The go-home show before AEW’s Full Gear PPV… let’s see if the build continues well or if they panic after the awesome that was Smackdown’s last Friday night.
1) Brief rundown and then straight into
Pac v Trent (from Best Friends)
This was a fun match to open with. Pac showed he still has agility, Trent showed he can wrestle alone, Orange Cassidy had his glasses kicked off, and it was just entertaining as hell. The action was non-stop. Pac wins… but was that a f*ck up? I swore there was a three-count (so did everyone else), but then it was declared a two-count so Pac locked in the brutaliser for the submission. Pac then on the mic to threaten Hangman Page for the PPV.
2) Camera within commercials shows Cody Rhodes walking, Dark Order darkly ordering and various wrestlers doing things. There is a reason for camera in commercials… and this ain’t it!
Anyhoo, we come back to the ring where Cody is finally going to make his announcement. He makes a quite passionate speech, and then states that of he does not defeat Jericho at Full Gear he will never challenge for the AEW world championship again. Then he insults Jericho with passion. Where the hell was this Cody in WWE?! Really strong promo, if not a fraction long.
(He mentioned a “match beyond”? War Games? Please? What will they call it, though? WWE has the rights to the name…)
3) Dark Order v Private Party
Winner gets added to the AEW tag title match at Full Gear, against SCU and Lucha Bros. Private Party are improving slowly; Dark Order are still Dark Order – no changes there. Match was okay. It was given a decent amount of time, but it never really hit the heights outside of a few high spots. What I did like though was the winning team got medals to indicate they were the third place finishers in the tournament. It’s a little thing, but it makes a difference. Oh, and Kazarian and Sky were good on commentary, and JR got a dig in at the Rock of all people! Private party eventually won.
4) Odd Chris Jericho hype video. Soultrain Jones is a living legend who looks a lot like Virgil/Vincent/Million Dollar Lackey. It was a joke video, played for laughs, parodying the Cody video from a few weeks ago. While it was entertaining and played to the Jericho personality, I’m not sure what purpose it really served. But I loved that every time they went to Jake Hager, he said nothing.
5) Jamie Hayter & Emi Sakura v Shanna & Riho
Hayter has quite a bit of the indies about her, Shanna impressed me last week, Riho is awesome and Sakura is quite the fine wrestler. Look, it was just another tag team match, really. Decent match and all four people in it are certainly worth watching. Shanna, especially, is a fine wrestler. The ending sequence was really nice, with Sakura getting the pin on Riho, the champ, leading into Full Gear.
6) Another weird Brandi Rhodes video. Okay, this is confusing. I know I keep saying heels and faces don’t matter, but she is acting so much like a heel in these videos (with Awesome Kong flashes), and yet like a face when with Cody. I really don’t get where this is going.
7) Brandon Cutler v Shawn Spears (with Tully Blanchard)
Essentially a prolonged squash match for Spears, with Cutler getting a surprising amount of offence, but the ending was never in doubt. Spears wins. Post match, Tully slides a chair in the ring ready for something, but Joey Janela makes the save. Apparently, Spears and Blanhcard attacked Janela with pliers to the tongue (really? I thought AEW was above that sort of crap) at some point. So… this is another Full Gear undercard match: Janela v Spears?
[Random Thought: Tessa Blanchard is the best female wrestler not in WWE, maybe the best in America… depending on who you ask. With Tully in AEW so prominently, and Tessa in Impact Wrestling where she is an absolute star, I think she would be a great addition to the AEW women’s roster because, really, at the moment, that is where WWE still has miles on AEW – the women.]
8) Video package for the Moxley-Omega match at Full Gear is suitably awesome… and, truth be told, this is the match I am most looking forward to at the PPV. This video made it feel like something very important. Well done.
9) Hangman Adam Page & Kenny Omega v Sammy Guevara & Chris Jericho
This was a really good, strong match to end the show. Everyone got a chance to shine doing something, and the crowd was hyped which seemed to really push the wrestlers up a notch. This was essentially a hype match for the PPV (of course), but these guys still let it all hang out. Ending came when Pac (not Hager) interference on Page resulted in a Judas Effect to Page and the pin for Jericho.
10) And post-match, the beat-down ensues. Hager, Guevara and Jericho lay the boots to the faces, MJF and Cody make the save, Moxley comes in to confront Omega, then Santana and Ortiz come in to attack Mox and Omega, and finally the Young Bucks come in for the mass brawl with people fighting everywhere. The crowd is losing their collective sh*t. And that is how they are selling this PPV – the old WCW nWo v WCW brawl all over the place. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
And we go off the air after an insane Nick Jackson dive.
So, let’s see – so far at Full Gear we have:
the AEW title match, Cody Rhodes v Chris Jericho
the AEW tag title match, SCU v Lucha Bros v Private Party
unsanctioned (lights out) match, Kenny Omega v Jon Moxley
the AEW women’s title match, Riho v Emi Sakura
Young Bucks v Santana & Ortiz
Pac v Hangman Adam Page
maybe Joey Janela v Shawn Spears
maybe MJF v Sammy Guevara or Jake Hager (or a tag with MJF and Dustin?)
maybe some women’s tag match.
6 definite matches and 3 maybes. That is quite the PPV. I, for one, am looking forward to it.
Oh, and the show? Really good yet again. It sold the PPV without taking away from the matches, and that final brawl was awesome.
