Join John Pollock & Wai Ting immediately after AEW Full Gear
Daniel Garcia winning the aew tnt championship from jack perry was the right call if was predictable that he would win it. Glad he won it almost extatly 2 years after he lost the roh pure championship. He lost it at final battle 2022.
Andrew from Cape Breton
Another great show. I guess one negative is the show wasn’t in the running for one of the greatest pay per views in wrestling history like most AEW shows attempt to be, but I still enjoyed it. Having such a large crowd was also a good way to tell who people are generally interested in. Athena, Buddy Matthews, Beast Mortos and the Outrunners got a lot of crowd support at the start of the show as talents who aren’t featured as much as some of the talent in later matches, but are certainly ones who should be pushed more in 2025. I checked out the pre-show and I loved that match with AJ and QT. It was very basic as I didn’t expect AJ to be this technical wizard, but it served it’s purpose. The match completely changed my view on QT Marshall. I’ve always viewed him on the same level as Brandon Cutler or Michael Nakazawa, as that’s how he was brought in. Add the mess that was QTV and he was someone who I didn’t think should have been on TV. Tonight changed that, and I’d like to see more of him going forward.
The highlight of the show was Kyle Fletcher. He deserved to win tonight, and one thing I like about AEW is how open ended its future is. Darby could be the World Champion next year, but you could easily pivot to a heel Kyle Fletcher, along with so many others on the roster. I guess that’s one positive about being in a down period. Your future is wide open and you would want to explore any option of who could be that next hit with the company. Overall, an excellent show. AEW pay per views always feel like can’t miss events.
Brian in New Jersey.
Buckle up buttercups, that ending was wild in a lot of ways.
I thought every match on the PPV was good to great, though I did have wi-fi issues during the end of the tag title match, so I didn’t catch those bad-sounding bits you described. Ospreay vs. Fletcher met my high expectations and Mone vs. Statlander exceeded them. Mone’s best match in AEW yet, at least her best since Stephanie Vaquer at Forbidden Door. Great story to the main event event though I didn’t expect Orange to win. Curious where he goes from here after being built up this past month. Also a stellar 4-Way for free early on.
Very nice presentation for the Zero Hour main event, though the Rizzler is clearly a one-trick pony.
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Jordan from the Bronx (Live from Newark)
A fun show to be at, however some matches went a touch too long with some near falls that felt excessive. I don’t get this Costco stuff, but the kids in the audience ate it up. Really glad to see Kyle Fletcher going over clean. He’s been built up over the last year as a singles guy and I can easily see some midcard titles in his future.
This was Mercedes best match in AEW since Stephanie Vaquer, but the finish left the crowd stunned. People were really into the last two matches. The Hurt Syndicate’s song is over (Westside Gunn was front row). It’ll be interesting to see how they’re positioned with the C2 coming up.
Ending of the PPV was chaotic and without help from commentary, we had to fill in a lot of the blanks with Hangman and Jay White’s involvement. Overall a great time!
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Dustin from Maui:
From a pro wrestling standpoint, this show was amazing. The Mercedes/Statlander match and the Osperay match was really good!! Imo, House of Black is way too talented and under-pushed to not be in the main event.
Q: Am I the only one that isn’t stoked on Ricochet? I feel like compared to the Osprey matches, the drama in the Ricochet matches is running at 50%.
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Cody From Maine
A great show as expected. I was actually a bit on the fence about ordering, but the Zero Hour did a great job of getting me into the mood to watch wrestling. Big Boom AJ vs. QT was fantastic for what it was and a lot of fun.
Show length is always going to be a talking point with AEW PPV’s, but I really felt the crowd burn out in this one post-Ospreay vs. Fletcher. That’s the risk with such a phenomenal match in the middle of the card. Perry vs. Garcia and even Takeshita vs. Ricochet really suffered as a result.
Credit to Mox and Orange for that main event. I think the best you can hope for is the one big near fall that people bite on. I feel like they succeeded in that task.
Like you guys, I loved the build to Fletcher/Ospreay and loved that match, and on the other hand I HATED the build to Statlander/Mone, and loved that match as well. I feel like that’s AEW in a nutshell right now - there are some things on the television which really work, there are some things on the television which exemplify the sort of programming AEW was designed to be an alternative to, but the Pay Per Views still deliver, and I think attendance reflects that.
I have two main reactions coming out of this show:
Regardless of match quality, high profile and decisive wins for Fletcher and Garcia are great to see. I think you can go back to Fletcher/Ospreay at the drop of a hat whenever the time’s right, and I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that, regardless of TK’s faith in him, this heavily overbooked presentation of Perry wasn’t working - we’ll see what he can get going with Tsuji in a more restrained promotional style I guess - but as the vestigial nub of the new Elite I think he needs to have the page turned in AEW. Depending on how long you want to have Mox holding the title, I think you’re beginning to build Garcia as the sort of future face of the company who could be a credible challenger to him half a year or even a year from now.
Speaking of Mox, while the finish of the main event and the post-match seemed a bit convoluted, I did like what it seemed to point to - sure, Darby is presumably your next title challenger and there’s a clear story for that rematch, but maybe more importantly, as awkward as the Hangman, Christian, and White run-ins were, we now have the Death Riders coming into conflict with the entirety of the roster, and not just a sequestered off portion of the mid-card. You guys were joking about Mox’s “takeover” of the superstation being just a single appearance, and I think that is something that needs to be addressed if you want this title reign and this faction to be as impactful as possible.
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