I really want to like AEW more, but I’m finding it really difficult to not see all the parallels between it and WCW. Don’t get me wrong, AEW isn’t a bad product after six weeks, but given the hype, the mission statements and even more hype, it was envisioned to be this grand WWE-killer promotion, but honestly if I could be objective, isn’t even remotely close at this point.
The roster is bursting with potential, but there’s no denying that a lot of the talent is still really raw and unrefined, and could definitely use a lot of polishing. Private Party is the first that comes to mind with two guys that have athleticism up the wazoo, but you can literally watch them talking and calling spots in the ring, and they rush all the time and are often seen waiting for someone to jump off the top rope or springboard, and it looks really sloppy to the smark’s eye.
Commentary is also really sloppy, as JR and Excalibur can’t stop plugging the global real estate company that actually has AEW.com, and nobody seems to have told them that. Tony Schiavone is still “accidentally” saying “WCW” instead of “AEW” and after 30+ years in the business doesn’t know the difference between a running clothesline and a Buff Blockbuster.
It’s no secret the involvement of the promotion’s management, and how the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and Cody Rhodes are executives, as well as primary talent. But there are two sides right now, which is Cody Rhodes who is acknowledging this on screen, but at the same time is very much in the main event picture, having fought Chris Jericho for the AEW World Championship. Also benefitting is Elite member Hangman Adam Page, who has probably had the most screen time of anyone on the entire roster.
However, on the other side, is the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, who have basically jobbed themselves to oblivion. I get that they’re afraid of being accused of whatever nepotism executives elevating themselves would be considered, but at the same time, these guys were gods in New Japan, but have rendered themselves to be glorified jobbers to the stars in their own federation. And not just that, they’re also repeatedly taking losses from almost solely former WWE or TNA guys, which can’t help the perception that they were ever better than the competition.
Anyway, all of AEW’s shortcomings aside, the whole impetus of this post is primarily focusing on the main event of the promotion’s first “scheduled” PPV, Full Gear. Jon Moxley defeated Kenny Omega in a “Lights Out” match, which is another way of saying Dean Ambrose defeated Kenny Omega in a No-Holds Barred Hardcore Match.
In all fairness, the match was entertaining in the sense that it was long without feeling too drug out, and there were a ton of violent spots and things done that evoked a lot of emotion to the viewers and fans in attendance. The ending was nearly identical to the Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa street fight from a TakeOver a while back, with Moxley winning after a DDT onto the exposed wooden base of the ring, but as I was watching the match, I couldn’t help but think of some very prevalent things.
- All the fake-ass weapons and instruments of violence. As if AEW needs any more fuel to be compared to WCW, the weapons used in the Lights Out match were about as real as the cardboard brass knuckles of WCW in the past. Barbed-wire wrapped baseball bat, barbed-wire wrapped broom, a bed or barbed wire, panes of glass, shards of glass and tons of other props came into play. But despite it all, there was hardly any blood! Both guys were bludgeoned repeatedly with barbed-wire, and despite it all, the only blood were some punctures that were probably accidental, on Omega’s back. I’m not saying I necessarily wanted to see blood, but come on, wrestling is all about trying to be believable, and if nobody’s bleeding from getting gauged by barbed wire or shards of glass, then there’s no way I believe any of those props were real. There was even one spot where Omega FED GLASS SHARDS to Jon Moxley, and instead of him dying immediately from his insides getting shredded up, he still kicks out at the next pinfall attempt.
I felt like I was watching Mortal Kombat on the Super Nintendo version, where all blood was removed from the game, and it just looked silly beating the shit out of guys with there being not a drop of blood anywhere.
- In spite of the fake weapons, the match was still pretty violent, and the systematic way they went from one violent spot to the next violent spot, I began to think about how the match kind of reminded me of the Randy “the Ram” Robinson vs. Necro Butcher match from The Wrestler, but the difference was that CZW is a little crazier, and they tend to actually inflict more, actual pain on one another.
- I guess in the end, the real question I had was, did the match have to be this violent? Like, I understand why it would be important to Jon Moxley to have a violent match, because his character is crazy, and I’m sure the actual Jon Good really wants to shake the cartoony reputation that Dean Ambrose did to his persona, but what the hell is the incentive to Kenny Omega to do a hardcore match?The guy was considered the best wrestler in the world for the better part of the last two years based on the body of work he did in Japan, actually wrestling, without nary a weapon aside from the occasional illegal chair shot coming into play. I’m perplexed to why Omega has developed this need to do all this hardcore shit, with Moxley, as well as with Joey Janela just a few weeks ago. As scripted as the business is, a lot of physical impact is still real, and even with fake props, gravity is still gravity, and doing planchas to the outside through tables or taking spike DDTs onto wood aren’t going to be doing his longevity any favors.
And in the end, Kenny Omega does the job anyway. To a former WWE guy. I get that he might not want to push himself too hard, and be accused of leveraging his position, but at the same time, he’s doing nothing to protect his own character in his own promotion.
Overall, the match was entertaining, but I just don’t really see what AEW’s long game is. Basically all the winners of the night from Full Gear are all expats from other places, save for maybe Adam Page, and I’m left wondering what could possibly be next in the booking sheets for the future. AEW could easily run Kenny Omega vs. PAC in regular matches that would easily be Wrestlemania-caliber if they were unleashed, without having to go hardcore and with no pointless objectives in mind, but who really knows what AEW is actually planning.
It doesn’t take a lot to trump the WWE in match quality, but someone needs to let AEW know that. They’re using rocket fuel and burning their own talent to try and compete when all they need is some 87 unleaded with good drivers, and they can take the competition without nearly as much effort.
