Welcome to another edition of Wrestling Inc.'s retro reviews, where we take notable wrestling shows from the past and apply our universally celebrated loved/hated format! This time around, we have "Hangman" AdamPage holding the AEW World Championship at FullGear, and the last time that happened was when he won the title the first time, four years ago, at Full Gear 2021. To celebrate Page's "full gear circle" journey, we're looking back at that classic AEW event, and everything that preceded the culmination of what is still touted by AEW fans as one of the promotion's greatest storylines.
Well, not everything. It's an AEW card, after all, so it's big, and we only have so much space in this column. But we still have tons to go over, including AEW matches from both WWE's current (as of writing) world champions, a match between two of the self-proclaimed "Four Pillars" of AEW, and a very late-stage Chris Jericho 10-man street fight. In other words, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about AEW Full Gear 2021!
The "Four Pillars of AEW" thing hasn't really aged well has it? Jack Perry wanted to break away from being Jungle Boy but has since returned to partnering with Luchasaurus in the Jurassic Express. Sammy Guevara had multiple AEW TNT Championship reigns under his belt, beating Miro and Cody Rhodes along the way, but is now floating around Ring of Honor somewhere as no one wants to see his face on TV again. But after rewatching AEW Full Gear 2021, the match between MJF and Darby Allin made me remember why everyone was so excited for the future of the company.
The story of the match is simple. MJF is claiming to be better than everyone as usual, but he's now reminding everyone that he's also the best of the "Four Pillars." In fact, he is so good and so much better than everyone (and you know it) that he can beat Darby Allin, the man he was at least honest enough to admit was the second best pillar after him, with a side headlock takeover. Why that specific move? Because Darby is too emotional, too reckless, he can wrestle with all the guts and heart in the world but he doesn't use his head, which MJF does.
However, once the bell rang, Darby not only proved that he could wrestle with his head thanks to his amateur wrestling background, but he can actually take MJF into the deepest of waters and force him into the cheating ways that he's known for. Maxwell Jacob Friedman went into this one not wanting to use the Dynamite Diamond Ring, kick anyone in the groin, or make life more difficult for Bryce Remsburg than what it already is, but Darby was so good that Max had no choice but to turn to desperate measures.
What this match ends up becoming is a true showcase of just how good MJF and Darby Allin are, both together and as individuals. Even by the end of 2021, MJF was one of the most fully-formed characters in the company who was razor sharp on the microphone. His character work was so memorable that it overshadowed how good he was in the ring when he got the chance to lock in. Darby was already being pigeonholed as a kamikaze wrestler who will be crippled by the time he's 35, but when all of the wince-inducing spots are through coffins and glass are taken out of the equation, he is still a joy to watch. On a show with as much hype as AEW Full Gear 2021, MJF and Darby Allin had a lot of pressure on their shoulders opening the show, but they delivered and then some.
Written bySam Palmer
I really thought Full Gear 2021 was an excellent show all around, so it was tough to find anything to hate about it. One thing that did irk me, however, was the finish to the AEW World Tag Team Championship match, pitting the champs, the Lucha Brothers, against FTR. While I'm not necessarily a big fan of Dax Hardwood and Cash Wheeler, I thought they worked really well with Rey Fenix and Penta here. The ending, however, didn't scream "AEW" to me, especially back in the earlier days of the company when they were trying to really differentiate themselves from WWE, and I was honestly kind of surprised by it.
Before the Full Gear match, the Lucha Bros lost their AAA World Tag Team Championships to FTR, after the men challenged them, working behind masks asLas Super Ranas, after Andrade El Idolo introduced them on an episode of "Dynamite." The Las Super Ranas gimmick came into play at the end of this match, and I was glad I had looked up what was going on around this time, as I had yet to get into AEW fully back in 2021. I really would have been confused when Wheeler pulled out a mask at the end.
The match, which featured a lot of tribute to Eddie Guerrero around the anniversary of his passing, which I really appreciated, was fast-paced and hard-hitting, and I love watching Fenix and Penta work together.Wheeler tied Penta's mask to the bottom rope at one point, which made sense as a heel tactic, and at another, he held up the AAA tag team belt for Fenix to run right for Harwood to attempt to get the pin after a Brainbuster. In the end, it was Wheeler to attempt to disguise himself with the mask to switch places with his legal teammate who was worn out, which to me, seemed really hokey and silly. Sure, Wheeler and Hardwood look similar, but notthatsimilar, as Wheeler has identifiable tattoos. You'd think veteran referee Rick Knox would be smart enough not to fall for it. The Lucha Bros still ended up getting the victory, but, they pinned the illegal man.
