AEW Full Gear (2021) -- Results & Afterthoughts

The Buy-In: Tag Team Match

Hikaru Shida and Thunder Rosa def. Jamie Hayter and Nyla Rose (with Vickie Guerrero) by pinfall

This wasn't a bad match to kick things off on the preshow at all. I merely felt sorry these girls not being able to work a match on the main card. I still don't understand how some of the women in that TBS title tournament got a first round by due to their "undefeated" records that were mostly prominently featured on Dark and/or Elevation that most people don't even watch nor are aware of on a regular basis. There was a scary bump that I was worried about in this match where Thunder Rosa came down onto Jamie Hayter for a Diving Cross Body at ringside and it looked like Hayter took that entire impact onto her face with Rosa's weight coming down entirely on it. I was only concerned since it seemed like those two didn't contribute much else to this match after that spot.

My biggest gripe about this match was that it was starting to overstay its welcome until they started working Shida's knee that was targeted by Serena Deeb (who was sitting a ringside). I keep saying it but I'm not going to stop mentioning it until Shida stops making those comical facial reactions while she's selling to the point where I can't even take Shida's selling seriously at all. Shida's selling looked like Peter Griffin after he hurt his knee that time to me. To add insult to injury, working Shida's knee had no impact on the finish as she was still able to fight through the pain and still pick up the win for her team.

Singles Match

MJF def. Darby Allin by pinfall

For me personally, this was the match of the night without a shadow of a doubt. The only two things that came close were Punk/Kingston and the World Championship Eliminator Final, but not by much. MJF and Darby came out here on a mission to prove why they are regarded as two of the four pillars of "homegrown" AEW talent in this company. I could argue why MJF and few other guys on that roster aren't necessarily homegrown from AEW from scratch, but that's a topic for another day...

There was great back and forth and more importantly, SELLING in this match from both men from the punishment that they were putting each other through. MJF is easily the best heel currently in this company - if not anywhere else too if not for Roman Reigns over in WWE. He gets everything - from the small nuances and finer details - to excel at this role and play the crowd reactions like a master manipulator.

Tag Team Match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship

The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fénix) (c) (with Alex Abrahantes) def. FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) (with Tully Blanchard) by pinfall

The only thing that I'm going to say about this match was that it was great match in practice, but a HORRIBLE finish that ruined it for me and obviously a lot of people from the reactions online to this match.

In hindsight, I'm going to cut both teams a break as allegedly one of the members of FTR (Dax) got knocked loopy from Fenix's stiff strikes. That would easily throw off anyone at that point, but still doesn't excuse the poor execution of the finish. I don't know who thought that was a great idea, but it wasn't in the least. I understood that it was done to give FTR an out in terms of setting up a rematch since the Lucha Bros. pinned the wrong man to retain, but it was done so poorly (especially with Cash Wheeler's hair sticking out of the back of the mask) that everyone called bullshit before even the three count was made.

AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament Final

Winner receives a future AEW World Championship match.

Bryan Danielson def. Miro by technical submission

The tale of the tape going into this match was that Miro was coming into this final essentially "fresh" from being added as a replacement to Jon Moxley while Bryan Danielson has been on a tear ever since he came into AEW with great (or rather acceptable) matches against everyone he has stepped into the ring with, leaving him arguably more worn down than Miro going into this match. Let's not forget Miro's Achilles' heel of having neck problems that has led to his downfall either. That would play into the finish of this match, despite the back and forth nature of this match. There was a spot about halfway into this match where I was genuinely convinced that Bryan was going to tap out to the Game Over (Accolade/Camel Clutch) but Miro didn't reel back to trap him within the hold to add more pressure so Bryan was able to reach the ropes for a break. That really garnered an eyeroll reaction from me in the heat of the moment. I'm sure this was fun for both guys, who haven't faced each other in a ring not since the King of the Ring tournament on SmackDown in WWE a few years prior to this match. I had to rewind and rewatch the finish as I didn't catch what happened at first since it was so fast. Apparently, the DDT (in this scenario a Tornado DDT out of the corner) proved to be Miro's Achilles' heel once again as it left him stunned long enough to allow Bryan to lock in a Guillotine Choke from the front, where the referee instantly called for the win via technical knockout since Miro was already knocked out from the DDT.

There was a lot of anticipation for this match as it set the stage for who was going to when the main event. With Bryan going over, I thought it was pegged for Omega to retain, but I could easily see the counterargument from those who think that Bryan will do the honors to legitimize Hangman's position as the new champion in his first title defense.

As for Miro, I don't see this loss hurting him in the least as it furthers his beef with "God" forsaking him with "a body made of granite and a neck made of sand". Eventually, they have to give us Miro vs. God, but for the love of all things holy, please don't make it as stupid as WWE did that storyline where HBK teamed up with God against Vince and Shane McMahon. That was embarrassing enough back then to put up with. I wonder if it means that Miro is going to bring Lana in as his manager to turn his luck around, even though he doesn't need her in my honest opinion and AEW has FAR too many pointless/lackluster managers currently anyway.

Falls Count Anywhere Match

Christian Cage and Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) def. The Superkliq (Adam Cole and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)) (with Brandon Cutler and Michael Nakazawa) by pinfall

This was the match right here where I personally felt that they burnt out this crowd on. I've said it countless times during my NXT TakeOver write-ups and I'll say it again here too - Adam Cole does FAR too much in these alleged "high profile" matches. The Young Bucks are guilty of it too and it caused this match overstay it's welcome. I didn't even feel like this was a good PPV match. This match (much like the alleged Street Fight later in this card) could have been on one of the go-home episodes Dynamite or on the post-Full Gear episode this following week. I understand that they want to get as many bodies as possible on these PPVs, but don't do it just to be doing it.

