Andrew’s AEW Full Gear Results & Match Ratings: 11.7.2020

Alright, well we all know I’m not really a fan of the AEW product, but I had a wedding to attend yesterday…so that’s actually why I was late to this party.

On paper this could be pretty solid, and I’m just mad that AEW got me all hype after Revolution this year and then completely lost me. So we get the culmination of the Page/Omega break up, but in the finals of a tournament. Which feels like a little bit of a missed opportunity, but maybe that could be a thread to play with.

Aside from that, we get a tag match made in IWC heaven with the Bucks and FTR; plus I’m normally always a fan of how Cody scripts his matches. So there’s at least a couple matches that have my interest. Plus Matt Hardy’s Deletion cinematic matches are usually pretty cool.

Let’s get going!

Ratings:

• NWA Women’s World Championship: Serena Deeb (c) vs Allysin Kay: Deeb retains via Serenity Lock @10:25 – ***
• #1 Contender for AEW World Championship: Kenny Omega vs Adam Page: Omega wins via One Winged Angel @16:28 – *** ½
• John Silver vs Orange Cassidy: Cassidy wins via Beach Break @9:42 – ** ¼
• TNT Title Match: Cody Rhodes (c) vs Darby Allin: Allin wins via Locomotion Cradles @16:49 – **** ¼ – TITLE CHANGE!!
• AEW Women’s Championship: Hikaru Shida (c) vs Nyla Rose w/Vickie Guerrero: Shida retains via Consecutive Knee Strikes @14:12 – ** ½
• AEW Tag Team Titles: FTR (c) vs The Young Bucks: Matt Jackson wins via Super Kick @28:46 – **** – TITLE CHANGE!!!
• Cinematic Match: Elite Deletion: Matt Hardy vs Sammy Guevara: Hardy wins via Chairshot against Concrete @19:39 – *** ¼
• Chris Jericho vs MJF: MJF wins via Roll-Up @16:15 – ***
• AEW World Championship I Quit Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs Eddie Kingston: Moxley retains via Barbwire Bulldog Choke @18:59 – *** ¼

Results:

NWA Women’s World Championship: Serena Deeb (c) vs Allysin Kay

We get some really solid pacing that shows off the strengths of both women. Allysin has moments were her size and power are too much for Serena to maneuver around, but Serena’s flexibility and technical prowess give her advantages at other times.

After Allysin hits the AK47, Serena rolls all the way outside, which buys her just enough time to make a comeback. She catches Allysin’s leg in the ropes, Dragon Screw followed by the Double Hamerlock Piledriver; but it was too close to the ropes, so Allysin gets her foot on the ropes. Serena repositions her challenger and applies the Serenity Lock for the submission defense!

After the victory, Thunder Rosa’s music hits and it’s fairly well assumed she’s demanding her rematch. Cool spot for the Buy In.

#1 Contender for AEW World Championship: Kenny Omega vs Adam Page

In a match that should’ve been more of a counter war and grudge match, there wasn’t really a ton of actual wrestling familiarity. Page interrupted the first Terminator Dive attempt, but when the whole crowd starts clapping, it’s not hard to know what is coming. Everything else was just a lot of Indy style high spots, a few slips, a lot of slow telegraphs, and a pretty good match for what we’ve grown to expect from AEW, but nothing transcendent.

Omega had multiple moments of bad and weak attacks, where it was mostly Page doing the heavy lifting. The fact we saw Page pull out the Deadeye again and counter Omega’s attempted crucifix the same way Okada did in the 2 out of 3 falls match was a nice reference.  Also the Japanese style no sell spot fell flat with no real struggle before that. Hard to buy into a struggle when people are still flipping around and there’s no moment of mat wrestling or stiff brawling.

This definitely felt like a match that tried to add a few elements and failed when it comes to psychology, but it was still an entertaining enough spectacle.

John Silver vs Orange Cassidy

Well I’ve learned what I hate about these derpy comedy Cassidy matches. I enjoy Toru Yano since most of the time Yano is the idiot and the opponent is more complaining to the referee to check for weapons or tape. But this match starts with Silver yelling at Cassidy to not put his hands in his pockets…DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Comemntary wants to put you over as a 4 foot tall powerhouse, and you’d rather whine and yell to start off a match…then you rip out pockets, God that’s stupid.