The rest of the show was excellent, from the Falls Count Anywhere match, to the CM Punk versus Samoa Joe slugfest, so the finish of this match was what stuck out to me as not-so-great on this pay-per-view. Of course, the finish played further into the storyline of FTR versus the Lucha Bros to keep things going on later episodes of "Dynamite," but when you're just chosing this show to watch for fun and haven't seen any of the other story around it, it doesn't work well.
Written byDaisyRuth
When Jim Ross on commentary says "It wasn't the prettiest tag team match I've ever seen" at the end of your match, you know something has gone wrong somewhere along the line.
On paper, this looked like it could be a potentially show stealer. PAC and Andrade El Idolo had already wrestled two incredible matches on "AEW Rampage" in the weeks leading up to Full Gear 2021, with their chemistry being off the charts on both occasions. Malakai Black was being presented as one of the strongest forces in AEW at the time, already having two clean victories over Cody Rhodes since his debut earlier that summer. Even Rhodes, while fully in his "I'm the most hated babyface in the company and a heel turn would certainly fix that but I'd rather not" era, everyone knows how accomplished in between the ropes. However, this was not it.
2021 was part of the era in AEW history where they only did four pay-per-views per year. It forces the events to be must-see shows, and only the best of the best stories can make it on to the card. But when you have one of the Executive Vice-Presidents, two of the hottest new signings in the company, and PAC in United States for a prolonged of time just kind of sitting around with nothing to do, you feel obliged to jam them into the card somewhere whether it makes sense or not. It did not make sense here. If anything, this would have served more than well in the main event of an "AEW Dynamite," but even then Rhodes needed his win back off of Black, and he needed to put Andrade through a flaming table! You can't miss that.
What we got instead was a fine-to-good TV wrestling match that somehow found an invitation to the biggest party of the season for AEW in a Dave & Busters bathroom somewhere. It doesn't flow, it's too slow in the wrong places and too quick in all the right places. It is the definition of the old favorite "Will They Coexist?" match, but on both teams. Black and Andrade are only teaming together because they've both been feuding with Rhodes, and the team of Rhodes and PAC has so little chemistry that it's almost impressive.
Amazingly, this would end up being the final AEW pay-per-view match before he left to make a surprise WWE return, and quite frankly it shouldn't have been on the card. Give PAC and Andrade a rubber match, introduce a House of Black member, literally anything. A waste of these four guys' talents, and a waste of a spot on one of the biggest events of the year.
Written bySam Palmer
Much can be said about CM Punk's time in AEW and then the way that things came to an end, but I will forever maintain the belief that he produced nothing short of exemplary work in the run considering his seven-year absence from the sport. One such example of that work can be found almost as soon as he had returned, picking up on the real simmering hatred between him and Eddie Kingston to deliver a brief yet charged feud for Full Gear 2021.
The promos were as excellent as you could expect from two of the best talkers with legitimate grievances with one another, but they had to follow that animus up within the match and they did that in spades. Kingston started the match off strong, hitting a stiff spinning backfist before the bell had even rung to floor Punk; the referee checked on Punk to see if he wanted to start the fight at the disadvantage, but he waved him off and the bell rung with Kingston continuing his onslaught.
Punk was busted open and Kingston was unrelenting in the opening stages, but naturally he tired and Punk found his way through the gaps in offense as the affair started to get a little more open and even. There was no wasted movement between them, each designed to inflict pain or take another step towards the victory, and it became a question of who was going to get their killshot off first as each man tried and wavered. Eventually that question was answered and it was Punk who got the GTS off and had victory in his hands, but having been beaten to oblivion beforehand couldn't take advantage. Having so soon returned to wrestling, this was the first match that really seemed to communicate the task he had ahead of him to get back to the top.
