By Frank Peteani, ProWrestling.net Contributor (@FrankPeteani)
Personal Note
I apologize for not coming to you last week with analysis of the build to Full Gear coming out of Blood & Guts. We’ve dealt with losing a beloved pet at too young an age, which was quite hard on my family. Some other things have come up as well so I’ve had to navigate that while keeping up with AEW. It’s healthy, even in tough times, to continue to do the things you love and so I press on here with my latest take on the build to Full Gear. I’m going to focus on the go-home episode of Dynamite and Collision and talk about how well they sold me, if I were on the fence that is, on ordering the PPV.
AEW Full Gear Matches
“The Brawling Birds” Jamie Hayter and Alex Windsor vs. Harley Cameron and Kris Statlander for the AEW Women’s Tag Team Titles: This match won’t sell me on the pay-per-view, but the build did enough to earn a thumbs up. I don’t recall Statlander and Harley teaming or being friends before, though I may have missed it. They framed that friendship as an advantage over Jamie and Alex, who bonded over brawling and beer (hey, nothing wrong with that). I liked the acknowledgment that Harley was an inaugural champion with Willow Nightingale at last December’s Winter is Coming. With only three sets of champions, the titles haven’t been passed around just to give people something to do or a push, which gives them meaning. They also acknowledged being teammates in the previous week’s Blood & Guts rather than ignoring it. Statlander had quite the shiner, too. I wouldn’t ignore Divine Dominion getting involved in this match somehow based on their promo this week. (At least this isn’t WWE, where you just know something would have happened to make this a three-way). I like that they’re hanging around and reminding you they were champions. Again, it makes the titles mean something.
“The Young Bucks” Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson vs. Mark Davis and Jake Doyle for the AEW Tag Team Titles: I’m very intrigued by this match. It almost feels like an inflection point for the Young Bucks. They talked about it on Collision, where they reminded you that they are The Elite and “we are the Young Bucks.” This business has gotten a little too cute, and people try to be slick sometimes for my taste, and I like when wrestlers/teams cut an old-school wrestling promo just reminding you that they are the best and telling you why they should be champions. It was interesting to see them work a Trios match rather than a tag, but they wanted Jack Perry to call out Samoa Joe in the promo afterwards. (Do they not want Jack to get singles wins? They just hide him in a Trio with the Bucks?) I would have liked to have heard more from Davis & Doyle, but the squash a few weeks ago, them working Blood & Guts, and the Buck promo this week did enough to generate my interest in this match.
Jon Moxley, Gabe Kidd, Daniel Garcia, Wheeler Yuta, Orange Cassidy, Kyle O’Reilly, and Roderick Strong vs. “The Cut” Jay White, Ace Austin, Austin Gunn, Clark Connors, Colten Gunn, David Finlay, and Juice Robinson in an Anarchy in the Arena match: Multiple matches and post-match activities built to this match. David Finlay beat Orange Cassidy when he used the shillelagh while the referee was conveniently not looking. Afterward, Orange’s cohorts Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong came out, followed by Ace Austin and Colten Gunn coming out for the distraction, allowing Clark Connors to spear Orange. Later, Marina Shafir and Jon Moxley beat Mercedes Mone and Jay White when Shafir tapped out Mercedes. All kinds of chaos broke out afterwards when Mone put the Statement Maker on Shafir. The Gunns, Austin, Finlay, and Connors came out to attack Moxley. Strong and O’Reilly sauntered out, followed by Orange. They brawled, and eventually Moxley and the Conglomeration stood together in the ring, although Mercedes hit Shafir with the women’s championship belt. (Sigh). They can do all of this. They can have Moxley hand Orange the fork in a backstage segment. They can brawl all they want. I just don’t care. I’m not saying the build was bad per se, but The Bang Bang Gang and The Dogs coming together makes no sense to me. The Cut is a stupid name (I hate to pile on, but I’m human). The Death Riders affiliating with The Conglomeration, who have mostly been a comedy act, is silly. What comes out of this? What are the stakes? Who even has a real issue with one another? Anyway, I’m curious if Claudio, who was taken out a few weeks ago, returns and plays a factor, and no one can trust Gabe Kidd. I’m not giving the build a thumbs up or thumbs down. I’m giving it an Orange Cassidy thumbs in the middle, because whatever.