Jungle Boy had his crowning moment during the finish of this match, which saw him become Jungle MAN, after Christian Cage handed him the steel chair for he could cave one of the Bucks' skulls in for the Con-Chair-to. I didn't get why he was so hesitant to do this when the Superkliq have been the bane of his existence since Adam Cole joined this company, so it was like whatever to me. Speaking of Christian, he has to riding cloud nine after the year that he's had - returned at the Royal Rumble, became IMPACT World Champion and headlined their Bound For Glory PPV last month, beat Kenny Omega on the first ever episode of Rampage, and now he's diving off stages like he's one of the younger guys. Talk about a career resurgence.

'm not knocking this match, but it was clearly not for me. You see one of these matches from the Bucks and Cole then you've seen them all as far as I'm concerned with little to no variety when they have to get in as many of the toys and furniture involved as possible.

Tag Team Match

Cody Rhodes and Pac (with Arn Anderson) def. Malakai Black and Andrade El Idolo (with Jose the Assistant) by pinfall

Much like the previous match, this was another match that could have been slotted on either Dynamite or Rampage and no one wouldn't have batted an eye either way. There was some good efforts here from all four men, but ultimately, this was another match I honestly couldn't care about either way. I was mildly entertained at Cody's continued (tone deaf) efforts to remain a babyface here to no avail when the crowd furiously booed him on offense at every given opportunity. It was even worse when he was nowhere to be found when PAC desperately needed to make the hot tag at one point.

Singles Match for the AEW Women's World Championship

Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. (c) (with Rebel and Jamie Hayter) def. Tay Conti by pinfall

Right off the bat, I'm going to make some people mad and say that I didn't think this match was very good at all. At the same time, I will say that this was the best match that Tay Conti has worked in this entire company. Tay Conti has shown a lot of improvement since leaving WWE system at the Performance Center as part of the NXT brand. Her martial arts/MMA background is shining brightly through the technical offense that she's been picking up with some great looking strikes and holds. That being said, she's picked up some great, cool-looking moves to her moveset, but she's clearly lacking the psychology to implement them properly. That's no fault of her own as she's still inexperienced in a high profile role like this. That rubs off on Britt Baker too being in the same boat.

Both of these women are slightly above-average workers, but they are still essentially learning on the job. We can all agree that Britt Baker's natural heel charisma and silver tongue on promos got her this championship while she wasn't even in the conversation before she made those crucial changes to her character during the lockdown shows. She's struggling to lead these matches and it's obvious that she (along with a lot of people in this company) are just running through a list of spots that her and her opponent went over backstage before the match in gorilla. Sure, Britt will work in a few spots to prime her foe for the pending Lockjaw submission hold, but there's not many diversions from trying to apply that hold or hitting that Curb Stomp. I will give Baker props for doing as much as she does currently with her broken wrist still being wrapped up for these matches.

In either case, the right woman won - as she should have - with Britt Baker retaining. You had to be delusional to think that Tay Conti had a snowball's chance in hell of taking that belt off of Britt Baker. She's not losing that belt until her and Thunder Rosa face off again - officially - for that title. They teased it in the 6-woman tag on Dynamite last week before Baker quickly tagged out. So yeah, they are definitely planting the seeds for it. It's just a matter of when and where.

Singles Match

CM Punk def. Eddie Kingston by pinfall

Everyone was expecting one hell of a fight from the build-up and promos between theses two and we definitely got that here. CM Punk came dressed in the nines, sporting a MMA-esque look for his choice of attire for this match. I have to admit that this has been my favorite look for him out of all of his AEW matches thus far. What surprised the hell out of me was Kingston connecting with a spinning back fist and laying Punk out before the bell even rung. I was popping huge for this possibility that Punk would've been unable to even fight period. Talk about one hell of an endorsement if they went along with this finish. The live crowd might have rioted but I think Kingston was so beloved and supported into this match that they would have gone along with it.

By the way, if you haven't read Kingston's excerpt on his life's story on The Players' Tribune then do yourself a favor and read that shit. How can anyone hate that guy after reading that? Going into this match, I kept saying it again and again that I wouldn't have had any problem with Kingston being the guy to hand Punk his first loss in AEW, especially if Tony Khan wants to catch lightning in a bottle with Kingston's booming popularity over the last few weeks since that article came out.

CM Punk ended up shaking off the cobwebs for the match to start officially and it was definitely a slobberknocker. I was honestly surprised that Jim Ross didn't say that himself, but chemotherapy for his skin cancer must have him feeling under the weather as he definitely didn't sound like himself on this show, I'll say that much. My grandmother went through that while treating her pancreatic cancer a few years ago, so I definitely empathize his pain in that regard.

The best thing about this match was that it didn't feel "staged" as how most modern brawls feel like in modern day wrestling (no matter what promotion you look at). Instead, it felt real thanks to the legitimate animosity that was spewed verbally from the ONE face-to-face altercation they had in-ring to sell this match. Better yet, this match didn't overstay its welcome either, unlike the bulk of the matches on this card tonight. For a lot of people, I think we can agree with this opinion: while MJF and Darby had the best wrestling match, CM Punk and Eddie Kingston had the best fight/brawl on this show. Between this match, Bryan Danielson vs. Miro, and MJF vs. Darby Allin, these were easily the trifecta of best matches of the entire night in my honest opinion.