Punk had to get over himself before he could get over his opponent laid in the ring. When he did, he returned to the skirmish in control. Knees to the gut and a near-miss on the spinning backfist, one more GTS, and the final and very labored winning pinfall. There he sat bloodied and in the ring, having proven to Kingston he was the better wrestler, proven to himself that he could still go, and proven to the fans that they were right to chant his name for seven long years.
Written by MaxEverett
What an odd match this is. Truly, truly bizarre.
After Chris Jericho and The Inner Circle had finally wrapped up their feud with MJF and The Pinnacle, the group fell into that weird category which is essentially "We don't have anything for you, but you're too important to leave off the show." Being the company men that they were at the time, The Inner Circle decided to take the plunge and feud with the one group that every AEW detested at the time; Men of the Year and American Top Team.
Why were they so hated? Because Dan Lambert, the founder of American Top Team, managed to somehow have the most punchable voice I have ever heard. Every time he opened his mouth, it sounded like nails on a chalkboard and the only way to stop the noise was punching him in the face. That is how hated Dan Lambert was, which in turn made him one of the funniest additions to this match, a ten-man Minneapolis Street Fight. Lambert, Ethan Page, and Scorpio Sky would be joined by former UFC Heavyweight Champions Andrei Arlovski and Junior Dos Santos, with Dos Santos being someone who I need to give credit to as he just looked like he was having so much fun all the time.
In hindsight, the match could have been a prototype for what Anarchy In The Arena turned out to be, but it just turned into a spotty plunder match that, for some reason, started with a normal tag rules. Why are you guys standing on the apron like lemons? It's no disqualifications, no count out, DO SOMETHING. Once all the Minnesota related weapons come out, such as skis, a Prince logo, and Baron Von Raschke, things did pick up to an acceptable rate. Lambert is running for his life anytime The Inner Circle look in his general direction, Santana and Ortiz are proving why they should have been AEW Tag Team Champions at least once, Jericho is literally yelling spots and cues at Dos Santos and Arlovski throughout the match. It's a funny match more than anything, but it really tries to be serious.
The match ends with Jericho hitting a Frog Splash on Lambert as the Full Gear 2021 event took place on the 16th anniversary of EddieGuerrero's death, which is a nice touch, but it's just another random moment in a match full of random moments. I wasn't expecting a five-star classic here, but what I got was a match that had no business being the penultimate match of the night. If you couldn't get Jorge Masvidal, just don't do the angle, or if you do, at least do it on TV.
Written bySam Palmer
Many misunderstand why "Hangman" Adam Page is referred to as the Main Character of AEW, since he's neither the best wrestler nor the largest character on the roster at any given time, and hardly booked as though he could beat everyone. Alas, he is the main character for exactly those reasons; he isn't the biggest or the best. He's just a flawed human, and even if he doesn't achieve what he sets out to do the first time around, he will be trying and trying again to ensure that he does eventually achieve it. He is a character shaped by his losses, a constant for the audience to follow over the years, and encapsulates the essence of what AEW was established to be. He rides on the belief that he can beat anyone, and his shortcomings only add to the moment he overcomes. He did so this year when he beat Jon Moxley at All In: Texas, but nothing is quite like the first time he did it at Full Gear 2021.
Having signed as part of the original batch alongside The Elite and Chris Jericho when AEW was founded in 2019, Page failed to become the inaugural World Champion when faced with Chris Jericho later in the year. When he did win gold it was in a tag team with Kenny Omega, the man who had really got the ball rolling for AEW as a concept and legitimately one of the best wrestlers in the world, and Page was suffering from impostor's syndrome and all the self-sabotage that comes with it. When they lost the tag titles, one could largely put the blame down to self-sabotaging decisions made by Page; Omega clearly saw it that way and cut ties with him, embarking on a solo journey that led him to, among others, the AEW World Championship that Page had failed to capture.
Fast forward to Full Gear, and Page was entering for his redemption fight against Omega for the title. It was the best match of Page's career to that point, and another for the extensive catalog of the "Best Bout Machine," with no wasted movement and a design to every motion. Omega had proven himself by this point, and the onus was on Page to prove he could be better than him, and that he did, responding to everything his opponent had to offer, reciprocating some of it with the One Winged Angel, and answering it with the finishing Buckshot lariats nodded on by the Young Bucks in approval. This remains one of the best matches and stories in the brief history of AEW, and stands as a testament to the superstar that Page has since become.
Written byMax Everett
