AEW Full Gear 2022

[NintendoLogic]

As amusing as the prospect of Ki trying to potentially shoot on Jericho in the ring might be, neither of those clowns have any business in any remotely respectable promotion. Keep them quarantined in CYN or the NWA.

[El-P]

Looking at the list of available former ROH champ, there's not that many left as outsiders surprises. I could see Davey Richards, Homicide or, much more doubtful, Low-Ki showing up for the weekly show. Ironically enough, Eddie Edwards and PCO are feuding in IMPACT now, and although I guess PCO could show up, there's no way Eddie Edwards just shows up in AEW to do a job without anything in return. Micheal Elgin is a NO FUCKING WAY.

For the PPV, my best guess is Danielson winning the title. He said recently he did not want to be AEW champ at all, but ROH champ would actually be a case of him being able to work with a lot of younger guys, which is what he wants to do for whatever time left he wants to put in. Either this or Sammy, but I don't see Sammy turning babyface again. Sammy & Tay reigning over ROH as an anchor douchebag couple heel act could be pretty fun.

[Jmare007]

Another Danielson wouldn't make much sense kayfabe wise. But I guess that if Jericho "has" to drop the belt, TK would put it on someone that can help him get that TV deal he so desperately wants, Dragon and Cole are probably his only two options.

I listened to that interview and it was kinda funny how he confirmed every perception we have about him. If it was up to him, he'd be wrestling younger people on Dark all the time and not even be on TV much. It was interesting him saying that he would be champion if asked though, it's not like he's opposed to the idea, he just has other shit that makes him passionate about wrestling.

[Embrodak]

I respect that Danielson has become a family man and has his own, bespoke set of preferences when it comes to wrestling, but I can’t say his AEW run thus far has maintained my interest in and respect for him. He was the greatest ever World of Sport heel at the end of last year, and now, he’s spent almost a year fucking around with Moxley and the BCC and the JAS having what are, by his standards, fairly mid matches, with a few exceptions. Even if you don’t value your own stardom all that much, the notion of wasting your reputation and drawing ability when it might do the upstart company you very publicly jumped to a world of good to stand up for yourself and insist you be used well… idk, man. 

[Dav'oh]

You respect his lifestyle choices but have lost respect for the person, because he's not an ego-driven mark for himself? Is that an accurate read?

Your use of the word "upstart" is interesting, too - "a person who has risen suddenly in rank or importance, especially one who behaves arrogantly."

[Jesse Ewiak]

Danielson's job as a professional wrestler is to engage in angles and matches that draw as much money as possible. 

At the moment, his lack of ego is making him bad at his job. 

[Cap]

I wasn't able to watch Full Gear live and had to watch it in pieces over the past three days. My quick thoughts:

I finally got to watch Full Gear and thought it was a really tremendous PPV. I didn't suffer from fatigue because I watched it in pieces over 3 days, so maybe that helped.

Zero Hour: Watched most of this in the background, but was glued to Kignston v Akiyama. I absolutely loved the match. It wasn't anything out of this world, but it was a feel good match that delivered the goods. The finish with Kingston going over clean as a sheet was awesome.

Jungle Boy vs Luchasaurus: Awesome opener. Great pace and action. Luchasaurus looked good on top and Jungle Boy sold like a mother fucker. That had to have been the most non-contrived destroyer I have ever seen. Loved the fire from Jungle Boy. This was very much a tip of the hat to Taker/HBK, but remained really rooted in their own history.

Death Triangle vs The Elite: A fun cocaine trios match. I've never been super into the my turn-your turn spots, but I feel very over them and wasn't into that part of the match. Even still, this featured a lot of pace and athleticism to carry the pace and energy from the opener. It was fun to see the elite back. Shame we got the anti-punk chants. I'm ready to put it all behind us to be honest.

