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Welcome to my ongoing blog looking at tonight's AEW Full Gear 2021 PPV!
Here's to hoping either the Street Fight or the Falls Count Anywhere match brawls across the street from The Target Center to the Legendary First Avenue club!
The pre-show tag with Shida and Thunder Rosa defeating Jamie Hayter and Nyla Rose was a good, solid opener with four talented women all working their butt off.
Kicking off with MFJ and Darby Allin is a wise move. It's a great way to kick off with a heel who has some legitimate heat. The Darby video with him crashing his car was, well, something. You have to give it to him - he's creative. We've never seen anyone do that Dukes of Hazard/Knight Rider car-crash on a PPV and yeah, I know I'm dating myself. Great pop for Allin.
They started out really hot with some great back and forth wrestling, some of which were exchanges that Dean Malenko and Eddy Guerrero used to do in ECW and WCW, so that was a nice tribute to the late Eddy Guerrero. Big AEW chant when they faced off before MJF reminded everyone what a jerk he is with a sucker punch. Darby KILLED him with a tope suicida that was awesome. Darby has zero care for himself and while that's going to catch up to him, in the moment, it looks awesome. There's an old Cactus Jack promo where he said he knew if it hurt him, it would hurt his opponent. That's Allin come to life.
They fought back and forth and you can tell they went out here looking to steal the show as they wrestled their asses off with MJF really laying it on thick and going move for move with Allin. This put Allin in the position of fighting from underneath and kicking out when it seemed he was done, which is what the audience loves about his character. One of the strengths of the company is when talents really work as if they are in a legit competition, fighting to escape and attacking extremities to wear the other competitor down as opposed to just doing spots and this was a great example of that as Darby worked over his knee and later, it came back to haunt MJF. When Darby locked on a figure four, it was plausible it could be a finishing maneuver and when's the last time you could say that about that move elsewhere? Later, when MJF nailed a tombstone on Darby on the apron, he desperately grabbed at his knee, which was the right thing to do and it added authenticity to the match.
They went to an incredible series of near falls, culminating with a Code Red that was SOCLOSETOAPINFALL that it received a standing ovation. MJF rolled to the floor to avoid a Coffin Drop so Darby did it off the top to the floor, which is insane. Allin nailed another, right back on the bad knee. MJF did an excellent job selling the knee.
Wardlow and Shawn Spears came out to interfere but they were dispatched by Sting. That was cool in that it gave the live fans a chance to see Sting do a little brawling.
MJF rolled Darby's skateboard at him, trying to get him to DQ himself. Darby considered it but changed his mind. MJF used the referee removing the board to drill Darby with the Dynamite Diamond Ring and get the pin. That was the right finish as MJF gets the heat, Allin gets the sympathy for wrestling his heart out and the live crowd gets a hell of an opener. I always prefer clean pinfalls (who doesn't?) but for the MJF character, this makes sense.
This match was absolutely great, as if the ghost of Jim Crockett Promotions came back to life.
Next up was The Lucha Brothers vs. FTR. I love the Midnight Express tribute theme and Tully Blanchard is the man. Lots of energy for the Lucha Brothers' entrance. The story was FTR using double team maneuvers to wipe out the Lucha Brothers who used their aerial offense to neutralize Dax and Cash. They even switched things up by having Fenix and Penta whip out some unique submissions we usually would not see out of them.
FTR cut the ring off on Fenix and worked him over, including some nice old school uppercuts and even a double team Catapult into the bottom rope. FTR is at their best when they are presented as a modern day Brainbusters and there were some flourishes of that here. They built to Fenix firing back and hitting a double cutter on FTR for a near fall, which the crowd loved.
It should be noted Alex Abrahantes really works his butt off outside the ring. I don't think it gets pointed out enough.
They did a near-fall when Fenix was almost pinned after being struck with the AA Tag belt. Fenix kicked out and fought valiantly but still fell prey to FTR's machinations. Penta got the tag. There was a little Eddy Guerrero tribute with Dax using the shimmy for heat and attempting the Three Amigos, only to have Penta block it and do the shimmy. That brought a massive Eddy chant after Fenix hit a big frog splash. The only way that could have been cooler is if they were dressed like the Gringos Locos.
Lots of near falls, to the point I felt they were almost doing too much, especially after the kickup after the stuff piledriver but you can't dispute the crowd was loving everything. FTR tried to do Mask Confusion by putting on their green masks but Cash was pinned. The idea seemed to be the illegal man was pinned, so FTR has a plausible reason to demand another bout.
This was fun, but a completely different animal from the opener.
Bryan Danielson vs. Miro is up next. This was very strong from the onset of the bout as they were taking it too each other. The story was that Miro's neck is his weak point but he was using his strength to pound the hell out of Bryan. Miro, who had his quad taped up, really bore down on Bryan, wearing him down. Bryan took the fight to Miro with kicks and chops and running dropkicks but was caught with a big Samoan Drop. Bryan came back with a kneebar as Miro teased tapping several times before escaping and throwing Bryan with a gutwrench suplex.
Bryan worked over Miro but when he went for the high knee, Miro just snatched and powerbombed him. Miro locked on the Camel Clutch but Bryan made it to the ropes. Bryan persevered and locked in the LeBell Lock. Miro broke free and dove down with some big shots on Bryan. Miro challenged Bryan to kick him and Bryan did. Miro looked deranged, like The Sheik in an old wrestling magazine. They just kept beating the hell out of each other. They went to the floor, where Bryan nailed a DDT off the top, then cinched in a choke for the tap.
This was very much a modern take on the old school idea that pro wrestling is a chess game with two very different styles of wrestlers taking it to each other until finally, one of them trapped and overtook the other. Really damn good stuff here. Bryan earns his first AEW World title shot.
More thoughts on Page 2!
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