Kazuchika Okada vs. Adam Copeland for the AEW International Championship: They didn’t do much, if anything, this week to build this match, and frankly, I would have liked to have seen something. I might have missed it, so forgive me. With Copeland wrestling someone we all never thought he would, I wanted to see more build. I realize AEW had a lot of ground to cover, but they made a point to show Ospreay and Copeland’s confrontation after Blood & Guts. Copeland and Okada have had moments recently, with Okada hitting Copeland with the title at Clockwork Carnage and Copeland spearing Okada through a table at Blood & Guts. They had time on Collision to do something to build this up. I mean, they found time for a three-way for the TBS Title (and another one will be on the Full Gear pre-show). They also found time for an ROH Tag Team Title match, but they couldn’t find a few minutes to talk about Okada vs. Copeland?
Tommaso Ciampa vs. Ilja Dragunov for the AEW National Championship: An interesting match, seeing as Ciampa just won the title and Dragunov is new to the company, and the company likely wants to keep him on the winning side of things. By the way, how did they know (er, How You Know?) Ciampa was going to beat “Speedball” Mike Bailey and retain the National Championship? It would have been a waste of time making that graphic of Dragunov vs. Ciampa at Full Gear had Speedball won the title (I’m just sayin’). You can tell they’re hesitant about Dragunov’s promo ability by having him come out and just point to the screen. That’s fine. I have no issue when you’re working “around” things. That said, despite a small build, this will be fun.
Mercedes Mone vs. Marina Shafir for the AEW Women’s Championship: I covered this earlier when I discussed the build to Anarchy in the Arena. It was obvious they did the mixed tag because it was a perfect spot to have Mercedes tap to the Brutalizer. This established Marina as a legitimate threat to the title, even though I think she is unlikely to win. I suppose you never know. I haven’t cared for the “don’t be a pussy” bit on Marina’s part. That feels high school to me even if it fits Marina’s character. All in all, I’m glad to see they want to get something out of her. Getting this title match and working with Mercedes can only help.
Hangman Page, Bandido, and Brody King vs. Swerve Strickland, Kofi, and Austin Creed in a Texas Death Match for the AEW Trios Titles: I’m not a big fan of pay-per-view opponents wrestling each other on TV ahead of time, but I admit sometimes my “80s/90s mentality” kicked in. If anyone watched back then, television was mostly squash matches with the occasional “competitive” match, and PPV matches were built via promos or backstage interviews. The wrestlers faced other opponents and built each other up as threats, and thus you anticipated the PPV because you hadn’t seen the parties wrestle each other. It just doesn’t work that way anymore, and it hasn’t for a long time. It was interesting to see New Level and Brodido work to a double count-out because they rarely, and I mean rarely, do those kinds of finishes on AEW television. It made sense, though, to further build the issue between both sides, which, let’s be honest, outside of the Swerve-Hangman dynamic had to be manufactured. New Level even said on TV that they have no problem with their opponents. The backstage promo with Hangman and Brodido helped as well, especially with Hangman, in so many words, emphasizing that the main issue is centered around him and Swerve. Despite the feud being manufactured outside of the main players as far as the go-home show, I’m intrigued by the match, so it gets a thumbs up from me.
Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher for the AEW World Championship: When I last came to you, I thought Will was going to defend against Samoa Joe, who had just forced Will to tap out during the Clockwork Carnage match at WrestleDream. That submission win combined with Joe’s AEW World Championship win at last year’s Full Gear made him seem like a credible threat. But I did say they had options, and Fletcher is certainly a viable one. The problem is that this matchup feels too big to do on a two-week build. These guys have been joined at the hip for a while, but the stakes are much higher this time around. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought they were building towards Fletcher vs. Adam Copeland based on the Blood & Guts finish and the post-show video that showed Ospreay confronting Copeland about surrendering. With that said, I thought Will and Fletcher had a phenomenal, if not long, segment on Dynamite. It felt like a real conversation; they hit points you want to hit to build up such a big match, and most importantly, Fletcher got heel heat. Fletcher wanted acknowledgment that he injured Will’s neck. Will got Fletcher to admit he was jealous when he watched him go to the ring for All In. Overall, I saw two guys that I want to see wrestle for the biggest championship. Even if the build was brief, I give it a thumbs up based on the go-home segment.
Final Thoughts
I had the Full Gear countdown special on in the background while I was doing things around the house. They did a great job. I usually don’t watch the countdown specials because how much wrestling do you want me to watch? But I wish they had aired some of the countdown special content during the weekly television shows.
All in all, I’m looking forward to Full Gear. They have made the top matches feel big if on a short build. I wish they didn’t have a three-and-a-half-hour Dynamite and Collision three days before what will likely be another four-and-a-half-hour PPV, especially when the go-home block had matches with no bearing on Full Gear.
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