Cargill vs Rose: I'm not going to lie... the highlight of this match was Cargill's gear (respectfully). Cargill has such a presence. She is a star. She still needs to hit her stride in the ring. Sometimes she knocks it out of the park and other times there seems to be a disconnect. This felt like the latter. It wasn't all bad. Cargill continues to build that championship, but it feels like they need to sort out an exit strategy for her before it becomes a bigger challenge than it should be.

Claudio v Danielson v Jericho v Sammy: One of my two favorite matches of the night. I absolutely adored this. They did a great job weaving the stories together and making you want to see more of combos like Claudio v Dragon and Claudio v Sammy. I heard some folks on a podcast really down on the finish, so I assume this was a thing on the twitter machine, but I thought they worked through it really well. Maybe if the comentary team had outright said something like "judas effect to the stomach" it wouldn't even have stuck out that much. Didn't bother me at all. I thought this was tremendous. Something I'll have to watch again before I finalize my MOTY list.

Saraya v Baker: I hated the build to this, but everyone seemed up for the match itself and that really helped. For what this match could be I thought it was solid. The energy and emotion of the match might serve as a good reset for this whole thing and everyone involved, which would be nice.

Joe v Hobbs v Wardlow: This felt a bit like it underwhealmed me given how excited I was for this hoss fight.  It wasn't bad, but it didn't blow me away. I'll also never really be upset with Joe winning a match like this. It was a bit of a surprise and I suspect it is just a way to Wardlow on the ROH ppv. I think this is sort of win-win. If we get Wardlow v Joe at the ppv and Wardlow wins it back... COOL. This has been an OK reign. They could amp up his second reign. If we get any other permutation of these three (triple threat rematch or Hobbs v Joe) or even something else and Wardlow winds up moving on... COOL. Wardlow moving on from what has been a fine reign without being pinned for his belt would be ok with me. He has still been on an upward trajectory and there are lots of potential feuds for him out there.

Sting/Darby v Jarrett/Lethal: Never bet against a Sting/Darby match. This was so much fun. Singh's spot with Darby was absolutely insane. Jarrett had his working boots on. One of the better Lethal performances (I say that as not a huge Lethan fan myself).  Sting and Darby vs the entire world of pro wrestling... please and thank you!

Hayter v Storm: This might be my favorite women's match in AEW history.  Holy shit. I'm a huge Hayter fan and am super pumped for her to be champ, but Storm worked her ass off. She has a really good reign and, unfortunately for her, she was in the ring with one of the most white-hot wrestlers in the company. This was absolutely awesome. They had me biting on so many near falls. I was 100% invested. Another match I'll have to revisit before I finalize my MOTY list.

Acclaimed v Swerve/Lee: I put this right along side Hayter/Storm and the ROH Title Match as the highlights of the night. This was some pitch perfect storytelling. Keith Lee really stood out in that regard, but everyone knocked the narrative out of the park. The arm injury added an awesome layer to this.  I think I preferred this to their other two matches. It had such depth and the finish was extremely well executed and rewarding.

MJF v Mox: It took guts to book this kind of world title match after a long ppv. I thought this was pretty good stuff on the whole. It was an awesome dynamic between Mox just believing he was better than MJF and being almost dismissive of him as a challenge was palpable in the match. MJF walking that line between heel and face in the way he worked this and played to the audience made the somewhat predictable finish that much more amazing. There were multiple ways I thought this could go, but Regal siding with MJF was by far the most interesting to me.

Overall, I thought this show was pretty awesome. A few really good to great matches and quite a bit to sink one's teeth into coming out of this.

[Cap]

I find the idea that Dragon's run hasn't been good to be kinda wild. I think this has 100% raised his all time case and has been a blast for the most part. He hasn't demanded the top spot, but he has had a lot of great matches against both established and rising stars. I guess I'd like to see him on TV even more, but other than that I'm not sure what folks want.

[Embrodak]

On 11/22/2022 at 9:24 PM, Dav'oh said:

You respect his lifestyle choices but have lost respect for the person, because he's not an ego-driven mark for himself? Is that an accurate read?

Your use of the word "upstart" is interesting, too - "a person who has risen suddenly in rank or importance, especially one who behaves arrogantly."