By the time both of them start trying, I find myself not buying either of them as worth my time and I’ve checked out. Silver counters Satellite DDTs, does a one handed Gorilla Press, but started off the minute having a tantrum like a 4 year old. So tell me where the storytelling is in that?

Cassidy eventually starts trying and looking like he’s searching for an answer…which makes little to no sense with how nonchalant he starts the match. Yano is a playful idiot win, lose or draw. Much like many of AEW matches, Cassidy’s inability to just own a style is a lot of my disdain for what he calls wrestling.

TNT Title Match: Cody Rhodes (c) vs Darby Allin

This match told a fantastic story. When Cody sticks to Arn’s game plan, he looks to be untouchable. Utilizing a Hammerlock throw onto the ramp, a double armbar, Keylocks and an Avalanche Hammerlock Slam rendered Darby’s left arm basically useless. The beauty of this is also that Darby sells it well and remembers it through the entire match.

We get a few threads pulled on during the match and its all great stuff. Cody getting introduced as the “Prince of Pro Wrestling” continues those little moments of heel ego that we’ve seen the last few months. He does the same thing when he starts doing push-ups and Arn gets pissed off, Cody goes up for the Moonsault and Arn is incensed. The further Cody strays from the game plan, the more Darby gets a few opportunities to stay alive.

Darby hits a great comeback spot utilizing paintbrushes with the good arm, headbutts and short drop kicks. Cody manages to absorb that, even an unintentional naked turnbuckle shot and unleash a huge Avalanche Cross Rhodes, but Darby takes the bump and rolls clear across the ring. So when Cody goes for the pin, Darby’s arm is still under the rope and the referee stops the count. Darby gets a quick flourish where he hits the Last Supper for a near fall and even lands a Coffin Drop, but the extra weight Cody put on for this match helps him roll the shoulder. Nice little elements from their previous matches and the current build mesh really well.

We see back and forth Locomotion Cradle attempts from both, where Darby gets the best of things and pulls off the upset (possible thanks to that earlier turnbuckle shot injuring the ribs).  So Darby is the new TNT champion!

Post-match Taz comes out to say the crying and supportive thing is lame, while Brian Cage and Ricky Starks jump Cody and Darby from behind. Hobbs comes out to save Darby from serious injury, but I guess we’re going to see Taz’s team going after the TNT title and anyone around it.

AEW Women’s Championship: Hikaru Shida (c) vs Nyla Rose w/Vickie Guerrero

Shida starts of quickly, but this match really lacks a lot of their first couple matches. Between a bad Splash from Nyla, awkward at best selling from Hikaru after Vickie lands 1 kendo shot to her knee…this got hard to watch.

We see Shida going from not being able to put weight on her leg to climb the ropes, and then she runs back and forth, pulls off suplexes on someone twice her size and attacks with multiple Knee Strikes. For every step forward, it felt like it took one backwards. Vickie was completely useless in this Nyla story, and the only interesting beat was when Hikaru hits an awful Avalanche Falcon Arrow, but pulls Nyla up at 2 just to send a message. That was a nice story element, but this match was not even close to decent.

After the match we see some dissension between Vickie and Nyla, they shout at each other and then Vickie slaps Nyla and walks off. So I guess Nyla ain’t a monster anymore when she’s lost her last few big matches and just got punked out by a woman in her 50s.

AEW Tag Team Titles: FTR (c) vs The Young Bucks

Matt starts off the match, who highlighted his resolve since he came in with a bum ankle, but it helped tell part of the story. When Dax punched the ring post we got a nice wrinkle in the story of bad hand versus bad ankle, which did come into play at different points of the story.

Some of the fun in the clash of styles was both of them steering into the skid of inspiration. FTR tends to go to the well of the 80s and 90s bruiser teams like The Steiners, Power and Glory, the Brainbusters and Road Warriors. But when the Bucks utilize the 3D and the Twist of Fate/Swanton Bomb combination, it was a generational spot that was cute story telling.

Part of the negatives in this match were the length and a few of the missteps. Early on the Bucks looked to be off when Matt was in the ring too long just to set up a spot, Matt’s missed Moonsault which wasn’t even close to anything to make sense and the fact that Dax grabbed the ropes but the referee never enforced the rope break even though he saw it. As for the length, this was one of those matches that felt like it was treading water at time using flashy spots to fill time and not add anything.

The finish was solid when Cash went to pull off a Springboard 450, which hit nothing but canvas, so Matt was able to hit a Superkick on his bad ankle for the finish. Young Bucks winning allows them to not be locked out of the title picture in the future, finally getting the belts helps to quell some of the internet complaints and since FTR technically beat themselves we could easily see FTR win the next two matches.

