, though. Jericho won with a Frog Splash. Jericho pointed to the sky since today was the anniversary of Eddie Guerrero's death. CM Punk also did Guerrero's 3 Amigos move and earlier FTR and The Lucha Brothers did it as well. **1/2

'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE vs. KENNY OMEGA (25:11): This was not a 4 star masterpiece. This wasn't even as good as the Omega/Page match from last year's Full Gear. It was a really good match, though, with a few sequences towards the end that were as good as anything in Omega/Okada's matches. Omega did one particular move that was pretty crazy in this move. Page was sitting on the top rope and Omega jumped up from the apron to the top rope and did a Liger Bomb on Page to the floor. That was creative as hell. At one point late, both guys were being suplexed on their head like this was a Naito/Ibushi match. Page did his top rope moonsault. He also did a top rope elbow onto Omega on the floor and they both crashed through the announce table. The ref got knocked out at one point. Page beat up Don Callis in the ring. At the end, The Young Bucks came out. They looked like they were going to interfere but decided not to. At the end, one of The Bucks nodded to Adam Page instead of interfering and then Page did his Buck Shot Lariot to win the title. While that story was a good one to tell (Page was friends with The Young Bucks before they turned heel), I think the ending would have been better without that because there wouldn't have been any stopping and the crowd would have been more into it. I will give AEW credit. Page winning the title here ended a two year storyline. Page and Omega were the tag title champs. The broke up. Page lost to Omega. Omega won the title. Page finally got his revenge and proved he was the better wrestler. And The Young Bucks remembered their friendship with Page and didn't interfere at the end. They have a heart! Friendship! I mean...when was the last time the WWE wrote a fucking epic storyline with a happy ending? So it wasn't a match on the level of Omega/Okada. Eh. What is? It was a really good match and this was a really good show. The problem, of course, is now we won't get Bryan/Omega for the title. We won't get CM Punk/Omega for the title. We won't get Jungle Boy winning the title from Omega, which I always wanted to happen. What great PPV main event matches are there with Adam Page as champ? Besides a rematch with Omega, are there any? They seemed to set up an Adam Cole vs. Page program on Dynamite. I don't really see that being as big as anything Omega would be involved in. Alas, that's the problem. Omega is a better wrestler than Page. But you do have to change things up every now and then and Omega's been the champ since last December. So it'll be exciting to see the next two year storyline Tony Khan concocts. And that's a good thing knowing that this company can do it and do it well. ***