I respect his right to choose how to conduct his life and career, but if he doesn’t respect or value the emotional investment made by a large group of fans to earn him a position of prominence in the industry, a position way higher than he was on track for in an industry dominated by the preferences of Vince McMahon for most of his career, then yeah, I’m less inclined to view him positively. He basically just openly said he doesn’t particularly care if I support or like him, he’d rather go out in a Randy the Ram match in front of 300 people in an armory wrestling nobodies than in a big stadium show. If that’s how he feels, it is what it is, but where you envision an “ego driven mark for himself”, I imagine “Respects himself and his fans enough to insist that his booking be something others would be excited to see, rather than something that is merely self-gratifying or -enriching.”

[Embrodak]

9 hours ago, Cap said:

I find the idea that Dragon's run hasn't been good to be kinda wild. I think this has 100% raised his all time case and has been a blast for the most part. He hasn't demanded the top spot, but he has had a lot of great matches against both established and rising stars. I guess I'd like to see him on TV even more, but other than that I'm not sure what folks want.

I haven’t been into basically anything that he’s done since the Adam Page feud. His match with Moxley was a Moxley match (and BD had Moxley’s match more than Moxley had BD’s match), he’s been fucking around with Jericho for many many months at this point, he got hurt in a stupid stadium match, he feuded with Daniel Garcia who I could not give a fuck about… I’m not even that into his in-ring lately, it seems like he’s more interested in playing around with the AEW House Style (which I’m not a fan of) than in trying to be like Punk and attempting to exert influence over what that is.

[Cap]

3 hours ago, Embrodak said:

I haven’t been into basically anything that he’s done since the Adam Page feud. His match with Moxley was a Moxley match (and BD had Moxley’s match more than Moxley had BD’s match), he’s been fucking around with Jericho for many many months at this point, he got hurt in a stupid stadium match, he feuded with Daniel Garcia who I could not give a fuck about… I’m not even that into his in-ring lately, it seems like he’s more interested in playing around with the AEW House Style (which I’m not a fan of) than in trying to be like Punk and attempting to exert influence over what that is.

"Different Strokes" I suppose. I absolutely loved the Mox match at Revolution and the two most recent Garcia matches. Anarchy in the Arena was an all timer to me and he was crucial to why it was so great. A smattering of really good matches with the likes of Yuta and Sammy (and I say that as not-at-all a sammy guy). I think he continues to demonstrate that he is the best in the world at what he does without necessarily outshining people. I do concede that if we don't get a proper run with him on top at some point it will feel like a bit of a letdown. There should come a time when Dragon does outshine everyone.

[Dav'oh]

People be treating DB as a commodity they own a share in, replete with voting rights. 

Not everyone's a mercenary. Accept that and enjoy what he gives us, or butt your head against a wall.

[El-P]

17 minutes ago, Dav'oh said:

People be treating DB as a commodity they own a share in, replete with voting rights. 

There's a super toxic attitude going on with "fans" acting like they own whoever they support, like they were owed something. Maybe it comes from this social media era, but it breads a culture of entitlement leading toward massive harassement campaigns and such. People do act like they own part of their favorite artists now, maybe because the social media kinda creates a deeper parasocial context.

They also act like they are *part* of what they consume, which is why we get absurd and unhealthy tribalism with people declaring "victory" whenever their favorite show/company gets a rating, and hoping for the "opposition" to fail (in the case of pro-wrestling it's absolutely appalling to see the large amount of WWE fanboys actually wishing death on AEW, showing that they absolutely do not care about the actual pro-wrestling business as a whole and people wanting to make a living off what they love doing). Newsflash, you're just consumers. You won't get a raise for sucking up to whoever is not even your boss. And you're not part of the company, you're not fucking soldiers either. You're just consumers buying products.

17 minutes ago, Dav'oh said:

Not everyone's a mercenary. Accept that and enjoy what he gives us, or butt your head against a wall.

This.