Cinematic Match: Elite Deletion: Matt Hardy vs Sammy Guevara

In typical Deletion style, it’s corny over the top stuff and insider/IWC references. I am partially amused at the fact that someone from AEW always finds a way to mention Jim Cornette, even though their fans want to say how irrelevant he is. Get out of the mud so certain old people don’t think it’s a mud show.

Hurricane Helms and Gangrel were interesting adds, and the “long term story telling” was actually a funny jab. Gangrel calling out Hardy for betraying him was kind of nice, though it’s a little odd seeing Gangrel wrestling with Santana and Ortiz. Once in the “Dome of Deletion” we get the reference to the big injury spot from Fyter Fest, which you can’t really say is in poor taste when it’s at the Hardy Compound, and Hardy was the one concussed. It’s just wrestling, and it adds to the story. Hardy did continue to make the references with hitting Sammy with a chair, reminiscent of a few weeks ago and Hardy blamed Sammy for being the cause of all this basically. Con-Chair-to style shot against the concrete floor puts Sammy out, and Hardy wins.

Since its Cinematic, I don’t really rate it or count it as a real match, but it was pretty fun.

Chris Jericho vs MJF

So in a weird shift, Jericho is the babyface in the match, which he plays decently well. Most of the faster and higher spots came from Jericho, between an Avalanche Frankensteiner and a quick Lionsault, it was up to MJF to slow things down and make his own opportunities.

MJF played into the heel thing by flipping off the crowd, hitting a Codebreaker on Jericho right before the Heat Seeker and trying to use Jericho moves to send a message. A missed Lionsault from MJF led to Jericho hitting his Codebreaker for a near fall. Both try to cheat at the end, Wardlow shows up with the Diamond ring, Jericho dodges and Hager throws in the baseball bat but MJF goes old school and Eddie Guerrero’s the situation. Aubrey turns and sees MJF laid out, thinks Jericho did it, so it allows for the moment to strike, Roll-Up with some tights and now MJF and Wardlow are part of the Inner Circle.

Not flashy, not amazing, but effective and pretty enjoyable.

AEW World Championship I Quit Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs Eddie Kingston

This was a brawl, it wasn’t pretty, the pacing was awkward, but it got across a hardcore style that I Quit matches lead to. Moxley returned to his barbwire bat, and Kingston took a few more innovative routes. He teased the Back of the Chair Suplex spot, but that got broken up. Tacks and Rubbing Alcohol get introduced and we see a small burst of grappling and real wrestling. Kingston gets the best of things with a Belly to Belly into the tacks, and then he pours the alcohol onto the wounded back of Moxley.

We see a lot of plodding after this, cranking on submissions, searching for a weapon and just general buying time. Given how the match was presented it wasn’t the worst aspect, but I would’ve appreciated a faster pace or at least more character work on why it slow at points instead of intermittent generic yelling.

Definitely a tolerable hardcore match, with a finish that made sense given their history and how the match was framed, just very easy to zone out during…like most of Moxley’s title defenses.

Overall Score: 7/10

This was easily the best show since Revolution earlier this year, but that’s also a low bar to be honest.  Even though I know I was probably more impressed with the Cody/Darby match than most, and under whelmed by Page/Omega and the tag match, it was still a pretty solid show. AEW still needs a ton of help in their women’s division, especially when the NWA Women’s match was pretty simple but head and shoulders above the AEW women’s title match in terms of quality.

FTR in a way beating themselves and not having Tully allows for a few more pieces to fall into place in that feud, so that’s in a healthy position. Cody’s ever growing ego and slowly pulling away from Arn’s coaching to embrace the douchebagery could be an interesting twist with the Taz faction and Darby story. With Sammy’s list of failures and not exactly great relationship with MJF, we could see Sammy become the odd man out of a now almost bloated Inner Circle lineup.

There was also an awful backstage segment with Best Friend, Orange and whatever Miro and Sabian are calling their terrible combination; but holy hell they can’t talk. Initially I was a fan of Kip Sabian, especially what I saw during the WOS reboot, but the more they make him talk…the more he can’t; and holy hell Miro is proving why Lana did most of the talking in WWE.

There we go, not a bad show, a few things to play with post PPV and generally alright quality. I’m pleasantly surprised.